1200 calories a day and I feel terrible!!! Advice????

lexylondon wrote: »

WinoGelato wrote: »

lexylondon wrote: »

WinoGelato wrote: »

lexylondon wrote: »

Coffee!!

Or she could eat more satiating food at a higher calorie goal that is a more reasonable deficit for her size...

Don't get me wrong I love my coffee but using caffeine to stave off hunger doesn't seem like a very healthy approach...

A few cups of coffee a day have been proven to be good for your health. As long as the other meals are nutritious and your drinking water I think it can be healthy and helpful!

To replace food with coffee when you are hungry?

When you want to OVER eat. Can't see it as a terrible thing, as I said, as long as your getting your protein, essential fats, antioxidants and so forth in your other meals...

I sometimes drink tea in the afternoon when I get the munchies, the caffeine helps stave off the hunger till dinner. There is nothing "unhealthy" about that as long ad you are still eating a reasonable amount.of total calories. I don't think anyone is suggesting people starve themselves and drink nothing but coffee all day.

People who don't eat much vegetables are always going to struggle to keep to 1200 calories, which is so low to begin with - definitely look at adjusting to a slower weight loss rate, at least in the short term. My diet is heavily fruit/veg based, and is pretty much the only way I can keep eating the 'nice' things, without overloading on calories. If it's a taste thing (as it is with most people, rather than texture), start with sweeter vegetables - red/yellow bell peppers, carrots, tomatoes, butternut squash, sweet potato, beetroot, fresh peas. You can also go for the blander green stuff - celery, lettuce (most salad leaves are mild), cucumber etc - and then move onto the stronger tastes of things like spinach, kale, chicory, broccoli etc. Slowly expand your palate, and try something new every week. I've always loved vegetables but, as a kid, used to hate cauliflower. Now I love it because I kept experimenting with ways to serve it.

As for your exercising not giving you numbers you want to see, perhaps look at some different kinds of exercise, and finding a couple that are high-cal burners. My go-to for 'bang for my cardio buck' is spinning, which can easily burn over 500 calories per hour. Swimming is also brilliant for that! But, sometimes, it's not about cardio numbers, and a good strength training session, whilst not appearing to deliver the big numbers on your calorie deficit, can often produce fantastic results on the scale.

Try 1300

I agree with most people here! I changed my goal to 1500 from 1200 because with only 1200, I am starving! And then more likely to overeat or ditch the diet Bc I am starving all the time. Even though I've increased my caloric intake to 1500, I am still losing about 1.5-2 pounds a week. Good luck with whatever you choose!

I've had my best success eating as MANY cals as I can while still losing. And as many others have said, 1200 is probably too low for you. For me, I can eat 1800-2000 cals a day, and as long as I'm active, I lose. And I'm a 48 year old, 5'8" woman who works out 5-6 days a week (most of the time) - I lost 25lbs about 3-4 years ago and have kept it off.

I'm doing 1200 calories a day, and at first it was super hard and I went over almost every day, but it's gotten easier as I've learned more and gotten used to it. For me, I skip breakfast because I find I don't need it and it's just wasting my calories. The whole "your body will go into starvation mode if you don't eat breakfast" seems to be mostly bs to me. For lunch I eat about 300-350 calories usually with a sandwich (either peanut butter or deli meat, a slice of cheese, and lettuce on a whole grain bun) and 1 serving of low-cal chips. Drink LOTS of water. It keeps you full longer and helps satisfy the satiety sensors in your brain. If I do snack, I eat some beef jerky (lots of protein and pretty low-cal), a few almonds, or a square of dark chocolate. For dinner, I eat chicken in some form or other almost every night. Lean protein keeps you feeling full way longer and satisfies you way more than stuff like pasta or salads I've found. I can eat so much less meat and feel much more satisfied than if I ate pasta (which then has the added effect of making me feel bloated afterwards). But I do love my pasta, so I've started making zucchini noodles instead to satisfy those cravings. As for the veggies, I've never liked them either. But I've found for me that my hatred of vegetables has stemmed from a thing I have with textures. Most steamed or cooked veggies have a squishy, bland texture and taste, which I hated. So instead, I sauté stuff like green beans with a little olive oil and salt. They're so much better because they keep some of that crunch. And this can be applied to all sorts of veggies. So try cooking a different way maybe, and that might help.