those on 1200-ish a day - typical days menu?

forthefab5

I mainly eat 6 meals a day and sometimes still have a hard time going to 1200. Today's meals:

Breakfast: hard boiled egg and a green tea
Morning snack: nestle vanilla nofat yoghurt with sanitarium granola
Lunch: tuna and avocado rice paper rolls x 2 and a fruit salad
Afternoon snack: hard boiled egg and green seedless grapes (15)
Dinner: 100g chicken, a cup of sweet potato and 3 asparagus spears
Evening snack: protein shake (1 scoop plain with water)

Total cals: approx. 1120

Honestly don't feel hungry anymore, 3 months ago I was only eating two meals a day (no breakfast) and loaded up on nutrition-less junk in between. I've lost about 26.4lbs from my most recent highest weight (about 5 months ago) so I think it's working for me. Granted, I'm only 5 feet tall so that may play a part in it...

tarjake

what i dont get is MFP has got me at 3900+ cal /day. i dont eat that much. i been keeping it between 1500 and 2000 and am losing weight steady but dont feel like crud. how do they get the numbers?

NeverTry

I find if I eat a lot of fruits and vegetables. (granted I am vegetarian) Instead of processed, packaged, breads, etc type food I get to eat more.
Big salads with everything, broccoli, nuts, spinich, advocado, onion, tomato, carrot etc.. and tonight i had tofu in it as well, and could barely finish the bowl.
I have had a few stressful days of late, where i didnt eat enough, but generally I use my 1200 as a rough guide, and dont beat myself up if im a little over.
My diary is open for you to look at

tarjake

I live with my parent so I can't really be too picky about what I have for dinner unless I offer to cook it so I tend to stick to eating about 500 calories (or more if I exercise) for most of the day and then I have 700 calories left over for whatever I have for dinner. So I have oatso simple or some cereal for breakfast which is about 200 calories.
Then I have either a sandwich for lunch or a salad and a smoothie later on. If I've done some walking during the day I'll have some dried fruit or something as a snack later on.
Unless we're having something really unhealthy for dinner the meal usually totals to about 700 calories or less. I normally work out how many calories the meal is going to be beforehand and if it goes over 700 I'll just leave some.
I'm normally hungry by about 5 oclock but I just ignore it until dinner.
Also to avoid calories from drinking coffee I just drink it black. I add extra water to it instead of milk and it doesn't taste bad. Plus I read online that if you drink coffee black it boosts your metabolism, which it doesn't do if you drink it with milk and sugar. (:

i been drinking black coffee more than normal because it seems to cut my appetite. is that right?

rlysrh

i been drinking black coffee more than normal because it seems to cut my appetite. is that right?

It definitely stops me being as hungry too for a while. (:
I dunno if there's any actual evidence to it or not though

suzycreamcheese

im definitely going to try and eat more veg, and cut to skimmed milk in my coffee. Cant do sweetners though - blergh

Im definitely going to tweak it a bit.

cant do too much exercise for a few weeks as ive just had an operation, but i can see itll definitely be easier when i can hit the gym again

curran80

I also have a 1200 limit. Feel free to add me to view my diary

CARNAT22

what i dont get is MFP has got me at 3900+ cal /day. i dont eat that much. i been keeping it between 1500 and 2000 and am losing weight steady but dont feel like crud. how do they get the numbers?

3900 sounds incredibly excessive... Unless you are exercising like a maniac for 6 hours a day???

mistawalka

ive put my diary to public now.

Using your Monday 14 as an example - overall calorie-wise don't be too despondant - if you are aiming for 1200 calories then your MFP 'deficit' each day is probably 500 calories - so by going over the daily target by 275 you are still going to lose weight as you will be under your daily requirements by 225 calories or so.

As someone posted above - throw in a 30 minute exercise and you'll be right on target calorie wise.

What looks like it hurt the most that day is the pizza (but in light of the above two observations not such a big deal) but maybe if you need to go down the takeaway route if you can shave off a hundred calories or so from the meal it would give you a bigger cushioning for grazing through the day - so something like a nando's grilled chicken with spicey rice might be an option.

