Exasperation with meal planning...can someone tell me how to fit 3 meals into 1200 calories?

MonaRaeHill

I see all these things on meal planning, they only serve to make me edgy. What the heck are people eating on these meal plans? They sound like far too much work for a nibble, which is how I view 300 calories. That's a nibble, not a meal! Lawdy.
I can exceed 1200 calories by just eating once per day.....which makes me cranky....especially if I exercise that day. geez. What gives? I need an on board Weight Watchers chef. Or just choose to live on protein shakes w/greens, which is about the only way to eat healthy with what my budget will stand......blek.
How does anybody only eat 1200 calories, without losing it? Better off not eating at all.........in my mind. lol.

livingleanlivingclean

Instead of asking how to not go mad on 1200 cals, i'd be asking why you think you need to eat 1200 calories in the first place.

Have you selected to lose 2lbs per week? Is that realistic for you? Perhaps try setting your goal to 0.5-1lb a week - you'll get more cals, and achieving your weight loss goal would be easier, even if it would take longer...

GOT_Obsessed

Perhaps Try reducing your portion sizes.

Why are you set to 1200? Are you trying to lose weight too fast? Perhaps set it at a lower lb. loss per week. That will give you more calories to work with.

1houndgal

MonaRaeHill wrote: »

I see all these things on meal planning, they only serve to make me edgy. What the heck are people eating on these meal plans? They sound like far too much work for a nibble, which is how I view 300 calories. That's a nibble, not a meal! Lawdy.
I can exceed 1200 calories by just eating once per day.....which makes me cranky....especially if I exercise that day. geez. What gives? I need an on board Weight Watchers chef. Or just choose to live on protein shakes w/greens, which is about the only way to eat healthy with what my budget will stand......blek.
How does anybody only eat 1200 calories, without losing it? Better off not eating at all.........in my mind. lol.

I workout so I can eat more food.

Otherwise I would divide 1200 by 3 to get 3 meals of 400 kcals. Can you get more excercise into your day?

jgnatca

I ended up making my lunch lighter; soup or a salad based. I need a heartier breakfast so I make sure I have one, and always including protein.

Don’t cut out fat as it helps many with satiety, but it has twice the calories per gram than either protein or carbs. So measure carefully.

Finally, include high volume low calorie diet foods. That includes puffed wheat, air popped popcorn, veggies, sugar free jello, shirataki noodles and rice cakes.

PAV8888

Why do you think you only get 1200?

Are you eating back actual exercise calories and selecting an appropriate loss rate which may mean a much lengthier but more possible task?

Last, but not least, 1200 is not easy and it boggles my mind. And yes, in order to achieve it you probably do need to cook very well thought out meals by yourself, or vastly reduce your expected portion sizes (I mean most Lean Cuisine meals are under 350 Cal, and I would kill someone living off a single one as a meal. Then again I deliberately tried to increase my tdee and limited my deficits to less than 25% while I was obese, and not even 15% when I no longer was)

Anyway. How much fish, shrimp, chicken breast, pork tenderloin, egg white, and how many vegetables such as cauliflower, broccoli, rutabaga (swede)), mushrooms, carrots, zoocchini, peppers, gai-lan, bok-choi, jicama, and garlic, perhaps, and while you're at it, how many tomatoes and green peppers sprinkled with onions, or some spicy peppers, and/or even a few olive/pickle/jalapeno rounds can you fit on a plate worth 400 to 500 Cal?

