I can't live on only 1200 calories

Jorra

Then don't. There's no point in being miserable when you don't have to be.

atjays

Everyone picks the max weight loss per week and everyone gets the 1200 calories by default. Unless you enjoy starving to death, I mean literally starving to death, you need to eat more and exercise. I've had two friends on here end up in the hospital because of the 1200 calories crap. Read once in a while, nobody recommends that strategy, you'll just gain it all back the first day you cheat.

riskiestlavonn

If MFP gave you that number, I would say that you should change your settings. I feel like your weight loss is just going to be miserable if you're hungry all the time (at least it was for me until I decided to up my calories). I eat around 1700 calories a day total. I'm never hungry and I've been able to continue losing weight at around 5 pounds per month (three months total).

ucsneakerz

Protein shakes are a good low calories stomach filler too!

EDesq

I was given a 1200 calorie plan and I am starving. Can I eat even raw veggies to take the edge off? I am eating good food but it all adds up quickly. Please help!

NO ONE is asking You to eat only 1200 calories per day! You people need to STOP, just STOP and THINK!!! You want to go to work, do an exercise routine, be active and energetic in your life, take care of home and family...and live a full LIFE, AND you expect to DO this on 1200 calories per day! NO this is not the Agrigrian or Industurial Age where you need 4000 -6000 calories per day to keep you going but I have learned that MOST adults need more than 1200 calories per day to be REALLY productive! AND YES, you can eat and lose weight!

I learned this the HARD WAY, doing 1000-1200 calories per day' getting hungry, then overeating on the wrong stuff...yo-yoing back and forth, then one day I said, "I'm NOT on a diet, this IS MY LIFESTYLE. So I planted Myself at 1500 calories per day avg (because we will eat less some days and some days more), made Healthy Choices 80% of the time, 10% Good Choices and 10% Not so good choices (but in Moderation > Treats, ecause I knew if I did not give Myself a piece of cake or some cookies or a candy bar or a few french fries or nachos or sugar in My coffee I would not stay on board.)

So I Live a Healthy Lifestyle, do moderate exercise, have enough energy to power my day, don' t beat Myself upwhen I eat some chips or cookies because I LOG it in! I feel good about Myself and the way I Live and I ENJOY LIFE!

OH, by the way, I have LOST 120 Lbs in 2 years, basically just by EATING RIGHT and being able to STICK TO A PLAN! If you can not Stick to a Plan, you won't get healthy or lose weight NOR Maintain it!

BrionyTallis

And I couldn't either ... when I first signed into mfp it recommended 1260 cals for me but calculated my bmr at 1400. I set my weight loss at 1 lb per week. So adding exercise would be seem to be the way to go to make the math work.

I've seen recommendations to eat 200-300 calories above bmr and see if you lose weight after a couple of weeks. If you are losing weight at the rate you would like then great!

If gaining weight or not losing at the rate you want, cut back 100 calories and/or increase exercise. I've also attended a weight loss management class where it was recommended splitting the difference between a cut in calories and an increase in exercise. So that would mean a 50 cal cut from food and a 50 cal increase in exercise.

Repeat the process until you find the right balance of calorie cutting and activity that works for you. You'll have to do these adjustments as you lose weight also because it takes less calories to run your body as you lose (I think mfp recalculates at 10 lbs of weight loss).

Whatever you do I would suggest that as my friend PU_239 says ignore the scale (well at least as much as you can) because it is how you look and how you feel that is important.

Hope this helps!

BTW, any mistakes here are my own and I am sure if I have made one .... someone will correct me. I am certainly not an expert just relating what I have garnered here and there.

Brandicaloriecountess

So don't. That is too low and certainly below your BMR. I did eat 1200 for longer than I should have but as I worked my way up I was still losing @ 1600 a day. I am trying to get my metabolism going again so I can lose the last 14 pounds without starving!!

AmyRhubarb

It really is sad that for so long we've all been told that to lose weight we've got to exercise more and eat less. Makes no sense - start working your body harder and give it less fuel to do so! :noway:

A better way to look at it would be to say exercise more and eat WELL to fuel your body and allow it to function properly. Eating the bare minimum while pushing yourself through exercise every day will burn you out in a short amount of time, even with healthy food choices. Your body is getting mixed signals as you push it to work hard but then don't give it enough fuel to function, so it begins to try to hang on to what little fuel you do give it rather than burning it efficiently, eventually jacking with your metabolism, slowing it down.

it is a process, and I've learned a lot by reading the info here and on the group page I linked in my last post. It takes some time to figure out what works best for you as far as diet, how many calories you need to meet your goal, etc, etc, but you can adjust as you go along! And when you feel great and you look great as the fat begins to burn off and your body gets stronger and leaner with all the good food an exercise, it's all totally worth it!

BrionyTallis

here is some other good information for you that I just happened across

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/596064-how-to-get-rid-of-a-plateau?page=1#posts-8549905

taso42

TOPIC: I can't live on only 1200 calories

So eat more.

eso2012

I am on 1200 - net. Which means the more I exercise the more I can consume. On days I hardly move, I eat 1200. I am 5'3" though, so that's not totally off the chart. Also, I am not too worried about being at 1300 cal a day or what not. If I am starving, then I am not doing it right. I don't let myself into the starvation mode.

