Eating under 1200 calories

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Replies

  • ILiftHeavyAcrylics
    ILiftHeavyAcrylics Posts: 27,732 Member
    Based on your diary, here are my thoughts:

    Start logging completely and accurately. Use a food scale, not measuring cups. Measuring cups just aren't as accurate.

    Try to get more vegetables in. You do seem to eat a lot of fruit, but I didn't see many veggies at all.

    Consider increasing your calorie goal. You don't have much to lose and you're running too steep a deficit at the moment *if* you're correct about how much you're eating.
  • JeraLee31885
    JeraLee31885 Posts: 21
    Based on your diary, here are my thoughts:

    Start logging completely and accurately. Use a food scale, not measuring cups. Measuring cups just aren't as accurate.

    Try to get more vegetables in. You do seem to eat a lot of fruit, but I didn't see many veggies at all.

    Consider increasing your calorie goal. You don't have much to lose and you're running too steep a deficit at the moment *if* you're correct about how much you're eating.

    Thank you! Your post reminded me that I forgot to log the green beans and applesauce with dinner! My only problem with most of my dinners is that I try to make everything as close to homemade as possible and have no idea honestly how many servings there are in those kinda of meals. I probably ate less than 2 servings, based on 12 servings but I am not totally sure and I didn't think to cut it into 12 pieces before dishing it out. I do need to start paying more attention to that kinds of things though.

    I generally cook with veggies. The cornbread casserole had onions, green peppers, mushrooms, and corn all in it. I try to add 2 or more veggies in my meals as well as something on the side. I need to eat more fresh produce though, for sure.

    As far as increasing my calorie goal, I shouldn't use MFP's suggestion as a guide? That is their recommendation based on a sedentary lifestyle and losing 1# per week.
  • bevmcarthur
    bevmcarthur Posts: 341 Member
    check this site out it will tell you what you should be eating by adding your numbers to it
    http://scoobysworkshop.com/calorie-calculator/
  • ILiftHeavyAcrylics
    ILiftHeavyAcrylics Posts: 27,732 Member
    Based on your diary, here are my thoughts:

    Start logging completely and accurately. Use a food scale, not measuring cups. Measuring cups just aren't as accurate.

    Try to get more vegetables in. You do seem to eat a lot of fruit, but I didn't see many veggies at all.

    Consider increasing your calorie goal. You don't have much to lose and you're running too steep a deficit at the moment *if* you're correct about how much you're eating.

    Thank you! Your post reminded me that I forgot to log the green beans and applesauce with dinner! My only problem with most of my dinners is that I try to make everything as close to homemade as possible and have no idea honestly how many servings there are in those kinda of meals. I probably ate less than 2 servings, based on 12 servings but I am not totally sure and I didn't think to cut it into 12 pieces before dishing it out. I do need to start paying more attention to that kinds of things though.

    I generally cook with veggies. The cornbread casserole had onions, green peppers, mushrooms, and corn all in it. I try to add 2 or more veggies in my meals as well as something on the side. I need to eat more fresh produce though, for sure.

    As far as increasing my calorie goal, I shouldn't use MFP's suggestion as a guide? That is their recommendation based on a sedentary lifestyle and losing 1# per week.

    I cook meals at home too. I use the recipe builder and then I weigh out how many grams of food there are and divide that by how many servings I want to get the number of grams per serving. So say I got 500 grams (just to have a nice round number) but I know I want 4 servings. Each serving would be 125 grams.

    Are you actually sedentary? I'm a housewife and I'm not sedentary. I calculated my true TDEE and it came out to a little higher than lightly active. That's with no kids, just light cleaning and chores. Also you're meant to eat back your exercise calories with the MFP method.
  • herblackwings39
    herblackwings39 Posts: 3,930 Member
    You'd have a better chance of meeting 1,200 calories if you switched to full fat dairy and (unless you have a medical condition restricting it) full fat/sugar pudding, even full fat peanut butter.
  • mockchoc
    mockchoc Posts: 6,573 Member
    What eating under 1200 calories can do:

    1) slow your metabolism over time...as your metabolism slows, so will weight loss, and eventually you'll stall out
    2) not enough fuel to workout (though you're not working out)
    3) If you ever go back to eating like normal, you will most likely gain weight back.

    It isn't recommended unless your under close supervision by a doctor. It can cause health problems the longer you go about it.

    You might want to read this thread:
    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/919536-get-your-metabolic-rate-tested-my-metabolic-reset-story?hl=get+your+metabolic+rate+tested

    Thank you I will read that! It's not that I am intentionally eating under. I'm just not always hungry. There were a couple days, after I started tracking calories on here, that I forced my self to eat a little more just to meet at least 1200 and it made me feel miserable. I do try to snack but even then I still sometimes don't hit 1200

    I think if you aren't hungry and it works for you then go for it. If you are eating nutrient dense low calorie food you might go under 1200 calories and still be full. Don't try to fix what isn't broken.

    You have been on MFP since December 2011 and according to your ticker you have lost 0lbs. I'm not sure you should be handing out advice since what you are doing doesn't work.
  • HartJames
    HartJames Posts: 789 Member
    Whelp.....do you want to be skinny or do you want to be healthy? If you have lost that much weight without exercise and so low cal, I imagine your body composition and muscle tone are not ideal.
  • Broejen
    Broejen Posts: 414 Member
    It's possible that you don't feel like even eating 1200 calories because your body is used to eating so little. Figure out your numbers and eat up girl!
  • ChaseAlder
    ChaseAlder Posts: 804 Member
    I'm a very big fan of eating whole, cleans foods... lots of fruits and veggies, lean protein, meat, etc. Fuel your body with the right stuff and that calories will add up. Your body needs fuel to work and I know I personally would be starving if I was only eating 1200 calories a day.

    If you're wanting to eat more than 1200 calories, I'd try some more calorie-dense foods... almonds, avocados, eggs, olives.

    Train hard, eat well. Move your body, push some weight, eat good clean food that makes you feel good.
  • JeraLee31885
    JeraLee31885 Posts: 21
    So when you burn calories exercising, you don't necessarily need to add back calories? As far as the full fat - full sugar thing .... I was under the impression that too much sugars (added more so than natural) can back fire on you and be counterproductive to your weight loss goals. Also when I started my lifestyle change I went from drinking pepsi 24/7 and only eating once a day unless I snacked and my choices then was basically potato chips or snack cakes or the likes, and occasionally a cnady bar. But again I only ate 1 time a day and that was to sit and eat with my family. And the majority of what I cooked then was a lot of processed foods. Thank you all again for all the advice!
  • ShandaLeaS
    ShandaLeaS Posts: 136 Member
    Use the recipe builder...I cook from scratch and that's how I do it. Example tonite I made lasagna, I measured/weighed everything, put the lasagna together, looked at the pan to see how many servings it would be and then told it how many servings. I have even made somethings and went back and changed how many servings a recipe was due to it being too high/low in calories for a main dish. I bet if you accurately tracked and added in some more veggies you'd be good to go.
  • JeraLee31885
    JeraLee31885 Posts: 21
    So when you burn calories exercising, you don't necessarily need to add back calories? As far as the full fat - full sugar thing .... I was under the impression that too much sugars (added more so than natural) can back fire on you and be counterproductive to your weight loss goals. Also when I started my lifestyle change I went from drinking pepsi 24/7 and only eating once a day unless I snacked and my choices then was basically potato chips or snack cakes or the likes, and occasionally a cnady bar. But again I only ate 1 time a day and that was to sit and eat with my family. And the majority of what I cooked then was a lot of processed foods. Thank you all again for all the advice!

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