1200 calorie a day diets
cnjg6677
Posts: 177 Member
What does your menu look like
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Replies
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It doesn’t. I would starve on that, and am willing to bet you will, too. .
When I started, I started (5’7” @ 222) I set an uninformed, arbitrary number of 1470. It took me about three months to realize that was just stupidly low. I increased it three times over the next year, and have still managed to lose a (literal) buttload.
Why don’t you give us your height and current weight, activity level, and goal weight?
Someone here (not me, I adjust my calories constantly and wouldn’t want to inflict myself on others) can give you a good idea where you need to start at.
You are so lucky. You've stumbled upon the best weight loss resource around, imho, and if you read these boards religiously and listen and learn, you have a fierce weapon in your weight losss arsenal- if you choose to use it properly.
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Thank you for the great answer! I’m short 4”11 and 43 years old mfp has my maintance calories at 1200 been at this for awhile and was looking for sine different food options8
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Are you already fairly lean and are you sedentary? Because otherwise 1200 should be a deficit for you. Maybe you put in your goals wrong?
Regardless, at 4'11 if you are sedentary it's possible you'll need to eat 1200 or close to it to lose weight. What is your current height and activity level?
My calorie goal with a small deficit was 1350 which I just couldn't stick to so I worked on increasing my activity level and taking more and longer walks to get up to 1500 cals or so.
Meanwhile, hopefully others who have to eat on the lower end of the calories scale will be along with suggestions!4 -
My maintenance is a bit higher, around 1500, but I eat around 1200-1300 to lose a bit of weight. Also middle aged woman, not very tall either and not overweight. For me, it is mainly portion control and since I am mostly hungry in the evening, no matter what I eat earlier in the day, I usually eat a small breakfast, small lunch, eat more at dinner. So, I am likely to sacrifice lunch completely if I really want to have an ice-cream, or if am going to have pizza with family, definitely 1-2 slices are the limit and so on. To eat more filling meals, on most "normal" days without special occasions, eating out etc, I add lots of vegetables, salads, and also fresh fruit. A lot of it is also personal preferance, I like a plant based diet more.2
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I was on 1200 with a professional’s advice for ages and felt very ill and lacked energy. My PT suggested upping to 1400-1500 and I started dropping much faster and feel amazing now. I’m 5’4” female with 15lbs to lose and extremely active. I don’t know how I wasn’t hospitalised in all honesty.1
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You don't say how much you weigh, how active you are or how much you are trying to lose. That may change things.
I'm a couple of inches taller and didn't have a huge amount to lose in order to get to Normal BMI, although my ultimate goal was middle of Normal. My maintenance number was quite low even when I started on MFP so, no matter what rate of loss I selected, I'd be given 1200 as that's the lowest recommended. As such, my deficit was small and logging / selection of entries in the database / weighing everything had to be very accurate. Pre-covid, I went to the gym a lot and did a fair amount of walking to 'earn' extra cals, so it was rare I'd only eat 1200 a day. I'm now in maintenance and get 1340 a day but, as the gym isn't open and my daily half hour walk doesn't give me many extra calories, I'm currently eating 1400.
My typical day is unsweetened soya yoghurt + a handful of berries + a sprinkling of seeds + a 1/2 serving of muesli (everything is weighed, of course) plus a hard boiled egg for breakfast. At weekends, I might do some or all of sausages, bacon, poached eggs, mushrooms and grilled tomatoes. Very very occasionally I'll have a slice of toast with my cooked breakfast. Lunch is usually a large salad (lettuce/rocket, cucumber, tomatoes, radish, spring onions, usually no dressing) + protein. Sometimes I have a large bowl of homemade chicken and vegetable soup. Dinner is different every day but will contain meat/fish plus veg and usually a carb - but I reduced the volume of rice / pasta / potatoes that I put on my plate. If I have a stirfy, there's usually such a large pile of veg going into the wok that I don't need any rice or noodles anyway. Depending on how many cals I have to play with, snacks consist of dark chocolate coated rice cakes, lentil crisps, apples, babybel cheeses and almonds.
