Hi Katie,
How tall are you? As 1200 is my weight loss calorie intake, I'm 4'9 and at 90 pounds. Granted I don't want to lose weight, but that would be what I'd drop down to, to lose one pound a week, with exercise.
You may want to add more fruit to your diet, as that is the one thing I noticed on the day you showed us, that is a little bit skimpy. So an extra 2 servering of fruit would be between 160 - 200 right there.
And yes, you can feel your eating enogh and not hungry, and still not be eating enough, and it's usually because you eat a meal then eat a snack then eat a meal, etc. This will actually make you feel full most of the time, and it's great for people who over eat to do this, as it keeps them from over eating. As you are constatnly getting fuel to your body, this is one of the reason why dieters are told to eat every 3 to 4 hours, it also gives you a lot more energy, and hunger cravings don't really surface that often, and it allows your body to really work on building muscle and burning calories. But yes if your not giving it enough food it won't burn calories like it should, and since your at the 1200 mark, your basically tettering on the edge of light starvation mode and heavy starvation mode. As if you workout with Cathe, that burns roughly 200 calories of that 1200 easily, so your body is actually only geting 1000 or so. So you got a huge gap of calories it needs.
So go slowly add some more fruit, ad a bit more lean protien, as it will take it a while it get out of starvation mode. Just because you increase your calories for a few days doesn't mean it will automatically turn off. And yes you could even gain a few pounds trying to get out of that mode, so your body just see, oh extra food, *store* and doesn't realize that tomorrow it's going to get some extra food again, it thinks it's a one time thing. Just think of a very hungry person, that just had enough food to survive, and you put wall to wall food in front of them, and what they'd do. Your body does the same thing some what. As the person would not only be eating it as fast as they could, but they'd want some for tomorrow, and they'd be trying to put it where ever they could so they could sneak out and take it with them.
That's why I recommend to go slow, and add a little bit at a time, one for you so you don't feel stuff, the other so your body doesn't decided to store the whole entire 400 calories that your planning on giving it so it won't go into starvation mode. As it really depends on your body. Some people can go back onto a basic calorie diet the very next day and not gain a thing, others do that and they gain 5 pounds.
Good luck, I'm sure you'll lose the weight you want, just keep eating healthy like you have been, and eat enough calories, so your body doesn't play the mine mine game and turn stuff into fat, thinking that tomorrow your not going to give it any food at all. As that is what your body is preparing for when it goes into starvation mode. Things are so bad you can't feed it so it's going to try and keep you alive as long as possible hoping that you'll have another meal before the fat runs out, so it can fill back up it's storage.
Kit
