If you stick to 1200 calories what do you eat?

[Ohdoleavemealone]

I have been trying to do 16:8 but have lost about 2lbs in 4 weeks so that isn't really working.
I have only been eating between 11-7 and sticking to 12-1300 calories.
This has been pretty easy only eating between those hours but it isn't making me lose any weight so I need to look at eating normally again but in low amounts. Can anyone give me a typical day of what they eat so they don't feel hungry all day?

If you're losing weight then why isn't it working?

Are you weighting and logging everything on My Fitness Pal or similar? I would guess that your calorie count is off if you are only eating that many calories and not losing weight.
I didn’t find that amount of calories sustainable long term so upped it to around 1,400 per day and just controlled my portions using My Fitness Pal (2.5 stone off and maintained)

Work out your tdee here then reduce the amount by 20% to find your target for weight loss
tdeecalculator.net/
Don’t add your exercise to MFP though as it gives you extra calories back to eat and stalls your weight loss.

I’m now on maintenance calories of 1,690 but looking back I eat similar things every day

Greek yogurt (50g) with a sprinkling of nuts/seeds, a spoon of linseed, 2 teaspoons of chia seeds.

Sandwich (small bread 106 cals for 2 slices) or salad and sometimes a homemade smoothie. Maybe a freddo if I fancy something sweet

Dinner chicken breast, or some meat with around 100g jacket pot (no butter) and lots of veg or homemade low fat Bol/ curry packed with veg served with small baked jacket /small sweet potato instead of pasta/rice
Pot of Kvarg protein yogurt for dessert

Snack would be a home made flapjack thing made from Oats and mashed banana instead of butter & syrup. (160 cals) or a bag of salted proper corn popcorn from a multi pack (44 cals) or small banana (109)
Weighing and logging has been educational. I will never eat cheese without weighing it again -so calorific!

Do you need to lose weight?

Just asking as sometimes these questions are posed by people with a bmi of 19 trying to get to 18, for example

Breakfast
Slice of bread and egg with different herbs and apices. Sometimes just egg white, with smoked salmon added.

Lunch any salad up to 250 cal

Snack - fruit and yogurt/fruit

Dinner - spaghetti/courgetti/homemade tom sauce/eatlean cheese
Or Curry, or just pan fried fish with broccoli spears beans and sprouts. Or fish with hoison, broccoli spears (or whatever is in a fridge basically), wasabi mash. Chicken noodle soup. Chili etc.

Snack
Cheese and apple or pear/sauerkraut and cracker/fermented veg and cheese/ryvita and tzaziky/ryvita and quork with herbs and maybe an eggwhite

If you have lost 2lb in 4 weeks is is TOTALLY working.
That's a really sustainable long term weight loss programme that you should be able to tweak slightly into a maintainable long term lifestyle when you have lost the weight you need to lose.

And yes. Let me add that the weighloss is good weightloss and first thing people should concentrate on when starting a diet is to realise that it is NOT a standard to lose more.

I do 16:8 and also eat 1,200 calories. A typical day looks like -

11am - banana (105) or porridge (143)
1pm - tin of tuna (109), roasted veg (205), low calorie Mayo (44)
6.30pm - something from one of the pinch of nom books

I also might have snacks like a 40 calorie bag of popcorn, low calorie jelly (3 calories), a bag of quavers (84) or one of the low calorie ice creams from Aldi (125) depending on what else I’ve eaten that day. I don’t feel deprived at all to be honest and usually also do a 1 hour walk each lunchtime.

I know 1,200 calories is often claimed to be too low but I have an underactive thyroid so it’s really hard for me to lose weight. I’ve stuck to this method for the last 3 weeks with a day each week where I eat slightly more and I’ve lost 6lbs.

I echo what Whywhatwherehow says above. I used the TDEE calculator and subtracted 500 a day to lose 1lb a week (in theory, tis never that linear!). Never less than 1200 though.

Anyway, I had low fat yoghurt, a piece of toast and honey for breakfast, soup for lunch and a normal dinner (500 cals or less, see pinch of nom books for inspiration) plus a kit kat or fibre one cake bar and still had room for snacks.

I am not strict enough to do it at the weekend, but on weekdays tend to have an apple mid-morning (70ish calories), 3 mugs of coffee with milk (30), 400-500 calorie lunch and 500-600 calorie dinner. There are lots of lunches and dinners that fit into this calorie range. I sometimes have a skinny whip bar or similar (100) and or a hot chocolate (40) in the evening. Overall it works out between 1200 and 1300.

What is a typical day's food for you OP? When I started doing 16:8 I was very low carb. I got very cold hands and was not losing weight. After doing some research I upped my carbs from 35g a day to 65g (I use the carb manager app to track), so now moderately low carb and that did the trick. Agree with pp though, you are losing weight and if you don't have too much to lose then it will be slower than someone who has a lot to lose.

A typical day's food for me would be:
Bacon, avocado, eggs and mayo mid morning
Pate with oatcakes for lunch
Brazil nuts and walnuts for a snack
Then something like roast chicken with rice and lots of green veggies around 6pm when my eating window closes. I drink coffee with cream throughout the day too and sometimes have a couple of squares of 85% chocolate. I do take one day off from this way of eating per week, like yesterday we had a Chinese takeaway and I had some cake during the day as that helps me stick with healthy eating the rest of the week :)

I'm with you OP. I'd be gutted if I was only losing half a pound a week on 1200 calories. I think your calorie counting is off, I'm afraid. Either you're sneaking in "just a taste" of extra stuff or underestimating portion size. Try weighing everything for a bit.

should be 'easy' with 16:8 and 2 meals.

log all calories, including your drinks. weigh your portions.
fill up on steamed or raw veg.

