What does your 1200 calorie diet look like?

Hello Yasmin, technically speaking if you stick within 1200 calls you are bound to lose something, HOWEVER....if you drink the right amount of water, eat 1-2 pieces of fruit and mass amounts of veg and protein, you're going to see results allllllot quicker.... i lost 30KG and found at times id be stuck and not losing anything, it was somethings simple as not enough water - or veges especially !!

A typical day for me within 1200 calls is as follows:

BREAKKY:
- Coffee with uncle toby quick oats (with water), tsp honey, my own mix of seeds (linseed, flax, almond meal etc) ..OR...yoghurt with my own homemade granola (pumpkin seeds, almonds, walnuts, flax seed, rolled oats and buckwheat, YUM!!)
-
MORNING SNACK :
- Boiled Egg sometimes another coffee, piece of fruit
-
LUNCH: varies a lot... chicken and veges.. a salad... cruskits with tuna, cottage cheese and tomato , soup w/ bread (on weekends i skip the breakky above and make a big breakky with cape seed bread, avocado, poached egg, spinach , asparagus and mushies)

AFTERNOON SNACK:
- Vege juice, a carrot, celery, a piece of fruit
-
DINNER:
- 4 x rice paper rolls, a salad, meat and veg or salad - very basic

You'd be surprised how much more you can fit in a day with healthy foods, you get to eat more whilst lose weight..much more effective , satisfying and rewarding !!!!!
Hope this helps :O)

YasminTE wrote: »

RoxieDawn wrote: »

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?

I am going to say this as the best advice I will give to anyone getting started with MFP... buy a food scale and use it. A food scale is a game changer for loosing weight...

edited to add, you may find out (with the food scale) that you are really eating more than 1200 calories each day, which from what I read and have investigated in your case, you are eating more than 1200. If you were loosing weight doing your method, I would not have included questions or comments about how many calories you should be eating to loose weight vs the "1200 calories" you are logging on your diary currently.

This takes a little time to get used to this, also it took me 6 months of struggling and not loosing weight not using a food scale in the beginning. Trying to save you some heart ache and frustration... LOL

So I just started about 7 days ago. My starting weight was 172lbs and now I am 167.6 4.4 lbs down...I didn't really focus on WHAT I was eating but how much of it I was eating. I am usually just under my 1200 goal on most days, on rare occassions I do end the day with about 500 calories left, not because I'm trying to cut corners, but because I am so busy. I cut out 90% of sweets though... I hadn't realized how many calories I was eating before! 1 chipotle burrito bowl (my way) and a slice of Cheesecake factories fresh strawberry cheesecakes, and some hot wings from Krystal had my calorie count at 2689!! Not to mention I was living an EXTREMELY sedentary life, because of my new "sit-down" Job....I also noticed that the "Healthy Breakfast" I was eating was a calorie beast in itself! 3 eggs, 3 wheat buttered toast, and a whole avocado had my calories in the 1600 range just from breakfast alone! not including what-ever I ate for lunch later that day! No wonder I was steadily gaining! But we are good now! If I want more calories I just work-out...1200 is now MORE than enough food for one day.

RoxieDawn wrote: »

dragon_girl26 wrote: »

RoxieDawn 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.

Right..my comment was in regard to calculating NEAT by using TDEE - 20 (meaning, minus 20%) I was just saying...that isn't how NEAT is calculated. If she just used TDEE minus 20% (the 1430 that you calculated) she wouldn't eat back exercise calories because those are already included if you do it that way. Sorry for the confusion.

I abdolutely agree with the food scale part, though...weighing everything is key. I also agree that if she's eating 1200 calories and weighing everything, she'd definitely be losing weight. It just won't be the at the 2lb loss she's expecting. It's probably going to be more like .5 - 1 lb per week.

Also, OP, unless there is a medical reason, like glucose intolerance, PCOS, etc...there really isn't a reason to worry about limiting carbs. For weight loss to occur, all you need to worry about is being in a calorie deficit.

OP, if you open your food diary so we could look at it, that would be helpful.

YasminTE wrote: »

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!

Yes to bolded......no to just about everything else. You will see people here losing weight while eating high carb, and others while eating high fat....and everything in between.

There is no "one" macro for everyone. Calories in vs. calories out. If you eat too many calories (carbs, protein, whatever) .....you gain weight. Initially focus on foods that keep you full. If you want to tweak macro settings: http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/819055/setting-your-calorie-and-macro-targets/p1

Here are some tips on logging. There are plenty of incorrect entries on here to stay away from.

http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/1234699/logging-accurately-step-by-step-guide/p1

Weight loss won't be 1 or 2 pounds a week for everybody. As you get closer to goal, weight loss will be slow.

1200 is pretty aggressive for most women. Senior & very petite ladies may need to go this low.

I eat 1200 and am losing to plan with little exercise but also about 60 pounds overweight. A typical day would be:

-Coffee and oatmeal
-Tuna and salad with rye crispbread
-Chicken and lots of Veges with a small amount of beans, quinoa, rice or potato.
-snack is whatever I want it to be as long as it doesn't add up to more than 200 cals.