1200 calorie diet, too extreme?

tejula · 16-01-2014 1:00am #1

Hi all! What is your opinion on 1200 calorie diet (an example of 1200 calorie diet menu is here http://healthiack.com/diets/1200-calorie-diet)?
Is it too extreme? My BMR is somewhere around 1700 calories (calculated with BMR calculator: http://healthiack.com/bmr-calculator).

Would such a diet be too extreme for me? As far as I know too low calorie intake may do harm to organism - slows down metabolism. Starving my body probably isn't a good idea, right? But would I really starve if I only ate 1200 calories every day?
How do you know that your body is starving?

Should I give it a try and see what happens? I am after fat loss (I need to lose about 5kg of fat, that's 45000 calories).

Thanks for replying.

runawaybishop · 16-01-2014 11:18am

How much do you weigh now? 1200 calories a day is dangerously low, its not healthy in the slightest really. You should be looking to change your eating habits long term so when you get the weight off it stays off.

thegreatiam · 16-01-2014 11:30am

depends on what size you are.

if your 5 feet tall and weigh 90 lbs then a 1200 a day calorie intake would be fine. but you wouldt lose much weight on it.

If you have just got a diet that is 1200 calories and they haven't asked you your size then it is probably not worth doing.

get a diet that is for you, not one that is generic off the internet

rubadub · 16-01-2014 2:42pm

It seems you might be thinking of eating 500kcal less per day? this is estimated/theorised to lead to 1lb fat lost per week, 3500kcal less overall per week.

But did you read the BMR calculator page fully?

the BMR amount is the amount of calories your body would burn if you were to stay in bed the whole day and do nothing at all!

Read more at: http://healthiack.com/bmr-calculator

You will presumably not be in bed all day and so need a lot more to get around doing things, so a drop to 1200kcal is a lot more than cutting 500kcal off your estimated daily requirements.

runawaybishop · 16-01-2014 2:43pm

rubadub wrote: »

It seems you might be thinking of eating 500kcal less per day? this is estimated/theorised to lead to 1lb fat lost per week, 3500kcal less overall per week.

But did you read the BMR calculator page fully?

You will presumably not be in bed all day and so need a lot more to get around doing things, so a drop to 1200kcal is a lot more than cutting 500kcal off your estimated daily requirements.

Agreed - and dropping 500 calories when you are eating 4k is a lot different to dropping 500 when you are eating 1700. A drop of 10-20% would be more reasonable, adjusting as you reach your goal.

tejula · 17-01-2014 2:58pm

Thanks for replying everyone.
I am 177cm tall and weight 75 kg. My goal weight is about 70kg (want to get rid of some extra body fat).
My calculated BMR is around 1700 calories. I plan on following this diet, but I am not much into sport (exercise), so BMR would be a good assumption of my daily calorie consumption (as I don't work out), right?
1700 minus 20 percent equals about 1360 calories, which is close to 1200 calories. The reason I am interested in such a low calorie diet is the fact that by only cutting down 340 calories (20% of 1700 calories) it would take me (45000 / 340 = 132) 132 days to lose that weight. I was thinking of increasing that deficit a little bit in order to reach my goal weight sooner.
But as I see now this might not be a good idea.... Too high deficit can be a bad thing. So 1200 calorie diet is not an option for me?

runawaybishop · 17-01-2014 3:04pm

tejula wrote: »

Thanks for replying everyone.
I am 177cm tall and weight 75 kg. My goal weight is about 70kg (want to get rid of some extra body fat).
My calculated BMR is around 1700 calories. I plan on following this diet, but I am not much into sport (exercise), so BMR would be a good assumption of my daily calorie consumption (as I don't work out), right?
1700 minus 20 percent equals about 1360 calories, which is close to 1200 calories. The reason I am interested in such a low calorie diet is the fact that by only cutting down 340 calories (20% of 1700 calories) it would take me (45000 / 340 = 132) 132 days to lose that weight. I was thinking of increasing that deficit a little bit in order to reach my goal weight sooner.
But as I see now this might not be a good idea.... Too high deficit can be a bad thing. So 1200 calorie diet is not an option for me?

Are you sure 1.7k is your requirements, its seems low? Plug your details in here - http://www.fitnessfrog.com/calculators/tdee-calculator.html

I wouldn't drop 20% if i was only eating 1700, i'd do 10% max. You are assuming that you can take a shortcut to losing weight. It might look like that on paper but most people will tell you it doesn't work out that well in real life. You should look to move to a sustainable diet that will allow you to take the weight off and keep it off. Dropping too low means you are very likely to pile it back on and it also means you'll be wrecked, less likely to do any exercise and grumpy as hell.

Do you know roughly what you are eating currently?

thegreatiam · 17-01-2014 3:08pm

tejula wrote: »

Thanks for replying everyone.
I am 177cm tall and weight 75 kg. My goal weight is about 70kg (want to get rid of some extra body fat).
My calculated BMR is around 1700 calories. I plan on following this diet, but I am not much into sport (exercise), so BMR would be a good assumption of my daily calorie consumption (as I don't work out), right?
1700 minus 20 percent equals about 1360 calories, which is close to 1200 calories. The reason I am interested in such a low calorie diet is the fact that by only cutting down 340 calories (20% of 1700 calories) it would take me (45000 / 340 = 132) 132 days to lose that weight. I was thinking of increasing that deficit a little bit in order to reach my goal weight sooner.
But as I see now this might not be a good idea.... Too high deficit can be a bad thing. So 1200 calorie diet is not an option for me?

You can increase the deficit a little with some exercise. Try to recomp your body rather than remove chunks of it.

90% of the time people who arent happy with their weight are actually at a perfect weight. just too much of it is fat.

do a recomp, and change the shape of your body. Youll be 75 kgs or there about's still but look and feel 100% better

With a BMR of 1700 if you eat 1700 calories a day and exercise 500 youll still lose weight, but without starving yourself or losing chunks of muscle mass.

runawaybishop · 17-01-2014 3:11pm

thegreatiam wrote: »

You can increase the deficit a little with some exercise. Try to recomp your body rather than remove chunks of it.

90% of the time people who arent happy with their weight are actually at a perfect weight. just too much of it is fat.

do a recomp, and change the shape of your body. Youll be 75 kgs or there about's still but look and feel 100% better

With a BMR of 1700 if you eat 1700 calories a day and exercise 500 youll still lose weight, but without starving yourself or losing chunks of muscle mass.

Agree, a lot of people diet and are then skinnyfat - what they really should be doing is body recomposition via some conditioning or strength work.

September1 · 17-01-2014 5:05pm

tejula wrote: »

Would such a diet be too extreme for me? As far as I know too low calorie intake may do harm to organism - slows down metabolism. Starving my body probably isn't a good idea, right? But would I really starve if I only ate 1200 calories every day?

It really depends on you, you mention elsewhere that you need to do this for 132 days - are you ok with perhaps being hungry all the time for so long? Perhaps try it for couple days and see how you deal, but best diet is not fastest one but one you can sustain.

1200 calorie diet, too extreme?

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