When it comes to losing weight, it can seem like 1200 is the magic number. Practically every health and weight-loss website out there lists multiple 1200 calorie diets. Even the National Institutes of Health has published a 1200 calorie meal plan. Worldwide, more than 18K people per month search Google for “1200 calorie diets.”
What’s so special about 1200 calories? Well, for the average person, it’s the smallest number of calories you can eat in a day to lose weight without harming your health, explains New York City-based dietitian Justine Roth, R.D. Apart from the fact that calories supply the energy you need to live and, yes, even burn fat, many of the foods that pack calories also pack essential vitamins and minerals, she says. Go too low with calorie – and food – intake, and you’re pretty much guaranteed to experience nutritional deficiencies, adds Craig Primack, M.D., a member of the national board of directors for the Obesity Medicine Association.
Plus, while an extreme low-cal diet can definitely help you lose weight in the beginning, it can backfire big-time in the long run. “The fewer calories you eat, the slower your metabolic rate will be,” Roth explains. “It’s like a car running on low gas – it’s going to not go as fast when you push on the pedal, and the air conditioning might not work well because it’s trying to conserve all of its fuel. The body does the same thing: It’s not going to speed up burning calories if you aren’t giving it enough to do so.”
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But here’s the catch: Very few of us are actually the “average” person; most of us are larger, smaller, less active, more active, younger or older. We live and work in different places, are parents or pet owners, stress a lot or a little, are men and women, and sleep varying amounts – all factors that influence your ability to lose weight.
So what’s the right caloric goal for you?
First, let’s start with how many calories you would need to maintain your current weight. Per the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, women need anywhere from 1800 to 2400 calories each day to maintain their weights. Meanwhile, men need anywhere from 2000 to 3200 calories.
Again, that’s a pretty big range, and the exact number depends on factors including age, activity levels, body size and levels of lean mass (aka everything in your body that’s not fat). After all, the larger you are and the more lean mass you have, the more calories you burn – even at rest, explains registered dietitian Marie Spano, a sports nutritionist for the NBA’s Atlanta Hawks. Same goes for all of the active folks out there. For example, a 6-foot-2-inch man who works out every day needs far more calories than a 5-foot-2-inch woman who is sedentary, Spano says. (Short-girl problems.) Plus, our caloric needs peak when people are between the ages of 19 to 30. Both before and after, people tend to need (and burn) slightly fewer calories at rest.
That’s a lot to take into account. So, here are some simple equations, courtesy of Spano, for estimating how many calories you burn per day – and how many you need to maintain your current weight:
- If you’re lightly active (aka you stroll and do some housework most days a week), multiply your weight in pounds by 17 if you’re a man and by 16 if you’re a woman.
- If you’re a moderately active man (say, you perform walking workouts, cycle or dance five or more times per week), multiply your weight in pounds by 19. For women, multiply by 17.
- If you’re heavily active (maybe you’re into high-intensity strength training or play team sports with a lot of running at least five times per week) and a man, multiply your weight in pounds by 23. If you’re a heavily active woman, make that 20.
Another strategy for estimating your caloric burn: wearing a fitness tracker. However, it’s important to realize that commercially available fitness trackers aren’t perfect. For example, in one recent JAMA study of 12 trackers, many were 200 to 300 calories off, either underestimating or overestimating daily caloric burns.
Either way, once you’ve figured out roughly how many calories you need to eat each day to maintain your weight, Spano recommends most people subtract 250 to 500 calories from that number. This should result in losing about one to two pounds per week. However, if you have a lot of weight to lose, you may be able to cut more than 500 calories, but should consult with a doctor before doing so to make sure you’re still getting all of the nutrients you need, Primack says.
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It’s also important to note that, as you inch further toward your goal weight, you’ll need to regularly repeat this process of calculating your caloric goals. After all, the less you weigh, the fewer calories you need per day to maintain your current weight, Roth says. So, sorry: The 1500 calorie diet that helped you drop those first five pounds may need to be a 1200 calorie diet to drop those next five pounds.
But here’s the better news: You don’t have to – and shouldn’t – eat only 1200 calories forever, if you even get that low to begin with. “Twelve-hundred-calorie diets are best for those people who don’t need many calories to begin with and should only be done temporarily,” Spano says. That (short-term) low caloric intake can also benefit people who really need to see immediate results in order to stick with a diet since the initial weight loss that can come from it can be very motivating and help fuel later results.
After a few weeks on a 1200 calorie diet, though, you’ll need to increase your caloric intake in order to not sabotage your metabolism (or your sanity), Spano says. That doesn’t mean going back to old habits like eating 2,000 calories per day and yo-yo dieting. Instead, it means increasing your daily intake by 100 or so calories every week.
But if calculations aren’t your style, think of it this way: Once you are eating enough calories that you are losing no more than one to two pounds per week – and feel like you could stick with your diet forever – you’ve found your perfect caloric goal for healthy weight loss.
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Originally written for USNews.com