Easy dinner ideas for 1200 calories/ day

I have a salad as a side every night. It's filling and low calorie. I add tons of veggies and just a vinegar based dressing. With it I always have some sort of protein and veggie. I'm a very basic eater but I also follow a KETO diet. Usually it's just chicken, fish, or beef. There are tons of recipes if you search. Since I do eat so basically I don't typically make elaborate meals - lol I wish I was more help!

Find a dinner you like that happens not to have many carbs. I like to simmer a boneless/skinless chicken thigh (because dark meat is tasty) with garlic, green onions, a carrot, salt or soy sauce and a 1/2 tsp chili oil. Just enough water to barely cover/steam the meat in a tiny covered saucepan. You could add a pile of green beans (salt but no oil), maybe a cup of milk, maybe a slice of melon, and still come out to under 500 calories...

Whatever it is, it needs to have a lot of non-starchy vegetables to be low-cal and filling.

In the winter, I eat a lot of steamed greens. If you have reserved 350kcals for dinner, you can eat a pile of steamed greens (kale, chard, beet green, etc.) with 4oz of chicken breast or lean pork and a fat (feta cheese, vinaigrette salad dressing, etc.). With this, you could have a dessert of 5 strawberries. Of course, you need to check the portions carefully.

Best of luck!

I'm on a 1,200 calorie/day diet per my doctor, and it's been restricting, but a little fun to see how far I can stretch it. Veggies are the key. Tonight I'm having leftovers, but it was a super easy dinner with little prep, but a little processed. I dumped a pouch of Bird's Eye Veggie Made w/ cheddar sauce (It's pasta -- made of zucchini and lentils! And it tastes good!), two pouches of Starkist Chunk Light Low-Sodium Tuna in Water and 2 cups of frozen broccoli in a skillet. Mix and heat. Half the skillet is 325 calories. And tonight I'm going to add a salad (one small tomato, 1 cup spring mix, 1 cup cucumber) with a light, low-sodium, fat-free version of Good Seasons Italian Dressing I found online and modified (https://bakeatmidnite.com/copycat-good-seasons-italian/ my mods are 1/2 Tbsp Equal instead of sugar and 1/4 of Lite Salt instead of 2 Tbsps O_o). So another 68 calories.

Here are some of my favorite:

Vietnamese soup about 300-400 cal : Broth is usually very low in calorie, especially if you make it yourself (simmer chicken broth, onion, ginger, garlic, fish sauce, hot pepper, cinnamon stick, clove, star anis) and serve on top a rice noodle, bean sprout, leefy greens (not typical but always good) and some cooked chicken or shrimps.

Ceasar salad ++ about 400 cal: typical lettuce and vinaigrette, make some grains instead of croutons like wild rice which adds carbs to keep you full longuer. I make a crispy slice of proscuitto (in the oven at 400 for 5-10 min), a hard boiled egg, some olives/capers, grape tomatoes and some lean protein

Tomato based anything: Sauces are usually high in calories but tomatoes are more forgiving and much less blend than plain protein.

Try plant based recipe like beans, lentil or legumes. Red lentil chili, chickpea curry, etc

All of my cardio is in the evening during the week, so I leave most of my calories for dinner (pre-run), 'supper1' (post-run, pre-dancing), and 'supper2' (post-dancing). I eat 100ish calories extra in the mornings I weight train though.

This is my staple meal. I have this once a day, 5x a week. I buy chicken thighs in bulk, marinade them in ziploc bags and freeze them. I buy the big 1.75kg bags of Arctic Gardens frozen vegetables (there's quite a variety of them so I like to rotate them every 1-2 weeks). Rice is cheap as hell too. Hope this helps!

IcelandicBlonde27 wrote: »

Thanks so much everyone! All of this really helps!! I’m going to try a lot of these suggestions! I just checked out skinny taste! Looks like I’ll be hitting up the produce and frozen veggie section of the grocery store next time I shop! Does anyone front load their calories ( eat more in the morning) and find that having a small dinner works for them? I ask because I don’t get very hungry at night besides the occasional craving which is what has lead to my night binges in the past. I’m mainly hungry in the morning and early afternoon.

I eat a 500 calorie breakfast, same for lunch, and then a smaller dinner, with a couple of snacks in between, and I'm down 110 lbs presently, coasting downward now after reaching normal weight. I'm eating more than 1200 though due to exercise. Which I recommend - exercise is protective of your lean muscle mass while you're eating in a deficit, and 1500 or 1600 calories is a lot more satisfying than 1200.

My breakfast is steel cut oats made with milk, walnuts, and apples with either a tablespoon of peanut or almond butter and a side of cottage cheese, or two strips of bacon and two eggs. Plus seasonings, such as cinnamon and vanilla on the oatmeal, salsa on the eggs, sometimes pickles. Usually around 500 calories, a few more or less. You can eat quite a lot of breakfast for 500 calories.

Dinner / lunch under 500 - start with two or three hundred calories of protein - grilled fish, a chicken thigh, a small piece of lean steak, pork tenderloin, ground turkey, eggs, tofu - add a hundred calories of starch - peas or beans, quinoa, potatoes, sweet potatoes - and a hundred calories of veggies. Keep your seasonings low calorie, such as herbs, ginger, lemon juice, vinegar. If you end up with fifty or more extra calories add healthy fats, such as olive oil, avocado, nuts, or a little cheese. You can make an infinite variety of meals like this. Stir fry, one pot, one pan roasted, grain bowls, salads.

Move more, and that way you ll have more calories to play around with and you ll be able to afford to eat dinners you will enjoy without restricting yourself to calories. I start my day with 1220 calories to eat, as the day goes on, and my adjustment calories add up, I always end up with at least 2000-2500 calories. 1200 calories diet is very very aggressive and not recommended for longer period of time. I would definitely try to move more, to be able to have but more calories to play around with.