1200 calorie goal. How to not go over?

mazcor536 · April 2018

gogetemrogue wrote: »

The way I do it, which may or may not work for others: I'm set to -2 lbs a week loss but use a TDEE calculator to estimate where my maintenance calories are. Many days ~1200 calories feels decent but if any particular day they don't, I know my hard limit where I need to stop or I will kill all deficit. I don't consider this to be "cheating", but rather strategic balancing of satiety needs and deficit and I plan to adapt this going into maintenance somehow.

Exactly this! Super advice! I took note of my TDEE (and regularly check to readjust as I lose) and know that if I need to, I can go up to that but no more. Makes days where food prep etc is completely out of my control (eating out/visiting family etc), a lot easier to handle.

taziarj · April 2018

Also keep in mind that even if you have MFP set to lose 2lbs per week and it spits out 1200 calories, that may not be enough of a deficit for 2lbs per week. A 2lbs per week weight loss requires a 1000 per day calorie deficit. If your maintenance is only 2000, then 2lbs would put you at 1000 calories per day. MFP won't go lower than 1200. So you are actually closer to a 1.5lb per week deficit.

jdwils14 · April 2018

As a general rule, if you are hungry and weary, you should eat. The body knows what it needs, so don’t ignore it based on what amount you “should” eat to lose weight.

Only exception is if you have a disorder that doesn’t shut off hunger hormones.

Semele0 · April 2018

Hi! My goal is 1200 too, but something that helped me was this: before starting I made MFP calculate my calories with different rates of weight loss, from manteinance to 1lb per week, and I wrote the numbers down, then set the lowest as my goal. So now I have a range of how much calories I can eat, and if I eat, let's say, 1300 one day, I know I'm still losing, just a little slower. That helped not panicking if I go over, but I still set 1200 as my goal because having it low helps me mentally to al least try and stay lower. This works for me because of the way I'm made, I know that if I set the bar to 1300 I would eat all of the 1300 everyday, while if I set 1200 I'm eating 1200 one day, 1270 another, and so on... and since I know which is the maximum of calories I can eat and still lose I don't panick.
You can try this, maybe it helps you too, but if seeing the red number in the diary freaks you out, then maybe it's better to just set a higher goal.

1200 calorie goal. How to not go over?

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