Anyone else have trouble eating at least 1200?

I find it easier to eat 1600 or more. What I mean by that, is I plan for that amount in my day, and if my totals are looking too low, I swap out more calorie-dense food, so that I get the amount I need.


When I was trying to eat a lot less, I was constantly looking for low calorie options, and the whole thing was just a misery.

The idea of not being able to eat 1200 just blows my mind. On a typical day prior to trying to lose weight, I was easily taking in 3000 each day. Eating enough was not an issue and I don't think it really is an issue for most of us as long as we arent trying to restrict ourselves too much. Get rid of the "healthy" and "unhealthy" foods mentality and eat what you want in moderation. Concentrate on hitting your protein and fat goals then fill the rest in from there

OMG! I have just spent the past 12 hours going over this! My calories the other day (my first day on here ) were a little over 900, yesterday I was getting ready for bed and not even hungry, I didn't even have 500 calories for the day! I ate! I just don't eat a lot, I am not hungry, I eat when I am hungry. Not anorixic etc, I am actually 40+ lbs overweight, I am in the obese catagory! I have had the sugestion of peanut butter, nuts, greek yogurt, I am going back to my diet I was on a while back too where I don't allow myself to go any more than 3 hours without eating something. I would give that a try. Good luck, I am right there with you!

I hit an almost 6 month stall during the first 6 months of this year - I had previously lost around 40lb following the slow carb diet. On the advice of others, I signed up to this site a couple of weeks ago to track my daily intake and I was amazed that my average was only around 1200 cal/day. I had thought it would be much higher as I wasn't hungry or feeling particularly deprived (the slow carb diet gives you a cheat day when you can eat as much rubbish as you feel like!). I adjusted my planned daily itake to 1500 cal/day and my macros to 25%/25%/50%(carb/protein/fat). I didn't have to change an awful lot to my diet. I added in a protein shake in the morning made with unsweetened almond milk (rather than water) and I started using a bit more coconut oil to my stir fried veggies in the evening. I'm now often having a curry made with creamed coconut in the evening in which case I then make my calorie target quite easily. If I'm having something else for dinner then I've tried adding in avocado or a couple of spoonfuls of nut butter. Since adding these calories I lost 2 lb last week and this week is looking similar. That is a bigger loss in these last 2 weeks than the whole of the first half of the year!

I was also having the same problem. Ive recently changed to eating a big breakfast and lunch and a small supper. A big breakfast (to me) is 2 eggs, 1 pc of toast and sausage or bacon (usually turkey), then add in a snack of yogurt and fruit or granola midway, then at lunch I'm having 5oz chicken steamed with seasoning, add in 1/2 cup brown rice and some veggies (finding it hard to finish) then an afternoon snack of apple & peanut butter and at supper time I've had a shake (shakeology or like wise). Its a tonne of food, but im starving because of the big breakfast and lunch. I'm only 3 days in though.... Hope this helps. Your body gets used to consuming foods at the same times, so switch it up to make it burn more and keep your metabolism going. Good luck. Oh I also upped my calories from 1200 to 1350....

You can make really good ranch dip out of fat free greek yogurt. I'm not the world's biggest fan of raw carrots, but I love cherry tomatoes dipped in it.

I understand the issue, I can eat 17-1800 calories a day but my issue is netting over 12-1300 calories. My workouts are pretty intense so after the calories burnt in those workouts are taken out I barely get it over.

I have the opposite problem! Most days it feels so difficult to stay under my goal!

However, one thing I've learned along the way is that if you're obese, your appetite is messed up. There was a documentary on TV a while back which explained that instead of feeling hungry before meals and satiated after eating, obese people feel slightly hungry all the time, and never feel completely satiated. So you're getting a constant message to eat, and never really getting a message to stop.

I know this is the opposite of what you're describing, but the funny thing is that I've sometimes felt less hungry on days when I've eaten less. I can sometimes feel some symptoms of hunger (dizziness, moodiness, etc.) without actually ever feeling hunger pangs. That TV programme helped to explain for me that it's not just the feeling of satiety that is out of whack, but also the feeling of hunger. If I eat more, I actually seem to feel hungrier sometimes. Not that I think hunger is such a bad thing. I like to think that feeling hungry before meals means that I'm feeling more like a slimmer person.

