Life on 1200 Calories
Haylee (Daughter)
I am currently on a 1200 calorie diet and will be until I have my (hopefully) final surgery. While it hasn’t been the funnest diet I’ve ever been on, I’ve learned a few things! Before we get into that, here’s exactly what I’m doing. My goal is 1200 calories a day with about 100g of protein. I’m eating only whole foods, nothing processed, no artificial sweeteners, and I’m not drinking my calories. Water, black coffee, and unsweetened tea are the extent of this beverage girlies menu items.
Disclosure: This diet is not something I plan on staying on long term and is being supervised by my surgical team. I don’t recommend jumping into something like this without medical supervision, especially if it’s a very drastic change from what you currently are doing. Please speak with trusted and licensed medical professionals first.
Some of these might sound a little silly, or you might find yourself saying “duh” (I know I did!), but here’s what I’ve learned so far!
1) I Needed to Be All In
I’m kind of an all in or nothing kind of person. I knew I had to fully commit to this diet, or I wouldn’t be able to stick with it at all. Thankfully, I have an amazing husband who knows this about me too, so he opted to do this with me. He knew that having a “cheat day” or having the temptation of certain foods in the house would cause me to stumble, so he hopped on this train with me and is keeping me accountable. It’s been so great!
2) Using a Food Scale is Non-Negotiable
There’s this content creator I follow named Allison (@_finallyallison) that makes videos about meal prepping and such. She is always using her food scale and has this catchphrase, “It’s for precision, not restriction.”. Every time I pull out my scale to use it, I think about her. She’s 1000% right. I can guess how much 113g of cottage cheese is but odds are, I’m going to be wrong. My scale allows me to eat the foods that I want (within this diet) and eat them in the quantities I need them to be in order to meet my macros for the day. It takes the guess work out and makes life so much easier.
3) I Was Eating SO Many Calories Before This
While I never tracked my calories before all of this to know the actual caloric deficit I’m in, I know for sure it’s a ton! Looking at my potions now, compared to my portions then, I just know there’s no way I was under 2000 calories a day. According to the USDA, the average American consumes anywhere from 3600-3800 calories a day. That seems so crazy to me now knowing how much I’m consuming now. I can’t even imagine what my number was before all this.
4) Paying for the App is Worth It
Or at least it is for me! There are so many apps nowadays that help you track your macros. For me, those became so overwhelming having to enter in every single item in my meal, especially when a lot of the time I measure with my heart, or did. Then, on top of that, the apps would only tell me some of the information I needed, and I’d have to pay to get access to the rest. This time around, I knew I needed something easy and accurate, something that would help keep me consistent and not overwhelm me. I finally settled on CalAI, and I’m so glad I did. I think I spent $30 on a year-long membership. It’s been so great. I just take a picture of my plate, adjust quantities of some of the ingredients, and call it a day. I love it! If you want to try it out, you can use my referral code: HVKJSK.