1200 calorie a day food plan

Eat more.

myheartsabattleground wrote: »

Eat more.

+1

OP, why are you only eating 1200 calories?

I've done pretty close. usually plain oatmeal w/fresh or frozen berries for breakfast. maybe a sandwich on low cal bread like healthy life thats 35 calories/slice. with ham, 1/2 oz cheese, and heavy veggies like cucumber, lettuce and tomato. and a "normal" balanced dinner of around 500 calories. u can pretty much make anything at home for around 500 calories. and had 100-200 for an after dinner snack if you wanted. or you could use those extra calories for a snack during the day instead.

flaminica wrote: »

Suffolklawmom wrote: »

Hello,
Does anyone follow a 1200 calorie a day food plan? I need examples of something to follow for breakfast, lunch, dinner and two snacks. Thanks.

I followed a 1200 per day plan for almost a year. I am currently in my first year of maintenance.

First things first. I see you are 65 years old. Your TDEE will be on the low side because of your age, and if you told MFP you wanted to lose two pounds a week it will almost inevitably default to assigning you 1200 calories per day. This is not always (or even usually) necessary. Even allowing for age and gender, 1200 is too low a number if you are much over 5'3" or aiming to lose anything under forty pounds or so. It's a "nuclear option" calorie budget best left to the very tiny and/or morbidly obese, and benefits from medical supervision. If you do not fall into this category, I suggest you revisit the guided Goals page and select a less aggressive regimen.

That being said, I've done this and there is no realistic way on 1200 per day that you can plan three meals and two snacks, unless you choose to define a handful of raw vegetables as a snack. My meal plan was generally two full meals and a light collation.

Welcome to MFP and good luck.

+1 for actually being polite and helpful....

Hi there - I do. My plan does not allow me starches for dinner.
Here is a typical day:
Breakfast:
- nonfat plain greek yogurt sweetened with flavored Stevia drops (or cottage cheese with Stevia and cinnamon mixed in) topped with berries of choice with 1 slice Sara Lee 45 & Delightful bread (or half Thomas light english muffin) with 1 tsp light buttery spread
- mug scrambled eggs (1 egg, 3 TBL egg whites, wedge Cow pals cheese, little bit of spinach, 0.5 oz diced ham) with a slice of light toast
- protein smoothie (low carb protein powder, unsweetened almond milk, chia seeds, frozen berries or 1/2 banana) with a piece of toast or 1/2 english muffin

Snacks:
- piece of fruit (research low sugar fruits)
- celery w/ Cow Pal cheese wedge
- veges with 2 TBS hummus
- sugar free Jell-O mixed with berries and 1-2 TBL lite Cool Whip

Lunch:
- usually leftovers from previous dinner with a starch added (typically 1/3c brown rice)
- sandwich made with 1 slice Sara Lee light bread, 1-2 TBS reduced cream cheese, 3 oz turkey lunchmeat, alfalfa sprouts - with a piece of fruit

Dinner - lot's of low carb choices out there (check Pinterest)
- low carb chili
- stuffed peppers
- roasted chicken ( I hate chn breast on their own, so i usually make sure to plan my calories so I can have 2 roasted skin-on chicken thighs) with a non-starchy vege.
- grilled shrimp or fish with veges or a small salad

Aim to drink a gallon of water a day.
Good luck!

Do you exercise? I find that exercise curbs my appetite. I am big on veggies as they fill me up. Eggs, too. It is definitely possible to eat plenty on a 1200-a-day calorie limit. AND to have wine/snacks!

I was 1200 calories for a couple months until I fell out of the 'obese' category, then upped my intake.
A sample day for me:

Breakfast: 1 cup oatmeal, 1/2 oz almonds, 1/4 oz dried fruit (usually cranberries or cherries), 2 cups coffee with International Delight creamer.
Lunch: 2.5 oz white chicken meat or tuna dressed up with celery, red onion & salt-free seasoning, 4 crackers (Trader Joe's Flaxseed Water Crackers), 80 grams of apple or carrot.
Afternoon: Banana (Usually between 110-130 grams) or, if I worked out that day, a Pure Protein Protein Bar.
Dinner: 2-4 oz of meat protein, usually chicken, fish or lean pork, spinach salad with raw veggies, with, usually, steamed squash or baked yams or white beans- some kind of high-fiber, lower carb.