Anyway, my point is, that if you're obese or have been obese, you probably can't trust your feelings of hunger or satiety. Don't "listen to your body" because your body lies to you! I usually have set meal times, and I eat at those mealtimes, regardless of whether I'm hungry or not. I'm doing that to try to cut down my calories, but it might also work to help increase your calories. I'm not talking about forcing food down, but about not missing a planned meal just because you don't feel hungry. (If I was still struggling I would have no problem adding a good few extra calories with concentrated foods such as nuts, cheese, avocado, mayonnaise, etc).

This is just the way I see it - YMMV, of course. But good luck!

If you're eating all fat-free dairies like I was, I would at least switch to the low-fat variety. I was drinking almond and soy milk for a while and went back to 2% milk - not only do I actually ENJOY 2% milk, it doesn't come anywhere close to putting me too high in sugars, calories etc for the day. Also don't be afraid to use some shredded cheese or condiments now and then - just keep an eye on the sodium when it comes to ketchup, salsa etc.

An easy, cheap and tasty way to boost your calories in a healthy way is natural (no-stir) peanut butter + celery, or almonds/other low-sodium nuts.

If you're looking to boost up your total calories from a meal, brown rice and/or beans can be added to just about any meal and will add a decent amount of fiber amongst other things. I personally love mixing black beans with a bit of brown rice and tomatoes - hides the black bean taste and is very filling!

Do the opposite of all the diet advice: avoid things that fill you or kill your appetite (soup, salad, coffee..) and replace them with calorie dense foods. I didn't have this problem at 1200kcal, but I did when I tried upping to maintenance.

Honestly I had over 2000 calories today and I all I am craving right now is sushi. So yes. I have trouble with that.

This reminds me of a TV programme in the UK called Secret Eaters. Severely overweight people questioned why they were so big as they ate hardly any food. One woman estimated that she ate around 1,200 calories a day. When the programme makers followed her with a camera, they found that she was eating about 3,000 calories. That was why she was so big. I honestly do not believe that you can get to 130 lb overweight without some serious gorging. Not eating 'small meals' (even of fast food). You need to seriously stuff your face to get there. So, the problem may lie in lack of knowledge of portion sizes. Otherwise, eat a handful of nuts every day. That will push you over the 1,200 mark no problem.

I enjoyed Secret Eaters, but to be honest, I don't think it applies to everyone. I got fat eating just a little bit too much. My portion sizes were OK - but they were average, and I needed less than average calories! I think it's quite true that it's easy to underestimate how much food you eat in a day (I know I often didn't "count" food I ate while cooking!), but I don't think most people are accidentally eating takeaways and not remembering it.

Anyway, I just wanted to add that sometimes medical problems can interfere with your appetite, so that's something to consider if you're struggling to eat enough.

I have this problem, I'm usually under 1200 by a couple hundred calories and I hate it. I don't want to slow my metabolism down. So I've been searching this subject for a half hour now. I eat all meals, don't snack a lot though. I'm just trying to figure out things I can add to my meals or quick and easy snacks for on the go that are healthy rather than just adding calories of any sort for the sake of adding calories.

So far I've read a lot about nuts, fatty fish, olive oil...

Yes. Just do a reverse on what people suggest to eat a healthy diet, but use mostly healthy foods.

Drink your calories.

1 scoop whey protein. 1 frozen banana. Artificial sweetener if you want it. Blend with 4 ice cubes. Easy 350 calories

High density calories: low volume, high calorie health foods

peanut butter, nuts. 2 handfuls are upwards of 400 calories. A mere 2 tablespoons of peanut butter on a piece of toast will net you 250.

Whole grains: 200 calories for a 2 oz portion, and 6 + grams protein.
Have a moderate bowl of two portions with some turkey chili and you've scooped up over 600 calories.