Difficulty staying in 1200cal budget

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Red_Fusion
Red_Fusion Posts: 8 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I’m working with a nutritionist who has me on 1200 calories based on a breath test BMR (I have a 1500 BMR). I am having problems not going over goal. But I’m eating healthily and still starving at night and over by 300 calories and not losing. Any suggestions on how best to stay full or a daily breakdown of calories per meal? I am drinking about 72 oz of water daily.
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  • Red_Fusion
    Red_Fusion Posts: 8 Member
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    @ninerbuff no on the exercising-it’s the usual crappy excuses that everyone makes…time and energy etc. we did walk after dinner last night. I just haven’t gotten to a point where it’s a priority until now, so I need to make it more consistent I guess. I will definitely recalculate my TDEE. Thanks!
  • Red_Fusion
    Red_Fusion Posts: 8 Member
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    @TeaBea thank you! I am going to recalculate my TDEE and try to increase my calorie intake.
  • 2tryharder
    2tryharder Posts: 31 Member
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    1200 calories/day is tough! I'm having the same struggles. How long have you been "not losing"? I think it takes time for your body to adjust, and I didn't lose anything for a month after drastically reducing calories. Also, I eat 5 times a day - 3 small meals (~300 calories with lean protein and vegetables) and 2 snacks (under 100 calories: boiled egg, yogurt, carrots & hummus, etc) so I'm not starving and binging or hungry at night. Smoothies for breakfast have been a life-saver. I put 1.5 C spinach, protein powder or greek yogurt, almond milk and fruit in a blender. Plan every meal ahead and build your calories and macros like a puzzle. The impulse eating because you're so hungry or don't have anything prepped will wipe out 1200 calories FAST. Good luck!
  • Jthanmyfitnesspal
    Jthanmyfitnesspal Posts: 3,521 Member
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    It's good to know that your TDEE (daily calorie burn) is calculated using your BMR and multiplying it by a factor. For a person that is not very active, that factor will be ~1.25, giving you a TDEE of 1850kcals/day, a pretty reasonable estimate for the average person. If you are more active, it will be higher factor.

    MFP has a fine estimator built into it's "goals" section. Filling that out could be helpful.

    The point is that 1200kcals/day is pretty low (a deficit of at least 650kcals/day, which should lead to a weight loss of more than 1lb/week). Somewhat in line with the advice given by @kshama2001, you can pick any reasonable deficit. 500kcals/day is a common choice that gives you a weight loss of about one lb/week. Whatever deficit you choose, it needs to be sustainable, and it sounds like your current choice is not, so raise it up a bit.

    About not losing weight: the problem is that daily variations are greater than your weekly loss. Measure every morning, after toilet, same level of dress. Watch the trend over many days.
  • russellholtslander1
    russellholtslander1 Posts: 285 Member
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    When I check my BMR, it's 1,993 calories, my TDEE is 2,391.. if I am sedentary. If I change it to light exercise, I am at 2,740. So I just aim for 2,400 max. Leave it at sedentary.

    1200 calories tends to be a number lots of nutritionists, or doctors like to suggest. BMR basically means what you need for JUST basic needs. It makes no consideration for you exercising, or the calories you burn just living life.

    BMR has it's uses, but probably not for determining how much you should eat. At 1200 calories, if you aren't losing, you can't cut calories, the normal choice to see weight loss.. cut 500 calories a day, and lose 1 lb. a week, right? That would be 700.. ridiculous.

    So maybe the problem is you are eating so little, your metabolism has slowed down.

    I would suggest you try a TDEE calculator, and it will likely be a bit higher in calories, and see what it does. You might be surprised when you eat more calories, and start losing weight. You may gain for a couple weeks, until your metabolism resets.

    I also would find a new nutritionist. She has you at 300 BELOW the number of calories you need for basic body function, without taking into account calories you burn just living life, or exercising. At 1500, any exercise would create a deficit, and you should see some weight loss then. If 300 less isn't causing any weight loss, and you have weight to lose.. then it isn't working.. if nothing else.. STOP doing that, and find someone you trust to work with you, to get a new plan. Less is not always better.

    Hope you start to see results soon.
  • westrich20940
    westrich20940 Posts: 878 Member
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    Yeah....wondering why a 'nutritionist' would suggest you eat LOWER than your basal metabolic rate. That doesn't make any sense.

    So, I'd do what you said and get an estimate of your TDEE and go from there. But ultimately you should NOT be eating below your BMR ever, as long as you're awake lol.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,874 Member
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    If you have a BMR of 1500 calories, you should easily lose weight on 1500 calories as those are the calories you burn merely existing. I've never eaten below my BMR. If I eat my BMR calories I lose about 2 Lbs per week.
  • Beautyofdreams
    Beautyofdreams Posts: 1,009 Member
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    Are you weighing and logging everything that you eat accurately? If just eyeballing you may be eating more than you think. Are you using accurate entries in my fitness pal? There are some grossly inaccurate entries on this site so it helps to double check with an outside source. I eat around 1300 calories a day(open diary). When I first started out was frequently hungry because my body was used to a certain amount of fat and carbs and I had switched to more vegetables and whole fruits. I also mistook being stuffed for not hungry and had to learn what being full but not stuffed felt like. How long have you calorie restricted and how consistently?