And don't forget to count the Pam spray, it ain't 0 Cal in quantity. Balsamic glaze, mustard, shriracha, Greek yogurt, nothing, have all been used as sauce at times. Shiritaki noodles or zoodles are also interesting ideas.

blambo61

I probably eat about 2000-2700 kcals/day in a 3-4 hour window. It is wonderful! My wife does most of the cooking so my meal planning is come home and eat dinner and then snack tell bed. It is great because I get to eat tell full each day. Lost and kept off 58-lbs doing this. Actually only needed to fast 16-hours including sleeping to maintain but did the longer fast to lose.

ms_havisham

I picked my favorite meal (dinner) and usually keep it a normal meal anywhere between 500-800 calories. I have soup most days for lunch, unless I am making a lower calorie dinner like chili or a skillet meal that comes under 400 calories. For breakfast my favorite has been half a bagel, cream cheese and half a grapefruit. I can fit a few small snacks in depending on my day. I like to plan and log my dinners before I eat for the day...it lets me see where I can sneak in a little extra, like a half sandwich with my soup, or a whole bagel instead. I will log some of my exercise calories and get a couple hundred extra calories for the day that way too.

lightenup2016

I don't--I said no way to mfp's suggested 1200 calories, and upped it to 1550 (female, 5'6", 147lbs), plus I add back in half of any exercise calories. I also calorie cycle (or bank calories), so I eat 1450 x 5 days, and the other two days I eat 1850. Averages out to 1550/day. It's going pretty well as long as it's not PMS time

bbell1985

My 1200 calorie plan is skim milk and coffee for breakfast, 300g of egg whites for lunch with a soup make of a cup of beef broth, 85g of spinach and 50g of mushrooms. Dinner is about 4oz of lean meat with a ton of veggies, 35g of protein powder in ice and water for dessert. You can probably fit a snack in there too. That was what I was eating when I was dieting aggressively.

kimny72

MonaRaeHill wrote: »

I see all these things on meal planning, they only serve to make me edgy. What the heck are people eating on these meal plans? They sound like far too much work for a nibble, which is how I view 300 calories. That's a nibble, not a meal! Lawdy.
I can exceed 1200 calories by just eating once per day.....which makes me cranky....especially if I exercise that day. geez. What gives? I need an on board Weight Watchers chef. Or just choose to live on protein shakes w/greens, which is about the only way to eat healthy with what my budget will stand......blek.
How does anybody only eat 1200 calories, without losing it? Better off not eating at all.........in my mind. lol.

1. 1200 is the absolute minimum cal goal. Unless you have over 75 lbs to lose, you should not be set to lose 2 lbs per week.
2. MFP calorie goal assumes you will log your exercise and eat back at least some of those cals. So you should be eating more cals on days you exercise.
3. Once you get your goal straightened out and start logging your exercise, just start eating what you normally would, but weigh out your portions and log accurately and consistently. After a few days, you will start to see where you are wasting cals and which meals you need to tweak.
4. In general, increases your veggies and lean proteins will help bulk out meals with less calories.
5. Be patient and give yourself time to figure it out!

Momepro

In my case? Excercise more to give yourself a few more calories to play with.
I also suggest logging for a while, even before making any serious changes to your diet.
Weigh (with a scale is best) everything you eat, and write why you are eating it (i.e, lunchtime, hungry, kind of bored, out with friends, watching tv) and how you are feeling right before, right after and an hour after (hungry, comfortable, normal, full, very full bloated, drowsy).
This gives you a baseline pattern for your normal habits and routine. From there, it's just a matter of experimenting. Are you very full after dinner? Cut back on a few things. Does lunch leave you bloated and gassy after an hour, try less or no mayo, and see if there's something you don't mind dropping each meal (fries, or cheese, or maybe only 2 tacos instead of 3).It's amazing how quickly these small and easily sustainable changes will add up to big calorie cuts. Only cut one or two things at a time, until they become habit instead if trying to do everything at once. That way they become individual habits instead of one big "diet". So when you backslide you won't drop everything at once, just one or two habits, that you can fix again more easily.

newheavensearth

If you really are stuck at that level check out Reddits 1200isplenty. A lot of posters with creative menus of meals and snacks with decent volume for around 1200 calories.

