1200 calories?
teggychick25
Posts: 3 Member
How on earth am I supposed to eat only 1200 calories? I stay away from carbs and sugars and tried to eat only lean meats. but by the end of the day I always seem to go over the 1200 calorie goal. how is everybody doing this? I stay at home and cook 90% of our meals, so eating out is not an issue. and when I say cook, I mean cutting up fresh vegetables and lean meats and cooking everything by hand. I just don't know what to do 
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Replies
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Can I ask how you got to the 1200? Are you quite active? I'm 5ft2, have a sedentary job but work out 4 times a week and I am on 1500 to lose 0.5 per week. I used to have 1200 and it was HARD.0
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I use intermittent fasting to keep my cals low...I simply don't consume calories until 4 or 5pm, and then I can 2 big meals and a small dessert, before I sleep at like 10pm..
Been working for me for months, but I will say that on my days off, where I don't keep busy between 9am-5pm, I do struggle and often go over my goal by a couple hundred0 -
I stay at home with 2 little kids, so I'm not that active. I'm 5'4" and I need to lose 75 lbs by March. Which is 2 lbs a week. I'm getting up every morning before they wake up to exercise, but the 1200 is not counting that. When I do count the exercise it's easier to meet my day goal, but if I don't get in the exercise...then there is no way I can meet the 1200.0
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1200 is MFP's lowest minimum default & it's before exercise. So you have 2 choices; dial back your weekly weight loss goal or add exercise to give yourself added calories.
You don't need to steer clear of carbs (or sugar) to lose weight....I just eat regular food in smaller portions. I can't do 1200, and I'm older so 1200 is kinda close to my goal.
Just find a number you can live with for awhile. It's about staying consistent. That's less likely if you are miserable.0 -
teggychick25 wrote: »How on earth am I supposed to eat only 1200 calories? I stay away from carbs and sugars and tried to eat only lean meats. but by the end of the day I always seem to go over the 1200 calorie goal. how is everybody doing this? I stay at home and cook 90% of our meals, so eating out is not an issue. and when I say cook, I mean cutting up fresh vegetables and lean meats and cooking everything by hand. I just don't know what to do
Be sure you have lots of friends on MFP, review diaries. It has helped me find great food choices and new ideas I NEVER would have thought of myself.
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Thanks 0
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Why do you need to loose 75 lbs by March? Is it a self set or doctor set goal? It might not stick if you go that extreme- that is about 3 lbs a week.0
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I'm on a 1200c diet but I also go to the gym almost every day (I miss a day here And there) with that I take in 1500-2000c depending on how long my workout is0
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teggychick25 wrote: »I stay at home with 2 little kids, so I'm not that active. I'm 5'4" and I need to lose 75 lbs by March. Which is 2 lbs a week. I'm getting up every morning before they wake up to exercise, but the 1200 is not counting that. When I do count the exercise it's easier to meet my day goal, but if I don't get in the exercise...then there is no way I can meet the 1200.
I wouldn't call home with 2 little ones "not active". You could probably either increase you activity level or decrease the your weekly weightloss goal to increase calories some. If you can't get to 1200, it might mean you shouldn't be there.
Scooby calculator says you should be at about a bit over 1500 with a pretty big deficit. (I guessed at current weight)0 -
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danieltsmoke wrote: »I use intermittent fasting to keep my cals low...I simply don't consume calories until 4 or 5pm, and then I can 2 big meals and a small dessert, before I sleep at like 10pm..
Been working for me for months, but I will say that on my days off, where I don't keep busy between 9am-5pm, I do struggle and often go over my goal by a couple hundred
How do you make it until 4 or 5 before eating? I would be moody,have a headache and be soooo hungry!0 -
teggychick25 wrote: »I stay at home with 2 little kids, so I'm not that active.
With two little kids, you are probably at least lightly active. MFP's sedentary setting is super sedentary. I'd change that.
Also, at 5'4 you just have a lower maintenance than bigger people (I'm 5'3, it's annoying, I know). There's nothing wrong with doing, say, 1.5 lb/week. Having a calorie goal you meet consistently is more effective than a more aggressive goal you struggle to meet and often don't, and many will end up eating more if they feel deprived.
