Eating like the above sounds like overeating in the sense that I think of it - eating too much junk. I never considered overeating to be just the volume of any food, as I've had huge healthy meals that hardly reach 200 calories, but what the food consists of.

Ah, you think most people were eating a lot of food they didn't enjoy? Well, that certainly seems odd to me - if I don't enjoy a food, I don't tend to eat a great deal of it. I would certainly regret many a buffet, cheesecake and cocktail night if I hadn't had them; food is one of life's great pleasures, in my view. This is probably partly why I never got on with Weight Watchers; I could never understand the guilt and shaming that went on at the weekly meetings, as grown women were scolded for eating cake and talked about how they hated their past selves.

I'm eating at a 900-1000 calorie deficit a day, and I think it's a little sad that that's considered 'eating as much food as humanly possible' and that losing a little under two pounds a week (by the math) is 'the slowest possible rate'. I'd much rather eat 1700-1800 a day with no trouble and lose 2 pounds a week than struggle with 1200 and lose 3 pounds a week. I have time, after all.

I don't go to meetings anymore, but if that's what your meetings were like, no wonder you didn't like them! That sounds counterproductive.

This I completely AGREE with. I too had fun getting fat!:lol: People are NOT miserable eating (unless, of course, their chomping on carrot sticks all day!). People are miserable at the RESULTS of all that juicy delishous FRIED CHICKEN, Double Chocolately Goodness cakes, cookies & pies!:D

I would starve to death on 1200 cals. I need, at minimum 1500 cals/day, sooooo...sorry can't add any advice OP.:)

I know! I tried a couple of groups, but they were along the same pattern. One time we had to go around the group and list the thing we'd eaten in our non-dieting days we were most ashamed of! :?: I guess I just had bad luck, if your group isn't like that. (Assuming the WW in your sig is for Weight Watchers. :) )

If you can eat 1200 calories without feeling so ravenously hungry that a dirty gumwad on the sidewalk almost looks appetizing, or so drained of energy that you have to psych yourself up to go to the bathroom - then go for it.

But if you can't, if you need more calories to get through your day, don't be ashamed of that fact. Do what you need to do to get the weight off, even if what you need to do is eat more.

It took me 40 years to realize I didn't have to cut calories so drastically that I was miserable 24/7. I was taught to diet "old school" by my mother and grandma - if 1200 calories is good, 400 calories is better, and zero NOW THAT'S VIRTUOUS.

Being "good" meant not eating. I was even praised for skipping meals (when I was still in grade school, so younger than 10 years old). My pediatritian told my mother I could eat candybars if I wanted to, as long as I ate fewer than 1000 calories. It was the way dieting was done in the 70's.

Cut your calories as far as you can WITHOUT sacrificing energy and sanity. If you're so hungry that you literally cannot think of anything but food and how to keep from eating it, or so drained of energy that getting dressed becomes your workout for the day, you're not going to be able to sustain that pace. There's absolutely nothing wrong with finding a pace you can live with, even if it's a snail's pace.

There's nothing wrong with starting at your ideal weight's maintenance level, or even higher and learning to sustain it until you're at your ideal weight. In fact, I think there's an advantage. 1800 - 2000 calories is a calorie level reasonable for an average weight person. If I start there, it's very likely, or at least possible that I will never have to change it. I only have to learn a new way of eating once. I never am tempted to think "ooh, when I'm at my goal weight I'll be able to eat more," because on my plan that isn't true. I will always be eating as much as I can. I may have to reduce it further, but there's never the temptation of "one day I'll get to eat more" thinking. I need to get used to this WOE, because it's mine for life.

I make a lot of mistakes, but I make fewer and fewer mistakes as I go along, because I know that I'm looking at lifelong changes, not "just until I get to goal weight."

And if you're eating 1200, 800, 400, it's going to be a big adjustment to eat more, without being tempted to eat MUCH more.

I'm happy with trying to learn how to exist on a normal amount of calorie. I like the idea of only having to learn this once, not having to adapt again once I get to goal. Although I'm kidding myself there, because I've never managed to even get close to goal on drastic calorie restriction (once I managed it, but only on prescription amphetemines - in other words only by kicking hunger's *** with strong medication). Hunger is stronger than I am, so I have to use every weapon I have to fight it. For me, that's eating lower carb, and higher calorie.

Do what it takes, even if it takes increasing your calorie level.

Yep, it is for Weight Watchers - my mom dragged me when I couldn't get my baby weight off, and I brought my baby to the meetings for a year!

