Alright people who supposedly get full on 1200, how do you do it?

Fats and protein
Nuts, chicken, and eating low calories food to fit in more good stuff

it depends. i have just under 1400 cals a day iirc, and am rarely hungry. ive found i can (usually) be full on 1200 if i eat my meals at home. I also workout (though we just moved and i havent rejoined my gym yet- will in the next couple of weeks...) and that provides extra calories (i generally eat back half to 3/4). however, even when i eat back exercise calories its pretty rare for me to go over 1800.

it all depends on what you eat and how its prepared, i suppose.

I struggle, but I am sticking too it. My diary is open and I eat 1200 / day. I don't eat very much though compares to other people. I usually eat 1200, then workout for 200 every day, and I'm not usually hungry. I've only been logging for 4 days this time - so maybe not a lot of help.

I feel like I'm always hungry too...even if I eat every 2, 3 or 4 hours. I try and eat more veggies but those calories add up too.

I used to get full on 1200 - hell, I used to get full on about 800 and would make myself eat more - I just chose the lowest calorie foods that I liked for each meal and cut down on unnecessary things like desert (since I usually ate desert not because I was still hungry, but because mmm desert). So before dieting a typical lunch would be a breakfast food sandwich (550 calories), orange juice (200 calories), chocolate bar (250 calories), then dinner would be, say, sausage and mash (1,168 calories) followed by a slice of chocolate cake (1400 calories, this was from a pub I'd go to for dinner a lot, I have no idea how they managed to fit 1400 calories into one slice of chocolate cake). So I went from that to a prawn sandwich for lunch (220 calories) with water and a jacket potato (550 calories) for dinner, plus any snacks I could fit in, usually fruit. Pretty much the same volume of food, but waaaaay less calories.

First, if you can eat more and lose weight, DO THAT. There is no blue ribbon for eating the fewest calories. You may wish to cut your calories later and you're going to want to have some to cut!!

Staying full on 1200 is easy as pie. Lots of healthy foods! You're going to need healthy foods to get your micros in, anyway. 1200 doesn't leave room for junk food. A wide variety of fruits and veggies (in all those pretty colors) will help you get your nutrients AND keep you very full. Any idea how many strawberries it takes to get to 100 calories? Me, either. I've never eaten that many in one sitting.

Fruits, veggies, no-fat dairy, whole grain breads, fish and lean, white meats. It gives you what you need, keeps you full and helps you stay healthy!

Some days, I'm full on less than 1200.

I suspect it's a combination of a few things:

1. They've just recently started, and it's still a mental game convincing themselves they're "full" - their hunger will catch up after a week or two.
2. They're not accurately measuring calories, and they're actually eating much more than that
3. They're eating a crap ton of lettuce, broccoli, and other cruciferous vegetables, which while seemingly 'healthy', will eventually leave them short of necessary fats and proteins.
4. Or, they actually are quite old, short and close to their goal weight, so that 1200 calories is actually a reasonable goal (probably ~1% of those actually eating 1200 calories)

I'm a male who ate 1300 calories my first several months on MFP. I was not full, but I was also not hungry. I learned that about 200 calories every 3 hours during the day, combined with a 500ish calorie dinner was sufficient for me to avoid hunger. I wouldn't want to go back to 1300 calories, but it was doable

Drinking a ton of water. Eating a lot of protein and fiber. Filling up on veggies. After a week or so your body gets used to it because your stomach shrinks. Well for me it does. I measure and weigh everything. My fiance thinks I'm nuts,lol... but you don't realize how much a serving is or the amount you really should eat if you don't. But there are days I am more hungry than others so I will have a small snack...yogurt, a handful of nuts, an apple....I don't let myself starve.

My thought is if someone is truly full on 1200 calories/day they are not very active, elderly, or have not been doing it for very long. I noticed some people on this thread who have responded that they do feel full on 1200 calories/day have days where it is much higher or have skipped days of logging. I prefer to pick a sustainable number and not jump around too much.

I'm in maintenance but when I was losing weight, I ate about 1200-1300 calories per day and was rarely hungry. I did it by cutting down on high calorie desserts like apple pie which I used to eat quite often and I stopped drinking my calories. I also had foods like oatmeal, soups (usually the non-cream based ones), chilies, and lean proteins. These are all food that I enjoy and fill me up.

