NUTRITION

Everyone these days wants to lose weight, especially because America is quickly gaining an even larger obesity health problem among its citizens. When deciding to go on a diet, people have many questions about which diet they should go on. A great diet to consider when you want a strong jump start to your weight loss in the 1200 calorie diet. The 1200 calorie diet, as it sounds, consists of a balanced diet of about 1200 calorie. 1200 calories is the lowest amount of calorie a woman should intake when trying to loose weight. This may vary based on an individual's body type and their weight loss goals. A woman who is naturally taller or very active will probably need more than 1200 calories a day even for a weight loss program. Of course, it goes without saying that if a woman is pregnant weight gain is very important—pregancy is not the right time to diet! (It's not a time to go crazy on the junk food though, either—a balanced, nutritious diet with additional calories is the way to go during pregnancy.)

The biggest thing about the 1200 diet is making sure to get all of the correct macronutrients in the diet. This includes eating fruits and vegetables, along with whole grains and protein. It is very important on the 1200 calorie diet to not go below the recommended 1200 calories. On the 1200 calorie diet, if you dip below the 1200 calories, the diet can be ineffective and even damaging to the body. Without the 1200 calories that your body needs to just function during the day, the muscles can begin to break down and workouts won't be effective. Also, if you don't follow the 1200 calories diets calorie goals, the body can go into starvation mode and can stop losing weight because it will think it needs to hold onto the calories to survive.

In the 1200 calorie diet, balance of nutrients is extremely important. The average ratio of food eaten while on the 1200 calorie diet includes 55 percent of calories from complex carbohydrates, 15 percent of calories from protein and 20 percent of calories coming from fat. By following this diet it should be fairly easy to lose weight and stay full.