I try to keep my calories around 1200 and eat three snacks and three meals.
Breakfast: Usually around 200
Snack: Usually around 100
Lunch: Usually around 200
Snack: Usually around 200
Dinner: Usually around 300
Snack: Usually around 200
That works very well for me. If you want to know what that looks like, there is a what did you eat today thread that spells what I usually eat.
Breakfast: Veggies, an egg, and an ezekiel of some sort (bread or tortilla), sometimes parmesan (or other very low cal cheese) and/or salsa
Snack: Fruit
Lunch: Soup
Snack: Carrots/hummus or cherry tomatoes with cheese
Dinner: About a million different things, half of the plate should be vegetables.
Snack: Popcorn or wasa with peanut butter or cheese or hummus. I've even had a bunless veggie burger as a snack or a potato if I'm very hungry.
I'm on about 1100, being a lot shorter than you, and possibly that's considerably less of a calorie deficit for me as well (I only burn 1500 at most). 3 meals, sometimes I have a snack or two, sometimes I don't. The meals are satisfying, and I am trying to stick to soup and/or salad for lunch which makes it easier to keep the calories lower for that meal. (I invented an absolutely heavenly Thai-inspired papaya salad for lunch, and it was rather calorific, and I keep trying to work out what I can have for supper with substantially fewer calories than usual. I didn't eat much over the weekend due to exceptional stress, though, so it doesn't really matter if I go a bit over today, I tend to look at weekly averages.) I pretrack too, which really helps. Wholefoods diet (vegan, incidentally), lots of veg.
What's the difficult area? Hunger? Running out of calories too early? Snacking?
For those of you that try and stay at 1200 calories per day....how do you do it?
Do you eat 3 meals and 2 snacks?
Do you keep each meal/snack at a specific calorie level?
Can you give me some idea of what you eat on a typical day?
I try and stay there....but fail everyday.
Thanks!
What do you mean by fail? How close are you coming, and what's bringing you up short? Is it hunger or lack of planning? If you fail at 1200 or less every day maybe that's a sign that 1200 is too low for you.
When I set my target at 1500 calories, I could never manage to stay under it (because of hunger) unless I set carbs so low that I got headaches, so I increased my calorie alottment to 1800 and found that level easy (and still lost weight).
I agree with kaplods, if you are starving on 1200 chances are you probably need more calories because you are a higher weight. I'd try 1500-1800 calories a day if I were you.
Also try to eat as much unprocessed food as possible, once you add those in the calories shoot up- at least for me.
1200 calories is not easy. It was okay at first, but seemed to get harder and harder as time went on because there is just not much wiggle room. After five months, I decided yesterday to change my calories to 1400 and see how that goes. I tended to eat about 200-300 calories for breakfast, 300 to 400 for lunch, 400 to 500 for dinner, and 100 to 200 for an evening snack.
Breakfast: Fruit and greek yogurt, or a bagel with laughing cow cheese, or 1/2 cup oatmeal with 1/2 T pb, or waffle and berries with two slices of bacon,1 egg + 1 egg white with goat cheese and a slice of sprouted bread.
Lunch: I always have cooked chicken in the fridge. I add the chicken to rice, pasta, quinoa, couscous whatever grain and add a ton of veggies, or put it in a tortilla with some sauteed onions and pepper and call it a fajita, or make a cold chicken salad with greek yogurt as my binder and add it to a tortilla with raw spinach, or top a salad with it. I cook chicken a couple times a week for this purpose and it is a definite lunchtime lifesaver for me.
Dinner: Varies widely. Basically whatever I am cooking for the family in a small portion. Last night was BBQ chicken breast, green beans, and a 1/2 cup of hashbrown potatoes. If I am making the family grilled Italian sausage, I will make myself a chicken sausage....small substitutions like that.
Snack: However many calories I have left in chocolate :0) or one serving of chips, or popcorn, or fruit, or almonds, or string cheese. A tiny bit of whatever I am in the mood for.
