1200 calorie diet

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  • kimny72
    kimny72 Posts: 16,013 Member
    edited January 2019
    NM
  • estherdragonbat
    estherdragonbat Posts: 5,283 Member
    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
    AnnPT77 Posts: 33,753 Member
    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
    AgileK9 Posts: 255 Member
    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
    Strudders67 Posts: 989 Member
    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
    nationalvillage3215 Posts: 78 Member
    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
    nationalvillage3215 Posts: 78 Member
    Thank you!
  • nationalvillage3215
    nationalvillage3215 Posts: 78 Member
    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
    nationalvillage3215 Posts: 78 Member
    I am in the same situation-the slow weight loss is extremely frustrating. A lot of hard work with very slow results.

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