"Just Fit it in to your Daily Allowance"
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unsuspectingfish wrote: »I know different things work for different people, but I said "screw it" to MFP's recommendations for daily calories, figured out what my maintenance calories would be for my goal weight, rounded down to the nearest hundred, and changed my daily goal to that. I'm eating 2,100 a day and still losing, and I've already figured out what I can eat while maintaining, so that's a bonus.
That's exactly what I did!!
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doktorglass wrote: »Cheat what? It fits in our calories.
My suggestion was that if she wants a treat (now and again), go for it even if it doesn't fit into her calorie allowance (i.e. cheating your calorie allowance). "Cheating" however, is not the best of words though.0 -
My two tricks to stay within 1200 kcal: get at least 800 kcals in by the afternoon to avoid overeating at night, and I drink (too much) a lot of diet coke. It makes me feel full. Those two things help me stay within 1200 kcal, (short, only slightly overweight, and very very sedentary, despite of my Insanity dvd's, my gym membership, and my weekly running buddy).
However, for the first time in my dieting life, I am not too strict about things. I am combining living with losing weight. Not my usual MO: that would be dieting hard for a few weeks, slim down, then get right back to my old habits.
I don't feel hungry at 1200 kcal, I do feel hungry below 1100 kcal.0 -
I started on 1200 but it was too low for me to sustain so I reduced my goal from 2lb a week to 1. I am now nearer my goal so am set to 0.5 a week and eat 1610. I find that figure takes some effort to stick to (unless I am 'dieting' hard - and where's the fun in that?!) so I eat back a percentage of my exercise calories in order to have those treats that make it sustainable. If I know that a take away meal or other big calorie meal is on the cards I will look at my weekly average. As long as I am within the weekly limit I'm happy.
OP, you quite rightly say that what you are doing now in not sustainable for life so why not increase the calories and take a couple more months to get to your goal?0 -
People on 1200 calories generally don't have that much to lose. I only need to lose 10 pounds, and because I'm at 146 it won't come off with a higher calorie count. I could not do it every day without eating back some of those calories after exercise. I do have small treats, but only after a day of 8-mile hiking, for example. I have to be super diligent if I'm not exercising. And I don't stress out if I go 50 or even 100 calories over. You just have to realize that everyone is in a different "program" and their advice may not work for you.
not so much
I only have 10 to lose and do it on 1800 a day.
It's all based on stats no how much you have to lose.
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People on 1200 calories generally don't have that much to lose. I only need to lose 10 pounds, and because I'm at 146 it won't come off with a higher calorie count. I could not do it every day without eating back some of those calories after exercise. I do have small treats, but only after a day of 8-mile hiking, for example. I have to be super diligent if I'm not exercising. And I don't stress out if I go 50 or even 100 calories over. You just have to realize that everyone is in a different "program" and their advice may not work for you.
not so much
I only have 10 to lose and do it on 1800 a day.
It's all based on stats no how much you have to lose.
Yup it's based on your TDEE and rate of loss required not your weight0 -
Any woman with a TDEE of 2200 or less and wanting to loss 2 lbs a week would have goal of 1200 in MFP. That's a pretty large range of weights. But if people are doing what they ought to be doing, they will be averaging more than 1200 calories anyway, since they will be putting in at least 150 minutes of exercise each week and will be eating whatever calories they burn doing that. Granted, we're talking something like 1280 calories per day rather than 1200, but it is more than 1200 and more exercise would mean it is even more.0
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Answering the original OP question:
I'm on 1200 and I do have ice-cream every day, often more than 1 time a day and it's not rare for me to have some chocolate on the day too. My ice-cream is not low calorie and I prefer milk chocolate. I don't add exercise calories and I can't remember the last time I went over. There were holidays and family gatherings and I stayed under just fine.
There's no trick here. I just keep my portions small. I buy ice-cream in tubes, so I have 100% control over my portions. Sometimes 30g is enough to enjoy with a cup of coffee. Other times it's 50g or maybe a 2nd serving too. I may also have another serving at a later time but I rarely go over 100g combined for the day. My chocolate has big squares but they are very thin too, so they come to just 10g but I can have a lot of little bites as I sip my coffee. If there's cake on the table, I'll have some too. Even a very calorie dense cake is fine as long as my portion is small.
My typical dinner is also a dessert actually but it's filling. I usually go for 100-120g of cottage cheese or greek yogurt with 1/3 of banana mashed and some berries on the top.
The rest of my food is usually filling and has decent volume. I don't do sweet beverages or milk (not a fan in general). I have small portions of bread or none at all. I prefer chicken or turkey to any other meat. I have a decent pan and cook without oil most of the time. I don't usually put dressings on my salads. Veggies are part of the most of my meals. They go with eggs, meat, fish, seafood. Sometimes I snack on them before starting on other more risky food.