It wasn't too bad, and I had a great "leader" who was fun and spunky. When her replacement would come in and substitute, mom and I would skip the meetings because they were so boring and she talked to the group as if they were two years old.
"What do we drink that's good for us? RIGHT, WATER!"

Ugh

I'm sedentary (other than workout sessions) and here's my basic 1200 calorie philosophy. You can divide it up into 3 meals of 400 calories and then spread the meals out so that they're snacky, or you can budget 300 calories for three 100-calorie snacks, and then have three 300-calorie meals.

Here are my meal 'backbones' for breakfast and lunch that are around 200 calories each, leaving me room to add a side dish (fruit, veggies) worth around 100 calories (which is a lot for something that isn't the main course!)

Breakfast:
5 hard-boiled egg whites - 80 calories
1/2 cup(dry) old-fashioned oatmeal - 150 calories
1 tbsp brown sugar (for the oatmeal) - 20 calories-ish
[250 calories]

Lunch:
1/2 cup garbanzo beans - 120 calories
1 cup salad greens - 20 calories (I usually don't even count this)
1 tbsp italian dressing - 40 calories (I don't do 'lite' anything)
[180 calories]

1 slice whole wheat bread - 70 calories
3 slices thin-cut turkey breast - 120 calories
(i eat a little mustard and lettuce on it, which I don't really even count)
That's right, I eat it with one slice of bread, with the turkey, mustard and lettuce on it like a slice of pizza, cuts out 70 carb calories.
[190 calories]

Possible Snacks:
1/3 cucumber, sliced - 15 calories? (I don't really even count these because I do this once a day...)
1 hard-boiled egg-white - 15 calories (I count these for protein)
1 serving (15 chips) of baked, unsalted blue tortilla chips with salsa (splurge snack if I went too long between meals) - 120 calories

On a typical work day I don't add side dishes to breakfast or lunch, and I either don't snack or I throw in a yogurt for 100 calories, so by the time I get home from work I'm between 450-550 calories total, leaving me with 650 calories left in my budget...that's a lot! I eat a dinner of about 400 calories (I usually eat half of it at 5 pm, then the other half at 7 pm), then I have 250 calories that I've been grooming my 'grazing' habits into setting aside those portions and then picking at them rather than the bad stuff in my fridge...controlled grazing!

Then again I'm one of those people that eats like a bird in the mornings, and doesn't feel starved on ~1200-1300 calories. Eating oatmeal, beans and whole wheat bread has helps me feel satiated for long periods of time.

Also important to note that I only restrict myself this much on days that I don't work out!!

I've been doing intermittent fasting for the last couple of months. It helped me break through a long-standing plateau that I couldn't get around until I drastically cut calories. It helps me control the food situations I get into. Because I really struggle with hunger, a lot!

My RMR at my current age/height/weight is 3005 calories, according to an online calculator at Livestrong.com. That's my BMR times 1.2 (for a sedentary lifestyle, even though I do exercise everyday). If I actually ate that amount, I'd regain that 50 lbs I just spent the last four years trying to lose. I'd regain it even if I cut my calories by 1000/day. My body simply doesn't lose weight when I eat that much.

My RMR for my ideal weight (155 lbs) is 1909 calories. That's the weight I'm shooting for. Maybe that's why I can't lose weight when I eat more than that level of calories now. I did at first, but not any more. I am trying to cut 500 calories per day, which brings me down to 1409 calories, and then my body starts losing weight. I don't always succeed, due to hunger.

The reason why we eat, even when trying to lose weight, is to get the nutrients we need in order to keep our bodies going. We need the macronutrients (protein, fats and carbs) as well as the micronutrients (vitamins and minerals). Our bodies take the macronutrients and convert them for fuel, and what we don't use gets converted to fat and stored. We still need to eat in order to keep getting the micronutrients. I'm not sure about this, but I don't think we have much of a micronutrient storage system. When we cut calories, we have stored fat that gets converted and used for fuel, which keeps us alive and surviving.

According to the Centers for Disease Control, adult women basically require about 46 gm of protein and 130 gm of carbohydrate and 22 gm of healthy fat to keep functioning. That doesn't mean we don't use more or can't eat more. It's just a baseline of what we need daily for our bodies to function healthfully. Doing the math on that only comes up to 902 calories. (That's factoring 4 calories/gm for protein and carbs and 9 calories/gm for fats.) If you want a lower limit on how much to eat in order to keep your body functioning healthfully, that's what it is.

