Trigger warning: this post contains stories of past unhealthy dieting habits. If this might be difficult for you, please skip this post, and I’ll see you again soon! <3

I’ll go ahead and admit it - food and I haven’t always been on the best of terms when it comes to weight loss.

I tried a lot of different diets that would inevitably have me in a starve-binge cycle by the end of the first week. What it took me longer than I’d like to admit to realize, was being insanely restrictive was never going to work for me. Being restrictive Monday through Friday only got me to having frequent binge episodes on the weekends.

It took me several years to finally get past wanting to just restrict myself into a smaller body. After learning more about nutrition and how it relates to my training in the gym, I decided to try going for small (but consistent) calorie deficits. These are my key takeaways, and tips for how I maintain my calorie deficit without obsessing over food.

Small calorie deficits (200-300 calories under total daily expenditure) may take longer to see results, but they’re easier to maintain for up to 8-10 weeks.
Your body needs more than 1200 calories a day. 1200 calories is not enough for an active, grown woman - stop trying to force drastic deficits on yourself.
Protein and fiber are what will keep you full and moving. Many people go through their day not getting even half the daily amount of fiber they need. Fiber comes from brown breads, beans and legumes, fruit, and vegetables - you need a mix of all these to hit your fiber goal daily. (Just FYI - adult women need at least 21 - 25g of fiber every day.) Fiber not only helps you feel fuller for longer, it helps * ahem * moves things along in your GI track.
Use apps to help you! You can’t accurately track your macro nutrient intake just using the notes app on your phone. Use an actual meal tracker like Lifesum to track your total daily intake EASILY. Beware of the AI tracking apps - they can either severely under or over-estimate meals just going off of visuals alone. If you’re going to use AI - let it help you calculate the macros of your homemade recipes! Enter in all your ingredients, cooking method, and amounts, tell it roughly how many servings this made (or let it calculate your serving for you), and you’ll easily get all the info you need.
Don’t “guess” your deficit - make it deliberate. Your deficit should be based off your total daily energy expenditure now (not in the future, and not in a “perfect” scenario of working out extremely hard everyday). You can easily calculate how many calories your body needs on a daily basis by using a standard TDEE calculator. Once you calculate how many calories per day your body actually needs, then you can deduct 200-300 calories per day to find your total daily calorie consumption target. Go conservative on this number at first, there’s no need to be drastic. The point is to be able to consume as much as you can, actually feel full and energized, and still be on track for weight loss.
I don’t track every little thing. This is a personal preference, but it does serve as a barrier to keep me from obsessing too much over what I’m putting in my mouth. Don’t get me wrong - I track major things like higher calorie foods (yes, even the “healthy” ones), and I try to track as accurately as possible even when I eat out. I track fruits and vegetables for fiber more than I do for caloric value (unless they’re a higher-calorie item like bananas or similar).
Track your servings accurately! Pay attention to serving sizes and do your best to stick with them. A food scale is a smart buy for accuracy - this will help you visually and physically learn what a serving looks like versus just guessing.
Don’t drink your calories! Unless you’re downing a protein shake, there’s no reason to be drinking a lot of calories in the form of sodas, alcohol, coffee beverages, etc. Reserve your calorie intake for actual food so you can feel full and energized throughout your day.

These tips help keep me sane while I’m in a deficit phase. As long as I stick to the plan, without being too rigid, I can easily stick to my deficit for 8-10 weeks no problem.

Take note, you should not be in a calorie deficit for longer than a few months (even if you have a lot of weight to lose). Your body is smart and it will adapt to the deficit. Once your body adapts to the deficit, you’ll have to take it into a deeper deficit in order to continue seeing results. You should only be maintaining a deficit for a maximum of 12 weeks, then you go back to maintenance for a while before possibly taking on another deficit cycle. Deficits aren’t meant to be an all-the-time thing, because that means you’re constantly under-fueling. Constantly under-fueling your body means your energy will suffer, your workouts may suffer, and your hormones could also suffer.

You can lose weight and shed fat without depriving yourself. That all depends on how you play the long game. Just because you’re in a deficit doesn’t mean you have to feel hungry all the time.