Does the 1,200-Calorie Diet Work for Weight Loss? Is it Effective?

 A 1,200-calorie diet is followed by some individuals in order to enhance fat reduction and help them achieve their target weight as soon as possible.

While it is true that restricting calorie consumption is an efficient method to lose weight, research has shown that doing so in a severe manner is detrimental to long-term health and weight reduction.

This article examines 1,200-calorie diets and discusses the possible advantages and drawbacks of following a low-calorie eating plan with a low calorie intake.

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Can you explain what a 1,200-calorie diet is?

A 1,200-calorie diet is a method of eating that restricts the amount of calories you take in a day to 1,200 or less each day. This diet is classified as a low-calorie diet since it contains substantially less calories than the number of calories required by the majority of typical people to maintain their weight.

In order to lose weight, many healthcare professionals, including physicians and nutritionists, recommend low-calorie diets as a first-line treatment option.

It is standard practice to suggest that people reduce their calorie consumption by 500–750 calories each day in order to lose weight. The typical low-calorie diet for adults, consisting of 1,200–1,500 calories a day for adult females and 1,500–1,800 calories a day for grown men, will result in significant weight reduction.

It should be noted that 1,200 calories is at the lower end of the suggested low calorie diet limits for women.

Dietary patterns that provide between 800 and 1,200 calories per day are classified as low calorie diets by some researchers. Dietary patterns that provide less than 800 calories per day are classified as extremely low calorie diets by other experts.

These diets are usually followed for brief periods of time, ranging from a few weeks to several months, in order to achieve fast weight reduction.

However, low calorie and extremely low calorie diets are not only widely utilized in therapeutic settings under the supervision of a medical professional, such as weight loss clinics, but they are also popular with the general population.

Numerous weight reduction coaches, personal trainers, and prominent dieting websites promote 1,200-calorie meal plans, claiming that adhering to a 1,200-calorie diet would help you "slim down quickly."

These diets generally encourage dieters to consume “low-calorie,” “fat-free,” and “reduced-fat” items to assist them maintain a low calorie intake. They also typically include calorie monitoring to ensure that dieters are keeping under their daily calorie restriction limit.

While a 1,200-calorie diet may be acceptable in the short term under some circumstances, 1,200 calories is much too low for the vast majority of people throughout the course of their lives.

Furthermore, although drastically lowering your calorie consumption may result in rapid weight reduction at first, studies have shown that low-calorie diets are seldom effective at helping people maintain their weight loss over the long term.

(SUMMARY)

A diet of 1,200 calories is considered to be a low-calorie diet. In order to encourage rapid weight reduction, low-calorie diets may be utilized, and in some cases, recommended, by healthcare experts.

Can it assist you in losing weight?

It is essential to create a calorie deficit in order to lose weight. Some health experts recommend reducing calorie intake by 500–750 calories per day to promote weight reduction. This is likely to be effective, at least in the near term.

Following a low-calorie diet, such as a 1,200-calorie diet, has been proven in many trials to be effective in promoting weight reduction.

As an example, a research conducted on 2,093 obese participants revealed that a medically supervised 1,200-calorie meal replacement diet resulted in an average fat reduction of 4.7 percent over a 12-month period when followed strictly .

In another research, individuals participated in a commercial weight-loss program that offered either 500, 1,200–1,500, or 1,500–1800 calories per day, depending on their weight-loss objectives.

After one year, individuals who followed the 1,200–1,500-calorie-per-day diet lost an average of 15 pounds on average (6.8 kg). 23 percent of the 4,588 individuals who followed the 1,200-calorie diet dropped out of the research, according to the results.

A number of studies have shown that although early weight reduction on low-calorie diets such as 1,200-calorie diets is usually fast and significant, it is frequently followed by higher weight gain when compared to diets that merely limit calories by a modest amount.

According to the results of the commercial weight loss study described above, researchers discovered that fast weight loss during the first three months was linked with higher weight return throughout the nine-month weight loss maintenance phase in all three of the diet groups studied.

Another study of 57 people with overweight or obesity found that after following a very low 500-calorie diet for 5 weeks or a low 1,250-calorie diet for 12 weeks, study participants on average regained 50 percent of the weight they had lost over a 10-month period, according to the results of the study.

Due to the fact that low-calorie diets produce metabolic changes that save energy and impede weight loss, such as increased hunger, loss of lean body mass, and decreases in the amount of calories burnt, it is difficult to maintain a healthy weight over time.

It is because of these findings that many health professionals now suggest eating patterns that include only modest decreases in calorie consumption in order to achieve weight loss while avoiding the unfavorable metabolic adaptations that are associated with low-calorie diets.

(SUMMARY)

While adopting a low-calorie diet of 1,200 calories is likely to result in weight reduction, the likelihood of maintaining that weight loss is small.

Benefits of a diet consisting of 1,200 calories or less

However, it's essential to remember that the health advantages of a 1,200-calorie diet are linked with calorie restriction in general, not with 1,200-calorie meal plans in particular.

Consuming more calories than your body requires on a regular basis may have a variety of negative health effects, including weight gain, increased risk factors for heart disease, and diabetes.

Maintaining excellent overall health requires that you provide your body with the appropriate amount of calories on a regular basis.

The decrease of calories in general has been proven to be beneficial to health by encouraging weight loss, lowering heart disease risk factors such as LDL (bad) cholesterol, and lowering blood sugar levels and inflammation.

