I mean this without judgement at all- I’m personally on this sub because A. I like some of the low-cal recipes, B. It’s nice to be in a community with other women (or mostly women, I assume) trying to lose weight, and C. For the longest time, I feel like the expectation for a small woman to lose weight was 1200 calories.

But 1200 has never worked for me- it’s not sustainable and it makes me so lethargic, and I can’t get all the nutrients/protein/fiber in. I understand that there’s a population of people who are disabled or have metabolic issues who might really need to eat 1200 to lose weight, but are the majority of you really eating 1200? How are you doing it healthily?

. I personally have had success in the past couple months losing 10 lbs, but the only way I could do it sustainably was to eat 1700-1800 calories a day, while getting my steps in and lifting/building muscle 4 times a week. I’m also 5’3”, 138 lbs (down 10 from 148) and have a high BF%, so it’s not like my BMR is very high.

Just genuinely wondering what y’all’s thoughts are on this because my body was in STARVATION mode at 1200, and upping it was what made me finally successful in weight loss and not feel like I was dying lol. Thanks in advance!

EDIT: Realizing from the replies that a lot of you do eat 1200, and just have more self-control and are more intentional about what you eat than I was haha. I only incorporated the lifting because I was dying at 1200- before that, my muscle mass was akin to Spongebob. Thanks for taking the time to respond!

Hello everyone!

I’m back with day 2 of 60, since I messed up the math yesterday, I actually went and took a closer look at my morning coffee!

Breakfast: Coffee: 200 ml milk 1.5%, 1 black coffee
Chia pudding: 100 g quark (you can sub with skyr), 1/2 tbsp chia seeds soaked in water, and 1 portion ESN Designer Whey. Honestly the chia pudding stuff is so good and keeps me full for hours!
Total: 289 kcal, 42 g protein, 19 g carbs, 7 g fat, 2 g fibre.

Lunch: Sautéed veggies with shrimp egg white omelette: 350 g Hokkaido pumpkin, 100 g shrimp, 56 g fresh parsley, 130 g raw egg white, and ~200g cooked fennel. The volume in this was insane, especially the fennel was such a hack.
Total: 381 kcal, 42.1 g protein, 52.1 g carbs, 2.5 g fat, 12.3 g fibre.

Dinner: Egg with Swiss chard: 1 boiled egg, 1 tsp olive oil, 200g Swiss chard sautéed.
Dessert: 150 g skyr, 1.5 portions ESN Designer Whey, 10 g cocoa nibs, 1/2 banana.
Total: 521 kcal, 65 g protein, 32 g carbs, 12 g fat, 10 g fibre.

(No, I don’t always eat the same thing for breakfast and for dinner, it just happened that I wanted something sweet really badly and the sweet protein powder plus banana really scratches that itch.)

Daily total: 1,191 kcal, 149 g protein, 103 g carbs, 22 g fat, 24 g fibre.

I hope you enjoy today’s entry, and I’ll be back tomorrow for another full day! I’m not including pictures because I mainly don’t have time to take photos of my food. As always, any suggestions are welcome and I hope you find some low cal inspiration here :)

The ones I enjoy are coming up to 570 a pack!! I do pad it out with veg and only have half the pack at a time but the actual noodles are so calorific so I started thinking.

The 0 calorie noodles are expensive where I live.

Any other substitutes for noodles?

Feedback or recommendations? I’m 5 foot 3 and pretty sedentary. Trying to lose 20lb. Already lost 10-15ish but don’t really see much of a dif on myself lol. That’s how you know you got more to lose 😂 I try to strength train about 3x per week.

The thought of eating chicken like this long term makes me want to gag, in fact I WAS gagging yesterday at literally just the thought of eating lunch, so if anyone has any ideas about how to change that mindset or a low calorie marinade I’d appreciate it. Or maybe I should have a smaller chicken brunch snack so not eating it all at once?

I marinated like 5 days worth of chicken in some honey (2tbsp) and soy sauce so I haven’t really accounted for it here even tho I know it matters.

Breakfast 359 cal 30g protein
1 egg + 3/4 cup egg whites
1 slice Whole wheat toast
10oz iced Coffee- 2 tbsp half and half, 2 tbsp vanilla creamer

Lunch 59g protein , 380cal
5oz chicken
Salad - cucumber, tomato, 14g feta, white wine vinegrette, dill seasoning, salt

Dinner 275 cal, 34g protein
6oz white fish
1/2 cup quinoa
1-2 cups broccoli

Snack 132 cal
3/4 cup plain Greek yogurt
1/2 cup blueberries

the label says 60 cals for a 3 oz serving and i did the math and that would mean there is 2.5 servings for the whole 209 g container. I feel like 60 cals for 3oz of chicken breast is too good to be true. Let me know what you think.

sorry for the long post!

What do you all do when you are out of control of your routine for a period of time? I spend summers at my parents beach house and it’s been incredibly difficult for me to follow 1200. Im 5’1, so I barely have any wiggle room. I eat what my mom makes most nights or we go out for dinner. I really lack self control with the snacks around their house (which is a me problem I know), I don’t even buy these things for myself at home because I know how I get.

