I can't live on only 1200 calories

Who gave you that number - is that what came up when you filled out your info n MFP, or is it from elsewhere? I can't live on 1200 either - I'd be so hungry! I am set at 1700 calories per day, I'm 5'8", 139lbs, 44 years old, set to lose 1/2 lb a week. And I am losing, even with going over my calories several times a week. I track everything, but if I'm hungry, I eat (healthy foods).

Check out the info in this group, Eat More To Weigh Less: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/groups/home/3817-eat-more-to-weigh-less

Plenty of people there eating more healthy calories, exercising, and losing the fat without being hungry. Gotta fuel that body to make it function efficiently!

^ This. Eat more. Listen to your body and make solid healthy choices. I exercise to eat more.

WORK OUT. You can eat back whatever you burn off. But you need to make sure you know exactly how much you're burning. Invest in a HRM, and also a food scale. Definitely eat a fruit & veggie at each meal, this will help keep you full, and your protein levels are probably too low if you're going off what MFP sets you for. Try 50% carbs, 30% protein, 20% fat. Or work toward 1g of protein per every LEAN lb of mass on your body ... so if you have a rough estimate of your body fat %, you should be able to figure out how much of your weight is lean. Lots of water, try green tea.

eat more! just eat more of the good stuff! :happy: Bigger food intake equals a faster metabolism, I don't care what the anorexics say. I had one guy tell me that eating about 500 cals a day was just fine..( I'm fairly athletic now) delete from friends list was my response...

Now I'm not saying eat potato chips and twinkies,:laugh: but eat!!! I recently am attempting a vegan lifestyle ( I say attempting because some days are great, others not so much).. when I mess up and eat cheese I'm not gonna cry about it in the least!! What I've found in my attempts to go vegan, is that I'm having difficulties eating enough food to meet my caloric goal. Raw veggies, hummus dip ( esp ones without canola oil) roasted red pepper spreads, garlic spreads, salad, they don't carry a huge amount of cals. Once a week I chop all kinds of great veggies and make salads, and carrot sticks, and radishes that I can grab n go. It makes it really easy to grab a handful of raw carrots and some hummus and makes a really low cal filling snack.
p.s when I don't meet my cal goal, I've noticed a big decrease in my athletic ability, coupled with occasionally feeling like crap... don't starve yourself! :happy:

You hang in there and don't worry so much about the cal intake if you go way over, you can always work out

I got the same 1200 calories a day baseline plan myself. I had added breakfast and my lunch sans a drink and I was already at 1400 calories. Maybe we need to try smoothies or something.

I think you're accidentally starving yourself.

I'm assuming what happened is you're already a very small person and you entered into MFP that you would like to lose 1 pound a week, which is equal to 3500 calories or 500 calories a day. If you're already very small then maybe your maintenance calories are around 1700 (really?) so trying to lose a pound a week puts you down to 1200 or lower.

Your total body fat is way lower than larger people who have a similar body fat percentage. I'm 180lbs, if I want to lose a pound a week that's about 0.5% total body mass per week and I can still eat over 2000 calories a day. If someone who is 110 lbs wants to lose 1 pound per week, that's almost 1% body mass, double what I would be losing. So I'm saying that you should decrease the total amount of weight you want to lose per week so that it's more in line with the % of body mass that larger people are losing per week. So drop it from 1 lb per week to 0.5 lbs per week.

I'm not a nutritionist but 1200 calories seems really low. Other than what I already suggested, maybe try exercising more so that you can eat more and still be at a calorie deficit. If you go running for like 35 minutes a day that's probably around 400-500 more calories that you can eat that day.

I should also note that I don't see why anyone would eat 1200 calories per day. If you're very small with a high body fat % then you should be working on exercising, with a balanced diet. If you're not very small, there's no reason you should have to eat 1200 calories per day to lose weight.

If you want help like this, open your diary.

Don't eat crap, and 1200 calories can be a lot. That is around 3 pounds of turkey, quinoa, and/or brown rice, which is pretty filling. If you mix fruits and veggies in, you can probably make that 4-5 lbs. of food, which is a heck of a lot for one day!

^^ and this! If you open your diary, people can see what your eating and maybe help pinpoint areas you can save cals and substitute it for more food

You can eat as much spinach as you want. And egg whites. And watermelon. Really, as much as you want. Enjoy!

Can I eat 10 pounds of it?

Yes you can! 10 pounds of raw spinach is less than 1,000 calories; 10 pounds steamed is probably close to 1200. As a side benefit, you may turn green and mutate into a cross between popeye and the incredible hulk.

You can eat as much spinach as you want. And egg whites. And watermelon. Really, as much as you want. Enjoy!

Can I eat 10 pounds of it?

I'd like to see someone TRY and eat 10 pounds of any of these lol. You can't!

I know where this person is coming from all of these foods are very low in calories, yet nutrient dense. You will feel satisfied on smaller amounts of them. Even eating large amounts of them won't derail you. In my lifetime, the lowest I've ever weighed was at a time when I was eating boiled egg whites all day long in addition to my meals. Kept me satisfied and I never counted calories. It did get old after awhile though and I wasn't making many friends at work haha. But I would eat at least a full dozen boiled egg whites a day for a snack.

No one should live on only 1200 calories!

MFP offers 1200 calories for 2 lbs a week I think, however, this is just a general number because all bodies/metabolisms are not the same. Your body lets you know when it wants food, so if you find yourself hungry, eat. I eat lots of small meals and snacks, nothing too calorie hefty. An apple here, banana there, handful of nuts....you get the point, don't starve yourself, it is counter productive.

bump

thanks! I think I am going to not count the veggies I eat. this will work for me I think!

Vegetables still have calories. Your body will "count" them regardless of what you do. Why not just raise your calorie goal and count everything?

I stand by what I said before. If living off of 1200 calories isn't working for you, don't do it. It's that simple.

I don't understand why people reply with suggestions on what to eat when that's obviously not the point here. If you're incredibly hungry at all times, it's because your body is telling you that it needs more food. Simple as that.

If you want cold numbers, you can calculate your bmr here:
http://www.fat2fitradio.com/tools/bmr/

Once you have that number, use it as a guide for the minimum amount of calories you need to eat every day for your body to function properly.

Then, you can calculate your TDEE, and you can read about that here:
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/541567-once-you-have-your-tdee-and-bmr-next-step

The idea that we have to starve to lose weight is outdated and unhealthy. Good luck!