How hard can it be to eat 1200 calories, what's up with that

hotmooglelove

I come pretty close to eating my exercise calories too.

Thats a good thing

jar3827

i personally just dont eat alot. i stay home all day with two kids and try to eat 2 meals a day and a few snacks. and sometimes i only really get one real meal in. i dont starve myself or go hungry, i just dont eat or need a lot. today for instance-- i am only up to 1000 calories that i have eatern, but i also did some walking and such and burned a couple hundred... but i am full! so unless i pig out on some empty calories, i end up under... and i have already had several cookies today. so when i do actually burn it is hard for me to get my net

Sheltie4

I find it easy to eat 1200 calories and much much more on occasion.

What I find surprising is how people gained weight if they find 1200 a struggle. I know how much food I eat when I gain weight and it is much more than 1200.

To be honest if I had stuck to 1200 for the last years I would never have had to diet.

jar3827

I find it easy to eat 1200 calories and much much more on occasion.

What I find surprising is how people gained weight if they find 1200 a struggle. I know how much food I eat when I gain weight and it is much more than 1200.

To be honest if I had stuck to 1200 for the last years I would never have had to diet.

just thought i would answer the question of how did one gain the weight... alot of people ask that... and well, for me personally it was the 2 pregnancies... so when even though i had no problem eating then, im just not as hungry 24/7 now... and i am sure that is the answer for several people... just one answer to that question... i do get what you mean though.

Sheltie4

I find it easy to eat 1200 calories and much much more on occasion.

What I find surprising is how people gained weight if they find 1200 a struggle. I know how much food I eat when I gain weight and it is much more than 1200.

To be honest if I had stuck to 1200 for the last years I would never have had to diet.

just thought i would answer the question of how did one gain the weight... alot of people ask that... and well, for me personally it was the 2 pregnancies... so when even though i had no problem eating then, im just not as hungry 24/7 now... and i am sure that is the answer for several people... just one answer to that question... i do get what you mean though.

Yes I understand what you are saying.

I just wonder why people stay overweight after the pregnancy if they are not eating more calories than they need, which is usually well over 1200. I think people often under- estimate just what they do eat when not having to record it on here. I lost a lot of weight years ago and a little crept back on following a holiday in November and then Christmas - if I had been recording the calories or just writing down what I was eating I am sure I would not have eaten as much - writing it down is a very good discipline - hurts sometimes though!

hellen72

I find it hard to get as low as 1200 cal but am managing it the last few weekends by having porridge, soup, soup for my meals and snacks between. Not sure I cold do it in the week as well.

I do a lot of running (60 miles a week)when not injured so I do find it hard to eat my 1200+ exercise cal

If I made more effort and ditched the maltesers I could probably survive on 1200 (and not eat exercise cal from gym) but would this be wise? Have people seen good weight loss from 1200 food when exercising about an hour or more or does it go into starvation mode territory?

♥Amy♥

I find it very hard to eat 1200 calories a day now.

I started this process being 100 lbs. overweight and I most definitely consumed WAY more than 1200 calories a day then, but it was because I was snacking, not doing anything, and eating junk. Since I've started this journey, I am trying to watch my calories but also eat healthier things, too, but my problem with getting the 1200 calories a day (and I haven't eaten any of my exercise calories back) is that most of the stuff that is good for you (fresh fruits and vegetables), I don't like, so I'm trying my best, but it's really hard.

kayebrown

I have found it really hard to get up to 1200 calories because I am eating so extremely healthy. I don't eat anything processed, only lean organic meats/fish, organic veggies/fruits, egg whites, 100% whole grain bread, brown rice, quinoa, organic nonfat yogurt and nuts. That is all my entire diet consists of. If I eat nothing but these items on a daily basis, which are all relatively low calorie foods, I find it really hard to get up to 1200 calories and on top of that, I am usually completely not hungry usually after about 950 calories or so. I'm naturally a petite person so I feel like the blanketed "every female needs to eat at least 1200 calories" has got to be false. Of course, right now I'm not as petite anymore because when I was eating nothing but processed/fast foods I was consuming close to 3,000 calories a day and I gained a ton of weight. But now that I am eating healthy, I am thoroughly satisfied and energetic with only about 1,000-1,100 calories a day. I am not going to force myself to eat when I have no appetite. That's what got me in trouble in the first place.

graelwyn

I think often people struggle because they swap everything for low fat this and low fat that, when there have been numerous articles recently suggesting that low fat is actually not all that good, and often is full of artificial sweeteners, or sugar to replace the fat. There is nothing wrong with full fat as part of a healthy diet, especially if it helps you to hit what is already a low calorie goal. It seems to be common sense.

I have no issues hitting double 1200 on my exercise days, usually with greek yoghurt, seeds, few pieces of fruit, plenty of veggies, couple of fillets of salmon, a sweet potato, some cottage cheese and a wholefoods fruit and nut bar or two. I mean, my dinner tonight consisted of 2 salmon fillets, mixed vegetables and a little brown rice, some beetroot and tomatoes, and that took me to almost 600 and we are not talking a big serving of rice. I guess some people just have smaller appetites, but the issue with eating so low calorie is that it really can mess up your whole system, and it is not sustainable for life. It also seems to me that those eating more seem to maintain much better over a period of time and are less likely to fall back into their old ways or off the wagon so to speak.

But to each their own.

vanessalillian82

I totally understand this problem, because I eat a lot of vegetables and they're just not very dense in calories. Cereal with banana and milk for breakfast, wholemeal meat and salad sandwich for lunch and something involving an ACTUAL serving of lean protein and vegies for dinner. Snacks are fruit and yohgurt. On top of the fact that vegies are low-calorie, if I fit in exercise of an evening it means not eating dinner until after 8pm, which means I'm forcing in a huge plateful of food plus any calories I need to nett 1200. Eating fruit isn't a bad way of doing it, but if you're already full it's no good, and I can't pre-emptively eat the fruit earlier in the day because I have a heart condition that means I can't guarantee being able to go for a jog every evening. Eating things like full-fat dairy and nuts and sultanas and dried figs and dates is good, though - quite dense energy, but not processed and they're not empty calories.

Also, someone said something about not being hungry after working out. I read years ago that it's how you can tell how hard you exercised. Moderate exercise makes you ravenous; extreme exercise totally kills your hunger because your body just wants to curl up in a ball and die/repair.