How do people eat 1200 calories?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is ridiculous. Recommend lifting weights and eating to fuel your body, lots of protein and veg and yes even some carbs. If I eat under 2000 calories now I lose weight quickly and am rarely hungry. I’m only 130lbs. Strength training is great.

These chubsters lift a lot! Forks and spoons!

[Anonymous]

Yes 1200 calories per meal x 3 meals per day. It's not hard.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Soup is your friend, OP. It’s filling, healthy, and cheap. During the winter we eat soup everyday; mostly vegetarian.

Agree:

Yogurt (110) or egg (70), coffee (2) and fruit (45-110) for breakfast.
Soup (110) and simple salad (70) for lunch.

That leaves ~800 calories for dinner, which is a feast.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Soup is your friend, OP. It’s filling, healthy, and cheap. During the winter we eat soup everyday; mostly vegetarian.

Agree:

Yogurt (110) or egg (70), coffee (2) and fruit (45-110) for breakfast.
Soup (110) and simple salad (70) for lunch.

That leaves ~800 calories for dinner, which is a feast.

I do not want to live like this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I stayed at 1,200 calories a day for a number of months about a year ago. It was the only thing that finally moved the needle, considering I’m a small person (5’3”) in my fifties. My weight had gotten up to 125 and I wanted to be back at 115, which I think is absolutely perfect for my height & frame.

FWIW, I lost the weight, and I’ve kept it off since April after returning to a normal amount of calories (~2,000/day).

Basically, I ate one meal a day, and I counted calories. I ate whatever I wanted, though. It was tough at first, but I soon became used to it. I didn’t feel hungry.

115 at 5'3 in your 50s sounds scary. I'm 5'4 at 137 and am pretty small. I'm 51. I was 115 when I was 25. I'd look like a refugee if I even weighed 120. My goal is 130 b/c I still want to look like a grown ass woman.

Nope. You are the sounds scary and delusional one.

Jesus. 1) don’t call any other body scary and 2) everybody’s body is different.

1) Jesus was skinny
2) Gluttony is a sin. You are a few lbs short of overweight. Of course, you think you are not, since the whole country is obese.

Yeah, so, I was a new poster--and for the record, I was calling you BOTH out for calling the other scary.

[Anonymous]

I’m really short, to lose weight I try to eat only 1000 calories a day. If I end up cheating a little, I’m still under 1200 calories, that means I lose about 1/2 lb a week.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Soup is your friend, OP. It’s filling, healthy, and cheap. During the winter we eat soup everyday; mostly vegetarian.

Agree:

Yogurt (110) or egg (70), coffee (2) and fruit (45-110) for breakfast.
Soup (110) and simple salad (70) for lunch.

That leaves ~800 calories for dinner, which is a feast.

I do not want to live like this.

So don’t.

[Anonymous]

Maybe try IF instead. It's worked well for me and I don't count calories or restrict. However I do work out daily and don't drink.

[Anonymous]

Just started setting my calorie goal to 1200 after an injury and the holidays caused my weight to creep up over the past few months. My knees are starting to hurt again. 5’5” ~135. I had been at 129 pre-injury, want to get down to 125 and that’s it.

1200 is really hard, for me it’s lots of veggies, brothy, veggie filled soups, lean protein, limited carbs, and very limited alcohol. I also don’t try and just eat 1200- that’s my net goal. I add back exercise calories, and I up my running mileage when I’m cutting. I’d say I average about 1500 after adding back in my running calories burned.

I plan to do this for about 10 weeks- I get really burnt out eating like this after a while, for me it’s just a short-term thing. I can lose about .75 - 1lb a week doing this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s mental illness innit

It’s mental illness to want to be healthy?

Any dietician/nutritionist worth their salt will tell you that a full grown adult eating 1200 calories a day is not healthy.

This may be true for some people but 1200 for many women is a reasonable target when trying to lose weight.

https://health.clevelandclinic.org/your-3-day-heart-healthy-meal-plan-1200-calories/

https://health.usnews.com/wellness/food/articles/2018-01-12/is-a-1-200-calorie-diet-right-for-you

https://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/educational/lose_wt/eat/menus_tac_1200.htm

I guess for the 5’0 and under set

who sit on their butt all day

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Soup is your friend, OP. It’s filling, healthy, and cheap. During the winter we eat soup everyday; mostly vegetarian.

Agree:

Yogurt (110) or egg (70), coffee (2) and fruit (45-110) for breakfast.
Soup (110) and simple salad (70) for lunch.

