The one universal truth in nutrition
Very few things are black and white in any field, and nutrition is notoriously nuanced. There is no one size fits all. However, if there is one thing that comes pretty close, it’s this….
1200 CALORIES IS TOO LOW FOR THE GENERAL POPULATION TO DIET ON.
So why do we often hear people say “I’m eating 1200 calories and I’m not losing weight!”?
If your weight it’s not dropping like a lead balloon on 1200 calories, here are a few things to consider:
1. Maybe you’re not actually eating 1200 calories.
That’s fine. In fact we are thrilled to hear it.
While we don’t think that everyone who wants to lose weight needs to track their calories, people tend to underestimate how many calories they eat by up to 50%! (Lanksy & Brownell 1982)
If you have decided to track, make sure you’re actually tracking EVERYTHING. Licks 👅 bites 🍪 drinks🥂 and those weekend nights out add up very quickly.
2. You’re very small, and you’re not moving enough.
Let’s be clear, exercise is not the road to weight loss, in fact purposeful movement makes up a very small part of total daily energy expenditure.
But incidental movement – like walking around, can make up a significant chunk.
We’re not talking about doing hours of cardio. As little as 7,000 steps a day is a great start.
If you’re genuinely sedentary and doing less than this, you shouldn’t be cutting calories, you should MOVING MORE.
And it’s not just the about the extra calories you’ll burn. Movement has excellent benefits for cardiovascular health, joint and muscular health, metabolic health, and mood to name a few. Conversely, every time we cut calories, we run the risk of cutting out too many micro-nutrients (vitamins and minerals) because we are eating less food overall.
3. So what if you are actually eating 1200 calories and not losing weight?
The final possibility (extremely, extremely unlikely) is that you are actually eating 1200 calories and you are getting your steps in, and you are not losing weight.
Remember that this can only be asserted if you have in fact been tracking everything.
If this is you, you probably should not be on a diet right now. And that’s okay. You can still work on your health in many other ways.
Don’t worry, you’re not in starvation mode and your metabolism isn’t “broken”. Metabolism is just a process of living things turning stuff into other stuff.
It’s just that some “stuff” is temporarily switched off for you because your body thinks food is scarce.
In this instance, we advice you to work with your coach to find the right health professionals to do a more comprehensive assessment.
A nutrition coach or a dietitian can help you do a lifestyle stocktake to slowly increase your calories over time. We would also recommend that you go to your GP, to make sure nothing else has gone awry.