1200 calories a day
emmatthompson
Posts: 1 Member
I 
'm awful at healthy food. Litterally do not have a clue! Can anyone give me a weekly diet to follow? Easy to prep because I'm an awful cook too haha!
Me and my boyfriend are trying to get healthier bit he doesn't like veggies which makes it even harder!!!
'm awful at healthy food. Litterally do not have a clue! Can anyone give me a weekly diet to follow? Easy to prep because I'm an awful cook too haha!Me and my boyfriend are trying to get healthier bit he doesn't like veggies which makes it even harder!!!
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Replies
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I don't have a set weekly diet, but I try to make simple things in large quantities and add variety to it during the week. For example, I'll make a big batch of rice, chicken breast, and usually some kind of vegetable on Sunday. Then I mix it up by adding different spices/soy sauce/buffalo sauce/etc, so I don't get bored.
Not adding vegetables is a bit of a hurdle because it adds volume to your meals without the calories. I find turnips is good replacement for potatoes, as weird as that sounds. You can cube them, and season them the same as home fries and they're pretty delicious. Some other good substitutes: Mashed cauliflower or sometimes I'll parboil baby carrots, and add a bit of lite maple syrup.2 -
Pinterest has lots of 1200 a day plans and ideas. I found it too low for long term and moved to 1400, but I am pretty large.
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I tried doing 1,200 a day.
I stopped when I looked at my cat and the bb grill with ideas.17 -
Barbecued Cat!2
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i am set for 0.75kg lost per week. and exercise or not, I'm set for 1200 per day. not possible for me to follow it. I'm too hungry.0
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Try to start by buying the "steamable "veggies from birdeye in the frozen section- I know you said BF does not like veggies but if you try one bag at a time esp. those with cheese sauce or roasted garlic flavored etc- they make grow on him becuase they are not plain boiled veggies.Also stirfry lean meat and veggies - empharsize the meat then gradually par down meat to include more veggies- Hope this helps- Oh Youtube has loads of ideas for stirfry
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Take a class on cooking. Search the internet for recipes. Try one new vegetable a week.
I highly recommend stir frys. Cut up some onion, red peppers, and some asparagus in 1/2 tsp of olive oil. Once they start to turn translucent add 3 oz of cubed chicken. Add salt, pepper, garlic powder. Turn chicken pieces over and then check for doneness. Serve with a baked.potato or over rice or pasta.3 -
Breakfast: 2 eggs fried with nonstick spray, cup of nonfat milk in coffee
Lunch: fresh spinach, grape tomatoes, fresh broccoli, fresh bell pepper, low-cal dressing (Trader Joe's Light Champagne-Vinaigrette @ 50 cal for 2 Tbsp.), 4 oz canned chicken breast (Kirkland brand), 28 grams of beef jerky or a Baby Bonbel cheese
Snack: Kind bar or other snack with equivalent calories (170-200). Sometimes a piece of Masada brand pita bread (116 calories per pita).
Dinner: 4-5 oz lean chicken or pork loin, steamed veggies, more salad with low-cal dressing. Fruit or 1 square of dark chocolate if calories allow.
Voila. 1200 calories. Lots more add-ons, esp fat, if I exercised that day.3 -
i am set for 0.75kg lost per week. and exercise or not, I'm set for 1200 per day. not possible for me to follow it. I'm too hungry.
Choose a smaller weekly weight loss goal & your calories will be increased.
Add exercise you do & your calories will be increased. Don't eat back 100% of them - calorie burn estimates can be way off.
Pick something that you can live with awhile. 1200 for a few weeks & then burnout....not a good plan.
Cookinglight.com & Skinnytaste.com are a couple good sites for recipes.
I focus on protein, fat & fiber. These are filling.5 -
My calorie allowance was bigger, but I guess with weight going down, I need less calories to keep loosing. like, if I will loose another, lets say, 15 lb, I cant go lower than 1200 calories . That's a dead end.i am set for 0.75kg lost per week. and exercise or not, I'm set for 1200 per day. not possible for me to follow it. I'm too hungry.
