Exasperation with meal planning...can someone tell me how to fit 3 meals into 1200 calories?
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You've gotten alot of comments on this post, but I'll add my 2 cents. Eating only 1200 calories a day is literally starving your body. When the body goes into starvation mode it holds onto the very fat you're trying to lose. I'd adjust your goal to losing half to 1 pound a week. Eating more, especially healthy foods, is a good thing! You'll feel better and be more motivated to continue! I wish you well!43
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You've gotten alot of comments on this post, but I'll add my 2 cents. Eating only 1200 calories a day is literally starving your body. When the body goes into starvation mode it holds onto the very fat you're trying to lose. I'd adjust your goal to losing half to 1 pound a week. Eating more, especially healthy foods, is a good thing! You'll feel better and be more motivated to continue! I wish you well!
This is false.16 -
What kind of protein shakes are you drinking? Whey is an animal product. Beans and rice is a good staple that has sufficient protein. Tofu is another. The average person doesn't need much protein at all (at most 1g per kg body weight).
I'd also ask you how you know 1200 is the right number for you. Are you weighing and logging all your food? Have you calculated what your TDEE is and then determined the amount of calories you should eat under that in order to lose weight? What's your weight loss target and how fast do you want to achieve it? These are all questions you need to answer in order to determine if a specific daily caloric intake is right for you.5 -
By the way, I eat whatever I want. I just know exactly how much of it I can eat and still hit my calorie goal for the day. I don't deny myself anything; I just eat a reasonable amount of it and plan accordingly.1
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MonaRaeHill wrote: »I see all these things on meal planning, they only serve to make me edgy. What the heck are people eating on these meal plans? They sound like far too much work for a nibble, which is how I view 300 calories. That's a nibble, not a meal! Lawdy.
I can exceed 1200 calories by just eating once per day.....which makes me cranky....especially if I exercise that day. geez. What gives? I need an on board Weight Watchers chef. Or just choose to live on protein shakes w/greens, which is about the only way to eat healthy with what my budget will stand......blek.
How does anybody only eat 1200 calories, without losing it? Better off not eating at all.........in my mind. lol.
Hey! I find it incredibly easy to eat less than 1200 calories a day, with my goal set at 1300. I find myself struggling to find foods to eat to come up to that amount. I started the JERF (Just eat real food) lifestyle in January. I'm down 21 pounds since Christmas. Drop the processed foods, the foods with all the things you can't pronounce. Today, for breakfast, I had a piece or organic sprouted bread with 1 tablespoon of PBFit, with a chopped up banana on top, for lunch I had Ham roll-ups with tomato, red pepper, cucumber and Avacado, wrapped in lettuce, and for dinner - we had breakfast - two eggs scrambled, with three pieces of turkey bacon. For my snacks today, I had part of a sugar cookie (my son wanted me to try it), a mini cookie dough LaraBar, one serving of organic blue corn tortilla chips, and four ounces of strawberries. Get creative!13 -
My 1200 calorie plan is skim milk and coffee for breakfast, 300g of egg whites for lunch with a soup make of a cup of beef broth, 85g of spinach and 50g of mushrooms. Dinner is about 4oz of lean meat with a ton of veggies, 35g of protein powder in ice and water for dessert. You can probably fit a snack in there too. That was what I was eating when I was dieting aggressively.
Skim milk and coffee is not a meal. It lacks adequate nutrtion. This diary day is dieting way too aggressively in my opinion.
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I couldn't do it. I tried for four days and I was getting headaches, insomnia, crabby. I changed my weight loss goals. I'm eating between 1500-1600 net, and losing about 1 lb. per week instead. I feel normal most days with this amount of calories. And it's perfect since this will be my maintenance, between 1600-1700 once I reach my goal weight.4
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lucerorojo wrote: »I couldn't do it. I tried for four days and I was getting headaches, insomnia, crabby. I changed my weight loss goals. I'm eating between 1500-1600 net, and losing about 1 lb. per week instead. I feel normal most days with this amount of calories. And it's perfect since this will be my maintenance, between 1600-1700 once I reach my goal weight.
Wth! Good job listening to your body, and finding a plan for yourself.3 -
My 1200 calorie plan is skim milk and coffee for breakfast, 300g of egg whites for lunch with a soup make of a cup of beef broth, 85g of spinach and 50g of mushrooms. Dinner is about 4oz of lean meat with a ton of veggies, 35g of protein powder in ice and water for dessert. You can probably fit a snack in there too. That was what I was eating when I was dieting aggressively.
Skim milk and coffee is not a meal. It lacks adequate nutrtion. This diary day is dieting way too aggressively in my opinion.