I just went to dinner tonight and absolutely broke down afterwards. I feel like I erase weeks of progress after just a few days of eating around 2000. It happens so fast for me and it’s so upsetting. I workout (30min circuit) 3x week and run 15-25 miles every week. I hit 10-15k steps 5/7 days per week. I feel like with my fitness level I should have some leeway, but then I go off track for a few days and feel like absolute shit. So frustrating that Im going to have to do this for the rest of my life, and that my parents don’t get that 1 meal out to dinner is my entire daily allowance.

I guess this turned into more of a rant, but what do you guys do when you feel down and out of control? I like to think I have a healthy relationship with food and that’s why I try to exercise and hit my step goal so much, so I can still indulge in the things I like. But Im just feeling like Im never going to hit my goal or be able to maintain and still do the things I like to do.

Quarantine got me stuck between snacks and workouts like this guy. Guess which side I’m on most days.

I've been eating 1200 calories for months but 2 days ago i ate 1700 and now i gained like 3 lbs.

$5 find at Grocery Outlet is bringing me happiness, one ounce at a time.

The start of the school year has me dreading feeding myself again. I’d love some inspo for low calorie things I can eat throughout the day! There are a few restrictions:

\- No peanuts or tree nuts

\- I do not eat lunch meat :(

\- Things that are eaten with your hands are tough. I don’t have time or space to eat away from kids so my hands are frequently germy. If I get pulled away between bites I end up washing my hands an obscene amount

- I love tinned/packaged fish but get worried about blasting the kids with fish breath lmaooo, altoids can only do so much

**Things that have worked well for me:**
\- Soup in a thermos
\- Lite babybel cheese with nutthins
\- Greek yogurt with fruit and a bit of granola
\- Hard boiled egg with ebtb seasoning
\- Sliced fruit (way easier in the summer)
\- FiberOne granola bar

I would love any and all suggestions you have! Thank you in advance. I think I really need to up my soup-thermos game

Hey everybody, I was recently diagnosed with a heart condition at the ripe old age of *checks notes* 27. Alongside this, my blood pressure was 130/85 pretty consistently. The doctor has placed me on low sodium to deal with this, and low calories to deal with triglyceride and cholesterol levels.

I used to be a big fan of things like lowfat cheese and rotisserie chickens to hit my protein for the day, but now those are non-options due to the high sodium content. I'm getting a little tired of eating so much fish, rice, and smoothies. Can anybody get me some suggestions?

So I purchased these pizza flavored chips which are delicious, but I noticed I got way more in these bags. I had already taken a few chips and then I said you know what I got to weigh these. To my shock it came out to almost double and I had already eaten a few ! I had eaten this bag it would have been 280 calories. The whole point of me eating the quest chips is because they are less calories than all of the other bagged protein chips.

To make it worse when I actually weighed out exactly 32 g, I’m sure it’s less than normal even in a bag that isn’t overfilled.

For reference I am totally OK with the bags being 20% off as they are allowed to be. But 100% off is absolutely crazy

• this tofu 180c
• 4 tbsp or 60g this sauce is 10c

press the tofu to get the extra water out, cut in cubes, bake in oven for about 10 min at 400°f

and I either dip or pour the sauce :)

this entire bowl of noodles was 380cal and 33.8g of protein. it is a way bigger portion than it looks in the picture, so good. carbe diem pasta is my holy grail for volume eating.

ingredients:
2 servings carbe diem pasta (220cal 16g protein)
1 serving medium frozen shrimp (70cal 16g protein)
1/2 serving basic tomato pasta sauce (45cal)
2mL olive oil (20cal)
a tbsp red wine vinegar
154g napa cabbage (25cal 1.8g)
black pepper
turmeric
chicken bouillon
salt
sweet chili sauce (i use g hughes sugar free)
water

cook carbe diem pasta 13-15 minutes (trust me, it’s not like regular pasta and it takes longer depending on your stove.) and set it aside. fry the cabbage in the oil for a few minutes till it’s a bit tender. add the shrimp and the tomato sauce then season with turmeric, bouillon, salt, a little red wine vinegar, and sweet chili sauce to desired taste. add water to water down the sauce a bit then mix the spaghetti in. add more seasoning if need be then voila :)

First day back in the saddle - didn't intend to eat salmon twice but found a pack that needed eating in the back of the fridge! Daily total 1227 cal, 122g protein. Full ingredients in pics x

Guys we are sleeping on korean allulouse a entire 700ml bottle is 165 cals and realistically you use it in much smaller amounts lol and it tastes rly sweet and good. Caramalizes well in a pan as well :) this is the one i use >

I just saw a video where someone used rice paper as a crunchy base for some avocado and jammy eggs. I’ve also seen it wrapped around chicken and air fried for crispy chicken bites. What are some other clever ways to use rice paper to add little calories but add some yum to a dish?