AIBU to ask is it possible to stick to 1200 calories

[mumof2exhausted]

Just that really. I need to lose half a stone to get to my pre baby weight and using MyFitnessPal to track food. Do think I have been mindlessly eating and think. The app is great to log but I’m struggling to stick to this though. Food today - 1 slice of toast, 2 poached eggs and apple for breakfast, M&S soup for lunch (350 calories), quinoa with chicken and peppers, onions and mushrooms for dinner. Snacks banana, bowl of berries with Greek yogurt and handful of cashew nuts. Takes me to 1400. Have really active job and 2 young kids so need my food / energy go to gym 3 times a week. Any thoughts? Or is 1200 too low??

[MiddleMoffat]

It is hard, but doable with no booze or snacks and low carb rice and spaghetti or courgettini.

I had a carbonara last night, made with a stir fry veg instead of spaghetti, bacon with fat removed and light Elmlea cream. It was delicious.

If you exercise, ie running, that helps loads, First two weeks are hard, then your stomach gets used to it and your body adapts.

One square of 70% plain chocolate gives me a nice treat.

[wildgirls]

@HicDraconis hope you don’t mind me asking but would you mind giving me a daily breakdown of your food intake? I really want to shake things up and what you’ve said really makes sense to me.
I want to lose approx 9 lbs but mainly want to just find a better way of being. I train 5-6 days a week but an generally not that active as work from home etc...
Do you drink alcohol? This is my downfall

[QuoadUltra]

OP, I am doing this at the moment and it is ok if you add on exercise. So I walk quite a bit and put that all down on MFP and then you can have a bit more.

Tbh, I have scared myself with how much weight I gain even around 2000per day.

It’s so annoying. Gah, I may even have to take up middle-age running just so I can eat macaroni cheese at some point.

[HicDraconis]

@wildgirls

Typical day for me (yesterday's MFP entries!):

1pm - 2 scrambled eggs with about 10 button mushrooms - 193cal
3-4pm - Whole tin of tomato and basil soup (2 servings) - 228 cal
6.30ish - Salmon steak oven baked with dill (100g), green salad - 166 cal
8.30 - 100g shredded chicken mixed with home made coleslaw - 235 cal

Total for the day - 822 cals. Lots of water, herbal tea, decaf coffee (I don't take milk usually). Sometimes I replace the last meal with a couple of glasses of sauv but not every day! Some days I add an extra skinny flat white for another 100cal (usually the days where I've worked all night and need an extra boost to keep going the following day).

I don't eat much if any fruit and I try not to eat carbs. At the weekends I relax a bit.

[wildgirls]

@hicdraconis
Thank you! Looks good. Do you have weight to lose? Or is this just a lifestyle you’ve settled with. I just want to see changes fast!!!

[HicDraconis]

It started off as weight to lose but it's surprisingly easy to stick to. What I think really helps is the amount of liquid you drink during the 16h fast period.

Depending on your TDEE if you maintain an 800cal /day 16:8 pattern you'll see results very fast initially. They'll slow down as you settle into the pattern - which is why I relax a little at weekends, it makes the weeks easier to stick to.

It's important to keep exercising while you diet to maintain muscle mass.

[SomeAreMoreEqualThanOthers]

To the poster who consumes 400 - 600 calories a day, how on earth are you maintaining your current weight on that? you must be constantly and rapidly losing weight.

[SprayingMonsters]

SomeAreMoreEqualThanOthers - I guess my body is now used to it.

[FrogPie]

I think it’s doable; I use MFP and my goal is 1400 but I usually only end up consuming 1000-1200 calories per day.

[SomeAreMoreEqualThanOthers]

That's not how it works..even your BMR would be well above that figure, let alone your TDEE (and especially so caring for children). You couldn't not lose weight consuming so little.

[SprayingMonsters]

SomeAreMoreEqualThanOthers - I don’t know how you can tell me this? You are not me or my body, and yes my body must be used to it because I’ve been this weight for a while, and I’m also ok medication for something else there was a time when looking at food would make me feel ill but it doesn’t anymore.

