how to sucessfully maintain a 1200 cal. diet

A cup of oatmeal (mix of rolled and steel cut) most mornings for me slathered with 1/4 cup Greek yogurt and natural zero cal Truvia sweetening.This high soluble fiber meal really fills me up, is YUMMY, (and is great for lowering cholesterol. I cook a big pot each week and then microwave a bowl each morning. Or a mix of high fiber cereals with Stonyfield 1% milk (creamier tastings than other 1% milks for some reason).

2-3 fruits a day, including an apple (another filling soluble fiber food) and veggies, including filling mini carrots with lunch, usually a Boca veggie burger and high fiber english muffin, or a huge plate of scrambled eggs (1 egg, 1 liquid egg white, and a mess of mushrooms/peppers/onions). GOOD fats - a tsp or two of olive or canola oil, and I package 1/2 ounce servings of lightly salted almonds in tiny mesh tie bags and keep them in my cookie jar - have 1 or 2 a day as needed. Good for portion control, easy to throw in my pocket, great monosaturated fat for cholesterol, too.

When I want a wine or special treat (or when I go to parties), I eat some exercise calories so I can keep all 1200 cals for nutritional and filling foods only. I'm rarely hungry. Joined a gym for strength training and cardio in addition to walking most days.

It is my motivation to exercise. The more I get, the more I can eat.

I do within reason, been doing it for about 3 months now. I found it really hard to start with as i did not reduce it down slowly, so not only did i cut out all the stuff i loved to eat, but halved my intake. Stupid really, but fortunatly i was so focused i stuck with it, but the slow steady approach is far better.

After a couple of weeks i got into the swing of it. It is finding a level of what you like, mixed in with really healthy stuff. I eat a lot of chicken and veg and throw in upto 200 calories of bad stuff, such as chocolate etc if i want it.

I aim for the 1200 net a day if i do not exercise and upto 1400 net if i exercise. 1200 on days i work out just is not enough, i can really feel it in my legs (i only work out lightly at the minute) but the big thing for me is not feeling guilty if am under or over on a day, i use 1200 to aim for, it is not a golden rule that you must stick to.

Once i have lost another 14lbs i am upping mine as i hope to be a lot fitter and will do more exercise and will want to build muscle, so i do not see it as a long term for life figure.

1200 just does not work for everyone, but it is a place to start, take a few weeks to figure it out, once you get it right you will be dropping pounds. If need to be at 1600 what does it matter if you are losing weight.

Allow yourself a while to figure out what you want and like to eat, what you can and cannot leave out . Try new stuff, found a love of a couple of veggies and a few other things i would not have normally eaten. Now a fan of celeraic.

Take your time and enjoy the process, if you do not enjoy it you wont stick to it.

I didnt know that I could eat those cals. back after exercise. This might help out quite a bit.

Eating exercise calories back doesn't work for everyone. I get a lot of people suggest it and so does MFP, but for me it never has worked, I always gain when I try to eat them back. Each person is different, so my advice is to play with it and find out what works best for you. Every time I've tried to eat more then 1200 I've gained as well, again I had to play with it.

Actually it works for everyone who does not have a slow metabolism or thyroid issue. Most likely the issue with it not working is you are either over estimating your calories burned (not using a HRM), or under estimating what you actually ate (not measuring liquids and weighing solid foods) Other than that, you must eat them back to meet your goal deficit.

I didnt know that I could eat those cals. back after exercise. This might help out quite a bit.

Eating exercise calories back doesn't work for everyone. I get a lot of people suggest it and so does MFP, but for me it never has worked, I always gain when I try to eat them back. Each person is different, so my advice is to play with it and find out what works best for you. Every time I've tried to eat more then 1200 I've gained as well, again I had to play with it.

Actually it works for everyone who does not have a slow metabolism or thyroid issue. Most likely the issue with it not working is you are either over estimating your calories burned (not using a HRM), or under estimating what you actually ate (not measuring liquids and weighing solid foods) Other than that, you must eat them back to meet your goal deficit.

Or she could be gaining muscle.

If I had to eat 1200 a day and could not eat back my exercise calories, I would not exercise.

On the days I don't exercise it's not hard. I generally don't buy junk so there's nothing to snack on. I try to have breakfast under 200 calories, lunch ~400, and dinner ~600 (sometime's I don't eat dinner all at once...I'll eat a salad or something and then start cooking the meat later). That way you have energy to start of your day, you can squat lots of veggies in 400 calories to get your vitamins, and you have the more filling stuff for supper so there's less chance of snacks.

bump to read later

You don't have to. For most people that are on 1200 cals, it is not the best intake for them, most chose a weekly weight loss goal that is too aggressive. Here is a guide for setting weekly deficits, and on top of this when you workout you should eat those calories back. So if you are on 1200 cals and burn 300, you should eat 1500 for the day.

If you have 75+ lbs to lose 2 lbs/week is ideal,
If you have 40-75 lbs to lose 1.5 lbs/week is ideal,
If you have 25-40 lbs to lose 1 lbs/week is ideal,
If you have 15 -25 lbs to lose 0.5 to 1.0 lbs/week is ideal, and
If you have less than 15 lbs to lose 0.5 lbs/week is ideal.

After reading this article, I didn't know either you could eat the cal. back. This should help me out a lot. I was trying to burn all my cal. that I ate for the day and then extra cal. to burn 3500cal. a week. Maybe this will help my dieting issues.