1200-calorie meal plan: free weekly menu, who it is for (and who it is not) and how much weight you lose

Before the menu: is it safe to eat 1200 calories a day?

It depends on who is eating it. The 2013 AHA/ACC/TOS guideline for the management of overweight and obesity in adults describes several ways to create the deficit: setting a target that is usually 1200-1500 kcal/day for women and 1500-1800 kcal/day for men, adjusted for body weight and physical activity, or subtracting 500 or 750 kcal/day (or 30%) from estimated expenditure. Read carefully, that means two things. First: for many adult women, 1200 kcal is within what is used in weight-loss programmes, but at the low end, so it leaves little room to cover protein, fibre and micronutrients. Second: for a man, 1200 falls below the usual range. As a cautious rule of thumb, do not go below ~1200 kcal (women) or ~1500 kcal (men) without professional supervision. And below 800 kcal/day we enter the territory of very-low-calorie diets: in the studies the guideline reviewed, they were done under medical supervision, usually with meal replacement products. This is not something to do on your own. If you want to understand where your number comes from, read how many calories you need a day.

Who is the 1200-calorie diet for? Examples using Mifflin-St Jeor

The Mifflin-St Jeor equation estimates resting energy expenditure: 10 × weight (kg) + 6.25 × height (cm) − 5 × age − 161 for women, or + 5 for men. That result is multiplied by an activity factor; here we use the usual ones of 1.2 (sedentary), 1.375 (light activity) and 1.55 (moderate activity). These are five examples with rounded figures, which are estimates and not measurements. You can run the numbers with your own data in the basal metabolic rate calculator:

• Woman, 45 years old, 1.55 m, 60 kg: resting expenditure ~1185 kcal. Sedentary ~1420, light activity ~1625. For her, 1200 kcal is a deficit of ~220-425 kcal: this is the case where this number makes the most sense.
• Woman, 35 years old, 1.63 m, 65 kg: resting expenditure ~1335 kcal. Sedentary ~1600, light activity ~1835, moderate activity ~2065. If she is sedentary, 1200 kcal gives her a deficit of ~400; with light or moderate activity, 1450-1500 kcal already gives her a similar or larger deficit.
• Woman, 30 years old, 1.70 m, 80 kg: resting expenditure ~1550 kcal. Sedentary ~1860, light activity ~2135. With 1200, the deficit would be ~660-935 kcal; if sedentary, ~1350 kcal, and with light activity, ~1600 kcal would already give her about 500 kcal of deficit.
• Man, 35 years old, 1.78 m, 80 kg: resting expenditure ~1745 kcal. Sedentary ~2090, light activity ~2395. 1200 kcal would be a deficit of ~890-1195 kcal and falls below the usual range for men (1500-1800).
• Man, 70 years old, 1.65 m, 65 kg, sedentary: resting expenditure ~1335 kcal and total ~1605. Even if the maths gives a deficit of ~400 kcal, at that age losing muscle is a real concern: better not to go below ~1500 kcal without supervision, and to look after protein intake.

How much weight do you lose on 1200 calories a day?

It depends on the gap between 1200 and your expenditure, not on how low the number is. The table uses the classic rule (about 7700 kcal per kilo) only as a starting estimate: Thomas et al. (2013) compared that rule with actual weight loss in seven experiments with controlled intake and showed that it overestimates it, because as you weigh less you also burn less. In the AHA/ACC/TOS guideline, average weight loss with diet peaks at around 6 months and some weight then tends to come back. As a reference for pace, the CDC notes that people who lose weight gradually, at around 0.45-0.9 kg per week (1-2 pounds), are more likely to keep it off. If you want to see how many weeks it would take you to reach your goal with a less aggressive number, the weight loss calculator does the maths with your own data.

The structure of each day (~1200 kcal)

Every day of the menu follows the same skeleton, designed so that protein and vegetables are never missing despite the low calories. Learn it and you will be able to improvise:

• Breakfast (~230-300 kcal): protein + fruit or a wholegrain cereal. E.g.: 200 g of 0% Greek yoghurt + 150 g of strawberries + 30 g of oats (~280 kcal and ~25 g of protein).
• Lunch (~400-470 kcal): lean protein (120-150 g raw) + plenty of vegetables + a small portion of carbohydrate (50-70 g dry weight or 150-250 g of potato) + 1 teaspoon of olive oil (5 g).
• Dinner (~300-460 kcal): protein + plenty of vegetables + a little carbohydrate (potato or a thin slice of wholemeal bread) + 1 teaspoon of oil.
• Snack (~135 kcal): 150 g of 0% Greek yoghurt + 1 kiwi, with about 16 g of protein.
• Total: ~1180-1220 kcal and about 90-120 g of protein. Water, coffee and unsweetened herbal teas as your default drinks.

