A 1200 calorie diabetic diet limits intake of carbohydrates, fats and proteins so that you get only 1200 calories per day and nothing more than that. You can use this diet to control blood sugar or to lose weight. You can take the help of a registered dietitian to plan your diet. While planning your diet always keep in mind that instead of large meals take small meals and increase number of meals, for example replace the regular three meal pattern (that is breakfast, lunch and dinner) with a six meal pattern by adding snacks between the meals. Always give preference to fresh food instead of refined and processed foods. Drink lots of water because it is calorie free and helps to flush away the toxins.
A 1200 calorie diet healthy breakfast will include one wheat bread with low fat butter or a cup of cereal with a boiled egg and one small fruit. For a lunch options are mixed salad, baked potato, and French bread pizza. You can also include some vegetables like broccoli, bell peppers, cabbage etc. For a dinner choose grilled chicken or fish and pasta salad or mix vegetable salad with some dressing. To ensure the right quantities of these foods you can take the help of a dietitian.
To plan a 1200 calorie diet above food list is not compulsory and you can make variation of foods and also manage calorie intake. This can be done with the exchange system. The exchange food system provides information about food content from which you can easily estimate calories in any food. It also helps to maintain the balance of carbohydrates, proteins, and fats throughout the day. Before developing diet plans you must know your nutritional requirement in terms of calories, then select the food from exchange list and plan your daily meal according to your calorie requirement.
The exchange system contains six different lists of foods and food from each exchange group is well defined so that one serving of each food contains the same amount of carbohydrates, proteins, and fat. These groups are starch/bread, vegetables, fruit, milk, meat and fat. From each food list a certain number of exchange choices are allowed, but amount and type of these exchanges are based on a daily exercise, insulin injections, blood pressure and body weight. The food substitution can be done only within an exchange list but not between lists even if they have the same calorie count. In the exchange lists some foods are free; these foods contain less than 20 calories per serving.
In 1200 calorie diet you can include per day five exchanges of starch/bread exchange group, two exchanges of vegetable group, three exchanges of fruit group, two exchanges of milk group, four exchanges of meat and three exchanges of fat group. Each exchange of starch/bread group contains 80 calories. In vegetable exchange group each group contains 5 grams of proteins, 5 grams of carbohydrates and 2 grams of fiber. In fruit exchange group each exchange contains about 60 calories. For a diabetic 1200 calorie diet avoid artificially sweetened milk and include skim or very low-fat milk and milk substitutes. When you choose meat remove the fat before cooking. You can include high fat meat exchanges maximum three times a week. Include fat exchange in very small amount. In this calorie diet avoid saturated and Trans fatty acid instead of that choose polyunsaturated or monounsaturated fats.
Drink lots of water because it is calorie free and helps to flush away the toxins. Did you know that flavored carbonated water has no calories, sugar, body, sweetener, color or preservatives?
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