Eating plan guide for 1200 calories

Wow, thanks for all the replies. I didn't expect my question to cause so much conversation.
1200 calories is what I was recommended by MFP, perhaps from all the comments this is going to be too low. I haven't done a calorie counting weight loss/healthy eating plan before so I had no idea whether this would be too low or not.

I'll look into it a bit further as to what number of calories would be best.

Thanks again.

1200 calories is not too low... u just have to choose HEALTHY foods.... you can check my diary for some ideas... im also on 1200 calories and i harldy make all of it....and i eat all through the day, but healthy, low calorie foods....fruits, vege, protiens....u have to change ur diet and u'll be able to do it.. All the best.

I'm confused on one point...the general principle is you have to burn more calories than you take in to lose weight. MFP started me at 1360 per day, then I lost 21 pounds in about 2.5 months, and now I'm on 1200 a day. I exercise pretty much daily, and eat back anywhere from 2/3 to all of the exercise calories.

Over the last week and a half, my weight loss has stalled. I've just started trying to switch up my workout...instead of swimming 30 laps 5-6 days a week, I'm trying alternating swimming and walking. Another point of confusion is that I know walking burns less than swimming, but this is supposed to jump-start my weight loss again? Given the general principle of burn more than you eat, I don't understand how this works.

So how does increasing calories, or decreasing calories burned, restart weight loss?

Thank you for any information.

This is the best advice I have read on mfp I especially like the cheat meal every two weeks gives you something to look forward to.

Good post - I appreciate this thoughtful exchange. Storm Sandy is keeping me homebound for a few days - I'm going use this down time to re-evaluate my eating plan

My general (vegetarian) plan:

Breakfast - 150ish (1/2 pack of oats & daily vitamins)
Snack - 120ish (greek yogurt / mixed nuts / fruit)
Lunch - between 200 & 450 (200 is all veggies, usually add veggie burger & all the fixings in there to bring it up to 450)
Snack - 100ish (1 Tbsp peanut butter is my weakness)
Dinner - between 400 & 650 (also lots of fresh veggies & I like egg white omelettes at night)

It works for me. Play around with it for a few days & you'll find what works for you.
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You can take a look at my diary to see how I consume my calories.

I'd suggest giving yourself a little more food. I started at 1200 without eating back exercise calories, then upped to 1300-1350 with exercise calories and am losing as fast. And I used to be a firm believer in 1200 calories, so I'm kind of a convert by seeing my own results.

But here's what I'd do for 1200 calories, and if you up it you can just add a little more food in elsewhere.

Breakfast: 70 calories (rice cakes, not super hungry in the morning)
Second Breakfast: Banana (120 calories)
Lunch: 300 calories
Afternoon Snack: Cashews (160 calories)
Dinner: 300-500 calories
After dinner: Eat whatever's left!

I've lost 40lbs, mainly sticking to 1200 calories & more if I work out. I just eat if I'm ACTUALLY hungry then. A typical 1200 day for me is:

Breakfast: 1/2 cup whole grain, old fashioned oats cooked with water, 1/2 cup crushed fruit, 1 T almonds, a bit of cinnamon, 2 cups of coffee with splenda and sugar free coffee creamer (15 cals per T)

Lunch: 2 slices of Healthy Life whole wheat bread (35 cals each), lean turkey or chicken, low sodium, spicy mustard, romaine lettuce, tomato. I also add about 1 1/2 cups of cut up veggies, such as carrots, cauliflower, broccoli, peppers. Very filling! Or a 4 cup romaine salad with added grilled chicken, tomatoes, peppers, mushrooms, nuts of some sort, blueberries, strawberries, pineapple and reduced calorie salad dressing. My fav. is Maple Grove Farms sugar free raspberry vinagrette. If I'm in the mood for something more savory, without fruit, Maple Grove has a honey mustard dressing. Both are 15-30 cals per T.

Dinner: I usually have 4-6 ounces of lean grilled meat such as fish or chicken. You can fix either a million dif. ways with herbs and spices! I also grill a ton of veggies like red, yellow and orange bell peppers, onions, mushrooms, squash or whatever I have from the garden at the time. Baked potaoes and sweet potatoes are another good option

After dinner snack if needed: Fruit, Dannon light and fit yogurt (60 cals? I think), cheese, nuts, frozen yogurt bars, frozen fruit bars, 100 calorie bags of popcorn, or like last night I was hungrier and ended up eating a peach, a pear and a peanut butter cup AND yogurt However, I ran 3 miles plus did an hour of water aerobics. It just depends on how my day went, how hungry I am and what I"m in the mood for!

My suggestion is to eat more. Good luck trying to make any progress on such a low calorie intake.

This guy right here has it exactly right.