Choose a smaller weekly weight loss goal & your calories will be increased.
Add exercise you do & your calories will be increased. Don't eat back 100% of them - calorie burn estimates can be way off.
Pick something that you can live with awhile. 1200 for a few weeks & then burnout....not a good plan.
Cookinglight.com & Skinnytaste.com are a couple good sites for recipes.
I focus on protein, fat & fiber. These are filling.
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My calorie allowance was bigger, but I guess with weight going down, I need less calories to keep loosing. like, if I will loose another, lets say, 15 lb, I cant go lower than 1200 calories . That's a dead end.i am set for 0.75kg lost per week. and exercise or not, I'm set for 1200 per day. not possible for me to follow it. I'm too hungry.
Choose a smaller weekly weight loss goal & your calories will be increased.
Add exercise you do & your calories will be increased. Don't eat back 100% of them - calorie burn estimates can be way off.
Pick something that you can live with awhile. 1200 for a few weeks & then burnout....not a good plan.
Cookinglight.com & Skinnytaste.com are a couple good sites for recipes.
I focus on protein, fat & fiber. These are filling.
Weekly weight loss becomes S L O W E R. You are not expected so decrease calories to match the same weekly weight loss goal forever. Something like this.........
Pound per week goals
75+ lbs set to lose 2 lb range
Between 40 - 75 lbs set to lose 1.5 lb range
Between 25-40 lbs set to lose 1 lb range
Between 15-25 lbs set to lose 1 -.50 lb range
Less than 15 lbs set to lose 0.5 lbs range
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i am set for 0.75kg lost per week. and exercise or not, I'm set for 1200 per day. not possible for me to follow it. I'm too hungry.
Choose a smaller weekly weight loss goal & your calories will be increased.
Add exercise you do & your calories will be increased. Don't eat back 100% of them - calorie burn estimates can be way off.
Pick something that you can live with awhile. 1200 for a few weeks & then burnout....not a good plan.
Cookinglight.com & Skinnytaste.com are a couple good sites for recipes.
I focus on protein, fat & fiber. These are filling.
Just seconding this post - 1.5 lbs is pretty aggressive. Choose a smaller weekly goal, log your exercise, and eat back half those calories. If you are a woman on the smaller size, and you choose an aggressive goal, you are going to get the bare minimum calories. Better to lose a little slower than give up. I am set to 0.5 lbs per week, so I can get enough calories to not be hangry!1 -
I often eat 1200 a day. It is not particularly hard. The bulk of your food should be ads high fiber, high protein, and low calorie as possible.
For example, yesterday for dinner, I had grilled Jamaican jerk pork loin topped with mango salsa served with bulgur cooked in water, fresh lime juice and pineapple juice with some cut up grilled pineapple tossed in. It was delicious.
Today, I have had a kale and coleslaw mix salad with 2tbls of Lighthouse's 35 cal bacon vinaigrette and 175g of 0% Greek yogurt w/100g of fresh raspberries and strawberries for breakfast. In a second, I will eat steamed green beans with 5oz of leftover Jamaican pork loin with 2tbls of mango salsa. Tonight for dinner, I will have fresh tomato, basil, and mozzarella bruschetta with whole wheat pita bread. Dessert is probably 0% greek yogurt with fresh berries and sugar free chocolate syrup.
