How do you people stay at 1200 a day??

charlene77

http://www.livestrong.com/article/491231-a-1200-calorie-diet-for-a-woman/

You choose foods with high nutrition value but lower calories.

"Staples for a 1,200-calorie plan might include skinless chicken breast, shrimp, egg whites, canned beans, dark leafy greens, cut-up raw vegetables, melon, berries, apples, brown rice, oatmeal and whole-grain bread."

OP, I suppose you will be doctor supervised if on 1200?

HAHA! This person just listed most of my go to staples! I aim for under 1500. I had an accident day at 1100, just busy and wasn't hungry, then the next day I ate 1500. No big. Like so many have posted, eat clean. I look for food with good nutritional content and low cals.

Example day:
BREAKFAST
Tea
Toast with peanut butter
half a grapefruit or a banana

SNACK
Silhouete (35 calorie) yogurt with fresh strawberries

LUNCH
Salad with low calorie dressing and loads of fresh veggies with lean turkey or chicken

SNACK
Catelope

DINNER
Chicken Breast
Brown Rice
Pile of broccoli or green beans

This hits me at around 1200 ish and I do not feel hungry! If I have a good workout I have an extra snack or fruits or veggies or even a protien bar.
It takes time, I still make bad choices and have an off day. But I'm going to keep striving for my goals and improving and finding new snacks and meals!

Feel free to add me

DirtGlitters

I'm doing 1200cals a day and it seems to be going fine. I did have 1 slip up whilst out (drinking wine) but that was it!
I stick to water & diet sodas (for a treat) for drinks- also eat a lot of nuts, vegetables and fruit. A spoonful of peanut butter with celery is a great energy booster between snacks. You just need to be strict and fill your plate with raw veg etc!

Feel free to add me or take a look at my diary- good luck

icmuse

I eat lots of food, exercise moderately (I swap my exercise calories for food) and manage to stay around 1200 (I am 5'0" for taller people that would too little calorie limit).

Check my food diary if you want.

I am never hungry and I am loosing weight (over 4 lbs in the last 2 weeks)

tiffany5839

I would die if I had to stick to 1200 cals!!! I try to aim for 1500-1700 cals and I am still hungry!!!

firstlady8

soue you hit the nail on the coffin can u add me as afriend love the advice

firstlady8

for the most part adjusting your calories to lower amounts like 1700 calories probably will help you lose weight rather than the highr numbers your body was use to. Now keep in mind to make better choices ex. cut out fast foods, lower sugar intake and trans fat etc.... stick with lean meats, veggies, salads, fruits etc... you can have whatever you'd like just watch your portions and eventually while looking at your diary you'll understand what you can live with and without "happy weight losy" :drinker:

kelsanderson78

Hmm I don't agree re the skinny fat thing if you eat 1200 calories - I stick to around 1200 calories, and do weight training and circuit training and have gone from 35% BF to 29% BF in 6 months. The food I eat is only non processed food, lots of veges, some fruit, meat/chicken/fish and nuts, along with wholegrain bread and natural yoghurt. It all depends on what you eat. Yes if you eat say two McD's burgers and that is your full day of food (and its 1200 cals) then you are likely to lose muscle and fat at the same time as you are not getting the right amount of protein and nutrients to maintain your muscle and then you will be skinny fat rather than lean

Lyonsgurl

Ok i have been struggling with this a bit myself. But once you get going and find foods that are filling but low in calories youll work them into to your diet more and honestly from someone who was a severe binge eater I have been sticking to my diet for about three weeks now which is a tremendous accomplishment for me. I have realized Im not as crazy hungry as I once was and thought 1200 is hard to work with I am coming very close if not going under. It all just takes time and i have a long way to go but, keep going and it will get easier trust me.

kinsa2

I am one of those 1200 calories people as well, and the way I look at it is this. I have to be a total of 1200 calories per day and doing exercise subtracts from that number. If you want to eat more, exercise to lose 500 calories per day, you could break it up by doing 250 calories worth of exercise twice which could just be simple walking or a mixture of jogging, skipping or climbing stairs. This then means that you have earnt 500 extra calories that you can eat back! In total you are then eating 1700 calories but only 1200 is gained as you have worked the 500 off! This way you have done your exercise and stuck to your calorie goal!
It works for me!

AlongCame_Molly

I eat 1200 cals (but only until I join a gym and stop being sedentary). I do it by making smarter choices, foregoing higher-cal foods that don't stay with me for very long in favor of lean proteins, TONS of fresh vegetables, small amounts of dairy, and going easy on the carbs.

I keep my diary closed, but here is an example of what I'll eat on an average day: (I'm not really a "big" breakfast person, I prefer to keep it light.)

