[Closed] 1200 calories a day - what would you eat?

2500 calories worth of donuts!

1200 calories is unnecessary torture.

I've been doing this for a week already - I could murder someone for a doughnut.

Greggs chocolate donuts btw, none of yon crispy kreme inferiority.

Move more and eat more 🙂

Bran flakes are pretty low in calories, eat with plenty of low fat milk, perhaps adding water.

Tuna for a low calorie source of protein?

Lots of water to make you feel more full.

Or blow the whole day's calories on a box of doughnuts. 😉

Bottle of red and a cheeseburger?

5 crunchies!

I would recommend using myfitnesspal to find out how many calories you can eat and lose.

It gave me 1530 (5'11" 16 stone) to lose two pounds a week and I lost at a rate over that 3 or 4 pounds a week.

To answer the original query.

Breakfast

Quaker Oats Porridge Pot - 220 calories

Lunch

Wrap with salad, chicken/turkey/ham and sald - 280 calories

Low calorie bag of popcorn - 80 calories

Dinners

Beans on Toast - 650 calories

Various M&S ready meals - 600 calories

etc.

Snacks

8 cups of tea with milk - 120 calories

Soreen Lunchbox loaf - 100 calories

Banana - 100 calories

HTH

Have been eating around that for the past month.  Just make everything yourself if poss, I cut out wheat bread, wheat cereals, and dairy which helped.

Breakfast:  Ramikin of porridge made with soy milk, w/ blueberries and a handful of mixed nuts.  Some days with chopped apple OR slice of rye toast with peanut butter

Lunch: Crudités* (lots of) with hummus (*carrot sticks, celery sticks, radishes, sliced sweet peppers, sliced cucumber)

Dinner: lentil casserole OR cauli and sweet pot curry OR homemade mushroom and courgette bolognese sauce with butternut squash 'noodles' (spiralized)  OR red lentil dahl with whole grain mix.  Usually serve a few extra greens or veg on the side, ie broccoli, kalettes, cabbage, sweetcorn etc

snacks:  sultanas, nuts, fresh fruit (berries, apples, pear etc) OR rough oatcakes with hummus OR seaweed snacks, or Lentil Chips OR popcorn in moderation

Get the pic?  Basically the Carol Vorderman Detox Diet (got the book from ebay for a few quids) yet remixed to household tastes  😉

Must admit am feeling much more energetic, 😴 Sleeping better, dreaming more, waking earlier and enjoying the taste of food a lot more.  Haven't weighed self for 3 weeks but clothes are baggier by considerable amount 🙂

Still have the odd day 'off' (no more than one evening a week) with a shared bag of chips and mini fish but would easily have polished off a whole bag before.    No intention or desire of going back to bad old ways now the month is up.  Good luck OP, whatever you decide to do.

1200 calories per day is hard.

Breakfast: Porridge with a small handful or fruit, seeds and nuts. It fills you up. Downside is you need portion control.

Lunch I find really hard because bread or wraps add many calories. Soup (not creamy ones; mostly veg and water) or salads with some protein to make you feel full.

Evening meal: Lots of veg and a bit of protein. Try spiralised courgette or butternut squash instead of spaghetti with a tomato based sauce. Roast root veg and squash instead of potatoes. Or just have meat & veg, without potatoes. Puy lentil, sausage and tomato casserole with steamed greens would be <600 cal (3 sausages). Cut down on oil and no butter. Use feta or goats cheese instead of hard cheeses. Fresh grilled fish and salad. Cut the fat off meat. And portion control.

I agree with using MyFitnessPal to really see where the calories are, especially snacks, drinks etc (though note it is not particularly accurate and a pain if you cook a lot yourself because you need to weigh stuff and add everything manually - but this can be a good thing with portion control!).

112* Pringles. Salt and vinegar, obviously.

Worry about the blood pressure later.

* If you're not au fait with the units, that's approximately 1.1 tubes.

(Edit: No exercise?  Even if I'm stuck in a hotel in crap conditions 5K on a treadmill takes less than 20 mins and chews through a fair amount of energy if you go hard)

+1 why no exercise?  I cycle 6 miles to the shops to get groceries.  Its the perfect utilitarian 1hr workout.  When I want more I do the 16 miler to the farther shops 🙂

1.1 tubes of crisps?! Blimey, I would snack on that whilst cooking tea. No wonder you are struggling to hit 1200 calories.

