On 1200 calories, meals and other tips?

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  • RosieJaynee
    RosieJaynee Posts: 12 Member
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    Hello, have you tried 'bootea'? it's great! You get a meal plan with it too which is actually really good :smile:
  • ChiliPepperLifter
    ChiliPepperLifter Posts: 279 Member
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    gonnadoityeah wrote: »
    Hello! Ashley here, 24 female, 5'8 and currently 188. My goal is 125/135 or whenever I feel most comfortable again. I'm currently working out, p90x2, and work a sit down medical job.
    Looking for friends tips, and recipes to stay in my 1200 calorie goal.

    Hey, so I plugged in your stats, and your TDEE (what you burn each day to maintain your weight, assuming you do p90x 3 to 5 times a week and work hard at it) is 2500. Which means you are massively undereating at 1200 and would lose more than 2 pounds a week. You are barely in the overweight category for your height. PLEASE take it from me that eating about 1800 or 2000 calories a day would be much better for you, and would result in MORE FAT LOSS and LESS MUSCLE LOSS. You will burn so much more muscle if you continue undereating. Please please listen to us that this isn't a great idea, your 1200 calorie goal.
  • maggierenee88
    maggierenee88 Posts: 352 Member
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    I agree with everyone else. 1200 is too low. I was in you boat did it for 3 years. Lost the weight yep..killed my hair and nails at the same time.
  • shrinkbaby
    shrinkbaby Posts: 7 Member
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    I'm 49, 5'4" weigh 158 and also wand to get to 125-130. I'm eating "clean" except for two rice cakes in the morning with almond butter. Everything else is mostly fish, fruit and veggies. I am also eating at or close to 1200 calories a day. I'm not doing p90x, but I am doing TurboFire by Beachbody. The fish and vegetables are so low in calories that I am eating quit a bit of food. I definitely don't feel hungry although my calories are low.
  • rosej31
    rosej31 Posts: 189 Member
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    Give it a try when your body feel hungry for more food add more food and go up on your calories
  • Roxannehcarter
    Roxannehcarter Posts: 28 Member
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    I am 5'6 180lb. I'm at 1390 calories, I walk a lot, do Tae Bo, I track etc. I keep going back up to my beginning weight, I've barely lost a thing.
    I was losing cms, but now that has stopped too...
    I need some info from you guys. I'm not eating "clean" again, that did not work well for me last time, and caused me to get very sick.
  • Roxannehcarter
    Roxannehcarter Posts: 28 Member
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    amyrebeccah wrote: »
    Roxannehcarter wrote: »
    I am 5'6 180lb. I'm at 1390 calories, I walk a lot, do Tae Bo, I track etc. I keep going back up to my beginning weight, I've barely lost a thing.
    I was losing cms, but now that has stopped too...
    I need some info from you guys. I'm not eating "clean" again, that did not work well for me last time, and caused me to get very sick.

    Starting your own thread may help. People will have these questions:
    1) What's your age? (helpful in calculating TDEE)
    2) Can you open your diary? I see your diary is actually open. How much are you using a kitchen scale to weigh your solids? (helpful in pinpointing possible logging errors)
    3) are you eating back exercise calories, and if so, how are you calculating them (again, helpful in pinpointing errors)
    4) What do you mean by "barely?" How much weight did you lose over what period of time? (helpful in assessing whether your expectations are reasonable).

    I am 27, I use kitchen scales religiously, I use endomondo as my sports tracker. I lost 1.4kg over 2.5 weeks. Last 2 weeks I keep going back up to my original weight. I log everything I put in my mouth and every time I exercise.
  • fiddletime
    fiddletime Posts: 1,862 Member
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    I'm 5'2" and weigh 133. GW is 120. I eat 1200 calories and do T25 daily. To the OP, it seems like your calories are a little low. I plateaued for 2 weeks and went from 1100 to 1200 after reading a lot on these boards. I started losing again, about a half pound a week. Why don't you do 2-4 weeks at 1200 and see how it goes. You can always add calories back and see how it goes.

    As for friends, feel free to add me and you can check out my diary. I try to eat healthy foods and lots of veggies and turkey breast meat from cost co. I sometimes eat junk, like today, but it isn't that common.
  • KrisiAnnH
    KrisiAnnH Posts: 352 Member
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    I've been playing around with my calories recently but I was on 1200 for a while, its all about finding what works best for you, so you may need to experiment a bit. As I work long shifts (in a kitchen of all places) I find that I prefer to eat most of my calories before work, so I'll have a large meal (say 600-800 calories) and then a snack at work (100 cals) and use the other 500-300 calories either earlier in the day or after work. If I'm not working I tend to have a small breakfast (200cal) and larger dinner (600), or just have 'brunch'.

