For those who need fewer calories, a 1,200 calorie diet is usually safe and potentially effective. The number of calories a person needs each day depends on several factors , including their age, sex, activity level, and body size.
To calculate your weight-maintenance calories, multiply your weight by 15. 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.
A prolonged 1,200 calorie-per-day diet can slow metabolism, so it is best to only do it short-term. There are risks to consuming too few calories, including: Not getting adequate nutrition. Anxiety.
The 1200-calorie diet can help you lose weight quickly, but sticking with it for longer than 2-4 weeks can typically do more harm than good. You can often feel exhausted, worn down, and unable to get through your day if you over-restrict and undernourish yourself.
A 1,200 calorie diet, according to most nutritionists or food experts, is a restrictive, unsustainable, likely unhealthy diet for any adult woman. So if it's so bad for us, why do we keep trying it — and failing — only to blame ourselves instead of the diet itself?
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.
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. But if you have diabetes and are on a low-calorie diet, you should monitor your blood sugar levels to avoid any problems.
In order to lose at least a pound a week, try to do at least 30 minutes of physical activity on most days, and reduce your daily calorie intake by at least 500 calories. 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.
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.
When you eat less than you need for basic biological function (about 1,200 calories for most women), your body throws the brakes on your metabolism. It also begins to break down precious, calorie-burning muscle tissue for energy, says Benardot.
One health resource suggests aiming for a 500-calorie deficit per day for weight loss over time. This will help you lose about 0.45 kg of body weight per week. That is almost 2kgs a month and 12kgs over six months. For an average woman, some guides suggest that number is around 2,000kcal (8,400kJ) a day.
In a study of more than 2000 people with obesity, it was found that 1200 calories per day helped patients lose an average of 4.7% fat in 1 year. A year of dieting with 1200 - 1500 calories you can lose up to 7 kg of weight.
Each day comes in around 1,200 calories—a calorie level at which many people can safely lose 1 to 2 pounds per week—and includes enough protein and fiber to help you feel full and satisfied while cutting calories.
According to WebMD, if you have a body mass index (BMI) of over 30, which doctors call obese, a very low-calorie diet like the 1300 calorie diet will allow you to lose around three to four pounds a week (11). That makes an average of about forty-four pounds in three months.
The first and obvious reason is because your body needs more than 1000 calories to sustain itself. Yes, you could technically survive on 1000 calories or less, but you'd be extremely malnourished, weak, and sickly.
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.
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. Also worth noting is that the human body can adapt.
Because you're not taking in enough calories, your body slows down your metabolism in an effort to conserve energy. You might feel sluggish and cold and have gastrointestinal abnormalities, such as constipation.
People on a very low-calorie diet for 4 to 16 weeks report minor side effects such as fatigue, constipation, nausea, and diarrhea.
Undereating may cause weight gain for some people, but even if it doesn't, it's important not to eat so little that it adversely affects your health. From constipation to immune dysfunction, not eating enough can lead to a host of health issues.
Some health conditions may be the reason why you are in a calorie deficit and not losing any weight. These mainly include hormonal imbalances such as hypothyroidism, illnesses that affect insulin response and glucose metabolism, such as diabetes, or a mix of the two.