Greggs chocolate donuts btw, none of yon crispy kreme inferiority.

You are wrong. It's an aulds fudge donut that you want

Lots of chicken, you get to eat a reasonable volume of food for the calories.

If you do restricted diet long term make sure you dont end up missing any vital vitamins/minerals etc.

Mainly cake

6 pints of Guinness.

Oh, hang on. That's drinking.

Assuming actually what you want to do is lose fat rather than just 'any' weight, Don't cut too much or you will end up losing not just fat but also muscle. 10 percent calorie deficit is about what you need for long term FAT loss. Look up basal metabolic rate and calculatioins around this. Also to avoid muscle loss lift heavy weights so your body realises it still needs them (and doesn't prefer dropping the muscle in preference to fat)

Oh yeah and myfitnesspal.

And look up macronutrients and 'cutting' for how the bodybuilders do it (i.e. scientifically)

Surely the answer is simple: vegetables.

All the scientific evidence on nutrition says that a diet of mostly veg is by far the healthiest, and most veg is low calorie.

Gherkins for the win.

Lots of em

I'm trying to do something similar. Counted my calories for a couple of weeks then just followed the basic principles of reducing carbs unless I exercise and heavily reducing sugar regardless. I don't cut down on the meat/protein though and I don't worry much about eating some fat because my other basic principles seem to keep it down anyway. Meat can be helpful because they are very satisfying calories, and bring other goodness with them.

I flat out insist on eating good food because I want to keep at it longer term. I don't worry about going way over on some days. I see it as a general improvement and expect the weight loss to be slow. I'd rather enjoy the process and I'm seeing a noticeable improvement.

<span style="font-size: 0.8rem;">So something like a Thai beef salad seems a cracking meal option to me. Hot crossed buns are a disaster, unfortunately.</span>

I started on about 1200 calories a day but I've moved to more like 1500 which I can do without feeling dissatisfied. Drink is the other killer, and normally the reason for going a long way over on some days.

Lots of salad and/or vegetables plus a thousand calories of meat or eggs.

I will be exercising / commuting, but will eat more on the days that I do.  This is for the drive to work days.

I was limited to 1600, but a good day (1300 calories) was a bit like this:

Breakfast:

Shredded wheat x2, 1% milk and tea = 216 calories

(although a favourite is 2 weetabix with a bit of added fruit muesli and 1% mik, 340 calories)

Lunch:

2 pitta's, low fat houmous, lettuce, tomatoes, light mayo, tea = 477 calories

Dinner:

BBC goodfood recipe (most dinners were) Thai fried prawn and pineapple rice, and a mullerlight yogurt = 405 calories

Snacks:

Homemade latte, 1 apple, 1 clementine, 1 instant coffee = 196 calories.

The big thing is to use a calorie counter like Myfitnesspal, bulk out with fruit, and MEASURE YOUR PORTIONS!  I'm sure there are plenty of people on here that have a triple serving of cereal!  Also, build your sandwiches as you eat, it takes longer and makes you feel like you've eaten more 🙂

1200 calories a day – what would you eat?

The pointy end of a shotgun.

Last year I did 8 weeks of 800Kcal/day and no carbs. 1200 is LUXURY!

Try and hold on until lunch and only have 2 bigger meals.

Stop reading womens magazines and eat properly. It's not difficult.

Stop reading womens magazines and eat properly. It’s not difficult.

Trimming your cals-in while maintaining cals-out IS eating properly if you wish to lose some weight. Eating only nuts, or drinking smoothies only is following daft diets.

However, I found that at 1200 cals or lower, I can't sustain it because it keeps me **starving**. I find it easier to eat nothing than 1200, and no more likely to scoff tons the next day.

Grand big mac and large fries, 1185 calories, with the 15 calories I'd saved each day I'd have a biscuit once a week.

I did this for ages last year. Went like this;

breakfast: coffee

lunch: coffee

dinner: red wine

1200 calories a day – what would you eat?

The pointy end of a shotgun.

I laughed.

