Any 1200 calorie petite girls?

24

Replies

  • cfeege
    cfeege Posts: 4 Member
    I know that this isn’t the most nutritious way but I’ve only had success using packaged foods so there is concern about no measurement errors. A Lean Cuisine is 280 calories, a prepackaged 100 calorie pack of almonds is ...100 calories (I hope), etc I round it out with fury it’s and veggies but know I could be a lot healthier if given the time. If there are meal prep queens who have nailed portion sizes and meal Planning within the 12-1300 range - would Love to hear!
  • Strudders67
    Strudders67 Posts: 978 Member
    I just put my details into that tdeecalculator.net and apparently I should be maintaining on 1229 cals (and it shows my BMR as 1024). Given that I continued losing weight after I increased my cals from 1200 to 1340, per what MFP thought was my maintenance number, I'll take that with a pinch of salt.

    I've been trying to put some weight back on since just before Christmas (I had a shock when I realised I was only a kilo above being classed as underweight). Having set my MFP goal to increase by 0.5kg a week, I've been eating around 1850 cals a day for three months now. As of yesterday morning, I have put on precisely zero kg. I therefore assume that my maintenance must actually be in the region of 1850. I have no idea how, but this is why I suggested people find out their maintenance figure. Eating under that figure should see you losing weight, even if it's slowly.

    However, from the above, it's clear that different sources give different figures - which is probably because they use different methods and either do /do not take exercise into account - so how do you know what's accurate? As you're using MFP to track your food intake etc, I'd be inclined to start with finding out what MFP thinks is your maintenance number, track diligently for 6 weeks and then gauge whether you are actually losing at the expected rate or not. You can then adjust accordingly if you're losing too fast/ too slow.

    One thing is very very important when you don't have much wiggle room- make sure you're weighing everything and make sure that the nutritional info of the entries you choose matches the packaging of your item or is a reliable data source. Remember that the MFP database is mostly crowd-sourced and a lot of entries are wildly incorrect or products have changed since the entries were created. Even a green tick just means enough people said, at one point, that it was accurate. It may not be accurate now.
  • GummiMundi
    GummiMundi Posts: 396 Member
    edited March 2021
    @phys72 and @cfeege
    I hate to be the one breaking it to you, but... logging has to be as accurate as possible in our situation. No spoons, cups or any of the sorts. Be extra careful with the database entries you pick, and avoid homemade entries that weren't created by you. I weigh pretty much everything (unless I'm not eating at home, in which case I have to estimate, but that's a rare occurrence these days). I even weigh prepackaged foods, because the manufacturer has a margin of error and their weigh can sometimes be off.
    Let me give you an example from my dinner tonight: I was using a prepackaged serving of cold meats that was supposed to weigh 75 grams (251 calories). I weighed the content and it was 93 grams (311 calories). Only 60 calories of difference, you may argue. But 60 calories here, another 50 there, and believe me, it adds up. And on a small calorie budget as we have, we simply can't afford that luxury.

    @wunderkindking
    No assumptions from me on this case. I'm a firm believer that each person should use all the data and information to make the best possible plan for themselves. And one thing I've learned in these forums is that there's always room for improvement. :)
  • Strudders67
    Strudders67 Posts: 978 Member
    edited March 2021
    cfeege wrote: »
    I know that this isn’t the most nutritious way but I’ve only had success using packaged foods so there is concern about no measurement errors. A Lean Cuisine is 280 calories, a prepackaged 100 calorie pack of almonds is ...100 calories (I hope), etc I round it out with fury it’s and veggies but know I could be a lot healthier if given the time. If there are meal prep queens who have nailed portion sizes and meal Planning within the 12-1300 range - would Love to hear!

    Breakfast - 125g plain soya yoghurt plus 15g chia seeds and approx 35g berries plus two hard boiled eggs. Or 50g porridge, 15g chia seeds, 250ml no sugar almond milk and 35g berries. Or a cooked breakfast of bacon (2 rashers), mushrooms, grilled tomato and poached egg. 200-300-400 cals.

    Lunch - big salad (maybea drizzle of oil but generally no dressing) plus protein. 200 to 300 cals, depending on the protein added.

    Snack- bag of lentil curls (93 cals) or popcorn (44 cals) or 15g almonds (88 cals).
    I buy big bags of almonds and take a portion to work each day. If I think I'll have cals going spare I can make my portion size bigger!