That usually left me about 100 calories more if I wanted a wee bit of chocolate before bed. On workout days, I tried to eat back half my exercise calories, leaving me with another 150-200 calories or so, which usually went into an extra serving of yams or beans, maybe with a little salad dressing on top. (Trader Joe's Cilantro Dressing is awesome!)

Now, I'm eating pretty much the same things, but a little more of everything, adding extra protein in the mornings, etc.

One thing you might want to do is use a BMR/TDEE calculator to figure out your actual daily caloric expenditure. If you pick a number above your BMR and below your TDEE, you should lose weight steadily, if not as fast as you might want.

Check out the 21 Day Tummy for some cool low-cal recipes. The foods are low in FODMAPs and have a lot of anti inflammatory properties. Overall, it spells out some cool ways to eat clean. The plan the book puts forth isn't quite as important as the food and recipes it presents for healthier options. This book, honestly, changed my life. The food is SO good and SO simple.

There are many better ways to do a 1200 calorie plan, but in the three preceding days I had 1200 calorie days and less than 1500 mg sodium. This was an effort to undo some excess salt excursions I'd done over the prior 4 days. In the last 7 days, I've lost 5 lb. I think my food diary is open, but suffice it to say that it featured numerous selections from the company kitchen and candy bowl.

bmsowers wrote: »

I have been eating at 1200 calorie range (and hitting specific macro goals) and having a difficult time getting the scale to move. I am sedentary 9-10 hours a day at a desk job, and limited to 45 mins to 1 hour of exercise 4-5 days a week. I am just now trying to break away from my job at least 20-30 minutes each day for a brisk walk hoping this will jump start my metabolism. I don't feel less than 1200 calories a day is healthy, but previously I have been on Weight Watchers and my daily caloric intake was barely 1000 on their "Points System". I did lose 65 lbs on WW, and kept it off for over 5 years. Then, in the last 5 years, I have slowly gained back 20 lbs that are really sticking to me hard.

What do you eat? I find that I didn't lose weight until I eliminated bread, rice, and most refined carbs.

This is Week 7 for me and I veer between being satiated and frustrated. I am only 5ft tall (so very short) so MFP gave me 1200 cals for a 1lb loss. I started off eating half my exercise cals (averaging 1300 cals/day) but lost too fast so now eat all my exercise cals (averaging 1400-1500 cals). I hit some frustration points with the strict diet a little while ago but am finding my current plan works well. I didn't work out much last week and was eating a lot of low cal healthy stuff and was surprised how satiated I was on 1100-1200 cals a day (I do bank calories so would eat more after building up some "extra" calories - I aim to meet my weekly net calories).

My typical meals (when eating only 1200 cals) look like this:

Breakfast: 1/2 cup Plain 1% yogurt (homemade) with 1/2 cup granola - 227 calories

Lunch: Dinner leftovers, typically rice and protein, curry, lasagna, soup, etc - 400-500 calories

Dinner: same as above - 400-500 calories

Occasionally lunch/dinner is as low as 250 cals (like soup) or more often 350 cals. This leaves me an extra 100-200 calories for snacks, typically boiled chickpeas, cottage cheese or fruit.

And then I can have a day like today where I only expect to hit 1100 calories, yet I feel like I indulged like crazy.

Breakfast: 1/2 cup Plain 1% yogurt (homemade) with 1/4 cup granola - 167 calories
Blueberry banana "nice cream" - 98 calories

Lunch: Turkey, avocado, egg cobb salad - 400 calories
(I regret trying my own homemade yogurt dressing. Next time, I'm having the yummy creamy poppy seed dressing for an extra 100 cals). BTW, this was a HUGE salad - felt like a pig at my desk with a giant tupperware!

Dinner: Chicken & Wild Rice Soup - 242 calories
SUPER delicious recipe from Skinnytaste

Snack: 1/2 cup of Kawarthas Moose Track Ice Cream - 200 calories
Mmmmmmmmm - I was surprised I could fit this in LOL!