TrishB19605

Unfortunately, for us short chubby females that 1200 is a hard reality. I’ve been at it almost a year and the meals are a constant struggle. Good news I’ve kept off the 35 lost pounds, but pushing forward for more loss to get below even 170 is proving most challenging.

anna32aries

1200
Breakfast 1 egg 2 egg whites spinach omelette with ryvita toast and cheese wedge
Snack apple
Lunch can tuna, cucumber ryvita 2 cheese strings
Snack simply protein bar
Dinner - homemade eggplant lasagna or turkey Chili ( have a bunch frozen)
Snack - if I have some room I have wine or some popcorn some kind of snack

mom23mangos

I made these collages a while back of a representative 1200 day. You can eat a lot of food on 1200 if you choose less calorie dense options.

Lounmoun

Is your weight loss goal too aggressive? Reset your goal to a slower rate of loss.
Are you taking into account exercise and eating more when you burn more? Eat some of your exercise calories.
Rethink your food choices so you get more food for fewer calories. Learn to like vegetables.

When I ate 1200 calories
Breakfast was small. 100-200 calories
Lunch was 300-400 calories
Dinner was about 500 calories
Snacks were 100-200 calories

More vegetables to bulk out meals and for snacks.
Drinking water mostly.
Less bread, rice, pasta, cheese. Less breaded or fried foods.
I ate exercise calories.

I decided I would increase my activity and get more calories.

h1udd

I regularly eat 1200 a day during the week so I can eat 2000+ at the weekends

The only way I can do this and not go nuts with tiny meals is to do intermittent fasting .. so miss breakfast ... eat a light lunch if I need it, then I have 900 cal in the evening for a decent size meal and snacks

It’s not ideal and I “should” increase my calories, but I have always favoured the short hard fast aggressive 1 - 1.5 month cuts

Add me as a friend though if you want to see my diary for what I eat

Rayman79

Eat tonnes of vegetables
Don't drink your calories
Eat lean protein sources
Cut out (or down) the discretionary treat food (a 200 cal bite size snack will derail a 1200 cal day real fast!)

As an example, today for lunch I had 200g of chicken breast with seasoning, half a cup of cooked brown rice and a heap of veg (beans and broccoli) for 400 cals. I had a quest bar and a coffee for breakfast (300 cals) so if I was on a 1200 cal diet I'd still have 500 calories for dinner/dessert.

BuffyBourbon

I'm currently on a 1700 cal diet, usually eating around 1500 a day during the week so i have a little extra wiggle room on the weekends. Here's what I had today, I've had a few munchies today that have gotten me up to 1500 but my 4 main meals were around your goal amount. I do better if i don't go to bed hungry, so i always make sure to have a "dessert" meal with pretty high protein before bed.

Breakfast: 6 eggo mini pancakes w/light syrup 203 cal
Lunch: 1sandwich thin, 3 slices ham, 1 slice swiss, 140g frozen cherries 300 cal
Dinner: 1 bowl chicken enchilada soup (homemade), 1 can delmonte green beans, 28g shredded cheddar cheese (on the soup) 426 cal
Dessert: 1 cup chobani greek yogurt, 35g cascadian farms granola 290 cal
Grand total: 1219 cal

kommodevaran

You have to work with what's realistic. 1200 is the default minimum. Maybe 1200 isn't enough for you. What's your height and weight?

Why do you think you have to eat 4 meals per day, and all of them the same size?

Only protein shakes and greens, or not eating, are not good alternatives. It takes discipline to eat enough, not just to not eat too much.

amusedmonkey

I wouldn't do 1200 calories unless I have to. If I'm zigzagging my calories, my lower calorie days are at 1200 calories. In that case I simply cut out snacks and make sure the meals are nice on volume. Nibbling is a no-go for me as well. Here is an example of a 1200 calorie day I had a few days ago. I'm not usually hungry for breakfast so I make it lighter.

sytchequeen

Gosh, I eat three good meals a day, and sometimes have to search around for something extra to add to take me over 1200! (I am quite short btw.. and only lightly active, hence the lowish calorie goal). I eat lots of green vegetables, cauliflower etc, and about 100g of a protein in a meal, with calories left to have a nice sauce with it.
The lunch I have brought to work today is a cheese salad, overflowing the bowl, with some panchetta rashers to increase my calories. It still only comes in at 255cal for the meal and will leave me full until later.