That leaves ~800 calories for dinner, which is a feast.

I do not want to live like this.

This is my strategy when dieting as well, though I eat more, up to 1450 and still lose (I am five foot 1). But I eat a lot more during maintenance. I diet down whenever I get 3-5 lbs above goal weight. I find it creeps up every few months or so, depending on holidays. Eating 1200 permanently? No thanks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Just started setting my calorie goal to 1200 after an injury and the holidays caused my weight to creep up over the past few months. My knees are starting to hurt again. 5’5” ~135. I had been at 129 pre-injury, want to get down to 125 and that’s it.

1200 is really hard, for me it’s lots of veggies, brothy, veggie filled soups, lean protein, limited carbs, and very limited alcohol. I also don’t try and just eat 1200- that’s my net goal. I add back exercise calories, and I up my running mileage when I’m cutting. I’d say I average about 1500 after adding back in my running calories burned.

I plan to do this for about 10 weeks- I get really burnt out eating like this after a while, for me it’s just a short-term thing. I can lose about .75 - 1lb a week doing this.

Is 1200 what puts you in weight loss deficit? You may not need to go that low to lose weight. If you haven’t already, you - and others here reading - may want to check your TDEE (total daily energy expenditure) and calculate how many calories you need to eat in a day to put you in a weight loss deficit. There are several calculators if you google TDEE calculator. 1200 may be neededC but it also may be unnecessarily low for others.

[Anonymous]

I'm currently losing about 1lb/week eating 1675 calories. I've got about 20lb to lose and I'd rather lose 1lb a week slowly than to starve myself.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just started setting my calorie goal to 1200 after an injury and the holidays caused my weight to creep up over the past few months. My knees are starting to hurt again. 5’5” ~135. I had been at 129 pre-injury, want to get down to 125 and that’s it.

1200 is really hard, for me it’s lots of veggies, brothy, veggie filled soups, lean protein, limited carbs, and very limited alcohol. I also don’t try and just eat 1200- that’s my net goal. I add back exercise calories, and I up my running mileage when I’m cutting. I’d say I average about 1500 after adding back in my running calories burned.

I plan to do this for about 10 weeks- I get really burnt out eating like this after a while, for me it’s just a short-term thing. I can lose about .75 - 1lb a week doing this.

Is 1200 what puts you in weight loss deficit? You may not need to go that low to lose weight. If you haven’t already, you - and others here reading - may want to check your TDEE (total daily energy expenditure) and calculate how many calories you need to eat in a day to put you in a weight loss deficit. There are several calculators if you google TDEE calculator. 1200 may be neededC but it also may be unnecessarily low for others.

NP. I think this will be a helpful post for some--but trust me, 1200 is what I need to go into a weight loss deficit where I can consistently lose .5-1lb. I would LOVE to eat more

I think, honestly, the 1200 number is also a default because many people underestimate their caloric intake. (Perhaps not some of the hyper-food/weight focused people here, but still a good number in real life) So someone may think they are eating 1200 but are really closer to 1500. I'm sure I've done that a fair amount even when being diligent.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just started setting my calorie goal to 1200 after an injury and the holidays caused my weight to creep up over the past few months. My knees are starting to hurt again. 5’5” ~135. I had been at 129 pre-injury, want to get down to 125 and that’s it.

1200 is really hard, for me it’s lots of veggies, brothy, veggie filled soups, lean protein, limited carbs, and very limited alcohol. I also don’t try and just eat 1200- that’s my net goal. I add back exercise calories, and I up my running mileage when I’m cutting. I’d say I average about 1500 after adding back in my running calories burned.

I plan to do this for about 10 weeks- I get really burnt out eating like this after a while, for me it’s just a short-term thing. I can lose about .75 - 1lb a week doing this.

Is 1200 what puts you in weight loss deficit? You may not need to go that low to lose weight. If you haven’t already, you - and others here reading - may want to check your TDEE (total daily energy expenditure) and calculate how many calories you need to eat in a day to put you in a weight loss deficit. There are several calculators if you google TDEE calculator. 1200 may be neededC but it also may be unnecessarily low for others.

PP here, great question. My TDEE is about 2000 a day. I try and NET 1200 calories a day, but since I eat back about 300 exercise calories, I’m really eating closer to 1500. Ends up about a 500/day deficit to make me lose ~ a pound a week. And even though a pound a week doesn’t sound like a lot, it sucks trying to keep that 500/day deficit, so I can only manage to do this for about 2 or 3 months before I go back to maintenance