1300ish calories

I would lower your deficit to begin with, especially if you are working out. Give it a month and see if you're still losing (losing slower, but without the constant urge to binge would be worth it to me!).

There are all the standard things to do to curb hunger (drinking lots of water, eating high volume/low calorie foods, making sure your getting adequate protein), but in the end those all ignore your body telling you that you need to eat more, which I am never a big advocate for.

Are you adding back exercise calories? If you are, then I am guessing you could be eating a lot more than 1300 and still lose at a good rate.

Feel free to look at my diary. The truth is though, that you may be trying to maintain too large of a deficit. Are there specific foods that you tend to binge on? Can you keep them out of the house?

I have to have the feeling of a full stomach. Most of the time that means whatever regular meal and then a large, large salad on the side. For me, it's not about the calories but the volume of the food. It works even when the salad is a kilo of lettuce and amounts to like 15 calories

I eat at about 1300 calories. Hard to sustain without at least another 100 calories from exercise, but I manage it most of the time. Breakfast and lunch are about 300-400 calories of high protein/high fiber (often whole grain cereal with Greek yogurt for breakfast and something like brown rice & black beans with some chicken and topped with salsa and sometimes avocado for lunch). Dinner is usually 500-600 cals and usually includes a large salad and fish or chicken breast cooked various yummy ways. Then I usually have Greek yogurt, sometimes mixed with fresh blackberries, for an after-dinner snack. Sometimes I have a protein bar, protein powder with water or a carrot with hummus for a mid-afternoon snack. If I’ve done cardio that day and have more calories I’ll usually have more fruit, nuts and whole grains. Dinner might include baked fish tacos (breaded), falafel from a mix (sometimes baked, sometimes fried) with tzaziki sauce and pita bread, fish with parmesan/bread crumb topping, crispy oven-baked chicken (breaded, sometimes with apricot jam/mustard/bread crumb topping).

Everything I eat is evaluated for protein, fiber, “filling power” and taste. I only have alcohol or treats on special occasions. I rarely eat out (again, special occasions), and I don’t do a lot of bars/restaurants/parties socializing on weekends. And I eat back every single exercise calorie (estimated conservatively).

The first step is to determine if you binges are mostly caused by hunger or stress/emotions. If it's hunger, as others have said, increase your calories if you can (by choosing a slower loss rate or eating back exercise calories). If it's stress and emotions, you have to train yourself to cope in other ways. Make sure to eat on a schedule or pre-log your food if you can and count everything that goes in, even if it's over. I find light exercise to be really good for stress eating problems. Instead of eating my stress, I exercise off the nervous energy and I get a similar dopamine release.

I eat twice a day so my calories per meal can be significant. I no longer snack unless it is planned for an event/occasion like favorite series finale, movie, etc.

I eat a minimum of two servings of fruit, three servings of vegetable, and add supplemental protein/dairy/oils to calorie controlled/accounted for prepackaged meals to transform them into satisfying meals vs. tiny portions of unsatisfying sadness. I have had to concede my original position and do now use low fat versions of some dairy items to keep the calorie count of compatible with my dietary plans for the day. Protein shake powder is used as coffee creamer. I do not eat protein bars as waayyy too many calories for the amount of protein and akin to throwing a hot dog down a hallway when it comes to my stomach and its sense of hunger, lol.

A minimum of 30% of my total caloric intake for the day has to be from fats, 20-25% protein, the rest carbs. I shoot for a minimum average of 20-30 grams of fiber/day per week. I also make myself go to bed before I get snacky late at night from being overtired and while skipping a day occasionally is okay, make sure I drink a minimum of 64 oz (usually closer to 96 oz) in water/tea/coffee every day. I don't drink diet carbonated drinks only because I think they are universally gross tasting.

I don't drink alcohol because I quit drinking alcohol except on rare special occasions in 2012. If I was cooking from scratch I would use it in cooking since most of the alcohol gets cooked off but that's not in play at the moment.

This is working for me. For the first time in a decade+ now, I just 'know' this is going to work. Determination finally showing up to the party helps, but is not the fulcrum my success is hinging upon. No breakthrough hunger, no grazing between meals, no binges, no borderline food obsessing/obsession all have major roles in it for me.

Well, okay. No binges as long as I plan for menstruation cycle and up my daily calories to around calculated maintenance and eat a full additional meal the 1-3 days my appetite is sharp. Eating a planned additional 4-800 calories beats bingeing on 2-5K calories of mindless unplanned and so unsatisfying foods any day in my book.

I do no intentional exercise and will not until I am at a weight where I am not going to sustain an exercise induced injury of any type. BTDT multiple times; never again.

None of this is to say "be/do like me". It is to illustrate what kinds of nutrition related things I had to figure out about myself before I could hit upon the right combination of those things in a calorie controlled eating plan that is consistently working (knock on wood) in my particular instance. Here's hoping for much success in you find your own customized dietary "sweet spot" in far less time than it took me.

Let's define binge.

I define it as eating several hundred calories over my plan in an out of control manner.


It can be ten different snacks of healthy foods like almonds and cottage cheese and fruit or it can be 2000 extra calories of pumpkin pie and whipped cream.

Different strategies for differing triggers, as well. Bored? Mad? Sad? Lonely? Tired? Those have different solutions than Actual Hunger Because 1300 Is Really Too Low.

It helped me a lot to journal around these big overages and see what the problem(s) really were. In this case, I'll bet it's mostly a too-low calorie goal.