starving to death

If you're always hungry try bumping up your calories for a bit. Then you don't have to worry about going over cause you get those calories back. And you never know, you might lose more weight that way. I've seen it a lot where people are doing the -2lbs and go to -1lbs and drop weight faster once their body adjusts.

Also - you can work out and eat back your calories. MFP is set up for you to eat your work out calories since they already are taking away the amount you need taken away to lose weight. I personally work out some days just to have those extra calories cause I'm having a really hungry day.

Hope you find something that works for you!

The soup would kill me. It's like 2 cups of water that costs you useless calories, and just not very filling imo (unless you're making homemade soup, which would be better than canned but still not great). I would suggest adding some filling veggies and lean proteins. You can have a can of tuna or four oz of chicken for only 120 calories, and two cups of broccoli for 60. Let me tell you, two cups of broccoli will keep you plenty full.

For breakfast you could try replacing one egg with a quarter cup of egg white, which will save you about 40 calories. I like to mix, because the yolk has healthy fats, so I don't want to cut it out completely. You can look for low calorie bread to try and get a little wiggle room for the day.

For snacks, I try to stick to one piece of fruit per day and I make sure to eat it with some protein. This should help balance out blood sugar and prevent a hunger spike later. An example would be an apple with a piece of low calorie string cheese. Greek yogurt or cottage cheese are also awesome.

Almonds are great but high calorie, so eating them on a 1200 calorie diet can be prohibitive. But really, most things can be prohibitive on a 1200 calorie diet, so anywhere you can substitute something for fewer calories would make a huge difference and allow you to eat a bit more.

I tried 1200 calories and was always hungry as well. Try these two things:

Bump your calories up to 1350

Skip Breakfast - it's not the end of the world like most people would have you believe. Jillian Michaels is an advocate for skipping breakfast. I find when I skip breakfast, my calories are always lower on that day. Breakfast makes me hungrier for the rest of the day.

Ditto on skipping breakfast. If I eat breakfast I am ravenous by lunchtime and more likely to go over cals. If I skip, I don't even start to feel hungry until lunchtime. Like today. I had a coffee this morning, but didn't eat anything. Coming up on noon and I'm just now starting to feel a little hungry.

i usually eat 1200 net calories and i'm not hungry at the end of the day. I've been eating 1200 since february 2012 when i joined the site. Granted I usually get on the ellitpical for at least 30 mins a night to meet the 1200 net calories, but i dont feel hungry at the end of the day.
i'd say eat things that will actually fill you up. it doesnt seem like you are putting your 1200 calories to good use. Soup isnt really something that will keep you full, especially if you had a small breakfast.
My breakfast is usually 1 can of pineapple chunks (140 calories), 1 packet of instant oatmeal about 1 hour later (130 cals) and a cutie. (40 cals)
Lunch is usually about 500 calories. A sandwhich, or chicken breast and sides, something like that.
Dinner i usually go light and have only steak (180 cals) or chicken (around the same), and no sides or a salad. I'm usually not that hungry at dinner time.
Then of course i eat ice cream with my six year old every night i will not be giving that up. ever.

I am on a 1,200 calorie and I eat Oatmeal and one piece of toast for breakfast or just two pieces of toast, sometimes add a cup of coffee ir just stick to water. Lunch I eat like 1 or 2 hard boiled eggs and toast or broccoli and cheese, and then eat supper and measure out my portions for supper and eat like 1 piecce grilled chicken with One boiled egg and cup of cottage cheese and 1 cup of vegetables and I am fine and don't have to have a snack just depending on my intake for the three meals I will have a light snack if still hungry and I drink 8 oz of water with my meals. Worth a try if want to stay on 1200 calorie but up to you. You don't want to be starving all the time.

What worked best for me:

1.) increasing my calories...I'm still at a deficit (1 Lb per week)...obviously slower weight loss, but I'm much happier day to day...not miserable and certainly don't feel like I'm staving pretty much ever.

2.) Macro adjustment. You can manually adjust your macros...40c/30p/30hf is working best for me. When I was at MFP defaults, I was hungry a lot (even though I routinely went over on protein) due to the default setting is pretty carb heavy. With the 40/30/30 I'm getting a ton more protein (I avg at least 20g protein at every meal and every snack) and have substantially lowered my carb intake. Most of my carbs come from fruit, veg, and whole grains.

