Suggestions on curbing hunger?

Try starting to eat later in the day. I'm usually not hungry in the mornings so I can push eating off until lunchtime, or just eat breakfast a little later, and that helps free up more calories for dinner time when I really want to eat. Or maybe try drinking an herbal tea or some coffee instead of eating. That works for me when I just want something but I'm not really hungry. or maybe you just simply need to eat more. 1200 is way too low for most people, but given your height it might be appropriate.

@kshama2001 gave really good advice. Set your goal to 0.5lb/week. Eat back exercise calories.

Tweaking meal timing and macros may or may not help your hunger situation. Picking an appropriate rate of loss that is sustainable for you will have the biggest impact. And getting enough sleep. Good luck, OP.

I'm 5'1 (and a little bit) and, when I initially set myself up on MFP, I got allocated 1200 cals. It didn't matter what rate of loss I selected, I got 1200. When I selected 'Maintain', MFP calculated that, at my weight at that time, I needed 1450 cals. Choosing to lose at 0.5lb a week takes off a 250 cal deficit, ergo 1200 cals to eat.

In my case, as I lost weight, my deficit got smaller and smaller. Logging has to be very accurate and there's not much room for getting hungry and wanting to eat more. My rate of loss would have been really really really slow if it wasn't for the fact that, although sedentary at work, I went to the gym 5 times a week and earned myself more calories to play with. Once I reached my target weight, my maintenance got calculated at 1340.

Given that the OP only needs to lose 12lb and is only 5', it's perfectly feasible that MFP is calculating to 1200, no matter what rate of loss is selected. However, it's not a lot of calories to get a balanced diet with and definitely doesn't allow for much in the way of treats, snacks or glasses of wine.


OP, as said above, everyone has differences when it comes to how best to feel satiated and therefore curb hunger. Personally, I make sure I eat at least the minimum recommended amount of protein (I'm usually over) and I bulk out my lunch / dinner with lots of veg. A large amount of sauted white cabbage is about the same cals as three baby potatoes, but the pile of cabbage will definitely make me feel fuller so I have that in place of potatoes, rice or pasta with many meals. Some people can happily set aside enough cals for a square of dark chocolate in the evening. I could set aside the cals, but I wouldn't only eat one square! To specifically answer your question, I can only suggest that you play around with some of the suggestions above to find out what works for you.

However, assuming you're either not exercising or are eating back your exercise calories and the 1200 that you're consuming is your net figure per day, I also suggest two other things.
Firstly, temporarily change your set-up to 'maintain' to see what MFP thinks your maintenance number is. Anything below that will see you losing weight, albeit probably slowly. At least you'd have an upper figure to bear in mind.
Secondly, see if you can increase your activity so that you get more calories to eat. That may allow you to build in an evening snack or you may find that the increased meal sizes is sufficient to keep you feeling fuller.

Hey,we have the same starting stats.. friend me if you'd like. Just wanted to pop in to say as a a woman your same height, I was able to successfully lose on 1500. It wasn't fast, but it did work. I still struggled on some days with hunger, and I think there will be a little bit of that, but it wasn't real bad. Unlike now, when I'm trying to do 1300, and I end up binging. I the only thing I changed was trying to cut down on cookies and sugar snacks. Those were sort of... empty calories, and not too filling for me. So my advice, especially at 140, is that 1500 is fine and should help you out a bit regarding hunger, but also one small change can free up calories to potentially go toward more fulfilling meals. For me, that was cookies. For others, that might be soda. And then figuring out what fills you up.
For details, I believe I ate at 1500 until I hit about 130 or 127. After that I started decreasing calories, but have not been able to be successful yet consistently. I got down to 122 or 123 and am back up to 128 right now. I am happy at both weights. I noticed the biggest changes between 135 and 128, though, so keep at it. Sorry I can't give more concrete tips.just wanted to let you know you can still lose at 1500. Granted, every body is different, so I'm not sure if it will work for you, but it might help. Also, I'd like another mfp friend, lol.