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

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!

I'd try to eat more at breakfast, add some almonds, they add calories & good fats, I'm working with a trainer who has me on around 1200 a day, if you want to get some ideas, look at my diaries for tomorrow & thursday. Ive logged what he has planned for my meals, and a snack

while i won't recommend drinking a protein shake, what about making smoothies? bananas, pineapple, honey, coconut milk...the cals can add up plus smoothies are delish.

Peanut Butter, Banana, Almond Milk, Whey Protein. 4 Ice Cubes. Blend for 20-30 seconds. Sip and Smile

Vanilla protein powder with any milk + banana + strawberries = strawberry milkshake/300cals

Oatmeal + dark chocolate chips + walnuts + peanut butter + banana = deconstructed oatmeal cookie taste/400cals

1 Egg + 3 whites + veggies + cheese = omelette/300cals

Turkey burger + bun + veggies + cheese = 350/cals

Peanut butter + toast + honey = 350/cals

Also, being picky needs to take a back seat to eating healthy. Priorities. Eat to live, not live to eat.

Someone else suggested not forcing yourself to eat three meals a day and I agree. If you normally eat one big meal and a few snacks, you can stick to that but just stay within your calorie goal. I eat at really odd times, eat right before I go to bed, eat carbs, etc and am not having an issue with seeing results.

have another piece of domino's pizza haha :P

I have same problem. Try eating nuts for snacks, high protien, high calories, healthy fat. Mostly Walnuts, almonds and also sunflower seeds. good luck

Why is pasta demonized? You can have your lasagna AND your salad too you know! If all else fails, reach for a klondike bar. I know I did, nom nom!

I'm having a hard time only consuming 1200 calories! I do work out and I adjust caloric intake for that but still seem to be going over. Any suggestions.

if you are not hungry..don't eat...if you are hungry eat...just stay i a deficit...

try skipping breakfast and then have a 500 calorie lunch and fill in rest with dinner..(shocking concept I know)

you might want to check out lean gains www.leangains.com

This guy talks sense. I also believe in random fasting until midday.

Alot of people will give you a lot of different advice. It's gonna be hard to choose.

Find your way. Make it yours.

Personally I eat lots of fat, the saturated kind because I'm not stuck in the past thinking grains are healthy.
Some people will rubbish it, I don't mind. I have an 8 pack and I'm fitter and stronger than I've even been.
I sometimes consume an additional 4000-5000 kcals a week.
Guess what, I don't get fat.
It comes from meat, veg & cheese.
I'm not paleo.
I'm primal. I do what works for me.
Find out what works for you
ps
I think bread sucks now I've been off it for 12 months!
pps
watch Fathead or google Mark's daily apple. They don't kcal count. I do because I'm addicted to logging and analysing my data on food/exercise & mood.

I was having the same problem. But mine was more so.. I couldnt get to 1200 calories sometimes but I worked out everyday. I got to a point recently where I would get EXTREME hunger pains. I found I was actually eating too few of calores. I "uped" my calories intake to 1484 and find myself eating atleast 1200+ calories a day.

Try things like shrimp in your salad.. grilled chicken..

Fruits for snacks.

Eating too few of calories will cause your body to go into starvation mode and then you won't lose any weight. Just food for thought

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!

There are lots of high calorie, very nourishing foods like avocado. I will often put avocado in my salads. Raw nuts, like walnuts are high cal and also very nourishing. One study I saw, said that dieters who ate walnuts for one of their snacks, lost 40% more body fat than the control group of dieters who didn't eat them. There are all kinds of oil combos that give you essential fatty acids and fish oils. Essential fatty acids are just that--essential. Butter (the health gurus have now approved its use and even say it is good for you) and full-fat dairy has a number of health benefits over the low-fat versions. You might want to think about using something more nutrient-dense than iceberg lettuce. I will often put organic baby spinach leaves in a salad to boost the nutrition over iceberg (in addition to snacking on them with a little salt and lemon juice). I personally do not like artificial sweeteners--nor do I think they are good for you. I either drink plain water or green tea throughout the day (green tea helps to burn fat). I put a squeeze of lemon in both to boost the nutrition and taste without adding calories. Starchy vegetables (potatoes, carrots, sweet potatoes) with butter will boost your calories and give you a nutrition boost as well. I put full-fat plain yogurt on my baked potato---tastes just like sour cream with a lot less fat and you get the good pro-biotics that are in plain yogurt and not so much in the sugar-sweetened stuff (sugar kills the good acidophilus bacteria). Feel free to send a friend request to see what I eat.

Thank you everyone for the suggestions!

A common theme is avocado.... only thing I've ever used avocado for is guacamole. Guess it's time to find avocado recipes!

You can mash it and spread in salad rolls or sandwiches - at least thats what Subway does.

Why is pasta demonized? You can have your lasagna AND your salad too you know! If all else fails, reach for a klondike bar. I know I did, nom nom!

I think people perceive pasta as very fattening because most people wouldn't know a proper sized portion of pasta if it was fired at their head from a cannon.

I always used to overeat pasta, so now I measure every time. My family probably think I'm a scrooge, but they need to lose weight too (well, except my daughter, who is perfect in every possible way and I'll hear nothing different).