Feels impossible to eat only 1200 calories!!
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Yeah, you’re right. I am probably not being very accurate with counting calories without a scale. I’ll look into getting one, thanks!netitheyeti wrote: »I weigh everything (apart from maybe lettuce, cucumber etc - which is unlikely to make my count more than 10kcal off), and also - the rate of weight loss that's sustainable/reasonable changes depending on how much you have left to lose, if you're close-ish to goal weight you could set your rate to 0.5 per week. But seriously, get a food scale, without it you really can't know for sure how much you're eating - either over or under your goal
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ChristieJourney wrote: »I have it set at 1 pound a week. And I have never weighed my food...do you literally weigh your food? I am really new to this
if you don't weight your food, you don't actually know how much you're eating...
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I cannot do 1200 or any restrictive number of calories day-in-day-out either. So I do IF instead and eat 600 calories on fasting days and 1800 on non-fasting days. I also have the very occasional treat day.
This works for me but of course everyone has to find what works for them.0 -
Fruits & veggies! You can eat a ton of certain fruits and veggies for very few calories! You can eat a whole bag of frozen organic spinach from Trader Joe’s for 140 calories! I can only eat half a bag, it’s so big, and add a tablespoon of grated or Parmesan cheese and it’s a full meal! Melon, especially watermelon has very few calories and you can eat a LOT and it’s very filling. Steamed artichokes are good too because they take a long time to eat. Just don’t add a high calorie dipping sauce! Now that I’m eating mindfully and only for nutrition, I’m finding it really easy to stay under 1200 calories. Watch out for things like salad dressing though because that can be more calories than the whole salad. Just add a tiny bit of low cal dressing to salads or just add a small drizzling of extra virgin olive oil and vinegar and add your own spices like garlic (or even better FRESH garlic which is super healthy, especially when raw!) oregano, cayenne, or a ton of other interesting spices and you can even add a tablespoon of Parmesan. My highest calories are at least healthy things Ike avocado, flaxseed meal, chia seeds, salt-free nuts, fresh coconut, which are things I REALLY have to portion out because those can be high in calories. Don’t buy any premade food, it’s almost never healthy except occasionally maybe from Whole Foods or Trader Joe’s but make sure to read all the ingredients. I’ve found that when I eat only super healthy food, I get two benefits, it feels really good and it’s much easier to eat low calories!
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You have mentioned you get really hungry in the morning, what kind of foods are you having for breakfast? I find when I eat foods high in carbs like toast or cereal, it just makes me more hungry. I switched to more protein, such as Greek yogurt and fruit or eggs and to me, it's made a huge difference. I've recently found Aldi (UK) do these 'protein pot' yoghurt things and they really keep me full.
My calorie goal is around 1200 due to my height, but I usually eat back my exercise calories and don't beat myself up if I go over to about 1400 (without exercise).
Everyone is different so it's all about finding what works for you. I've resd through some of the other suggestions here and some work for me but some don't. It could be worth keeping a food diary separate from MFP (or using the notes feature, although this isn't private) to write about how you feel after eating certain things, you might find certain foods don't help with hunger as much as others.0 -
If your BMR is 1656, then your total energy expenditure (with no exercise) is at least 1950-2000.
But in another post you indicated the 1240 goal is based on losing 1 pound per week, so I wonder if you did not mean 'bmr'. You can change to .5 pounds per week, and have 1490. But as others have said, accuracy is SUPER important with a small calorie deficit. Estimating portions will lead to frustration and likely eating more than you think. You can also look for ways to increase your activity in order to burn more.
Food scale is no big deal, but anything new-to-you will involve an adjustment.ChristieJourney wrote: »It feels nearly impossible to only eat 1240 calories a day! I am getting frustrated and have hit a plateau for a couple months. My BMR is 1656 calories and this app tells me that if I want to lose 20 lbs, than I only can eat approx 1200 cals a day. What do I eat?! Please help
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The food & nutrition area is a great place to get meal ideas. If you shared what foods you typically eat, you would probably get lots of ideas on how to tweak them to be lower cal.0
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minibagz1203 wrote: »I'm finding a hard time too! I drink 2 slimfast shakes a day and have small snacks to keep hunger at bay, then i eat a meal for dinner.
