Do I have to eat over 1200 calories a day?

I recommend that you open your diary. It's extremely unlikely that you are hitting appropriate nutrient goals eating under 1200 calories, regardless of the energy expenditure.

I agree with Jonny and Mike. Make sure that you aren't shorting yourself on what counts and let the calories work themselves out. Some folks on here have posted that they seem to hit a roadblock until they up their calorie intake while others with really low BMRs can get away with shorter calories.

You are going to have to give it some time and monitor yourself to see what is helping you achieve your goal. Keep at it Susie, if it were easy, everyone would be doing it right?

OK, comments on your diary:

1) Your protein goal is very low and you are consistently under. Protein goals should be treated as absolute minimums; your goal should be approximately 1.1 - 1.4 grams of protein per lb of lean body mass. That probably puts you somewhere around 110-140 grams of protein per day.

2) Your fat goal is also low. Science shows that people should be eating about 0.3 to 0.35 grams of fat per pound of body weight per day for optimal hormone and neurological function. That puts your fat goal around 56-65 grams of fat per day. This should also be treated as a minimum.

3) You pretty much never hit 1200 calories, let alone the 1420 that represents your actual goal.

4) Your diet includes few vegetables or fruits, and contains a lot of carb-heavy snacks like crackers and granola bars.


Recommendations:

1) Significantly increase your protein and fat intake. You have many days where you eat extremely low fat and low protein. This is counterproductive.

2) Try to limit the carb-heavy snacks and focus on eating more balanced meals.

3) You must eat more vegetables and fruits. Find some vegetables you enjoy and make a concerted effort to work them into 2 meals a day.

4) In general try to focus your meals around meat and vegetables.

5) Hit your calorie goal. Consider any day where you end more than 75 calories away from your goal, in either direction, as a mistake. Hunger is misleading and often nonexistent. If you're "not hungry" but have not yet met your nutrient and calorie goals for the day eat anyway.

6) Buy a food scale. You don't appear to be weighing food and, believe me, this is critical. There is simply no way to accurately estimate portion size and calorie intake without a food scale. A good digital one is only about $15.



Long story short: eat more calories, and try to limit the carb-heavy snacks. Focus on getting more meat and more vegetables at every meal. Hit your calorie goal consistently.

I second what Jonny said. He's offering some great advice, I would recommend following it.

5) Hit your calorie goal. Consider any day where you end more than 75 calories away from your goal, in either direction, as a mistake. Hunger is misleading and often nonexistent. If you're "not hungry" but have not yet met your nutrient and calorie goals for the day eat anyway.

I don't really agree. There are some days I am 200 calories away from my goal and I just don't want to eat anything else. If I work out late and come home have a snack, and then I am full but still have 200 left. .. I dont force myself to eat it.

It might balance out though. One day I might eat 200 more. That is why I look more closely at my weekly goals. If you are significantly under your weekly goals, then yes plan it out so you eat more during the day.

"I'm not hungry, so I won't eat" is the sort of thinking that leads people to eating 1000 calories a day even though their goal is 1420, like the OP. It's also the justification people with genuine eating disorders use.

Hunger is a fickle thing that is often based more on mental state than what your body actually needs. For the most part, we (as in the population of MFP) are not good at the whole "feeding your body an appropriate calorie intake based on feel alone" which is why we're here.

YES!!! you will be in starvation mode if you do not. once you start adding more food into your diet you will gain it all back. They best thing to do is make sure you are getting your PFC in. Your protein, fats, and carbs. You need all three to get results. If you work out you need to add them caloires back into your diet. NO one should have to be at 1200 calories. You can not live off that you are starving yourself and your body will store your fat because it don't know when it will get food next. you need the food to fuel your body to keep you going.

I'm a very late eater too. I normally don't eat breakfast til 1pm or 2. Honestly - if you are eating good foods, not "diet" foods, you'll find that it's not hard to hit at least 1200 calories while hitting your nutrition needs. A lot of people talk about being hungry when you're really not, that it's just you mentally thinking it. Which you could be doing with not feeling hungry. Your body needs certain things, certain foods, which you should be feeding it no matter what. If you're here to just lose weight, go ahead with what you're doing. But if your here to be HEALTHY and lose weight then I would make some adjustments.

Protein is very important - so I agree with what everyone has said about it. It's also easy to get.

And stop worrying about not having enough! I completely disagree with being under or over as a completely ruined day. Plan your day and if at the end of that day you are hungry for that maybe snack then don't fret if it puts you over a bit if you're making a healthy choice. Stop trying to make space for it in your calories if you aren't eating it every day.

OK, comments on your diary:

1) Your protein goal is very low and you are consistently under. Protein goals should be treated as absolute minimums; your goal should be approximately 1.1 - 1.4 grams of protein per lb of lean body mass. That probably puts you somewhere around 110-140 grams of protein per day.