The complete weekly menu (free)

Approximate amounts for ~1200 kcal, with raw weights. We added up each day using reference values from USDA FoodData Central (1 teaspoon of oil = 5 g; 1 thin slice of wholemeal bread = 30 g): every day comes out between ~1180 and ~1220 kcal including the daily snack (150 g of 0% Greek yoghurt + 1 kiwi), with 90-120 g of protein; on Saturday the free lunch is counted as ~400 kcal. Built-in trick: the fish from Monday dinner is cooked in a double portion and comes back at lunch on Tuesday. If you swap a food, look up its calories in calories in foods.

3-meal version (no snack), also ~1200 kcal

If you prefer not to eat between meals, spread the snack across the three meals: the skeleton stays the same and only the portions change. An example day with approximate amounts (raw weights, values from USDA FoodData Central):

• Breakfast (~345 kcal, ~27 g of protein): 200 g of 0% Greek yoghurt + 30 g of rolled oats + 150 g of strawberries + 10 g of walnuts.
• Lunch (~460 kcal, ~40 g of protein): 140 g of chicken breast + 45 g of brown rice (dry weight) + 300 g of stir-fried courgette, pepper and broccoli + 1 teaspoon of olive oil.
• Dinner (~385 kcal, ~40 g of protein): 180 g of hake or cod + 150 g of boiled potato + 250 g of green beans + 1 teaspoon of olive oil.
• Total for the day: ~1190 kcal and ~105 g of protein, spread as roughly 27-40 g per meal.
• For the rest of the week: use the menu above and, instead of the snack, add about 45 kcal to each meal (a little more yoghurt, fruit or carbohydrate).

Signs that 1200 is too little (for you)

Your body lets you know when the deficit is too much for you, and it is worth listening to those signals instead of putting up with them as if they were part of the "sacrifice". Pay attention to:

• Intense, constant hunger that does not settle even after eating.
• Tiredness, lack of energy or feeling cold almost all the time.
• Poor sleep, irritability or difficulty concentrating.
• A clear drop in performance or strength when you train.
• Dizziness, periods that are delayed or stop, or noticeable hair loss: mention it to your doctor.
• Losing, as a practical rule of thumb, more than 1% of your body weight per week on a sustained basis (in the first weeks it can drop faster, partly from water).

How to scale up if 1200 is too low for you

If you have found that your real number is higher, the same menu adapts without being rebuilt: the skeleton does not change, only the portions do. Quick scaling rules:

• Towards ~1400-1500 kcal: increase the carbohydrate at lunch and dinner (about 20 g more dry weight or 80-100 g more potato) and add a piece of fruit to the snack. You have the complete menu in the 1500-calorie meal plan.
• Towards ~1600 kcal: all of the above + a fuller breakfast (more oats or one more egg) and an extra teaspoon of oil at each main meal.
• If you train: add 20-30 g of carbohydrate around your workout (fruit + yoghurt), even if it "breaks" the number for the day.
• Protein is not cut when scaling up or down: in calorie-restricted diets, higher-protein versions are associated with preserving more lean mass. Work out your own figure with the protein calculator.
• Vegetables, as much as you like: they are the food group you can increase at almost no calorie cost.

The mistakes that make 1200-calorie diets fail (or become unsafe)

First: treating 1200 as the number for everyone. For a petite woman who is not very active it can be a reasonable deficit; for a man or for a tall, active person, it is a large cut that is usually abandoned early. Second: cutting protein to "save" calories. At 1200 kcal it is the most costly cut of all: more hunger and a greater risk of losing muscle along with the fat. Third: not measuring added fats. A tablespoon of olive oil has about 120 kcal; with two or three tablespoons poured by eye, a 1200 menu turns into one of almost 1500 without you noticing. And fourth, the most important one: ignoring the warning signs, or following a menu like this when it is not appropriate (pregnancy, adolescence, a history of eating disorders, medication for diabetes). Losing weight should never cost you your health. If the menu is making you feel unwell, the menu is wrong for you, not the other way round.