There is no doubt that reducing extra body weight has good impacts on one's health, and that keeping within one's specific calorie requirements is the healthiest thing for one's body.

The techniques employed to achieve weight reduction, on the other hand, are important, and adopting very low-calorie, restrictive dieting strategies is significantly linked with higher risks of weight return over the long term.

Because of this, although reducing extra body weight may be beneficial to your general health, it is critical to select healthy, lasting weight reduction strategies rather than excessive eating habits.

Note that some studies has indicated that individuals with obesity or morbid obesity who follow low-calorie or very-low-calorie diets under medical supervision lose weight and improve their blood sugar and lipid profiles, which may help them live longer and healthier lives overall.

In spite of this, because of their restrictive character, these diets are generally followed for just a short length of time and are linked with significant dropout rates.

Nonetheless, if you're interested in losing weight by following a low-calorie diet, it's essential to get counsel from a competent healthcare professional first.

(SUMMARY)

It is critical for general health that you lose extra body weight and feed your body with the appropriate amount of calories each day. In spite of the fact that diets consisting of 1,200 calories or less have been linked to certain health advantages, these benefits are often connected with calorie reduction in general.

Disadvantages that may occur

A person's calorie requirements are extremely unique and rely on a variety of variables, such as body size, age, and degree of activity. A diet of 1,200 calories per day is insufficient for the majority of people, particularly smaller women.

Though calorie requirements differ from person to person and can only be calculated with specialized equipment or calculations, the typical adult woman need about 2,000 calories per day to maintain her weight, while the average adult male requires approximately 2,500 calories per day.

Again, these are just averages, and they do not account for variations in calorie requirements caused by variables such as age, amount of exercise, and height of the individual. These typical calorie need estimates, on the other hand, offer you a sense of how low 1,200 calories is.

A 1,200-calorie diet is much too low for the majority of individuals, and it may cause severe side effects such as dizziness, intense hunger, nausea, vitamin deficiencies, tiredness, migraines, and gallstones, among other things.

Furthermore, if your aim is to lose weight over the long run, a 1,200-calorie diet may set you up for disappointment.

Consuming less calories causes your body to undergo metabolic adjustments. These include increases in hunger-inducing hormones such as ghrelin and cortisol, as well as a decrease in resting metabolic rate (RMR), which is the number of calories burned when at rest.

This increases the likelihood of weight return over time, as well as the vicious cycle of recurrent periods of weight loss followed by weight regain that so many chronic dieters face — which often results in emotions of hopelessness and despair.

Eating disorders and type 2 diabetes are associated with weight cycling, and research has shown that recurrent dieting and weight cycling may stress out the heart and raise the chance of developing these conditions as well as increasing the risk of death.

(SUMMARY)

Attempting to reduce calories too drastically may have unintended consequences, such as nutritional shortages and tiredness. In most cases, low-calorie diets are ineffective for long-term weight reduction and may result in weight cycling, which is harmful to one's general health.

Better options

Sometimes healthcare professionals and weight losers select diets based on how fast they can achieve the desired outcomes, without taking into account the long-term health implications of excessively limiting calories.

Always bear in mind that part of this weight loss is in the form of muscle mass when selecting a narrow, low-calorie diet that comes far below your calorie requirements. Muscle loss and other metabolic adjustments may reduce your RMR.

Large calorie deficits not only lead to adverse alterations which make it difficult to sustain weight reduction, but may also seriously affect your mental well-being.

The majority of research studies indicate that diet does not work. A better option is to maintain weight reduction and weight loss over time, utilizing healthier, less severe weight loss techniques.

Instead of, for instance, limiting your intake to 1,200 calories, typically to monitor every item that passes your lips, consider a few of the following healthy, proven ideas for weight loss:

*Eat all kinds of foods. The bulk of the calorie intake should be whole foods, including vegetables, fruit and beans, seafood, nuts, seeds and eggs. Full meals are filled with fiber, protein, and healthy fats that flourish on your body.

* Added sugar and fats should be cut out. Reducing your fat and adding sugar is a good method of encouraging weight reduction. The common foods of sugar and/or fat include soda, cakes, ice cream, candy and sugar.

* Cook home more meals. Take less, eat at restaurants and quick food and prepare more food at home. Those who prepare more food at home tend to weigh less than people who consume more meals outside their homes and to have a better diet.

* Increase everyday operations. One of the greatest methods to achieve healthy, sustained weight reduction is by increasing the amount of calories you burn. In regular outdoor walks, take fitness courses or join a gym.

* Work with an experienced healthcare practitioner. Weight loss may be difficult and frightening. An expert dietician or other qualified healthcare professional may help you lose weight without severe restrictions in a healthy manner.

While loss of weight with a healthy and sustainable diet may take more time, it minimizes negative adjustments during severe calorie reduction and can improve your chances of keeping weight off.

(SUMMARY)

When attempting to reduce weight, adopting less restrictive techniques may assist you in achieving healthy, long-term weight reduction results.

Final line

A 1,200-calorie diet is a low-calorie diet that usually includes calories count and calorie-decreased meals to achieve fast weight reduction.

Although a 1,200-calorie diet is expected to produce short-term, fast weight reduction, metabolic adjustments during a calorie-restricted diet make it very difficult to maintain the weight.

Moreover, 1,200 calories are far below the typical calories that most people – including young women – require to feed their bodies.

Whilst diets with 1,200 or less calories are a popular tool to lose weight, you're better placed to select a diet that feeds your body and helps to gradual but sustained life-long reduction of weight.