I can't live on only 1200 calories

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.

LasVegasTaxiDriver

I set my calorie intake at 1400 but i work hard to eat 1200 i could do it at 1100 easy, try oatmeal, egg white omlettes, black beans, turkey and chicken, stay away from empty calories like junk food and sodas, they make you hungry, and eat nuts, they fill you up fast, im losing about 4 pounds a week, with exercise 3 days a week, my calorie defict is usually 2000 aday

Laurej

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!

^^ and this! If you open your diary, people can see what your eating and maybe help pinpoint areas you can save cals and substitute it for more food

sdtrex

.

sdtrex

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?

Yes you can! 10 pounds of raw spinach is less than 1,000 calories; 10 pounds steamed is probably close to 1200. As a side benefit, you may turn green and mutate into a cross between popeye and the incredible hulk.

pigsfly1975

I am on 1,200 calories but I never have really ate that much. I have trouble eating all the calories most days. I am usually over on my protien though. I also don't eat any starch or if I do I eat very little. Brown rice or a sweet potato here and there. Over all I eat alot of plant food and good fats olive oil, avacado, fatty fish. I feel good . I think it is to each their own. Everyone is so unique. I think I am pear shaped personally because I don't eat enough. I snack all day though?

ChasingSweatandTears

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?

I'd like to see someone TRY and eat 10 pounds of any of these lol. You can't!

I know where this person is coming from all of these foods are very low in calories, yet nutrient dense. You will feel satisfied on smaller amounts of them. Even eating large amounts of them won't derail you. In my lifetime, the lowest I've ever weighed was at a time when I was eating boiled egg whites all day long in addition to my meals. Kept me satisfied and I never counted calories. It did get old after awhile though and I wasn't making many friends at work haha. But I would eat at least a full dozen boiled egg whites a day for a snack.

BlueCrystal423

well in my opinion..its not that hard... u just have to cut off the eating little by little but not to the point that u starve...and if not u just bike ride to burn off the extra calories you weren't suppose to eat ....like for example..i do 40 miles a week and eat whatever i want but no fast foods only sundays and homemade food the rest of the week..so i make sure that i bike ride more than what i eat so i can loose weight or maintain it after im satisfy with my weight... ;-)

briebebe

No one should live on only 1200 calories!

amygaycheme

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

really? what kinda answer is that?

amygaycheme

this is what I am looking for. all veggies have calories...I love em but when I add those it is tough. I am 5'8' 157, have a goal of 135. They will only put me at a 1 lb/wk loss. I have 3 kids and a desk job. I have always eaten well and exercised but I have a medical issue that keeps me from doing much more than walking. After I hit 34 the weight that was easy to lose won't go away. Just looking for some help getting on track.

mariaperry

if you do cardio exercise like treadmill, walking, jogging, etc. you log those calories and they are given back to you. For example if you are on the treadmill for 20 minutes and burn 200 calories, you will get those 200 calories back to eat because your body still needs those 1200 calories a day. So add some form of cardio everyday to get extra calories.

MrsAlcalde

MFP offers 1200 calories for 2 lbs a week I think, however, this is just a general number because all bodies/metabolisms are not the same. Your body lets you know when it wants food, so if you find yourself hungry, eat. I eat lots of small meals and snacks, nothing too calorie hefty. An apple here, banana there, handful of nuts....you get the point, don't starve yourself, it is counter productive.

jcperkns

MFP had me set at 1200 too. I was constantly hungry, tired, and I felt like I was starting to plateau. I bumped my calories up to 1700 without eating back my exercise calories and 1500 on my rest day. I would suggest eating at least your BMR or try adding in an extra 100-200 calories a day for a week and see if that gets you anywhere.

amygaycheme

I just started. not sure how to "open a diary"
yesterday was my first day. I had koshi cereal for breakfreast (1 cup with 1 cup of 2% milk...which some stayed in the bowl), 16 sourdough pretzels for a snack, a turkey sandwich for lunch and baked lays potatochips, we had lettuce wraps for dinner but I was starving around 7 and only had like 30 calories left so I ate some cherry tomatoes. again I love veggies so if I don't have to count calories with them that would totally fix my issue. i was going to make a protein shake for breakfreast but after adding all the calories I decided to have eggs for breakfreast this morning.

DavPul

So eat more. See, that was easy. 1200 is very few calories unless you are a very very tiny person already. And if you're exercising at all, then in all likelihood 1200 is way under what you actually need. And go ahead and eat all the veggies you want. Trust me, nobody got fat eating tons of fruit and vegetables. Fibrous veggies will actually make you feel more full as well.

Also, a big thing that helped me was finding the Eat This, Not That books a few months back. I'm not trying to sell their book to you or anything, but they really helped me eat a ton of food while cutting 1500 or more out of my diet a day. Instead of buying one of the books subscribe to their twitter feed and you'll get a bunch of tips about what snacks you can eat to feel full and still make your calories.

mdmomof4

bump

amygaycheme

thanks! I think I am going to not count the veggies I eat. this will work for me I think!

Jorra

thanks! I think I am going to not count the veggies I eat. this will work for me I think!

Vegetables still have calories. Your body will "count" them regardless of what you do. Why not just raise your calorie goal and count everything?

I stand by what I said before. If living off of 1200 calories isn't working for you, don't do it. It's that simple.

DavPul

this is what I am looking for. all veggies have calories...I love em but when I add those it is tough.

Broccoli will make you feel full and it's only like 75 cal for an entire cup. String beans are the same. Carrots won't hurt you either. Seriously, if you went over your calorie goal by 300 and it was all raw /steamed/boiled veggies, I'm pretty sure you'll be okay.

Here's another snack food that helped me personally. Get a jar of unsalted peanuts. 2 handfuls is only 170 cal and will make you feel full. I replaced my afternoon Twix bar the peanuts and it's worked SOOO much better. The Twix give me some energy for the afternoon, but then it would make me hungry for more candy. The peanuts handle my business. And the fat (polyunsaturated+monounsaturated) in peanuts is actually good for you and is unlikely to be stored as fat.

Tip: The unsalted nuts take a bit of getting used to but after a while you won't be able to eat a salted nut without it tasting like poison. Definitely go unsalted.

Papillon22

I don't understand why people reply with suggestions on what to eat when that's obviously not the point here. If you're incredibly hungry at all times, it's because your body is telling you that it needs more food. Simple as that.

If you want cold numbers, you can calculate your bmr here:
http://www.fat2fitradio.com/tools/bmr/

Once you have that number, use it as a guide for the minimum amount of calories you need to eat every day for your body to function properly.

Then, you can calculate your TDEE, and you can read about that here:
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/541567-once-you-have-your-tdee-and-bmr-next-step

The idea that we have to starve to lose weight is outdated and unhealthy. Good luck!