If you really want to cut cals, make some Asian dishes with Pasta Zero noodles. The fettuccine ones work great for pad thai and the spaghetti ones are good for stir fries.2 -
Today I had -
Ready made chocolate protein shake
Americano coffee with bit of almond milk
Lunch -Two boiled eggs (no yolk yuck) with raw spinach, Chicken chunks chilli flavouring, Bowl of corgetti spaghetti with salt/pepper
Dinner - rare steak, brussel sprouts, bit of wholewheat pasta
More food after dinner - 2 wheatabix in almond milk with splenda (just like sugar)
I have 200 calories left still to hit 1170 calorie target, will probably have a chocolate protein shake. I bought the wrong yohurt, would have preferred bowl of chopped strawberry and blueberrys with 0% fat vanilla yoghurt.0 -
I'm on 1200 a day every day. I don't get in a lot of veggies, but sometimes sneaking them in can help. I.e. chicken meatloaf with part of a bag of diced frozen veggies mixed in.(thawed)
But a typical day starts with a whey based protein shake made with almond milk, a home made chicken burger for lunch topped with hummus, a pure protein bar for a snack, 8 slices of turkey deli meat with 4 tbs greek yogurt based spinach dip divided and rolled up in them, and finally a lite and fit greek yogurt with 2 tbs pb2.0 -
You realize that what you're asking for is something people go to school and take certification courses for, right? And they don't do it for free.4
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I can't imagine having someone tell me what to eat for each meal. I am probably a bit too scared if new things, but reading through here, I have read several things that I just don't think I would want to eat! You just have to eat the foods you do like, and start finding a way to make it lower calorie, and incorporate more veggies In here and there. Big boys need their veggies! If y'all start eating them more, just forcing yourselves to eat at least a small amount on a regular basis, you'll get used to them, and then it will get easier.2
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i am set for 0.75kg lost per week. and exercise or not, I'm set for 1200 per day. not possible for me to follow it. I'm too hungry.
Are you drinking enough water? Sometimes thirst masquerades as hunger.
YMMV, but I'm generally not too hungry. I drink a boat load of water during the day, eat a lunch somewhere in the ballpark of 100-300 calories, and funnel most of my calories into dinner. For me, it was really, really tricky to try to divide 1200 calories into three 400-calorie meals... but a snack and a kick-butt dinner is something I can easily do.0 -
Try to start by buying the "steamable "veggies from birdeye in the frozen section- I know you said BF does not like veggies but if you try one bag at a time esp. those with cheese sauce or roasted garlic flavored etc- they make grow on him becuase they are not plain boiled veggies.Also stirfry lean meat and veggies - empharsize the meat then gradually par down meat to include more veggies- Hope this helps- Oh Youtube has loads of ideas for stirfry
I love those Birdseye Steamfresh veggies! They are affordable and you can get them Walmart. They are easy to make and are convenient if I need something to eat for lunch at work.0 -
You want to lose weight, but not cook, and vegetables must be excluded. That leaves raw fruits and packaged items. You can lose weight this way, but you'll probably be hungry and undernourished. Consider sucking it up and learning to cook. You'll eat much better tasting food than the packaged items, you'll be healthier and it's cheaper in the end. Weight loss will be easier, too.
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AllOutof_Bubblegum wrote: »You realize that what you're asking for is something people go to school and take certification courses for, right? And they don't do it for free.
isnt that the point of this website? to get help from people? and this is coming from someone with a disgusting amount of student loans from getting a masters in nutrition.2 -
Search the Internet for easy skinny recipes, you'll find many good low calorie simple to fix recipe sites like skinnytaste.com, or even the blog here on myfitnesspal has many good low caloire recipes. Whether you eat 1200 or 1500, the recipes are still the same, the 1200 does not even need to be a point of reference, it's not relevant to having healthy low cal meals.0
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PS if you want boring 1200 calorie meal plans, search the Internet and you will find many meal plans, all boring, and all unsustainable, most who do them and eventually get discouraged and right back to high caloire eating and the results are more yo-yo'ing because those meal plans are agony.1
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AllOutof_Bubblegum wrote: »You realize that what you're asking for is something people go to school and take certification courses for, right? And they don't do it for free.
isnt that the point of this website? to get help from people? and this is coming from someone with a disgusting amount of student loans from getting a masters in nutrition.
"Dito" to that fishshark. Thought that remark was a bit snarky for this website. We're all different, but are suppose to be here to help each other.0 -
I changed my goal from losing 1lb per week to 0.5lb a week as I didn't think that 1200 calories a day was realistic.
