Example of 1200 calorie day?

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penniroc
penniroc Posts: 21 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Can someone give me an example of what a near perfect 1200-1500 calorie a day would look like. I know it's different for everyone but as an example or a guide. I think I might be eating the wrong types of foods.

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  • TavistockToad
    TavistockToad Posts: 35,719 Member
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    penniroc wrote: »
    Can someone give me an example of what a near perfect 1200-1500 calorie a day would look like. I know it's different for everyone but as an example or a guide. I think I might be eating the wrong types of foods.

    There isn't any 'wrong type of food' eat what fits your calories and macros.
  • kommodevaran
    kommodevaran Posts: 17,890 Member
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    1200-1500 is quite a scope. What's your weight and height?

    Why do you think you are eating the wrong kinds of foods?

    Perfect days don't exist. For a healthy diet, have some food from every food group and hit your calorie and macro goals, every day. To stay sane, eat food YOU like.
  • RoxieDawn
    RoxieDawn Posts: 15,488 Member
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    It is all about just meeting the calories to stay in a deficit. However 1200-1500 is a pretty broad number to reach.

    If you want to go with the basic rule eat a balanced diet of carbs, healthy fats and protein at each meal/snack to meet the the calories MFP gave you to lose weight. MFP sets the amount up for you automatically. Its easy to over complicate, but it really is this simple.

    My question is why you think there are "wrong foods"? Clearly a goal is not getting met, i.e. not losing weight? Did you just start MFP not too long ago? It takes time for the body to transition from what you were doing before (amount of intake) to what you are doing now.. Give this a min of 3-4 weeks.
  • EttaMaeMartin
    EttaMaeMartin Posts: 303 Member
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    RoxieDawn wrote: »
    It is all about just meeting the calories to stay in a deficit. However 1200-1500 is a pretty broad number to reach.

    If you want to go with the basic rule eat a balanced diet of carbs, healthy fats and protein at each meal/snack to meet the the calories MFP gave you to lose weight. MFP sets the amount up for you automatically. Its easy to over complicate, but it really is this simple.

    My question is why you think there are "wrong foods"? Clearly a goal is not getting met, i.e. not losing weight? Did you just start MFP not too long ago? It takes time for the body to transition from what you were doing before (amount of intake) to what you are doing now.. Give this a min of 3-4 weeks.

    eat what you like, but stay within your goals, accurately measure with scale and cups for liquid, everything that goes into your mouth. lots of water, and exercise if you are able!
  • Machka9
    Machka9 Posts: 25,202 Member
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    I could give you an example of a 1200-1500 calorie day, but much of it would be foods I can get here in Australia. If you're not in Australia, it wouldn't mean much to you.

    Also, I don't know that it would be "perfect" ... my days usually remain within that limit, but they vary and who knows if they qualify as "perfect".
  • neldabg
    neldabg Posts: 1,452 Member
    edited October 2016
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    Ditto to what everyone else has said already.
    Also, if by "wrong types of foods" you mean that you've been on 1200-1500 calories and are not seeing any weight loss, you need to either 1)give it more time and/or 2)tighten up your logging accuracy. Your ticker has a 5kg weight loss goal, and from your profile picture, I can visually see that indeed, you've not much left to lose. Always remember that the closer you are to your goal weight, the less wiggle room there is. Those nibbles here and there can add up real fast.
    Monthly fluctuations from Aunt Flo, water retention, etc. can easily mask weight loss trends. It can help to weigh in more often and record your weight so that you can see the overall downward trend.
  • penniroc
    penniroc Posts: 21 Member
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    Hi. Thank you for taking he time to reply. Yes I'm in Australia. My stats are Weight 70kg, Hight 168cm, Body fat 28.7% (as per scales) Water 52%, BMI 24.8. I tried to work out my EDEE which I think is around 1900 calories. I'm a work from home mum of two so I'm on my feet most of the day. Ideally I'd like to lose .5kg per week but I'm realistic with my goals. The profile picture is before my second child and my goal. I was 65kg healthy and fit before my last child 7 months ago but have only just recently in he last three weeks really been strict with my food and exercising 5-6 days a week. I've opened up my diary so you can see what I've been eating. I'm sticking pretty much to the same Foods each day because they are what I enjoy and can eat healthily long term. I was just after an idea of what other people eat on say a 1200 calorie day. I jog/ power walk 3-5 kms in the mornings and power walk with a pram another 3-4kms maybe 3 afternoons a week also. I track my heart rate with a polar fitness monitor and calories burned range from 300-600 a day. I'm going to double check all my meal measurements tomorrow to be extra positive but I weigh and measure everything. Always add every meal and snack and drink 1500-2000 litres of water a day. Any advice you can give me I would really appreciate. Thanks again.
    P.s. I used mfp 4 years ago for the same purpose after my first child. To lose the last 5kg and the weight just dropped off.
  • goldthistime
    goldthistime Posts: 3,214 Member
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    Based on your height, weight and my guess at your age, 1200 seems low.
  • penniroc
    penniroc Posts: 21 Member
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    goldthistime wrote: »
    Based on your height, weight and my guess at your age, 1200 seems low.