If you are eating 1200, you will need a lot of fiber to feel full. Green veggies are great fiber sources, some fruits, and oatmeal. Stay clear of fatty meats b/c it will drive the calories up to high. Stick with chicken and turkey. Limit cheese b/c it is high in fat- stay away from sauces like bbq, mayo, ketchup. Instead use mustard, lemon, pickles, and spices to flavor food. Go for about 125 grams of carbs, 100 grams of protein, and 25 grams of fat daily and split it all between 5-6 balanced meals- it'll help you stay full longer. I did 1200 for a long time and lost 50 lbs and it worked.. but my suggestion would be to seriously just up your activity level so you can eat more. I stick with about 1500 now, and still lose. 1200 requires that everything you eat be full of nutrition, otherwise you are going to be hungry. It also doesn't leave any room for an occasional treat and for me, i felt a sense of failure when I exceeded my calories. so it was kind of discouraging even to be just a 100 over. It's doable, but it's not easy.

Good luck.

When your brain believes it is catastrophically underfed, your body will further reduce the amount of calories it burns to maintain itself. At a caloric intake below 1,200 kcal, your body is approaching this "hard deck" as it was referred to above. This is around the point where your body believes itself to be starving with no credible future supply of calories. It is not exactly 1,200, this is a general area where you flirt with catabolism.

However, when you have failed to meet the minimum caloric intake for around 48 hours, your brain signals your body to conserve all of its fat stores. These fatty acids hold 9 kcal of energy per gram for every 4 kcal of energy that proteins hold. In essence, you body will catabolise as much protein as possible until you lack enough muscle to sustain survival functions. Once you have catabolised the majority of you own muscle for energy, your body will begin to tap back into its fat stores. Consider also that as you lose muscle mass (nonselectively), your body composition worsens, and you can potentially do permanent damage to muscles such as your heart.

So, when MFP estimates you burn 1,600 kcal sitting behind a desk all day, that is assuming you aren't starving. If you were starving, you would potentially barely burn over the rate as if you were in a coma.

For the math of an average day behind a desk: 1,300 kcal in - 1,600 kcal out= 3 kcal lost
For the math of a starving day behind the desk: 1,000 kcal in - 850 kcal out= 150 kcal gained

Also consider that your body does not metabolise a single gram of fat under average demand signals until your glycogen stores have been depleted and the fatty acids are converted to ketones and aldehydes.

Is is possible to go under 1,200 safely? YES, most likely. There is a lot that goes into figuring this out and it changes as your body composition and health changes.


Is 1,200 your personal "hard deck"? probably not, but generally speaking you are safe to aim for 1250. This is why MFP cautions strongly against not meeting 1,200 intake.

What about my Net intake, can it go under 1,200 kcal? Yes, as long as you are eating enough for your brain to be reasonably satisfied it is not starving (aim around 1,250 minimum), or anytime will soon be starving, you can exercise to bring your net caloric intake under 1,200 with good assurance that it is safe. After you burn through your glycogen, you will burn almost exclusively fat if operating under low demand (after 30 minutes of walking at 2 mph, you are probably burning fat exclusively).
Example: 1,250 in - 350 exercise = 900 kcal net and safe at that.


Will one day below your hard deck hurt you? probably not. Your body tends to respond to starvation after 2 days, but why flirt with dangerous scenarios. However, there will be times you just aren't hungry. Balance risk versus reward, understanding the risk generally outweighs the reward heavily.

Can anyone HERE tell you how to go below 1,200 safely? NO, No, and NO. They may have done it, and they may have been under doctor supervision, and they may have hurt themselves and won't know it for 15 years.

Why? This type of diet requires doctor supervision as you are potentially flirting with permanent damage and most frequently this is something that is closely monitored and recommended for someone facing higher risk categories in other areas; i.e stroke, heart disease, myocardial infarctions, etc...

MFP doesn't set anyone up for 1,200 kcal. Misinterpreting this is a recipe for serious injury years down the road.

Long post short, and I don't post frequently, aim to do it safely and add in a nice walk around the neighborhood or on a treadmill. And don't forget, when you start a diet by eating better, you typically drop your sodium intake back to safe levels (1,600 mg) and this will lead up to 2-3% drop in weight just by your body shedding water to maintain electrolyte balances to ensure electrical signals get all the way from your brain to your toes without dehydrating your cells. Don't be frustrated after you plateau two weeks into it. That's when it really starts.

My suggestion is to eat more. Good luck trying to make any progress on such a low calorie intake.

This guy right here has it exactly right.

I eat about 2400 and i've lost a few lbs myself

Katrina, There is good advice in all the replies -- but in a nut shell, you need to know where you are at, to know whether 1200 is ok. If you are excessively heavy, and have been eating 2500 calories a day (and not know it ...) then 1200 will be virtually impossible to maintain. If you are trying to lose a small amount of weight and are used to eating 1500 calories -- 1200 might be managable but you still need to analyze what you "have" been eating -- often its not the calories, but where they come from.

