Still insanely hungry on 1200 cals/day. Would appreciate advice.

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  • kateowp
    kateowp Posts: 103 Member
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    Meal timing (first thing in the AM and then every 3-4 hrs) and getting protein, fat, and fiber at every meal has helped me feel full throughout the day. I used to eat 1 or 2 big meals a day and liked it but was talked into giving 5 meals a day a try for a couple of weeks. 1200 calories a day and I haven't been hungry. Its a pain in the *kitten* to pack so many "lunches" for work and I feel like I am constantly eating, but it is working for me.
  • Maxematics
    Maxematics Posts: 2,287 Member
    edited August 2016
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    The_Original_Beauty wrote: »
    Eat more...I am eating 1800 and losing 2/3lbs per week? For maintenance I am about 2200

    If you're losing 2 to 3 pounds per week on 1800, your maintenance calories cannot be anywhere near 2200. They'd have to be around 2800 to 3300. Unless that means two-thirds of a pound, then a maintenance of around 2100 to 2200 makes sense.
  • SezxyStef
    SezxyStef Posts: 15,268 Member
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    maybe what you need to do is look at your past and stop repeating it because it is obviously not working...sure you lose the weight but you don't keep it off.

    Try a reasonable deficit and not being hungry and then keep logging and counting to keep the weight off so you don't have to do this losing part again.
  • clambert1273
    clambert1273 Posts: 840 Member
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    SezxyStef wrote: »
    maybe what you need to do is look at your past and stop repeating it because it is obviously not working...sure you lose the weight but you don't keep it off.

    Try a reasonable deficit and not being hungry and then keep logging and counting to keep the weight off so you don't have to do this losing part again.

    So this!! While I am taller than you, I hit 190lbs in July. A long long time ago when I first joined here (like 8+ years ago), I tried that 1200 too... That wasn't happening. I am currently losing eating between 1600-1700 a day of good food.. And I had beer last weekend :)
  • jgnatca
    jgnatca Posts: 14,464 Member
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    I could not sleep when I wasn't eating enough. Try upping to 1300 or 1400 and see how that makes you feel. Your meals seem very appropriate.

    Getting up in the middle of the night to pee is one of the signs for diabetes so you might want to get that checked out.
  • prettypeach790
    prettypeach790 Posts: 27 Member
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    I found out my "snacking" was causing my weight loss halt.

    I thought I was logging this little thing here and that little thing, and in reality I wasn't doing it accurately. Are you weighing your snacks? The weight adds up to a serving FAST. If you actually see the amount you may change your mind about wasting your calories on them.

    Snacks don't fill you up either, usually the small snacks make me more hungry throughout the day instead of added more to my meals, and having my a small snack in between each meal (maybe 2 hours or so).

    I found out I was totally mis-eyeballing my snacks and eating a few hundred more calories in snacks than I thought, and I could have had more actual food that was filling. :)
  • DebSozo
    DebSozo Posts: 2,578 Member
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    gmallan wrote: »
    WinoGelato wrote: »
    NannersBalletLegs wrote: »
    Also, to give you folks an idea of what kind of food I eat while dieting, a typical day usually begins with either scrambled eggs with sautéed vegetables or oatmeal, depending on my mood. Lunch is usually light, a salad or a sandwich depending on my activity level hat day. Dinner is the largest variable since I occasionally eat out with my partner. It's typically a fairly even distribution of protein, starch, and veg, though, whatever we end up eating. I tend to snack on things like fruit, cottage cheese, yogurt, and pumpkin seeds throughout the day. I recently stopped consuming splurge items like pizza, chocolate and beer, and that change alone should have made some kind of a difference!

    I ate pizza, chocolate and drank beer (mostly wine) all while losing. It's more about how much you eat than what foods you eat for weight loss...

    Not to say that nutrition doesn't matter, it does, but you don't have to completely give up those splurges in order to lose.

    Although on 1200 calories there's probably not very much room for splurge foods while still getting adequate micro nutrients. With a more aggressive deficit and low overall calorie intake you need a higher percentage of whole foods IMO (for general health, energy and satiety).

    I agree. I had no splurge room while on 1200 unless one thinks a 200 cal snack is a "splurge".
    When on maintenance I have a bit more discretionary calories to throw around.
  • DebSozo
    DebSozo Posts: 2,578 Member
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    prettypeach790 wrote: »
    I found out my "snacking" was causing my weight loss halt. ...

    Snacks don't fill you up either, usually the small snacks make me more hungry throughout the day instead of added more to my meals, and having my a small snack in between each meal (maybe 2 hours or so). ...