That said, I did 1250 for a while at the beginning and found it was okay if I ate only three meals (having regular-sized meals is more important to me than snacks), ate lots and lots of vegetables (I'm a volume eater), focused on lean meats and kept my portions of starchy stuff (like potatoes) small.
My diary back in March through summer '14 shows this if you want to look.0 -
teggychick25 wrote: »How on earth am I supposed to eat only 1200 calories? I stay away from carbs and sugars and tried to eat only lean meats. but by the end of the day I always seem to go over the 1200 calorie goal. how is everybody doing this? I stay at home and cook 90% of our meals, so eating out is not an issue. and when I say cook, I mean cutting up fresh vegetables and lean meats and cooking everything by hand. I just don't know what to do
There is a thread in this forum section if you feel you want/have to go down to 1200 calories it's a mostly great discussion with a lot of sensible real life ideas of getting the best bang for you buck out of that number...I believe the thread is entitled "1200 calories how do you do it". Hope this helps in whatever you decide.
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You can get there in 1200 calories/day, but it takes a lot of advanced planning. I am on 1200 calories (trying to lose 50 lbs in a year) - I drink a protein shake for breakfast at 9 am, which gets me to lunch at 1 pm (160 calories for a 30g protein shake). Lunch is a salad with a lean protein (~400 calories), which leaves me with a little over 600 calories for dinner. Soup is a great low-cal option is you get to the end of your day with less calories than you'd hoped. I go over sometimes, but if you shoot for 1200, then your overage still lands you at 1500 or so, which is a good buffer.
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esaucier17 wrote: »danieltsmoke wrote: »I use intermittent fasting to keep my cals low...I simply don't consume calories until 4 or 5pm, and then I can 2 big meals and a small dessert, before I sleep at like 10pm..
Been working for me for months, but I will say that on my days off, where I don't keep busy between 9am-5pm, I do struggle and often go over my goal by a couple hundred
How do you make it until 4 or 5 before eating? I would be moody,have a headache and be soooo hungry!
I just heard about IF, thought it would help me reach deficit goals, and started trying...the first couple days were harder but now I barely think about food for the first half of my day, especially as I'm busy at work...as I said, on days off I struggle hahaha.0 -
1200 calories for 6 months here. Almost at goal, but I'm also petite and set at sedentary. I eat back half of my exercise calories (I burn 250-700 calories/day ).
It's do-able, but it takes some getting used to.
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I did 1200 calories / day for 2 months, along with going to the gym 10 times / week (twice / day for 5 days, cardio for 7 of those times). until I burnt myself out after a period of time.
1200 calories is easy.
3x 400 calorie meals.
And if you're only eating lean meats and veggies. Then its even easier.
Chicken. 300 grams is like 70-90g protein, and under 350 calories. (2 large chicken breast fillets).
Mushrooms, broccoli, baby carrots, kale and spinach, lots of green veggies, and even frozen mixed veggies (I have ones that come in 125g bags that you microwave to steam cook them and are only 70 calories / bag).
My dinners for the last few nights have been like 60g protein from lean marinated chicken. + 125-200g of those steamed veggies, that are 70-100 calories.
And many other fruits and veggies are super low calorie.
chicken, tuna, turkey, haddock, plaice, cod, and a good few other lean fishes are all 'roughly' the same protein/calories per gram.
You can buy sandwhich breads/thins, that are under 100 calories. (where as 'most' slices of bread are 80ish calories, so being +-160 calories in a sandwhich without even including butter / spreads, meat and/or cheese).
I buy these 96 calorie sandwhich thins/breads, a little bit of butter, and a decent helping of chicken or turkey slices (tikka/cajun if i want some flavour), and i have a full sandwhich with 20ish grams protein, and under 200 calories.
So straight up, your 1200 calorie limit is ridiculous. You're being too aggressive with your weight loss / week goals, you're being too lazy and just being sedentary or almost comatose on a day to day basis. Or you're already an Extremely underweight person to begin with and shouldn't be losing more. Its one of those 3 that your daily calories are as low as 1200. And any of those 3 reasons, is stupidity.
And if it had to be 1200 calories. Its still easy. Random example meals for one day.
Breakfast
Porridge + low fat protein milk = <200 calories
1 large egg scrambled with tiny bit of butter = <100 calories.
