Calorie Consumption Blunders. Please advise.

I'm so glad I saw your question hun because I'm 5"2, 23 years old, and 125lbs. My goal weight is 110lb. My calorie allowance per day according to MFP is 1240. I will tell you the truth - the first 2-3 weeks eating 1200 calories per day was HELL. I was grumpy, anxious, and felt like I was constantly starving. Went over 1240 quite a few times too. For us small girls that are short and don't want to lose a lot of weight (10-25 lbs), it's HARD. That weight is the hardest weight to come off. Now, I've lost 5 pounds (my starting weight was 130lb) and I feel great. My body has adjusted to eating 1240 calories per day and I no longer feel anxious/starving. Is it hard to stay within that sometimes? Hell yes it is. Just look at my diary today - I went over almost 150 cals. But that is a rarity because I made the conscious decision to treat myself to some chocolate I am confident that I will reach my goal weight by April. I also was worried when I started if 1240 was too low but it is not. Especially if you're working out and eating back those calories, you will feel like a million bucks I promise. I got other figures from different websites as well - anywhere from 1500-2000. I knew it was too high to make a difference on my petite frame. Hell, Jillian Michael's website told me 1040 - there was NO way I was going that low. MFP is the best so I trust it.

Now, I have been diagnosed with clinical anxiety. Like I said, eating that few calories (when I was probably eating double or triple that before I started counting), it ups your anxiety big time. This is where breathing techniques and self-discipline and self-soothing come in. A lot of people don't talk about anxiety and weight loss and the relationship between the two but it is hard. You just have to keep on top of it, get through those crappy 2-3 weeks, and let your body fall into this whole thing naturally. Be patient!

Good luck xo

PS I have been staying away from nuts for exactly that same problem. I would rather eat a massive salad than a few almonds. I have to be picky where I allot my calories now because I don't have a lot to work with. I used to be a huge peanut butter eater - now I add some to my breakfast maybe once a week as a treat and that's it. It's all about sacrifice!

I'm 5'2", 21 years old, full-time college student, part-time EMS crew chief. My last weight at my physician's office, fully clothed, on Christmas Eve was 123 pounds.
I'm in therapy for several different problems. I wouldn't say anxiety, but I've definitely struggled with serious existential problems that exacerbated depression. Some of my absolute worst depressive episodes accompanied attempts to lose weight, and the most recent year that I was not in therapy I went up to probably around 140 (I make it a point not to keep a scale around because I can get fixated on numbers).
This is obviously my experience, which doesn't necessarily generalize to anyone else. But when I would go down to 1200 calories--I have tried this a few times--I would be extremely emotionally unstable. I would break down into tears and lash out at family and friends over very small things. Maybe it would have gone to normal after a couple of crappy weeks, but my condition was beyond crappy. It was genuinely dangerous for me, in the most serious of ways. After my sister describing my condition as an "emotional diabetic" and a dear friend telling me that my emotional state wasn't sustainable (he had no idea what I was doing with food and was mostly telling me I needed to go back into therapy, but still), I decided to move that MFP goal to 0.5 lb/week and eat more like 1400-1500 calories.
For me, this is what works. I still lose, albeit more slowly than I might on 1200. I've incorporated some minimal exercises (not cardio that counts for exercise calories, but some bodyweight stuff), and I've noticed that they've made a difference. I don't have a goal weight, like you. I'm more about how I feel about my body, how my clothes fit, stuff like that. I also feel rewarded by making better food choices, choosing things that keep me full so I can net the appropriate number of calories without feeling hungry. Choosing foods that let me maintain a good blood glucose level over the course of a day rather than spiking and crashing (which can very easily correspond with spikes and crashes in my mood, which I cannot afford when my pager could go off at literally any moment of the day or night). Those are my goals, my health projects.
It sounds to me like your primary goal is body recomposition. I don't know a lot about that, but there are a lot of forums on here about body recomp at surplus and at deficit. I would recommend finding some of those to get a better idea of what might do it for you. The first thing you try might not work--but stick with any given thing for several weeks; it takes time to get results out of any method. If you're really unhappy with results after that period or find what you're doing completely unsustainable, try something else until something clicks for you.

That's the best advice I can give you. It's tricky, learning how to take care of emotional health alongside physical health, and sometimes it doesn't seem fair that other people don't have to work so hard at it. But if you can get it right--and you absolutely can--it makes life so much easier.

I am 5'1" currently at 125 lbs. I have mfp set to lose 1/2 lb a week. I generally eat between 1600 and 1800 hundred calories a day. Sometimes I go over. I have been steadily losing weight. If you only have 15 to 20 lbs to lose a 1/2 lb weight loss is a good goal to strive for. I don't believe you need to eat 1200 calories to lose weight. Quite frankly I don't think that is a sustainable goal. I would up your calories to at least 1450 a day. You will still lose weight. Just be patient.