To ask for help planning a 1200 calorie day

[iloveruby]

For health reasons I need to loose weight and it has been recommended that I follow a 1200 calorie diet but I'm really struggling to stick to this, mainly because of planning (or lack of).
So my AIBU to ask you to outline what you'd eat if you had to stick to 1200 a day??

I find it helps to skip breakfast. Lots of people will say that’s a bad idea but it’s a very individual thing - if you know you can make it to lunch without feeling unwell or being tempted to snack, it’s a good calorie saver. I tend to have a cup of tea and then plenty of water (I prefer the calorie free flavoured kind). Then for lunch something like a bowl of Heinz soup (204 cals) and some sunbites crisps (iirc 150 cals). That leaves plenty to play with for your evening meal, which I find more satisfying. I tend to have a really hearty salad which is filling but low in calories and then smaller portions of things I like with it - eg veggie meatballs in a tomato sauce, or fishcakes, or fajita mix.

You’ll soon find what works for you - it’s a very individual thing!

Yesterday I came in at 1073 (wouldn't normally go lower than 1200).

I had 2 wheatbix with semi skimmed milk (170) and a cup of tea (16)

Mid morning snack of 1tbsp hummus and a carrot cut up into sticks (76)

Lunch was 2 slices of hovis brown bread with lettuce,cucumber and a thick slice of ham. An apple. A satsuma. 50g of Greek yoghurt. (340)

Snack of 1 cup of grapes mid afternoon (62)

Then 140g of gammon with one fried egg and one 140g sweet potato cut into wedges. (377).

Then 2 cups of tea after that, was left with 127 calories so could have had a biscuit or something but went to bed.

I am definitely not saying this is the healthiest most balanced or even interesting day but it is easy to come in at 1200.

I also skip breakfast, or have a medium skinny coffe if i'm having a stressy day! I limit carbs such as bread/pssta/rice to one meal a day and hsve a small portion. When i want something naugghtier (chicken kiev last night) , i skipped the potatoes and just had lots of steamed veg. Proper Corn is pop corn good for a crunchy low cal snack

Agree with everything @AuntBeastie says. I did a 1200 calorie diet for about a year before I had my daughter (and hoping to get back to it soon). I had coffee for breakfast with full fat milk and that was enough for me and got my metabolism going. Then I had something very light for lunch - sometimes a smoothie, sometimes soup, sometimes just protein and salad - just avoiding bread which is empty calories. Then I could have a normalish dinner so long as I watched portion size and filled up on veg / salad. Also don't drink anything except water - empty calories. (Apart from my morning coffee which I couldn't give up!)

It’s also worth remembering that treats are still possible! A two finger kit Kat is 105 calories, so totally possible to fit in a 1200 calorie diet

What I did was basically 350 kcal/meal + 150 kcal in drinks (I like a lot of milk in my tea). Huge portions of steamed vegetables with high protein every meal (including breakfast). Can add a bit of soy sauce or milk mustard or salsa. Tofu & skinned chicken were big features.

Agree with Aunt. I occasionally skip breakfast, and have 200cal of snacks, 500 lunch, 700 dinner (ish). I'm on 1400, obviously.

I find that if I eat a small breakfast it just sets my stomach off, and a large one makes me feel sick at that time of day. Having none allows me to have a nicer lunch and dinner.

Not for everyone, but handy if you're feeling brow beaten into "you must have breakfast".

My other tips are:

• eat slowly
• boiled eggs are excellent for snacking
• don't be afraid of fat
• make the meals you like healthier (more veg, less pasta or rice, less sauce etc), don't pick new meals

In fact, many days of the week my lunch is a ham and cheese toastie, and I've lost 3st since April.

I couldn't disagree more about skipping breakfast, you want to wake your digestive system up so it's burning calories for you. A sluggish digestive system is doingbyou no favours at all. I am living happily off 1200 calories and have been for months. Plan around 300 per meals, with two snacks. Base every meal around the protein content, it will keep you fuller. Cut refined carbs out, there's more than enough in veg. Eat every 3 hours so you don't get ravenous. Practise portion control. Use MyFitnessPal to keep a diary and weigh your food.

