Stupid brain!

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Are join netting 1200? Weighing and measuring all your intake?

Netting below 1200? What are your stats? How is your protein and fiber intake?

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I haven't read this book, but I've heard good things about it and it is on my "To Read" list. You could see if you can check it out from your local library before spending money on a copy.

The Thin Woman's Brain: Rewiring the Brain for Permanent Weight Loss by Dilia Surie

I do understand it is difficult to eat just a little when you are craving a lot, but please realize that this is not criticism. On your budget of 1200 calories, a bar of fudge is not giving you the bulk, nutrients, or fat your body wants. There are ways to pack more fiber, nutrition, and fat into your day and stay nearer 1200.

Eat much more, and start moving more...include your 3 year old when you move...walking, jumping, playing, climbing: all burn calories. You don't need a gym to move your body. Many people on here have multiple kids, and still manage to "workout". As for wanting tomato soup, EAT IT!! Eat it every day if you want! If you increase your calories by a couple of hundred, you'll have room for soup and whatever else you're craving, and you will probably have way more energy every day to MOVE MORE!

Dieting and eating "clean" just to lose weight doesn't usually last long for a lot of people. If you're always going to think about food you miss, then it's actually better to add those foods in and fit it into your calorie limit. It shouldn't have to be a battle to lose weight. You just need to eat less than you burn to do it.

A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

The problem with not eating enough is that your body will eventually go into starvation mode and hold on to every single calorie you eat to ensure that your brain and other vital organs have the glucose and other nutrients that they need to function. Additionally, because you're not exercising, your body will also tear apart your muscles for those nutrients, so you'll be losing weight, sure, but it's muscle mass, not fat.

If you want tomato soup, have tomato soup. You just have to make sure that it fits into your calorie goals for the day - maybe make it with lowfat milk instead of cream. It takes time to do research and learn how to change the things you like to eat so that they fit into the new normal for you. I echo what the poster above said about making sure that you're eating all 1200 calories and that they're nutrient dense foods (also, maybe you might need to increase your calories - if you're moving as much as you say you are, maybe 1200 really isn't enough).

As far as exercise goes, it doesn't have to mean joining a gym or doing exercise DVD's.... could you go for a long walk with him? When my kids were small, we'd go to the track at the local high school and they'd play in the grass in the middle while I either walked or ran (sometimes they'd run with me, other times they'd just run around in the grass). Sometimes I'd get up early before they were up and go for a run while my husband was still home. And sometimes, I'd play at the park with them, trying to cross the monkey bars or climb the climbing wall with them...

sazzle1983 wrote: »

Whoa hold up love, I don't sit down for anymore than 5 minutes when my son is awake! all day I'm playing, climbing, walking, looking etc with him! So don't you dare presume I do nothing with him. I just don't have enough money to join a gym or have enough energy once he goes to bed to do an exercise DVD. Do u have children? If so, you'll understand how knackered you feel come the end of each day!

No they do understand. That's why they are encouraging you to eat more. Eat to your goal. Not under it. Re-assess your goal with a reasonable loss per week with your activity level dialed in.

Eat your activity calories, your loss comes from the deficit MFP has already calculated for you.

As a busy, at home Mom of a toddler, your activity level will not be sedentary and you can likely eat more than 1200 and still lose. That's what folks are trying to share with you. No one wants you to be miserable, which craving a healthy soup sounds like a symptom of, to me.

In addition to what others have said, one way to think of it is that it will be easier and you will end up losing more consistently if you stick consistently to a smaller deficit (like 1400 or 1500) than if you struggle to stick at some lower number (like 1200 or, as it seems you are, even lower), and with the latter the likelihood is that you will end up overeating more often or give up before goal or think of dieting as miserable so have a harder time adjusting to a sustainable way of eating at the end.

Also, chances are the 1200 goal is based on you saying "sedentary" and few people actually are, especially not someone caring for a small child and active with him as you reported. I'd do lightly active at least.