Can't seem to consume enough to meet 1200 calories... Help!

jennybean1985

I'm finding it very difficult to reach 1200 calories a day (and I feel like I'm eating a lot!) Any suggestions?

Today I had:
Breakfast:
2 hard boiled eggs (130 calories)

Lunch:
1 slice of Domino's Hawaiian pizza (280 calories)
2 cups romaine lettuce (15 calories)
1 tbsp Caesar dressing (40 calories)
Parmesan cheese 1 tsp (20 calories)

Dinner:
2 cups romaine lettuce (15 calories)
1 tbsp Caesar dressing (40 calories)
Parmesan cheese 1 tsp (20 calories)
Diced grilled chicken breast (100 calories)
Diet Pepsi (0 calories)

Snack:
1 medium banana (84 calories)

Other:
10 calories from crystal light
8 cups of water

The dinner salad was to help consume more calories but I wasn't hungry. I have 463 calories remaining. Help?! As it stands currently, I feel like I am having to force myself to eat more often... and that's rare for me. My diet had been piss-poor, I won't lie, and my calorie intake was probably massive. I would eat once a day and maybe munch on a few things here and there. Perhaps my body is just trying to adjust to 3 meals+ a snack?

Any food recommendations would be fantastic. It isn't healthy to eat less than 1200, and it shouldn't be a struggle to hit that! I am just over paranoid and want to make healthy decisions. I obviously want to lose weight, but I want to do it in such a way that it's 1) healthy, 2) safe, and 3) something I can sustain long-term. There's no need to drop a ton of weight without being able to maintain it once it's gone!

GCLyds

You are kidding right? You ate 2 cups of lettuce in an effort to get MORE calories?!

Eat some bread.

MorgueBabe

Add more things to your salad.

If I make a salad I can easily hit 500 calories with just veggies in it.

Eat some complex carbs....

jennybean1985

haha! put that way, no, that makes it sound really dumb ><. What I meant to say is that 1) I'm not eating enough so I figured tossing in chicken and parmesan cheese would help, but I'm more or less looking for something that is equally as filling and will give more calories but is also healthy. I suck at making choices... especially since I could live off of bread, pasta, and mexican!

boilerbabe69

I am struggling with the same thing. I am know on Herbalife and doing better because I only have to eat once but like today I have days where I just don't make it to 1200. You can always add almonds as a snack 20 almonds have about 170 calories. If you are stuck on the salad you can add dried cranberries 1 oz 90 calories, sunflower seeds 1 oz 86 calories. The list goes on. If you are eating like this regularly you are not intaking enough protein. My diary is public if you would like to check it out.

MysticRealm

I can't imagine 1 tbsp of dressing come close to covering 2 cups of lettuce, so I would add more to that. 1 tsp of parmesan cheese is almost pointless, add more of that. Have some yogurt, popcorn, apples, bread, ect.

stumblinthrulife

I had the same issue when I started, because I went at it with a sledgehammer and eliminated all high calorie density food from my diet. Carefully reintroduce higher calorie density foods and you'll find it easy to up your calories without bloating yourself.

Mokey41

Nuts, peanut butter, full fat dairy, oils, avocado, eggs, cheese, food in general. Losing weight doesn't have to be all lettuce and chicken breasts.

missmince

Toasted walnuts taste good on salads, as well as feta and dried cranberries with a good dressing. Nuts add a lot of calories and are still healthy

jenilla1

nuts!

NaurielR

Adding healthy fats is a good way to rack up the calories. For example

Peanut butter (you will hve just about everyone tell you this). Two tablespoons is about 190 calories.
Other nuts are high in calories two. An ounce of walnuts is 180 calories.

Add avacado to your salad.

Make your own salad dressing with olive oil and vinegar. I don't have any recipes off hand, but I'm sure you can find pleanty on the Internet

Use full fat products instead of fat free. So for example, pass up the skim milk and get whole instead.

dittmarml

Peanut butter, nuts, avocados, beans.

Krysannis

Don't eat bread. You can add stuff to your breakfast like turkey breast or veggies. I love doing eggs, tomato slices, and avocado. Avocado is a great source of healthy fats. As for your salad add more veggies- cucumber, tomato, avocado, you could even add hard boiled egg to it. I usually eat a tablespoon of peanut butter after a work out and thats about 80 calories but it's also really good for you. Load up your fridge with some fresh veggies and grab a carrot if you're feeling hungry or like you're not eating enough calories. Don't grab carbs. They might add to the calories but they're not calories that you want. Keep your head up, the longer you make healthy choices the easier it becomes.

