tired of 1200 calories a day, too hard!

Black coffee has no calories, but if you use mini moo creamers they are only 10 calories each and use sugar substitute then you can still enjoy coffee.

very true. i drink starbucks house blend with minimal sugar and cream. it has 2 calories per cup before you add anything.

I was doing 1200 cals when I started also and I got so frustrated becasue I was starving and then was always going over. It made me loose motivation and I didnt log in for like 3 months. So I decided to bump my cals to 1500 and I have to say that helped so much. Maybe it was psychological, but just knowing that I had more made me eat less. Yesterday I actually had like 400+ calories left at the end of the day! Good luck to you, dont give up just becasue your frustrated

Try eating Grapes and/ Chicken. They are low calorie foods but fill you right up...especially the grapes

I was doing 1200 cals when I started also and I got so frustrated becasue I was starving and then was always going over. It made me loose motivation and I didnt log in for like 3 months. So I decided to bump my cals to 1500 and I have to say that helped so much. Maybe it was psychological, but just knowing that I had more made me eat less. Yesterday I actually had like 400+ calories left at the end of the day! Good luck to you, dont give up just becasue your frustrated

I've done this for Winter, I found it too hard to get up in the dark to exercise so have adjusted my settings and am now on 1560 a day - with the exceptions of the festive period I've stayed under and lost, try it, you might like it!

Good morning!!!

I understand that it is hard to stick to 1200 calories per day......if you still feel hungry why don't you raise your calorie intake to say 1400 calories per day and see ow you feel by increasing the calories it will take a little longer to lose weight but you have to be happy doing this. Also, are you exercising?? If so, then you can use your exercise calorie allowance on any given day. As far as counting liquids yes you ned to count all!!!!! As Coliepie posted she increased her calorie intake and was happier I did the same thing because 1200 felt too low so I too increased my intake to 1500 calories per day while increasing my exercise time. Please don't give up just tweak the program to your specific needs....stay strong!!! God bless!!

Berry, that IS what it recommends! 1210 calories a day!

Sorry, I only just looked at your profile and I see you don't have much left to lose, which is probably why MFP has set you so low

It sounds counter-intuitive, but many people so close to goal have success changing to 0.5lb a week weight loss. It's slower but you'll be more likely to keep it off and slide seamlessly into maintenance.

I'd also go mental if I didn't earn myself a lovely big meal once a week with a huge calorie burn. This is usually my Sunday run which is always over an hour and burns at least 600 calories.

Eat more. Bump your calories up to 1500. Bump them up to 1800. As long as you're sustaining a deficit, you will lose. You might not lose as fast, but you will be less miserable.

I count everything that has calories in it, even if it's just my 10-calorie supplements.

i dont think so rebekah. when i eat a bit more i didnt lose any weight. and now im losing but extremely extremely slow. so frustrated.

Have you figured out your maintenance calorie burn? As in the calories you burn ever day simply by living? There are tons of studies that show your metabolism will decrease when you restrict calories. But you can minimize that decrease by exercising and eating more. One recent study that I just looked at yesterday showed that restricting your calorie intake by as little as 15% below maintenance and then reducing net calorie by exercise by another 15% showed a much smaller metabolic change than seen with calorie restriction alone. You are losing weight slowly because 1) you don't have a lot of weight to lose anyway. It's always hardest to lose those last 10 pounds , and 2) you've probably been doing 1200 calories for too long and your body has adapted.

The choice is yours, but I STILL advocate for bumping your calories up. You confess to being hungry on 1200. How long do you really think you'll last if you're always hungry? Is your will-power really so good that you can be perpetually hungry and not break down and binge? If so, you're a much better person than me.

I'm pretty confident that you'll still lose weight if you increase your calories. Lots and lots and lots of ladies are doing it. Some are eating as many as 2000 calories a day and still losing weight (though I wouldn't recommend going that high unless you know you're burning more than 2000 calories a day). You might gain a little weight initially as your body restores it's glycogen supplies. But after that initial gain, you'll start losing again. I'm so confident, that I'd bet money on it if I could

At anyrate... good luck and I'm sorry you're frustrated and hungry.

I agree that you should change your weight loss goal to 1/2 pound per week. When you've got 15 or less pounds to lose, it's much more realistic and you'll be feeding your body properly.

You may notice a bit of a plateau when you first bump up your calories but that is usually due to your body being used to not having enough. Once you start feeding yourself well, it thinks you might go back to not eating enough so it holds on to what it can. Give it 2 or 3 weeks and I bet you'll start seeing the weight come off again. I know it's tough because we're all so desperate to see immediate results from changes but the body just doesn't work like that.

Not sure what you're doing for activity but if you are active, make sure you're eating at least half of those earned calories.

ETA: As far as the drinks go, I only count the ones that have calories. Usually have coffee with splenda or diet soda so I don't worry about those. But if I have something different - like the hot chocoalte from Dunkin Donuts this morning or the chai latte kcups I have sometimes, I definitely track those.

ETA 2: You may also want to look at the quality vs quantity of the foods you're eating. More protein and fiber will help keep you full longer.

I have mine set about 1380 i think and I want to eat more than that so I always make sure I burn more. i exercise a lot cuz i like to eat a lot!im very rarely hungry, and when i am i eat a cucumber or carrots or celery, plain no dip or ranch and that helps a lot. i like sugar snap peas and cherry tomatoes also. very few calories in any of these.