    What has helped me a lot is getting my snacking under control- I used to be a 'grazer' and could easily go through a bag of sharing popcorn in one sitting. I find that keeping snacks in the house that are all under 150 cals I can just grab one if I'm hungry without worrying too much about the calories. Things like jelly pots (sugar free are only 5 cals), 2x oreo snack pack, kit kats, lowcal crisps (Pom bears if you're in the UK), cereal bars, 25g popcorn etc are all under 150 cals and can just be kept in the cupboard :)

    Another thing that's helped me stick to 1200 cals is to find substitutes for high calorie things I eat a lot- things like cheese I get 50% fat, low cal bread ('Danish' varieties are usually about half the calories of normal at 60 cals a slice), light mayo (10 cals instead of 90 per tbsp). It may seem silly replacing a few things but it all adds up and it means I can have more of those things for the same amount of calories :)

    Also if you aren't already, get onto Pinterest. It's a great resource for healthy and low calorie meal ideas :)
  • gonnadoityeah
    gonnadoityeah Posts: 22 Member
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    Thank you everyone for all these responses! I'm not the best at remembering to log every meal here but I'm making alerts and it's helping :)
    I'm really working hard, I used to actually model here and there and I really let myself go forward a few years, I'm fighting to get that body back! It's not for anyone but myself, so I found out it's easier for me than for everyone else. I also finally bought a scale, and on top of that measuring tape for my body.
    I also got rid of crap foods in my home, and have been eating better variations of things I love, and working my way through that. To be honest when I for back on track it was shocking how much better low cal foods I could eat for the same calorie intake of one fast food run! lol
  • caroldavison332
    caroldavison332 Posts: 864 Member
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    I eat a pound of g bomb vegetables daily bitter greens (collards, kale, turnip tops, watercress), beans, onions, mushrooms, berries, seeds, with a sprinkle of peanuts and sesame seeds to absord the green vitamins but no dressed. 4 ounce learn grilled meat w mayo and blue cheese, oatmeal with unsweetened peanut butter and ground flax. Lots of nuts and homemade soups. No fat free anything-they replace it with sugar. No low fat-think chemical *kitten* storm. No soda or alcohol diet or otherwise probably forever.
  • gonnadoityeah
    gonnadoityeah Posts: 22 Member
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    caroldavison332 wrote: »
    I eat a pound of g bomb vegetables daily bitter greens (collards, kale, turnip tops, watercress), beans, onions, mushrooms, berries, seeds, with a sprinkle of peanuts and sesame seeds to absord the green vitamins but no dressed. 4 ounce learn grilled meat w mayo and blue cheese, oatmeal with unsweetened peanut butter and ground flax. Lots of nuts and homemade soups. No fat free anything-they replace it with sugar. No low fat-think chemical *kitten* storm. No soda or alcohol diet or otherwise probably forever.

    Agreed. I was never really a soda drinker and I done drink alcohol to begin with. And I'm making sure to make 90%of my food :)
  • PattyRain
    PattyRain Posts: 104 Member
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    amyrebeccah wrote: »
    Roxannehcarter wrote: »
    Based on what I saw in your log, I think your exercise burns are inflated. Because you are not losing weight, I would stop eating back 100% of them and try pulling it back to 50% and see what happens.

    I've just discovered that endomondo tracks calories about the same as several other sites. I checked it against several exercise calculators. Somewhere in the sync to MFP those calories more than doubled. I'm not sure if it is a setting in endomondo or MFP or if there is a problem with the sync process itself.
  • Init_to_winit
    Init_to_winit Posts: 258 Member
    edited September 2015
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    Hey OP!

    I'm 28, 5'7" and currently 174 (down from my sw of 211). I have an open diary and aim for 1400 cals a day though sometimes I go under, sometimes I go over, just depends on the day. I agree with others, 1200 is kind of a low target especially if you do not eat back exercise calories. Eating properly (enough of the right kinds of food) is important and vital to long term success.

    I've been experimenting with all kinds of different low cal breakfasts and lunches I can eat at work as I only have a microwave to work with and have to get creative! Plus I HATE repetition so I need a variety of foods. Feel free to add me and we can motivate and share some food ideas!

    Here are just a couple of my favs lately:

    Breakfast
    1. 1/2 a grapefruit and pb toast
    2. Mini quiches (make ahead) just whip up some eggs with whatev sounds good and top with some mozz cheese (bell peppers, onion, turkey sausage for a southwest flair, or broccoli and Parmesan cheese)
    3. Pineapple and cottage cheese with a side of whole wheat toast (sprinkle some cinn on the cottage cheese and pineapple for pure heaven!)

    Lunches
    1. Boca veggie burgers on whole wheat bun with bbq sauce and pineapple slice
    2. Brown Rice, mixed veggies, scrambled egg, and soy sauce (all prepared in microwave!)
    3. Make ahead your own stir fry with chicken, peppers, onion, garlic and put in tupperware containers for grab and go!

    Dinners
    1. Make ahead some chicken breasts in a crockpot with some chicken broth and shred, you will have so many options like: a. Roll it in some Franks Red Hot and wrap with lettuce, cheese, onion in whole wheat tortilla for buffalo chicken wrap. b. Top a flat whole wheat tortilla with bbq sauce, add chicken and cheese and bake for bbq chicken pizza.
    2. Some good sides are baked sweet potato fries (the key is have your oven up high enough to get them crispy). Or if you're in a rush, buy steam in bag veggies, my go to all the time!

    Sorry if I went a little overboard, hopefully some of these sound good to you or anyone else out there looking for a few ides!
  • rosebette
    rosebette Posts: 1,659 Member
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    At your age and height, 1200 is too low. I'm eating around that, and I'm 56 and only 5'1.5" and around 120 lbs.
  • gonnadoityeah
    gonnadoityeah Posts: 22 Member
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    Like I said, I'm playing around with calorie intake, I'm eating if I'm hungry and pacing myself. :smiley:

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