    If your bmr is indeed 1500 then you are not eating enough. This will stress your body and may lead to an increase in water weight. When you increase calories your weight might take a temporary jump up because of extra stomach contents but it will vanish with the loss of water weight. Set your calories up according to mfp and stay the course for 6 to 8 weeks. Then see if your weight has gone down. This will take into account hormones, water weight and daily fluctuations. Be patient. Water weight will hide fat loss for some time but eventually the fat loss will show up. This site has great information if you read the stickies in each forum. Best wishes for your success.
  • Red_Fusion
    Red_Fusion Posts: 8 Member
    edited October 2021
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    @cmriverside I did a breathing test that measured my metabolic rate and they determined that it was a little over 1500, so to lose i needed to eat less.

  • Red_Fusion
    Red_Fusion Posts: 8 Member
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    @cwolfman13, thanks for suggesting that - I speak with them tomorrow, and am going to show them my records for the last week and suggest we try upping to 1500.
  • patriciafoley1
    patriciafoley1 Posts: 137 Member
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    Well you could get a fitbit and that would tell you how many calories you are burning and then you'd know what your calorie burn is every day and how much you can eat and stay in deficit. Carbs make me hungry. Protein fat and exercise curbs my appetite. I lose more consistently on a low carb, low sodium diet, but it isn't always easy to manage.
  • Red_Fusion
    Red_Fusion Posts: 8 Member
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    @Beautyofdreams that's great info, and I may take a peek at your diary. I do measure and feel like I've been tracking accurately, but I'm sure that I've had a coffee or two that I haven't tracked :) I've been calorie restricted for about a year (7/2020) and have lost 18 lbs doing 1300-1400 up to August 2021. I would totally be willing to lost slower to not feel starving though.
  • sijomial
    sijomial Posts: 19,811 Member
    edited October 2021
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    Red_Fusion wrote: »
    @cmriverside I did a breathing test that measured my metabolic rate and they determined that it was a little over 1500, so to lose i needed to eat less.

    It tested your resting metabolic rate. Key word resting!!

    But you are not resting all day - that is why your RMR (slightly higher than a person's BMR) is not the number you need to eat below.

    If your nutritionist doesn't understand that then they are not to be trusted for any advice they may give out.

    Most calculators like TDEE calcs and MyFitnessPal start with an estimated BMR from the information you give and then apply either a combined activity and exercise multiplier (average TDEE) or for MyFitnessPal just an activity multiplier (exercise is added after the event rather than estimated upfront).
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 32,150 Member
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    sijomial wrote: »
    Red_Fusion wrote: »
    @cmriverside I did a breathing test that measured my metabolic rate and they determined that it was a little over 1500, so to lose i needed to eat less.

    It tested your resting metabolic rate. Key word resting!!

    But you are not resting all day - that is why your RMR (slightly higher than a person's BMR) is not the number you need to eat below.

    If your nutritionist doesn't understand that then they are not to be trusted for any advice they may give out.

    Most calculators like TDEE calcs and MyFitnessPal start with an estimated BMR from the information you give and then apply either a combined activity and exercise multiplier (average TDEE) or for MyFitnessPal just an activity multiplier (exercise is added after the event rather than estimated upfront).

    ^^^ Just posting to underscore this! ^^^

    The breathing test is BMR/RMR; you burn other calories just wandering through life doing daily chores, your job, hobbies, exercise, etc. Your BMR + those activity calories . . . you need to eat less than that total to lose weight. If you're over your 1200 goal you're possibly still in a calorie deficit.

    You said you ate 1300-1400 for most of a year, and lost weight: Were you hungry all that time, too? If no, was anything different other than the calorie level, like what you're eating, your sleep, the amount of activity in an average day, stress, or something like that?
  • ritzvin
    ritzvin Posts: 2,860 Member
    edited October 2021
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    Red_Fusion wrote: »
    I’m working with a nutritionist who has me on 1200 calories based on a breath test BMR (I have a 1500 BMR). I am having problems not going over goal. But I’m eating healthily and still starving at night and over by 300 calories and not losing. Any suggestions on how best to stay full or a daily breakdown of calories per meal? I am drinking about 72 oz of water daily.

    1. Exercise calories.
    2. Foods that are high nutrition, high protein, high fiber, high volume versus calories.
    3. I'd parrot the advice about picking a smaller deficit, but.. if you're short, sedentary, and remotely near healthy weight, you're kind of SOL on that. (ETA: if taller or heavier... upping calories might be a good decision. Also note that I'm referring to "net calories" - so exercise would be added on top of that... a la Advice point #1 above).

    Measure and log what you eat on this site. Then pay attention to the specifics... How long did you feel full per the number of calories? Did it provide adequate protein, fat, fiber, etc for the number of calories? Was it 'worth' that number of calories to you? You'll start to notice what foods you may want to add in more of, or less of.

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