Can't lose weight eating 1200 calories

mrichi1
mrichi1 Posts: 4 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I'm 5'2" 127 lbs trying to get down to 115. I started dieting in April at 129 lbs. and eating 1300 calories per day and lost only 2 lbs between April-August. I've eaten 1200-1250 calories every day for 3 weeks and haven't lost even .1 of a pound. I even started exercising over the past few weeks (walking briskly for 30 min a day several days a week) with no result. I'm wondering if it's a medication I'm on or if there's something else I'm doing wrong. i recently stopped taking the medication that may have been messing with my metabolism. Should I keep trying to eat at 1200 calories and see if I lose weight? Or should I eat more calories to try to increase my metabolism? Or should I eat fewer calories?

Replies

  • MNFitnessGal
    MNFitnessGal Posts: 36 Member
    Don't starve yourself or your body will fight you and keep the weight ON. Eat sensibly with 3 meals a day. Don't snack much. Drink lots of water and keep moving.
  • Cahgetsfit
    Cahgetsfit Posts: 1,912 Member
    FitnessMinnesotaGal wrote: »
    Don't starve yourself or your body will fight you and keep the weight ON. Eat sensibly with 3 meals a day. Don't snack much. Drink lots of water and keep moving.

    I would argue towards eating smaller meals more often during the day - like 5-6 meals per day.

    But that's just what I found has worked for me and what every single weightloss/body scultpting coach person out there (just about) says.

    Speeding up metabolism and all that. eat every 3-4 hours tops.
  • middlehaitch
    middlehaitch Posts: 8,486 Member
    Stay at a 1200 minimum. If you do more than your 30 min brisk walk, eat back 50-75% of your calories. The brisk walk is probably 2-3 km and fits within a sedentary lifestyle which is 2500 steps.

    Your loss will be slow and slower. Patience and meticulous logging is required. Read the chart above and take the information to heart.

    What you eat, and the timing of your food is not important. I would encourage you to make protein and fats your priority, let carbs fill in the rest.

    I am 5'1 and went from 130 to a maintenance of 100-105 ( small boned so it's a good weight) and the weight came off at a fraction of a pound a week.

    I would encourage you to up your exercise and include some weight lifting. Remember that you do need to fuel your workouts so eat back the calories. The health benefits as well as improving your body composition are well worth it.

    Cheers, h.
  • GameOfPounds
    GameOfPounds Posts: 128 Member
    Don't worry so much about it and keep doing what you're doing! It is normal when we are not overweight the weight goes off slower. I can relate with you as I'm 5'1 myself and weigh 125 lbs and it's also getting difficult sometimes. Use exercise (so many benefits aside from looking great) and try eating as healthy as you can :smiley:
  • DebSozo
    DebSozo Posts: 2,578 Member
    mrichi1 wrote: »
    I'm 5'2" 127 lbs trying to get down to 115. I started dieting in April at 129 lbs. and eating 1300 calories per day and lost only 2 lbs between April-August. I've eaten 1200-1250 calories every day for 3 weeks and haven't lost even .1 of a pound. I even started exercising over the past few weeks (walking briskly for 30 min a day several days a week) with no result. I'm wondering if it's a medication I'm on or if there's something else I'm doing wrong. i recently stopped taking the medication that may have been messing with my metabolism. Should I keep trying to eat at 1200 calories and see if I lose weight? Or should I eat more calories to try to increase my metabolism? Or should I eat fewer calories?

    Even a miscalculation going over by a couple hundred calories in a day can cause a stall with you being so close to goal weight. Your deficit is not very big. If you are currently measuring by volume or "eyeballing" portions, then try switching to weighing with a kitchen scale in grams. It is more accurate.

    Your weight loss may have stalled temporarily, but at least you are not gaining! Don't give up. When you update your current stats with MFP try plugging in a goal of losing 0.5 pound a week. What number does it give you?

    No one on MFP forums will recommend advice regarding your medication. You should talk to your physician. Some can affect weight as a side effect. You mentioned that you recently stopped so you might see a drop soon if that was the cause.



  • nosebag1212
    nosebag1212 Posts: 621 Member
    Cahgetsfit wrote: »
    FitnessMinnesotaGal wrote: »
    Don't starve yourself or your body will fight you and keep the weight ON. Eat sensibly with 3 meals a day. Don't snack much. Drink lots of water and keep moving.

    I would argue towards eating smaller meals more often during the day - like 5-6 meals per day.

    But that's just what I found has worked for me and what every single weightloss/body scultpting coach person out there (just about) says.

