New to MFP... 1200 calories per day
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I'm at 1500 cal and I'm losing for now. I may lower that in time. I also have a commitment to eat 1 protein, 1 carb, and 1 fat (1 fat is1 tablespoon) at each meal, veggies are free. It brings structure to my day and helps me from not overeating at one or more meals and then running out of calories by the end of the day. It also helps tremendously with the hunger which is the real reason I switched to that. I can't emphasize that enough. I also downloaded a 7 minute high intensity circuit training workout app for my phone. I do 2 sessions (14 minutes), 4 times a week. That burns 176 calories each time. That's not much but I can tell a huge difference in my strength and energy levels already. It also means I can then fit coffee creamer in my day without cutting my food calories. I only drink coffee on the weekends.0
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Lasmartchika wrote: »Like you might not eat enough... Read this and it'll show you how you can lose weight without depriving yourself from food.
http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/group/3817-eat-more-2-weigh-less
Read this ^^^
MFP's recommendations are based on your input. So if your input is off the recommendations will be off. Also these are only calculations and they may not be correct for you. Finally MFP assumes you'll be eating exercise calories back.
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You might need to start a little higher and then drop down once your stomach adjusts to smaller portions, but I highly suggest you start at the lower end and only eat back 1/2 your calories from fitness (add a 30 minute walk into each day to get a little bonus). When you get your fitness program going you'll get even more hungry and that's when it's REALLY tough to not eat as much.
When I have a week where I cannot manage to get to the gym much, I typically eat around 1300-1500/day.
Once I was working out 6-7hrs/week I could eat anything I wanted and still maintain or lose. But, once you're using to eating what you want and stop, then you're in trouble.
Also, young metabolism here.
I've found if you have time to increase exercise, do that, and then just eat healthier. I get on MFP whenever I need a food booster. (like this week I'm using it to remind myself to eat MORE protein!)-1 -
With 70 lb to reach a healthy goal weight, 2 lb / week is reasonable, but you're probably eating more than 2200 cal / day now, so going to 1200 is going to be too large of a drop, hard to maintain, miserable.sodakat wrote:Are you trying to lose 2 lbs per week... is that why your calorie goal is so low? If so, I strongly suggest you change it to 1.5 pounds a week to give yourself a few hundred more calories.
Also, unless 120 lb is a healthy goal weight for you, 1200 is probably low.
What she said. That. All of it.begin by eating as you normally do but logging all your food so you get an idea how many calories are in each thing you eat plus understand the portions you are eating right now. You really need to buy a food scale to get the greatest benefit from calorie counting...
Once you get a good grip on weighing foods and measuring liquids, and master looking stuff up in the database and making the accurate choice to log, you can begin eating portions that allow you to stay within your daily calorie goals.
Don't make too many changes at once or you may become overwhelmed. Take it slow, figure out the calories in your normal food choices, and cut back a little where needed.
And read these:
http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/1080242/a-guide-to-get-you-started-on-your-path-to-sexypants
http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10012907/logging-accuracy-consistency-and-youre-probably-eating-more-than-you-think
If you find out that you're currently eating 2500 cal to maintain 250 lb (just pulling a number out of the air for weight!) then cut 1000 to lose 2 lb per week, but that puts you at 1500 / day.
Don't eat exercise calories, or at least only do it rarely.
As you hit plateaus, nudge the calories down by 50, wait a week or two to see if you start losing again. Even if you eventually end up at 1200, it's much easier if you don't make a drastic change.
When I started, I was at 275, so needed 2750 to maintain. I aimed for 1700 & was consistently losing 1.5 - 2 lb most weeks. When I hit a plateau I cut some calories. Now I'm at 212 and aiming for 1400 cal, and usually not eating back any of my exercise cal. (Some days I'll have a couple hundred, which is usually less than 1/3 of what the machine says I burned, and 1/5 of what MFP claims.)