(20-25g protein)
Snack
Medium apple + a dozen or so grapes = <100 calories
(little to no protein)
Lunch
Sandwhich thin/bread + butter + chicken or turkey slices = <200-250 calories
(25-30g protein)
Dinner
200g Haddock fillet = <230 calories
200g steamed veggies = <110 calories
(40-50g protein)
Snack
Bar of chocolate = 200ish calories (minimum protein)
or
2 slices of wholewheat toast + peanut butter = 220ish calories (10-15g protein)
or
Protein shake = 100-200 calories (23-46g protein)
or
weight watchers desserts = 150-170 cal (think 5g protein)
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990 calories with 85-100g protein by dinner time. + Can get up to 40+g more protein depending on your after dinner snack for 200 ish calories, depending on your protein needs, and your cravings.
And that's including healthy / filling / wholesome carbs.0 -
look up layne norton on youtube. you shouldn't be starting out at 1200 calories. what are you going to do after you stall in 2-3months? 800 calories? first you need to figure out what maintenance is for you. do HIT cardio 3x a week (alternate between chasing kids and walking), lift weights 3x a week (as much as is possible with two kids at home, can use bodyweight exercises). After you've determined maintenance calories, then start cutting from there until you see 2lbs a week weight loss, it might be 1200, but it might be 1500. good luck!0
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Might be helpful to read. just a suggestion and hope it helps. best of luck
http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/1235566/so-youre-new-here/p1
http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10177907/most-helpful-posts-getting-started-must-reads#latest0 -
You can eat a lot on 1200 calories. I generally have a hard time getting to it, but I do eat high protein and lower carb per doctor's orders.
My mornings also start with about half a pot of coffee and I blow calories on creamer instead of eating, but that's more because I am not hungry in the AM.0 -
Can't agree with anyone who says 1200 is "easy"... I wouldn't be able to do it. It seems sensible to start with more calories and a slightly slower weight loss.
There's something to be said for not making yourself absolutely miserable.0 -
1200 a day IS hard. I've been aiming for 12-13 hundred a day, and some days it feels ok and I have trouble taking in all the food: other days it feels like such a tiny amount and I end up binge eating to make up for it. A diet you can succeed at and sustain will get you better results in the long run. Mindful eating is helping: sometimes I'm surprised at how little I need to feel full when I'm paying attention.
I go for small, frequent meals of around 200 calories each. The foods I try to choose are high-nutrient, low-calorie: fresh fruit and veggies like spinach and cabbage (anything in the crucifore family, which includes brussels sprouts and broccoli, kholrabi, bok choy); spaghetti squash is my new best friend! Almond milk is a great low-cal alternative. I build my menu around foods that will fill me up and nourish me, then add in higher-calorie foods. It takes a lot of spinach to get to 1200 calories If I'm sick of straight veg my strategy is typically to splurge, calorically speaking, on sauce or seasonings- curry, alfredo, etc.
I've noticed that for me, drinking water makes a huge difference: I feel full and I am not tempted to eat just because I'm dehydrated.
Here are a few suggestions for tasty mini-meals:
-5 ounces spaghetti squash, 2 oz tuna and 1/4 cup alfredo sauce (yummm! Trying it with broccoli for dinner)
-1/5 c frozen mixed vegetables, 1/2 c cottage cheese (I love Nancy's, it has active cultures!)
-1 c Greek yogurt with 1/4 c blueberries (Fage and Voskos are pricey but pack a ton of protein!)
-6 slices turkey with mustard; 4 oz grapes
-4 oz chicken, 4 oz shredded cabbage, 3 oz spinach (this is my go-to lunch, with dressings and add-ins. Hard boiled egg is also an awesome protein source here).
Pauline Nordin's Fighter Diet principles have helped me out a lot, although I haven't bough the actual diet plan.
Sorry about the novel. I'm really into nutrition lately Keep up the good work!
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Sidenote: you'd be surprised what a large filling breakfast can do for oyu during a day.
600-700 calories, I had this high complex carb, protein, and fat pancake (egg, protein powder, almond flakes, oatbran, milled flax seeds) for that amount of claories. Had it at like 7am. Didn't feel hungry (even while working for 9 hours), till 6pm, and even then, only had dinner because i didn't eat all day since that pancake, and was only feeling peckish, not overly hungry.