I find 1200 actually pretty easy, as Aunt says skipping breakfast makes it even easier but isn’t for everyone.

Some days I’m really extra hungry so I have plain porridge made with mainly water and a dash of milk, with some fruit on top. Comes out under 200 calories. Nature valley granola bars are 200 cals a pack and I might have these as a breakfast if I’m on the go.

Lunch is typically salad with boiled egg, ham or tuna. No carbs. A big bowl including lettuce, carrot, pepper, cucumber, tomato, beetroot & sweetcorn plus the protein is 300 calories. Soup is also a huge bowl for around 300 calories. Biggish jacket potato & beans is 400ish.

If I need a snack in the afternoon it will be breadsticks or fruit or a piece of chicken. Up to 100 cals.

Then evening meal I have 600-900 calories depending on what else I had and that means I can eat a proper meal of pretty much anything I fancy. So Spag Bol, curry, stew, whatever. I also often have 0% Greek young with fruit or I like those dried fruit shots that have 95 calories and have some choc pieces in, they feel like a nice treat. And curly wurlies are amazing 118 calories and take ages to eat.

If I’ve not got many calories left for dinner I like aunt Bessie’s carrot & swede mash it’s lovely with fried eggs on top and you can have have 1/2 the bag (frozen bags are 500g) for 90 cals. Use it to top a cottage pie or serve it with roast dinner instead of spuds, it cuts calories quite a lot.

Good luck!

Marking my place for ideas!

I want a strict couple of weeks and was thinking of buying some of Cook’s lower calorie ready meals to make life easy.

A quick and easy low cal dinner I often have is a pack of stir fry veg and a piece of salmon. Add some teriyaki sauce to the salmon. Some soy sauce in the veg and it’s quite tasty.

Can I suggest you look up Team RH/Richie Howie on Facebook? He will explain why 1200 calories is not good for your body and how the people who advise this in the NHS are I'm cahoots with people in the sugar industry! No conspiracy just simple digging to see the people advising the NHS work with PepsiCo, Mars etc.

Even if that side of things doesn't interest you, he explains how you burn calories each day just by breathing, even if you didn't move (TDEE). I weigh 15stone 10 and that figure for me is 2800. So for me to lose weight I am consuming 2300 calories per day, moving a lot more and working to build lean muscle so that I can change my body long-term and not just lose weight, they key to the high calories is having the right alance of macros which he also teaches and is much more straightforward than it sounds (macros are Fat, Protein and Carbs). If you lose weight fast, i.e. by following a low cal diet of 1200, you are losing muscle as well as fat - all of your organs are muscles and they are not exempt from that rule!

• I am not affiliated with Team RH or Richie Howie. I'm a member of his group and as a former Weight Watchers leader, slimming world member, Cambridge dieter and 1200 calorie follower he has completely turned everything I believed about losing weight on its head.

For me, getting to grips with skipping breakfast was key. This is impossible on hangover, but pretty easy otherwise.

I have a full-fat milk coffee with sugar-free caramel syrup and a handful of nuts until about 2 or 3pm.

I find evenings near impossible to be super-strict with myself, my husband and kids are eating, TV is on etc.

I'm the past I've had days like.

2 wheatabix with semi skimmed milk
Tuna salad
Grilled chicken with steam veg.
Carrot sticks, rice cakes and melon as snacks.

I tended to be starving most the day for the first few weeks but you do get used to it eventually.

Marble 🙌🏻🙌🏻 To Team RH. So much sense spoken over there!

The thing is marble you can have that many calories because your weight is what it is. For me at 11 stone 4 my calorie needs are 1840 to maintain or 1340 to lose a pound a week. Which I need to do as I should be 1 stone lighter than I am. So whilst I completely agree with some of what you say, we aren’t all equal. And it all comes down to burning more calories than you consume to lose weight. I run 25k per week so on days I run I eat a bit more. I also do a weight session each week. I am building muscle and ensure I eat the correct amount of protein to allow my body to do this. Eating 1200 calories on days I’m not exercising isn’t losing my muscle.