OP, here's an infographic that helps visualise what 1200 calories a day actually looks like served up.

http://blog.myfitnesspal.com/1200-calories-looks-like-infographic/

I'd concur, this looks like a typical day for me except have been laying (!) off the eggs and probably have more nuts.  Yesterday had a day off, sank two pints of Batham's and worshipped at the altar of cheddar and spanish onion door-stop.  It was necesarily guilt-free.  Did I enjoy this meal as much as the homemade lentil and wild mushroom bolognaise with sweet-potato spiralized 'tagliatelle'?  I'd say about equal.  Surprised myself.  Beer is a killer though.  More beer? Hard to say no.  Mmmm water.  Water,

What do you plan on doing once you get to your planned weight? I'm not sure 1200 calories is maintainable long term so you need a plan on what your diet will be once you get close to your desired weight.

Personally I'd rather eat a bit more and losenthe weight slower. Less likely to give up and end up binging that way.

I'm currently doing 1500 a day (plus extra if I exercise.), with the added complication of <30g carbs.

Today, so far -

Coffee with double cream

3 rashers of bacon

1 egg, fried.

That's about 420 cals so far, according to myfitnesspal

Not hungry yet (11am)

Plan is for maybe a bit of smoked mackerel and green veg/mushrooms for lunch, maybe with some pecan nuts

Pork chop and green veg for tea. The kind of veg I'm allowed is cauliflower, broccoli, cabbage, courgette, spinach, that kind of thing, but that's only to keep the carbs down.

Bit of cheese or chorizo for a snack later.

Bit troubling to start with, but I'm two weeks into this now and not craving the shite I normally cram my face with.

Don’t cut too much or you will end up losing not just fat but also muscle.

No you won't. Not by reducing your calories a bit on one day everyweek.

I would try to avoid carbs the day before and you will probably find your hunger easier to manage on the restricted calorie day.

Add an extra zero, then you'll only have to eat one meal a week? 🤔  (IANADietician)

Bring on the beige-binge*: (NSFBinners!)

*The Great British Beige-off

You can actually go below 1,200 calories a day for faster weight loss. They call it very low-calorie diet which typically ranges from 500 to 800 calories per day. Here's a list I found of very low-calorie diets.

**** that.

Lifestyle change is what you need, not some unsustainable fantasy 'diet.

Avoid starchy foods imo.  I'd be replacing starch with cabbage and cauliflower.  Sounds awful, but - caluflower with a bit of cheese sauce on is lovely, and savoy cabbage stir fried with bacon pieces and lots of pepper is bloody lovely and very filling.  Have that with a naked burger and a little barbecue sauce, you won't be craving more.

I don't do weight loss by starving myself, I find I just get ill, plus exercise induced weight loss is a lot more fun.

But to make it easier, avoid sugary stuff that'll make you hungry again shortly after. I dropped about 5 kilos on similar exercise levels by not keeping sugary stuff at my desk at work (I do keep moderately unhealthy savoury snacks).

Coffee with double cream

Interesting idea this, will try it.

Protein and lots of stuff with fibre.

1200 is too low for a month, but if you're determined it makes for a lot of tuna, chicken broccoli and green beans.

A daily deficit of 200 cals is more sustainable.

Also, just don't have cereal for breakfast.  Terrible idea.  Sugary and starchy, you produce insulin, then you get hungry later.  Protein for breakfast with some fat.

Dropping 4Kg over spring isn't a huge target, and should be doable with a defict between 250 and 500, so unless you're on the short side of average you shouldn't need to put yourself into survival mode (which can be counter production).

I was able to lose between 500g and 1Kg a week by consuming around 1700Kcal a day.
with my daily requriement to maintain weight around the 2100 mark.

I've lost approx 8 kilos since the start of March with normal riding and 1500 calories a day, keto style. Starting to come off keto periodically now, mainly because I don't want to lose much more weight and it's bloody hard to to eat the sheer volume of calories I need to cover my riding without busting my carb limit, or having to gorge myself on avocado, which I still don't like all that much.

Also, just don’t have cereal for breakfast.  Terrible idea.  Sugary and starchy, you produce insulin, then you get hungry later.  Protein for breakfast with some fat.

Not to mention it's ****in rank.

I think it's reasonable to crash diet for a short time, but then switch to a more manageable and less drastic eating lifestyle afterwards.  Not going back to your previous diet obviously.

