Try to get used to eating more..no bashing please!

If you feel like you are at a plateau, or it is becoming too difficult to maintain the 1200 calorie day, then add in a little bit at a time. I just went from 1200 calorie days to 1340 days. It has helped. I am a stay at home mom with 2 kids. In addition to exercising every morning at 6am, before they wake up, my day is filled with running around after them, carting one of them to and from school, etc. I found that I'm probably burning more calories than I realize.

You will not gain by adding in 140 calories a day for 7 days.

Try it for a week.

Or only add in 100! That's only 700 calories more per week. It takes 3500 calories to equal a pound.

It's a journey. Even if you find yourself gaining (which I sincerely doubt you will) you can scale it back again.

1200 is a fairly arbitrary number and just because a computer spits that number out to you, doesn't mean that it's ideal for your weight loss and your lifestyle.

Dealing with it right now. I lost 20lbs in 2 months last year by eating like 1700 calories a day with heavy lifting and cardio most days. I remember now that a lot of that weight was muscle too because it was obvious. And I was always tired. (for the record, my bmr is 2300 and tdee on normal days of the week is 3150). This time around I'd like to preserve muscle and strength even if losing weight takes longer. I'm trying to eat between 2300 and 2500 (80% of tdee) a day but wow is it an adjustment! Especially with healthy food...that's a lot of food!

It's too early for me to comment on any success, but with so many people having success I figured why not try it.

I'm afraid of it, too. I was doing about 1400 calories per day for a few months, lost weight for awhile, then slowly started gaining. So then I cut to 1200 calories per day and have been gaining and losing the same 2-3 pounds for a month.

The BMR calculators give me about 1500, and I know the theory is that I should be eating at least that much, but I was gaining weight on 1400. Now I don't know what to think!

Oh, and my baseline is sedentary (desk job). I eat back at least half of my exercise calories and sometimes all of them, but I'm not getting a lot of exercise, though have a plan to improve.

It's been a week since I upped my calories by 200 (netting 1420 now, actually eating about 1900-2000, TDEE is about 2400 as long as I keep up with exercise), and I didn't lose this week. I have more energy, though. A handful of walnuts is 183 calories so the actual quantity of food isn't that different.

It does feel a little counter-intuitive and I have less wiggle room - when my net goal was 1200 I didn't worry much about making estimation mistakes in food or exercise because the daily calorie deficit was so large. However, I am going to stick with it. I want to eat a sustainable amount of food and not need afternoon naps.

Hi everone, I need to stick to about 1200 cals per day but can anyone help with some simple meal suggestions and something that tastes of chocolate but no calories!! No back crack am I! Think I'm after the impossible xx thanks xx Donna x

I've been eating the minimum recommended amount of calories (1200 or so) for the past several months. I've lost weight, but I have realized I really need to start eating more especially with throwing exercise into the mix. It is SO hard mentally to change your point of view. For some reason I can't kick the feeling that the more I eat, the more I will inevitably gain. I know the math is there to prove me wrong..but I can't shake the feeling. Has anyone else dealt with this?

I've dealt with it- still am. For me, it's not a matter of 'changing whats on my plate'- so much as it is 'changing what's in my head.' For me, it's psychological. Back in the day (20-30 years ago)- to lose weight, we were told to not eat so much ("Don't eat too much or you're gonna get fat" -my mothers' all time favorite! lol). It's hard to reverse what you've been taught.

What I do- cut a large apple in half- eat a half for the snacks. It'll add the calories/energy- but it's also healthy.