everyones success on 1200 calories

sparklelioness

1200-1400 works for me. I don't feel hungry because I eat the RIGHT calories. a sample menu might be:

breakfast: 4 oz chicken fried in half a teaspoon duck fat, scrambled eggbeaters and a large serving of shredded brussels sprouts. That's under 300 calories. I might have a small bowl of cereal later in the day, or a skinny latte, no more than 200 cals. that leaves me 700 for the evening (I dont eat lunch).

dinner might be 6 0z of salmon (330 cals) and a large helping of broccoli - 50 cals. that leaves me 300 cals for dessert, which will be a 150 cal ice cream sandwich or something similar.

I do not feel hungry, deprived, weak, unsatissfied, or unhealthy eating this way. I do exercise (tho ive been taking a break from it, just got back to it last night). usual burns are 400 cals or so. sometimes I eat back a couple hundred calories of it, sometimes I dont.

I've come to realize I need a lot less food than I thought I did. I'm only 5'2", and I'm built small... i just don't need huge meals to sustain myself, and if I try to force myself to eat more, I feel uncomfortable AND I stop losing weight. I'm still 30 lbs from my goal. Once I hit goal I'll probably see if I can do 1600-1800 calories and maintain.

lacar60299

I just started with my fitness pal a few days ago, and my calorie goal is 1200. Do any of you have a sample menu that you use to keep within the 1200? I haven't exercised at all since I started, because I've been sick, but I plan on starting very, very soon.

Any help is appreciated. This is a great, motivating site

Mcgrawhaha

idid 1200 calories per day for 1 year, never went into this mythical starvation mode, never felt drained, never felt starved... i lost 100 pounds, maintained alot of muscle, and feel better now at 33 than i did in my teens. i went from a size 18/20 to a 4/6 in 1 year! if you can do 1200, great, go for it... if you cant, thats fine also, find what works, and go with that!

harphy

I'm on 1200-1300 calories as well and don't starve. But there is little or no place for desserts, sugar drinks, greasy snacks, cookies. One has to eat almost perfectly to stay within goal, not starve and hit macros. My diary is open if anybody is interested.

balletpolegirl

I didn't feel hungry on 1200 cals, but I got very very grumpy, I was eating back my exercise calories and the scales weren't going down.
So now I'm on 1650 cals and not eating back exercise calories. I feel much happier and the scales have finally moved - hooray!

Eleonora91

I've been eating 1200 net calories most of my journey, which began in May 2012.
I've lost 14 kgs so far, before Christmas I reached almost 18 kgs lost but now I've got a few kgs left to lose.
When I started this journey I was 83, I'm now 69 and my goal is 65 kgs at least for now.
I haven't lost more weight throughout this 1 and 1/2 year mostly because I didn't always eat 1200 kcals; I've had some cheat days, I've had entire periods in which I didn't count calories, and so I've gained some kgs, but overall I'm quite satisfied.
I always eat my calories back (even if not usually all of them) but overall I haven't ever been eating more than 1500-1600 kcals in my journey, at least when I was "dieting". I don't think 1200 kcals is way too low for me since when I'm home I'm usually very quiet and do nothing all day, anyway I usually end up eating more than 1200 considering the calories burned through exercise. I think 1200 kcals might be too low for someone who's not exercising but 1300-1400 might be the best way to start if you're still hungry.