Nope, you don't lose muscle if you base your diet on a high protein content and work out, quiet the opposite...your body burns fat in preference to muscle. Yes, if you just drop your calories low with upping your protein content, you will eventually most likely lose muscle. I've been eating 1200 calories for months and have developed muscles where I never knew I had any. I do work out about 5 times a week...short and intense.
Drink at least 2 litres of water a day.

I also agree with @Marble179
I also thought 1200 was the magic number but after a few weeks the weight loss slowed down and then eventually stopped.
I had a BMI of 47 and my TDEE is 2600.
So my drop in calories were too big to sustain the weight loss as I eventually went insane suffered the plateau because I was on too high a deficit.

So you’ve been advised to go on a 1200 calorie diet with no training on how to make it a success?

Ridiculous!

You can’t just tell people this and leave them to their own devices. I’d be asking all sorts if questions like how did they come up with 1200? How does that compare to what you’re consuming now?

I found 1200 impossible unless I was actually exercising enough to give myself another couple of hundred calories.
I recommend my fitness pal as a way to log your food and exericise

Fat loss plateaus can be cured by a weekly cheat meal with high carbs. Also good for mentally keeping you on track.

I disagree about skipping breakfast, it would never work for me. Although I am very active so need more like 1600 calories to lose weight healthily. I make overnight oats for myself every evening, I need a lot less than I think I do when I’m making it so I always put it on a small bowl so it looks big.
Meal planning an logging is really important so that you can see where your calories are coming from. My secret calorie overload was nuts; I just hadn’t realised how many calories are in them and I had been eating them like they were a free food! So now I eat four almonds a day. Portion control is important- put meals on a side plate and don’t do back for seconds.
I still eat treats but a quarter of a brownie rather than the whole thing. I just budget for it in my daily calorie allowance

Log your meals befor you eat them, that way you can take out some very calorie dense food and add in lots of green stuff to fill you up

OP, for breakfast I have just had an massive omelet for less than 250 calories. One whole egg, 2 egg whites, broccoli, chicken and tomatoes.
For lunch I'll be having lean turkey balls with canned tomatoes and spinach.
For tea tuna with a beetroot, celery and spinach salad with chia seeds.
Snacks will be quark with a wee bit of vanilla paste and either protein bar or an egg.
I'll have 3L of water throughout the day.
Planning and meal prep is key.
That will easily come within 1200 and I won't feel hungry at all. My diet is high in protein at the moment because I'm trying to build muscle so you might not need so much but I rarely feel starving.

There's a whole diet topic with about 8 boards on it.You really don't need to post everything in AIBU!!

@Piggyhoolier

The thing is marble you can have that many calories because your weight is what it is. For me at 11 stone 4 my calorie needs are 1840 to maintain or 1340 to lose a pound a week. Which I need to do as I should be 1 stone lighter than I am. So whilst I completely agree with some of what you say, we aren’t all equal.

If you were following a good programme like Team RH you would be on more calories but creating the deficit with activity which is the only way it will be less effort to maintain in the long run. What happens when you lose another stone or two? You have to keep dropping your calories to ridiculous levels to even maintain because you have not got the balance right at the start. Moving more and building lean muscle on higher calories is key to long term success and maintenance long term.

And it all comes down to burning more calories than you consume to lose weight.

Kind of. The only way to lose weight is through calorie deficit. That is, consuming less than your body uses. There doesn't HAVE to be any 'burning' of calories.

I run 25k per week so on days I run I eat a bit more. I also do a weight session each week. I am building muscle and ensure I eat the correct amount of protein to allow my body to do this. Eating 1200 calories on days I’m not exercising isn’t losing my muscle.

But it is unfortunately. I'm not trying to argue with you but this is information from someone far more educated and we'll researched in these matters than myself.