1200 calories and struggling!

Wait, what? The OP has beer, chocolate milk, chocolate margarine and cookies in her diary and you guys are telling her to cut out the BANANAS? This is about a healthy lifestyle. If her calories are too high cut out the cookies and the chocolate. If there is still a problem then maybe let's talk about bananas. Sometimes I wonder if y'all aren't just taking the p!ss as a massive joke...

Note the fact that this post is over 3 weeks old, and her diary from the past week won't be the same as it is a month ago.

I do agree though, eat lots of good food, not small amounts of bad food.

Hey all!

i'm allocated 1200 calories and i'm struggling, particularly on days where i don't exercise!

help?

I struggled also when I first started on MFP, then I did a google search on "how many calories do I need?" and based on my age,weight, and activity level it told me that I needed 1300 and now some weight is starting to come off and I don't feel hungry. Worth checking out.

think thin protein bar for breakfast. Martins whole wheat potato roll with morningstar spicy black bean burger with granny smith apple, carrots for lunch. Lean protein(3oz)/veg/salad for dinner. Kettle corn 100 calorie snack bag.

How does this program choose the calorie goal? Mine is pretty high and when I work out it adds the calories burned back into my allowed calories.

Adding in a cup of tea with milk in the afternoon has helped me get used to 1200 calories.

After looking at your diary you may want to reconsider bananas and all the bread and biscuits.

bananas are good but you need about 1/2 a regular size banana a day. if you want to eat the whole banana that day, eat half early then the other half later

whats the reason for that?

Yes, what is the reason for that? Besides which, bananas go black if peeled and left for more than about 20 minutes

dont peel the whole thing. cut in half and then peel the half you are going to eat. the other half will stay just fine until later and even until the next day. I have no science as to why, I guess I just got in that habit and enjoy the banana twice in one day without the cals and sugar and carbs of two bananas a day

Based upon my "numbers" as run by HelloitsDan and the book, "The New Rules of Lifting for Women," today is my last day on this fruitless, six week, 1200 calorie a day journey in which I have bounced the same four pounds around, up--down--up--down, much to my dismay and frustration.

It doesn't work people. When you don't feed your machine at least enough calories to fuel your resting metabolism, add lifting to your reperatoire, and then ask your body to build muscle, while utilizing your fat stores for energy, you're asking for trouble AND setting yourself up for failure.

According to the author of "The New Rules of Lifting for Women," it takes 2,800 calories to build a pound of muscle.If you're slicing 3,500 calories a week (or more) from your diet while at the same time engaging in a workout program designed to increase strength and build new muscle tissue, from where will you get the 2,800 calories? The author proposes that you would actually lose muscle if you strength trained with a 500 calorie a day deficit.

The author isn't a proponent of the idea of the starvation mode, rather he states that not giving your body enough protein to build muscle, while demanding that your body do so, will in fact, slow your metabolism way down, Oh, you'll eventually lose weight (slowly)--but you will end up, as Dan stated, skinny fat.

I'M skinny fat! And soon to be skinny/in-shape because I'm raising my calories and building muscle. Believe this, folks. I became skinny fat, not because I was overeating, but because I was not eating enough each day.