So that's another route you could try yourself with. A large nutritious breakfast, and see how far into the day that gets you. You may not even need or want to eat until dinner time. Then have a medium sized dinner, and you might squeeze in an after-dinner snack too0 -
check out this thread... http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/1318741/in-5-weeks-youll-lose-10lbs-why-is-it-not-working/p1
Because you are shorter, you are probably starting out with lower maintenance cals. Depending on how much you HAVE to lose (vs how much you WANT to lose), losing 85 pounds by March is potentially (ok, most likely) unrealistic.
If you have a life event happening on that date, then perhaps consider this...
Do you want to do everything possible (including harm yourself physically) so that you can hit that "75 pounds lost" goal - even if it means that you may be miserable up to that point, if not potentially sick...
or
Do you want to set some realistic goals, learn to adjust your eating, and go for a lesser weight lost (say 40 pounds), but have more energy and still look great?
If your goal is to look great, and feel great... I am VERY confident that the second option is the better choice.
And.. for the number geeks:
Crunching the math...
March 1, 2016 is 198 days away = approx 28 weeks.
At 2lb a week, that is around 56 pounds.
At 1.5 pounds a week, that is around 42 pounds
Unless you have a very high starting weight, I can say that you probably won't be able to hit or sustain a 2lb per week goal. It may be hard to even hit 1.5 pounds.
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Typically with that few calories the biggest challenge is your fat intake. If you do about 1 to 1.2 grams of protein per pound and 1 gram of carbs per pound your fat intake is probably pretty low. However I agree it depends on what your current weight is and how active you are with exercise.0
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@MireyGal76 I admire this kind of geekery.0
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I've been working on a 1200-1300 calorie discipline plan for about a month. I don't solely focus on the calorie count (which can make you crazy!), I focus more on the nutritional content. Each below is marked in servings.
Breakfast (between 250-300): 1 protein + 1 fruit (veggies if desired)
Lunch (between 350-400): 1 protein + 1 leafy green + 1 veggie + 1 taste enhancer (like butter or dressing)
Snack (between 100-200): 1 protein + 1 fruit or veggie
Dinner: (between 350-400): 1 protein + 1 starch/grain + 2 veggies + leafy greens + 1 taste enhancer
Snack (about 100): 1 fruit or veggie
I'm not a big fan of salads, but I have found ways to flavor the salads and make them tasty. I believe my palate is changing to actually look forward to and enjoy the variety of salads I can make. And I am a big fan of starches so this has been a challenge. My go to snack at night actually has become air-popped popcorn - even though it's an additional starch, it also is very filling and helps with sleeping better.
I have found this plan to be very filling and helps me not miss the junky stuff I used to eat. Am I successful every day? No, and that's ok....it helps to look at the long term goal rather than the short speed bumps along the way.
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teggychick25 wrote: »How on earth am I supposed to eat only 1200 calories? I stay away from carbs and sugars and tried to eat only lean meats. but by the end of the day I always seem to go over the 1200 calorie goal. how is everybody doing this? I stay at home and cook 90% of our meals, so eating out is not an issue. and when I say cook, I mean cutting up fresh vegetables and lean meats and cooking everything by hand. I just don't know what to do
I get 1520 calories before exercise, and I exercise. My body seems to want at least 1800 calories. I'm losing 1 pound per week and am not suffering. If I were miserable, this wouldn't be sustainable.
Do try bumping your activity level up to Lightly Active and see if that helps.
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NJGamerChick wrote: »@MireyGal76 I admire this kind of geekery.
:flowerforyou:
I am a total spreadsheet geek. lol
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I aim for an average of 1200 per day but not each day. I incorporate 5:2 fasting. So two days a week I only have 500 calories. I do a modified version of the diet so two days I only do 1,000 cal as well. After that three days a week are 1800 calorie days.
For me it is becoming easy to follow and as I figure out the right foods, and have the money to buy the right foods, I am sure it will even get easier.
I face issues such as ITP, IR/pre-diabetes, pcos, and anemias so for me to lose weight I start out with a lower bmr/caloric need - thus the 1200/day average where others might be able to lose at 1500/day or greater.0
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