I have a HUGE appetite so this is a way for me to learn that I have been over eating. It is easy if you eat at home, but for anything yummier (eating out), it is not as easy. I am not married to it, as long as I know I am changing my lifestyle

Oh, I am 125 with 10 pounds/less to lose.

laursey

Who gave you that number - is that what came up when you filled out your info n MFP, or is it from elsewhere? I can't live on 1200 either - I'd be so hungry! I am set at 1700 calories per day, I'm 5'8", 139lbs, 44 years old, set to lose 1/2 lb a week. And I am losing, even with going over my calories several times a week. I track everything, but if I'm hungry, I eat (healthy foods).

Check out the info in this group, Eat More To Weigh Less: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/groups/home/3817-eat-more-to-weigh-less

Plenty of people there eating more healthy calories, exercising, and losing the fat without being hungry. Gotta fuel that body to make it function efficiently!

^ This. Eat more. Listen to your body and make solid healthy choices. I exercise to eat more.

MicknMona

When I get the hungries I just drink a lot of crystal light. Takes away my hunger.

aippolito1

WORK OUT. You can eat back whatever you burn off. But you need to make sure you know exactly how much you're burning. Invest in a HRM, and also a food scale. Definitely eat a fruit & veggie at each meal, this will help keep you full, and your protein levels are probably too low if you're going off what MFP sets you for. Try 50% carbs, 30% protein, 20% fat. Or work toward 1g of protein per every LEAN lb of mass on your body ... so if you have a rough estimate of your body fat %, you should be able to figure out how much of your weight is lean. Lots of water, try green tea.

sdtrex

You can eat as much spinach as you want. And egg whites. And watermelon. Really, as much as you want. Enjoy!

Laurej

eat more! just eat more of the good stuff! :happy: Bigger food intake equals a faster metabolism, I don't care what the anorexics say. I had one guy tell me that eating about 500 cals a day was just fine..( I'm fairly athletic now) delete from friends list was my response...

Now I'm not saying eat potato chips and twinkies,:laugh: but eat!!! I recently am attempting a vegan lifestyle ( I say attempting because some days are great, others not so much).. when I mess up and eat cheese I'm not gonna cry about it in the least!! What I've found in my attempts to go vegan, is that I'm having difficulties eating enough food to meet my caloric goal. Raw veggies, hummus dip ( esp ones without canola oil) roasted red pepper spreads, garlic spreads, salad, they don't carry a huge amount of cals. Once a week I chop all kinds of great veggies and make salads, and carrot sticks, and radishes that I can grab n go. It makes it really easy to grab a handful of raw carrots and some hummus and makes a really low cal filling snack.
p.s when I don't meet my cal goal, I've noticed a big decrease in my athletic ability, coupled with occasionally feeling like crap... don't starve yourself! :happy:

You hang in there and don't worry so much about the cal intake if you go way over, you can always work out

Jorra

You can eat as much spinach as you want. And egg whites. And watermelon. Really, as much as you want. Enjoy!

Can I eat 10 pounds of it?

MizTk

I got the same 1200 calories a day baseline plan myself. I had added breakfast and my lunch sans a drink and I was already at 1400 calories. Maybe we need to try smoothies or something.

wackyfunster

If you want help like this, open your diary.

Don't eat crap, and 1200 calories can be a lot. That is around 3 pounds of turkey, quinoa, and/or brown rice, which is pretty filling. If you mix fruits and veggies in, you can probably make that 4-5 lbs. of food, which is a heck of a lot for one day!

kylTKe

I think you're accidentally starving yourself.

I'm assuming what happened is you're already a very small person and you entered into MFP that you would like to lose 1 pound a week, which is equal to 3500 calories or 500 calories a day. If you're already very small then maybe your maintenance calories are around 1700 (really?) so trying to lose a pound a week puts you down to 1200 or lower.

Your total body fat is way lower than larger people who have a similar body fat percentage. I'm 180lbs, if I want to lose a pound a week that's about 0.5% total body mass per week and I can still eat over 2000 calories a day. If someone who is 110 lbs wants to lose 1 pound per week, that's almost 1% body mass, double what I would be losing. So I'm saying that you should decrease the total amount of weight you want to lose per week so that it's more in line with the % of body mass that larger people are losing per week. So drop it from 1 lb per week to 0.5 lbs per week.

I'm not a nutritionist but 1200 calories seems really low. Other than what I already suggested, maybe try exercising more so that you can eat more and still be at a calorie deficit. If you go running for like 35 minutes a day that's probably around 400-500 more calories that you can eat that day.

I should also note that I don't see why anyone would eat 1200 calories per day. If you're very small with a high body fat % then you should be working on exercising, with a balanced diet. If you're not very small, there's no reason you should have to eat 1200 calories per day to lose weight.