2) Your fat goal is also low. Science shows that people should be eating about 0.3 to 0.35 grams of fat per pound of body weight per day for optimal hormone and neurological function. That puts your fat goal around 56-65 grams of fat per day. This should also be treated as a minimum.

3) You pretty much never hit 1200 calories, let alone the 1420 that represents your actual goal.

4) Your diet includes few vegetables or fruits, and contains a lot of carb-heavy snacks like crackers and granola bars.


Recommendations:

1) Significantly increase your protein and fat intake. You have many days where you eat extremely low fat and low protein. This is counterproductive.

2) Try to limit the carb-heavy snacks and focus on eating more balanced meals.

3) You must eat more vegetables and fruits. Find some vegetables you enjoy and make a concerted effort to work them into 2 meals a day.

4) In general try to focus your meals around meat and vegetables.

5) Hit your calorie goal. Consider any day where you end more than 75 calories away from your goal, in either direction, as a mistake. Hunger is misleading and often nonexistent. If you're "not hungry" but have not yet met your nutrient and calorie goals for the day eat anyway.

6) Buy a food scale. You don't appear to be weighing food and, believe me, this is critical. There is simply no way to accurately estimate portion size and calorie intake without a food scale. A good digital one is only about $15.



Long story short: eat more calories, and try to limit the carb-heavy snacks. Focus on getting more meat and more vegetables at every meal. Hit your calorie goal consistently.

Thank you for your response. If I make this much more complicated than it already is for me, I'm afraid I will not have the strength to continue. I haven't been paying attention to the nutrient values too much. I just know that I've come a long way from my "everything fried" southern roots. Food just doesn't even taste the same anymore. I usually choose the granola bar because it's quick. I simply don't have time to measure using scales. We eat supper late enough as it is. I do tend to take the higher calorie counts in MFP as a safeguard against going over on my calories. If I hit 1200 daily, would that make a difference if I don't keep up with the nutrient values?

Hon, weighing your food won't take more than 5 minutes out of your day. If you want to succeed at fat loss, don't make excuses. If you're not measuring your food intake, who knows how many calories you're really eating? If you don't know that, why does it matter what MFP says?

The above list of advice will help you lose fat healthfully and meet your goals. If you have the time to interact on a forum, you've got the time to measure foods, or make healthful choices.

If you have the time to interact on a forum, you've got the time to measure foods, or make healthful choices.

Indeed.

You're getting some really good advice here.

It's important to weigh (or at the very least, measure) everything you eat and log it accurately. Without doing that, you don't have a clear picture of your caloric intake or your nutrition.
I also agree that, once you're confident that your logging is accurate, eating enough is important. Especially if you insist on eating fewer than 1200 calories, focusing on your nutrition is a MUST. You need to make sure you're hitting those protein and fat goals and getting the vitamins and minerals that your body needs.

My question is, how do you plan to eat once you reach your goal weight? If you're picturing something different from the way you're eating now, you may want to reconsider your current plan.

It does take time and effort to stick to a calorie deficit and learn how to fuel your body appropriately, but it is a worthwhile investment. For sustainability and long-term success, it's important to build new habits and find a way of eating now that you can use and build on once you get to maintenance.

Thank you for your response. If I make this much more complicated than it already is for me, I'm afraid I will not have the strength to continue. I haven't been paying attention to the nutrient values too much. I just know that I've come a long way from my "everything fried" southern roots. Food just doesn't even taste the same anymore. I usually choose the granola bar because it's quick. I simply don't have time to measure using scales. We eat supper late enough as it is. I do tend to take the higher calorie counts in MFP as a safeguard against going over on my calories. If I hit 1200 daily, would that make a difference if I don't keep up with the nutrient values?

Frankly, if you're just going to haphazardly guesstimate at calorie content and portion sizes it doesn't really matter what your goal is because your logging will be so far off that you won't be getting a remotely accurate picture of your intake.

I don't want to sound insensitive or anything, but if you're going to log it needs to be somewhat accurate. Otherwise you're wasting your time logging in the first place.

If someone else can come by and restate this in a diplomatic way that helps prevent this from turning into a "mean people" thread I'd greatly appreciate it.

Jonny knows what he's talking about, and gives brilliant advice.

Just guessing at calorie counts is not going to help you in the long run. Once you get a food scale, it doesn't take much time at all to weigh out your food, you pick it up really quickly. I'm at the point now where it's second nature to put the bowl or plate on the scale as I'm preparing meals.
You will be amazed at the difference between eyeballing a portion and actually measuring it out, the difference is usally huge. This alone may get you closer to you calorie goal.

Just hitting 1200, in my opinion isn't good enough. You need to pay attention to the nutrients as well. I know it can seem time consuming and overwhelming at first, but the more you do it, the easier and faster it becomes.