Lower carb vegetarian needs help

Hi Jennifer I am vegetarian too and love it :-)
I don't know how you go with your vegetarian diet but I'm guessing that as you are eating 10 cups of popcorn a day it could be a little better perhaps?
First of all I think that calorie amount is way too low. Look up some threads on here about TDEE, NEAT etc and up those calories. You will still lose weight. I Understand you have the steroid problem too but I still think you could up calories.
Some ideas on what I eat... Breakfast... Porridge with grated Apple and cinnamon ( home made from proper oats) or a piece of garlic and olive oil sourdough with avocado and lime juice. Lunch ... Garlic roti with beans and feta and tomatos and spinach or lentil soup, dinner... Eggplant with garlic yogurt sauce and tomatos or indian or Asian curry, home made... And some weighted portions of nuts... I quite like cooking so our diet varies heaps during the week. We also probaly eat our body weight in kale and brown rice. Maybe get onto some good food blogs... The post punk kitchen is a goodie.
But I do think you need to up the calories. No one seems to do well on the 1200 it seems. Good luck and friend me if you want :-)

Hi there, former northern Ohioan here with family in your town :-)

I'm not vegetarian but my FIL is a very healthy 76-year-old who has been vegetarian for at least 50 years. Will add a few thoughts to the helpful ones above FWIW.

First of all, though, I'll say I'm doing just fine on 1200. Really, it hasn't been a problem. I don't eat breads or grains, so that does make it easier, and I'm also short. But seriously, I even fit cheesecake into my meals -- like, regularly (have a nice coffeehouse around the corner!) -- and it works. Besides, as long as you're getting exercise the calories go up.

If you're hungry, though, then your body might be telling you that 1200 isn't right for you now and you might want to lose a bit more slowly until you figure out what works.

That said ...

Mornings I do best on eggs. Often an egg-white omelette with filling of some kind (potatoes, eggplant and tomato, whatever), or fried eggs topped with a chutney / salsa. I find I don't do well at all on just yogurt and fruit, or even yogurt and nuts, which was my go-to breakfast before I started logging. If I don't have a high-protein breakfast I WILL go over for the day!

I don't eat lunch. It's not usual in this part of the world anyway. (I live overseas.) I just graze, keeping nuts, raisins and figs around. So basically I eat when I'm hungry throughout the day, but just little filling things. Figs are terrific as a low-cal filler-up, for me anyway. Nuts are high-cal but I personally find them filling.

Another thing I find useful as a filler-up is papadum, which is a thin Indian flatbread made of gram flour (hence gluten-free BTW) and sold readymade, so all you have to do is heat it on a pan. (No oil.) It takes like one minute. Northern Ohio has a big Indian community and Haldiram's is a major brand, so it shouldn't be too hard to find, maybe even at a regular grocery store.

I second the dinner suggestions -- if you cook from scratch, you have control!

Feel free to friend me if you'd like, I'm pretty active. Enjoy the fall colors over there!

You're probably hungry because you eat low carb.