I cook different curries, bolognese (served on courgetti or a mix of courgetti and pasta), chilli, fish pie, Shepherd's pie and stews in bulk and freeze in portion sizes so that I know a serving will be in line with my calories.4 -
Not everyone is extremely active and young. I maintain at this numberHanibanani2020 wrote: »I was on 1200 with a professional’s advice for ages and felt very ill and lacked energy. My PT suggested upping to 1400-1500 and I started dropping much faster and feel amazing now. I’m 5’4” female with 15lbs to lose and extremely active. I don’t know how I wasn’t hospitalised in all honesty.
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Yep. I'm lightly active and am definitely not extremely young. As I said above, my maintenance figure is 1340.
The OP is shorter than me; if she doesn't have much weight to lose, it's very possible that any deficit will set her at 1200 cals a day. I'm surprised her maintenance is 1200 though but, without knowing her weight, we can't comment on that aspect.1 -
Not everyone is extremely active and young. I maintain at this numberHanibanani2020 wrote: »I was on 1200 with a professional’s advice for ages and felt very ill and lacked energy. My PT suggested upping to 1400-1500 and I started dropping much faster and feel amazing now. I’m 5’4” female with 15lbs to lose and extremely active. I don’t know how I wasn’t hospitalised in all honesty.
You said further up that your maintenance is 15002 -
I'm 4.11.5ft and my maintenance has been 1200 or almost 3 years. Female 103lbs.1
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This makes me concerned. I am 30, same height, 10 lbs heavier than her and trying to lose 16 lbs to be 97 lbs and eating 1200 calories for the last couple of days. If 1200 is maintenance, than dang I am doomed.0 -
threeyears2024 wrote: »
This makes me concerned. I am 30, same height, 10 lbs heavier than her and trying to lose 16 lbs to be 97 lbs and eating 1200 calories for the last couple of days. If 1200 is maintenance, than dang I am doomed.
1200 for two days is hardly evidence than your maintenance is 1200. Make sure you weigh everything correctly and give it at least a month before jumping to that conclusion. Best of luck on youR journey.0 -
Hanibanani2020 wrote: »threeyears2024 wrote: »
This makes me concerned. I am 30, same height, 10 lbs heavier than her and trying to lose 16 lbs to be 97 lbs and eating 1200 calories for the last couple of days. If 1200 is maintenance, than dang I am doomed.
1200 for two days is hardly evidence than your maintenance is 1200. Make sure you weigh everything correctly and give it at least a month before jumping to that conclusion. Best of luck on youR journey.
Erm I did not say 1200 is my maintenance. I just said I am eating 1200 for two days and am the same height as the person who is 10 lbs lighter than me and has 1200 for maintenance.0 -
threeyears2024 wrote: »Hanibanani2020 wrote: »threeyears2024 wrote: »
This makes me concerned. I am 30, same height, 10 lbs heavier than her and trying to lose 16 lbs to be 97 lbs and eating 1200 calories for the last couple of days. If 1200 is maintenance, than dang I am doomed.
1200 for two days is hardly evidence than your maintenance is 1200. Make sure you weigh everything correctly and give it at least a month before jumping to that conclusion. Best of luck on youR journey.
Erm I did not say 1200 is my maintenance. I just said I am eating 1200 for two days and am the same height as the person who is 10 lbs lighter than me and has 1200 for maintenance.
Oh I misread. Cool0 -
Ouch! Sorry. I thought I'd overestimate your age big time. I hope you see it as a compliment of sorts. Yeah, looks like the only thing you can do is try to move more, and try to build muscles.0 -
threeyears2024 wrote: »Hanibanani2020 wrote: »threeyears2024 wrote: »
This makes me concerned. I am 30, same height, 10 lbs heavier than her and trying to lose 16 lbs to be 97 lbs and eating 1200 calories for the last couple of days. If 1200 is maintenance, than dang I am doomed.
1200 for two days is hardly evidence than your maintenance is 1200. Make sure you weigh everything correctly and give it at least a month before jumping to that conclusion. Best of luck on youR journey.
