1190 calories a day to eat...meal ideas

[Fatmumslim01]

I've been on mounjaro for 3.5 months and lost 23 pound but I'm in my second stall, first one was a few weeks ago and I stayed the same for 2 weeks then carried on losing, and now I'm in another 2 weeks stall.

I reached out to my provider and the pharmacist emailed back and said to cut 600 calories, not the 500 I was currently (roughly) doing.

So that means I can only eat 1190 calories a day to lose a pound a week potentially. I probably average 12-400 calories a day so this could be the reason fornth stall although I don't strictly calorie count more keep a rough guage if I'm having pre packaged food eg today I know my breakfast yogurt was 96 calories but lunch and dinner are homemade so harder to count.

Tomorrow I know my evening meal will be 600 as it's a ready meal.

1190 calories sounds so low! I'm 5 foot and weigh 180 pounds currently.

Anyone got any daily meals plans for 1000-1100 calories

Also it's going to get lower as I lose weight 😭

I eat pretty much the same things every day and am at around 1100 daily. I prioritise protein, fruit & veg and healthy fats. Two boiled eggs & half an avocado is a good breakfast I find & a piece of salmon and broccoli I often have for dinner. For snacks I eat fruit, pistachios, individual popcorn bags, and rice cakes

Have you worked out what your basal metabolic rate is?

Basal is 1408 and maintenance is 1690. Therefore if I cut 600 as the pharmacist says it leaves 1090

Edit...1090 not 1190!

I need to eat 1090 to be in a calorie deficit

Start drinking black tea/ coffee (100’s of calories in added milk, you always underestimate), roast chicken/ beef/ huge salads are your best friend, avoid anything high in fat, not because it’s unhealthy but because it’s just energy dense, and you want volume, not energy density. This eliminates salmon, avocados, most cheese, oils etc. They just won’t fill you up, and with 1000 calories to play with, you need to keep your stomach quiet. With that in mind: water. And, just to make sure you’re in a deficit, and to build a bit of buffer in for lapses/ miscalculations/ underestimation (which happen more days than not), go for an hour’s walk in the evening. Then try and do it faster each day to ensure it’s definitely a brisk walk - makes a massive difference.

Dont really have any recipes I’m afraid….food just became fuel to be measured when I lost weight. One thing I did do was, if I was eating a normal meal, I’d serve myself half of what I normally would, reminding myself that I could always go back if still hungry. Almost never did.

@Fatmumslim01 Now, I’m not a mega fan of ChatGPT, however it is pretty fantastic at working out meal plans if you tell it the calories and your fave food groups etc. You can also ask it to ensure you’re getting the recommended protein, fats etc. so that the meal plan is as balanced as possible. As part of the meal plan it auto includes healthy snacks as well.

What’s also fantastic is if you fancy making a random homemade creation with some available ingredients so eg for me I might fancy making a little pudding I’m craving you just input all the ingredients you’re thinking of using to make that food item and then you can even ask what weight in grams should I eat if I only want to take in 200k of this pudding and it will tell you! Eg a 20g slice will have 198k, xg fat and yg carbs etc.

Def worth a go (free also)!

Soups are your friends here. I did similar just before Christmas, lots of veg, so celery/ carrot sticks for snacks, 100g of greek yoghurt with berries for breakfast. Black coffee, herbal tea, apples are good. How long do you intend to do this for ?

Half a large tub of Longley farm cottage cheese plus a large dollop of Greek yoghurt and small handful of berries is 350 calories, I eat almost every day around 11am and then do a 400 to 500 cal salad with ham or 2 hard boiled eggs or prawns or high protein low cal ready meal plus extra broccoli or salad in evening - no snacks at all in my case .

Ideally you should not go below your BMR for more than a short period of time.

Some suggestions given by a PT my provider had on for a Q&A when asked a similar question, the answer was all the basics we already know -

• More steps (increases your TDEE and deficit)
• Strength training (muscle is more metabolically active)
• Be honest about tracking every calorie (are you eating more than you think - you need to weigh everything, oils, sauces, drinks - especially homemade meals, can you change what you eat to do make this possible?)
• Eat a little more for a few days just to give your body a reset from deficit (or try calorie cycling)
• Make sure you are getting protein in (eat it with most meals)
• Improve your sleep
• Reduce stress
• Drink enough water to keep well hydrated

All are important and always room for improvement for most of us, but I would start by focusing on measuring and tracking everything you eat and drink even just for a few weeks to see if you can see any issues. I regularly see some reels on facebook where they show what seems like not huge differences can significantly change the calories in a meal (pictures show examples, not the best as they are pretty obvious ones) and you might be under estimating what you are actually having during family meals.

Forgot to attach the pictures 🙈

M&S 350 calorie singular pizzas ( the rectangular ones that are delightful ), any of the my protein pots from Sainsbury's that are like 245 calories and surprisingly filling, BOL meals- also chat gpt is your best friend for this! I also love cauliflower rice drizzled in reds hot sauce, it's tangy and delicious and a whole pouch of cauli rice is 40 cals only x

Don't eat processed food like individually packaged yoghurts and ready meals. It's a waste of calories on crap, when instead you want nutrient-dense foods.

I have fat free Greek yoghurt or fat free cottage cheese (both lower in calories and higher in protein than the full fat alternatives) with blueberries and honey for breakfast.

