So I am new *waves* hi all!

And I have been faithfully working with 1200 calories for almost three weeks now. So today the boyfriend took a cheat day from his diet and I let me talk myself into a couple of cheats myself.
Now my body has decided it does not appreciate my indulgence and has punished me with a tummyache curse you pizza!

So that was my lesson learned today. Ick... no more. I think my crazy body has no interest in that junky food anymore.

Off to bed and to hoping I feel better tomorrow.

1200 calories seems a little low. I'm 192 pounds and I'm currently taking in 1550-1600 calories per day.

I think that's cool that you and your bf are doing this together! Hope your tummy feels better!

I'm sorry you're not feeling well.

I've found this website to be extremely helpful for calculating calorie needs. http://www.freedieting.com/tools/calorie_calculator.htm

I know how you feel! I don't really call them cheats anymore though. I do allow myself indulgences on occasion. Sometimes it's hard to get around not having an indulgence, I'm not going to stop living because I "think" I cant eat somewhere. Like recently I was invited to go to a Japanese restaurant, those places are notorious for putting tons of butter & salt on food that could otherwise be very healthy with out the added fat.

I decided I'd eat hibachi chicken and get extra veggies without added butter. I tried my best to eat portion controlled amount of it and packed the rest to bring home.

About 30 minutes after I ate that food I was feeling the effects of it, like you mentioned about the pizza you ate. Not fun! My husband & daughter even told me they were feeling bad from it. They don't need to lose weight but I'm not about to cook separate meals for them. They will eat the same as me. So I guess since they have been eating healthier too their bodies didn't like it either!

I guess we will learn, eventually.

So I got up this morning and I feel so much better now. Just cant let bad food derail me again lol. Thanks for the well wishes makes me feel good to meet people like me. Is 1200 too low? I'm not really sure how I'm supposed to be going about this, I just was driven to do something so I created my own restrictions I guess.

Oh and I love Japanese food! I haven't had sushi since I started my journey but I plan to for my birthday Is there anything I should watch out for with that?

I was gonna ask if anyone had stomach pains when they first started eating cleaner food? I'm counting calories but I am also very aware of the carbs and sugars and fats I eat.

Most of my diet is protein and veggies. Some fruit and a little dairy. By the second week, my tummy hurt really bad in the lower intestines. It passed byt week three though.

I think my body was just in shock from not having all the junk I used to eat.


On Saturday we were at a street party and I had ONE soft taco. I was seriously sick to my stomach.

At that calorie range how much are you losing a week (if you don't mind my asking)? I'm still trying to figure out what is right for me. Are you exercising? Pardon the nosiness but I'm learning.

I'm 213 right now and I still have between 1500 & 1800 calories a day. My body lets me know when I haven't fed it enough, and if I feel hungry I eat more, but I always stay under 2000. I started at 263 and I've lost between 5 and .6 pounds a week. The .6 pounds are weeks when I'm retaining water just before tom. I average about 3 pounds a week, but everyone is different. I think you should experiment with the numbers and see what works for you.

I don't exercise really. I know I need to at some point if nothing else but to tone but honestly, my life is pretty hectic. I have 5 kids, two under 3, I work like 50 hours a week, mostly on my feet, and I try to squeeze in extra walking wherever I can like parking in the back spaces of the parking lot wherever I go, etc - so I'm definitely not sitting on my butt all day, even if I wish I was!

Good luck!

I weigh 275, and have been eating 1600-1800 calories a day, and am typically losing between 3 and 4lbs per week. I also walk 3 miles a day, and drink tons of water.

I try to stay between 1200-1500 a day depending on my hunger levels... I can tell you for me its what works. More and I "maintain". Unfortunately I'm cursed with a sluggish metabolism. Not sluggish enough for them to do anything for it but sluggish enough that my maintainace calories at 170 pounds was not 1800 a day Like I thought it was... I gained back a bit.. then a lot more cause I got frustrated. I'm back again and back on track.. I should really fix my ticker

Same height as you.

Went from 195lb to now 147lb in 6 months and now only reduced to 1,500 cal, but eating steady 1,600-1,700 cal before. Also that was without any exercise as I just started working out a month ago.

Maybe the lesson learned is lower calories cause crazy cravings ;-) True for me

I lose at least 2 pounds a week. I exercised for the first few weeks at 30-60 minutes for 5 days a week, but I haven't been doing much except walking pulling my kids in their wagon for about 30 minutes for the last two weeks. I don't think any of us mind if you ask questions. That's what is great about this message board. People are really open to sharing their stories and helping you decide what might work for you!

If you Google "calories needed to lose weight," you should find some calculators that will help you see about how many calories you should take in per day to lose weight. I know you aren't supposed to go below 1200 calories per day or you're body could go into starvation mode. So, if you eat just 1200 calories a day AND exercise, then you'd be under the 1200.

When I first started, I started off low too but someone told me it was best to start high so when you get closer to your goal, you can lower your calories more to help you not plateau and get that little bit left off.

Hope that helps! Good luck!

Whats crazy is with 1200 I still seem to eat a lot and I am never hungry. I break up my meals and drink tons of water. I'm a reformed water hater lol.. I drink so much of it now. I am trying to push my way up over 1200 so I don't have any issues.
Whats the deal with starvation mode? I hear a lot of talk about it but I don't know the details. How do you recognize you're in it? What does it do? Any detail on that would be great because I have no idea what to look out for.

I weigh 261, and I'm doing 1600 calories a day. I felt like that was a good number, and I've been feeling satisfied with that.

Give this a read... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starvation_mode.