Erm I did not say 1200 is my maintenance. I just said I am eating 1200 for two days and am the same height as the person who is 10 lbs lighter than me and has 1200 for maintenance.
There is no reason to worry about your number based on someone else's anecdotal results. Many factors affect your calorie needs and how accurately a person estimates their activity level and logs food can affect their perception of the numbers.
Just start with what the calculators tell you, tweak as you go, and stay as active as you're comfortable with
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Are you already fairly lean and are you sedentary? Because otherwise 1200 should be a deficit for you. Maybe you put in your goals wrong?
Regardless, at 4'11 if you are sedentary it's possible you'll need to eat 1200 or close to it to lose weight. What is your current height and activity level?
My calorie goal with a small deficit was 1350 which I just couldn't stick to so I worked on increasing my activity level and taking more and longer walks to get up to 1500 cals or so.
Meanwhile, hopefully others who have to eat on the lower end of the calories scale will be along with suggestions!
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Are you already fairly lean and are you sedentary? Because otherwise 1200 should be a deficit for you. Maybe you put in your goals wrong?
Regardless, at 4'11 if you are sedentary it's possible you'll need to eat 1200 or close to it to lose weight. What is your current height and activity level?
My calorie goal with a small deficit was 1350 which I just couldn't stick to so I worked on increasing my activity level and taking more and longer walks to get up to 1500 cals or so.
Meanwhile, hopefully others who have to eat on the lower end of the calories scale will be along with suggestions!
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Great observations here. Being Asian & living in Asia, perhaps our diet is different compared to the West. I am 5’3+, with a goal set at 1,200 calories daily. Most of the time, i consume 1,000. I do a 16:8 IF, with 2 meals (lunch & dinner). I eat almost everything, but try to keep to low carbs meals. Exercise varies from running, combat, walking, about 2-3x a week.1
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stephanieyeo wrote: »Great observations here. Being Asian & living in Asia, perhaps our diet is different compared to the West. I am 5’3+, with a goal set at 1,200 calories daily. Most of the time, i consume 1,000. I do a 16:8 IF, with 2 meals (lunch & dinner). I eat almost everything, but try to keep to low carbs meals. Exercise varies from running, combat, walking, about 2-3x a week.
I will hope you are underestimating your calories. Eating only 1000 cals for any more than a day or two while exercising is not healthy. Your body needs fuel, and netting under 1000 cals doesn't do that, regardless of where you live and what you eat.9 -
stephanieyeo wrote: »Great observations here. Being Asian & living in Asia, perhaps our diet is different compared to the West. I am 5’3+, with a goal set at 1,200 calories daily. Most of the time, i consume 1,000. I do a 16:8 IF, with 2 meals (lunch & dinner). I eat almost everything, but try to keep to low carbs meals. Exercise varies from running, combat, walking, about 2-3x a week.
Many active people who report regularly eating under 1,200 a day are actually underestimating the calories they're consuming (which is okay if it winds up working for you). There is no evidence that I'm aware of that indicates Asian people are able to extract *more* energy from calories than other people or that their calories needs are restricted by some other mechanism.9 -
What does your menu look like
4'10" and 105-110 lb here. Honestly (for me anyway): 1200 total is a nope! (you pretty much have to eliminate all the snacks or luxury foods, and eating out, liquor,...). I have mine set at 1240 net (short, not overweight, sedentary other than exercise), BUT my total calories are usually >2000/day (god bless bicycles). My advice would be to add a more exercise (find something you love) if you're physically able to so you're not stuck with that few.
For sample meals:
breakfast: quick oats + non/low-fat greek yogurt ~300; or hard boiled eggs with cottage cheese (the quick oats might potentially crowd out too much protein, fat at 1200 total/gross calories)
lunch, dinner: salad greens/vegetables + lean meat (chicken, fish, 90+/10- ground beef, some pork cuts). more lowfat greek yogurt as dessert or soup/stew/chili that contain basically the above. (for chili, padding it out with chopped carrots, etc since ground meat, beans are calorie dense). canned diced tomatoes can sub in for soup in a pinch on it's own (add a side of meat). Pretty much no (or very little) room on 1200 for starchy-courses.. so might forego buying potatoes, bread, possibly even corn,...