Trying to eat all fruits and vegetables is great, for someone who has done it all their life or do not have other people they have contend with (moms feeding families, we know some are great but most of us have to fight to get them to eat balanced)

I would advise tracking what you eat currently, without changes and be absolutely honest about what passes your lips (its an eye opening examination) Coffee with sugar/creamer; beverages with sugar, even diet soda no matter how empty it says it is EVERYTHING. Take a week, two if you feel you had a bad week, analyze it -- know your carbs, know your protein, know how much processed foods you eat vs non processed (and just because you cook it does not mean its processed, processed is everything that is prepared/canned/cooked outside your own kitchen) Everything processed has preservatives, you might find that instead of buying prepared entrees, you will do better to make your own.... you just have to know what your are looking for.

Then and only after you have a good idea of what is actually being taken in -- try measuring your food, not guessing (you'd be surprised at what you think is a cup of something only to find out when you actually measure out a cup, you were eating a whole lot more) Measure EVERYTHING for a week (dont look at the calorie numbers just yet....) then see if you have a weight change on the scale -- you may find that what you thought was 2500 based on guess was more like 3500 or more.

After you have weighed your food, and you find that what you were eating is what you thought it was -- then you can chose (as fitsocial says peel the onion) what you should start to cut out. Making adjustments slowly will allow you to "change your habits and lifestyle" which in turn will help you with your weight goal.

You can't go from 2500 calories of carbs and fat from fast food/processed/pasta/bread -- to 1200 of vegetables/fruit without being hungry. That is not the physical talking its the mental. Our brain gets addicted to our foods and convinces out bodies we need certain items (I will be the first to tell you tracking your food helps, when you stop, you forget you dont estimate as well as you thought and trying to work out daily and live on 1200 calories or less is difficult, but not impossible)

As far as eating below your BMR -- seriously? The point of the BMR is to know what your body needs to function at your ideal weight (yes it will change as you lose weight) Finding your BMR is a guideline -- if you follow the above, in the stages listed, then if your BMR is 1500 and you chose to work with a 1200 calorie diet, then you a built in deficit -- ideal if you are not excercising -- if you excercise, you should allow yourself the option to eat back those calories because you WILL be hungry and rightly so.

It is all about balance --you cant go from being on the couch eating 3000 calories a day - to 1200 calories and 1 hour in the gym overnight and expect your body to respond. With that, if you have been eating, tracking, weighing diligently for a while and 1200 is where you decided you need to be -- then 1200 is very doable -- and I will agree with either the 3 or 4 meals a day -- eating more often only says you are not getting full so you get hungry thus you need to snack -- and telling yourself that snacking is ok --- if you have always eaten often -- then 6 meals may be just what you need -- some tend to overeat when they try to break the day into 6 meals --- some do well with larger breakfast, some do better with larger dinner -- balance this with when you excercise -- the whole point of breakfast is that "break" "fast" --- so those that skip breakfast or go extra light only allow the body to continue in "storage" mode..... breakfast is not the meal you eat at 5-6AM -- its the first meal you eat after a sustained period of not eating -- sometimes thats 10AM -- it is what it is -- and many times the last meal is at midnight (some of us are just late nighters) Eating late is also not a "no-no" -- it depends on the person.

Bottom line -- don't do exactly as someone else just because they are doing 1200 calories --- do what makes sense for you to change your lifestyle --- we dont gain overnight -- we dont lose overnight -- it took 20 plus years (most often) to create the habit/person we are -- we arent going to change it in 2 months -- despite our best efforts. YOU HAVE TO KNOW WHERE YOU ARE STARTING, before you know where you are going.

While many have stated it isn't advisable to be on a 1200 calorie diet, I must say...it worked fine by me when my doctor put me on it...4 months and I lost 58 pounds. Yes there is more to life than just calories and the longer I was taking in only 1200 calories, I learned more about exericse, protien and carbs and made sure I was hitting my targets as set up by my dietician.

I have gone from BMI of 52.9 to 37.9, I still have a long road, but with the help of my doctor, NP and dietician, I will continue to get my body where it needs to be.

Plan on being hungry. :indifferent: I tried it, and it's just not enough calories. I lost 1.3 pounds in 3 weeks eating 1200 calories (mostly "good" food). I actually often ended up below the 1200 because I was so worried about going over, so I definitely was not eating enough. My doctor said that 1200 was ridculously low, especially for someone who is exercising regularly. It also gets confusing trying to "eat back" exercise calories. He told me to try more like 1500-1800 a day minimum, and more on hard work-out days. Of course, that's not knowing your stats (I'm 5'7" and started out at about 173), and everyone is different. I honestly think you'll do better if you eat a little more. However, if you're trying to split them up, it will really depend on your eating habits and when you're the most hungry. You could always split them into 6-200 cal. "mini" meals, or divide them almost equally among the three main meals and eat any surplus for snacks......it really depends on what your own needs are.

I also followed the advice I found here: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/654536-in-place-of-a-road-map-2-0-revised-7-2-12

It seems to be much more realistic, more flexible, and much more manageable for me.

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