Not too long ago I made a dinner of a chicken thigh, 5 oz of broccoli, and 5 oz of mushrooms (since that's what I had in the house). All cooked in butter (not a ton of butter, like 21g if I recall). I ate and ate and only kept eating because I needed to meet my calorie goals (since I knew I'd be hungry the next day if I didn't eat enough). It wasn't even 500 calories, if I recall. I said to myself at the time "self, next time add some G.D. rice or potatoes." The problem with this meal was it was too much volume vs. the mouth satisfaction I received (though I knew long-term the calories, protein and fat would last me for a long time).

There's food you'll find more filling and satisfying. I enjoy experimenting and trying out new things and "hacking" my meals, so I achieve whatever goals I've set recently. Make your diary public, and ask us! Doing something like adding 1T of chia seed to your yogurt (just as a for instance) can drastically increase how long that yogurt keeps you full. But little "tips" like that for being satisfied on fewer calories can vary from person to person and there's lots of personal experience and experiments you'd have to do. But hey, you eat every day, right? Every day is a new chance to experiment if you stick to the basics of CI<CO for weight loss.

I eat more than 1200 calories on average. But there are days where I can't do it unless I eat chocolate, peanut butter, cheese and other high-fat things.

[YES, I'm a nerd:] For me, each food has a mental rating of (1) how much volume is it in my stomach (2) how tasty do I find it (3) how long will I be sustained on the calories physically (4) how long will the feeling of satisfaction last (5) how many calories/nutrients does it have and (6) how much does it cost (numeric ratings are on a scale of 0-10)

8oz of tap water would rate 3-0-:00-:30-0-$0
8oz of whole milk would rate 3-1-1:30-:45-150(+nutrients)-$0.65
8oz of diet dr. pepper would rate 3-5-:00-:30-0-$0.20

Which one I choose depends on my goals.

For me it was impossible to do at 1st because significantly cutting my Caloric intake, felt like I was "Crash Dieting". So that I don't yo yo & give up, only to try again after gaining back, what I lost & an additional 10 Pounds, I just decreased my Caloric intake by about 100, every week; until I reached 1200.

ceoverturf wrote: »

I suspect it's a combination of a few things:

1. They've just recently started, and it's still a mental game convincing themselves they're "full" - their hunger will catch up after a week or two.
I have lost 45lbs and got another 55lbs to go, so way past the mental "convinced I am full game"

2. They're not accurately measuring calories, and they're actually eating much more than that
I weigh everything I eat

3. They're eating a crap ton of lettuce, broccoli, and other cruciferous vegetables, which while seemingly 'healthy', will eventually leave them short of necessary fats and proteins.
I eat salad with proteins for lunch and vegetable with my dinner.

4. Or, they actually are quite old, short and close to their goal weight, so that 1200 calories is actually a reasonable goal (probably ~1% of those actually eating 1200 calories)
I am not old or close to goal

Typical day:
Breakfast quark with fresh berries 200kcals (10g proteins), can be a bit less or more depends on how much and type of berries I add

Lunch chicken or tuna salad 250kcals depending on what I put in my salad, I generally use a full chicken breast
Sometimes I replace the chicken/tuna with smoked mackerel

Snack 100-150kcals my current favorite is quiche cupcakes http://www.slenderkitchen.com/quiche-cupcakes/
http://www.willcookforfriends.com/2014/04/crustless-mini-quiche-single-serving-breakfast-muffins.html

I am now left with an average of 600Kcals for dinner or dinner and a treat. My dinner varies greatly, from a home made curry to spaghetti and meatballs. Burger on a potato waffle with a fried egg or bacon, with mushrooms and salad on the side. Fish/White meat and steamed veg, stir fries w/rice noodles, steak with fried mushrooms (I love mushrooms) and steamed veg, if I have left over calories to spend, I'll add a potato waffle or have dessert. I use full fat butter (not margarine) and olive oils.

On days I work out I eat more than 1200Kcals (up to 1400) and will add avocado or cottage cheese to my lunch time salad and a sprinkling of seeds.

Today for dinner I am having spicy/ovenbaked cauliflowerhead with cod, green beans and pesto and fruitsalad for dessert, so I am hardly feeling deprived and at weekends, my Sunday breakfast is normally a bacon buttie in a gluten free roll, or a GF roll with scrambled eggs and smoked salmon.

IF I want a glass of wine with my dinner I will of course have to forgo some of my food and I might feel a bit hungry depending on my food choices, but I generally try to plan ahead and stock up on protein as I find for ME high proteins keeps my hunger at bay.