The 1200-calorie diet can be healthy and effective if you design a plan that works best for your body type and hunger levels. It's best not to restrict yourself, so choosing foods you enjoy that make you feel full is a great first step to making this diet work for you.
If 1,200 calories a day is more than 500 calories lower than your weight-maintenance calories, you can expect to lose more than 1 to 2 pounds per week. If it's less, then you might lose fewer pounds a week.
Most adults need a minimum of 2000 calories to sustain metabolism, muscle activity, and brain function. However, too many calories can lead to weight gain and a variety of diseases.
So, if you're eating 1,200 calories and not losing weight, it could be that your body is really struggling to function on so little fuel and your metabolism is not functioning well enough to respond to a deficit in the way you'd like.
The diet doesn't have enough calories
Eating too little — say, 1,000 calories a day — can prevent you from losing weight, too. "When you don't eat enough, your body is starving and it's not going to lose any extra weight" because it needs those energy stores to keep you alive, Fakhoury said.
People may try this diet to control their food intake and lose weight. Some research suggests that the average female can limit their daily caloric intake to 1,500 calories or less to drop 1 pound per week. The average male may consume up to 2,000 calories a day to lose the same amount of weight.
However, other studies show that while consuming 1,000 calories a day may result in significant weight loss, most people cannot sustain it and often experience significant weight regain . The reasons include regaining lost muscle mass and increased appetite.
In addition, consuming as few as 800 calories daily may not give you the energy you need for daily living and regular physical activity, especially if you eat the same foods every day. Talk to your doctor or dietitian to make sure you get the nutrients you need while on a very low-calorie diet.
For weight maintenance, the Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2020–2025 suggest a range of 1,600–2,400 calories for women and 2,200–3,000 for men — so you could consider anything below these numbers a low-calorie diet.
But the average weight loss that most people see on the 1200 calorie diet is about one to two pounds per week.”
Whilst the 1200 calorie diet can get you fast results, extending it past 2-4 weeks can often result in more harm than good. Over-restricting and under-nourishing yourself can often leave you feeling depleted of energy, fatigued and unable to get through your day.
To achieve this at a healthy pace, eating between 1442 - 1854 kcal daily is recommended. For this example, 1200 calories daily would be considered a crash diet, as this amount is lower than is required to lose the recommended 1 – 2 pounds per week.
To sum up, a 1400 calorie diet is a viable option if you're an adult woman wishing to steadily lose some pounds. You can safely stick to this number of calories as long as you want, provided that your menu is balanced and contains no harmful foods.
Jesse Feder, Registered Dietitian, says, “ A person can only survive short term on 500 calories a day. This is extremely low and can lead to serious health issues over time.”
Theoretically, eating 10,000 calories in a single day can make you gain up to 3 pounds (1.5 kilograms) of weight. That's quite a lot, and depending on your age, height, weight, etc., you'd need around 10 hours of intense exercise to burn it off.
However, calorie intake should not fall below 1,200 a day in women or 1,500 a day in men, except under the supervision of a health professional. Eating too few calories can endanger your health by depriving you of needed nutrients.
For many people, it is safe to eat 1300 calories a day as long as you balance your meals well, and ensure each meal has the required nutrients. In general, people need a minimum of 1200 calories a day, as advised by Everyday health (4).
If you drastically slash calories and are eating a very low-calorie diet (Think: less than 1,000 calories for women and less than 1,200 calories for men), “starvation mode” can actually be starvation. Starvation from chronic undereating can be counterproductive to weight loss and dangerous to your health.
Starvation calories are an intake of fewer than 600 calories per day, however; any caloric intake below the recommended minimum doesn't provide the body with the fuel it needs to function properly. A starvation diet doesn't promote weight loss because your metabolism slows down in response to low caloric intake.
For most people, there are no serious dangers involved in eating one meal a day, other than the discomforts of feeling hungry. That said, there are some risks for people with cardiovascular disease or diabetes. Eating one meal a day can increase your blood pressure and cholesterol.
The 1200-calorie diet is geared toward women. Men's bodies require a higher caloric intake. This means that a typical woman can eat between 1200 and 1500 calories a day to lose weight. A typical male body needs about 1500 to 1800 calories daily to lose weight.
Most rough estimates revolve around 100 calories burned per mile for a 180-pound person. How many miles are 10,000 steps? On average, 10,000 steps are going to come out to be roughly 5 miles. So assuming you weigh 180 pounds, then yes, by simple mathematics, 100 calories x 5 miles equals 500 calories.