Not eating 1200 calories

i have 3 meals today and maybe a snack later and im probally gonna hit 800 something no matter how hard i try i never hit many and then somedays i go way over

It's not recommended because you could be getting less than your daily need for protein and lose lean tissue. And without at least 1200 calories it is extremely difficult to get your micronutrients. Plus the whole starvation mode message on MFP. Just keep up the good work! You'll see results. No need to hate your diet

Looking over your diary, you are not going below 1200 every single day. 1200 is considered to be the lowest number you should eat a day because going below that could put your body in starvation mode and ruin your metabolism. The truth is as long as you are getting all your macros and your vitamins, you should be okay. Your metabolism won't just go crazy after a few days here and there of under 1200 calories. But don't feel you have to starve yourself or deprive yourself of the foods you love just to lose weight. If you want to eat what you are eating, go for it. If you want a cheeseburger, go for that too, just make it fit. Just remember if you want your diet to be successful, you should learn how to incorporate foods that you want to eat for the rest of your life.

I am not eating back my exercise calories. However, I am finding that I often do not eat my allotted 1200 daily calories. I feel good. I am not hungry.

How long have you been eating such low cals and feeling good? Not likely to last - ran your stats through a quick BMR calculator, and for your height, age and current weight, that's about 1450 calories a day. For doing nothing. At all. Comatose.

You are clearly walking & talking and therefore not comatose, and mentioned exercise as well - don't you think your body deserves just a tad more fuel???

Using MFP and eating below goal and not eating back exercise cals = doing it wrong. Your daily goal already has you at a deficit - meaning if you ate all 1200 cals every dat (heck, or 1450 cals for that matter), did zero exercise - you'd lose weight. Burning off more through exercise makes the deficit much larger - too large, and over time will leave you under fueled, grumpy, hormones out of whack, metabolism screwed up, people report losing hair, brittle nails, saggy skin and so on. FUN! Not!

Food is fuel. Eating too little leads to loss of muscle along with any fat, in addition to the list of problems I already posted. If you set your weekly loss goal to 2lbs a week, change it to not more than 1lb - your ticker shows you're aiming to lose 27lbs. That's not a lot, so 2lbs a week is really too aggressive. A half or just one pound week will give you more cals. And yes you should eat them. Avocados, nuts, nut butters, full fat dairy, olive & coconut oils - calorie dense foods that add up quick in small portions and get you to goal, and keep you fueled.

Eat your calories - FOOD IS FUEL! Drink water, exercise, take rest days, get good sleep and have patience.

what's "crap food"?

if its feces, that's bad....don't eat that.

what's "crap food"?

if its feces, that's bad....don't eat that.

:laugh:

A lot of people try swapping one unhealthy way of eating for another at the other extreme of the scale thinking it'll make them lose faster when really this is your opportunity to learn how to eat properly. Eat back your exercise and hit your goals and you'll be well on the way to better long term habits.

Really? You can't eat 1200 calories? Cause eating WAY more than 1200 is how I (and many others) ended up here in the first place. :grumble:

People get really religious about numbers... I think because we imagine we have some control over them we insist on strict adherence to them.

A portion of food might be labeled as 500 calories but is well within FDA guidelines if it has 375 or 625 calories (you would never guess that most producers use this to cram more tasty calories into their "healthy" treats).

Regardless of any number or system the biggest indicator of health is how you feel. If you are legitimately not hungry don't eat. If you are just getting started with all this it'll take your body a while to adjust and for you to sort out what you should be eating when. You are not special or magical or in any way different than the rest of humanity though, if you exert yourself your body needs fuel, even if you are losing weight.

My daily intake right now is low and my excercise numbers have me burning a thousand or two calories a day. This isn't going to last. The machine that is my body will either stop working out, get hurt, or start eating more food. The folks that are offering advice are just letting you know you can forgo injury and likely out of control insatiable binges if you plan ahead and just eat what most folks need to be healthy and lose some weight.

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http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1046449-tyler-s-tator-tot-casserole

Oh yeah! I'm making this for dinner this weekend! My kids love it!

Eat more fat. Fats are more calorie dense and you don't have to eat a lot of it. Fats are good for you!

When I say crap diet, I mean French fries, baked potatoes, rice, fried foods. Cookies, donuts, cakes, ice cream every night....

I have always made fairly good choices meal wise. I mostly order kids meals when we eat out. I never order sodas. I have not cut out the quantity of food I eat. I just changed what I ate.

I'm sorry you're going to fail. By cutting what you consider crap food you're just putting yourself up for a fall. Yes some foods are nutritionally better than others but it's all food there is nothing wrong with someone having some ice cream or a doughnut. Also and why you consider a baked potato or rice crap food I have no idea. Food is well food you're surrounded by it Learn to eat well and not demonize it. If you're in need of more calories are more have a banana that's 100 calories there, advocados have a salad with an olive oil dressing. In short it really is not hard to get more than 1200 calories. Some fruit juice a glass of milk with some protein powder a fruit smoothie the list is endless.

If you want to lose weight healthily and retain some muscle and be able to function in a world of food you need to learn how to make intelligent choices and that includes eating enough food. Your not doing that now your just going to an extreme which inevitably means you may lose weight but you'll end up yoyoing and put the weight back on when one day you suddenly eat the food you've been avoiding because you haven't taught yourself moderation. Don't make excuses you can eat 1200 calories because you got fat eating more than that. As did we all the most successful people are the ones who have learnt that they can have a soda at times or even shock horror some chocolate. I've just had a day of lots of fruit and vegetables and good protein all great nutrition tonight after my run I've sat down with a hot chocolate and a cookie. You may consider that crap food but it's food and part of a pretty well balanced diet that has enabled me to lose nearly 140 pounds in 15 months. 15 months ago I couldn't walk up a hill without stopping to catch my breath. Now I run up to 50 miles a week and up to 15 miles in one run and I've done that by fuelling my body properly. I apologise for the ranty nature of my response but when over weight people suddenly say they can't eat 1200 calories it's a bit ridiculous imo. Losing weight and getting healthy is not about limiting calories it's about getting the right amount of calories there's a big difference.

what's "crap food"?

if its feces, that's bad....don't eat that.

I'm really surprised how many people here used to eat feces.