A 1200-calorie diet can help you lose weight by keeping you on a structured meal plan. This plan removes the extra calories you might get from snacks and sodas throughout the day. Yet, a diet isn't for everyone. People use this diet to eat fewer calories than they expend through exercise.
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.
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.
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.
1 pound (around 0.5 kg) is about 3500 calories (5), so if you stick to a 1000 calorie meal plan, and your normal needs are 2000-2500 calories per day, you may burn as much as 7000-10 500 calories per week, thus losing from 2 to 3 pounds (1-1.5kg) a week.
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.
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.
A 1200-calorie diet can help you lose weight by keeping you on a structured meal plan. This plan removes the extra calories you might get from snacks and sodas throughout the day. Yet, a diet isn't for everyone. People use this diet to eat fewer calories than they expend through exercise.
“On a 1,200 calorie diet, your body has to make adjustments. You can't live optimally on that. If you are young and active, you would lose weight and fat over time, but your body would make metabolic adjustments. "You might get cold hands and feet more easily, and you would be preoccupied with food a lot of the time.
What does science say about the 1200 calorie diet? 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.
“And then, of course, everybody's metabolism is slightly different. But the average weight loss that most people see on the 1200 calorie diet is about one to two pounds per week.”
But consuming only 1,200 calories per day is simply not enough for many adults and can lead to consequences such as a slower metabolism and nutritional deficiencies.
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?
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.
It's likely that this is where the general recommendation of 1200 calories came from, based on an assumption that if the average female is consuming 1500-1600 calories each day, reducing it by 400-500 calories will support weight loss while still providing enough calories to support metabolic rate.
A prolonged 1,500 calorie-per-day diet can slow metabolism, so it is best to only do it short-term. Risks to consuming too few calories may include: Inadequate nutrition. Fatigue/tiredness.
You will lose up to 10 pounds (4.5 kgs) if you consume 800 calories and exercise regularly. Make sure your doctor or nutritionist is aware of your diet pattern.
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.
The amount of food we consume daily has a significant impact on bodily function. Most adults need a minimum of 2000 calories to sustain metabolism, muscle activity, and brain function.
For most people, diets that are 1200 calories or less fall into that scenario, with not enough calories for the body to run. So the metabolism slows, our hormones become imbalanced and our bodies eat up lean muscle to keep running.
If you're a moderately active woman consuming closer to 2,200 calories a day, ingesting 1,200 calories is likely to result in the loss of around 2 pounds per week, or about 8 pounds per month. Every 500 calories you reduce from your daily diet can result in the loss of a pound per week.
People on a 1,200 calorie diet need to eat nutrient dense food to avoid feeling hungry and prevent malnourishment. Lean proteins tend to be very dense in nutrients and low in calories. White carbohydrates, such as white bread, by contrast, contain more calories and fewer nutrients.
To lose one pound of weight per week, you should consume approximately 1,500 calories per day. Active women who walk for over 3 miles per day need to consume at least 2,200 calories to maintain their weight. To lose one pound of weight per week, you should consume approximately 1,700 calories per day.