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I'm on 1200, and here's what it looks like on a typical day:
Breakfast: Refrigerator oats ~220 cals (oats, almond milk, yogurt, applesauce, fresh fruit, chia)
Snack: banana or single granola bar or string cheese: ~100 cal
Lunch: (leftovers): Homemade protein and veggie soup/stew/salad + fruit ~360 cals
Dinner: Roasted veggies ~ 90 cals, Lean (5oz) to fatty (2oz) protein ~ 200, starch (sweet potato, brown rice, rice noodles, farro) ~130
Dessert or evening snack (fruit w/ maple syrup, or popcorn, or rice cake with shmear of apple butter or low calorie chocolate ice cream bar, or 5 dark chocolate hersheys kisses) ~100
=1200!
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DianneLB1953 wrote: »Hi Dianne, from another Dianne - 1200 seems difficult to begin with but it soon becomes the norm. I find if you don't eat processed foods or wheat products, you actually get a lot of food.
I totally agree with Other Dianne about it being easier if wheat products are cut. I know lots of people do just fine without cutting wheat (or gluten or grains or however you conceive it), and I'm not super hardcore (e.g. I'll have a cake or truly good bread at a restaurant), but the thing about eating higher protein and lower carb is that it's just more filling. (For me, at least.) If I eat a bunch of carbs, I'm hungry later; if I don't, I'm really not.
But everyone learns what works for them with their own preferences, lifestyle, body, etc. There's no "One Size Fits All." Perhaps the coolest thing about logging via MFP is that I've learned a ton about calories and nutrients. I've always eaten in the organic/unprocessed/cooking-from-scratch mode, but never gave a whole lot of thought before to getting the most bang for the calorie buck. Frankly, I've never been interested in "dieting," and even though, yeah, I want to lose weight of course, I really don't conceive of this as a "diet," either -- just a way to have a healthy lifestyle.
Hopefully whatever we learn by doing all of this is going to be something that will stick with us even when we reach our goals and switch to "maintenance." So it's more about finding a way to eat that works for you, is realistic for the long term, and is healthy at the same time. At some point, we'll be able to up the calories for maintenance, but hopefully by then there will be some really good habits and a whole lot of knowledge established to make it lasting 0 -
Do more exercise and eat more
I did 1200 for the first 6 weeks or so, then 1400 and now 1600 - but I always had an extra 300 or so calories from walking more / workouts
It's certainly doable - I still eat less than 200 calories at breakfast, 3-500 for lunch and dinner and have snacks of chips, chocolate and / or ice cream or cava / red wine
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My calorie limit is higher (probably because I'm taller, and also likely heavier -- you burn a lot of calories lugging around 350 pounds!) but here's something I've found that helped me a lot: I took my daily calorie limit and divided it into the number of meals I wanted.
So think about your eating habits, and adjust accordingly. For example:
You could do three 400-calorie meals
Or four 300-calorie meals
Or a 300-calorie breakfast, 300-calorie lunch, 600-calorie dinner
Or 12 100-calorie snacks
Whatever type of eating strategy your body is the most accustomed to. (For example...do you like to graze throughout the day? Do you like big dinners? Do you need a big breakfast to get you through the day?)
In my case, I prefer light breakfast, snacking through lunch, a big-ish dinner and a small snack afterward. So I divided up my calories roughly into those categories. Then I got online (Pinterest is great for this) and started searching: "100 calorie snacks", "300 calorie breakfasts" etc. So I could see what exactly that looked like.
Then I drafted up a mix-and-match meal plan using the recipes I found online.
It's given me a lot of guidance and structure. I don't stick to it religiously, but it's a great jumping-off point when I don't know wtf to eat.
Good luck, and welcome! Feel free to add me if you want another buddy 0 -
MFP started me on 1200 and i was miserable, hungry and felt deprived, so i upped my calories, i dont eat them all most days, but mentally it has helped me, i am losing 2lbs a week still, and eat what i want, just in moderation.0
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some people find eating 1200/day easy, some find it impossible. I think some good advice has been offered here about other alternatives other than just starting right out of the gate to eat 1200/day.
