I have a questions I am stay right at 20 carbs a day give or take 2 or 3. I have averaged and intake of 1200 calories a day. I havent stalled however am i eatting enough calories to keep me from stavation mode. I am 5 feet 6inches 233lbs and 31 years old. female. I really would like to make sure my body doesnt go into the stravation mode i was on a low cal diet before did ok lost about 60 lb but then stalled and got depressed and quit. I really want this to work. how many calories should I be taking in day?
Nina

If you do the rule of 10, you should get around 2330 calories a day. 1200 sounds really low to me. Are you eating enough fat?

I get about 84 grams of fat, Fat makes up 60% of my diet and 34% is protien and 6% carbs. acording to my plan. Please help is it enough do i have to force myself to eat. I eat till I am full but not stuffed I eat breakfast lunch snack dinner snack.

You are at the low end of sufficient calorie intake. It would be good if you could increase a bit, perhaps to 1400 cal/day. OTOH, you might not be able to do that, depending on your age, how badly you might have trashed your metabolism in the past from yo-yo dieting, and any number of other things unique to you.

Now that my thyroid issues have been resolved, I find I can eat 1300 cal/day and still lose. Take into consideration, though, that I'm 63, disabled and not very active, take a lot of medications, and have a thoroughly trashed metabolism.

Nina,

Could you post a couple days worth of menus? Maybe there are little tweaks that can be made without discomfort.

Breakfast
1 cup Broccoli
4 oz Chicken white meat
Lunch
Home made Pizza with out crust
6 oz hamburger ground with
¼ cup of pizza sauce 4 carbs
1 oz cheese
Dinner
½ cup green beans
3 thigh chicken fried only salt and pepper
Snack
1 oz mixed nuts with
¼ oz of redi whip
Plenty of water though out the day

Breakfast

1 oz cheese stick
Lunch
6oz ground beef patty
1 oz cheese pepper jack
¼ can mushrooms
Ranch dressing 2 carbs
1 table spoon sunflower seeds
¼ oz onions
2 cups lettuce

Dinner
Taco’s with out the shell
2 oz ground beef
1 oz cheese
1cup lettuce
2 table spoons salsa
.5 oz sour cream

Snack
1 oz mixed nuts with
¼ oz of redi whip
Plenty of water though out the day

The evening snack is usally sugar free jello and redi whip
However I found some chocolate redi whip and it taste better with the nuts

Just a note - you are eating quite a lot less meat than me. I am having about 6 -8 oz (or salmon) a meal (twice a day) + bacon for breakfast every 2 or 3 days. I also fry my eggs and we are in summer so have tons of salad and a lot of oil based dressings.

I dont know if it is good to have so much fat but it would move your calories up.

I might get a bit flamed for this, but I wouldn't worry so much about the calories. I always ate to satiety and I would make sure that my carbs were within acceptable levels. Some days that would mean lower calories and other days when I needed more food, that would mean more calories. However, that's essentially how I ended up losing weight, I thought.

Yes, you need to make sure you are not hungry because this will cause you to have cravings, binges, etc. However, one of the great things about eating low carb is that it allows you to feel satisfied because of the high fat content and thus you feel satisfied on less food. Thus, you lose weight.

The whole point is that you get to learn how to know when you are actually hungry and when you are just craving. Good luck and just remember that when your body is asking for more food, give it more food, just make sure it is good healthy low carb foods!