3.) Adjust fruit/veg ratio. When I started out I was eating a lot of fruit and some veg...while fruit is a far cry better for you than a soda or piece of cake, it is high in calories and is also metabolized pretty quickly by the body...ergo, you don't feel full for long. Adjusting my fruit/veg ratio has made a world of difference. My servings of each come out to 1.5-2 f: to 4 veg per day. The veggies are lower calories and lower sugar, and generally higher in fiber which leaves you more satiated at a lower calorie intake.

4.) Eat throughout the day. I pretty much eat something every 2-3 hours from breakfast until bed time. To that end, if I'm having a carb, I also make sure I'm having protein with it. I don't know the science behind it so I won't go there, but I can tell you from my experience that it keeps me feeling satiated and also keeps my blood sugar levels more consistent.

Do not skip breakfast! It's the most important meal of the day. Get a good bowl of oatmeal in you with some protein powder to help sustain you all morning (this is about ~250 calories if you're making your own, I like to make mine in the crockpot [using steel cut oats] the night before and have leftovers for the whole week!). BTW, Jillian Michaels does not recommend skipping breakfast... Especially in her "Master your Metabolism Book". 'Eat like a queen in the morning, a princess in the afternoon, and a pauper at night.'

There is honestly no proof that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. It seems this slogan was brought on by breakfast cereal makers years ago. IF works very well. There is no proof that timing of meals is effective. Calories in, calories out and fine tuning your macros. My weight loss is proof it works.

hey - I had the same problem with being hungry all the time and I started taking stuff called Shakeology about a year ago.... it's a one shake a day all natural thing. Cut my cravings and hunger right down and still allowed me to keep my calories down. Is this something you'd be interested in?

i might be.. can you tell me more about it?

Please do not let that guy sell you Shakeology.

Try this first: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/654536-in-place-of-a-road-map-2-0-revised-7-2-12

Do not skip breakfast! It's the most important meal of the day. Get a good bowl of oatmeal in you with some protein powder to help sustain you all morning (this is about ~250 calories if you're making your own, I like to make mine in the crockpot [using steel cut oats] the night before and have leftovers for the whole week!). BTW, Jillian Michaels does not recommend skipping breakfast... Especially in her "Master your Metabolism Book". 'Eat like a queen in the morning, a princess in the afternoon, and a pauper at night.'

There is honestly no proof that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. It seems this slogan was brought on by breakfast cereal makers years ago. IF works very well. There is no proof that timing of meals is effective. Calories in, calories out and fine tuning your macros. My weight loss is proof it works.

While I do agree with this, I would be miserable if I skipped breakfast and would probably pork out by lunch time because I would be utterly famished. I know skipping breakfast works for some, but I'd definitely be starving if I did it and my blood sugar levels would be completely jacked.

400 calories of soup? Do you know how many veggies you could eat and not reach 400 calories? :-) Eat a large spinach salad with cucumber, carrot, green pepper, tomato, green onion and hard boiled egg or avocado. (NO CHEESE)! Use light salad dressing (measure it out) or make your own low calorie dressing. You'll open up more calories for later AND it will fill you up a lot better than soup will.

Do not skip breakfast! It's the most important meal of the day. Get a good bowl of oatmeal in you with some protein powder to help sustain you all morning (this is about ~250 calories if you're making your own, I like to make mine in the crockpot [using steel cut oats] the night before and have leftovers for the whole week!). BTW, Jillian Michaels does not recommend skipping breakfast... Especially in her "Master your Metabolism Book". 'Eat like a queen in the morning, a princess in the afternoon, and a pauper at night.'

There is honestly no proof that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. It seems this slogan was brought on by breakfast cereal makers years ago. IF works very well. There is no proof that timing of meals is effective. Calories in, calories out and fine tuning your macros. My weight loss is proof it works.

This exactly. There is no most important meal of the day. More fiber and more protein will help also. Sometimes hunger is just a part of losing weight. It's not comfortable but neither is the alternative, having more fat than you want. If you want it, you will achieve it.

400 calories of soup? Do you know how many veggies you could eat and not reach 400 calories? :-) Eat a large spinach salad with cucumber, carrot, green pepper, tomato, green onion and hard boiled egg or avocado. (NO CHEESE)! Use light salad dressing (measure it out) or make your own low calorie dressing. You'll open up more calories for later AND it will fill you up a lot better than soup will.

exactly!!