When I first started I set my loss at .5 per week just so I could get used to logging and weighing etc. The weight came of WAY faster than 2 per week.
I can eat 1200/day pretty easily but I lose way way too fast if I do (I still have about 70 lbs to lose to be in "normal" weight range so I have a lot to lose). MFP will tell me to eat 1200/day to lose 2 lbs a week but either I horribly overestimate the few things I do not weigh or that estimate is entirely inaccurate for me.
One good thing about starting off slow is that you can get a sense of where you fall in terms of the estimate applying to you without having to make it more complicated than it needs to be. If you can lose 2 lbs per week by eating 1700/day wouldn't you want to do that instead?0 -
If that's you on the left, then 1200 is completely unrealistic. Just not smart. I don't understand how the mfp computer comes up with such low numbers for everyone. Or let me put it another way, its unrealistic to try to lose 2 pounds a week or more unless you are very very overweight. Yes you can do it but you will get hungry. And this is why a lot of people crack. Choose to cut your weight by half a pound and on the basis of my experience you will still lose fast than that for a while. Then you just reset your calories when weightloss slows as you lose weight.
Looking at you in the picture, if you are at least 5'5" then you can start by eating 1650 calories and still rest assured you will lose weight with no exercise at a steady pace for a while providing you are counting your calories accurately. I know this because i was able to achieve that and i think i was about your size or less when i started. Plus i was 50 when i started. You look younger.0 -
Good morning. I'm on 1200 per day. I have done it before and it works. Right now having a really hard time. I binge every chance I get. Not happy at all. Its easy to keep withing the calorie intake and not feel hunger. I guess today is a new start for me.0
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Another point about starting on the 1200, if you slow down on your weight loss, you really cant be cutting down any further on Cals, and remain healthy, so its lots of exercise and eat some back, which is not possible for some people. So it def depends on your circumstances, but a previous poster hit the nail on the head, if you can lose on 1700, wouldnt you rather
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DianneLB1953 wrote: »Hi Dianne, from another Dianne - 1200 seems difficult to begin with but it soon becomes the norm. I find if you don't eat processed foods or wheat products, you actually get a lot of food. I try to eat a couple of veggies with dinner and I love a small baked potato with just a half tsp of butter spread into it. Breakfast was the hardest for me because I used to eat a lot of breads, muffins etc for breakfast. I now have tried a few different 'pancake' recipes that i am finding filling. One of them - a ripe banana mashed with one egg and a bit of egg white, mix together and add a bit of cinnamon. Spray pan with Pam and make several small pancakes. You could top them with a bit of no sugar jam or even a tsp of maple syrup. The second one is 1/4 cup of pumpkin puree (not pie filling), mixed with one egg and some egg white and pumpkin pie spice to taste. Again cook with a bit of Pam Olive Oil spray and make several small pancakes. This is very nutritious. There are lots of tips and tricks and you will find what triggers your cravings. For me it is bread and bread products so if I stay away from them as much as possible, I find the rest okay. Also make sure you drink your water
Good luck on this journey and don't give up if you have a bad day or days - just dig in and keep going!
I am 48, SW of 191 and goal of 135. I started Oct 1st and put myself as sedentary. My goal is 1200 calories and I generally don't go very much over 1000. I never use my exercise bonus caloris and rarely feel hungry. I've lost 20 lbs in 7 weeks.0 -
melaniecheeks wrote: »A typical 1200 calorie day:
Breakfast - 1 egg, 1 egg white, scrambled with some veg (mushrooms, tomatoes, spinach) 150 cals
Lunch - salad leaves with a tin of tuna or grilled chicken 250 cals
Dinner- jacket potato with chicken curry or chilli 400 cals
Snacks - string cheese, 2 rice cakes with a laughing cow triangle, a satsuma, Options hot choclate - 50 cals each.