I feel full enough on 900-1000 calls of 'proper food' and the rest is usually spent on the desserts. It's doable on 1200 and it should be even easier on higher calorie goals that you can choose for yourself.0 -
What calculator does MFP use by default that it's constantly telling people to go to 1200, regardless of how tall they are or how much they have to lose?
One where you can choose 2 lbs as a goal and it doesn't include exercise in the calculation.
I would imagine that most women with desk jobs (or the equivalent) have maintenance of no more than 2200 without exercise.
That's why it's a shame that people often don't understand about how the MFP plan works re eating exercise back and why it's not counterproductive to do so, as is often claimed.0 -
Congrats on the loss, OP. Sounds like you are off to a good start. I started basically like you, feeling fine and happy on 1200 (well, 1250, since I wanted wiggle room) and working up to regular exercise habits and the extra calories from that.0
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Off to a great start. I didn't eat 1200 calories a day. There's no reason to do that for a long range effort. I was comfortable with about 1450 calories a day plus a usual daily workout of anywhere from 3 - to 500 extra calories of burn.0
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MikaMojito wrote: »I know I'm going against what everybody else is saying, but it IS possible to fit in treats even at 1200kcal.
Eg my diary today:
Breakfast: 50g pumpernickel bread with jam (it's VERY dark bread and keeps me quite full for a long time)
Lunch: Mixed leaf salad, 3 slices garlic bread and a sausage
Dinner: two big bowls of vegetable and sausage soup.
And now I just had 20g of very good, rich chocolate and I'm actually under 1200. Not because I meant to but because I was so busy all day and when I got hungry, nothing was acailable and now it's too late to eat more. I'll have some extra calories tomorrow.
Yeah I'd be completely starving with that, lol.
Yeah, that's like lunch, not an entire day!
OP, you could definitely increase your calories and still lose weekly, especially if you've started to exercise. Most of my weight loss happened on 1800-2000 calories per day.
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Consider this: set your goal a little lower- like 1.5/week- and go with that calorie limit, but don't feel obliged to eat quite that much on some days. I'm 5'9" & about 236 right now and have a limit of 1760, but most days I have been under 1500 (not on purpose necessarily- just worked out that way and didn't feel the need to eat more). Some days I really want the full amount, including for treats, some days I want some of those exercise calories. But 1200 right off the bat really leaves you with no where to cut later. Wish you success!
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I don't really understand why 1200 calories seems low? I am doing 1250 and I am full and eat healthily (or so I think). BUT, I prepare meals that are well balanced and are not calorie rich. Of course I love the healthy low calorie vegetables, salads, etc. I never eat bread, and I consume 12+ glasses of water per day.
I use the website Cooksmarts, and a book of 365 Healthy Meals (1 a day) to plan meals on a weekly basis that fit perfectly into this scheme. I exercise about 100 calories worth per day, and I don't eat it back. I now MAKE everything that I eat, from homemade hummus, to homemade pita chips, to broccoli rice.
The key is to have fun with the meal planning, for which I am extremely proud.
1250 isn't ridiculous, at least for me. It is all about planning, and knowing what you can "fill-up" on without adding ridiculous fruitless calories.
Good Luck! -- of course, I've only been REALLY at it for 40 days on MFP
but since January I've lost nearly 60 lbs.
It sounds like you are doing a good job and what you are doing is working for you. If you are eating very healthy, no bread, no treats 1200 may be doable. The OP asked, however, how people fit other foods in while keeping on track with sustainable weight loss. It is true that if you are going to eat 1200 calories, never exercise to get more and not have "cheat days" where you go over you are going to find it difficult/impossible to work in the occasional cheeseburger, meal out or piece of cake.
I agree with others that most people who cut to 1200 to start just end up quitting. It just isn't enough for most people to not feel deprived. I am obese and after 3 months of 2 lb a week loss I upped my calories to 1 lb a week. I also exercise significantly 6 days a week just for the extra calories. I decided that if I feel like eating super healthy I can easily eat under my calories on those days but I have given myself permission to eat the higher amount when I want to. That means once or twice in a week of eating veggies, lean meats, dairy and other nutrient rich healthy low calorie choices I choose instead some chicken nuggets and fries or something that you termed "fruitless calories".
This feels healthy and sustainable to me and I am doing much better both emotionally and results based than the multiple times I set myself up for failure with too hard a calorie cut.0 -
1200 calories is fine if you eat the right foods. It's actually pretty easy for me.
Sadly, a lot of people on MFP don't care about nutrition or what they put in their mouths. As long it fits into 1400 calories or whatever, they'll eat crap. That mentality is very unhealthy, so don't slip into that. Eat the best, cleanest, fresh food you can find and you'll be able to stuff yourself. I do that every day and lose weight.0 -
Sophsmother wrote: »1200 calories is fine if you eat the right foods. It's actually pretty easy for me.
