Eating plan guide for 1200 calories

Helloitsdan

There are a lot of 1200 calorie haters, but it has been working for me. I NET 1200, I eat back all of my exercise calories and here is a typical day:

Breakfast - Greek Yogurt (anykind, sometimes non-fat sometimes traditional) 120 - 160 calories depending OR Oatmeal with brown sugar - 200 calories

AM Snack - Banana or apple - 100 calories

Lunch - Salad w/ chicken OR hard boiled egg (2), avocado, strawberries, balsamic based dressing, croutons (I mix the toppings up) 350 - 450 calories

Afternoon Snack - Almonds, mixed nuts or trail mix - 160-190 calories

Dinner - varies but try to keep it around 400 - 600 calories depending on what I ate that day and how much I worked out but usually consists of baked chicken, salmon or tilapia with a veggie and/or brown rice/wheat pasta side.

I almost always have a little snack before bed...frozen snack sized york pepermint patties are my current favorite - 60 calories each

Good Luck! It works, I would try not to net less than 1200 each day...I was and i found myself not being able to work out as hard and binging randomly after a week or so.

Joined may 2012.
At 1200 cals for 2lb per week loss you should be at about 50lbs lost.
Member has lost 17lbs in appx 24 weeks.

I have people who are losing more per week eating 1600-2200 and only working out 3x a week.
This is the example I try to make daily.
Dont push something that doesnt work.

secretlobster

Joined may 2012.
At 1200 cals for 2lb per week loss you should be at about 50lbs lost.
Member has lost 17lbs in appx 24 weeks.

I have people who are losing more per week eating 1600-2200 and only working out 3x a week.
This is the example I try to make daily.
Dont push something that doesnt work.

Yeah. No offense to anyone (or maybe not), but if you're going to follow someone else's routine, look closely at their results.

jesspi68

This is how I do it:
Brekky - 300cal
Snack - 100 - 150 cal
Lunch - 300 cal
Snack - 100 - 150 cal
Dinner - 400 cal

Roughly. On days I exercise with some sort of intensity I eat more as I am hungry but I never eat back all of my exercise calories, only some. Good luck, and remember if your body stops responding, up your calorie intake

You should have to worry about having your body "stop" responding. The problem is people immediately go bare bones and cut every thing out. You have to look at weight loss as peeling an onion. You have to strip each layer from the onion when you reach a sticking point.

At 1200 calories you have NO room to make any adjustments and you're on way to metabolic rehab. This is not a scare tactic, this is real life. Even if the original poster is severely obese 1200 calories is still not advisable.

The whole point is to make your meals filling. Meal frequency is not an issue, so you don't need to eat 6,7, and 8 meals a day. IMHO, snacks make you fat, and are an indication that your meals are not filling.

1200/3 = 400 calorie meals or 1200/4= 300 calorie meals. Both are a much better choice then having a 100-150 calorie "snack" which will leave you hungry.

That doesn't make a bit of sense. I am losing weight steadily on 1830 calories, snacking pretty much the entire day. I eat around 7, 10, 12, 3, 5 and 8. Stating that snacks "make you fat" is completely incorrect. Eating more calories than you expend makes you fat. Eat when you are hungry, figure out the right number of calories for your body and don't starve yourself, 1200 isn't a magic number that everyone needs to lose weight.

petiteLady89

Since you are just starting out I would start eating at your maintenance and give it a few weeks and see what happens. If you're losing then great! Keep eating at your maintenance until you plateau. Then drop by a few hundred. I wish I had done my research when I first started. I started at 1200 and it took me over a month of torturing my self to finally find a healthier way to lose weight. Go to fat2fitradio.com and check out the BMR calculator. Seriously, there is no reason why you need to start eating 1200 calories right away.