Calories add up too fast !

Open your diary? I can't really give you help unless I can see what you're eating

weigh your foods, it will give you a better estimate of calories and take some of the guesswork out.

Peanut butter notoriously has a lot of calories for the portion size. Not that I don't love PB but maybe you weren't conscious of that?

I agree with others that you almost certainly can eat more calories in a day and still lose weight, but you should pick a more sustainable weekly goal.

My thoughts:

1. Get a food scale, and weigh everything. Everyone always talks here about how it's helped them realize they were eating way more than they thought, but I've had mixed experiences: a lot of foods that I was underestimating sizes of, but many, many more that I overestimated. What I would have guessed to be 4-5 ounces of meat before I started using the scale turns out to only be around 2, but what I thought was 2 tbsp of peanut butter was really more like 3.

2. I agree with those above saying to reevaluate your goal. With just 40 pounds to lose, aim for a pound a week. I've had better success eating at around TDEE-20% and not worrying about counting/eating back exercise calories than I did with the automatic settings here (which set me around 1400) and eating back those exercise calories. I'm a bit younger than you, but guessing we're similar sizes based on your goals, and I'm losing at a steady clip at around 1600 calories/day.

Exercise! Then there'll be those calories to "eat back".

I really haven't felt deprived or hungry eating 1200 until today. I'm also guessing the orzo wasn't as calorie laden as what I logged as it had asparagus and some other real tasty leafy veg and definitely was not a full 1/2 cup. But, I'd rather log for too many calories, than too little.

Well you might be eating more - there's no way to know without a food scale. And if you over estimate too much, you're basically starving yourself, because you're not supposed to eat 1200, you're supposed to eat 1200 plus whatever you burn with exercise.

I looked at today's diary. There wasn't really any one thing that was calorific, just everything adds up quickly, doesn't it? It's good that you haven't really felt deprived yet. And there are definitely filling dinners that will fit in with what you have left - mostly homemade, but let me know if you want a couple of ideas.

I agree with others that maybe you can eat a bit more calories (especially when you're already trying to overestimate -- I do agree that weighing everything on a kitchen scale can definitely help you on that, though). You realize that you can also exercise to earn more, right? I'm a small woman and I seriously couldn't get by on just 1200 calories :laugh:

I made game out of portions when I started the goal was to eat with my eyes. 4 pounds of vegetables = 1 pound of extra lean ground turkey = 100 grams of almonds. I like to eat at least 2 pounds of food a day.

I would definitely up your calories and get a food scale. I read that you had a few chunks of imitation crab meat... you could probably stand to have a whole heck of a lot more. When I first weighed that on my scale I was going well over the measuring cup serving size on the package, but I still wasn't hitting the grams. It was way more than I ever thought it would be.

If you really don't want to raise your calories then you could mix in some exercise as someone else said so you have more to eat by the end of the day. I tried the 1200 limit when I first signed up for MFP and I only stuck with it for about 1 month. 2 years later I'm back and eating a lot more and still losing. It's much more sustainable this time :happy:

One of the dangers of very low calorie intake is that you will actually stop losing weight. Your body goes into survival mode and your metabolism will actually slow down. To counteract this, keep your goals to about a pound a week , and add some exercise.

Me and you are similar. I am eating the minimum at 1200/day, though sometimes it goes as low as 800. I do not see any negative side effects from eating only 800 calories in a day every once in a while so long as I am full. Most days I eat between 1000 and 1200 calories.

I have narrowed down my meals to two meals daily instead of three. It took my body getting used to, but I rarely feel hungry anymore. I eat a light brunch whenever I get hungry, typically around 10:30am to noon. My typical breakfast is either of these two:

-Eggs Benedict @ a mere 280 calories W/ 1 slice of bacon, 1 poached egg, 1/2 an english muffin, and 1/5th a package of hollandaise sauce. And it's REALLY filling.
-Southern Breakfast @ 302 calories W/ 2 slices of bacon, 2 scrambled eggs, 1 slice toast. No butter on anything unless I can compensate later.

Dinner is typically somewhere around 6:30 in the afternoon, and after eating a light brunch, you don't have to eat like a bird for dinner so long as you didn't do a whole lot of snacking throughout the day. I found it really keeps my diet going to have at least 1 really filling meal every day, and with almost 900 calories left, you can eat a TON of stuff. Some of my dinners:

-Tonight's Chili @ 550 calories W/ 1 serving of chili, 1/8 cup of shredded cheese, 1 dollop of sour cream, and 1/2 a small package of lays potato chips.
-Memorial Day's feast @ 758 calories W/ 1/4 rack of ribs, 3 tbsp of BBQ sauce, 1 slice garlic toast, 1 serving baked beans, and 1 clove broccoli
-Spaghetti and Meatballs @ 609 calories W/ 1 1/4 cup of spaghetti and meatballs and 1 slice garlic toast

And notice none of those actually get to be 900 calories, so you still have room to snack AND have a really filling meal. So you don't burn through all those calories on something not filling. Stay away from BUTTER, OILS, and NUTS because all of those things will burn through your calories like nothing! Cheese can be pretty bad too if you don't watch it. Don't drink any liquid calories either.

Protein generally rates higher in satiety (the feeling of fullness after a meal) than carbohydrates or fat, so you may want to try incorporating more protein into your diet and see if that helps. I also agree with the poster that suggested you do some cardio and then eat the calories back.

http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/87/5/1558S.full

Good luck!

Yes, I have this problem too. A couple hundred here and there and you've already eaten more than half your daily allowance. It sucks but keeping track of it as you eat is probably the best thing you can do to adjust in real time. Imagine just trying to wing it and unintentionally overeating so many calories.