    That left 500 cals plus my exercise cals for dinner.

    For dinner, I mostly cook in bulk and freeze stuff in portion sizes - bolognese, chilli, curries, stirfries, stews, fish pie,shepherd's pie etc. If I'm going to do something new and I'm not sure if it'll fit my cals, I pre-log the recipe and then temporarily add an entry to my diary. That tells me how many cals, how many carbs, the protein figure etc. I can then either adjust the recipe (more veg / less protein or carbs / whatever to increase or lower elements as needed) or I can adjust how many portions I'm going to divide the finished dish in to.

    I pre-plan and pre-log my diary. It may not be exact with regards to the weight of added veg or potatoes etc, but it'll give me a good idea. If my dinner has more cals, I have the lighter option for breakfast and/or add a lower cal protein to my salad that day instead of a can of mackerel, forexample. Or I'll add more veg and less potato / pasta. I may or may not serve a dish on rice. I always cook rice in bulk and freeze it in 100g portions. I usually have cauliflower rice in the freezer too, to give me an alternative option. Sometimes I'll do a huge stirfry and have so much veg on the plate that I don't need rice. I'd pad pasta out with courgetti if I'm high on my calorie or carb count. Most of it's trial and error over a period of time. But this is what I'm going to be eating for the rest of my life in order to keep my diabetes in check.
  • OliveSalt
    OliveSalt Posts: 47 Member
    Wow, Im so appreciative for all the perspectives on this thread and for the openness and support. Its nice to hear struggles with the nuanced aspects of getting healthy and not just the "slash and burn" approach
  • toriraeh
    toriraeh Posts: 105 Member
    It’s nice to not be alone! I’m 5’2 and 162 pounds (I’ve lost 12 since January!) and two things that have helped me greatly since I started this up again are not eating anything except black coffee before about 10 or 11. I also exercise first thing in the morning five days a week. If my first meal is at lunchtime, it gets to be a little heftier, usually around 300 cals. Then I either eat another “lunch” around 2 or 3 and have dinner (500 cals roughly) at 5 or 6. Then somewhere around 7 or 8, I usually have 100-200 cals for an after dinner snack. I’ve also been logging extremely diligently and don’t log my exercise calories at all. Then if I exercise all 5 days and hit my calorie goal all 6 days, then I let myself have one meal without counting. So far it’s been working. I know that as I get smaller I’ll have to tighten the reins, but hopefully I’ll also be running longer distances and earning more calories by then :-)
  • middleagegirl
    middleagegirl Posts: 19 Member
    Same boat here. 5'4". The only way that I lose weight these days if if I pretty much starve myself. I try to stay around 1200 calories per day and I do not eat my exercise calories back. So frustrating. I am 56 which I am sure makes it harder.
  • emzoe13
    emzoe13 Posts: 11 Member

    I think I’m “reasonably” petite: 5’3.5, but I strength train. I weigh c122 pounds with c20% body fat. I maintain on 2100 -2200 cals and will lose weight (slowly) on 1900 cals. Everyone is different so my stats might not work for others, but petite girls don’t always have to stick to 1200 cals per day. It depends on your activity (I’m sedentary at a computer all day but do 10 hrs weight training per week and walk the dog for 45 mins each day) and how fast you decide to lose weight. For a lot of petite women, picking a slower rate of loss will be more sustainable as it gives you enough calories to get the right nutrients in and have enough energy to be active (too few cals usually leads to unconscious reduced activity).

    So yes it can be done but we are all different!

    Can I ask, is your 2100 maintenance with or without exercise?

    With my normal pandemic-era exercise (75 minute ballet class, 30-60 minutes of walking, and 25 minutes of stretching 6 days per week) I can eat about 1600-1700 to lose 1 pound per week, but even that often doesn't feel like enough food for the day. Might be mostly psychological factors but I've been hitting a wall for the last couple months and just not able to stick to my goal on most days, so I'm considering resigning myself to a slower rate of loss. Slow and steady wins the race, right?
  • claireychn074
    claireychn074 Posts: 1,311 Member
    @emzoe13 i eat on average 2100 cals every day, so it’s my maintenance at my current level of activity (sedentary during the day, but with short dog walk and 4 lifting sessions per week). I personally need more calories with lifting, when I did purely cardio I didn’t need as many. But my food is an average over a week. On some days I am hungry so I eat 2300 and on other days less. I’m not trying to lose so I’m okay if I go over a bit, but if I need to cut calories then I really tighten up my logging and plan my food for satiety. Hope that helps!
  • AudreyPriceAz
    AudreyPriceAz Posts: 19 Member
    edited March 2021
    I'm 5' 2...57...147lb trying to figure this out.

