Things to Know About 1200 Calorie Diet

What Does a 1,200-Calorie Diet Look Like?

When it comes to all things weight loss, the simplest, fastest way to make impactful, lasting change is to form habits you can actually stick with for life. That’s why this plan involves an easy-to-follow meal planning guide. This full week of  food will take the guesswork out of grocery shopping and prepping with nutritionist-approved breakfast, lunch, and dinner ideas.

What Is 1200 Calorie Diet Plan?

This planned diet allows an individual to consume 1200 calories each day because we need these many calories to meet the metabolic needs of the body. The plan to eat includes three meals per day along with 2 snacks – mid-morning and afternoon. Calories can be split as per one’s needs.

Here, unhealthy carbs such as white bread, pizza & refined sugars are kept at a distance and healthy carbs are taken from fruits & vegetables. To keep away from boredom, meals are switched consistently; however, whatever is eaten has to be nutritional.

What’s so great about a 1,200-calorie plan?

This diet works. Eat fewer calories than you burn and your body can resort to burning your fat stores. You lose weight as a result. However. It is not recommended that a person go under 1,200 calories a day, since it is very hard to get enough nutrients like calcium, protein, and magnesium on a calorie level less than 1,200. Add some strength training and get the right amount of protein in your diet so you don’t lose lean mass as well as fat, which can lower your metabolism and make regaining weight more likely.

Who Needs a 1200 Calorie Diet?

1,200 calorie diet is a plan that restricts food intake, creating a calorie deficit to promote weight loss. Unlike other diet strategies that focus on a particular food group,, there are no specific modifications for the 1,200 calorie diet. Overall quantity is limited in whatever way is easiest for you.

The average woman requires 2100 calories to maintain a healthy weight, the 1,200 calorie diet should be a sizeable yet manageable caloric deficit for most.

That said, eating 1,200 calories may mean a mild reduction in calorie intake for some, yet quite drastic and unhealthy for others. It simply depends on your current calorie intake as well as your metabolic rate.

For instance, a smaller, sedentary postmenopausal woman may only require 1,500 calories to maintain her current weight. Restricting to 1,200 calories may produce mild weight loss.

A larger, active young man may require 2,500 calories to maintain his current weight. This means, restricting to 1,200 calories would cut his food intake by over 50%.

So, while restricting calories to 1,200 will help you lose weight, the rate and sustainability of this diet depends on individual characteristics like gender, age, activity level and health status.

Are You Getting Enough Calories ?

Here are signs that you are not getting enough calories: You are having a hard time sticking to your diet plan. It's hard to stick to extremely low-calorie diets, which can hurt your long-term success. Boredom and hunger can both undermine your weight-loss goals.

Your weight loss is stalling. A research of 50 overweight people compared the results of a calorie restriction diet, diet and exercise, and a normal diet over 6 months and found that many of those eating the lower amount of calories had increasingly slow metabolisms as time went by. This translates into slowed weight loss.

Dieting for weight loss

So you’ve decided to drop a few pounds. Perhaps it’s because your doctor’s suggested it, or perhaps it’s because swimsuit season is just around the corner. There’s no shortage of diets out there, but you might want to consider a simpler path. You can try packing your diet with nutrition-rich foods and lowering the number of calories you consume.

A good place to start is a low-calorie diet plan that provides about 500 calories less than you need in a day, which may help you lose about a 1/2 pound to 1 pound per week. For some, this would be a 1,200-calorie diet plan. As always, you should check with your doctor first. This plan involves consuming no more than 1,200 calories per day. 1,200-calorie diets are great for the right person, especially women over 50 who are generally sedentary, since that’s not too far below what they would normally eat to maintain weight.

1,200 calorie diet Treats

Following a 1,200 calorie diet does not necessarily mean that a person has to avoid any specific foods entirely. Allowing an occasional small treat may make it easier to stick to this restrictive diet.

Very high calorie foods, such as slices of cake or large muffins , can make it difficult to stay under 1,200 calories for the day while maintaining nutritional needs.

Treats that could work within a 1,200 calorie diet can include:

small servings of treat foods, such as a single cookie or five potato chips

popcorn, which is low in calories

Eliminating empty calories from the diet can free up more space for treats. Some sources of empty calories include:

white bread and pasta

sweetened beverages, including sugar in coffee, alcohol, and sweetened fruit juices

soda

high calorie condiments

oils and butter that are high in saturated and trans fats

Why You Shouldn’t Eat A 1200 Calorie Diet

First of all, let’s talk about your Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR).

In simple terms, your BMR is the amount of energy you need to simply function at rest.

If you lay in bed for a day, you still need energy for your heart, lungs, muscles, nervous systems etc to function.

It’s why if you starve yourself you will eventually die because you no longer have fuel for your body to function.

Think of it like leaving your car running,

It still needs fuel to run even though it’s not moving.

So unless you’re a 5′ 2″, 8 stone girl, you’ll need more than 1200kcals to function.

And straight away, that rules out quite a few girls reading this, yet may find themselves going super low on the calories.

The problem with super low calorie diets are two-fold:

You go super low calorie during the week only to blow out in extraordinary fashion at weekends.

You eat low calorie for an extended period of time but end up feeling like crap.

You’ve restricted yourself so hard all week that the second you taste something enjoyable you go to town on it.

If you go low calorie for an extended period of time, then your body is going to adapt to ensure survival.

It may down-regulate metabolism,hormones, thyroid function, and even activity levels.

You’re eating very little but also not losing anything.

You will feel lethargic, not want to exercise and can suffer from concentration issues.

Because overall, you’ve become much less active due to your body protecting it’s vital functions by reducing some of the non-vital functions.

When it comes to any diet, it is a period of restriction so there will be some level of discomfort.

But you don’t want to diet to the point where you feel like crap and can’t perform well. That’s not a sustainable solution. And it can lead to a rebound in weight once you abandon the diet.