How are you sticking to calorie limit?

dancing_daisy wrote: »

Cutting out carbs! But you don't have to! When I came to do this (for other health reasons) I started finding alternatives to my usual ingredients which were just as nice but with way fewer calories:

Before - After
Rice - Cauliflower rice
Pasta - Courgette Spaghetti
LF yoghurt - plain unsweetened yoghurt
Skimmed Milk - Unsweetened soya
Chopped tomatoes - Tomato puree

Set aside a night, have a big healthy dinner so you're full then go wander the supermarket. Examine things you've never looked at, scour the shelves above and below your normal choices to see what's there!

I'd also recommend drinking no sugar squash/coridal and green or herbal teas. Keep experimenting till you find one you like!

Lol

I think your struggle is that the foods you're eating are satiating. You shouldn't feel hungry. Try eating more protein and fat and see if that helps.

On 1200 I can fit:

Apple (88cals)
Greek Yogurt (140)
Chicken & vegetable stir fry with peanut sauce (300)
Carrots (35)
Protein bar (160)
Chicken Thighs (228)
Asparagus (50ish)
200 calories of whatever I want

To stay within calories I do 2 things mainly.

1. Move more. Much more. This is obvious.
2. Identify and replace high calorie components of my diet. Replacing rice with romaine lettuce and spinach for example.

Also, meal timing throughout the week.

Everyone is different in their habits, so, you'll simply need to try things out and find what works for you.

When I was at 1200, I tried to get a reasonable amount of protein as my first priority, ideally .8g/pound of goal weight, but around .6/pound as a floor if at all possible. Since I'm an ovo-lacto vegetarian, that meant skim milk, kefir, Greek yogurt, cottage cheese, tempeh, eggs, beans of all types including edamame, nuts in reasonable portions.

Next, I would prioritize a bit of healthy fat with every meal, either olive oil to fry the eggs, or those nuts, or maybe some seeds on a salad (I like pepitas especially).

Then I would fill in with lower-calorie, high-volume, high-nutrition vegetables and fruit, often raw (because chewing is satisfying). I like spinach or romaine, cabbage, broccoli, collards, cauliflower, berries, carrots, celery, spaghetti squash and other winter squash, apples, cucumbers, jicama, tomatoes, and more.

It helped me to experiment with the timing & composition of my meals/snacks to find the most satisfying approach.

By timing, I mean whether to eat or skip breakfast, which meal is biggest (or all equal), whether to reserve some calories for snacks or not, whether to eat 2, 3, 5 or whatever times daily.

By composition, I mean (with a healthy range) whether to have relatively more protein, fats, carbs, fiber, etc.

Everyone is different, but for me, it turned out that a big protein-filled breakfast was important (oatmeal, Greek yogurt, berries, small amount of walnuts), then solid protein in each meal & snack, with some high-fiber/low-cal veggies at some point in the day. It also helped to have a small protein snack if I started to feel hungry, rather than waiting to get ravenous (like a light string cheese for 50 calories, or 1/2 oz of dry-roasted soybeans for 63 calories).

But I didn't stay at 1200 for long. At 5'5", 60 y/o, and (then) around 150lbs, I found I didn't need to eat that little in order to lose weight. Even as I got lighter, I could eat more than that, as it turned out.

willammoney wrote: »

clafairy1984 wrote: »

Since losing weight, mfp has reduced my calories down to 1300 per day. I'm honestly struggling to stay within this limit, even eating healthily. As as result I got discouraged and gave up for a while, and binged, but think that enough is enough, and time to get back to it. I would appreciate some examples of what other people with similar calorie allowance are eating to manage to stay within it. I eat more on the days I exercise, but even then often don't feel satisfied and tempted to snack.

1. It's mostly a mental challenge
2. I have days that I eat giant chocolate bars but still stay within my net calories
3. Get use to being uncomfortable

One doesn't need to be uncomfortable to lose weight. I don't have aggressive weekly weight loss goals, do focus on foods that satisfy me, exercise and eat back some (but not all) of the calories I earn from exercise, and am only hungry right before meals.

I'm at 1330 and some days it is a struggle, other days I'm barely eating 1200. If you honestly have a struggle and it's making you miserable, change your loss goals to .5/lb (or more depending on what you're set to right now). Otherwise, take a look at your diary and see areas where you can improve on (ie cut back on sweets, less <something high calorie here>).