1200 calories too hard!

What was the portion of the salmon?
Skip the chocolate.
Was the tea green? or was it added with milk or sugar? or flavourings?

I'm finding the 1200 calorie level too hard. When I manage to meet it I don't have any effort left for exercising and most of the time I can't meet it at all; which is disheartening. Take today, for example. I had two pieces of salmon and some chocolate and two cups of tea. That was one meal! I didn't eat anything else and I was right at my 1200 calorie limit! How is it possible to eat three meals a day on this plan???

- Disheartened!!!

If it is too hard, don't do it, there is no reason to (unless you are a 4'11" sedentary woman). The fact that you don't have enough energy to exercise is a huge sign that this is too low a target for you. It is possible to diet and lose weight at a reasonable and sustainable pace where you don't feel fatigued, don't feel grumpy ("hangry"), and can still progress with your fitness goals and preserve muscle.

I won't repeat all the details, but do a quick search on the TDEE -20%/-15%/-10%/whatever is appropriate given how much you have to lose, which based on your ticker, is not a lot.

If you only have 4kg to lose, by gosh, you don't need more than a 250 kcal deficit. In this case, eating way less won't speed up your loss. When you are within 10 lbs of your goal, you presumably don't have massive fat stores to draw from, so eating at such a huge deficit will make you feel exactly as you described, like crap.

But don't worry, there is a better, more happy way and you can succeed, no doubt about it.

Have you set your goal on MFP to lose 2lbs per week? If so, you might want to consider changing it as 1200 is obviously not a sustainable amount of calories for you. If you want to keep your goals the same, then you might have to look at your nutrition.

I currently eat 1200cals, which I am finding sustainable at the moment, but I'm having to make smart choices with the food I'm actually eating. I can quite comfortably fit 3 good meals into my calories, along with 3 snacks. You probably could have had another meal instead of the chocolate, depending on how much chocolate you ate. I find that whenever I have chocolate it takes a big chunk out of my calories for that day and I have to compromise by having lower calorie meals. I find the easiest thing is to limit my chocolate! Your portion size may be a problem... I don't know much about the calories in fish, as I don't ever eat it, but if that one meals reached 1200 calories then maybe it was just a case of the portion size being slightly too big? Or, like someone above mentioned, you may have inadvertently miscalculated? MFP can sometimes give wrong calorie counts for certain foods!

If you find that you don't have any energy, then it would be wiser to up your calories. You don't want deprive your body of the energy it needs to function!

Good luck, I hope you find something that works for you!

....I am extremely confused as to how 2 pieces of salmon, a piece of chocolate and tea would equal 1200 calories...Did you cook it in a lot of oil or something? You just have to make smart choices as to how you're eating. 1200 calories can be a lot if you choose the right foods. It took me awhile to get the hang of it but it gets easier.

I'm finding the 1200 calorie level too hard. When I manage to meet it I don't have any effort left for exercising and most of the time I can't meet it at all; which is disheartening. Take today, for example. I had two pieces of salmon and some chocolate and two cups of tea. That was one meal! I didn't eat anything else and I was right at my 1200 calorie limit! How is it possible to eat three meals a day on this plan???

- Disheartened!!!

If it is too hard, don't do it, there is no reason to (unless you are a 4'11" sedentary woman). The fact that you don't have enough energy to exercise is a huge sign that this is too low a target for you. It is possible to diet and lose weight at a reasonable and sustainable pace where you don't feel fatigued, don't feel grumpy ("hangry"), and can still progress with your fitness goals and preserve muscle.

I won't repeat all the details, but do a quick search on the TDEE -20%/-15%/-10%/whatever is appropriate given how much you have to lose, which based on your ticker, is not a lot.

If you only have 4kg to lose, by gosh, you don't need more than a 250 kcal deficit. In this case, eating way less won't speed up your loss. When you are within 10 lbs of your goal, you presumably don't have massive fat stores to draw from, so eating at such a huge deficit will make you feel exactly as you described, like crap.

But don't worry, there is a better, more happy way and you can succeed, no doubt about it.

^^This :flowerforyou: I was at 1200 net when I first started here that lasted about 2 weeks I bumped up to 1300-1400 net because I stopped losing my second week. Now that i've started lifting I started feeling drained, no energy, lazy, and blah (where as before I was beyond energized) and my lifting routine was not progressing well. Now I go by my tdee and eat between 1600-1800 cals per day depending if it was an exericise day and my energy almost instantly went up I have a significant amount of weight to lose, but I lost an inch in my waist this past month, so eating less isn't always the way to changing your body Try upping a couple hundred and see how you feel I bet you will gain all your energy back and it will help with making this something you can stick with Also make sure your eating a "net" amount of calories, meaning if you exercise eat back the calories you burned Other than that, this takes practice, and a bit of trial and error, but you'll get the hang of it if you stick with it

I like to plan ahead. Fill out my fruits for the day, then protein, a snack then desert (healthy) then fill with carbs of leftover calories. Stick to this plan all day long. Drink lots of ice water, and watch the pounds melt away.

I'm finding the 1200 calorie level too hard. When I manage to meet it I don't have any effort left for exercising and most of the time I can't meet it at all; which is disheartening. Take today, for example. I had two pieces of salmon and some chocolate and two cups of tea. That was one meal! I didn't eat anything else and I was right at my 1200 calorie limit! How is it possible to eat three meals a day on this plan???

- Disheartened!!!

Yes, it IS possible to stick to 1200 calories, but it depends on what you eat.

That choccie, how much did you eat, because two cups of tea and two pieces of salmon would leave a hell of a lot of calories, to use the remainder up for chocolate means your have deliberately foregone other meals and you wonder why you are hungry.......

If you *must* eat chocolate - fine. But eat it mindfully (Google "eating mindfully", there's loads of information). Don't just shove it in feeling guilty about it. Enjoy it.

Know that you are going to eat it. Savour it. Smell it. Let it melt in your mouth and get all the flavour out of it.

You feel a right *kitten* first time you eat it like this but it works!

I found that eating chocolate this way left me feeling full with less chocolate.

Try it.

breakfast 300 cal
lunch 400 cal
dinner 400 cal
snacks 100 cal

if lunch or dinner is about 300 cal then I have 200 cal for snacks

if my lunch or dinner was much more like 500 cal I just get a protein shake instead for the other lunch/dinner

If you cant take chocolate out of your life, try weaning yourself onto darker chocolates and eating a bit less.

Thank you. I think hearing from you all has been really helpful. I think I will up my calorie level a bit and focus more on eating healthy, rather than less. I am and have always been a chocolate addict. So eating 50gms a day is as low as I can go at the moment. I do have more to lose than what I've stated but I changed it in the hope that having smaller goals might not be so mentally challenging. I'll change it - it's not helping me to ignote the painful truth...

50 grams of chocolate should be a bit less than 300 calories so you should be able to fit that in, especially if you up your calories to suit your goals better as some people mentioned before. Just be sure to for the rest eat nutrient dense food. You can try to decrease your chocolate with for instance 1 gram every two days (use a good digital scale ), the difference will be supersubtle and slowly you will get used to less chocolate.