What does your 1200 calorie diet look like?
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YasminTE
Posts: 15 Member
I've been following a 1200 calorie diet for about an month now and only lost 1lb! I don't get to exercise every day but I have heard and read reviews that if you are consuming 1200 calories per day anyway you should lose 1-2lbs per week just because of the calorie decrease? I would say I eat fairly healthy. I don't always choose the healthiest option but it will always be within my calorie allowance. If you stick to your calorie allowance does it really matter what you choose to eat/use your calories on? Is calorie counting the best way to lose weight?! (I didn't realise until a few weeks ago that some fruit had the same amount of calories as some chock ore bars!) = confusing!
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Replies
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Use the mfp app to track EVERYTHING you eat even if it's a little snack and use the nutrition part to see your macro nutrients if you are eating 1200 calories but it's mostly carbs you still aren't going to see good results aim for around 40 percent carbs 40 percent protein and 20 percent fat to see the best results, hope that made sense! Eating 100 calories of pizza is much different than 100 calories of chicken breast your body processes it and uses it in very different ways so yes it matters0
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My diary is open. I'm on 1240 a day.
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Hi Yasmin! I've had really good success with a ~1200 cal/day diet. If you are not currently overweight and are of shorter stature that might explain why you aren't losing weight - if this is the case, keep up a healthy diet and add more exercise!
On a typical day I start my morning with black coffee and a banana. For lunch I will eat a chicken wrap (filled with 3 ozs of chicken, light sour cream, salsa and lettuce), with veggies& hummus. As an afternoon snack I will have half or a whole apple sprinkled with cinnamon. For dinner I will have fish/chicken/or another protein, with cauliflower purée and veggies or a salad. I will have fruits to snack on or low calorie crackers if I have calories left and if I'm still hungry. I take calcium/vit D supplements because my diet is poor in these elements (I'm lactose intolerant). Every now and again I will have a sweet or go out for dinner and go over my calorie goals but as long as I am consistent on other days everything goes well. I hope this helped!
(I would also like to add that other than coffee I only drink water, and I try to drink a lot of it!)0 -
I eat at around 1200-1300.
I always have oats with almond milk for breakfast. That is 180cal.
For lunch I have something cooked around 300cal (for example zucchini gratin - home made) plus leaf salad and soup (the soups I have are around 100cal) total around 400-450cal.
For dinner I have around 400-500cal cooked meal almost always with lots of salad on the side to feel as full and stuffed as possible. For example, I love grilled low fat sausages - I have 4 of those with salad of tomatoes, cucumbers and grated feta and a baked sweet potato on the side sometimes. Or stuffed peppers - peppers, bell peppers in particular are very very low calorie and there is a lot to eat!
I leave another 150 calories for before bed - I can't sleep unless I eat. I would usually have a toast with something for them.0 -
Would need to know more about your age-weight-height..if you are fairly. If you weight 120 pounds and are under 30..you might not see much weight loss? I put myself on a 1200-1400 calorie a day diet..with mainly cardio for exercise and have dropped almost 25 pounds in a little over a month? I eat bananas, hard boiled eggs, oranges, apples, yogurt, solid white albacore tuna, tomatos, snack on Special K cereal with almonds, raspberries, nuts, baked potatos, no butter, veggies, chicken breast (4 oz =90 calories,) soup on occasion, so far so good, but I started at 308# so easier for me to drop weight. Coffee in the morning (Black) Mineral Water thru the day0
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SarahPeters3 wrote: »Use the mfp app to track EVERYTHING you eat even if it's a little snack and use the nutrition part to see your macro nutrients if you are eating 1200 calories but it's mostly carbs you still aren't going to see good results aim for around 40 percent carbs 40 percent protein and 20 percent fat to see the best results, hope that made sense! Eating 100 calories of pizza is much different than 100 calories of chicken breast your body processes it and uses it in very different ways so yes it matters
Thankyou SarahPeters3 I'll give it a go, the macro nutrients section will be interesting. I'm a sucker for carbs! Thankyou for filling me in on the way your body processes and uses foods in different ways it didn't even occur to me!0 -
BiggDaddy58 wrote: »Would need to know more about your age-weight-height..if you are fairly. If you weight 120 pounds and are under 30..you might not see much weight loss? I put myself on a 1200-1400 calorie a day diet..with mainly cardio for exercise and have dropped almost 25 pounds in a little over a month? I eat bananas, hard boiled eggs, oranges, apples, yogurt, solid white albacore tuna, tomatos, snack on Special K cereal with almonds, raspberries, nuts, baked potatos, no butter, veggies, chicken breast (4 oz =90 calories,) soup on occasion, so far so good, but I started at 308# so easier for me to drop weight. Coffee in the morning (Black) Mineral Water thru the day
For a 57 year old male, why so little calories?
