Since When did it become so hard to get to 1200 a day?

Ok so I started calorie count at the end of February at 145 pounds. Then my limit was 1300 calories. As of Sunday I am now 138 pounds. I am happy to be finally at a healthy weight but I still have a couple more months before I reach my goal of 125.

Now calorie count is saying my limit should be 1200 calories. That is fine except for one thing. I am finding it hard to make that mark every day. And I am not talking about going over the mark. I am talking about I usually end up somewhere around 1143 calories. Is anyone else having this problem?

Before anyone says anything about me not being healthy and showing signs of an eating disorder; let me just say that  the reason I am falling under has nothing to do with me obsessively under eating at all. I am not even conscious of it. I just eat when I am hungry and unfortunately it falls under 1200 calories.

I used to have a problem staying under 1300. I have no idea why now it is so hard for me to get to 1200. Anyway I just wanted to know if anyone else has this problem and what they'd do about it? Thanks!

YES! I am the same way. I focused so long on counting calories and buying low calorie foods that now I am lucky if I get in 1000 calories by 7 p.m. I have to make myself eat something or my blood sugar and metabolism drops to the floor.

Well I have that problem when I am truly eating clean, because all the nutritious foods are so much more filling. But after a while of not meeting at least 1200, I'd get burnt out---unable to work out efficiently, and suddenly ravenous one day. I'd see the weightloss slow down a lot too.

It's important to eat enough!

Some people suggest eating something like a piece of dark chocolate at night to up the calories when needed...So maybe you want to try something like that. For me: that'd be asking for a binge, and I'd prefer to not resort to a high fat/sugary item to consume, especially late at night.

So what I'd personally do is add something more to your breakfast...Maybe some fruit or some almonds with whatever you have. If you end up needing to go a little over 1200 by the end of the day, then you just exclude the added food to your breakfast the next day so that you'll probably fall a little under...and it'll all even out.

Congrats with the progress so far---keep it up! :D

well if you're aware of it then it doesn't have to be difficult at all to meet your intake, simply add a tbsp of peanut butter to something and there you have it, a minimum of 1200 calories has been met. or add almonds to your salad, yogurt, or oatmeal. have granola in your cereal, or switch to 1% or 2% milk, eat oil based salad dressings, toss your veggies in olive oil, use 2 tbsps parmesan cheese on your veggies. It isn't  difficult to eat more without adding bulk, or making you overly stuffed, even eating clean anyone can manage an extra 200 calories in their diet without feeling bloated or like they've overeaten. hope this helps :) 

Yeah that does help thanks. I think I'm gonna try eating a bigger breakfast.

I have the same problem...but I bought myself a bag of almonds to help fix that...I usually find that I'm about 100-200kcals below my limit even after having a big 400kcal breakfast...the problem is I'm so crazy busy throughout the day that end up eating small 150-200kcal meals between lectures (student here), and by dinner time I'd be too bushed to eat, so I keep my dinner light and quick. snacking on a few pieces of almonds throughout the day would help.

btw, 1 almond = 7 calories...100kcal is about 14 almonds...I'm lacking fat in my diet anyways, so almonds are great and healthy, and easy to eat.

i don't see how this is a BIG problem

like the above person  said just pop a handful of nuts in your mouth

or drizzle a little  extra olive oil on your food

Yep, same here.  I can only eat when hungry - I quit worrying about it, as long as I'm eating propper amounts of protein and the rest is healthy stuff.

I'm having the same problem! A few weeks ago I was incredibly hungry and couldn't go below 1500 cals a day. I'm only on my third week and I find often find it hard to go over 1200. But I try to. As it's been said, a few nuts, or maybe a low-cal snack like a fruit or a piece of toast will probably help out.

Same issue here.  Except I recently upped my calories to 1300 because I was tired all of the time and now I'm really having trouble.  There are many nights where I have to figure out some way to eat 800 calories for dinner!  I have to preplan my meals or I completely fail so I've started making sure to add more calories to my lunch so I don't have a huge number left at the end of the night.  I've also started eating 100 calories worth of sunflower seeds in the afternoon.  Light and healthy snack that gives me energy to hit the gym after work.  And if I do end up with tons of calories left, I find I can always force down a slice of peanut butter toast to add an extra 165 calories.  I just hate eating when I'm not hungry!