Starting fresh...help

Slu13
Slu13 Posts: 44 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I'm starting my diet....again as I fell off the wagon.

Iv changed to cals to 1200 a day. What types of food can keep you full on 1200 a day??

Replies

  • TeaBea
    TeaBea Posts: 14,517 Member
    Regarding falling off the wagon & starting over. Don't start over - but instead continue. What I mean by this is, every day doesn't have to be perfect. If you have more good days than bad, you made progress. Don't stress over one or two bad days, shrug it off & continue.

    @kommodevaran is right. Start with the right goal for YOU. 1200 is a default minimum, it's not the best number for lots of women. Don't make this harder than it needs to be.
  • mariluny
    mariluny Posts: 428 Member
    edited December 2017
    I hope this time around it will work out for you :) The food that keeps you full longuer is quite a personnal choice, I find.

    For example, I need carbs in my diet otherwise I'm starving after an hour or so, yet other people can do a low carbs diet and be fine. I find that the best is to try it out for a few weeks by being forgiving in your calorie intake until you find a good mix of food that works well for you. Everytime I tried to limit my calorie intake and sticking to a number instead of making sure I was statisfied of my food, I always ended up quitting really fast.

    Good meals for me are:
    - soup: always with a grain or a carbs (rice, barley, potato, pasta...), protein (chicken, legumes, lentils...) and veggies
    - Plant base meal: Red lentil chili, chickpea curry, no fry refried beans, etc. Paired with rice, potato, etc and alway a big helping of veggies
    - Oatmeal: That's my number one meal in the morning. It keeps me full longer and I really enjoy it.
    - Salads: just like the soup always with a grain or a carb (rice, quinoa, home made croutons), something sweet-ish (roasted squash, dried fruit), a protein (Often a mix of two: chicken, chickpea, hard boiled egg, nuts...), something crunchy (crunghy veggies like cucumber, carrot, red cabbage or even nuts, etc). Marinated condiments are also good, it's usually low in calorie and give an extra flavor: Capers, olives, etc.

    Good luck!
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  • leggup
    leggup Posts: 2,942 Member
    Why do you need to be at 1,200 to meet your goals? That's considered the bare minimum for women and most people find it unsustainable. Seriously, do a forum search for 1,200 calories and you'll see a lot of miserable people. You started your post by saying you just fell off the wagon. Starting back on a 1,200 cal wagon is a sure way to fall back off.

    Set your goals to be a more moderate deficit and it will be much easier to stick to AND you'll still lose weight.

    Crash version: Do 1,200 cals. Lose 2 lbs/week, but after 2 weeks you burn out and eat it all back over the course of the rest of the month. Also on 1,200 cals you were losing more muscle with the fat. You end with zero lbs lost and you're more skinny fat.

    Sustainable Version: Do 1,400 cals or whatever 1/week is for your stats. You lose 1 lb every week, maybe you slip up a little for a birthday and you lose 3.5 lbs by the end the month. With a slower loss you lose a smaller % of muscle. Maybe you even have more energy and you're able to get in some lifting. Huge success!
  • sdolan91
    sdolan91 Posts: 250 Member
    I agree with others!! 1,200 cal is probably putting you in a deeeeep deficit that you don't need!
    I started at 1,200 and upped it up. I feel like I really still lose at the same rate.
  • Slu13
    Slu13 Posts: 44 Member
    Thanks everyone. Just feel down lately keep failing every time. I only want too loose a stone but it just feels so hard. I love food too much
  • WhereIsPJSoles
    WhereIsPJSoles Posts: 622 Member
    Loving food is okay, you need to eat food. In fact, I think every decision I make is based on how I can get the biggest amount of food into my person while not gaining weight. If it's that hard you might need to take a breath and step back and reset your goal to 0.5 lb a week. It'll give you a few more calories to play with and you're less likely to give up.
  • kommodevaran
    kommodevaran Posts: 17,890 Member
    staceyuden wrote: »
    Thanks everyone. Just feel down lately keep failing every time. I only want too loose a stone but it just feels so hard. I love food too much
    ginababin wrote: »
    Loving food is okay, you need to eat food. In fact, I think every decision I make is based on how I can get the biggest amount of food into my person while not gaining weight. If it's that hard you might need to take a breath and step back and reset your goal to 0.5 lb a week. It'll give you a few more calories to play with and you're less likely to give up.
    This is a great answer. I too believed I was fat (I was fat, I had more than a stone to lose) because I loved food too much. It wasn't that. The real problem was that I consistently overate! I actually thought about it like a love/hate-relationship. What I didn't know, was that I feared food, I was afraid of anything that tasted good - afraid it would make me ill (cancer, diabetes) or fat. So I tried to restrict, and overate everything when I couldn't anymore.

    Now I have decided to approach this in a more balanced way. Yes, eating healthily is important for good health. But healthy eating is not just a healthy diet, it's a healthy relationship with food, and a healthy diet is balanced and varied - no foods, food groups or nutrients are in themselves unhealthy, and no foods are so healthy that they can be eaten in unlimited amounts. How you eat over time is what matters; one day is just one day, but time is made up of a row of days. Having a diet you like, is crucial to your ability to stick to it. The "ideal" diet is worthless if you can't stick to it.

    With this attitude, loving food becomes something completely different. Now I aim to eat enough, but not too much, of everything I like. I actually like so many things, that I have to plan and prioritize hard, in order to find room for all of it.

    One of the fascinating things about weightloss, is that the less you have to lose, the harder it will be - sort of. Not harder physically, just mentally, because it's slower, so you have to be more accurate when you log your food, and more patient when you weigh yourself. Think of this as a good thing: Not being able to shed a lot of fat fast, is good because you don't have a lot to lose. Healthy weight loss rate is supposed to match how much you need to lose. For you, it doesn't have to be fast, because you are healthy. Use this time as preparation for maintenenance. In maintenance, you'll have to do practically the same as you have to do to lose weight, just with a slightly larger calorie allowance, and not have a lower number of the scale to motivate you. What will motivate you to stick to your diet and exercise then? It's smart to think about this now, and make a plan, not assume that weight lost means that you've learnt what you need to learn, and that you've changed habits permanently. Weight management is a forever project. How do you want your forever to be?
  • pogiguy05
    pogiguy05 Posts: 1,583 Member
    staceyuden wrote: »
    Thanks everyone. Just feel down lately keep failing every time. I only want too loose a stone but it just feels so hard. I love food too much

    The struggle is real for many. I am one of them on again off again people. I dont think there is a quick fix answer. I think it is something each of us has to come to realize on our own. I have slowly put on an extra 60lbs over the past 25 years. I cannot count how many times i have lost 15-20lbs then gained it back and then some.

    I had a medical issue this year that scared me quite a bit. Something that has never happened to me and i hope never again. Passing out while walking with family and hitting your face on hard pavement is a wake up call. Broke two teeth and put one thru my bottom lip. I am determined to get it off this time no matter what.

    I think you need to find something that works for you and 1200 calories I dont think is something anyone can maintain over the long time frame. What did MFP give you or have you used it to see how many calories you can eat per day? Some people here will input sedentary even if they are very active to simply get MFP to cut calories for them. I would just be honest and go with what it gives you. frankly i like when i go to the gym and I burn calories and it gives me more calories to eat. I dont eat them all back, but sometimes I have a little treat for my hard efforts.

    You can do this

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