1200 Calorie Diet: What It Is, What Does It Do?

The 1200 calorie diet focuses on promoting weight loss.

Usually, a diet of 2000 calories is recommended for maintaining weight, although it may differ from person to person. However, a 1200 calorie diet is almost never recommended for maintaining weight in adults. It’s quite low and will definitely push a person into a calorie deficit, which, in-turn, will promote weight loss.

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What Is A 1200 Calorie Diet?

1200 calorie diet (Photo via Jamie Matociños/Unsplash)

In a 1200 calorie meal plan, a person will consume only 1200 calories in their diet. These calories will come from proteins, fats, and carbohydrates that make up the diet plan.

Since 1200 is quite less than the recommended maintenance calories, your body will be forced to burn the stored calories in order to make up for the extreme deficit. When your body burns stored calories, it promotes weight loss. If your body is not motivated or pushed towards burning the stored calories, you will not be able to lose weight or cut fat regardless of how much you exercise. The primary goal is to ensure that you’re always in deficit when aiming for weight loss.

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What Do 1200 Calories Look Like?

Meal options (Photo via Agto Nugroho/Unsplash)

Here's an example of what a 1200 calorie diet plan looks like:

1. Breakfast: Whole grain toast with 2 tbsp of peanut butter and 1 medium banana (375 calories)
2. Snacks: 1 medium apple with some baby carrots (145 calories)
3. Lunch: 1 serving of Turkey-cheese sandwich with a medium carrot (425 calories)
4. Snack: 1 serving of Greek yogurt with ¼ cup of mixed berries (170 calories)
5. Dinner: 3-ounces of grilled chicken, cup of steamed bro cookies, and 1 serving of quinoa (420 calories)

The above will round out to approximately 1500 calories, although it takes a regular workout routine into account.

If you’re rigorously working out for 45 minutes to an hour where you’re focusing on resistance training and cardio while following a 1200 calorie diet plan, you’re essentially consuming a significantly lower number of calories.

This will not be sufficient in the long run since your body will definitely hit a plateau. Since our bodies are rather smart, it’ll understand you’re consuming extremely low calories and could starve in the long-run. As a result, it’ll stop burning the stored calories at the required rate, which will decelerate your weight loss or even halt it temporarily.

It is important to provide enough nutrition to your body in order to motivate it to burn the stored calories and make up for the deficit. The best way to do the same is not to push yourself into starvation, but to consume the suggested calories as per your goals and aims.

If you’re insisting on following a 1200 calorie diet, you may want to lower the amount of rigorous exercises you’re doing. Given the relationship between food and energy, low calories might not be able to provide you with the same levels of energy that a 1800 or 2000 calorie will be able to.

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How To Determine Your Calories?

Determine your calories (Photo via Katie Smith/Unsplash)

To understand if you should follow a 1200 calorie diet plan, you need to first know how many calories are recommended for you on a daily basis. Hence, the first step is to identify your maintenance calories. Once you’ve figured that number, the second step is to deduct or add calories to it based on your goals.

Subtract from the numbers if you want to lose weight and add calories if you want to gain muscle or add weight. These are known as calorie deficits or calorie surpluses, respectively.

It’s important to understand that usually the recommendation is a 500-calorie deficit or surplus to make it a healthy diet. If you want to push yourself further, you can opt for a 1200 calorie plan.

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A Note About 1200 Calorie Diet Plans

This diet plan is usually recommended for individuals under medical observation or who need to consume fewer calories for medical procedures. It’s not recommended that you follow a 1200 calorie diet plan without any professional recommendations.