Ashley_Megan

I'm having the sane problem

Laurenmp16

Almonds are a great suggestion! If you really like the salads, make some extra hard boiled eggs in the morning and slice them up in the salad!

mrso97

mission carb balance tortilla shells....whole grain...or eat a sandwich..i have one for lunch every day....

CoraGregoryCPA

How much chicken did you have? Did you weigh it? 100 calories would be like 2-3 ounces, right? Are you sure that was it? Eat other things other than lettuce and protein. Like someone else said, bread, greek yogurt, more veggies; Mushrooms, carrots, cauliflower, green pepper, garbanzo beans, fat free cottage cheese, one stick of reduced fat string cheese, whole grain english muffin with natural peanut butter. Peanut Butter will really add in the calories.

poohpoohpeapod

ckn sammy on a good bread, eggs toast and yougurt, pb and apple, avacodo, nuts, protein shake with pb. You are eating no whole grains, no healthy fat.

rell2k13

Sautee your chicken in olive oil and add some mushrooms with a side of brown rice or black beans. Eat a couple tablespoons of PB with your banana. Instead of hard boiled eggs, make an omelet with spinach, orange, red & yellow peppers & mushrooms.

mrso97

granola bars...

luckyclover78

If you are trying to loose weight it's because you were eating way more than 1200 a day to put the weight on. Add more of what you were eating before starting to try to loose weight. Calorie dense but try to pick healthy choices like others said like nut butters, beans, avocados, whole grains. Add nuts and fruit to your salads. I love an apple in some peanut butter or cashew butter.

CoraGregoryCPA

It would be alot easier to share your diary rather than typing all of that out.

Serah87

You didn't get over weight by eating less calories!!! Like everyone says, eat, 2 table spoons of peanut butter is almost 200 calories!!! :frown:

djfriedman81

Protein shake if you cant eat it drink it...plus you have way too few g of protein...make a smoothie in morning real east to take with you and starts the day off with 400+ calories plus eggs for morning snack and you're already halfway there

jennybean1985

Thanks everyone, I really appreciate the suggestions!

I am not a big salad fan, but when you really only enjoy pasta, breads and lots of mexican food, there isn't much room to consume all of that.

Someone commented on 1-2 tbsp being low for 2 cups of salad.... I was actually really shocked at how much it actually covered. I was quite satisfied. Normally I would drench my salad, but it was cool seeing that it wasn't necessary.

I find that nuts make my face break out (maybe I'm crazy and there is no correlation, but it sure seems that way).

I'm only 3 days into this whole process.... and I want to start on the right foot. I've never been a beacon of healthy and never made really good food choices, either.

sarahmarc

Milk, Greek yogurt, nuts, seeds, pita and hummus, ,tuna, carbs with eggs in morning, protein shakes as snacks. Creep others food journals for ideas... Mine is open

MorgueBabe

Yeah that dressing doesn't seem like enough at all for that salad! Add more.


Here's an example of a salad I had last week.
Trader Joe's - Organic Heart of Romaine Lettuce, 1 heart
Vegetable - Red Bell Pepper, 0.5 pepper
Broccoli - Raw, 1 stalk
Organics - Black Beans, 0.75 container (1 4/5 c (130g) ea.)
Cabbage - Red, raw, 0.25 cup, chopped
Generic - Today's Harvest Sweet Yellow Corn Frozen, 0.25 cup
Generic - Quorn Naked Chik'n Cutlet, 1 cutlet
My Salad Dressing, 1 serving
Generic - Raw Grape Tomatoes - 3, 9 tomatoes

583 calories.

JamesChargerWolf

My diary is public, have a look. I had trouble hitting 1200 in the beginning, especially on cardio and strength days. But now I almost always hit a minimum of 1200 net calories or get very close.

Btw, it's not a problem at all on my rest days! Then I have trouble staying under 1400.

peasantsong

4 tablespoons of peanut butter. Sounds pretty delicious to me and it will sure as heck fill you right up!

knowwhentoshutup

Eat balanced meals. Two eggs are great, but where are the rest of the food groups? What are your portion sizes?

Also, don't be afraid to include calorie dense food, like mentioned by other posters.

Find friends on here with open diaries to see what other people eat.

Find great websites, either through google or here on the forums to expand your list of meal/snack ideas. I love skinnytaste.com

jamieshrinking

I sort of have the same issue. I can't seem to come up to a consistant 1200 calories either. I workout 6 days a week, but have very little in the way of appitite. I'm just not hungry. I know I need to figure that out though or I'll put my body into starvation and not get the results I want.