Having Trouble Meeting 1200 Calorie Limit
Hanatastic
Posts: 49 Member
I replaced all of my foods with whole foods, and now I feel like I have to force myself to eat just to reach 1200 calories, while still maintaining my macros! Whole foods are too darn healthy dang it! >:^0 Does anybody have any methods they use to reach their limits without exceeding 40g of fat daily??
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Replies
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Worry about hitting your calories. Going over your macros, especially fat and protein, is fine. Also make sure you’re logging everything as accurately as possible. A lot of times when people claim they can’t meet 1200 calories they’re eating more than they think.26
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Get a food scale?
1200 cals is nothing. Are you logging all drinks, cooking oil, condiments?19 -
Eat a whole pizza, or a whole tub of ice cream... That'll help your calories.
In all seriousness, plenty of "wholefoods" are calorie dense. Eat more of those. Why are you limiting yourself to 40g fat?19 -
I’ve done the “eat whole foods only” and 1200 calories is still hardly any food.
And there’s nothing wrong with eating more than 40g of fat a day. 9 -
What is wrong with eating more than 40g of fat? *kitten* I eat 100g daily..7
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She eats 40 grams of fat because that's what MFP suggests if you are on 1200 cals. I set my macros to 50% C/25% F/25% P and it says I should eat only 33g fat. I always it more though, lol.2
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If you want a whole food with a lot of calories, low in fat, give lentils a shot.1
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Men need a bit more, but I'm reading that 1400-1500 calories per day, along with exercise is not a bad range for a 6'2" man. Any thoughts?11
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sidcorsini wrote: »Men need a bit more, but I'm reading that 1400-1500 calories per day, along with exercise is not a bad range for a 6'2" man. Any thoughts?
Varying factors affect how much is the right calorie goal for everyone.. in your case at your height how much you currently weigh, need to lose, your age and activity level (NOT including exercise), and exercise.
6'2" male has a much higher BMR than this, so 1400-1500 is very aggressive.
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sidcorsini wrote: »Men need a bit more, but I'm reading that 1400-1500 calories per day, along with exercise is not a bad range for a 6'2" man. Any thoughts?
Varying factors affect how much is the right calorie goal for everyone.. in your case at your height how much you currently weigh, need to lose, your age and activity level (NOT including exercise), and exercise.
6'2" male has a much higher BMR than this, so 1400-1500 is very aggressive.
Yeah, I’m 6’2 and eating about 2050/day. With the workouts, it’s doing about 2 lbs/week0 -
sidcorsini wrote: »Men need a bit more, but I'm reading that 1400-1500 calories per day, along with exercise is not a bad range for a 6'2" man. Any thoughts?
Irrelevant to the OP, but you've been reading nonsense. Bare minimum for a sedentary 6'2" male would be 1500. Maintenance would be at least about 2100 calories if he's at normal weight, and a pretty aggressive 1 lb/wk deficit would be around 1600. That's not even factoring calories for exercise.
OP, here's a post with a list of calorie dense foods. Try to incorporate some of them into your routine, you should be hitting at least 1200/day.
http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10142490/a-list-of-calorie-dense-foods3 -
sidcorsini wrote: »Men need a bit more, but I'm reading that 1400-1500 calories per day, along with exercise is not a bad range for a 6'2" man. Any thoughts?
Varying factors affect how much is the right calorie goal for everyone.. in your case at your height how much you currently weigh, need to lose, your age and activity level (NOT including exercise), and exercise.
6'2" male has a much higher BMR than this, so 1400-1500 is very aggressive.
Yeah, I’m 6’2 and eating about 2050/day. With the workouts, it’s doing about 2 lbs/week
Men, in general, should eat no less than 1500 Net calories, if you are quite large, that number may be even higher. for women the general rule of thumb is 1200 Net a a minimum2 -
sidcorsini wrote: »Men need a bit more, but I'm reading that 1400-1500 calories per day, along with exercise is not a bad range for a 6'2" man. Any thoughts?
Varying factors affect how much is the right calorie goal for everyone.. in your case at your height how much you currently weigh, need to lose, your age and activity level (NOT including exercise), and exercise.
6'2" male has a much higher BMR than this, so 1400-1500 is very aggressive.
Yeah, I’m 6’2 and eating about 2050/day. With the workouts, it’s doing about 2 lbs/week
I am assuming that you have a lot of weight to lose needing a 2 pound per week rate of loss.2 -
About 30-40lbs, so yeah. Enough. Still below 1% bodyweight/week (I’m 215 now)0
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Hanatastic wrote: »I replaced all of my foods with whole foods, and now I feel like I have to force myself to eat just to reach 1200 calories, while still maintaining my macros! Whole foods are too darn healthy dang it! >:^0 Does anybody have any methods they use to reach their limits without exceeding 40g of fat daily??
