Why a 1200 calorie diet? Where does that number come from? If you are interested in dialing down your calorie intake, that's a number you should be particularly interested in - it's the least it's recommended you take in each day (if you are a woman), if you are on a diet. Go any lower than that, and you are looking at starvation. In fact, men who wish to go on a low-calorie diet to lose weight are recommended to go no lower than 1500 calories a day. If going any lower than a 1200 calorie diet means starvation, is a diet that stays on the right side of it borderline starvation? Not exactly. A diet of this kind will certainly help you lose weight, but it's possible to have healthful nutrition staying within those numbers too.
The only thing you need to be mindful of on an ultra-low-calorie diet such as this is that you need to rearrange things on your menu each day so that you put in as many vitamins and nutrients in what you allow yourself. What happens when you deprive your body of essential nutrition is, your body decides that there just isn't enough nutrition for it to go on, and it lowers its metabolic rate. When it does this, you lose weight even more slowly than you used to before going on the diet. A 1200 calorie diet plan isn't for everyone who wishes to lose weight though.
It's for people who are cleared by a doctor to be fit enough to get on board. It has to go with the level of physical activity that is expected of you, your height and your weight. If you are someone who needs to stay active through the day in your line of work, a 1200 calorie diet would be a pretty poor fit for you. So what exactly does a diet of this kind look like? It has to be balanced perfectly for all the nutrition that you need - since you're allowed so little space to maneuver in. You need to make each calorie count. Your menu could include a small salad, low-fat dairy and egg white omelettes, whole wheat bread or biscuits. For a break at work, do you like coffee and doughnuts? That could easily count for 500 calories. Junk food usually packs lots of calories and very little nutrition. Try a slice of whole wheat toast with scrambled egg whites and a glass of orange juice instead.
Lunch for instance, could consist of 5 ounces of baked chicken breast in a bed of brown rice and chicken broth to go with it. A snsck could consist of a little salad with low-fat dressing and steamed beans. A little butter to go with it wouldn't be a bad idea either. You really could live very well on a 1200 calorie diet. You just need to make a few little changes.