For lunch you could have grilled chicken salad or a 2 egg mushroom omlette.

Dinner could be chicken cooked with peppers and onions in spices with some brown rice.

I suggest you get one of those 5 calorie sprays of cooking oil.

It's not going to be easy, but it's doable.

Are you completely sedentary?

ChatGPT is very good for meal plans. Give it your fibre and protein goals too.

Dippy eggs with asparagus for dipping not toast
Pair your protein with konjac rice/noodles (but have a sauce as they don't really taste of anything)
Salad with vinaigrette, lettuce, fancy tomatoes and a boiled egg
Use green beans or another low calorie vegetable instead of a carb with your pasta sauce/curry etc. See also cauliflower rice/courgette ribbons as a carb alternative.

Download the MyFitnessPal app - or a similar one. You can track your calories that way.

Weigh all the ingredients in the meals you cook/prepare and track it in the app. If you get the premium version you can scan barcodes in to make it easier, more accurate.

I found this great for understanding calories portions eg how much 100g of cooked brown basmati rice looks like, and how much 150g of cooked chicken looks like. This also helped me ensure I got enough protein - you need a lot more than you think you do.

Realistically with that low cals id eat two meals and a snack. Maybe a protein coffee and piece of fruit mid morning. I’d prioritise protein and add a loads of veg to bulk it out for very few cals. In your situation I’d cook something for lunches all week (something like a chilli with loads of veg and mixed beans for fibre). Can the. Have on its own or with rice / wrap / potato.

Sorry to state the obvious but have you considered exercising more too?

I’m the same height and I weigh 47kg yet I can still eat more than 1200 calories daily and not gain weight. My BMR is 1200 calories.

I eat what I want and don’t have to monitor or restrict myself. I just go for smaller portion sizes than usual. So with your ready meal example, I might not finish that completely. Or I’ll split it into 2 servings and eat the rest later/the next day, especially if you make yourself a salad on the side or eat it with fruit/dessert afterwards.

Generally speaking my rule of thumb is to eat less than the recommended portions size as I can safely assume portion sizes are tailored to people taller/bigger than me. So I still eat the same things, just less.

So eating 1200 calories doesn’t have to be a minefield.

Smaller portions so that you have a number of 'meals' spread throughout the day, almost constantly eating but they're small so the calories are much lower per thing.

It will feel like you're eating a lot

This is the best advice OP. Eating so little calories is only ever going to be a temporary fix and isn’t sustainable for the vast majority of people.

I used to struggle to lose weight on 1600 cals and can now eat 2000 and be in a deficit.

I track everything. My app (nutracheck) has a bit where I input meals/recipes once and then I can use them over and over. It’s easy enough to weigh things, even just once to get an idea of portion size.

I've gone 9 months eating 850-1200 cals and I consistently lose weight. In 9 months I've only stalled 3 times for a week at a time and that's usually due to carbs. Best advice is increase protein and lower carbs and drink plenty of water.
I have an office job and I'm 5ft 3 and 10st right now but I often eat 850-1000 cals on weekends, slightly more when I'm at work. Yesterday I had 1004 cals with 56g protein and i wasnt even trying to eat less but I've just started 15mg so have high suppression.
Do you need to up your dose? It will help with the lower cals esp if you can eat upto 1400. I've never managed that in 9 months due to moving up when it wore off but still feeling full to eat small volumes. Eating little and often is good too. I have a protein shake for breakfast which fills me up until lunch.
Also you can add ingredients to myfitnesspal to track homemade meals.
i always eat less than my bmr and managed 9 months with 5% muscle loss only, i was quite naturally high starting off though. I have to eat less to lose due to prediabetes making it harder to lose. Good luck!

Ok. The calories you’re eating at are incredibly low, are unsustainable even with weight loss injections (unless you are a sparrow) and are not going to work.

You need an app that tracks your basal metabolic weight and then gives you allowances for the exercise you do above that. You’re at risk of failing on such low calories.

just to give an example - I yse an app that calculates BMR abc then takes into account exercise on top of that. I was eating almost 3000 kcal/day and still losing a pound a week, because it took my exercise into account (I was using an Apple Watch). I’ve just seen the past two months nearly compketely immobile, whoch puts me at 1200 kcal/day BMR to lost 1/2lb/week - I’m not on weight loss injections Si I cannot factor that in, but all I can say is that it’s been completely unsustainable gif me and I’ve put EVERYTHINV back on tgat I lost (without weight loss injections)

under 1200 is a horridly small amount of food that is difficult to even cover the basic nutritional needs

May I ask which provider told you to cut the calories so very low?

I am absolutely not doubting what they told you, am merely curious as to which pharmacy this is?

I personally could not survive on so few calories a day. I would be as limp as a lettuce leaf and thoroughly miserable. Is there a way, as already suggested, you can increase strength training and add some other exercise?

Instagram is your friend. Loads of recipes and ideas on there - these two are great-

https://www.instagram.com/fillingmeals

https://www.instagram.com/emma.bardwell

I add the ingredients into My Fitness Pal by the portion I've actually eaten. I'm aiming for 1200 cals a day and ignoring whatever MFP wants to add on to compensate for the exercise it's picking up from my smart watch. MFP also tells me where I am on fibre/protein goals for the day - Emma Bardwell has some views on that whereas Filling Meals aims for 500 cals per meal regardless of protein content.

Are you able to exercise? Is fasting allowed?