I work out 2-3 times a week which allows for a higher calorie intake on these days but I am struggling to stick to the number of calories even now that it has gone to 1400 per day.
I have started introducing whey protein shakes into my diet and protein bars but these rarely replace a meal. I usually have them and have my 3 meals a day as well or may have a protein bar just before I leave work as I travel for an hour and then do a class at my local sports centre. I've also been having coconut & macadamia bounce balls as a snack in the afternoon at work sometimes.
I am trying to burn fat and gain a bit of muscle but I understand that these have a lot of sugar in them and I think that my sugar intake is too high, however, I can only alter my diet and not change it completely as I wouldn't stick to it long term if it was too restricted.0 -
I tried the 1200 cal per day diet and hated it. I switched to a diet that is more filling and more in line with how I want to eat and be going forward. My goal is to weigh 200lbs, so I have a 2000 cal diet (which just so happens to be close to my Basic Metabolic Rate "BMR"). I try to get 180 grams of protein, 100 grams of carbs and 20 grams of fat. <-still figuring that part out.
My meals and snacks are protein driven. Usually a double portion of protein with veggies on the side (very low amount of starchy veggies, i.e. Potatoes, etc). Hope that helps.0 -
I've gotta say it's incredibly frustrating having everyone constantly dogging the 1200 calorie goal. Just because it didn't work for you doesn't mean it's unhealthy. I eat anywhere from 1200-1300 calories a day and I do not feel hungry all the time. Some days I even have a hard time reaching that goal. It's all in what you eat and how you eat it. Now, to address the original poster's actual question...
Eggs are my best friend. You can fry one up and put it on toast with some avocado, make yourself a veggie omelet/scramble, hard boil a few for snacks, salad...etc You cannot go wrong.
A crockpot would be a useful item for you to purchase if you don't already have one. It's super easy, just dump a few ingredients in the pot and turn it on. I usually cook up a big batch of chicken on the weekends so it's super quick and easy to pull out for a quick meal during the week.
My typical day looks like this:
Breakfast
2 egg omelet w/ tomatoes & greens
1/2 avocado
=296 calories
Midmorning Snack
1 pear or apple
1 tablespoon almond butter
=186 calories
Lunch
cucumber sandwich w/ cream cheese
17 green grapes
=299 calories
Dinner
6 oz chicken
1 medium sweet potato
10 brussels sprouts
=343 calories
Grand total = 1127 calories
That leaves just enough calories for a chocolate of some kind after dinner.
I personally love trader joe's frozen chocolate covered bananas.
Please feel free to friend me. My diary's open.
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heather_miller wrote: »I've gotta say it's incredibly frustrating having everyone constantly dogging the 1200 calorie goal. Just because it didn't work for you doesn't mean it's unhealthy. I eat anywhere from 1200-1300 calories a day and I do not feel hungry all the time. Some days I even have a hard time reaching that goal. It's all in what you eat and how you eat it. Now, to address the original poster's actual question...
Eggs are my best friend. You can fry one up and put it on toast with some avocado, make yourself a veggie omelet/scramble, hard boil a few for snacks, salad...etc You cannot go wrong.
A crockpot would be a useful item for you to purchase if you don't already have one. It's super easy, just dump a few ingredients in the pot and turn it on. I usually cook up a big batch of chicken on the weekends so it's super quick and easy to pull out for a quick meal during the week.
My typical day looks like this:
Breakfast
2 egg omelet w/ tomatoes & greens
1/2 avocado
=296 calories
Midmorning Snack
1 pear or apple
1 tablespoon almond butter
=186 calories
Lunch
cucumber sandwich w/ cream cheese
17 green grapes
=299 calories
Dinner
6 oz chicken
1 medium sweet potato
10 brussels sprouts
=343 calories
Grand total = 1127 calories
That leaves just enough calories for a chocolate of some kind after dinner.
I personally love trader joe's frozen chocolate covered bananas.