Breakfast: Piece of fruit, like an apple (80) or a banana (120)

AM snack: piece of toast with butter (105)

Lunch: Chicken salad with honey mustard dressing (about 350) or an egg-white omelette with tomato, peppers salsa and a little cheese. (about 300)

PM snack: Celery stalk (7) and hummus (70)

DInner: Chicken breast or lean steak with broccoli/cauliflower and half a baked potato with a little butter. Or whatever my husband wants, if it fits into my cal goal.

I did eat pizza and stuff like that in the beginning of starting MFP, I would just make allowances for it throughout the rest of my day, and limit myself to just one slice. Lately though, as my body becomes more efficient and is used to cleaner foods, a big greasy slab of cheesy pizza just doesn't sound that great anymore. I'll splurge every so often, but it always makes me feel like garbage afterwards.

I do get hungry sometimes, but it's not a gnawing I'm-gonna-die kind of hunger. I think it's important to know your body well, and be able to tell the difference between just having an empty stomach, and being truly HUNGRY. There is nothing in my stomach right now, and yes I could go for some food, but my body knows better by now and knows it will get dinner in about 90 minutes, so it shuts up and patiently waits. It takes a while to adjust, and it's not for everyone. If you are exercising AT ALL I strongly recommend eating more than 1200 calories.

kmelissa02

bump

lesliefb

I'm eating about 1700 and losing an average of 1/2 lbs per week. At 1700 I make healthy choices and am never hungry. I'm in my 40's, about 5'8 and approx 70lb overweight (my estimate).

For me personally, 1200 calories per day is a joke. There is no way I'd be happy with that few calories at this point. When I get smaller, my caloric needs will also be smaller and I'll adjust accordingly.

KarenJean91

For some reason, i found bumping it to 1300-1400 a lot easier. Especially if i workout, i eat some of those calories back, since i am always starving after a workout.

Frigs

I am sticking to 1200. WIth a thyroid problem it can be a little more difficult to loose weight.
I don't find I am hungry unless I eat the wrong foods and I eat infrequently.

I always start the day out with oatmeal..which buys me a lot of calories for the rest of the day and leaves me feeling full for a while.

Breakfast: 7 am Glass of water right away, oatmeal 1/4 cup 2.3 minutes in the microwave at half power. Then I either add fruit or take my fruit separate.

10 am snack- 100 calorie snack - good greek yogurt , or furit, or cheese, or milk - more water

12:30 either chili ( 212 calories per cup recipe ) and raw veggie ( spinach, brocoli, or whatever dark green veggie I have )
If not chili then I do a small sanwich on LITE OATMEAL bread. Tuna - light on the mayo, or turkey again with the veggies more water

So by after lunch I usually still have a good 600 calories left....

Early dinner at 4:00 PM - keeping it to 400 calories - protein and veggie and sometimes starch( baked potato )

then exercise

and then after exercise - snack of 200 calories if I kept dinner to 400 else if I have not then 100.

Seems to be working..I do cheat sometimes with dark chocolate...but that is the only cheat I do. It has taken a year but I am halfway to goal weight...and am getting a little more serious with the exercise part...hopefully in the next 6 months I can get to where I need to be.


I think everyone needs to use the diet calorie amount and then adjust for their metabolism and special circumstances.
I do know Oats have saved me and without them...not sure how I would have lost the weight I have to date.

Good luck everyone. Seems like a lot of good progress being reported!

vanessalillian82

In terms of what I actually eat, I find that as long as I'm not eating what I would call processed foods (biscuits, chips, bread, pasta, chocolate bars, cake, lollies, even muesli bars, crackers or noodles) then I have next to no trouble keeping under the limit. I'll have 2 weet-bix with a banana and skim milk for breakfast; a piece of fruit or some yoghurt for morning tea; lunch will either be a wholemeal ham and salad sandwich (no butter, and watch the size of the bread you use), or maybe a garden salad, no dressing, with a small flavoured tin of tuna on it, or, if I'm really trying to watch myself, I'll have as much carrot, celery and cucumber I want with some tzatziki dip (or hommus, but that has more calories so I don't have it every day) and sometimes some seaweed rice crackers; and dinner will usually be some variation on lean meat and vegetables (go heavy on the vegetables and light on the meat - you'd be surprised how small a true portion of meat is). And if I want dessert (because eating that many veggies is filling), then strawberries and blueberries are quite low in energy so I'll have them with some unsweetened low-fat greek or natural yoghurt (I add cinnamon to make it taste more interesting and less... well, yoghurty!) or low fat cottage cheese.

If I **do** eat rice then it will be in a risotto, and I will measure it carefully and the dish will be predominantly vegetables anyway. I try to avoid pasta because it's so delicious and hard for me to stop eating, but again, measure it and go heavy on the topping (provided that the topping is a vegetable-based one not a meat one, and preferably using tinned tomatoes with no sugar added and a little tomato paste to thicken it instead of bottled pasta sauce which is full of sugar (as is tomato paste, but you use a lot less of it)). And you don't need toppings like grated cheese because, delicious as it is in both flavour and texture, a small sprinkle of parmesan goes a long way. Low fat ricotta is also surprisingly low in calories and good for making a dish creamier.

