Why do I keep sabotaging myself....

I find eating more protein helps reduce cravings for snacks. I make a protein shake for breakfast, with some fruit, and make sure to have protein with each meal. My diary is open, you are welcome to take a look.

Sounds to me like you are too hard on your self. Everybody falls in, and it can take years to get the right mindset. So dont bash your self, that will only make i worse.

Maybe you should lover your goal. Start by removing lets say 200kcal from what you normally should eat to maintain weight. Then after a week or two, remove another 100kcals. This way you are adjusting your body to get lower amounts of food, and it will adapt. We all have a sweet spot, and that is different from each person.

It also sounds like you need to start meal prepping. Always have some fruit or veggies ready, so when the munches hit you, you end up eating low density food vs. high density food.

I know this is not easy at all. Everytime i get sad i get cravings for something crispy or sweet. Sugersnaps and radishes have been great little snacks for me, heck even one evening i ate a bowl of peas, because it was all i had. Seek inspiration from vegetarians, they are clearly the masters of healthy snacks.

In general it all adds up to portion size, when you wanna loose weight. I hate when people become restrictive about what they are allowed to eat. You just have to change the size of the portions, and get some management strategies. A trick could be to allow your self to have a portion of 20gram og crisps, and leave the bag in the kitchen. If this is impossible for you, then you should avoid buying the snacks until you can control it. I found making my own popcorns without fat in a pot, is a great substitute for crisps. It has bite like crisps, and salt, and 50gram of corn is more than enough to make me satisfied, and only adds around 170 kcal vs 1000kcal if i ate a bag of crisps.

Another thing you could try is to sit down at start tasting the things you normally crave. Your tastebuds actually might be lying to you. A simple test could be to take a bag of your favorite crisps. Take one crisp in your mouth, and let the saliva reach it, and dont crush it with your teeth. Now give your tastebuds a chance to really taste all the flavours of the crisp. Even give your self the chance to feel the texture change from hard to soft. Some people actually feels disgusted putting that snack in their mouth after that

Forget about why, it doesn’t matter. Or try this for why- you’re conflicted and part of your brain likes things just the way they are. Part of our brain hates change of any kind. Seems like most brains have it in for weight loss in particular. Why doesn’t really fix things.

A why question- why are you set on 1200 cals? Is it because that’s the most aggressive program on MFP?

Start out by logging your intake. Don’t be overly concerned with hitting your number at first. Try to calculate what you normally take in and start cutting back from there. All you need is a modest downward trend and time. Most folks wreck themselves over the time it takes to lose. Don’t.

For the habit-breaking, or munching snacks just because I wanted to, I did this:

First step: put all snacks/extra portions where you cannot easily get them during the day. This way you have to make an effort to get it in the first place! Seriously, this really works!

When the craving starts acknowledge it but don't get up. Tell yourself you are going to wait 30 mins and see if you still want it.
If you still want it/kept thinking about it, go and grab yourself 1 serving size and walk away.
If you forgot about it and no longer feel the craving congratulate yourself on avoiding empty calories.

This helped me break the habit of snacking all day just because food was readily available. Usually by the time 30 mins had passed I had distracted myself and no longer wanted the snack.

Also you can do whats called macro roll over and put your overage calories into tomorrows calories as long as you are healthy about your food choices the next day you should be fine.

I think we all have times that we eat our feelings or because we're bored or even just out of habit. I've found it helpful to have a plan for those times that don't involve food. Then when those feelings and urges come up, I execute my plan first and then re-evaluate. For example, if I'm happy I'll text a friend and share whatever put me in a good mood. If I'm sad, I figure out what's bothering me and see what I can change about that situation. Usually those will distract me and the urge to watch just passes.

I've also made it harder to get to food. Any snacks get broken up into single servings right away so it becomes more difficult to eat an entire container of something. I also don't allow food into my house unless I have a specific plan to eat it. I live alone, so that's feasible and also cuts down significantly on food waste.