[GorgonLondon]

Everyone - please don't get upset about SprayingMonsters because they are lying.

At 113 lbs, the TDEE is 1420 calories a day with a sedentary lifestyle. Anyone who ate 400-600 calories a day for a long period of time would lose a lot of weight and then be dead.

Anyone who has experienced a real ED knows this.

I repeat, they are lying. Please don't engage.

[yourfavegorgon]

It’s not recommended except under medical supervision in exceptional cases. 1600 is much more sustainable and less likely to trigger reactive overeating.
This is MN thought so I imagine there are plenty of posters around to tell us that 1200 is perfectly adequate and the rest of us are greedy beached whales.

[SprayingMonsters]

GorgonLondon - Why would l lie about something like this? You know nothing about my body that’s some of us don’t need 1200 calories a day to survive, if I were to eat a tub of Ben and Jerry’s ice cream which I am guessing is 600 calories, I would be consuming 1200, please do not tell me a I am lying! I guess you are trying to loose weight but you are struggling.

I wish I wouldn’t have said anything now.

[SprayingMonsters]

and that some of us*

[SomeAreMoreEqualThanOthers]

SM, you can't outwit the basic laws of energy. If you are consistently consuming much less than your body requires to even complete it's most basic processes (let alone scaled up to reflect your activity level) you will consistently lose weight. It won't adapt to need hundreds of calories less. I will say no more as per Gorgons recommendation, but this is a fundamental truth.

[whifflesqueak]

I’m quite far into the red at the underweight end of the nhs bmi calculator and I eat waaay more than 400-600 cals a day. Plus quite a bit of booze

Could you be counting your calories wrong, sprayingmonsters? Maybe you’re not taking some into account?

[whifflesqueak]

Sorry gorgon, you’re right.

Also I suppose if spraying is telling even a bit of truth than discussing what is certainly an eating disorder in this way probably isn’t healthy.

[Secretlifeofme]

I am the same height as you OP and have been on 1200 calories for about 3 months and lost a stone. My BMI is now just in the healthy range at 9 stone 10 but I woukd like to get down to 9 as well.

What I have found is that the only way I can stick to 1200 without feeling hungry is to go low carb. Typical day is
Breakfast: protein bar or protein shake made with milk. Black coffee. Around 230 cals
Mid morning snack: carrot and cucumber sticks. 40 cals.
Lunch : salad with leaves, tomatoes, broccoli, cucumber, sometimes some roasted pepper or avocado, sprinkling of seeds. I have this with a piece of chicken or salmon. Roughly 300 cals.
Mid afternoon snack - a hard boiled egg. 70 cals
Dinner - something like veggie chili, or salmon with vegetables, or chicken stir-fry. No rice, pasta or potatoes with dinner. I don't really work out the calories but I reckon usually around 400.

Sometimes in the evening I have a few almonds, or occasionally a couple of pieces of Parma ham as a snack to take me to 1200, but often I don't, so as you can see, I am hovering between 1000 and 1050 most days and I don't feel hungry.

Once a week, as advised by my personal trainer, I have a 'cheat day' where I eat whatever I want but try to stop eating carbs by 6pm. This is great because if I ever do have any cravings I can just say to myself that I'll have whatever it is on Saturday.

This plan has worked well for me and I feel really healthy on it

[GorgonLondon]

spraying monsters wrong on two counts:

1. I don't struggle to lose weight, I am a size 8-10 at 5 ft 8, with a BMI that fluctuates between 19 and 20
   
   

2. you are lying. Absolutely no one can survive on 400-600 calories a day. You're lying or very very confused. And it's a dangerous and damaging lie.

[GorgonLondon]

sprayingmonsters you failed to even come up with a convincing lie. A human body weighing 113 lbs, assuming a height of 5'5, uses over 1200 calories a day as a Basal Metabolic Rate - that's the number of calories burned without any additional activity. Any less than that and there is a deficit that would mean you lose weight even without moving.

You are lying. Why?

[GorgonLondon]

SomeAreMoreEqual Failing to listen to my own recommendation there, and feeding the troll! Still, I guess she could do with the extra nourishment...