I also find that I feel better and my body functions better if I eat lots of vegetables and fruit, lean protein, and nothing high in refined carbohydrates (I say refined because vegies are full of them, but they're not refined ones) or sugary food, or heavy, greasy food. I will still eat those things occasionally, but I will literally wake up the next day feeling bloated (not to be confused with feeling fat) and sluggish so I'm listening to what my body wants now and doing it less often. I even find now that if I eat just for kicks instead of when I'm genuinely hungry, I actually feel pretty gross.

As far as I understand it though, you should be avoiding going **under** 1200cal anyway. I don't know how much science there is behind that being the magic number where your metabolism suddenly crashes, but regardless of that, if I try to eat under 1200cal I get light headed and cranky and have no energy to even go for a walk, let alone work out! I'm currently set at 1500ish cal to lose 1lb per week, but for a while there I was down at 1200cal to lose 2lb per week and just found it too hard to stick to, and I found myself bingeing and becoming disheartened for failing to stick to my calories (and so the cycle begins again). You also hear stories of people hitting a plateau, and instead of further dropping their calories they'll boost them by a few hundred and suddenly their body gets better at burning fat again. Weird, I know.

So anyway, in the new year, I adjusted my mind set, and my goals. I changed it to 1lb which gave me a limit of a little over 1500cal, and that way, if I choose to then I can eat between 1200 and 1500 then I can, and lose more weight, but psychologically I'm also okay with eating just under my new limit. And at the end of the day, it doesn't really matter how fast I lose weight as long as I'm healthy, so, impatient though I may be to lose it, I know that the slower I lose it the more of a lifestyle healthy eating and exercise will become, and the more likely it is to stay off. And so far it's worked - I lost 1.5kg in the first week and 1kg in the second week, even though I ate out twice. It will be interesting to see how I go this week because I wasn't eating far under my calories in those first two weeks, so I can only assume that I am naturally more active day-to-day than I thought I was.

Good luck!

Reneeisfat

I just started and this is my third day, but I have been eating about 90% clean foods, staying around the 1200 cal mark and have not felt hungry. Maybe it is your food choices. You can add me as a friend and see my diary. Hang in there. Like others have said, I eat 100 cal. snacks like almonds or walnuts to stave off cravings.

^this
I'm at 1200 and I am honestly shocked that I'm not hungry.
Since January 1 I've dropped ~14#
Whole foods and ANY exercise will do the trick.

Friend me if you want.

kjlarrabee

I usually don't. But I eat really clean whole foods. Every morning I do honey, lemon, and detox tea, and a green smoothie. Something lite for lunch like hummus and flax seed crackers and either another smoothie at night or what ever I decide. i also try not to eat gluten or dairy but gluten is hard. I cheat at least twice a week on gluten and once on dairy but getting better. I try not to let myself get hungry, by eating either almonds or nuts for a snack. Its hardest if you don't have anything healthy with you right when your hungry.

huge2fan2

1200 calories is too low for someone who is morbidly obese. Go to freedieting.com and enter your statistics to determine the correct amount of calories you should eat. Remember to reevaluate your caloric needs every 5 pounds or so. It is a good idea to try to work on increasing your water intake so that you don't confuse thirst with hunger. Also keep a journal (this can be done in notes on MFP) of how you feel when you are about to eat, for example are you bored or are you really hungry? Remember that weight loss is mostly what you eat and a little exercise, but your physique is built with resistance training as well as cardio.

Happyme2009

Anyone who wants to friend me is welcome...
Well, I find it terribly difficult to stay at 1200 cal. It doesn't matter if I go to gym or not that day, I need about 1800 cals to feel I am not starving. And yes, for most of the part, I eat healthy. Some days, super healthy! Only too much of it....
you see, I cannot understand how people eat only 3 oz of chicken breast.... or 6 leaves of romaine lettuce... when I eat the whole lettuce head and the entire chicken breast which weighted a little under 1 lbs when raw....
Or how do people eat 1/4 cup of oatmeal or quinoa, when I need at least 1 cup, uncooked, to feel that I've eaten!
and yes, if I eat fruits, who can have only 2 clementines? I have at least 5 in one sitting...
Anyways, my solution to this is try and "gain" 600 cals at least from exercise, so I can eat them.....
So far, so good....not complaining, almost 5.5 lbs in 22 days isn't bad.
But yes, 1200 is nearly impossible.

MallorieGreiner

I'm at 1300 but most days I do 1200 or less. (I know that's not something t be super proud of but it happens.) I burn about 720 calories through exercise and I actually find it hard to eat back that much while eating so healthy. Normal day consists of apples, clementines, spinach, carrots, broccoli, bagel thins, PB2, eggs, shrimp....while my more high calorie foods include whole grain pasta and 2 servings of cereal and milk.