But that doesn't even begin to address body sizes, ailments that affect how we metabolize nutrients, and just how active we are daily. I'm not telling anyone to only eat 902 calories. Unless you were a total couch potato. And even then, you'd get hungry!

I do try to cut my calories, even below the 500/day. It's hard to deal with hunger. And I get hungry! Because I'm a big woman, and I exercise every day. Cutting calories is the only thing that works for me. I have to accept that and figure out how to do that and deal with the hunger I am going to feel.

The intermittent fasting works for me because I'm not eating when I'm not hungry. And for me, that's easily from bedtime to around 3:30pm the next day. I have tried to go longer, but I only make stupid choices if I get hungrier. I am a type 2 diabetic, so since I'm not metabolizing my nutrients properly, I'm going to experience more hunger than others who aren't diabetic. Hopefully as I lose more weight, this will lessen.

I spend the non-eating hours drinking water, coffee, hot teas. I've just learned about something called an emotional freedom from eating technique that involves tapping on certain parts of the upper body (face, head, hands) and I'm going to try it. I struggle a lot with limbic hunger, what we experience because it's around the time we normally eat, or we smell something that makes us think we're hungry. I'm trying to retrain myself to not pay attention to it. So far, I'm failing! So I stay out of the kitchen a lot, I make my kids (who are 19 and 13) cook for themselves, I don't watch Food Network or Cooking Channel any longer, and I don't do things that used to involve eating any more. It's hard and I'm a killjoy these days. But I have a mission, to lose another hundred pounds!

We all have to find what method works for us, and the rate at which we are happiest. For some, taking it slower makes sense. For others, it doesn't. I'm finding joy in evaluating what I really want and understanding that I won't feel comfortable about how I'm achieving that all the time. But I'll feel quite elated when I get there!

I´m currently sticking to 1200 cal. a day (temporarily). I´m going on vacation in a week and I decided to stick to 1200 cal. for the 2 weeks before vacation to lose a little extra. It was a bit difficult at first, but you get used to it. It helps me to drink plenty of tea, because sometimes I think that I´m hungry, but it´s more boredom or wanting some flavor in my mouth. I´m addicted to unsweetened iced green tea from starbucks! It´s also 0 calorie.
What I do is I stick to 4 300 cal. meals in a day. I´m a student and I don´t usually eat a formal dinner anyway, so this way I´m eating 300 cal. in the morning, 300 for lunch, 300 around 3-4 and then 300 cal. for dinner. I make sure that every meal includes some proteins and whole grains and preferably some fruit/vegetable to keep me full. I don´t usually eat anything after dinner (just sip some herbal tea), which I think helps with keeping the calories low.
Good luck!

I aim for 1200 calories a day, though some days I go under (yes, I actually feel full and satisfied some days at 1000 calories!), somedays (usually Saturday, our Sabbath day) I go a little over- up to a 1400-1500 range.

I have to admit that the first few weeks were a little rough, after all I had been binge eating and my stomach was most likely stretched to its limit. Now, 12 weeks later, I feel like this is my new normal and in the past 12 weeks I've lost 42.2lbs. (roughly 3.5lbs a week average).

Here's what I ate today:

Breakfast: Trader Joe's 0% fat greek yogurt (berry flavored; it's delicious!) (119 cal), 1/4c cocoa almonds (150 cal)
Lunch: smoked salmon (200 cal), baby carrots (50)
Dinner: Amy's Organics mattar paneer {vegetarian Indian entree} (370 cal), Trader Joe's frozen green beans added to the meal before microwaving (20)
Snacks/drinks: Target nutrition bar (210), banana (105), iced coffee with skim milk (60)

That gave me a total of 1275 for the day. I went a little over because I only at 1090 cals yesterday and about 970 the day before, and I also think having a range is better than to stick to an exact number.

I think you got some very good advice here, especially from Lori (amazing, Lori- 190lbs!).

Good luck on your weight loss journey!

Edited to add: I read the Beck Diet Solution books and one thing that really spoke to me was the statement that hunger is not an emergency. I would seek out food, and lots of it, the very moment I felt hunger, and could literally gorge myself to the point that I could barely breathe sometimes. It was awful. Hunger is no different than any other feeling- being cold, being hot, being irritated, being sad, etc. You might get hungry, especially early on as your body adjusts, but tell yourself that it isn't an emergency. You will not wither away to nothing at the first twinge of hunger; distract yourself, drink water, etc, and the feeling usually will subside.

