A 1200 calorie diabetic diet may seem like a very hard thing to accomplish—eating only 1200 calories is not easy because so many foods are full of calories.  You really can’t eat out much at all since restaurant and fast food meals can very easily blow a 1200 calorie diabetic diet.  If you’re struggling to eat only 1200 calories a day, here are some ways of measuring foods.

•    12 fluid ounces of a drink is one can of soda.
•    One cup of food is about a handful.
•    Three ounces of cooked meat (beef, poultry, or fish) is around the size of a deck of cards.
•    A one-inch cube of cheese is about an ounce.

Need some quick meal ideas for your 1200 calorie diabetic diet?  Here are some ideas for small meals that will keep your calorie count down.

For breakfast, have about 6 ounces of a starch (cereal, bread), a fruit, a cup of milk, and a small amount of meat or meat substitute (a poached egg, for example).

Then for lunch, make yourself a half of a sandwich with two ounces of protein (meat, tuna), a half cup of vegetable like lettuce or celery, a few tomato slices, bread, and a fat (mayonnaise, for example).  For sides, you can have a fruit and a free food, such as a diet soda, that has few calories.

Dinner, the main meal, still needs to be fairly small.  You may only have two ounces of protein, half a cup of starch, a fat (in this case, perhaps margarine), a cup of vegetables, a fruit, and a cup of milk.  Finally, you can have a bread product or another small piece of fruit. as a dessert or an evening snack, such as graham crackers.

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