Food tips, to Reach 1200 calories a Day.

castle88

I found out the other day, to my horror, that my cinema treat of chocolate covered brazil nuts contains 171calories in 3 nuts!! I get through soo much more than that. So thats one way of clocking up the calories without thinking... oopsie :S

Best problem to have ever btw! I'm jealous :P Just have fun with making yummy healthy things!

Lyssa62

I am supposed to be hitting 1240 calories a day and am always under by 200 and something. Since I have bumped up exercise I don't feel as hungry. Plus like others have said...now that I am watching WHAT I eat it's making a huge difference. I am now eating meals that are good and nutritious and not just empty calories. Now instead of eating when I'm bored or think I should be eating I eat when I'm hungry.

skudera27

I seriously can't believe some of the comments people are posting on here. For those saying they eat 1200 calories for breakfast, or 2800 calories for the day... GET A CLUE! Not everyone is trying to put on insane amount of muscle mass. Not everyone is trying to gain weight in general. Not everyone has a high metabolism and is forced to eat a lot.

Lately for me, it's either been about 1450 calories a day or just under 1200. I'm not starving myself, I feel full throughout the day. I eat every couple hours. No one has the same exact body, so please you people need to stop judging. Up until reading this post, I've seen nothing but motivation on here.

If I need extra calories, I'll eat a Balance Bar (200cal), drink some wine, eat some fruit, have peanut butter, dip tortilla chips in hummus. Not big on nuts, but they are definitely packed with nutrients and will help your caloric intake.

BSummers321

nuts, seeds, peanut butter, hummus. Calorie dense foods! Sometimes my snacks have more calories than my meals.

Sharonks

I am very small and my BMR is 1260. I have had days that to net BMR I have to eat about 2000 cals. I eat a moderate carb diet so this is pretty tough. I also eat a fairly clean diet. Healthy ways to up your cals are generally high fat ones, avocado, olive or nut oils, nut butter, and nuts. One way I have found to up my cals without eating more is to drink a smoothie. I use full fat greek yogurt, almond milk (I can't drink milk but can eat yogurt, go figure), ground flax seed, spinach and fruit. You could also add protein powder and/or peanut butter to that. Use full fat options rather than low cal options. And there is really no harm in a periodic cookie or bowl of ice cream.

chikoboo

I'm the same, I have trouble to reach the 1200 goal then add on top the extra 300 I earn from exercising everyday. I pushed too hard too fast. Unfortunately there is no "one size fits all" (to all of you must eat over 1200 calories campaigners!!) When you are large you need to first find your own way, I thought if I ate 1200 a day and exercised every day I would lose more weight in a shorter time frame to prevent me losing interest, but I was wrong. Yes ok the first 2 weeks I did this and happily lost 7 pounds but the 3rd week I gained half of it back. But instead of giving up as I had done so before (mainly thanks to my MFP pals support) I stopped putting so much pressure on myself to meet the goals and introduced some of the banned items from my life that aren't bad in moderation, I cut back my exercising to 5-6 days a week to allow my body to relax.
Adding a glass of red wine 2-3 nights a week, a few squares of dark cocoa rich chocolate help boost the calories (but also sugar so you have to find the right balance) Now I am steadily losing every week, but I do find it hard some days to reach the calories, when you have been brought up around bad diets/lifestyles its hard to adjust to clean. healthy foods, it take time and patience and above all support and help. So please don't be too quick to judge people who have made a huge effort to lose weight, I guess most of the people who are saying that this is eating too low are near goal weight or are just maintaining, spare a thought for us who have a long road ahead of us. (p.s the best advice I got was little and often, I now eat 5 times a day and try to spread out my calories throughout the day, adding in some sugar-free biscuits with your lunch, or adding a banana to the top of your cereal, a sprinkling of low fat cheese atop your main meal, little adds throughout the day help bump)

dunnodunno

Some tips:

How about a cup of non-fat plain yogurt & you could put in the following to make it more decadent:

Peanut butter, fruit, melted chocolate, chocolate powder, etc. The list of stuff you could add is endless.

You could make a salad & include things like cheese, a healthy salad dressing, tons of veggies, and perhaps a healthy topping like sunflower seeds. You could also add chicken to give it more of a protein punch.

You could look into different ways to make smoothies & get some extra calories by eating them. Pinterest has a lot of smoothie recipes & all kinds of food recipes in general.