    Daily Calorie Budget - 1200
    BMR = 1,205 Calories/day

    Daily calorie needs based on activity level 1,765
    BMI Score: 26.9 kg/m2 (Overweight), Healthy BMI Range: 18.5 - 25 kg/m2
    The estimated TDEE or body weight maintenance energy requirement is 2,009 Calories per day.

    Weight loss
    1 lb/week
    1,509 75%
    Calories/day

    Goal 105 by July
  • AudreyPriceAz
    AudreyPriceAz Posts: 19 Member
    I'm 5' 2...57...147lb trying to figure this out.

    Daily Calorie Budget - 1200
    BMR = 1,205 Calories/day

    Daily calorie needs based on activity level 1,765
    BMI Score: 26.9 kg/m2 (Overweight),
    The estimated TDEE or bodyweight Weight loss energy requirement is 1 lb/week 1,509 75% Calories per day.


    Goal 105 by July

    Walking 3-5miles at least 5 days but want to test 3m daily on 1200. I use a 100c burn per mile since I can't find a surefire calculator.

    Drink: 60-80oz water or unsweetenee tea

    Introducing smoothies

    Smaller portions
  • AudreyPriceAz
    AudreyPriceAz Posts: 19 Member
    Almond milk, mixed fruit, slimfast, ice is what I'm introducing as a lunch type meal.

    Also IF 8:16, my biggest meal first, most cals.

    My daily routine I can easily live with:

    Glass of water first thing, with 2 gummies multivitamins

    Walk 2.5 miles

    First meal is the biggest, highest cals. Instead of breakfast, lunch, dinner, I go with OMAD ...one big meal

    Use those cals through the day

    If I'm hungry, either high protein light lunch or smoothie

    Last Chance Before Fast light snack meal, sandwich, soup, etc.

    I updated my daily cals to 1450-1500 as that seemed to be a decent deficit average

    Fast 16 begins, walk 2.5 miles

    Drink water all day


    This is generally keeping with my typical day to day but now with attention to portion size and cutting between meal snacks. Instead, it's doing healthy snackin for either of the last two.

    My problem was loading up a plate. If I make anything larger then it'll be light snack or next day's big meal.

    I think that will drop 1-2lbs a week.

    Maybe when the plateau hits I'll do a fast food meal and soft drink...then add more miles for those calories.






  • AudreyPriceAz
    AudreyPriceAz Posts: 19 Member
    edited March 2021
    Personal experience from Feb to Mar took me from 150 to 146...the two main things that I changed was cutting soft drinks for water only, cutting fast food completely.

    Keeping to that is fine for me, I'm not ever having fast food withdrawals or all that. If I grab a soft drink it's one 20oz a week or a 1ltr that I just grab a few sips to indulge the urge the put it back in the fridge. That helped cut out pouring the glass full with meals or daily 20ozs. Plus going to the fridge for a sip is more inconvenient than just drinking water that's always with me.

    I wasn't addicted to soft drinks...it was mostly just habitual over the course of my life, it's like we're "supposed to" drink soft drinks as normal...so I'd drink a couple 20ozs a day with meals...but then I realized it'd gone up to a 2ltr a day. Once I actually caught that I was doing it, and replaced it with a water only, I just stopped and that weight dropped quickly in a couple weeks.

    Then I went to Captain Ds and Panda Express last week, and had a 20oz a day and it went back to 148. So I'm pretty sure that was the main culprit. Once I cut it out and weighed properly it put me at 147 after 4 days...leading to Sunday or Monday when I decided to try this app.

    I'll make my adjustments but I don't eat extremely unhealthy anyway. I was eating bigger portions or having seconds (sometimes I cook some good stuff and it's just...gotta get more!) and overdoing it on the sodas with all the sugar but I'm working out a course of action I can live with comfortably that's sustainable.