Oh wow. No offense, but that sounds like the most boring food menu ever. I don't think I'd ever be able to maintain a diet like that for very long.
OP - there are lots of options out there. Feel free to peak at my diary for some good food ideas.0 -
DianneLB1953 wrote: »Hi Dianne, from another Dianne - 1200 seems difficult to begin with but it soon becomes the norm. I find if you don't eat processed foods or wheat products, you actually get a lot of food. I try to eat a couple of veggies with dinner and I love a small baked potato with just a half tsp of butter spread into it. Breakfast was the hardest for me because I used to eat a lot of breads, muffins etc for breakfast. I now have tried a few different 'pancake' recipes that i am finding filling. One of them - a ripe banana mashed with one egg and a bit of egg white, mix together and add a bit of cinnamon. Spray pan with Pam and make several small pancakes. You could top them with a bit of no sugar jam or even a tsp of maple syrup. The second one is 1/4 cup of pumpkin puree (not pie filling), mixed with one egg and some egg white and pumpkin pie spice to taste. Again cook with a bit of Pam Olive Oil spray and make several small pancakes. This is very nutritious. There are lots of tips and tricks and you will find what triggers your cravings. For me it is bread and bread products so if I stay away from them as much as possible, I find the rest okay. Also make sure you drink your water
Good luck on this journey and don't give up if you have a bad day or days - just dig in and keep going!
I am 48, SW of 191 and goal of 135. I started Oct 1st and put myself as sedentary. My goal is 1200 calories and I generally don't go very much over 1000. I never use my exercise bonus caloris and rarely feel hungry. I've lost 20 lbs in 7 weeks.
Not too wise to consistently go under 1200 calories - you don't get your nutrients (scurvy anyone?)0 -
daisyduke40 wrote: »Good morning. I'm on 1200 per day. I have done it before and it works. Right now having a really hard time. I binge every chance I get. Not happy at all. Its easy to keep withing the calorie intake and not feel hunger. I guess today is a new start for me.
But your post completly contradicts itself - if you're feeling hungry right now and binging that is part of the reason why you need to "start over again" and it clearly isn't easy to stay within the limit and not feel hungry; you're binging all the time as you said yourself. I eat approx 2,000 per day and I don't feel hungry or deprived, I can control my binges and urges and I'm still losing. It's all about moderation. Feeling like you have to cut this much is what causes a lot of people to feel so crazy and only thing about "cheating" all the time. If you allow yourself small portions of the foods you want, don't you think you will have an easier time staying on track than just to go crazy and cut way, way down? I do - it's what is working for me.
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I would like to chime in on this. I am 46 year old female. My goals are quite a bit different however the 1200 calorie for me is aweful. I'm 5'4", 120 lbs and want to lose 10 lbs. Please do not laugh because back in June, I started with the female pre-menopause issues and it caused me and body to freak out. I am having to create a deficit to where I consume 975 or so. I have been exercising 5 times a week no big deal there just enough to get my heart, my muscles moving - I too marked my plan as sedentary. I gained 14 lbs in about 5 months due to my crazy crazy hormonal issues plus I did not know what in the world was going on and why I was not getting sleep, gaining weight, water retention, hot flashes from hell, night sweats and more... I have not lost, I have only been able to stop the weight gain and now I want to lose those extra pounds. No need to buy more clothes, I new ones already in the closet not worn yet. 1200 is hard and I am training my self to portion control, and eat a lot of empty calorie foods like raw veggies. Any one else in my boat? Any one not matter what your situation, can do the 1200/day. Give your self a week or two to adjust.....0
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Lean protein will really help keep you full and satisfied so make sure to get plenty of it!0
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Protien shakes (whey protein) are part of my pre and post workout, as well. But this is actually consumed for most as my breakfast and post workout. Shakes do take up a lot of calories for the day and it does hurt for eating a sensible lunch/dinner.0
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