Sadly, a lot of people on MFP don't care about nutrition or what they put in their mouths. As long it fits into 1400 calories or whatever, they'll eat crap. That mentality is very unhealthy, so don't slip into that. Eat the best, cleanest, fresh food you can find and you'll be able to stuff yourself. I do that every day and lose weight.
I have no idea what you're basing this on. The people here, generally, seem really passionate about nutrition. But they don't confuse that with eliminating certain foods from their diet forever.0 -
Hello - I've been on 1200 for 59 days and I'm doing fine. I'm only 5'1" and have an office job. The first time I tried MFP I moaned at my husband that it was too little food for me and he just said "you've got to exercise". He was right. I go on my spin bike most days for 30 minutes and sometimes an hour if I'm watching something awesome on telly at the same time. I eat all the calories I earn from that. You'll see other members saying you only need to eat half back or none at all and that's their call. I do eat it (and drink it) back and I'm down from 11 stone 2lb in February to 9 stone 13lb now. (I think I'll be back up to 10 stone 2lb tomorrow as I was ill last week so dropped 4lb drastically.)
If you're hungry and grumpy you won't stick at it and people won't like you in real life. Don't be a martyr to the process, find a physical activity you enjoy, do it regularly, log everything and eat a wide variety of food. Good luck.0 -
Sophsmother wrote: »1200 calories is fine if you eat the right foods. It's actually pretty easy for me.
Sadly, a lot of people on MFP don't care about nutrition or what they put in their mouths. As long it fits into 1400 calories or whatever, they'll eat crap. That mentality is very unhealthy, so don't slip into that. Eat the best, cleanest, fresh food you can find and you'll be able to stuff yourself. I do that every day and lose weight.
Do you have any of those posts, I hear a lot about them but yet to see one.
I see the people of MFP advocating eating a well rounded diet while making sure they fit room into their diets for treats that they may want.....you know moderation...
I would believe that the mentality that you can only eat certain foods and need to cut out others to be unhealthy.
I don't think I've ever seen anyone actually advocate eating "crap" either.0 -
Sophsmother wrote: »1200 calories is fine if you eat the right foods. It's actually pretty easy for me.
Sadly, a lot of people on MFP don't care about nutrition or what they put in their mouths. As long it fits into 1400 calories or whatever, they'll eat crap. That mentality is very unhealthy, so don't slip into that. Eat the best, cleanest, fresh food you can find and you'll be able to stuff yourself. I do that every day and lose weight.
Well isn't that just an interesting little statement.
Those say fitting it in eat the best food...and I am sure we make sure it's clean (washed fruits etc) and of course fresh who wants to eat spoiled food...ick.
I still eat my chocolate everyday and lose to...so neener.
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Sophsmother wrote: »Sadly, a lot of people on MFP don't care about nutrition or what they put in their mouths. As long it fits into 1400 calories or whatever, they'll eat crap. That mentality is very unhealthy, so don't slip into that. Eat the best, cleanest, fresh food you can find and you'll be able to stuff yourself. I do that every day and lose weight.
I haven't found this to be the case at all. I care about nutrition whether I'm eating 1250 or 2000, and so do my friends, although we don't all have the same ideas as to what works for us as an overall diet--which is why we are different people and all.
I wonder why you think otherwise.
As for fresh food, I don't eat spoiled food, of course, but I'm always confused how people think they have fresh produce available in all seasons unless they just are lucky in where they live. I live in Chicago, so if I ate only fresh local produce I wouldn't be able to eat fruit or veggies much of the year. Also luckily for me I don't think that I have to be so limited in my thinking to care about nutrition, and so while I enjoy fresh and local I also eat canned tomatoes and frozen veggies and various things carted in from elsewhere.
As for "clean," not going there, as no one really means anything consistent about it. I think my food is "clean" in all meaningful senses, and that includes the oatmeal I ate this morning and the ice cream I ate last night, as well as the fruits and veggies (some local, others not) I also ate with breakfast. Beyond that, I don't really care if someone else thinks bread is "unclean" or such nonsense. Heh, so I guess I've decided I'm a "clean" eater, since if you asked me if I eat "unclean" food I don't think so.0 -
I have never seen anyone advocate a nutritionally poor diet on here except for the occasional newbs trying to justify something like a "detox diet" or something.
What I have seen is IIFYM which means "if it fits your macros" and that's not just calories. ..it means if you meet your nutrition goals and have calories left over.