    I can comfortably live without soda but it's nice on occasion. I will make an exception if I have anything super spicy. The soda helps curb that for me. Otherwise water is fine. Unsweetened tea had been working also. My favorite blend is Community Porch Breeze. It's a nice flavor, not bitter at all and I found it's pleasant enough I can just dump in the hot water, then add the ice (I'm a southern girl, we do iced tea) and drink it like water anyway.

    I don't do milk and cheese in and of itself. I detest yogurts, cream cheese, sour cream, any cream...it grosses me out. Like aversion level nope. If it's mixed into something it's fine, like a dollop of milk in the scrambled eggs or cornbread...but a glass of milk makes me cringe. I might do ice cream a couple times throughout the year. Just not into it.

    I do steak, chicken, tuna, italian sausage, breakfast pork chops, onion, bells, banana peppers, sweet peppers, cucumbers, asparagus, hominy, veggies, etc. I don't need the fancy prep meals. I often make 2-3 small/med chopped potatoes, onions, bells and asparagus as a full plated meal. Chicken strips, BBQ sauce, onions and banana peppers slow cooked all day and then a sandwich here and there til it's gone over several meals. That sort of thing. I use a little olive oil for the veggies. I've not touched bacon in a year. I did bacon because you're supposed to eat it with eggs...but I found I could live without it, and for scrambled eggs which I don't do regularly anyway (not a huge egg person either), it's with sausage or I throw in some veggies and eat it over toast, so I don't need the bacon.

    My typical habit was one big meal and 2 lighter snack size meals...but I was eating a big bowl of chips and salsa or a big bowl of popcorn or a package of lifesaver gummies a day 4 days in a row.

    And it was the sodas and sedentary that piled this on, topped off with 2x weekly fast food. Once I cut that off I actually witnessed a 4lb drop the following week.

    I bought 1 pack of gummies and rationed them out through the week. It was fine. Not a life altering sacrifice. Instead of big bowls I learned to grab a big old 5' 2 petite girl handful size of chips and put them on a napkin with a couple tablespoons of whatever dip, if any, and I have discovered my new favorite popcorn that is "ehh" but it's not leaving my diet. I will make room for it for movie nights every Sunday... Jolly Time blast o butter mini packs. OMG that's so good, just the right amount of butter/salt flavor. That movie time and OR is so rich and gross with a nasty aftertaste. Jolly Time is legitimately good stuff.

    I did that without the MFP app. I am not nitpicking calories, I'm not likely to measure anything for portions and all that. That's too OCD anal-retentive for me but I will be more conscious of what amounts I am eating and I will definitely use a smaller plate. If that plan drops it down for next week's weigh in then we're good to go.

    If it still doesn't happen then I'll surrender to the scale and weigh it out and try it that way in the end...but I saw results dropping the garbage food from my diet. I think that, plus smaller portions and the OMAD/IF and 5m a day will drop this off.

    Now it's 12:30...I'm on my first glass of water and will get my 2.5 miles in before I eat. I'm just now feeling hungry so by the time the walking's done I'll know what I feel like eating and go make it. That'll likely do me til about 4 or 5. My cut off is 8 hours from whenever I actually eat the first meal. That's way easier to manage than trying to force myself to eat at noon every day. I may be busy.

    Hopefully that helps clarify what my goals and plans are.

    As for the well intended "don't lose weight fast it's not healthy" suggestions, obviously yes...but if I knew how to drop weight fast, healthy or not I'd have done it already. Whatever I am doing is healthy enough because I'm not feeling bad, not worse but better, and I feel like I know my body best.

    Like I said, this is a weight loss road trip for me, not a journey.

    The journey was what got me here. I want this journey to end now.

    It was the unhealthy over eating that got me here to begin with and it didn't kill me. I think a few months of cutting out the garbage food isn't at all unhealthy.

    I mean, I smoked since I was 12. Stopped in 2013. Then vaped up until last year. I ate all kinds of fast food and downed sodas like it was water...THAT is unhealthy.

    So dropping 2lbs a week while eating well, just smaller, and exercising...sorry, that's far, far less unhealthy than what I was doing so I'm going to stick with that until my body says not to.

    I listen to my body. Sometimes it has to yell for me to just deal with it but I do listen.