And no I can only play soccer! I tried out for football and volleyball back in middle school but I failed them so badly.
Oh lord I'm obsessed with sports nutrition I'd love to help you if I could! Although this all whole calorie intake depends on your activity level, but I'm glad you asked because I do think 1200 calorie is a little too low. Can I ask about your height/weight and what do you do? Do you lift weights, cardio? Frequency/intensity? And what's your goal? Shooting for a low calorie intake for a long time will force your body to have a 'low calorie standard' so you will burn less calories and ironically be less capable of burning fat. Muscle is a VERY active tissue so gaining muscle upgrades your metabolism, you'd have to eat more just to keep up! Once you figure your maintenance calories (You can also google those), from there I'd say add 10-15% of your intake to your total calories if you want to gain, subtract 10-15% of your intake if you want to lose. If you want to gain muscle/lose fat at the same time, eat to maintain-clean though, maximize your intensity at the gym to force your body to build muscle out of the stored fat--since you're not creating any surplus, your body is forced to adapt into a better shape just to keep up with this lifestyle. That's the whole recomposition theory--and it works fine with a lot of people! 
Hey Jennifer!
My baseline is about 1700-1900 calories a day split into 5 small meals: breakfast (egg whites omelets), lunch (turkey sandwiches) pre-workout (greek yogurt or oatmeal with some fruits) post workout (whey protein with some fruit) dinner (chicken and baked potatoe or tuna salad or something) and a pre-bed shake (casien protein, peanut butter and sometimes greek yogurt), I still eat the same stuff right now but just less. I like to keep my carbohydrates closer to my workout time so that I benefit from the energy, also because carbs cause insulin spike, which speeds up the process of your cells absorbing nutrients--unfortunately if your cells are not active this can lead to fat gain, that's why people try to avoid sugars at night. If, however you're currently active and you digest carbs long with protein, your muscles will absorb protein at a faster rate--faster recovery--better! You see, so take advantage of those timings. ;-)
I eat 1 g protein per lb bodyweight so it's high in protein, moderate to low in both fats and carbs. Whether you want to gain or lose, always make sure at least 90% of your diet is healthy (not processed foods) and make sure you're getting enough protein.
As for creatine, many bodybuilders take creatine to temporarily look fuller because it basically stores water inside the muscles so they appear to look bigger. The real benefit you get from this is an accelerated process of recycling ATP molecules in your muscles while you're lifting. (ATP is an energy molecule) Creatine helps convert ADP (a by- product of ATP) back into ATP! So it simply gives you a good energy boost at the gym--that if you don't use to lift you may no benefit from. In the long run, it really should be a good investment for you to lift heavier and eventually gain more muscles. What brand gives you a headache though? I take the pill form myself to avoid water bloat--the powder form usually causes water gain for so many people. I useKre-Alkalyn and love it!
PS: I also take vitamin B complex, it helps you metabolize food--burn calories for energy use so it actually is a pretty good fat burner in itself if you're curious about fat loss supplementation.
But will definitely look into B. Thanks for any and all help. Thanks too for responding to my post. I appreciate it!! (Now you see why I couldnt' give you advice..I need too much myself!! )LOL
Man..I just spent a while responding to your post and my computer froze and it didn't even send. UGgghhh!! I'll try to remember everything I said. My stats are: I just turned 33. 5'9 and weigh around 144 pounds. My goal was to lean out and then add some really great muscle definition. I posted two pics in my thread (training log) if you'd like to look at those. I'm not really wild about posting pics of myself everywhere so if you can go there instead of me posting again that'd be great. I was working out 6 days a week (lifting every day and doing cardio every day as well for the last year). Cardio would range from 20 minutes (something like Stair Master) to HITT for 20 or running for 1 hour,etc.
Zed has me on a new program that I just started that I lift 3 days a week..do cardio 2 days and then take a long, moderate walk on the weekends. He has me on 1300 (or maybe 1400) calories rigt now but that was before I posted my pics. Now he says adamently that I do not need to lean out. So, I think in a few weeks we are going to up my calories. You know, after reading your posts and talking to CG, I really think that I've been eating too low calorie for too long and that maybe my body has plateaued or something. I really think switching it up with Zed' routine and also adding some calories might jolt it back into shock! With you reading my stats and seeing my pic what would be your thoughts and suggestions (seeing that you are into sports nutrition?) I'll take any advice/suggestions you've got!! Ha.
Also, I was taking the Kre-Alkalyn in the pill form!! You are the only other person (besides the guy that soldthem to me) that has ever heard of them. They gave me the worst headaches so I quit!! Tried it for a week or maybe longer. Maybe I wasn't getting enough water?
I'll have to definitely try vit B complext. I'm all about taking substances. Have to be legal because I'm going into the healthcare field, but I'd take them if I could!!
A lot of people would call it "starvation mode" although I don't necessarily believe in that for this type of situation (obviously it exists for the extreme cases) but I think Soccerfreak explained it beautifully. It's a really tough shift to think about eating more...almost like trying to tell yourself the earth is flat! LOL
You're doing great Jennifer!! The beauty of the process is you learn as you go and you find out what works for your body and what doesn't. You're off to a great start and we're all here cheering you on.
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