-- you pretty much plan each meal around getting in a decent protein source and work around that. And make sure you get enough fat in there (if the meat cuts are too lean..yes- I've adjusted ratios of skinless/boneless chicken breast with turkey sausage in soup/stew bc the fat content was too low).5 -
Hanibanani2020 wrote: »
Not everyone is extremely active and young. I maintain at this numberHanibanani2020 wrote: »I was on 1200 with a professional’s advice for ages and felt very ill and lacked energy. My PT suggested upping to 1400-1500 and I started dropping much faster and feel amazing now. I’m 5’4” female with 15lbs to lose and extremely active. I don’t know how I wasn’t hospitalised in all honesty.
You said further up that your maintenance is 1500
Yes, exactly, 1460 to be precise at the moment. And the previous poster suggested 1400-1500 as goal to lose. Which would not work for many of us.1 -
I don’t find that unbelievable. I’m the same height as her, 40 lbs heavier, active with average around 10,000 steps per day and maintain around 1500. If she’s sedentary and weighs much less her maintenance could very well be close to 1200. I’m 38 years old. When sedentary, I maintain around 1350. I can imagine my maintenance being lower if I got closer to goal weight.2 -
What does your menu look like
4'10" and 105-110 lb here. Honestly (for me anyway): 1200 total is a nope! (you pretty much have to eliminate all the snacks or luxury foods, and eating out, liquor,...). I have mine set at 1240 net (short, not overweight, sedentary other than exercise), BUT my total calories are usually >2000/day (god bless bicycles). My advice would be to add a more exercise (find something you love) if you're physically able to so you're not stuck with that few.
For sample meals:
Pretty much no (or very little) room on 1200 for starchy-courses.. so might forego buying potatoes, bread, possibly even corn,...
On starchy stuff, I go half/half. I cook my rice in bulk and then bag it in 100g portions anyway, but I'll often bulk it out with grated cauliflower (which I also freeze in portion sizes). If I'm doing bolognese, I serve it on courgetti or a courgetti / pasta mix. I find that one medium sized potato, baked as 8 wedges, is (seems) more substantial than mash so now have wedges with most meals that call for potatoes. A lot of my meals are bulked out with veg for volume at lower cal. However, with playing around, my breakfast and lunch are now quite low cal, leaving more for dinner.
Exercise buys me snacks and the occasional glass of wine.
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It always blows my mind when I read posts about people eating 1200 (or less!) a day, I guess I often assume people are underestimating what they are eating because I just couldn’t do it!
I am female 5’4 around 125 pounds and don’t think I could do less than 1500. I am currently doing a mini cut on 1850 and maintain on 2100.
Maybe try getting in more excersise? That would give you more wriggle room.5 -
I eat about 1200 calories most days. I’m almost 60 years old . I did 1200 seven days a week while I was losing weight ( I have lost 75 pounds and am 5’5 and Now 134 pounds. . Now i have a 1800-2200 meal once per week.
I do IF so 2 meals a day.
Typical lunch:
Carb balance tortilla with goat cheese and sautéed mushroom and onion. Bowl of raspberries.
Dinner:
Salad ( served in giant mixing bowl): 2 entire bags of salad mix ( like Fresh express Italian), 20 stalks of steamed asparagus, tomatoes, cucumber, carrots and corn with 4 oz Broiled salmon, chicken or lean steak on top. 2 oz Full fat balsamic dressing.
Diana’s banana ( dark chocolate covered frozen banana)
Peach or plum.2 -
Today
Breakfast: Oatmeal with 12 raisins, 1 tsp brown sugar, and walnuts, Coffee with milk and tsp sugar
Lunch: 1/2 sandwich with 1/2 slice of cheese and 1 slice of ham, cooked baby carrots, 1/2 cup pineapple
Dinner: Pineapple chicken salad sandwich, Salad with ranch dressing,
Snacks: banana, 10 groove crackers, sun chips (small individual bag), apple (maybe)
Sometimes I go up to 1300 calories
1
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