tired of 1200 calories a day, too hard!

soulartp

tired of 1200 calories a day, im always so hungry, although i did lose weight....wondering if people count their liquids other than water as calories? for example, i count my two coffees each day. if i wouldnt have to count them it would free up some calories for me. any ideas??

Hummingbird82

Black coffee has no calories, but if you use mini moo creamers they are only 10 calories each and use sugar substitute then you can still enjoy coffee.

CalJur

Black coffee has no calories, but if you use mini moo creamers they are only 10 calories each and use sugar substitute then you can still enjoy coffee.

very true. i drink starbucks house blend with minimal sugar and cream. it has 2 calories per cup before you add anything.

anewdeb2012

I'm curious as to why you are sticking to 1200/day? It depends on your current weight for the amount of calories you should maintain. Weight watchers has a calculation that will allow you ample calories at your current weight and slowly decrease the calories as you lost the weight. If you're sticking with 1200 and have more than 40-50 pounds to lose....you're going to be very frustrated quite quickly.

soulartp

thanx for the tip!

LabRat529

Eat more. Bump your calories up to 1500. Bump them up to 1800. As long as you're sustaining a deficit, you will lose. You might not lose as fast, but you will be less miserable.

I count everything that has calories in it, even if it's just my 10-calorie supplements.

soulartp

i dont have that much more to lose at all, im trying for another 5 pounds. I already lost about 13 pounds in total over a three month period. the 1200 calorie calculation is based on this sites recommendation.

BerryH

Go back into MFP's settings and go with what it recommends you for 1lb a week weight loss. I bet it's a lot more than 1,200! It's easy and sustainable. And eat your exercise calories, or at least some of them!

soulartp

Eat more. Bump your calories up to 1500. Bump them up to 1800. As long as you're sustaining a deficit, you will lose. You might not lose as fast, but you will be less miserable.

I count everything that has calories in it, even if it's just my 10-calorie supplements.

i dont think so rebekah. when i eat a bit more i didnt lose any weight. and now im losing but extremely extremely slow. so frustrated.

kenkai27

When doing weight watchers, I never counted my coffee. I would count the cream I put in there as 50 calories, which is one point in WW. I still lost my 2.5 pounds a week!! Now if I would drink a high sugar drink, like G2 or a regular soda i would count the calories! Hope this helps!!:happy:

Coliepie717

I was doing 1200 cals when I started also and I got so frustrated becasue I was starving and then was always going over. It made me loose motivation and I didnt log in for like 3 months. So I decided to bump my cals to 1500 and I have to say that helped so much. Maybe it was psychological, but just knowing that I had more made me eat less. Yesterday I actually had like 400+ calories left at the end of the day! Good luck to you, dont give up just becasue your frustrated

soulartp

Go back into MFP's settings and go with what it recommends you for 1lb a week weight loss. I bet it's a lot more than 1,200! It's easy and sustainable. And eat your exercise calories, or at least some of them!

Berry, that IS what it recommends! 1210 calories a day!

soulartp

When doing weight watchers, I never counted my coffee. I would count the cream I put in there as 50 calories, which is one point in WW. I still lost my 2.5 pounds a week!! Now if I would drink a high sugar drink, like G2 or a regular soda i would count the calories! Hope this helps!!:happy:

well im counting about 70 calories for coffee with a bit of milk and 2 sugars, so im sure im covered with it.

TeaBea

Eat more. Bump your calories up to 1500. Bump them up to 1800. As long as you're sustaining a deficit, you will lose. You might not lose as fast, but you will be less miserable.

I count everything that has calories in it, even if it's just my 10-calorie supplements.

i dont think so rebekah. when i eat a bit more i didnt lose any weight. and now im losing but extremely extremely slow. so frustrated.

The closer you get to your goal - the slower weight comes off. Towards the end you will be "scheduled" to lose 1/2 pound a week - not even a full pound (the deficit for a full pound would bring you below 1200). Don't get discouraged. Exercise more & eat your exercise calories back.

Bronx_Montgomery

Try eating Grapes and/ Chicken. They are low calorie foods but fill you right up...especially the grapes

taramaureen

Bump up your cals if it's too much for you. I noticed that you're actually not even eating 1,200 on a daily and are actually eating a little less than that. Change your settings for your calorie recomendation so that it says that you are at least "lightly active" under your settings: diet profile. That should bump up your caloric intake a little more. 1,200 is so little... most people need more than that. You can also manually change your calories so that it reflects to 1,500 or more. I personally do a flex thing for myself and eat between 1,200/ day to 1,800/ day. I eat towards the higher end the days I exercise, the lower end the days I don't and don't beat myself up if I'm a little over 1,300 the days I don't exercise.