    That's what I was worried about. Maybe I should be consuming more calories. But considering I keep reading that starvation mode is all crap and it's all about calories in vs calories out I should be losing weight??
  • goldthistime
    goldthistime Posts: 3,214 Member
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    I've read many posts here and experienced myself times where I've been under eating and not losing. I've read the whoosh theories (fat cells retaining water), and stressing your body by under eating, causing it to retain water. And I've experienced losing weight after eating a little more. But I've also experienced a little hunger driven cheating in logging my calories. If you can manage it, up your daily calories and just try to relax a little.
  • RoxieDawn
    RoxieDawn Posts: 15,488 Member
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    penniroc wrote: »
    goldthistime wrote: »
    Based on your height, weight and my guess at your age, 1200 seems low.

    That's what I was worried about. Maybe I should be consuming more calories. But considering I keep reading that starvation mode is all crap and it's all about calories in vs calories out I should be losing weight??

    Starvation mode is a myth.. But eating to low (i.e. 1200 calories a day) is not. 1200 calories can be a quite aggressive goal.

    I will just put out "a word of caution" on all fronts.. 1200 calories from the beginning of weight loss to the goal (this will prove to be problems in weight loss), this is the lowest you can go, your health, well being and over all feeling WELL will be affected during weight loss.

    You will figure out all of this in time.
  • ogtmama
    ogtmama Posts: 1,403 Member
    edited October 2016
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    Sometimes it looked like this:
    - a whole wheat English muffin with avocado a poached egg and home made Pico de gaillo (300)
    - half a large Tuscan bean salad (300)
    - a roasted salmon fillet and asparagus (600)

    Sometimes it looked like this:

    -an everything bagel with cream cheese (350)
    -a classic burger with onion rings and a diet Pepsi from Harvey's (750)
    -a skinny cow frozen truffle bar (100)
    I'll leave it up to you which is "perfect" ;)
  • Gena575
    Gena575 Posts: 224 Member
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    Looking at your diary, there are several entries for .5 of a medium banana, a scoop of powder, half servings of things like avocados or yogurts. I'm not picking at you, but if you aren't weighing these things by the gram, you could be consuming a few hundred unaccounted for calories per day. And at a .5kg loss per week rate(approx 500 calorie deficit if my mental conversions are correct), that could easily derail you.
  • juliebowman4
    juliebowman4 Posts: 784 Member
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    My diary is open and I aim for 1200-1400/day.
    Feel free to have a look
  • praveee
    praveee Posts: 15 Member
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    Watch your proportions for every meal and eat 6 days of home cooked food. One day is a cheat day..meaning eat a meal outside home.what ever you eat it needs to be sustainable. If you maintain a special diet for weight loss n get back to your normal eating habits after weight loss you will gain back everything. So eat what you eat regularly but watch ur proportions n calorie intake.
  • JoshD8705
    JoshD8705 Posts: 390 Member
    edited October 2016
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    Here's the basics for a 1500 calorie range.

    1. Learning to cook great tasting food without oils can save you tons on calories that will be far more filling from other sources. So learn to Bake, boil, and broil. (Oils aren't bad just calorie dense). USE SPICES!!!

    2. For breakfast, egg whites (I buy egg white cartons, and use 2 real eggs with 1/2 a cup of egg white), or oatmeal 1/2 cup dry, and use a protein powder to sweeten it, and some frozen berries (you don't have to cook this you can blend it into a shake too.).

    3. Portion your meats into roughly 6oz-8oz portions Chicken, Ground turkey, Round steak, lean ground beef, salmon, tilapia, flounder, or tuna. (I'm not saying these are the only meats you can eat, but they are all good protein to calorie ratio meats, and have large varieties of ways to cook them.

    4. 1 Cup of veggies with your lunch, and dinner.

    5. 4-6oz carb with either your lunch or dinner. Pasta, rice, potato, or sweet potatoes.

    6. Protein powder mixed with water, or almond milk. twice a day.

    This isn't the only way, but I wanted to give you a rough idea of an efficient day on 1500 calories.





  • CorneliusPhoton
    CorneliusPhoton Posts: 965 Member
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    I haven't logged for quite awhile, but I was logging and eating about 1200 calories from March through May and my diary is open. I found it most helpful to log meals before preparing them so I knew how much I could eat.
  • jonnyman41
    jonnyman41 Posts: 1,032 Member
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    Fruit and no fat Greek yogurt with 35 grammes of porridge oats for breakfast. Home made chicken and veg soup for lunch with a yoghurt and one small meringue nest broken up into the yoghurt. Meat and veg for tea including potatoes. Mainly chicken for the meat but sometimes other. Snacks such as low calorie fruit like tangerines. One small bag of salted popcorn from a skinny range. Food flavoured with spices and drinking water decaf tea or fruit year. This is round about 1200 Cals a day and pretty filling. For meat any fat 8s trimmed and I use one cal spray when cooking. Vary days including bacon or omelet for breakfast, both with veg too and more
  • foxandflora
    foxandflora Posts: 183 Member
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    penniroc wrote: »
    Can someone give me an example of what a near perfect 1200-1500 calorie a day would look like. I know it's different for everyone but as an example or a guide. I think I might be eating the wrong types of foods.

    Check out /r/1200isplenty
    You'll see a ton of examples of a 1200 calorie day.
  • penniroc
    penniroc Posts: 21 Member
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    Thanks everyone. Really appreciate the replies. Will look into all of the things you guys have mentioned and make appropriate changes. Thanks so much :)

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