Let's talk calories

If restricting to 1200 calorie per day leads to hunger and binging, then it won't work for you.

I am 5'4" and have lost 26 pounds (going from 211 to 185) in five months by eating between 1650 - 2100 calories per day. I set my MFP settings to maintenance (refresh every month at my new weight) and my goal is to eat under that as many days in a month as I can (so far 22 days in a month is my average). I give myself permission to eat up to my maintenance calories when I am crazy hungry, for special occassions, and during PMS. Sometimes I go over, but my deficits, most of the time off-set, those days. I am satisfied with the way I am eating, this method has drastically reduced my binge eating, and I am losing a steady 2-4 pounds per month. The more I practice logging and meal planning, the more of a deficit I create, but I rarely eat close to 1200 calories per day. Lately, I've been averaging about 1500-1800 calories per day and mu weight loss has not slowed down yet. I only walk and do some push ups, crunches, squats for my exercise currently. According to TDEE calulators, a lightly active 5'4" woman in her late 30s can maintain a weight of 135 pounds on 1730 calories a day. I think I could eat that way forever, so that is what I strive to do now.

So my thoughts are this
-you are not doomed to 1200/day
-you are not doomed to being obese
-perhaps to just be a bit more moderate in your approach

My diary is open, and you can add me as a friend if you like.

im 5'4" and 199. I'm successfully losing at 1500 even 1600/day sometimes. thats without exercise. (I'm slowly working on incorporating that piece).

I took your stats and plugged them into a TDEE calculator (http://iifym.com/tdee-calculator/). You use about 1900 calories per day if you're sedentary. That means that, without any additional exercise, you could eat anything below that number and lose weight. At 1500 calories you're eating 400 calories less than your body uses so you could expect to lose a little less than a pound a week. That sounds like great progress to me!

My guess is that you went straight to the most aggressive weight loss goal that MFP would set - 2 pounds per week (most people do). If so, you might consider resetting your goals to something like 1 pound per week and see where it sets you. You might be more comfortable following MFP's set-up that way.

If that's your normal diet, I'd say part of the problem with you feeling deprived and hungry all the time is your choice of foods. Where's the protein, fruit and veggies? I'm not saying you have to go to the opposite extreme but a little more balance to your diet will help. Instead of both candy bars and ice cream, pick one and have a reasonable serving. Have fruits, veggies, yogurt, etc for your other snacks. Instead of the cafeteria food, could you pack your own lunches?

You can lose with 1400-1500 calories a day I am only 5'2 mid 30's and I lost weight with eating 1750 a day when i first started. I think you will see a difference but it may take longer and be sure to measure and take pictures sometimes the scale refuses to move and it can make you want to just eat anyways.

beth0277 wrote: »

I should also add that I have had a big problem with binge eating in the past (in preparation for my "diet" that would start the next day that never happened) so it wouldn't be uncommon for me to eat probably 3,000 calories a day. Let's see...a "normal" day for me could look like this - breakfast- muffin (350 cals) coffee with loads of creamer (130 cals) lunch - fried foods from the cafeteria (1200 cals) snack - cookies and candy bar (400 cals) dinner - out to eat (2000 cals) pint of ice cream (1000 cals). Wow, that's actually 5080 calories. That wouldn't be an extreme day by any stretch of the imagination, so I'm hoping cutting to 1500 will help me since it's probably such a drastic change.

If you're making that drastic of a change no wonder you crash and burn! If that's what you used to eat in a day, I would suggest dropping gradually. Start at like 2,200 of healthy calories and nutrient rich food - lots of protein and healthy fats from things such as nuts and oils. Protein will keep you feeling fuller longer.

Are you working out? If you're working out, that gives you some more wiggle room for additional calories. Don't completely deprive yourself though - the combination of your previous diet with an extreme swing in the opposite direction will probably only add to how quickly you crash and burn. I still eat the things I love - chocolate, chips (MY ALL TIME FAVE!!!!) and so on but I eat them in moderation and I'm careful about over doing it. If you have issues with control and binge eating what I would maybe say is to cut our your trigger binge foods for bit until you learn, for yourself, how to control these foods and your intake of them - that's what I had to do. So for a while I didn't consume these foods but eventually I re-introduced them into my diet when I knew I wouldn't sit and eat a whole Costco sized bag of chips.

I have had issues with binge eating, too! If you ever need to chat or are looking for some support feel free to add me I'm definitely here to listen if you need me and share my experience with you.

Do you have it set to lose 2lbs/week? You can set it to a less aggressive rate. I changed mine to 1 lb/week and it raised my calories to 1330. When I exercise it gives me more. It is much easier for me to stick to this. I am a lot older but a similar size.

I am currently almost 5'2 204lbs and am trying to stick to a 1200 cal/day diet. I found it extremely hard at the start but then I started making better food choices and incorporating a lot of veggies into my diet and making sure i'm getting protein (usually through eggs). Now I do not feel near as hungry and someday I find it hard to hit the 1200 because I am eating lots of snacks and decent size meals; I am just choosing different foods. Don't get me wrong; I keep a bag of chocolate chips in the house for cravings and 1tbsp is only 70 calories.

The major thing I recommend is changing the types for food you eat and giving your body time to adjust. Take out the high calorie foods one at a time. Cutting those foods out cold turkey will just make you want them more. I went from eating out 3 meals a day to maybe eating out 4 times a month and I don't crave those high calorie greasy foods anymore. It took me 2 1/2 months but it worked.