Please feel free to friend me. My diary's open.
A couple problems with 1200
It's a default minimum for women. This makes it a one-size-fits-all. I'm sure we all know women that are 5' tall and women that are 6' tall. IMO, 1200 certainly isn't equally healthy for both.
It's not about "feeling hungry." Not all the weight that we lose will be fat loss. We lose a fair % of lean muscle mass too. Even I eat more than 1200 (55 YO) because I want to limit lean muscle loss. Speedy weight loss comes at a price.
You have a perfectly good list of healthy foods. However, I don't eat perfectly. During maintenance I won't eat perfectly either. To consume just 1200 calories gives me almost zero wiggle room. I don't want to log just "perfect diet" foods. I know I need lifestyle changes, but I want something that looks closer to my regular eating habits.0 -
I eat 1200 cals daily and find it not difficult at all. I dont eat breakfast, and always a light lunch. I know I feel hungriest during the hours of 4pm to 9pm, so thats when I have dinner and my snacks. According to my stats on the app, I consistently eat the majority of calories for dinner and snacks. I didnt change my lifestyle to fit my eating, I changed my eating to fit my lifestyle, and have lost over 80 lbs since Oct 2015. I can honestly say I am not hungry on 1200 - maybe it depends on how you space them out, but for me its a great plan.1
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heather_miller wrote: »I've gotta say it's incredibly frustrating having everyone constantly dogging the 1200 calorie goal. Just because it didn't work for you doesn't mean it's unhealthy. I eat anywhere from 1200-1300 calories a day and I do not feel hungry all the time. Some days I even have a hard time reaching that goal. It's all in what you eat and how you eat it. Now, to address the original poster's actual question...
Eggs are my best friend. You can fry one up and put it on toast with some avocado, make yourself a veggie omelet/scramble, hard boil a few for snacks, salad...etc You cannot go wrong.
A crockpot would be a useful item for you to purchase if you don't already have one. It's super easy, just dump a few ingredients in the pot and turn it on. I usually cook up a big batch of chicken on the weekends so it's super quick and easy to pull out for a quick meal during the week.
My typical day looks like this:
Breakfast
2 egg omelet w/ tomatoes & greens
1/2 avocado
=296 calories
Midmorning Snack
1 pear or apple
1 tablespoon almond butter
=186 calories
Lunch
cucumber sandwich w/ cream cheese
17 green grapes
=299 calories
Dinner
6 oz chicken
1 medium sweet potato
10 brussels sprouts
=343 calories
Grand total = 1127 calories
That leaves just enough calories for a chocolate of some kind after dinner.
I personally love trader joe's frozen chocolate covered bananas.
Please feel free to friend me. My diary's open.
A couple problems with 1200
It's a default minimum for women. This makes it a one-size-fits-all. I'm sure we all know women that are 5' tall and women that are 6' tall. IMO, 1200 certainly isn't equally healthy for both.
It's not about "feeling hungry." Not all the weight that we lose will be fat loss. We lose a fair % of lean muscle mass too. Even I eat more than 1200 (55 YO) because I want to limit lean muscle loss. Speedy weight loss comes at a price.
You have a perfectly good list of healthy foods. However, I don't eat perfectly. During maintenance I won't eat perfectly either. To consume just 1200 calories gives me almost zero wiggle room. I don't want to log just "perfect diet" foods. I know I need lifestyle changes, but I want something that looks closer to my regular eating habits.
It's not up to you to decide how many calories I'm meant to eat (or the person that started this post), the original post was asking for ideas on what to eat to stay below their specific calorie goals. I would appreciate it if people would stop hijacking innocent posts asking for help on WHAT TO EAT. I completely agree with you that it is not a one size fit's all approach, that is why we need to stop shaming those who have a lower calorie goal. We are on this site for SUPPORT. We do not need more criticism. There is enough of that in the world.
ps. I am not trying to start a fight. I'd just wish we could encourage each other instead of belittling each other.2
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