too few calories?

ambee0803

My calorie goal is 1200. I weigh around 200 lbs (5 ft 7). I want to lose 70 lbs. I put in I wanted to lose 2 lbs per week. Does that seem to low? Today I had 2 weightloss shakes, a few banana chips, a salad, ear of corn, and baked fish. I also had a cup of coffee. I went over my calories but it seems like I barely ate anything today.

ladynocturne

The main reason it feels like you barely ate is because you drank half of your calories.

Ditch the shakes.

Still hungry? Put your goals to 1.5lbs per week instead of 2.

Still hungry? Move your goals to 1lb per week instead of 1.5

Still hungry? Exercise and eat the extra calories it gives you.

Hornsby

If you drink your calories, you should feel like you didn't eat anything...

Get rid of those and eat some real food and exercise to gain more calories.

Voila!

sweetgeorgiabee

Eat REAL food with fiber and protein in them to help fill you up. 100 calorie chicken breast vs. 100 calorie protein shake will go a longer way. Add in more veggies if you are hungry.

DemoraFairy

A lot of people recommend eating 80% of your TDEE. Search Google for a TDEE calculator and see if 80% of yours would be way above 1200. If it is, you could either go with that or try a number between 1200 and that. For some of us, of course, 1200 is about 80% of our TDEE, so don't just up your calories without checking.

And I agree with not drinking away your calories. I drink pretty much only water now so that I can eat as much as possible.

Ready2Rock206

IF you are going to go with 1200 you're going to have to be a lot more picky about what you fill those 1200 calories with. Shakes and banana chips probably aren't going to leave you satisfied.

BrandiCo

Salads can be dangerous. You can quickly turn a sald into a calorie dense, unhealthy meal if you aren't very cautious. I've never really felt they are a "filling" meal, so I don't often use it as a meal, but rather a small side to a baked chicken breast. Corn is a grain, so it's higher in calories and carbs.
I'm heavy myself, and I've had a lot of success currently at 30+ pound loss in just over 2 months with sticking to a basic diet such as this:
Breakfast: Fat free yogurt and oat and honey granolla bar
Snack: Hard Boiled Egg whites
Lunch: Tuna packet, mixed w/ 2 tablespoons relish, and 1/2 cup fat free cottage cheese.
Snack: Apple
Dinner: Boiled Shrimp, or baked salmon, side of veggies.
Sometimes before dinner I have a small serving of a fiber rich cereal.
I always count calories! Good luck to you!

gigglesinthesun

Salads can be dangerous. You can quickly turn a sald into a calorie dense, unhealthy meal if you aren't very cautious. I've never really felt they are a "filling" meal, so I don't often use it as a meal, but rather a small side to a baked chicken breast. Corn is a grain, so it's higher in calories and carbs.
I'm heavy myself, and I've had a lot of success currently at 30+ pound loss in just over 2 months with sticking to a basic diet such as this:
Breakfast: Fat free yogurt and oat and honey granolla bar
Snack: Hard Boiled Egg whites
Lunch: Tuna packet, mixed w/ 2 tablespoons relish, and 1/2 cup fat free cottage cheese.
Snack: Apple
Dinner: Boiled Shrimp, or baked salmon, side of veggies.
Sometimes before dinner I have a small serving of a fiber rich cereal.
I always count calories! Good luck to you!

and how many calories is that?

Dude, you are seriously under eating, so for your sake I hope it's not as little calories as it sounds

ArtemisRuns

You just had a baby 3 weeks ago? Congratulations! Give your body time to heal and feed it real, healthy food. Are you breastfeeding?

Isakizza

1200 seems very low.

I was losing weight steadily when I was eating 1800-1900 calories. Back then I was 210-220 lbs and I'm 5'3.
Now I'm eating about 1400-1600 calories.

jennyglass

Hi, I am about the same here as far as calories (1290) and I have managed to make it work.
If you need some advice I can help. For dinner I had a huge vegetable salad with dressing, a bowl of soup, an 8 oz. sirloin burger and red wine. Plus I had 2 eggs with ham, a piece of toast and coffee for breakfast and 2 rice cakes with garden vegetable cream cheese and turkey for lunch.
Heavy on the meat and vegetables is my way of doing it. Rice cakes help me a lot.

Stay away from fruits, juices, spreads, most dressings and cheesy foods. Watch calories more than anything else. I don't eat cheese anymore or drink anything with sugar. If I am hungry I will drink a little milk or eat a rice cake with no fat strawberry cream cheese.

Exercise at least 20min a day and you gain those calories to eat..that is how I stay with it.

jennyglass

and I would also say do not eat nutritional bars or protein shakes unless they are low in calories..most of them are very high in calories and do not fill you up for very long.

jennyglass

see below

jennyglass

Salads can be dangerous. You can quickly turn a sald into a calorie dense, unhealthy meal if you aren't very cautious. I've never really felt they are a "filling" meal, so I don't often use it as a meal, but rather a small side to a baked chicken breast. Corn is a grain, so it's higher in calories and carbs.
I'm heavy myself, and I've had a lot of success currently at 30+ pound loss in just over 2 months with sticking to a basic diet such as this:
Breakfast: Fat free yogurt and oat and honey granolla bar
Snack: Hard Boiled Egg whites
Lunch: Tuna packet, mixed w/ 2 tablespoons relish, and 1/2 cup fat free cottage cheese.
Snack: Apple
Dinner: Boiled Shrimp, or baked salmon, side of veggies.
Sometimes before dinner I have a small serving of a fiber rich cereal.
I always count calories! Good luck to you!

