1200 calorie diet

nationalvillage3215

Is anyone else having a hard time managing a 1200 cal/day diet? I seem to be hungry all the time and have a hard time hitting my daily macros (30g fiber, and 60 g protein) and stay within 1200 calorie limit. I can eat a ton of vegetables and then I am hungry and hour later. I am 5'2-1/2" and need to lose 30 lbs.

Panini911

you likely don't need to stay at 1200 calories a day.

select a rate of loss closer to 1lb/week and see what MFP spits out as calorie.

what activity level did you select?

eat back exercise calories (at minimum half)

what has helped me is eating lots of non calorie dense foods. so you can eat more volume and get fewer calories. lots of vegetables and low fat protein like chicken (and eggs)

if you want to open your diary so we can see maybe we can offer more specific advice. but likely you CAN eat more than 1200 and still lose weight.

LaurenMT96

My diet is around 1200-1300 cal 4 days per week, on these days i manage 90 - 110g of protein, message me if you like.

tcunbeliever

If you are hungry that soon after your meals then try adding some protein and fat to them to go with the veggies.

emmamcgarity

Don’t be afraid to eat more when you are hungry. Finding more ways to increase your protein likely will help. Greek yogurt is your friend on protein. I personally don’t care for the texture of it eating it straight, but I have found using it to cook with helps a lot in my protein goal. I don’t worry about fiber as much, but I do try to keep my macro percentages in balance.

smolmaus

5'2" here also, I can do 1200kcal/ day but it's not nice and I can't do it for very long before I snap and eat anything that isn't tied down. There's virtually no room for "fun food" in 1200kcal and I don't think there's a lot of people who can keep going that way for any real length of time.

Think about just eating more, is my advice. You could try for more protein, I find that keeps me satisfied, though of course everyone is different. You could benefit from some more fat. Have a play about and see, that's a great benefit of a food diary, spotting patterns.

Running2Fit

I generally eat between 1200-1300 calories a day (workout days are different). Learning how to time my meals was important. It’s different for everyone but I typically have a big breakfast and dinner with a small lunch. Carbs are important for me to stay full.

If you are really struggling though, don’t be afraid to up your daily calories. Yes, you may lose more slowly but it will be more sustainable and lead to more long term success.

brynna24

i also get 1200 cals a day. i am 5'4'', 130-135 lbs, give or take. i'd like to be at 120, but i am more concerned about muscle building and flab reduction. i exercise about 6 days a week, anywhere between 300-600 calorie burn. should i be eating my activity calories plus my 1200 calories? so, 1800 calories with exercise or so? i heard somewhere you need a 1000 calorie defict to lose weight...not sure exactly what i should be doing. any advice would help.
also, to add on to the hunger issue with 1200 cals...i dont find myself hungry. i eat a lot of protein, and eggs. lots of leafy greens and fruit. if i feel hungry, i have a handful of almonds and water.

kimny72

Are you set to 2 lbs per week? With 30 lbs to lose, 1 lb is more realistic. Also remember you are supposed to log your exercise and eat back at least some of those calories. Losing faster doesn't help if it makes you miserable and you quit.

I was never able to go much lower than 1500 on a regular basis

snickerscharlie

LaurenMT96 wrote: »

My diet is around 1200-1300 cal 4 days per week, on these days i manage 90 - 110g of protein, message me if you like.

What happens on the other 3 days?

nationalvillage3215

I am hoping eventually my body will adjust to less calories If I up my protein I seem to go over 1200 calories (even with eggs, fish and chicken). This diet certainly doesn't leave any room for wine or "fun foods". Going to try the sugar free jello when I get hungry.

