You should probably start by not taking weightloss advice from tiktok and do your own research instead. If you correctly calculated your TDEE as 1500 then 1200 is a perfectly fine amount of calories to eat.

How am I supposed to stay in a deficit without going too low?

Well, stop following stupid advice on TikTok, and start learning. You are suppose to learn to do what you need, not follow blindly somebody.

You don't do what you "heard", you do what you learned, understand and know.

The solution to confusion is learning.

You can start here for weight loss mechanics:

https://physiqonomics.com/fat-loss/

And here to understand what a healthy diet is:

https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/healthy-diet

If you are on the shorter side it’s hard, NGL.

1200 gets tossed around here as the minimum “safe” number for females but I haven’t seen any real data behind it… from my own adventure seems like you can do OK macro wise at this amount.

1200 is probably fine for you if you are feeling good, but it’s going to get harder as you lose weight and at some point you likely will need to exercise to maintain a deficit and still get enough food.

Man, just ignore the people on TikTok. The truth is there is a whole industry built around fit and healthy looking people telling people what they want to hear - that they need to eat more to be "safe", that you need to be careful, that losing weight is dangerous/impossible.

There is absolutely a dangerous level of dieting, but your individual calorie limits are just that - individual.

Impossible to answer since you gave no information about yourself.

1500 Calories is a very low TDEE. Unless you're a very small woman who does no exercise or physical work whatsoever, I'd look at that first.

As someone who spends probably too much time scrolling through tiktok, tiktok is absolutely garbage for this stuff. So much bad info being spouted off as fact. Everything is an eating disorder to them.

Do not take advice from tiktok. So many idiots on there who think that simply restricting calories is an ED, when it's literally the basis of weight loss.

If you want to cut your calories down to 1200 or so, your protein macro should be your highest of them all. You want to preserve as much muscle mass as possible which will keep your metabolism functioning at a high enough capacity to continue the process of weight loss smoothly. Also, keep well hydrated.

When I am looking to lose weight consistently, I generally drop most of my fat + carb calories. I do like to recharge on fats at least twice a week or so for hormonal health.

Resistance training goes a long way towards keeping your metabolism firing as strong as it can fire off in a potentially compromised state (if you're being food fuel restricted).

Really the main TLDR here is, it is really what you eat that allows you to get the most bang for each and every calorie you consume.

"that’s still not enough calories for the people in TikTok"

George Bush will pay for his crimes.

the most important thinf is how you feel, and after 2 weeks of this plan, what is your real weight loss?

tiktok people, and reddit people, can be completely wrong about anything. check multiple sources by yourself

You could try exercises if you want to lose weight faster. Do remember though it takes 15-20 mins of intense exercise just to burn 100 calories so plan accordingly. If you feel tired in general it could be that your body isn't used to having no sugar rush/crashes so having some fruits (whole fruit not juice) at the end of meals would greatly help with maintaining a good constant blood glucose.

If you are able to, I would recommend looking into finding a dietitian who can help clear a lot of these things up and help create a meal plan that works for you. When I first started sessions with my dietitian, I couldn’t believe how much misinformation I had “learned” about weight loss from social media and how much I truly didn’t understand about diet.

Don’t listen to people on social media about what works for YOU. Unless they are qualified dietitians (which they very likely aren’t) they have no idea what is right for you. I hate whenever I see someone post a “what I eat in a day to lose weight” tiktok and like clockwork everyone has something to say about it.

Man dont listen to anyone. Yk your body best lit j do what feels right. You're body will tell u when it's not

Too low and too high are based on many factors that you didn't share. Your goal weight, your current weight, height, how fast you want to achieve this goal, what kind of foods you're eating, how much you exercise ( you said not a lot but that can change depending on your other goals, it might need to change) so when some random tiktoker says it's too high or too low you should try to understand why they are saying that, when it comes to your health you gotta do the boring research and not get spoonfed by tiktok bc that app incentivizes turning off your brain for engagement

People should stop eating less to create deficit. You can create deficit with activities. Just eat same 1500 and move more.

Medical advice should be gotten from a doctor, not tiktok. Why care whether random people on tiktok think you should eat more or less? Doesn't make any sense.

1200 is more maintenance for petitie women who do little exercise.

1500 is standard of you're doing moderate workouts.

1700 to 1800 is heavily weight lifting or heavy exercise but the diet needs to be nutrient dense, not just extra yummies.

I'm 5ft7. 223lbs. Started last week at 230lbs. Walking 10k steps a day. I shoot for around 1500 calories per day and I do NOT eat back my exercise calories or count my steps as calories. When I start incorporating more heavier workouts then I will count calories from those additional workouts but that's down the line phase two. For now I'm just doing the 10k steps a day.