OP do not go under the recommended MFP calorie goal, over a time side affects will occur and following @bigdaddy58's recommendation abov to eat under is not good advice.
I am short and 1200 is the bare minimum for me when trying to loose weight but I also exercise alot so I eat back exercise calories (part of them). You may need to think about if your stats and exercise together meet the recommendations and make sure you do not loose too aggresively.
You can still eat quite a lot of food on 1200 calories if you knock down the "calorie dense" foods and it will help with satiety. If this is not an issue for you, then you can still loose weight eating just about any type of food as long as you are in a calorie deficit.0 -
I try to NET 1200 but I eat around 1400.0
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focusandgo wrote: »Hi Yasmin! I've had really good success with a ~1200 cal/day diet. If you are not currently overweight and are of shorter stature that might explain why you aren't losing weight - if this is the case, keep up a healthy diet and add more exercise!
On a typical day I start my morning with black coffee and a banana. For lunch I will eat a chicken wrap (filled with 3 ozs of chicken, light sour cream, salsa and lettuce), with veggies& hummus. As an afternoon snack I will have half or a whole apple sprinkled with cinnamon. For dinner I will have fish/chicken/or another protein, with cauliflower purée and veggies or a salad. I will have fruits to snack on or low calorie crackers if I have calories left and if I'm still hungry. I take calcium/vit D supplements because my diet is poor in these elements (I'm lactose intolerant). Every now and again I will have a sweet or go out for dinner and go over my calorie goals but as long as I am consistent on other days everything goes well. I hope this helped!
(I would also like to add that other than coffee I only drink water, and I try to drink a lot of it!)
Thankyou for your reply! My BMI states that I'm the right weight for my height. I'm 5'8" and 152lbs. I don't believe BMI's are correct due to the muscle ways more than fat sort of stuff but I just know I'm not comfortable at the weight I am now and although I didn't put much weight on during my pregnancy, trying to get back down to the size I was feels so far away. Thankyou for sharing your daily diet, I am myself thinking of having an intolerance test done aswel I do feel that some foods disagree with me but I've not logged my food for this purpose yet. Thankyou so much0 -
Try cutting out most of your carbs. You'll find that you can consume more food, while also seeing a difference in your weight loss. Also try eating mostly veggies, and cut back on sugars. Hope this helps
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gebeziseva wrote: »I eat at around 1200-1300.
I always have oats with almond milk for breakfast. That is 180cal.
For lunch I have something cooked around 300cal (for example zucchini gratin - home made) plus leaf salad and soup (the soups I have are around 100cal) total around 400-450cal.
For dinner I have around 400-500cal cooked meal almost always with lots of salad on the side to feel as full and stuffed as possible. For example, I love grilled low fat sausages - I have 4 of those with salad of tomatoes, cucumbers and grated feta and a baked sweet potato on the side sometimes. Or stuffed peppers - peppers, bell peppers in particular are very very low calorie and there is a lot to eat!
I leave another 150 calories for before bed - I can't sleep unless I eat. I would usually have a toast with something for them.
Thanks so much for your reply and sharing your diet with me. What type of oats do you have for breakfast? Similar to porridge oats? Stuffed bell peppers sound nice I've not tried those il look for some recipes. I like to have something before bed too and usually results in having toast0 -
OP i ran your stats and 1200 is low calorie for you. I ran you as sedentary and it came up with the following?
Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) 1490
Daily calories to maintain weight (TDEE) 1788
Daily calories to loose at 20% is 1430
I am not sure why MFP would put you at 1200 calories? And exercise adds calories to eat back in conjunction to the 1430 (approx)...0 -
gebeziseva wrote: »I eat at around 1200-1300.
I always have oats with almond milk for breakfast. That is 180cal.
For lunch I have something cooked around 300cal (for example zucchini gratin - home made) plus leaf salad and soup (the soups I have are around 100cal) total around 400-450cal.
For dinner I have around 400-500cal cooked meal almost always with lots of salad on the side to feel as full and stuffed as possible. For example, I love grilled low fat sausages - I have 4 of those with salad of tomatoes, cucumbers and grated feta and a baked sweet potato on the side sometimes. Or stuffed peppers - peppers, bell peppers in particular are very very low calorie and there is a lot to eat!
I leave another 150 calories for before bed - I can't sleep unless I eat. I would usually have a toast with something for them.
Thanks so much for your reply and sharing your diet with me. What type of oats do you have for breakfast? Similar to porridge oats? Stuffed bell peppers sound nice I've not tried those il look for some recipes. I like to have something before bed too and usually results in having toast
Porridge oats, exactly. At the moment I'm having Quakers 'Oat so simple' with golden syrup flavour.