Totally, but no one ever does it.

tinned fruit for the win - really fills you up, hardly any calories, and comes in nice predictable portions so you don have the problem of working out how much you can have.

Frozen fruit too, aldi et al sell it now too, Joe Wicks oat and fruit muffins loaded with frozen rasps and blueberries are wicked for brekkie, between Mrs Nobeer and I we must eat about 20 odd a week.

I'd be eating a lot of homemade chicken and rice noodle based Thai soups. Tom Yum Gai is particularly good, especially if you use Galangal instead of ginger - it cleans you out as well as tasting great.

The 5:2 Fast Diet is your friend:

https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/collection/52

https://www.olivemagazine.com/recipes/healthy/best-ever-easy-52-recipes-under-500-calories/

http://www.deliciousmagazine.co.uk/15-52-recipe-ideas/

https://www.worldofbooks.com/the-fast-diet-the-secret-of-intermittent-fasting-lose-weight-stay-healthy-live-longer-by-mimi-spencer-gor004470935.html

Lots of homemade food; lots of fruit, veg and eggs. It's not actually that hard – just stay off the snacks. We did it for about six months - the dahl in the book is a particular favourite.

Vegetable soup - I'm not a fan of vegetables or the additional hassle it takes prepping them to add some veg to an otherwise OK meal but I've just started doing vegetable soup and it's pretty low hassle (just peeling/chopping) and tastes really good (at least when done in a pressure cooker and blitzed afterwards).

My last one was:

2 red onions

3 mid-sized potatoes

4 mid-size sweet potatoes

1 large head of Broccoli

1 butternut squash

bag of baby spinach

500ml carton of tomato passata

water to top up to max fill line of pressure cooker (makes about 4.5 litres of soup in total)

salt/pepper/oxo cube/herbs

Takes 20-30 mins to prep everything and 20 mins cooking. I eat the lot to replace all meals on one day (I added various beans the first time around and that turned out to be a mistake :p ). I have no willpower and binge eat a fair bit but find it's easy enough to eat soup for a day - no clue on the total calories in the above (I'm more just trying to gradually sort my diet out with more veg and less processed food) but I'd be surprised if it were much over 1200 calories but soup is generally more filling than the equivalent of whole foods.

Mrs DB is a bit of a feeder and a fabulous cook, having been 90kg virtually the whole of 2017 despite having signed up to stw chub club I lost nothing, decided on 5/2 diet in December and restricted myself to about 600 calories on two days a week, I'm now down 6kg in 4 months - just need to find whatever works for you really ☺️

+1 for veggie soups too

"I’m sure there are plenty of people on here that have a triple serving of cereal!"

Quite true - if I have a small bowl! 😉

In work I have a large bowl of cereal and a little muesli for breakfast and lunch.  Outside work I eat what I want, mostly low fat plus weight train and ride.  Lost my winter weight 2 lbs/week last Spring and kinda doing the same this year though riding has only really started getting going in the last few weeks.

Soup, spinach, fish and eggs are pretty much the winners for me in operation low cal, plus whatever green stuff i find in the fridge that looks like it might go off if I dont eat it.

Yesterdays lunch was a ropey iceberg lettuce, couple of handfuls of spinach, tomatoes, half a red pepper, half an onion and a tin of tuna.  Little bit of lime juice, honey garlic and apple cider vinegar as a dressing. It was massive, filled a mixing bowl and I ate the lot.

Today is a rather boring two bowls of covent garden carrot and butternut squash soup at a whopping 180 calories for both bowls. Then had two boiled eggs and a handful of spinach.

If you use my fitness pal how do you calculate the cals form home made dishes??

Weigh the ingredients, add the recipe to your DB and then you can reuse it.  In our house we only really cook about 10 things on rotation 😀

If you want to eat cereal for breakfast pay attention to the portion size; you'll soon discover that the 30/40g portion the details are provided for looks like bugger all for most of them.

Meanwhile the equivalent portion of Weetabix is 2 biscuits, or a pack of ready portioned Porridge, which bore you into eating no more than 1 portion!

Today is a rather boring two bowls of covent garden carrot and butternut squash soup

Rather delicious, but looked it up out of interest and...3,200mg of sodium (150% of your daily recommended) per carton. Bloody hell!

EDIT: That might be a My Fitness Pal boo-boo - claimed is only about 50% of rda...

