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??

[Pringlecat]

1,200 gross is hard. 1,200 net is doable (i.e. after taking into account exercise adjustments).

The weight loss formula is calories out > calories in. If you want to eat the bulk of your 1,200 calories at a weird time of the day, that's fine. If you want to spend a lot of your 1,200 on snacking rather than real meals, again, that's fine. It's your diet - it's just maths.

There are healthier ways of doing it, sure, but as long as you burn more calories than you consume, you will lose weight. Listen to your body regarding when you want to eat - convention is overrated.

[AlexanderHamilton]

I’m 5 ft 4 & about 9.5 stone. I too would like to go back to 9.

I have to have carbs or I’m hungry. I’m a fussy eater too. Today I had

9am Scrambled egg on toast (1 egg 2 toast, no spread)

12.30pm. Ham salad sandwich. Pack of French fries

3pm 1chocolate biscuit

7pm grilled chicken, mashed potato, veg
1 digestive biscuit

I drink water & tea

I know I need to eat more fruit instead of the biscuits.

OP I think your menu sounds great for a non fussy eater (it’s very similar to how dd eats except she has 1egg not 2 & she’s a dancer.

[80sMum]

Take no notice of the number of calories you're eating. The thing to be aware of is carbohydrates. So, from your list of foods, cut out the ones in bold:
"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 (unless it is natural and has no added sugar) and handful of cashew nuts (walnuts, almonds and Brazil nuts are fine, but cashews are high carb).

Eat more meat and more fats (avocado, olive oil, full fat milk, butter, coconut oil, lard, dripping) and more vegetables.

[80sMum]

AlexanderHamilton "I have to have carbs or I’m hungry"

It's eating carbs that makes you hungry! Fill up on fats instead.

[SprayingMonsters]

GorgonLondon - Ok keep accusing me of lieing, I know my calorie intake and all our bodies work differently, you are not with me or in my house so you can’t tell me I am lieing.

[Peanutbuttercups21]

1200, i'd faint....

Just for balance, I need over 3000 cals just to maintain (tall and exercise)

Also, do you really need to lose that half stone? You may need to regularly undereat to maintain that.

[ferntwist]

You’ll still lose loads on 1,400 as you’re so active.

[vandrew4]

Ditch breakfast. you very soon get used to not eating till 1'ish

[Yokatsu]

@mumof2exhausted 1200 cals is not adequate if you live an active lifestyle and go to the gym 3 times a week

You need to be logging and eating back some if not all of your exercise calories and if your job is active that needs to be reflected in you base settings. Even on the most severe weight loss options you should only be losing a stone roughly every 2 months. If you are losing quicker that chances are your not eating enough (or you are seriously overweight). I can do 1200cals but really only on days I'm sat for much of the day and i do make sure the calories geared to being there when i am active (eg definitely breakfast and main meal lunch time, not alot when I'm watching TV in the evening). Although i will say that if your not weighing and logging food accurately chances are your eating more calories than you think anyway.
A "handful of cashew nuts" is a classic sign of this, a calorie dense food were 10kg (one cashew) either way changes your input considerably

@HicDraconis I'm taking it the 800cal diet was under medical supervision as it was for medical reasons? Generally 800 cal is not adequate for anyone full stop as it does not provide you with enough of the nutrients for living. Getting sufficient calcium for one is hard from a 1200 cal diet let alone a 800cal. I'm assuming from your posts you don't recommend a 800cal diet without medical supervision cos that would be really irresponsible.

@SprayingMonsters please get help. Your maintenance calorie intake even for a sedatary lifestyle small child is triple your intake. You're not hungry because your stomach has shrunk from being underfed. I would be deeply surprised if you weren't under weight BMI, but bear in mind there is significant evidence that BMI is wrong and slightly overweight is healthier than what BMI class as adequate weight let alone underweight. At that level of diet you will be severely nutrient deficient.

[HicDraconis]

@Yokatsu yes. Medically supervised diet and exercise programme - geared towards training for intense sporting event rather than medical reasons though.

If you read my initial post about vlcd I think I said quite clearly I don’t recommend them without proper supervision. 800kcal qualifies for vlcd. It’s relatively easy to increase my 16:8 800cal plan to 1200 though - would recommend by increasing the protein.

[SprayingMonsters]

Yokatsu - Thank you, I do need help with putting weight on I will address it with my GP soon, and thanks for not accusing me of lieing about my calorie intake.