Also eat more veggies! It will help fill you up!

MrsSWW

I was doing 1200 cals when I started also and I got so frustrated becasue I was starving and then was always going over. It made me loose motivation and I didnt log in for like 3 months. So I decided to bump my cals to 1500 and I have to say that helped so much. Maybe it was psychological, but just knowing that I had more made me eat less. Yesterday I actually had like 400+ calories left at the end of the day! Good luck to you, dont give up just becasue your frustrated

I've done this for Winter, I found it too hard to get up in the dark to exercise so have adjusted my settings and am now on 1560 a day - with the exceptions of the festive period I've stayed under and lost, try it, you might like it!

pglaf

You definitely need to eat more if you are hungry all the time.
Eating foods with more fiber in them will help to keep you full too and for longer.

Great job on your weight loss.

thecat

Good morning!!!

I understand that it is hard to stick to 1200 calories per day......if you still feel hungry why don't you raise your calorie intake to say 1400 calories per day and see ow you feel by increasing the calories it will take a little longer to lose weight but you have to be happy doing this. Also, are you exercising?? If so, then you can use your exercise calorie allowance on any given day. As far as counting liquids yes you ned to count all!!!!! As Coliepie posted she increased her calorie intake and was happier I did the same thing because 1200 felt too low so I too increased my intake to 1500 calories per day while increasing my exercise time. Please don't give up just tweak the program to your specific needs....stay strong!!! God bless!!

bcattoes

Exercise to earn more calories, then eat more.

BerryH

Berry, that IS what it recommends! 1210 calories a day!

Sorry, I only just looked at your profile and I see you don't have much left to lose, which is probably why MFP has set you so low

It sounds counter-intuitive, but many people so close to goal have success changing to 0.5lb a week weight loss. It's slower but you'll be more likely to keep it off and slide seamlessly into maintenance.

I'd also go mental if I didn't earn myself a lovely big meal once a week with a huge calorie burn. This is usually my Sunday run which is always over an hour and burns at least 600 calories.

BeckLowe12

No way! That is a recipe for disaster, there is no reason to be hungry all the time. I love to work out and for me I hover in the 1500-1700 calorie range and maintain pretty easily. They days I work out more I eat more the days I work out less I eat less, your body will tell you what you need. I don't keep anyting in my house that I can possibly cheat on and look up food before I head out to dinner with friends. If I have a drink I find a recipe on line for a skinny version; and I love my eat clean diet cookbook. Don't expect to much to fast, lasting results take time. You can do it!

LabRat529

Eat more. Bump your calories up to 1500. Bump them up to 1800. As long as you're sustaining a deficit, you will lose. You might not lose as fast, but you will be less miserable.

I count everything that has calories in it, even if it's just my 10-calorie supplements.

i dont think so rebekah. when i eat a bit more i didnt lose any weight. and now im losing but extremely extremely slow. so frustrated.

Have you figured out your maintenance calorie burn? As in the calories you burn ever day simply by living? There are tons of studies that show your metabolism will decrease when you restrict calories. But you can minimize that decrease by exercising and eating more. One recent study that I just looked at yesterday showed that restricting your calorie intake by as little as 15% below maintenance and then reducing net calorie by exercise by another 15% showed a much smaller metabolic change than seen with calorie restriction alone. You are losing weight slowly because 1) you don't have a lot of weight to lose anyway. It's always hardest to lose those last 10 pounds , and 2) you've probably been doing 1200 calories for too long and your body has adapted.

The choice is yours, but I STILL advocate for bumping your calories up. You confess to being hungry on 1200. How long do you really think you'll last if you're always hungry? Is your will-power really so good that you can be perpetually hungry and not break down and binge? If so, you're a much better person than me.