Keep up the good work though

CARNAT22

Just to add that my cups of tea (PG Tips with SS milk and sweetner) are zero calories !!! Phew - thought I was going to have to give up me cuppa's as well...

firemedic9

I am on the same 1200 a day but set that myself this had me on 1610 the key has been for me healthy choice bread with peanut butter I get simply jiff little better and a one a day vit for breakfast light yogurt snack turkey or chicken with cheese on healthy choice dry for lunch most days puff corn (like cheetoes but popcorn flavor) then light yogurt snack dinner is fish or chicken and I always fill half the plate with a steamed veggie and rarely ever hit the 1200 key is to eat low cal several times a day never let yourself get hungry. Good luck to all.

Rupeedoo

I struggled for a little while to stay at 1200 but think i've got it sorted now. I can't snack though because I just feel deprived at the tiny meals i'm allowed if I do.
Yesterday, as an example...
B - Special K with Red Berries + Skimmed Milk + Banana
L - lemon coriander packet Couscous with low fat feta, cucumber, tomatoes, onion
D - Home made leek & potato soup with small baguette.

Today I'm having
B - Almond and honey porridge
L - The other half of the couscous from yesterday
D - Marinated sardines with big salad

Feel free to add me... x

staceywoo

I'm also sticking to a 1200 cal diet. My usual day is something like this;

Breakfast: 30g cereal with milk (usually Special K with red berries)
Lunch: Homemade soup (I make this on a weekend ready to portion out for the week) plus fruit (2 pieces) and a yoghurt.
Snack: Raw carrot & one piece fruit
Dinner: Usually something high in protein like chicken or fish, but not necessarily just plain with veggies. I've noticed that a lot of people on here tend to eat the same foods for dinner, but as I cook from scratch I still make tasty and filling meals that are low cal. I try to keep my potato and pasta intake low, and substitute oil for 1 cal spray. For me it's all about portion control!

If I have any cals left in the evening then I usually have nuts or a sesame ryvita with dairylea. Last night I had a couple of squares of chocolate as a treat.

Good luck!

lynz4589

I feel the opposite - I can't get mine over! My diary is open btw.

What's your average meal combo?

H

Im the same, I have really struggled going over the 1200 over the last 3 weeks, I had to up my snack intake during the day even when Im not hungry I force myself to have a little something every 2 hours and manage to just about hit 1200, sometimes Im still slightly under by 100 for example lastnight!

suzycreamcheese

That is an extremely low calorie diet, is there any reason why it's so low?

If I were to eat that little, I would stick to eggs, meat, fish, and vegtables.

Thats just what MFP says for my build if i want to lose 1lb a week

kwardklinck

I usually have eggs and turkey bacon for breakfast. Then I have grilled chicken or fish with veggies for dinner. I usually have room for a nice lunch and a couple of low cal (carrots/apple slices) snacks during the day.
The smaller you are, the fewer calories you need and the longer it takes to lose. It kind of stinks because I could eat more and lose at the beginning, but I'm liking the results.

kabullard

I feel the opposite - I can't get mine over! My diary is open btw.

What's your average meal combo?

H

I'm the same way. my goal is 1,200 but I tend to get to around 1,000.....and I'm not hungry. I don't want to eat just to reach a calorie goal...

sing1998

try doing portion control. eat food you normally do but scale back the portion to within 300-400 cals per meal. i like a cinnamon roll. i may have to cut it in half and it eat for 2 breakfasts instead of one. soups, salads, lean chicken/tuna, berries, nuts....all make it easy to stay under. you will still lose if you're 100-200 over....just not as fast.

tarjake

what i dont get is MFP has got me at 3900+ cal /day. i dont eat that much. i been keeping it between 1500 and 2000 and am losing weight steady but dont feel like crud. how do they get the numbers?

3900 sounds incredibly excessive... Unless you are exercising like a maniac for 6 hours a day???

im a large man. 6'3 348 lb when i started this. but still... how much can you eat in a day?
?

rascal21

For those of you that are getting tired of eating grilled chicken with veggies or rice for dinner, check out hungrygirl.com. I was always going over because of my serious cravings. I went out and bought the cookbook, haven't had an issue since then. It's some really great food, with really low calorie intake.

Also, the one thing I have noticed is that the further I get into my diet and weight loss, is that it takes a LOT less to fill me up, so once you get across that bridge, it does get easier. I used to eat tons for lunch, and I have gotten it down to half a sandwich and some carrot sticks for lunch.

My diary is open if anyone would like to look. I do exercise daily, which also helps, but I am actually striving to stay at my calorie limit without using the calories gained by exercising.