How much weight can you lose a week on a 1200 calorie diet?
In the next 10 minutes I am going to tell you how much weight can you lose a week on a 1200 calorie diet and give you the exact foods you can eat to maximize your weight loss speed.
I´ll show you exact steps, which will help you to lose weight with maximal speed and most common mistakes.
But before we get started, please do me a favor.
Make sure you read the whole thing.
Don’t skip a line.
I will lay out exactly what to do to start seeing results to finally lose weight.
Sounds good? Awesome. Let’s get started.
How much weight can lose a week on a 1200 calorie diet?
Before we get into a point, let me tell a quick story about one of my first clients Brigitte.
Brigitte tried 100 different diets and methods and nothing was working for her in the long term.
Cutting out sugar, carbs, detoxes and just to name a few.
She knew something was holding her back and she was desperate.
Often the cycle was following: cutting radically something, seeing some results until something happened.
She thought there was something wrong with her when she just couldn’t keep eating that way even though she got great results and lost weight already.
During her “best diet” she lost over 10 kg within just 6 months.
Problem was that she gained 15 kg within the next 6 months after “finishing” her diet.
She made many mistakes and was trying literally everything.
But was not able to get long term success even “dieting” her whole life.
I tell you this because I could not be more proud of her and the way she was able to change her mindset and hard work she has put in and how she never gave up.
I also tell you this because just like you Brigitte has had tough times throughout her journey. As long as you do not give up you will achieve your goals.
Ready to learn what Brigitte learned? Keep reading.
Before We Move On.. How Does Weight Loss Happen?
One of if not the most common weight loss mistakes I see people make is not understanding how weight loss truly works.
You see weight loss is simple math. Calculated science.
To lose weight you must create a negative energy balance. To put this in better context, you need to consume less calories than you are expending.
That would make sense at least right?
To lose weight this scale would need to have the energy intake (calories in food) to be below the energy expenditure (calories used). So the right side would be above the left side meaning you ate less calories than your body burned for that day.
Before you are going to ask and do even more cardio to burn more calories, NO that is not what you should start to do.
If you want to know the best workout for weight loss, head HERE and read my article how to lose belly fat where I explain the best workout to burn more calories.
How many calories do you need to lose weight?
You are here to find an answer to how much weight can lose a week on a 1200 calorie diet. Before you decide how many calories you need to lose weight, please read this ARTICLE where I explain what is the right calorie amount to eat for you.
“But I am not losing weight so what should I do?!?”
Let me start this with honest truth:
If you are not losing weight you are not in a calorie deficit.
You are not in a negative energy balance which means you will not lose weight.
This will be the key to understanding everything else moving forward in this article.
This is also very empowering because instead of wondering if your metabolism is just slow, if your age is catching up to you, or if your stress is causing you to eat chocolate…
You can know that at the end of the day all of it comes down to being in a calorie deficit and not any of those things above.
If you are not losing weight with 1200 calories, most likely you are not eating 1200 calories.
Here 5 most common Calorie Counting mistakes
1.You are guessing Portion Sizes (this is most common mistake I see)
Eyeballing or using serving sizes, instead using food scale and measuring food
2.You are not counting all bites / snacks. Finishing leftovers, bite of cheese while cooking..
All these things might sound not important but if you do them 2-3 times per day and even it´s 50 kcal each time, it makes in the long run a lot.
3.You are not tracking cooking oils or dressings.
“ I ate only salad” 500 grams and tracked everything. 150 calories, you are smiling. But at the same time you add just a bit of olive oil which is healthy.
“Amazing, I couldn’t agree more with you!” But do you know how many calories olive oil has? 1 tbsp has 120 calories. Same applies when you are cooking your meat and using oil.. Even if it is not your “actual food”, you end up eating these calories.
4. Liquid Calories.
Alcohol is the number one progress killer but that you already know. Please next time read labels from your “healthy” juice or smoothie and track that too. You might be surprised
5. Not tracking weekends.
You are living healthy during the week and at weekend you deserve to relax a bit, right? Enjoy some good food and drinks. Nothing wrong with that at all. Where you can go wrong though is thinking that the weekends don’t count towards your calorie count for the week.
Lowering your calories will lead to faster weight loss?!?
Straight forward answer is yes. Bigger your calorie deficit is, the faster you will lose weight. But it is not that simple. Before you decide to reduce your calories even more, read the next lines very carefully.
When you reduce calories more, your energy levels will be low and you will feel hunger.
You won’t have a lot of energy to be active and walk.
Quality of your workouts will suffer.
It all leads that you will be burning less calories.
If you try to lose weight too fast, like Brigitte did many times before, you will end up quitting and gaining all weight back (often even more) once you can´t keep dieting anymore.