Yes. I diet aggressively sometimes with refeeds. I use these in short spurts to decrease the amount of time I diet and maximize the amount of time I can train on higher calories. Also, there is nothing wrong with not eating breakfast. I break my fast at 11:00 with my first meal.6 -
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DevilsFan1 wrote: »What kind of protein shakes are you drinking? Whey is an animal product. Beans and rice is a good staple that has sufficient protein. Tofu is another. The average person doesn't need much protein at all (at most 1g per kg body weight).
I'd also ask you how you know 1200 is the right number for you. Are you weighing and logging all your food? Have you calculated what your TDEE is and then determined the amount of calories you should eat under that in order to lose weight? What's your weight loss target and how fast do you want to achieve it? These are all questions you need to answer in order to determine if a specific daily caloric intake is right for you.
There are many protein powders available that are plant sourced. (i.e. pea, soy, hemp, rice)1 -
It takes practice. I felt the same way too until I got used to creating low calorie meals. Now, more or less, before I put I in, most of my meals fall within 250-450 calories. As context, I’m 5’2, set at 2lbs a week, and 80 lbs to lose.
Meals
Basically, protein is the priority and where most of your calories should come from. 3-4 oz of meat per serving. Next should be vegetables. Besides potatoes and avocados (yes yes I know it’s actually a fruit), most vegetables are fairly low calorie and very filling. Try roasting, grilling, and sautéing them for flavor and go for the Pam spray when applicable. Lastly should be a small amount of carbs (if wanted). 1/4th cup or 50g of brown rice/quinoa is about a serving or half a sweet potato/russet potato. Depending on the amount of oil, sauces, cheese, etc. you add to your dish, it should fall between 300-450 calories. If you don’t add the rice/potato/etc. then it should be closer to 200-300ish calories.
Snacks
Try to eat between 1-2 snacks a day max if you’re eating closer to 300+ calorie meals at 100 calories or less. This can include yogurt, fruit, nuts, veggies, etc. It takes planning and measuring, but snacks are possible if you are a snacker, it just needs to be less frequent.
Planning
Eating 1200 calories takes a lot of planning. It’s not necessary to meal prep (the most meal prepping I do is eating my dinner left overs and breakfast). If you build your kitchen correctly, it’s not too difficult to maintain. I would highly recommend that you buy a food scale and measure so you’re eating as many calories as you can.
When going out, look up the restaurants menu when going out if possible. Even if the nutrition is not available, you can usually find similar meals if you search enough for approximate calories. When going out, you have to be creative with what you eat and usually aim for the light dishes if they have them.1 -
I am sorry, OP, that you've gotten so many judgmental comments about your calorie goal rather than constructive feedback. 1200 is an appropriate pre-exercise baseline for SOME people, especially if they are women who are very short, older, and/or have sedentary jobs. Three of those four things are true for me. No one here other than OP knows whether or not they are true for her. No one else has enough information to make that call for her, and she didn't ask us to make it.
So, OP, it is up to you to judge whether you fall into the "short, sedentary, and/or older women" combination that makes 1200 an appropriate goal for you. If those things don't apply to you, then you probably can set your MFP goal to a slower pace of weight loss and be able to eat more calories.
If you do find that 1200 is appropriate for you, then here is what I generally did while I was losing weight.
Breakfast: 100-200 calories. Usually a piece of fruit, sometimes with peanut butter. Sometimes I had a protein bar.
Lunch: About 300-400 calories. Usually a smaller portion of dinner leftovers. I'm a big fan of the "grain, green, protein, sauce" template for meatless meals.
Dinner: About 500 calories. See "grain, green, protein, sauce" template above. Go heavy on the greens, lighter on the grains, and choose a low calorie sauce.
Snacks: About 100 calories. Almost always dark chocolate. I eat chocolate every day.
This was all just my 1200 calories on days I didn't exercise. When I exercised, I ate those calories back.5 -
MonaRaeHill wrote: »I appreciate everything you all have noted.......i forgot to say I am vegan and have been, for some time, so my only really good source for high quality proteins, is shakes. The good news is I didn't gain anything the last couple of winters (1-2 lbs) so the fasting (shakes, only) for two weeks at a time, every 3 months, really helped keep things in check. That's maintenance, tho, not loss.......sigh.........I am also 57, and disabled, so can only do certain sustained exercises......such as hiking (walking really, as I hike about as fast as the average person can walk), dancing, stretching, etc.
The thing that sets me back is my feelings of resentment at not being able to eat whatever I want, anymore...........what does everybody do when they run into this?........if you run into it?
This thread is a bit long, so maybe I'll start a new thread about that!...
I have a chronic illness, which makes a lot of exercise difficult (I can't manage the gym or hiking or anything like that for example). I do however walk. I do one 30-40 minute walk almost every morning and if feel well enough go again in the evening. That's made a huge difference to my weight loss and to how much I can eat. (I also feel much better for it.) I can understand wanting to do more (I rather envy the people who post about going to the gym) but walking does help.1 -
Short older relatively sedentary gal with less to lose - I’ve been eating 1200 for about eight weeks and losing .5 lbs a week. For a subset of us, 1200 is a reasonable daily allowance. I eat three meals a day and only snack if my calories allow it and that snack is something like almonds or a apple.