I got fat eating mostly whole foods (and lost the weight, NOT eating below 1200, also doing so), so it's not that hard to eat more than 1200 with whole foods, or mostly whole foods. I wouldn't worry about the fat limit, there's nothing magical about MFP's default macros and it's fine to adjust yours if it would work better for you (I tend to eat more fat, fewer carbs than the default, just because that's how I prefer to eat). When adjusting I would keep in mind that the default 1200 macros are already kind of low in protein (lower than I'd recommend for most).
Are you doing something beyond focusing on whole foods? Or is your definition really restrictive or this, perhaps, such a big change that you are having trouble knowing what to eat?
Give us a sense of what you are eating and what you are thinking you need to avoid.2 -
About 30-40lbs, so yeah. Enough. Still below 1% bodyweight/week (I’m 215 now)
I won't derail this thread any longer. Sorry OP
You can probably do 2 pounds very short term, it will evidently slow down any ways based on your current weight. But these are basic guidelines
If you have 75+ lbs to lose 2 lbs/week is ideal
If you have 40-75 lbs to lose 1.5 lbs/week is ideal
If you have 25-40 lbs to lose 1 lbs/week is ideal
If you have 15 -25 lbs to lose 0.5 to 1.0 lbs/week is ideal
If you have less than 15 lbs to lose 0.5 lbs/week is ideal
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Hanatastic wrote: »I replaced all of my foods with whole foods, and now I feel like I have to force myself to eat just to reach 1200 calories, while still maintaining my macros! Whole foods are too darn healthy dang it! >:^0 Does anybody have any methods they use to reach their limits without exceeding 40g of fat daily??
Sour Patch Kids.7 -
Worry about hitting your calories. Going over your macros, especially fat and protein, is fine. Also make sure you’re logging everything as accurately as possible. A lot of times when people claim they can’t meet 1200 calories they’re eating more than they think.
I would personally recommend hitting your protein goals. Once you hit your minimums for fats, then carbs can come into play. Just my humble opinion. Also, why not shoot for a 80/20 split? 80% whole foods, 20% what you want. Helps keep me sane!0 -
I, for one, would like to know what your typical day looks like. I'm struggling to find things to fill be up at 1400 calories.0
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granola
avocado
cheese
full fat dairy
peanut butter
bacon
nuts
olive oil
hummus
tuna
bananas
salmon
edamame
olives
bread
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I never thought I'd be in a similar situation but when I switched to whole foods awhile back I ran into the same problem. I am aggressive with my exercise and there were days my nets were coming in under 1K and even though I didn't feel hungry I knew I needed to bump the number up. I found that by adding two boiled red potatoes to my lunch daily and a container of coconut water I was able to get my calories to a better level while still hitting good macros. Might be worth a try.0
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I, too, have been trying to add some calorie dense HEALTHY snacks to my diet because I have been having trouble hitting 1000 calories a day, much less 1200. And that's not even factoring in the calories I burn off exercising. I did change my default ratios to 45/30/25 to better represent what I was eating, but still having trouble reaching that 1200 calorie goal most days. And I am eating 5 or 6 times a day as well. Thanks for the list of more calorie dense options that don't ruin the weight loss.3
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Op do you use a food scale?2
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Oh shoot I didn’t realize people were really responding to me lol! Thank you everybody for getting back. I used to have a food scale but when I moved my brother kept it, so I’ve been looking for a decent one to buy. I try my best to do all of my research and planning beforehand, including measurement conversions. I actually set my own goal to 40 g fat, just because it seemed to work best with the other macros, but what everybody said is very insightful so thank you for your advice, I’ll try some new macro goals3
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It may also be because I have anxiety, so oftentimes it’s hard to eat, I dunno if that helps2
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I do quite a good job measuring, in fact sometimes I may overestimate(which isn’t good). I am however very worried about my calories because I want to make sure I’m getting enough, but at the same time I’m never really hungryWorry about hitting your calories. Going over your macros, especially fat and protein, is fine. Also make sure you’re logging everything as accurately as possible. A lot of times when people claim they can’t meet 1200 calories they’re eating more than they think.2 -
Get a food scale?
1200 cals is nothing. Are you logging all drinks, cooking oil, condiments?
Yep, I log everything! I only use coconut oil, no condiments, and I only drink water and almond milk. To be fair, my life style is very sedentary for the next couple weeks so I don’t really move enough to burn much lol.
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livingleanlivingclean wrote: »Eat a whole pizza, or a whole tub of ice cream... That'll help your calories.
In all seriousness, plenty of "wholefoods" are calorie dense. Eat more of those. Why are you limiting yourself to 40g fat?
Honestly, it’s just at 40 grams because that’s what google said it should be lol. Which foods do you eat that are the most calorie dense?? I’d love some pointers! Also, hot Cheetos every day, got it lol
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