I didn't say anything about miniscule, I said I didn't "over eat". The quantity of food, in grams, that I ate when I was getting fatter, and the quantity of food in grams, that I eat now differ VASTLY. I eat MANY more grams of food now. Before I would NEVER eat breakfast, ate lunch about 1/2 the time, ate a regular sized supper (but maybe had lots of carbs, a little bit of fat protien, and no veggies), and would snack on a large bag of chips in the evening.

Now I eat breakfast (porridge or eggs, or a bowl of cereal), I eat lunch ( a sandwich, a yogurt and some fruit), an afternoon snack (usually some more fruit, and maybe a Special K bar), an adequate supper (including lean meat, 1 serving of a carb, like rice, and lots of veggies), and then an evening snack, using up whatever is left of my calories. The sheer quantity of food that I eat now is at least double to what I was eating before, because the foods I am eating are low calorie and nutrient dense.

I never said that people don't get fat from over eating, I said NOT EVERYONE gets fat from over eating, some people get fat for other reasons, such as eating the wrong foods (full of fat and calories, and lacking in nutrition). I think it lump all fat people into the group "over eaters" is like saying all breeds of dogs are poodles. We're not all the same, we all gained weight in our own ways, for our own reasons, and there's no perfect way to lose it. It's great that 1200 calories works for you, it DIDN'T work for me. My body just decided it wasn't going to lose weight anymore at 1200 calories. Maybe eventually the weight would have come off, but I think if my body freaks, and stops dropping the weight, that's my clue that I am doing more harm than good, and I need to try something else.


ETA: I think a lot of people who have suggested having a higher calorie intake are doing it to help the OP from hitting that depressing stall that can happen if your caloric intake is too low. It was meant to be helpful advice. I wonder if that "well she asked how to eat at 1200 calories, not if she should" mentality would apply if someone was asking how they should kill themselves? Or how they should rob a bank? People offer their input, trying to be helpful, not trying to sabotage. A good few of us here know how badly it sucks when your weight loss stalls out, and how frustrating it is, and how some people just give up. Forgive me (us?) for trying to keep the OP from being in that position.

I do 1200 calories. But, I'm short and feel completely satisfied with it. I eat a lot of protein (greek yogurt, nuts, lean meats) which really sustains me. Sometimes, I struggle to make it to 1200 because I'm just not hungry!

Usually I'll have my Chobani plain yogurt with a cup of blueberries for breakfast, a peanut butter sandwich for lunch on a sandwich thin (unless I have lunch meat, then I'll make a turkey sandwich) with fruit, a 1/4 cup of cocoa roast almonds for my afternoon snack, and lots of veggies for dinner with some form of protein. I usually have about 100 calories or so to spare which I spend on a 100 cal bag of 94%ff kettle corn.

I'm having an egg and cheese sandwich for breakfast today, which will really fill me up for a long time, a salad for lunch, and I have no idea what I'll have for supper!

I think making sure you have some form of protein with every meal really helps satisfy. But, if you eat this way and still find yourself hungry, definitely up your calories! It's not good to lose weight too rapidly- I've always gone by 2 pounds per week. As you get smaller, eventually you will find yourself satisfied on less calories, but there's more of you now, so your body needs more calories to move yourself around. A general guideline as to where you should start would be a calorie calculator- such as on livestrong. You plug in your activity level, how much you'd like to lose per week, your weight, and your age and it should give you a good general idea of where to start.

:hug: Hope you're doing well!

Why are you starving yourself? There is absolutely no need to go that low with calorie every day. Maybe try to zig zag and have every other day 1,200 and have on average 1,500 – 1,600 cal? You are losing way too much muscle when you extreme dieting like this and end result will be even slower metabolism.

To answer your question, I usually eat 3 meals when I am counting calories: small breakfast, even smaller lunch and nice big dinner.

It is works for me, because I am in the office all day and busy and don’t want to waist my calories, but rather save it for dinner and have nice BBQ with glass of wine and some frozen yogurt for desert.

I am sorry, but it is not a myth. Yes person can lose weight on 1, 200 cal a day, but it is not gonna be only body fat, it is also will be partially water and muscle tissue.

I think it is depends on personal goal. I don’t want to be skinny fat. Look at those two pictures: they both have closely the same scale weight, but what a difference body fat % makes when you don’t have cloth to cover your body?

If I will lose weight fast eating very little calories, I will also lose a lot of lean muscle tissue (which takes a lot of time to build).

I want to lose body fat, not just scale weight and it is mean to have sufficient amount of calories, 1g of protein per body weight in pounds and lifting weight enough to reserve the lean muscle tissue, which of course will result in slower scale weigh loss but in more body fat loss in long run.

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