Teabythesea_

brynna24 wrote: »

i also get 1200 cals a day. i am 5'4'', 130-135 lbs, give or take. i'd like to be at 120, but i am more concerned about muscle building and flab reduction. i exercise about 6 days a week, anywhere between 300-600 calorie burn. should i be eating my activity calories plus my 1200 calories? so, 1800 calories with exercise or so? i heard somewhere you need a 1000 calorie defict to lose weight...not sure exactly what i should be doing. any advice would help.
also, to add on to the hunger issue with 1200 cals...i dont find myself hungry. i eat a lot of protein, and eggs. lots of leafy greens and fruit. if i feel hungry, i have a handful of almonds and water.

If your goal is to build muscle and reduce "flab" then you'd probably be better off recomping since you're already within a healthy weight range. To answer your question about exercise calories, yes, you should be eating them back. Keep in mind that calorie burn estimates are often inflated so most people only eat back about half. You do not need a 1,000 calorie deficit to lose weight. In fact, I would urge you to take on a much less aggressive deficit considering you have less than 20 lbs you want to lose. With a daily 1,000 calorie deficit youd lose 2 lbs a week, you should be aiming for about half a pound to max 1 lb given your stats, which is a daily 250-500 calorie deficit.

callsitlikeiseeit

i eat 1200 a day (or thereabouts) eat what i want (make it fit in my calorie goals or just be over) and have lost 120 pounds.

Duck_Puddle

Are you logging your exercise and eating those calories too?

I’m an inch and a half taller than you and 1200 NET is where I am to lose less than a pound a week. But I NET 1200-meaning I log my exercise and eat those calories. So I’m eating an average of 1600 or so.

nationalvillage3215

No I haven't been eating back my exercise calories. Due to some spinal stenosis, I am having to ease back into exercise. So not enough yet to eat back. Working up to it.

Panini911

what rate of loss did you select?

mbennett7872

I would suggest eating more healthy fats. Avocado, pistachios, fat bombs, Kerry Gold butter, bullet proof coffee in the morning, olive oil...etc
It is how I have stayed on track. I'm 29 days into my Keto journey and it's going great. I'm hardly ever hungry, so I started intermittent fasting and eating twice a day. Also log absolutely everything you eat and drink so you make sure you are within your calories.

endermako

Your rate of loss per week is probably too high. Change how much you want to lose per week and you can eat more.

nationalvillage3215

I chose a 1lb/week weight loss and it comes up 1210 calories/day

cwolfman13

nationalvillage3215 wrote: »

Is anyone else having a hard time managing a 1200 cal/day diet? I seem to be hungry all the time and have a hard time hitting my daily macros (30g fiber, and 60 g protein) and stay within 1200 calorie limit. I can eat a ton of vegetables and then I am hungry and hour later. I am 5'2-1/2" and need to lose 30 lbs.

https://www.aworkoutroutine.com/1200-calorie-diet/

Also, your calorie target is before exercise...if you exercise you get to eat more.

apullum

nationalvillage3215 wrote: »

I chose a 1lb/week weight loss and it comes up 1210 calories/day

I would recommend choosing a slower rate of loss so you can eat more. Try 0.5 lb/week, and make sure you're using a food scale to measure all your food accurately.

kimny72

NM

estherdragonbat

nationalvillage3215 wrote: »

Is anyone else having a hard time managing a 1200 cal/day diet? I seem to be hungry all the time and have a hard time hitting my daily macros (30g fiber, and 60 g protein) and stay within 1200 calorie limit. I can eat a ton of vegetables and then I am hungry and hour later. I am 5'2-1/2" and need to lose 30 lbs.

Yup! That's why my base before exercise to lose 1/2lb per week is 1360. With exercise, it's more like 1600/1700. Much less of a struggle.

AnnPT77

nationalvillage3215 wrote: »

No I haven't been eating back my exercise calories. Due to some spinal stenosis, I am having to ease back into exercise. So not enough yet to eat back. Working up to it.

How long have you been at this? How much weight have you lost so far?

