1200 calories a day

I'm on 1200 a day. But I also work out most days, so I'm eating 1300+ with my exercise calories, and netting 1200. My diary is open if you want to take a look!

I'm on 1250... here's how I do it:

General split I'm going for: 150 breakfast, 400 lunch, 600 dinner, 100 snack.

Breakfast: Usually something quick and usually more carb-y.
Examples:
--half a bagel with light cream cheese
--1 package of Quaker reduced sugar apple and cinnamon oatmeal
--1 Sticky Fingers Bakery scone
I usually have a cup of tea with breakfast as well, so add in 20ish for milk.

Lunch: I work in an office and my only time out of the office is going out for lunch, but I've found a bunch of places around work that give good calorie lunches.
Examples:
--Subway and PitaPit: lots of sandwiches for ~350ish if you skip the cheese and load up on veggies
--Wendys: Ultimate Chicken Grill sandwich is 360, plus 20 for ketchup because I love me some Heinz
--Panera Breads: half a Turkey Avocado BLT, half a spinach power salad (about 450)
--Swiss Chalet: quarter chicken leg with coleslaw, 400 normally, add 100 if I want the bun.
--The burrito place around the corner does a burrito in a bowl for about 450 (skip the cheese and sour cream, but I get the guac because it's delicious.)

Dinner: Homecooked stuff. I use BBC Good Food for recipes as you can filter on calories. I usually manage to bring my dinners in around 500 or so. Tips for cooking:
--Load up on the veggies. Seriously. Lots and lots of veggies.
--If you make pasta, make it more about the sauce and what's in the sauce (and veg!) than the pasta.
--If you make potato, only use small amounts
--Measure how much oil you cook with, often you only need a bit if you're sauteeing
--Cream cheese or Philadelphia Cooking Cream is a great way to make recipes more rich without packing in calories
--Making your food spicy often makes you eat less of it. Don't blow your head off but you tend to eat less generally if it's spicy!
--Have water, fizzy water, or diet drinks with your meal, the extra liquid helps fill you up so you eat less.
--Take a smaller portion the first time around so that if you do want to go for seconds you have "room"

Hope that helps.

I will say when I first started I did the 1200 + exercise calories. I lost weight, but struggled as I was hungry...a lot.

Then I found the links below...

Read these:
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1235566-so-you-re-new-here?hl=so+you're+new+here

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1080242-a-guide-to-get-you-started-on-your-path-to-sexypants

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/974888-in-place-of-a-road-map-2k13

TL:DR ->http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/975025-in-place-of-a-road-map-short-n-sweet

If you have 75+ lbs to lose 2 lbs/week is ideal
If you have 40-75 lbs to lose 1.5 lbs/week is ideal
If you have 25-40 lbs to lose 1 lbs/week is ideal
If you have 15 -25 lbs to lose 0.5 to 1.0 lbs/week is ideal
If you have less than 15 lbs to lose 0.5 lbs/week is ideal

You can eat more and still lose weight.
I'm 38, 5'5" and eat 1940 a day.

1200 calories, you mean dinner, right?

Mine is close to that, if you'd like to take a look.

Typically:

Breakfast (about 300 cal)
Oatmeal (the type you have to actually cook) with cinnamon
1 cup 1% milk
4 tbsp egg white
green tea
Multivitamins

Morning snack (about 100 cal)
Plain greek yogurt or fruit

Lunch (about 250 cal)
Salad w dressing or black beans

Afternoon snack (about 100 cal)
Chocolate :-)

Dinner: (about 450 cal)
Meat (I often have rotisserie chicken from the supermarket)
Veggies
A drink or two
(or sometimes I'll have pizza instead of the meat/veggies!)

Depending on what I actually eat, it could be more or less than that, but I usually get pretty close to my macros. I don't drink soda and I avoid a lot of sauces, condiments, etc. Works well for me- I don't feel hungry on this routine. Weekends are fair game though :-)

^which means you don't actually do 1200 because your weekly net is more than that.

Actually, it's less. My net on weekends is about 1400, and during the week it's in the 400-1200 range (check my food diary if you don't believe me). My average net is about 1000 and I eat what I want most of the time- whiskey, beer, pizza, chocolate, etc. Today it should be around 895 net after eating a hamburger, yesterday was 1095 net and I had Red Robin for dinner. It's totally doable and not at all miserable if you are active. I feel totally gross if I eat over 1900. But, to each their own. I'm not saying it's right or wrong- that's just what works for me.

Do you have a food scale? Are you weighing everything?

Yes. If anything I overestimate because I plan to eat something that I'll put into MFP ahead of time then I just won't eat it. Not because I'm trying to starve myself, but I'm usually either too busy to eat or not hungry. Honestly, my weight gain was because of lack of eating so eating UP TO 1400 calories a day is a challenge for me. Again, not because I'm starving myself but b/c I was either busy or not hungry. I used to work in radiation labs where decontaminating to eat was too much of a pain, so I just got used to eating less. Like I said, to each their own.

I would love to see some food diaries for those on 1200 calories a day, if anyone wouldn't mind sharing?

Thought this would be a great feature for the app."see what others chose for..."

I'm generally around that. My diary is open if you'd like to look at it.

MFP is quite notorious for setting calorie goals FAR too low, regardless of height and weight. For example, it told me to eat 1200, and my BMR (the bare amount of calories I need to LIVE) is 1280. And I am extremely tiny, only 5 feet. So unless you are smaller than me, or bedridden, it is almost a CERTAINTY that you are eating too little. (This can result in lean muscle loss, chronic fatigue, metabolism damage, and bingeing due to over-restriction.)

Go to

http://iifym.com/tdee-calculator/

and enter your height/weight/activity level.

Subtract 10-20% from the number it calculates for you, and that is the number of calories you should be eating a day in order to lose weight. With this method you do not eat back your exercise calories, as they are already figured into your daily goal.

My diary is open and my daily goal is 1200. I go over a few times a week and I eat back all of my exercise calories, but I'm fairly consistent in logging. Feel free to add me if you like!