My meals are fairly balanced and satisfying. I’m definitely hungry by the next meal. Breakfast - generally 10oz yogurt, sliced banana, handful of almonds. Lunch and dinner variation of: 4 to 5 oz protein (chicken, beaf, tofu, beans), lots of veggies and fat (pesto, butter, olive oil, avocado). Meals between 300 and 400.
I have days where I get really cranky and need to eat more, so I do. Last night I recognized this and went over my calories with peanut butter toast. But it’s relatively rare this occurs, I just really try to listen to my body. But in general, I don’t find 1200 that difficult. If I exercised regularly I would definitely need to eat more (and would do), but at current activity level, it feels like a health set point and I am slowly and steadily losing,9 -
MonaRaeHill wrote: »I see all these things on meal planning, they only serve to make me edgy. What the heck are people eating on these meal plans? They sound like far too much work for a nibble, which is how I view 300 calories. That's a nibble, not a meal! Lawdy.
I can exceed 1200 calories by just eating once per day.....which makes me cranky....especially if I exercise that day. geez. What gives? I need an on board Weight Watchers chef. Or just choose to live on protein shakes w/greens, which is about the only way to eat healthy with what my budget will stand......blek.
How does anybody only eat 1200 calories, without losing it? Better off not eating at all.........in my mind. lol.
This may sound preachy but you only get one body . . . why wouldn't you put in all the effort you've got to make it exactly the body you want? Just curious.
Food is fuel for your body and your body is far more rare and unique than even the most expensive car so why wouldn't you want to feed it all the things that are the absolute best for it?2 -
I’m very short and older, my fitness pal tdee is only 1250 ! I’m very familiar with 1200 calories a day plus maybe another 100 if I exercise. I eat 300 breakfast,300 lunch and 600 dinner with about 100 cal snack. Been doing it for 2years but I have met my goal.you gotta want it bad. Every calorie counts, make them good ones.i eat small portions, like I’m saying a quarter of a banana, a third of a small apple, 5 grams of peanut butter! Sometimes it’s frustrating but it’s this or be fat again.
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I've been doing 1200 calories for nearly 2 years now. My body apparently keeps forgetting to go into starvation mode or something, which is cool.
I supplement a lot of food with low calorie veggies, stick to high protein and high fiber and I'm a pretty happy gal.
Today's meal plan:
Breakfast (200 calories):
3 slices of breakfast ham, low fat string cheese, light & fit yogurt
Lunch (280 calories):
Turkey chili topped with chopped onion and tomato and cilantro
Saltines
Pile of radishes
Dinner (300 calories):
A bag of frozen veggies combined with half of a bag of quorn (fake meat, super tasty and nutritious)
Snacks (350 calories):
Big ol bowl of apple jacks, huge bowl of oatmeal (2 packs of better oats 100 calories each), 1/2c pineapple
...and I'm only at 1100 calories, can add some more foods if I get hungry.
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MonaRaeHill wrote: »I appreciate everything you all have noted.......i forgot to say I am vegan and have been, for some time, so my only really good source for high quality proteins, is shakes. The good news is I didn't gain anything the last couple of winters (1-2 lbs) so the fasting (shakes, only) for two weeks at a time, every 3 months, really helped keep things in check. That's maintenance, tho, not loss.......sigh.........I am also 57, and disabled, so can only do certain sustained exercises......such as hiking (walking really, as I hike about as fast as the average person can walk), dancing, stretching, etc.
The thing that sets me back is my feelings of resentment at not being able to eat whatever I want, anymore...........what does everybody do when they run into this?........if you run into it?
This thread is a bit long, so maybe I'll start a new thread about that!...
Mona - there were dozens of posts asking if 1200 calories a day is actually an appropriate calorie goal for you and you really didn't address any of them.
How tall are you and how many pounds do you need to lose to arrive at your goal weight?
While you do mention that you are disabled, you also say that you can hike/walk, dance, stretch, so you're not sedentary. Are you eating back your calories from exercise? If not, you're not using MFP as it is designed to be used.
MFP uses the NEAT method (Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis), and as such this system is designed for exercise calories to be eaten back. However, many consider the burns given by MFP to be inflated and only eat a percentage, such as 50%, back. Others, however, are able to lose weight while eating 100% of their exercise calories.
http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/818082/exercise-calories-again-wtf/p1
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What were you eating before that you now feel like you have to skip? The few vegans that I know tend to have a few main staple items that they revolve their meals around. The flavors and seasonings change, sauces change, veggies change, but overall, they grocery shop for the exact same things week after week. I'd guess that you'd be able to make some alterations to your previous intake so that it is conducive for weight loss.
Can you share your previous typical days eating?0
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