Difficulty eating calorie goal - exercise + diet

zaclem01

Hi all, first post to what seems like a great community for losing weight, and I had a question I was hoping you all could help me with.

I'm doing both a 1200 cal/day diet and working on the C25K program (almost at week 5). Starting out, the hunger pangs were pretty bad, and I had to force myself to not eat. However, lately I've noticed that I'm just not as hungry as I was and some days have trouble even eating enough to get to 1200. I especially feel full after running, whether or not I've eaten before doing so.

I've read that running can help you feel satiated, but I was wondering if it can really be that effective. I have also read and talked to people that say you can go quite a bit under 1200 (like 500 cal/day or so) safely if you do it correctly, but I'm not really aiming for that. It's worrying me a little bit, so I thought I'd check in to see if anyone else had something similar happen.

Some background: 24 years old, 5' 6'' or so, started at 172 a week ago, currently 167.

Thanks in advance!

Edit: Also drink at least a liter (litre for the more civilized part of the world ) of water a day.