The lowest calorie stuffed peppers I make are with 5% beef mince and bulgur wheat. Put lots of ground cumin too:
Saute some onions with little to no oil (I put 1 teaspoon if at all), add the mince and meanwhile put the bulgur in some hot vegetable stock. When the mince is brownish add the bulgur with most of the stock and lots of cumin and simmer on low temp until the bulgur is almost ready (to the chew). Season well. Fill the halved peppers and bake. YUM! And it is super low on calorie!0 -
OP, are you sure that your logging food accurately? Do you weigh and measure food on a food scale.. Something is way off on the 1200 calories and not loosing (your personal stats should add up to you loosing even at 1400 calories)..
With that said, something is off by what I read in the posts here..0 -
OP i ran your stats and 1200 is low calorie for you. I ran you as sedentary and it came up with the following?
Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) 1490
Daily calories to maintain weight (TDEE) 1788
Daily calories to loose at 20% is 1430
I am not sure why MFP would put you at 1200 calories? And exercise adds calories to eat back in conjunction to the 1430 (approx)...
MFP doesn't use TDEE - 20 to calculate calorie goals; rather, it follows the NEAT method. Also, my guess is that OP has her loss rate set to 2 lbs per week, which is too aggressive of a goal at this point, and that's why she got 1200 as a calorie goal.0 -
dragon_girl26 wrote: »OP i ran your stats and 1200 is low calorie for you. I ran you as sedentary and it came up with the following?
Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) 1490
Daily calories to maintain weight (TDEE) 1788
Daily calories to loose at 20% is 1430
I am not sure why MFP would put you at 1200 calories? And exercise adds calories to eat back in conjunction to the 1430 (approx)...
MFP doesn't use TDEE - 20 to calculate calorie goals; rather, it follows the NEAT method. Also, my guess is that OP has her loss rate set to 2 lbs per week, which is too aggressive of a goal at this point, and that's why she got 1200 as a calorie goal.
My calculation is not for TDEE... this part is for information only.... the 1430 is for loosing weight. I know that MFP is NEAT not TDEE again for info only.
For 5'8" female at 152 pounds and age 24, I am unclear how MFP gave her this. I can use another MFP account run this through MFP, I used http://scoobysworkshop.com/accurate-calorie-calculator.
She should be loosing pretty well if she is eating 1200.0 -
i used to do 1200 calories per day. i included potato chips and cereal, and lost just fine - 2 to 3 pounds a week, every week.
OP, are you weighing all your food on an accurate food scale, then checking when you log it to make sure you're using an accurate listing?0 -
OP, are you sure that your logging food accurately? Do you weigh and measure food on a food scale.. Something is way off on the 1200 calories and not loosing (your personal stats should add up to you loosing even at 1400 calories)..
With that said, something is off by what I read in the posts here..
I always check my calories before eating most of the time I stay within my 1200 calories and now and again will go over 100-200 calories but it's still low calories? When I checked my MFP calorie allowance I had down that I was lightly active, my weight and height and in just over 4 weeks of me counting my calories (whether that be healthy food or the odd exchange for something not so healthy but still the same calorie amount) I have lost 1lb! I don't sit down until around 7-8pm each evening so it's not as though I don't move I just can't see where I'm going wrong? Could it be that I'm not eating enough maybe?0 -
gebeziseva wrote: »gebeziseva wrote: »I eat at around 1200-1300.
I always have oats with almond milk for breakfast. That is 180cal.
For lunch I have something cooked around 300cal (for example zucchini gratin - home made) plus leaf salad and soup (the soups I have are around 100cal) total around 400-450cal.
For dinner I have around 400-500cal cooked meal almost always with lots of salad on the side to feel as full and stuffed as possible. For example, I love grilled low fat sausages - I have 4 of those with salad of tomatoes, cucumbers and grated feta and a baked sweet potato on the side sometimes. Or stuffed peppers - peppers, bell peppers in particular are very very low calorie and there is a lot to eat!
I leave another 150 calories for before bed - I can't sleep unless I eat. I would usually have a toast with something for them.
Thanks so much for your reply and sharing your diet with me. What type of oats do you have for breakfast? Similar to porridge oats? Stuffed bell peppers sound nice I've not tried those il look for some recipes. I like to have something before bed too and usually results in having toast
Porridge oats, exactly. At the moment I'm having Quakers 'Oat so simple' with golden syrup flavour.
The lowest calorie stuffed peppers I make are with 5% beef mince and bulgur wheat. Put lots of ground cumin too:
Saute some onions with little to no oil (I put 1 teaspoon if at all), add the mince and meanwhile put the bulgur in some hot vegetable stock. When the mince is brownish add the bulgur with most of the stock and lots of cumin and simmer on low temp until the bulgur is almost ready (to the chew). Season well. Fill the halved peppers and bake. YUM! And it is super low on calorie!
Thankyou so much for that recipe. I'll have to try! It sounds really nice!0
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