    :)

    I didn't do well with snacking either. I much prefer to have 2 meals and a snack. That way I can eat a nice sized dinner.
  • NannersBalletLegs
    NannersBalletLegs Posts: 207 Member
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    Hey, everyone. It seems like maybe my original post confused some of you who are recently commenting, so I will clarify a few things. 1) I am weighing and tracking everything now, including snacks. 2) I am almost completely sedentary at the moment, entering data for a project I'm working on, editing two journals, and preparing for a course I'm teaching. 3) I have successfully lost weight in the past while eating more, but I was also exercising and more physically active in general 4) I've reduced to 1200-1400 before and was never hungry like this. 5) Before all the sit down work this past week, I was exercising more and eating more to eat back my exercise cals 6) I am getting enough protein, fiber, and fat.
  • KetoneKaren
    KetoneKaren Posts: 6,411 Member
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    NannersBalletLegs wrote: »
    Hi, everyone.

    I'm no stranger to MFP or weight loss and have been on (and off) this journey every since I hit my thirties and started having to actually pay attention to what I eat. I'm currently dealing with a new situation, though, and I'm hoping you all might have some helpful advice for me.

    In the past, I've always been able to lose weight by restricting and tracking my calories on here, walking a little bit every day, and eating back my exercise calories. Honestly, most days I went a few hundred over the 1200 cal/day MFP recommendation (for my age, gender, and height...I'm 5' 3", female, and currently 35 yo), and every time I still lost weight. The hunger from restricting my calories all of those times was also mild and quickly subsided as I fell into the routine of my new lifestyle. I never quite made my goals those previous times due to some backsliding in my habits, but I never before had the kind of difficulties that I'm facing now.

    This time around, I tried to do things the way I always had before: restricting to around, but not exactly, 1200 cals and engaging in mild exercise on a daily basis, etc. I even began picking up weights and lifting them daily, which is a big deal for me, since I really dislike strength training. This went on for a few weeks, and neither the scale nor my waist line budged. I hung in there, though, and now I'm stuck doing a lot of desk work and am not able to do much cardio anymore. As such, for the past four or five days, I've attempted to compensate for my temporarily sedentary lifestyle by religiously sticking to the 1200/day limit and weighing all my food at every meal. The scale finally started to budge—for about a day—and then it stopped again. Despite being discouraged by this setback, I've stuck with it up until this point.

    But now I'm growing increasingly concerned about how sticking to 1200/day is affecting my health. I feel like I'm starving all day long, even fifteen minutes after I eat. I've never been this hungry in my life. I've been lightheaded, clumsy, forgetful, and dealing with all kinds of stomach discomfort (hunger pangs and heartburn...yay!) as a result of actually—for once—following the recommended daily calorie intake on here. I'm also not getting enough sleep, because I find it really hard to sleep when I'm hungry. (I'm also up all night peeing for some reason. I seriously wake up once an hour. It's crazy.) All of this stuff is happening even though I'm paying attention to and getting enough of things like protein and fiber in the hopes of being able to feel full for longer. Regardless of what I eat, though, I've been consistently hungry non-stop for about four days now...and the scale hasn't budged. What the heck???

    I've got the willpower to hang in there and suffer through this bodily discomfort if I know it's only going to be temporary, but I'm starting to wonder if this is even healthy. Am I hurting myself by following MFP's calorie recommendations to lose 2 lbs a week? Have any of you felt this way sticking to 1200 cals/day? Is this actually normal, and will my body eventually adjust if I just stick with it?

    I know these probably sound like dumb questions (especially since I'm not exactly a noob), and many of you will, no doubt, tell me that I need to eat more to get my metabolism up and that I can't lose weight without exercising. It's what I, myself, would have told someone up until now, and that advice did serve me very well for many years. Now, I just don't know. It seems like nothing I do gets results anymore, and upping the ante with further calorie restriction might just be making things worse. Any ideas you all might have would be greatly appreciated, since my own tried-and-true methods are no longer working.

    It sounds as if there has been a metabolic change since the last time you tried to lose weight, perhaps an endocrine condition like diabetes or thyroid disorder (Hashimoto's thyroiditis comes to mind). Time to see your doctor.
  • SezxyStef
    SezxyStef Posts: 15,268 Member
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    NannersBalletLegs wrote: »
    Hey, everyone. It seems like maybe my original post confused some of you who are recently commenting, so I will clarify a few things. 1) I am weighing and tracking everything now, including snacks. 2) I am almost completely sedentary at the moment, entering data for a project I'm working on, editing two journals, and preparing for a course I'm teaching. 3) I have successfully lost weight in the past while eating more, but I was also exercising and more physically active in general 4) I've reduced to 1200-1400 before and was never hungry like this. 5) Before all the sit down work this past week, I was exercising more and eating more to eat back my exercise cals 6) I am getting enough protein, fiber, and fat.

    is it hunger or appetite.

    If actual hunger than it's simple you aren't eating enough....or you need to change how much protein/fat you are getting...and change the 2lbs a week to 1lb a week...what is the hurry?

    But again if you have done this before and have gained it back then it's time to look at what you are doing to yo yo and stop that...doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result is the definition of insane...
  • VintageFeline
    VintageFeline Posts: 6,771 Member
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    I feel like the good advice here is being totally ignored and that there's some peculiar determination to suffer on 1200 calories regardless of lots of personal experience of this being totally unnecessary. It's frustrating to read.