I maintain on 3000+ calories and would struggle if I "drank" my nutrition.1 -
Disclaimer of this "isn't for everyone" but I find the low carb/mid protein/high fat ratios to be more satisfying for me. Watching my macros helps a lot while I work on reducing.1
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I thought by just calorie counting, I would know how much I was eating?zebasschick wrote: »ChristieJourney wrote: »I have it set at 1 pound a week. And I have never weighed my food...do you literally weigh your food? I am really new to this
if you don't weight your food, you don't actually know how much you're eating...
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Thanks for the advice!! All that sounds pretty yummy right nowAliciaHollywood wrote: »Fruits & veggies! You can eat a ton of certain fruits and veggies for very few calories! You can eat a whole bag of frozen organic spinach from Trader Joe’s for 140 calories! I can only eat half a bag, it’s so big, and add a tablespoon of grated or Parmesan cheese and it’s a full meal! Melon, especially watermelon has very few calories and you can eat a LOT and it’s very filling. Steamed artichokes are good too because they take a long time to eat. Just don’t add a high calorie dipping sauce! Now that I’m eating mindfully and only for nutrition, I’m finding it really easy to stay under 1200 calories. Watch out for things like salad dressing though because that can be more calories than the whole salad. Just add a tiny bit of low cal dressing to salads or just add a small drizzling of extra virgin olive oil and vinegar and add your own spices like garlic (or even better FRESH garlic which is super healthy, especially when raw!) oregano, cayenne, or a ton of other interesting spices and you can even add a tablespoon of Parmesan. My highest calories are at least healthy things Ike avocado, flaxseed meal, chia seeds, salt-free nuts, fresh coconut, which are things I REALLY have to portion out because those can be high in calories. Don’t buy any premade food, it’s almost never healthy except occasionally maybe from Whole Foods or Trader Joe’s but make sure to read all the ingredients. I’ve found that when I eat only super healthy food, I get two benefits, it feels really good and it’s much easier to eat low calories!
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nanamerriman2020 wrote: »The food & nutrition area is a great place to get meal ideas. If you shared what foods you typically eat, you would probably get lots of ideas on how to tweak them to be lower cal.[/quote
great! I’ll look there0 -
Good for you at keeping that discipline!! It would be hard for me to only eat 600 calsI cannot do 1200 or any restrictive number of calories day-in-day-out either. So I do IF instead and eat 600 calories on fasting days and 1800 on non-fasting days. I also have the very occasional treat day.
This works for me but of course everyone has to find what works for them.
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TayaCurragh wrote: »You have mentioned you get really hungry in the morning, what kind of foods are you having for breakfast? I find when I eat foods high in carbs like toast or cereal, it just makes me more hungry. I switched to more protein, such as Greek yogurt and fruit or eggs and to me, it's made a huge difference. I've recently found Aldi (UK) do these 'protein pot' yoghurt things and they really keep me full.
My calorie goal is around 1200 due to my height, but I usually eat back my exercise calories and don't beat myself up if I go over to about 1400 (without exercise).
Everyone is different so it's all about finding what works for you. I've resd through some of the other suggestions here and some work for me but some don't. It could be worth keeping a food diary separate from MFP (or using the notes feature, although this isn't private) to write about how you feel after eating certain things, you might find certain foods don't help with hunger as much as others.[/quote
To be honest, I like to eat breakfast burritos but I’ve been focusing on high proteins like meats and eggs and cut peppers in the burritos. I feel like if I eat those high proteins that they will keep me full for awhile. But I do drink soda too, and I have been cutting back because that can totally sabotage things!!1 -
ChristieJourney wrote: »
Good for you at keeping that discipline!! It would be hard for me to only eat 600 calsI cannot do 1200 or any restrictive number of calories day-in-day-out either. So I do IF instead and eat 600 calories on fasting days and 1800 on non-fasting days. I also have the very occasional treat day.
This works for me but of course everyone has to find what works for them.