I was getting to the point where I was going over most days. Not by a lot, maybe just 15 calories, or 50, or 100, but mentally I did not like going over, and felt like it was a real struggle to stay within the 1200 calories and felt like I failed every time I went over, which I know is ridiculous considering it was never by much, but I think both physically and mentally it is better for me to up the calories a bit at this point.
Whenever I decided to go on a set calorie amount I always start the week before with a little more... so if you want to do 1200 go 1 week at 1400, and if you do well do week 2 with 1300 and so on
If you're not a big breakfast eater you might want to consider intermittent fasting. In a nutshell - you don't eat breakfast and start eating sometime around noon or later. Because you're eating in a shorter period of time your meals will be larger and more satisfying given the same number of calories.
While it sounds contradictory based on conventional wisdom I assure you it is not bad for you. It might not work for you but I have found it makes dieting much easier. If you're interested check out one of the intermittent fasting threads.
I advise against starting at 1200 calories, because as your metabolism and caloric needs lessen with weight loss at 1200 calories you don't have anything you can safely cut for an extended period of time. Better to start high and cut as your body needs it.
I intermittantly fast and have 2 large(ish) meals a day. I Focus on filling foods like eggs, chicken, beans, quinoa etc. I cut out snacking also, this was a huge problem area for me before I started but once I decided to cut out inbetween meal snacks I guess my body got used to the change, if I am starting to get hungry I will just wait for the next meal or have some gum or a drink.
Lunch: 2pm or after
usually a sandwich consisting of various fillings including spinach, chicken, ham, eggs anything really (450 cals)
Dinner: 50g quinoa 165
150g turkey mince 200
100g frozen mixed veg 48
(stir fried in a non stick pan with spray oil, add some soy sauce/seasoning)
Bowl of porridge with reduced calorie jam (190)
Starting out at 1200 may not be the best option but coming from where I came from and my relationship with food I just felt like I needed a short leash, whenever I have tried to raise my calories I always got carried away and eating more just made me hungier. Any who this is what I do
Last edited by supergir111; 06-01-2011 at 01:46 PM.
I love Kaplods' post and want to ask the same questions. What do you consider failing? There is a big difference in feeling like you failed because you ate 1300 calories and feeling like you failed because you ate 3000 calories.
I think that it is really important to set a calorie level that you can live with.
I like the idea of starting with a higher calorie level and gradually dropping it. There were many times that I started a 1200 calorie a day program and would drop it after a few days. I think one reason that I have succeeded this time is because I started at 1500 to 1800 calories a day. I was accustomed to eating a high calorie diet and had to learn how to lower my calories. Now I eat 1200 to 1500 calories a day and try to have more 1200 calorie days than 1500 calorie days. There are still some days that I just can't stick to 1200 calories. If that was my measure of success, I would also feel like I failed. That is why I allow myself 1500 calories on some days.
Since you asked, I have planned about 1200 calories today and here is my menu for today.
Breakfast - 3 helping eggbeaters and one slice of whole wheat toast - 150 calories
Lunch - 4 ounces chicken, Green Giant Simply Steamed Green Beans with Almonds and 1 ounce of baked Cheetos - 404 calories
I will have about 100 more calories to play with, so I will probably add an apple or maybe one wedge of skinny cow cheese with 6 Townhouse reduced fat crackers or 100 calorie bag of popcorn for an evening snack.
PS - I know that the baked Cheetos are junk and devoid of nutrition. However, that ounce meets my desire for junk food and helps me stay on program. I have them about twice a week. It beats getting a bag of chips from the vending machine.
I just started CCing again and I average 1600 Calories a day. I say average 1600 bc somedays I eat 1400 cals. and others 1800 cals I am happy anywhere in between.
I personally could not do 1200 cals. on a daily basis.
Trying to keep it around 1200 calories-HOW?