Fuzzy

MFP says your soup is around 1800 cals

i can do less with zero fat Greek yogurt and strawberries and blueberries for breakfast 65 cal

greek salad with 50g feta for lunch 280cal

and a chicken kebab for dinner. 500 cal

allow another 150-200 for drinks.

995-1045 cals leaves some snacking space.

This one and the product information has it roughly the same (180ish per carton). The sodium score shows you should probably take what you read on MFP with a pinch of salt, though.

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/food/calories/new-covent-garden-carrot-butternut-squash-soup-589742017

Also, just don’t have cereal for breakfast. Terrible idea. Sugary and starchy, you produce insulin, then you get hungry later. Protein for breakfast with some fat.

Not necessarily. At night I make up tomorrow's breakfast, a bowl of porridge oats, some cinnamon and a scoop of whey protein (vanilla surprisingly tasty) mixed with almond milk and a handful of berries.  Hardly any sugar, loads of fibre and protein keeping you full of slow release carbs for ages.

Yep, whey protein in porridge is a winner. Just stir in after it's done for those disorganised  microwave-porridge fans.

Not necessarily. At night I make up tomorrow’s breakfast, a bowl of porridge oats, some cinnamon and a scoop of whey protein (vanilla surprisingly tasty) mixed with almond milk and a handful of berries.  Hardly any sugar, loads of fibre and protein keeping you full of slow release carbs for ages.

I think he means the shite that comes from a big box, tastes of nothing and did I mention it's rank?. 🤔😀

Cut out carbs and eat what you want. You’ll lose weight so fast people will think you’re ill! Try it. It’s scary.

+Salmon fillets
Surprised me how high in protein and low in fat they are. Pink Chicken.

+Treats which work for you with low calories (egg. Moser roth 85% choc from Aldi. 125 cals but i break it into bits and nibble with a pint of water)
+chewing gum - to help fill the gaps between meals.

I'm currently going for -750g / week = 1,750 cals + exercise. Would struggle without near daily exercise, even gym + a 15min walk can make a day more achievable by adding ~300 cals. +800 cals for my run this morning 😉 Syncs with strava too.
Re the MyfitnessPal question on homemade: Whatever you have made is usually already in their ...6 million entries or something...pleasingly easy to find just about anything with a small investment in learning to use the search.

True that boxed cereal is the worst.  But replacing the porridge even with eggs and bacon will help more, IMO.

BUT

There are many ways to do this. Low carb/low GI is a good one, but whatever works for you.

Re treats - couple of squares of 85% dark chocolate is good for me.  So rich, slightly sweet, takes the edge off but hardly any sugar.

"Assuming actually what you want to do is lose fat rather than just ‘any’ weight, Don’t cut too much or you will end up losing not just fat but also muscle. 10 percent calorie deficit is about what you need for long term FAT loss. Look up basal metabolic rate and calculatioins around this. Also to avoid muscle loss lift heavy weights so your body realises it still needs them (and doesn’t prefer dropping the muscle in preference to fat)

Oh yeah and myfitnesspal.

And look up macronutrients and ‘cutting’ for how the bodybuilders do it (i.e. scientifically)"

This. So much this.

OP,firstly well done on tackling it head on. However, how did you come to the conclusion that 1200 calories daily was:

a) sustainable (spoiler: it isn't)

b) not going to contribute to muscle loss (spoiler: it will in all likelihood)

c) not going to impact your hormones, sex drive and/or testosterone levels? (spoiler: you will feel like crap)

Unless you are an 8 year old girl, 1200 calories is an astonishing low daily amount. You truly only need a SMALL deficit over a LONG period of time. You didn't gain fat over night, nor will you lose it over night. Give yourself many months if not years to get there, accept it and keep consistent-fat loss is not a linear process, it fluctuates. Spend time working out your TDEE, Lean Body Mass and BMR to give you an accurate defect. And diet is NOT more important than exercise- both are important. My Fitness Pal for me has been very eyeopening on my own health and body composition journey- the basic food tracking is effective. Its good for beginning this process before you become more adept at 'eyeballing' portions- dont think you have to calorie count for life , but you need to get your head around how the calories in vs calories out process works. MFP or any food tracker does help. Oh and keep your protein intake up but not at the expense of overall calories.

Good luck!