Trust me, it is not a matter of IF you will quit, it is a matter of time before you quit.
If you can’t imagine living in 5 years like you are “on your diet”, it won’t be sustainable.
See your weight loss journey long time investment and please do me a favor and not try to get results as fast as possible.
How much weight can you lose a week on a 1200 calorie diet?
Good, sustainable weight loss rate is 0,5kg (1lbs) per week on average. Anything more won’t be sustainable, unless you have a lot to lose (over 20 kg or 45 lbs).
Weight loss and scale weight is never linear and that’s why I said on average. It means that if you lose within the first week 1 kg and next week 0 kg, you lose on average 0,5 kg.
“ But I need to see results to stay motivated!”
I get you. There is actually a strategy you can consider to get scale moving and more motivation.
But following this strategy, please follow the instructions I give you below.
You could start for the first 2 weeks with an unsustainable calorie deficit. It could mean to go up to 1000 calories below your maintenance calories. After you would raise your calories to a more sustainable deficit for 500 calories.
But you need to decide this before and do it regardless of what happens as a bigger deficit despite faster results won´t be a sustainable solution.
If you think this could be the right way to get a kick start for you, I highly recommend hiring a good coach you trust.
If you want to learn more how to do it properly, here is my VIDEO about it.
I don´t need more than 1200 calories?!?
As I don´t know you, I can’t say exactly how many calories you need.
Good estimate, how many calories you need, you will get from my calorie calculator.
( You need to scroll down a bit.)
Unless you are a very small and not active person, you will most likely need to eat more than 1200 calories to lose weight.
When you lower your calories too much, you won’t be able to get enough vitamins, protein and other essential nutrients.
Which Foods I should be eating on a 1200 calorie diet?
I am sure you have heard that you should eat more “good” foods and less “bad” foods. You hear that eating low carbs is the only option to lose weight. Leaving all sugar away. Eating natural products. To name a few.
That is where most meal plans fail.
Why?
Let me explain.
THERE IS NO SINGLE FOOD WHAT IS “GOOD” FOOD OR NO SINGLE FOOD WHAT IS “BAD” FOR WEIGHT LOSS
Weight loss, or fat loss as I like to call it, is an end result of how much energy you take in vs. how much energy you use.
Everything you put in your mouth has a calorie count. Even the “healthiest” foods. Nuts, avocado and olive oil are healthy fats but they have a high amount of calories. Eating “healthy” is not the same thing as eating for fat loss.
Yes, it is possible to lose fat even eating only “junk food” if you are in a calorie deficit.
No, it is not something I recommend to try but it is possible.
To make your fat loss more enjoyable, try to eat low calorie, high protein foods.
How much weight can you lose a week on a 1200 calorie diet?
Why is protein so important?
- Protein is the most filling of all macronutrients, (better than carbs or fats) It helps you to feel less hungry for a longer time.
- Protein requires more calories to digest. It means that your body burns more calories to digest protein than it does for the same amount of carbs or fat. It is called the “thermic effect of food”.
- Protein is the only macronutrient that helps you to keep your muscle mass. That means that if you don’t want to lose your muscles, you should eat also during your diet a lot of protein. Depending on your goals, it should be around 1,5-2,5 g / kilo of your body weight. So if your weight is 70 kg, you should eat at least 105g proteins daily. Ideally 140g.
- More protein you are able to eat, the easier your weight loss will be. Because when you eat more proteins, you will feel less hunger and most likely eat less other foods.
What else you should be eating?
Eating as much veggies and salad as you can. Whole grain complex carbs. Some fruits. More unprocessed and less processed foods.
These tips you already know and I won’t explain here more reasons why you should be doing it except it will help you to get enough vitamins and minerals to get essential fiber.
It is essential as eating enough fiber will keep your cravings away.
Bottom Line
You don’t need to starve yourself to lose weight. It’s ok to feel a little bit of hunger. Your goal should be to eat as much as you can (high volumes, low calories) while staying in a calorie deficit.
Weight loss is simple, but not easy to do.
Faster results are not better and try different things. If you are waiting for the final day of your diet, you are not doing it right.
Instead, focus on sustainable habits and stay patient.
Because this weight loss thing is not a race. It is a journey you should be enjoying.
It will take almost always longer than you would like and be slower than you would wish.
So keep trying, stay patient and keep going.
If you can do it, it is only a matter of time before you reach all your goals.
And as you might guess by reading until now, I don´t recommend you to start eating 1200 calories a week, unless you are really small and not active person.
You can, and should eat a lot more to lose weight sustainable way.
If you have any questions or need any help, I am always here for you.
Feel free to reach out to me via email at turo@fitmitturo.com