With 30 pounds to lose, 1 pound a week would be the maximum I'd suggest trying to lose in your circumstances, especially if you can't exercise much. (I say the exercise part not only because you aren't "earning" exercise calories for improved satiety, but also because exercise helps avoid unnecessarily larger amounts of lean tissue (like muscle) loss alongside fat loss. If you can't do the exercise, it's doubly wise IMO to be conservative on the weight loss rate.)

You might even want to consider 0.5 pounds a week, frustrating though slowness can be. A weight trending app would help you visual that slower weight-loss trend, once you got a month or so of daily weight data into it (talking about Libra for Android, Happy Scale for iOS, Trendweight with a free Fitbit account, Weightgrapher, others).

AgileK9

It's hard! As a 49 year old woman who is 5'3" and 160, my TDEE is only 1450 ish as sedentary. So MFP doesn't even go low enough to get a full 500 calorie deficit. At 1200 cal/day without exercise I'm at 250 deficit per day which is a half pound a week. I hate days that I don't exercise because I do need to eat 1200 calories and it is so hard. I work out just about every day to some extent, even if it's just a walk so that I have exercise calories to eat back. It's slow going but otherwise it's ridiculously hard to stay at 1200 per day IMO. Even eating back the exercise calories, it's still a rate of 1/2 pound a week loss.

Strudders67

I'm 5'2 and want to lose another 20lbs. I tried playing around with my settings a few days ago on MFP and, no matter what weight loss I selected, I still got 1200 calories. Similar to AgileK9, my TDEE is 1400, so to truly give me a high enough deficit for weight loss, I'd have to be below 1200 calories a day - which isn't going to be allowed.

I go to the gym or do a lot of walking to give me more calories, which makes it easier to come up with something appetising for lunch and dinner. I eat as close to NET 1200 as I can but, even on days when I eat more, my NET is typically not above 1400. I also pay more attention to my NET figure for the week rather than on a day-to-day basis. And I don't try too hard to meet my macros, although I steer towards more protein with my meals and less refined carbs.

nationalvillage, if you're easing back in to exercise, start tracking whatever exercise you do and eat the calories; you'll find it far easier to manage. There have been various posts on here for low calorie snacks and foods, so maybe search for those posts too.

nationalvillage3215

AnnPT77 wrote: »

nationalvillage3215 wrote: »

No I haven't been eating back my exercise calories. Due to some spinal stenosis, I am having to ease back into exercise. So not enough yet to eat back. Working up to it.

How long have you been at this? How much weight have you lost so far?

With 30 pounds to lose, 1 pound a week would be the maximum I'd suggest trying to lose in your circumstances, especially if you can't exercise much. (I say the exercise part not only because you aren't "earning" exercise calories for improved satiety, but also because exercise helps avoid unnecessarily larger amounts of lean tissue (like muscle) loss alongside fat loss. If you can't do the exercise, it's doubly wise IMO to be conservative on the weight loss rate.)

You might even want to consider 0.5 pounds a week, frustrating though slowness can be. A weight trending app would help you visual that slower weight-loss trend, once you got a month or so of daily weight data into it (talking about Libra for Android, Happy Scale for iOS, Trendweight with a free Fitbit account, Weightgrapher, others).

nationalvillage3215

Thank you!

nationalvillage3215

AgileK9 wrote: »

It's hard! As a 49 year old woman who is 5'3" and 160, my TDEE is only 1450 ish as sedentary. So MFP doesn't even go low enough to get a full 500 calorie deficit. At 1200 cal/day without exercise I'm at 250 deficit per day which is a half pound a week. I hate days that I don't exercise because I do need to eat 1200 calories and it is so hard. I work out just about every day to some extent, even if it's just a walk so that I have exercise calories to eat back. It's slow going but otherwise it's ridiculously hard to stay at 1200 per day IMO. Even eating back the exercise calories, it's still a rate of 1/2 pound a week loss.

nationalvillage3215

I am in the same situation-the slow weight loss is extremely frustrating. A lot of hard work with very slow results.