It does not mean eating 1200 calories of Twinkies and ice cream though some idjits try to accuse moderation proponents of advising that.0 -
Hi,
I've been using MFP for a couple weeks now. I find the forum really interesting and helpful. I'm really curious about a statement that I read quite a lot; "eat whatever you want as long as it fits within your allowance".
I'm on 1200 calories a day, so realistically I don't have a lot of calories to play around with. Even with making my meals better 'value for calories', I just have not got spare calories kicking around to treat myself to an indulgent dessert or a full takeaway or a bag of sweets or a bowl of coco pops at the end of the day.
I'm eating well and don't feel hungry for the most part so that's all good. I just know I'm on this weight loss journey for the long haul and at some point I'm going to want to have 'treats' without having to sacrifice a meal.
So I guess I'm wondering how people on 1200 calories do it?
kelziemba,
You have 102 pounds to lose and you're eating 1200 calories a day? Not good. You need to raise your calories. I bet with a much higher calorie goal you will still lose 2 pounds a week.
What helps me every single day, and what helped me during my weight loss journey, is to do the following things:- I weigh all my food
- Log everything I eat in grams, sometimes ounces
- Do my own research to ensure that I am using accurate food entries
- I use a heart rate monitor to track cardio because so far it's been most accurate for me
- I eat most, if not all, of my exercise calories back
- I rinse and repeat every day.
Early on, I read stickies, personal stories, and researched, so that I could find information for successful weight loss.
Do the things above, raise your calorie goal, and then work in a treat as often as you are comfortable. Deprivation often leads to failure. 0 -
MFP is full of food bullies who simply don't understand that some of us, who are short female people past a certain point in our lives, can exist on less than 1200 calories a day most days and be quite happy with our lots in life. My RMR was recently tested at 1460 in a weight clinic, where it had previously been tested at 1060ish many moons before I started running hard 3 times a week and I was called a liar and the integrity of the clinic (which is attached to our hospital) was called into question.
My advice is to ignore those voices and pay attention to those of us who are saying that it is quite easy to live on 1200 calories a day. It's doable and comfortable and not that hard long term. (I can still wear my wedding dress and I got married 25 years ago, so yeah. Not a big deal. Appetites should correlate to size and metabolism, after all.)
Right now I have my counter set to 1000 net calories a day at the moment, but I know I'll go 1800 on the weekends, which averages out to 1230, more or less, per day, which, because I'm using a fitbit and have my settings done that way (so that every bit of physical activity I get, even getting up from my chair at work to go gossip in someone else's cube, earns me calories), means I'm at a setting to lose slowly. I can pop that up 200 calories a day and maintain, but I kind of want to be in a size 6 in September for some purely vain reasons and because the thinner I am the lower my diabetes risk is and the easier time my joints have supporting me when I run.
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MikaMojito wrote: »I know I'm going against what everybody else is saying, but it IS possible to fit in treats even at 1200kcal.
Eg my diary today:
Breakfast: 50g pumpernickel bread with jam (it's VERY dark bread and keeps me quite full for a long time)
Lunch: Mixed leaf salad, 3 slices garlic bread and a sausage
Dinner: two big bowls of vegetable and sausage soup.
And now I just had 20g of very good, rich chocolate and I'm actually under 1200. Not because I meant to but because I was so busy all day and when I got hungry, nothing was acailable and now it's too late to eat more. I'll have some extra calories tomorrow.
I agree you can fit in treats on 1200 calories, but with 102 pounds to lose, she is not eating enough to fuel her body. That's more the point than anything else. 0 -
Hi,
I've been using MFP for a couple weeks now. I find the forum really interesting and helpful. I'm really curious about a statement that I read quite a lot; "eat whatever you want as long as it fits within your allowance".
I'm on 1200 calories a day, so realistically I don't have a lot of calories to play around with. Even with making my meals better 'value for calories', I just have not got spare calories kicking around to treat myself to an indulgent dessert or a full takeaway or a bag of sweets or a bowl of coco pops at the end of the day.
I'm eating well and don't feel hungry for the most part so that's all good. I just know I'm on this weight loss journey for the long haul and at some point I'm going to want to have 'treats' without having to sacrifice a meal.
So I guess I'm wondering how people on 1200 calories do it?
When you exercise you get to eat more...0 -
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Food bullies? Seriously?0
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I decided to change my goal to lose more slowly so I can eat more (I felt hungry all the time on 1200 cal), and I exercise quite a bit. Exercise does double for me because it seems to decrease my appetite on exercise days and I get to eat more overall so the treats do fit in.
I also agree with those that suggest making your treats a REALLY YUMMY but smaller amount. I love the super dark chocolate bars with orange bits in them. They are so rich and a smaller amount satisfies me. Same with ice cream, I wouldn't eat the lower calorie stuff, I just eat a small serving of really good stuff.
Hope that helps.0
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