I'm pretty confident that you'll still lose weight if you increase your calories. Lots and lots and lots of ladies are doing it. Some are eating as many as 2000 calories a day and still losing weight (though I wouldn't recommend going that high unless you know you're burning more than 2000 calories a day). You might gain a little weight initially as your body restores it's glycogen supplies. But after that initial gain, you'll start losing again. I'm so confident, that I'd bet money on it if I could

At anyrate... good luck and I'm sorry you're frustrated and hungry.

peacefulwhisper

Having a cheat day where you add in a little extra calories and give yourself a treat is a good idea. One day will not make you put on tons of weight and it will make you feel less stress. For example if your thing is cheese allow yourself a small piece as a reward or a scoop of icecream ect..... It worked for me in a previouse diet. Sometimes just knowing I could reward myself made me feel better and I didnt always use the cheat day but made me feel good to know I could. My cheat day was Saturday.Aslo Try using Guava nector, or honey as a substitute for sugar it is way better for you.

TavistockToad

Go back into MFP's settings and go with what it recommends you for 1lb a week weight loss. I bet it's a lot more than 1,200! It's easy and sustainable. And eat your exercise calories, or at least some of them!

Berry, that IS what it recommends! 1210 calories a day!

Go for half a pound, if you are very close to your goal weight you should make the deficit smaller as you work towards maintenance.

krista010105

when calorie counting you want to count every single calorie.
I have a 1200 calorie goal too though i have it set 300 calories higher since im breastfeeding.
I drink very little water and drink tons of gatorade. i count every ounce of gatorade i drink. they are about 150 calories per 20 oz bottle and i can easily drink 3-4 bottles a day. be true to your self. if you need to up your calories a day then up then 100-200 or drink less coffee. I used to be a huge dr pepper drinker until 3 months ago. i got very sick with the flu for a week and half. didnt have any in that time and decided to just not drink it any more after that since im nursing and caffene is bad for you. makes me feel so much better in the day. caffene gives you a boost of energy but then you get a fall in energy later on after it wears off. thats why it is better to have no soda or sugars and eat 4-5 small meals a day instead of 3 large ones. and have a protin each time even if it is just some nuts, beef jerky or cheese, keep protin in your body. that is what keeps your energy leveled out rather than the vallys and mountains that it goes through when you drink sodas or coffee or have other things with a ton of caffene or sugar.

MinnieInMaine

I agree that you should change your weight loss goal to 1/2 pound per week. When you've got 15 or less pounds to lose, it's much more realistic and you'll be feeding your body properly.

You may notice a bit of a plateau when you first bump up your calories but that is usually due to your body being used to not having enough. Once you start feeding yourself well, it thinks you might go back to not eating enough so it holds on to what it can. Give it 2 or 3 weeks and I bet you'll start seeing the weight come off again. I know it's tough because we're all so desperate to see immediate results from changes but the body just doesn't work like that.

Not sure what you're doing for activity but if you are active, make sure you're eating at least half of those earned calories.

ETA: As far as the drinks go, I only count the ones that have calories. Usually have coffee with splenda or diet soda so I don't worry about those. But if I have something different - like the hot chocoalte from Dunkin Donuts this morning or the chai latte kcups I have sometimes, I definitely track those.

ETA 2: You may also want to look at the quality vs quantity of the foods you're eating. More protein and fiber will help keep you full longer.

deekaydee

Is 1210 for 1 lb/wk weight loss?

I recommend going up to maintenance for 2 weeks. (If 1210 is your calorie deficit for 1 lb/wk, then maintenance should be 1710.) You might gain a few pounds to begin with, but don't freak out, let it go for 2 weeks. You'll stabilize and likely drop anything you gain (I certainly did).

Then after two weeks, start fresh. If you really only have 5-10 pounds to go, set your goal to 1/2 lb per week. That should be about 1460. Much more doable than 1200, particularly if you add in some exercise.

I was able to break my plateau by going on maintenance for a couple weeks. It also gave me a fresh start mentally -- less obsessing about calories, etc. I'm 10 lbs from goal and losing slowly at a 1/2 per week weight loss setting.

annabellj

I have mine set about 1380 i think and I want to eat more than that so I always make sure I burn more. i exercise a lot cuz i like to eat a lot!im very rarely hungry, and when i am i eat a cucumber or carrots or celery, plain no dip or ranch and that helps a lot. i like sugar snap peas and cherry tomatoes also. very few calories in any of these.

mamamia410

I'm really glad to see this post. I was looking for something like this. I started a couple weeks ago trying to hit 1200 calories a day... I was pretty hungry and stressed. I'm pretty heavy, 100 to lose, so, it was really, really difficult for me to hit 1200 a day. I've recently bumped it up to the recommended calorie from MFP, 1500. I think I'll do better on that than the 1200. That's not a lot of food.

soulartp

thanx everyone so much for your ideas and support!