1200 calories a day

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'm going to bash your breakfast right now..... actually your whole post is awful.

If you are aiming for a 150 cal breakfast..... and you are eating half a bagel, oatmeal AND a scone...... you are wayyy above your 150 cal.

I could be wrong but I think this poster is saying bagel OR oatmeal OR scone, not AND.

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.

this isn't directed only at you, but to everyone saying 1200 is anorexia: I am 5'3" (not incredibly short for a woman, just a bit shorter than average), and I started at 130-135 pounds, wanting to lose 15-20 pounds. I am at 1200 net cals per day because mfp has a cut-off at 1200 net cals per day (it won't go lower). AT 1200 NET CALS PER DAY, I'M CALCULATED TO LOSE 0.9 POUNDS PER WEEK. So to anyone saying it's too drastic, or that someone has to be incredibly short or is anorexic, no.

I also usually eat all of my workout cals and I just recently came back to mfp after a few months' gap during the holidays.
I'm not saying everyone/anyone should do 1200, I'm just saying 1200 isn't necessarily unhealthy or ridiculous or inappropriate. My TDEE is only about 1700 calories, according to scooby.

EDIT: further, my 1200/day fits with your 'appropriate' weight loss rates - "If you have 15 -25 lbs to lose 0.5 to 1.0 lbs/week is ideal "

There's like 4 days straight where you don't log. How could you possibly know how much you're eating?

Your body can't gain weight without a surplus of calories. Please, enlighten me.

^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.

What do you have your weekly loss goal set as?

I'm a tad snarky because this calorie amount is so miniscule. Most people should not be at this calorie amount but there are so many that THINK they need to be to lose. It's sad.

Here's the missing piece to the puzzle. YOU are being monitored by a doctor then? OP is not. Most people who eat so little are NOT. Do I think it's enough? No. But I can only do so much to convince people otherwise. When you choose the bare minimum number of calories to fuel your self, be prepared to lose not only fat but muscle, if you sustain it. That is the possibility. One I assume most people don't realize and would like to avoid. IF your metabolism is damaged (OPs may not be, why assume and why encourage eating so little), that's a different circumstance and parading around insisting it's fine isn't exactly a good way to go about. I'm sorry if that is the case and I wish you the best but I stand behind finding a less aggressive deficit ffor the general populace.

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.

I'm a tad snarky because this calorie amount is so miniscule. Most people should not be at this calorie amount but there are so many that THINK they need to be to lose. It's sad.

Here's the missing piece to the puzzle. YOU are being monitored by a doctor then? OP is not. Most people who eat so little are NOT. Do I think it's enough? No. But I can only do so much to convince people otherwise. When you choose the bare minimum number of calories to fuel your self, be prepared to lose not only fat but muscle, if you sustain it. That is the possibility. One I assume most people don't realize and would like to avoid. IF your metabolism is damaged (OPs may not be, why assume and why encourage eating so little), that's a different circumstance and parading around insisting it's fine isn't exactly a good way to go about. I'm sorry if that is the case and I wish you the best but I stand behind finding a less aggressive deficit ffor the general populace.

To answer your questions, yes I am being monitored by a doctor, and no, I don't care about losing muscle. I'm looking to get healthy by following a plan my doctor is comfortable with. And I am "parading around" insisting it's fine because it is. My doctor cleared it. The general populace may be a different story- but that is something that works for THEM. I think you and I can both agree that there is no such thing as "one size fits all" as far as food is concerned, and if someone is genuinely looking for advice for a diet plan to follow, they should ask their doctor, not an internet forum. I am not a doctor, and I would assume you are not either. Realistically, they shouldn't listen to either of us.

I took the OP's initial question as one of curiosity, as in "hey, you people who eat 1200 cal/day, what do you eat to get to 1200?". For me, I'm fascinated with how anyone could eat more than 2400 cal/day, but that's more of a curiosity on my part.

Geez. I should start putting disclaimers at the end of my posts!