Help cheaply getting to 1200 calories

teawithmilkplease

Hi everyone.
I'm a 5'1, 31 year old female and I weigh 150 pounds. My target weight is around 120. Over the past two months I've been eating around 1200 calories or less a day and have not lost a single pound. I have degenerative disc disease in my back so I'm just walking for exercise for now, but I hope to join a gym with a pool in the beginning of January.
My biggest problem is this. I have next to no budget for food. The healthy food that I can afford never seems to add up to 1200 calories and when I do hit 1200 it's only when I've added something not so great. I don't have a big appetite. Are there any suggestions for some healthy inexpensive foods to help me meet my goal? I'm afraid that at times I don't eat enough and that could be part of the reason why I'm not losing weight. I have a very slow metabolism and need some tips for jump starting it. Also, I'm a vegetarian. Any help would be appreciated.

CloverCreeper

I have the same problem.
I'm vegetarian and on a tight budget.


I try to eat a lot of tofu, brown rice, and black beans.

You may want to up your calories more though, especially if you are working out.

DanaDark

Eat more.

Given your stats, a 1 pound a week weight loss goal may be too ambitious.

Financially speaking, you'll need to actually go shopping and look around at foods to see what price range you personally can afford and what nutrition the item has to offer.

Mokey41

Full fat yogurt, eggs, peanut butter, avocado, oils, cheese, nuts. It's not hard to hit 1200.

purple_tux1

You don't need to buy anything fancy. Eggs are good. Buy big bags of rice. In-season vegetables and fruit. If you eat beans, you can save money by buying dried beans and soaking them overnight before cooking. I calculated it once and buying dried beans saves about 50%.

CassieReannan

Healthy food is expensive! But things like brown rice, beans, canned vegetables, yogurts and fruits can be cheap! I am also vegetarian and my groceries a week would be less than $50.

Mokey41

Healthy food is expensive! But things like brown rice, beans, canned vegetables, yogurts and fruits can be cheap! I am also vegetarian and my groceries a week would be less than $50.

How is healthy food expensive? You just listed a whole lot of healthy things and said they're cheap!

ChristinaR720

If I'm under my calories for the day, my go-to food is usually celery with peanut butter. Yogurt and fat free cottage cheese are great options. Bananas are a great option, too. I have started adding a little cheese to my eggs every morning, and that has helped, too.

Katherinesfitness

You may know all this but I hope it helps

Being a vegetarian is probably the best thing you can be for weight loss as I understand it as long as you are making sure you get protein to keep you full and of course the right vitamins.

Vegetables, vegetables, vegetables as my 20 kg (44 lb) lighter sister always says to me. Eat protein with each meal too (which is where tofu's really good I think if I remember correctly). A good breakfast that fills me up is an egg with a cup of wilted spinach fried in lemon juice (and garlic if you like, I can just never be bothered). And that's super cheap (/low cals!), here in Australia it costs me probably $10- for two weeks worth of that breakfast which is very very good. Fresh baby spinach is a great filler and high in antioxidants and most importantly CHEAP. I eat brown rice occasionally, I'll try not to eat it more than two or three times a week but it's an AMAZING filler. If you get full fast then eat half portions five or six times a day to make up three large ones. When I first started weight loss before this site I was eating the 3 main meals with 100g of protein and 3 snacks of 50g of protein (Like 50g of turkey, I can't think of a vegetarian substitute lol), one in between each meal and then one after dinner. This also increases your metabolism because your body gets into a steady rhythm of eating and knows it doesn't need to store fat so you don't go into starvation mode. I lost 7 kg's (14 lb's) doing that.

If you're eating a lot of fruit apparently the natural sugar's and carb's can bring problems with losing weight, I'm testing this out this week and eating a tiny amount (6 cherries yesterday) compared to my last two weeks (fruit salad almost every day). People say it's just a cal deficit that leads to weight loss but I think it's not that black and white so double check what you're eating to make sure it isn't too high in sugars or carbs. Or sodium! I read the other day on here that lots of people experience quite a bit of bloating when they eat a bunch of sodium so maybe that might be an effecting you. Just shuffle your diet around each week and see if any of this applies to you. I feel already after 4 days of eating less fruit that I may have a better loss this week. You'll probably find something in your diet is rather high and you need to pull it back. You can also go into your settings and add extra columns to track this. I track sodium at the moment and I'm about to switch my sugar column on. The reports tab is handy as well for looking back at how your month has been going.

Non starchy vegetables like broccoli, carrots, and brussel sprouts (if you're one of the minority that can stomach them they're meant to be amazing for weight loss.) are the cheapest vegies and often the best. I wouldn't stress about not being able to afford more exotic superfoods like goji berries or what not.