Pick your hard - twice a week at 600 or 7 days a week at 1200. The 1800 calorie days seem effortless for some.
Strategies for staying full - eat more, lose slower and/or move more, earn bonus calories.
Protein, fat, and fiber are filling components but it's not the same for everyone. Strategies in the fruit & veggie post above don't do much for me. Spinach w/ a tablespoon of cheese is not a meal........1 -
ChristieJourney wrote: »
I thought by just calorie counting, I would know how much I was eating?zebasschick wrote: »ChristieJourney wrote: »I have it set at 1 pound a week. And I have never weighed my food...do you literally weigh your food? I am really new to this
if you don't weight your food, you don't actually know how much you're eating...
The point is that you can't count calories accurately if you're not weighing your food.1 -
Personally I cannot look at a chicken breast and know if its 6 ounces, 7 ounces or 8 ounces. I can't look at a banana and know if its 85 grams, 100 grams or 115 grams. Essentially, I cannot look at an item and know how much it weighs. So without a food scale, I can only guess about how many calories I am consuming. I can log that I had 6 ounces of chicken breast with my dinner, but if its really 7 or 8: my data will be wrong.
If I log 1 chicken breast, 1 serving rice, 1 serving vegs, 1 tablespoon olive oil for dinner @ 400 cals, I won't know that it might NOT be 400 cals. Logging without accuracy is kind of useless IMO.ChristieJourney wrote: »
I thought by just calorie counting, I would know how much I was eating?zebasschick wrote: »ChristieJourney wrote: »I have it set at 1 pound a week. And I have never weighed my food...do you literally weigh your food? I am really new to this
if you don't weight your food, you don't actually know how much you're eating...
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I drink a lot of soda - but long before I started losing weight, I switched to diet. I would easily have weighed a lot more at my highest otherwise. I just don't want to drink my calories.
For the breakfast burritos: the highest cal component is likely the shell. You can look for lower cal options in the store. Can use egg whites (or some egg whites w/ less regular eggs), turkey sausage to cut some calories and more veggies to increase the mass of food.1 -
If you think the food you like is too high in calories then why not look at how it would still be tasty but a bit lower in calories. Cooking yourself gives you all the control you need to make adjustments. Then leave something out, use less of it, or use a replacement.
I'm having burgers tomorrow. It's 90 grams of fairly low fat mince, a not too big but very tasty bun, I put acar on it (picked Indonesian vegetables), avocado, a fresh yoghurt sauce and a few spices (note: I can't have molten cheese). Then a big pile of oven roast potatoes with more veggies. The dinner comes in at roughly 550 calories and fills me up properly. And I have a burger.0 -
ChristieJourney wrote: »
Good for you at keeping that discipline!! It would be hard for me to only eat 600 calsI cannot do 1200 or any restrictive number of calories day-in-day-out either. So I do IF instead and eat 600 calories on fasting days and 1800 on non-fasting days. I also have the very occasional treat day.
This works for me but of course everyone has to find what works for them.
Pick your hard - twice a week at 600 or 7 days a week at 1200. The 1800 calorie days seem effortless for some.
Strategies for staying full - eat more, lose slower and/or move more, earn bonus calories.
Protein, fat, and fiber are filling components but it's not the same for everyone. Strategies in the fruit & veggie post above don't do much for me. Spinach w/ a tablespoon of cheese is not a meal........
I didn’t mean to say don’t eat protein or healthy fats. I just meant that after you ate the right amount of protein and all necessary nutrients and you’re still hungry, you can fill up on fruits and veggies and they are also full of fiber and antioxidants and micronutrients so win/win. I personally don’t have a very big appetite, can’t eat a lot of food at once so to me half a bag of frozen spinach is a lot to put in my stomach at once and fills me up. I usually don’t even eat “meals” but snack on healthy foods throughout the day, making sure to eat the right amount of healthy fats (omegas) and proteins with flaxseed meal, chia seeds, sunflower seeds, almonds, cashews in small snacks, so a half bag of spinach is really filling for me to eat all at once but low in calories compared to almost all other foods and super healthy.0
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