Thanks Ladies I guess I am losing weight but it is just so little. @PrintempsAhoy I do yes. Classed as overweight and am very short!
This week I have been unwell and unable to eat. I have lost 4lbs in 5 days which makes me feel like I am eating wrong to not be able to lose at least a lb a week by eating "normally".
I don't weigh all the time and my calorie count may be well out.

I think the fact that I have been so inactive hasn't helped.

Echo what pp said 2lb in 4 weeks is sustainable. Have you checked you TDEE? I tend to look at it as a weekly target so 8,400 a week and deduct what I daily, so if I want ice cream I can have one and just deduct it from the overall weekly total. The amount or at each day varies but averages out to 1,200

B: I don’t eat breakfast, I eat between 12-7.
L: Soup, eggs with spinach, tomato and hummus (sometime with ryvita and marmite or a bagel and some soft cheese), salad with hard boiled or pickled eggs. Glass of fruit juice.
D: vegetable chilli/curry/anything sauce based with cauliflower rice or veggie sausages and homemade chips/wedges, we had tacos last night, Sainsbury’s do 400cal pizzas so that with salad I keep dinner around 400-600 calories

Very rarely snack but if I do it’s 1 bit of fruit a a day and sometimes a tiny bit of cheese. I only drink water besides the juice at lunch and only have coffee on a Friday from the shop after I go food shopping.

I skip breakfast, easiest way to skip some calories, healthy to fast for a bit and the longer I wait to eat the more I delay hunger generally (most days, some days I really am just hungry so I will eat something).

Lunch: either whole meal toast, or granola. Or maybe a sandwich.

Dinner: chicken salad, spaghetti and tomato sauce, meat and veg, lots of things really just make sure I'm measuring the carbs.

Snacks: usually a chocolate bar and penguin.

No calories from drinks.

That's usually under 1200 calories depending on the dinner, tend to eat more on weekends but that's Monday-Friday and with 10,000 steps a day, can lose about 1.5lb a week doing that (5 ft 5, healthy BMI - just losing a few extra pounds from lockdown).

I have done the Tdee. It says maintain at 1526 so if I minus 20% I get 1220.

My TDEE is 1360 ish, so you can afford to eat slightly more, and you may find it more sustainable to do so rather than restrict yourself too much. Your TDEE will drop as you lose weight so keep an eye on it.

Are you exercising? It doesn't have to be intense, DH and I lost 5 stone between us by walking everyday and calorie counting.

So you workout? You could up your tdee hence your loss with some well thought out workouts

I'm on a similar plan, and it is working (slowly)

Breakfast 200 cal - porridge, or boiled egg and slice of toast, Greek yoghurt a raspberries, slice toast and table spoon of peanut butter

Lunch 200 cal - broth type soup, salad from subway, single slice of bread sandwich with chicken

Dinner - same as family type meal, but I weigh and count everything so its 800 cal, easy wins are reducing the oil and switching anything carby for salad, skipping out the cheese.

10,000 steps did NOTHING for me, I've started couch to 5k instead and that has been brilliant - feel so much better and look forward to runs.

Most weeks I only lose 0.1 kg, but then at week 3 I lose a massive 0.8, so it isn't consistent at all! But I keep the faith, I've taken 20 years putting this weight on, and realistically its going to take a year to get it off.

I haven't been doing much exercise no as we have a small open plan house and 2 kids to consider so my options are limited right now. I go for a bike ride twice a week but am hoping to increase it now the kids are back in school.
I cannot run at all due to asthma.

I'm doing low carb 1200 calories

2 chicken sausages

2 egg omelette with cheese,spinach and mushroom

Full fat Greek yoghurt pot

Blueberries

Hamburger and salad.

Salad, soup. Lots of vegetables, find ways to cook them that you like. Low-ish carbs as much as possible. Small amounts of healthy fats - nuts, seeds, olives, oily fish etc. More protein, more fibre, more liquids to feel full. Herbs & spices for interest. Entirely eliminate any "junk" calories, so no sweets, added sugar, bread, etc. (Most bread is relatively high GI, quickly broken down by your gut, leaving you hungry again after just a few hours. Also most are relatively poor in nutrients other than carbs.) If possible, no white rice, eat quinoa instead, it's higher in protein & more filling. If you're a porridge person, go for pinhead oatmeal rather than quick cook, the carbs are slower release so you won't feel hungry as quickly.

Personally I don't calorie count, now. I restrict carbs & do OMAD (one meal a day) fasting, it's easier for me. And I agree with the walking. Lots of walking, build it into your routine wherever you can. Even stand in front of the TV & walk on the spot if you can't go out.

This is a helpful thread. I am trying hard to get back on the wagon. I lost a few pounds in the summer doing MFP and being careful. I have put them back on and feel absolutely terrible. I am really at the end of my rope with lockdown and have no energy, feel tired all the time and am drinking too much. What I found helpful was cooking in batches and freezing portions in takeaway containers so I always have something to eat. My portion sizes are the problem, plus eating late at night because I feel perpetually hungry When you actually weigh your food and look at the calories you're consuming its a huge shock.
I walk for an hour and a half a day most days and lose weight if I try to keep within 1200 calories and cut down on carbs. I think the secret is to cut out all sugar and alcohol and reduce carbs as much as possible. Also eat loads of veg with everything, take a multi vit and mineral supplement every day and cut out alcohol. Loads of water. I know what I should be doing but I have to get into the right mindset to really do it properly.

Also walking is great, but it needs to be on different levels so you are working your muscles. Walking on a road or on the flat is just not going to be the same as walking which incorporates hills and climbing, different paces etc. You need to walk briskly and be slightly out of breath.