    FYI, I'm 2 inches taller but net about 1300/day but I also exercise a fair amount so I can eat more. If i didn't exercise I'd just lower my target losses (currently 1lb) per week. I'm also in it for the long haul, I can go a whole month or so with no loss on the scale but then a whoosh. This week I'm hovering 2.5lbs over my lowest weight because of natural fluctuations.

    Slow down, lower your expectations, up your calories, move a bit more, accept you're in this for life and will get there when you get there. Makes it all a lot easier.
  • Terpnista84
    Terpnista84 Posts: 517 Member
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    SusanMFindlay wrote: »
    I'm older than you, slightly heavier, lightly active and losing on 1600 cals/day. You're hungry because you're not eating enough (i.e attempting a larger deficit than your body is comfortable with). Try 1500 cals/day?

    Also, how long have you been lifting the weights? When you first start strength training, it is very common to gain about 5 pounds of temporary water weight as your muscles retain water in response to the new stress. (This is not the same thing as the common refrain of "I lost fat but gained muscle". This is real.) My memory is fuzzy, but I think it was 2-4 weeks after starting lifting that the water weight whooshed back out.

    Real strength training also tends to boost your appetite, but it's good for the weight loss longterm as it helps to preserve muscle mass.

    Thanks so much for this. My muscles are constantly sore from strength training so I know I must still be retaining water. I started this 2 weeks ago so I'm hoping to see some results on the scale soon.
  • Terpnista84
    Terpnista84 Posts: 517 Member
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    Eat 1,500 calories- you'll be amazed at how big of a difference an extra 300 calories makes. Also use your calories wisely. Don't waste breakfast calories on a bowl of cereal because you'll be hungry shortly after. Eat a lot of protein.
  • HeidiFuture
    HeidiFuture Posts: 54 Member
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    Everyone is different....now that I'm 36 I can't eat high salt/carb foods and be satisfied. I'm at 1200 cals/day too.... I've traded scones for brown rice and turkey sandwhich for black bean veggie bowl. The high fiber helps keep me full. I have yogurt for snack... It helps keep the hunger down.
  • JeromeBarry1
    JeromeBarry1 Posts: 10,182 Member
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    Since you're not exactly a noob you already know that the solution to your issue is that you change your mfp weight loss goal to 1 lb/week. This gives you another 500 calories to work with each day and that is the level of intake that you know is comfortable.
  • lady_shiba
    lady_shiba Posts: 3 Member
    edited August 2016
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    Your increased hunger may be due to the fact that you have incorporated weight training this time around. Building muscle requires more protein in your diet. You won't see an immediate change in the scale or your waistline, but in the long term the more muscle you gain equals higher metabolism rate. Stick with the weight training, up the intake of protein (I usually have a protein shake for my mid morning snack and a quest bar for my afternoon snack) and always 4 to 6 Oz of a lean protein with each meal. Drink a bunch of water, especially when increasing your protein intake and lots of green veggies. I definitely recommend getting a check up and blood test with your doctor though just to rule out any medical conditions that could cause these new symptoms
  • dragon_girl26
    dragon_girl26 Posts: 2,187 Member
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    JeromeBarry1 wrote: »
    Since you're not exactly a noob you already know that the solution to your issue is that you change your mfp weight loss goal to 1 lb/week. This gives you another 500 calories to work with each day and that is the level of intake that you know is comfortable.

    ^^This.

    I tried the 1200 calorie thing very briefly, but I, too, found it wasn't satiating. I also started getting dizzy spells on top of that, which went away quickly when I bumped up my calories. No need to starve yourself just to lose faster...1 lb a week is a perfectly healthy rate of loss.
  • TxTiffani
    TxTiffani Posts: 798 Member
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    I'm shorter than you (5'1ish) and have 20-30lbs to lose. I try to stick to 1200-1300 cals/day and what has been helping me is munching on veggies and low cal fruit. I plan out my day with about 250 cals at each meal and then have a snack before lunch and two snacks in the afternoon. You get a lot of bang for your buck with fresh fruit/veg. I cut up carrots and apples in small slices so I feel like I'm eating more. I dip my carrots or cucumbers in lite zesty Italian yum:) and if I'm under at night I have a blue bunny mini cone 140cals:) Don't feel deprived when I'm eating every 2 hours. Feels like a lot of food. My diary should be open, but I'm boring and eat the same things over and over:) It's easier that way because I know the cals in everything and if it's foods I like then I don't get bored with them:)
  • Carriehelene
    Carriehelene Posts: 178 Member
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    jgnatca wrote: »
    I could not sleep when I wasn't eating enough. Try upping to 1300 or 1400 and see how that makes you feel. Your meals seem very appropriate.

    Getting up in the middle of the night to pee is one of the signs for diabetes so you might want to get that checked out.
    Like this poster, my first thought upon reading how many times you're getting up to pee was diabetes. Please get that checked, it's nothing to fool around with!

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