salads are actually a very good source of almost no calories for me. fills me up.
if you do not put on such things as heavy dressing, cheese or meat there is virtually no calories in just vegetables.

turtleball

Salads can be dangerous. You can quickly turn a sald into a calorie dense, unhealthy meal if you aren't very cautious. I've never really felt they are a "filling" meal, so I don't often use it as a meal, but rather a small side to a baked chicken breast. Corn is a grain, so it's higher in calories and carbs.
I'm heavy myself, and I've had a lot of success currently at 30+ pound loss in just over 2 months with sticking to a basic diet such as this:
Breakfast: Fat free yogurt and oat and honey granolla bar
Snack: Hard Boiled Egg whites
Lunch: Tuna packet, mixed w/ 2 tablespoons relish, and 1/2 cup fat free cottage cheese.
Snack: Apple
Dinner: Boiled Shrimp, or baked salmon, side of veggies.
Sometimes before dinner I have a small serving of a fiber rich cereal.
I always count calories! Good luck to you!

and how many calories is that?

Dude, you are seriously under eating, so for your sake I hope it's not as little calories as it sounds

If they feel great with what they're eating then its fine for THEM.

turtleball

Salads can be dangerous. You can quickly turn a sald into a calorie dense, unhealthy meal if you aren't very cautious. I've never really felt they are a "filling" meal, so I don't often use it as a meal, but rather a small side to a baked chicken breast. Corn is a grain, so it's higher in calories and carbs.
I'm heavy myself, and I've had a lot of success currently at 30+ pound loss in just over 2 months with sticking to a basic diet such as this:
Breakfast: Fat free yogurt and oat and honey granolla bar
Snack: Hard Boiled Egg whites
Lunch: Tuna packet, mixed w/ 2 tablespoons relish, and 1/2 cup fat free cottage cheese.
Snack: Apple
Dinner: Boiled Shrimp, or baked salmon, side of veggies.
Sometimes before dinner I have a small serving of a fiber rich cereal.
I always count calories! Good luck to you!

salads are actually a very good source of almost no calories for me. fills me up.
if you do not put on such things as heavy dressing, cheese or meat there is virtually no calories in just vegetables.

I totally agree, a long time ago I seen two women that went on my campus on a diet, they piled on the salad dressing, cheeses, and meat.

Now that I know more about calories I think that was pretty bad. I now take every thing literal and measure it.

lynn1982

I'm going to disagree with all those people telling you that the reason you feel hungry is because you're drinking your calories. It depends on what you put into those shakes - I can have a protein packed smoothie for breakfast that keeps me satisfied until lunch time. I can eat the same amount of calories in protein alone and be hungry 2 hours later. Yes, you need to be pickier about how you fill those calories if you're only eating 1200 (btw banana chips = SUPER high in calories). You're hungry because you're only eating 1200 calories and you're 5'7. Eat more. You won't be hungry and you'll still lose weight. I promise.

Francl27

The main reason it feels like you barely ate is because you drank half of your calories.

Ditch the shakes.

Still hungry? Put your goals to 1.5lbs per week instead of 2.

Still hungry? Move your goals to 1lb per week instead of 1.5

Still hungry? Exercise and eat the extra calories it gives you.

Love this. Shakes are fine, but I'd be hungry with 2 a day too, but mostly because I have yet to find a shake (except shakeology - sorry shakeology haters) that fills me up, unless I add a ton of stuff in it.

I wanted to add too that I've never eaten less than 1600 calories during my weight loss - and I'm a 5'5" 35yo female.

PinkyFett

I agree with other posters. Try not to drink the calories. Also for me, 1200 was wayyyy too low. I was even more run down than usual, grumpy, hungry. It just wasn't happening for me. My lowest is 1500 without feeling absolutely crappy. Sometimes people just can't do 1200. This weight loss stuff is different for everyone.

kimad

1200 calories can be done, but you will never feel satisfied unless you pick better foods!!

Here is a typical day for me at about 1300-1350 calories

Breakfast: protein powder, frozen fruit, banana, hot chocolate (I chew the banana for the 'chew factor')

Snack: fibre one bar OR almonds OR cheese stick & fruit

Lunch: wrap, meat, cheese, lettuce, mustard, with mixed raw veggies, apple, and 35cal yogurt

Snack: hard boiled egg and leftover veggies from lunch

Dinner: 4oz chicken OR fish OR hamburger OR ham, 1/2 cup rice, salad, dressing, maybe some sauce for chicken, etc.

Snack: popcorn OR pop chips OR veggie straws (my indulgence)

11 cups of water

ETA: I cheat once a week (sometimes two gasp) so I look at mine more from a weekly perspective than daily... so to some I may eat low, but the cheat day (2000? ish) would balance it out.

parkscs

Kimad's meal plan looks a lot better than drinking your calories. Foods with fat and protein are very filling, and I suspect you'll be much more satiated eating some fresh meat and vegetables than drinking some sort of shake. At 1200 calories, I would think you need to be pretty picky about what you eat if you don't want to go hungry.

That said, if you are miserable at 1200 calories, just pick a less aggressive caloric deficit. You can still lose weight eating more calories - you just won't lose weight as quickly. But, if 1200 makes you miserable and is not sustainable, then don't eat 1200. You're better off losing weight more slowly but sticking with your weight-loss plan, than to eat 1200 for a few weeks and then go back to eating like you were before.