MrsPinterest34

I'm 5'2, MFP wanted me at 1200 calories to lose 2lbs a week. I couldn't do it because I like to eat. I decided I'm okay with 0.5-1lb/ week and increased my calories to 1500 ish. Since I really like to eat I walk on average 14-15k steps everyday that's an additional 200 bonus calories if I need it. I've lost 36lbs eating this way. It was a slow weight lose, which I preferred. I'm in no rush. My ultimate goal is to be 125-130lb. I have this entire 2018 year to lose the last 15 pounds.

fitforlifelove

I find that it's easier to do the 1200 kcal goal if doing intermittant fasting... I do it daily 16/8 (Fast 16hours, eat 8).. I often find I'm so full in that 8 period I barely come close to 1200 or may just over sometimes. Do the research on this.. it was life changing for me.

Finkelstien

just as MrsPinterest34 i rather loose a little more slowly and eat a bit more. On days where i don't work out i eat around 1450 kcal. Now i am small so i need a little less then most.

B: Banana + proteinyoghurt = 253
L; Three pieces of bread with hummus and jalapeno and some veggies = 417
D : Halloumi and (vegetarian)sausage bake = 523

1200 kcal. So i have 300 left. I usually fill this with some tangerines, a salad or a hand of nuts. Sometimes i go over. Sometimes i stay under. Sometimes i add an egg to my lunch. Sometimes i don't.
On fridaynight i like a glass of wine so i eat two pieces of bread at lunch, drink two glasses of wine and sometimes nibble on a crisp.

Francl27

I've never done 1200 calories. Lost everything eating 1700 (using TDEE so not eating back exercise calories).

I'd be hangry on 1200.

You are supposed to eat back your exercise calories though.

Bannakafalatta

Lots of vegetables with some lean protein like chicken or fish. You can eat a large volume of vegetables with that calorie count.

kazminchu

I don't eat 1200 because I like snacks, but my main meals are generally there or thereabouts. I save most of my calories for my main meal in the evening because that's how I like it, and it's easy to keep the other meals smaller.

Breakfast - Porridge/oatmeal made with water & 50g oats - 188 cal
Lunch - Depending on season either soup or salad. I make them myself and they range from 120-250 calories.
Dinner - Changes a lot, but generally around 500-600 calories.
Snacks - couple of cups of coffee with semi skimmed milk and a bag of lentil crisps ~200 calories

That takes me very slightly over your goal, but it's pretty easy for me to do. I normally eat around 1500 calories but I often find myself hunting around for something to get up to that number. The trick is making everything yourself to include loads of veggies - plenty of bulk without the extra calories.

That said, like a lot of other people have said, if you don't *have* to stick to 1200 then don't! Especially if you're finding it hard. Better to be sustainable and slow than burn out!

pinuplove

There's nothing virtuous about eating 1200 calories. That's just the minimum MFP allows and thus where many women get stuck when they choose an aggressive goal. BTDT, don't do it any more! I can eat 1200 per day, and even convince myself that it's not making me miserable, that I'm eating healthy because, vegetables! Etc. For a while...until I can't any more. The hungries kick in, I get tired, irritable, and have no energy for daily life, much less purposeful exercise.

My answer to this question therefore is always, don't. Bump up your calories, lose a little more slowly, and enjoy life along the way. It's the only one you get.

Also, when you exercise you should eat at least a portion of those calories back. How much will depend on your individual results but usually a minimum of half.

fr33sia12

MFP says I should be eating 1200 to lose 2lb a week, yet I'm eating 1400 a day, more when I exercise and am losing 2lb a week, so I wouldn't put too much stock in to how many calories MFP recommends to eat to lose a certain amount a week.