[Yokatsu]

@HicDraconis Awesome I read it and I thought that was the case but I thought that benefitted making really clear

Actually im also curious as to what sport would require you to undereat so severely prior to performing. I know how awful I feel if I get 1200cals wrong and inadvertently don't eat enough eg event in the evening was fish and chips I'd saved my calories to cover it. Hour and half later than planned fish and chips still hadnt turned up. I left because i really want feeling well at all,by the time I got home I was barely functioning and literally had to get something down me quick before I was very ill. The couple of occasions I did get the diet very wrong I really knew it and it has made me quite militant over eating enough especially if you're working out. I'm wondering how you still managed to train on so few calories

[Yokatsu]

@SprayingMonsters

I think if you are under eating regularly it becomes your new norm. You don't notice the negative effects because they are not unusual for you, they are just how your body functions day to day. I bit ike someone whose in chronic pain forgets what it's like to experience life without pain. That doesn't mean your not doing your body harm, you are. Cooking food and then throwing it away is really worrying. If you don't eat for a while it can leave you feeling all churne-y and a bit sick when you do go to eat. That's not lack of hunger it's something else entirely

Please please please make that appointment sooner than later, I think maybe you do still have an idea that what you are doing is not a great way to live, you need to get help before that little saving voice disappears entirely.

[Yokatsu]

@SprayingMonsters

And no worries but I think people are only accusing you of lying because it really is such a low unhealthy amount, you just cannot get the energy and nutrients for everyday life from that amount even if you stayed in bed all day and didn't move! It really is only concern via a different voice.

[GorgonLondon]

No yokatsu it's because she's obviously lying.

When i was anorexic i lived on around 500-600 calories a day for a few months. The weight melted off me, and I was slim to start with.

Within a few months I was down to a very very low BMI and if I hadn't been forcibly stopped I'd have been dead within a few more months.

Anyone who says they live long term on 400-600 calories a day is either lying or has no idea at all about how many calories are in food.

[SprayingMonsters]

GorgonLondon - I guess you are talking like this because you have been through anorexia, I do not have an eating disorder I have always wanted to be bigger but it has never worked for me.

[Ladi85]

You will very likely be eating below what your body needs for basic function (if you were to just lay about all day) let alone being active with the kids. It will be difficult to sustain. Reduce calories and move more, it’s more sustainable. X

[SomeAreMoreEqualThanOthers]

No Ladi, that is not true. Basal Metabolic Rate (the minimum required to maintain current weight) for SprayingMonsters height and weight is over 1000 calories per day. That is before doing any activity at all of any kind. If she is really eating 400 - 600 per day she will be rapidly, and seriously worryingly losing weight even if she were to lie still all day every day. It is a genuinely serious cause for concern.

[SomeAreMoreEqualThanOthers]

Ladi, I misread your post, I apologise. Ignore me, and feel free to shout at me. Sorry.

[GorgonLondon]

SprayingMonsters if you are not lying, you are then simply wrong about how many calories are in different foods and drinks.

I GUARANTEE that you are not, as you claim in your posts, living long-term on 400-600 calories a day and maintaining a weight of 8 st 1.

It is physically and scientifically impossible.

[Frosty66612]

@spraying if you wanted to gain weight as much as you say you do then why continue to eat a starvation diet? Even upping your calories by 200 per day would help a bit in your situation.
If you never feel hungry then you should have gone to the Doctors long before now to have lots of tests done to find out why. It isn’t the norm to have no appetite ever. If your kids see you living off nibbles of fruit and chucking dinners away they will develop their own unhealthy ideas about food

[RedPony1]

Very interesting reading! I lost 4st on Slimming World back in 2013, but life has happened and i have now gained 2st. I no longer have the time to go to a group so have been tracking my calories on MFP instead. I'm set to 1500 a day and i find it fairly easy, but i'm not losing weight so i assume i need to lower it....

However, i also run a fair amount and horse ride daily, whilst i have an office job i think overall i move more than your average Joe Bloggs?

My day starts at 5am, and finishes around 9pm.

Exercise is as follows (plus every day i ride, properly, not lazing around on a hack)
Mondays: Interval training (speed or hills)
Tues: 30 min walk at lunch
Weds: 5-6 mile run
Thurs: 30 min walk/run with colleagues at lunch
Fri: 30 min walk at lunch
Sat: 5km parkrun
Sunday: Longer run (10ish miles)

I am on a very tight budget and have little interest (or time!) in cooking from scratch, i absolutely hate being in the kitchen. I also stopped drinking any alcohol in 2013.

If i don't eat well on run days i get very dizzy Any suggestions welcomed!

[SprayingMonsters]

GorgonLondon - I know I shouldn’t I weight everything I eat like today I put a 100 grams of strawberries and 100 grams of blueberries in my breakfast shake, and when it comes to the boys food I don’t weigh it.