    Speeding up metabolism and all that. eat every 3-4 hours tops.

    Wrong, meal timing is irrelevant.
  • RoxieDawn
    RoxieDawn Posts: 15,488 Member
    Can you open your diary?
  • ctcunningham72
    ctcunningham72 Posts: 3 Member
    edited October 2016
    The thing i found that best works for me is not so much cutting calories but increasing exercising and having balanced carb/fat/protein intake. As an example I weighed roughly 280 pounds in January, i tried different diets none kept the weight off for long. I even cut my calories back to 1800, didn't work. One day i was watching a show and they talked about how much boxers ate a day and burned it off working out and exercising. That got me to thinking. Why starve myself. Why not just eat well and burn it off working out. I'm not saying do like i do and burn 1200 calories working out because you decided to eat everything in sight one day because you just felt like it. But you could try, increasing your calories to 1400 or 1500 and increase your work out. Also, try using protein shake after working out for your eat back. My typical routine as of late is 240 cal shake in the morning, eat whatever i want during the day, 240 protein shake evening, workout, 240 cal protein shake. My diet is roughly 2100 calories. My min workout is 240 calories. Anything calories over 2100 i add to my workout. I've lost roughly 3 pounds a week using this method and i'm down 30 pounds so far.
  • GottaBurnEmAll
    GottaBurnEmAll Posts: 7,722 Member
    middlehaitch wrote: »
    Stay at a 1200 minimum. If you do more than your 30 min brisk walk, eat back 50-75% of your calories. The brisk walk is probably 2-3 km and fits within a sedentary lifestyle which is 2500 steps.

    Your loss will be slow and slower. Patience and meticulous logging is required. Read the chart above and take the information to heart.

    What you eat, and the timing of your food is not important. I would encourage you to make protein and fats your priority, let carbs fill in the rest.

    I am 5'1 and went from 130 to a maintenance of 100-105 ( small boned so it's a good weight) and the weight came off at a fraction of a pound a week.

    I would encourage you to up your exercise and include some weight lifting. Remember that you do need to fuel your workouts so eat back the calories. The health benefits as well as improving your body composition are well worth it.

    Cheers, h.

    ^This
    RoxieDawn wrote: »
    Can you open your diary?

    ^And this.
  • louise5779
    louise5779 Posts: 82 Member
    I'm 5”3’. 12 weeks ago I was at my heaviest ever (not counting pregnancy) 136lbs. I've lost 12lbs in 12 weeks, I’m now down to 123 and aiming for 112lbs. It is difficult because of the height restrictions! Two days of the week I’m am completely sedentary making my TDEE 1500 cals so i've only got 300 cal margin. If you’re not weighing everything you eat that will be swallowed up. For instance I had over 1000 cals left to spend one day last week so I treated myself to a pizza and a chocolate tort. When I weighed the pizza which should have been 260g = 789 cals it was actually 340g so 1031cals. And my chocolate tort per ¼ slice 340 cals more like 450 cals after weighing. Luckily I adjusted the portion size but without weighing I would have a 352 surplus.

    My other 5 days I try to be as active as possible Body Pump x 3 per week, Body Combat x 2 per week, Body balance x 2 per week, body attack x 2 per week, walk the children to school whenever possible, long walks with the dog at the weekend and be active as possible. I have a Fitbit charge tracker so on my active days I can eat loads more. Making small life style changes really help too. Like when I’m collecting dishes from the bedrooms I take one at a time down stairs to the dishwasher, or when my car went in for an MOT/Service instead of getting a lift to collect it I ran to the garage, taking the clean laundry back upstairs one item a time. It all adds up.
  • GottaBurnEmAll
    GottaBurnEmAll Posts: 7,722 Member
    Ah! I'm glad to see I'm not the only one who puts laundry away one piece at a time.
  • jessmessmfp
    jessmessmfp Posts: 38 Member
    You're eating more than you think. I'm your height and have been 127. If you don't use a food scale - that is the reason you're not losing weight. When you're at a low deficit, every gram counts. I can easily underestimate a portion size by 40%.
  • mariya_tsi
    mariya_tsi Posts: 1 Member
    What is your body type? If you're an endomorph like me it will make it almost impossible to lose weight without exercise. https://breakingmuscle.com/nutrition/the-story-of-the-endomorph-how-to-work-with-what-you-have
  • daniip_la
    daniip_la Posts: 678 Member
    mariya_tsi wrote: »
    What is your body type? If you're an endomorph like me it will make it almost impossible to lose weight without exercise. https://breakingmuscle.com/nutrition/the-story-of-the-endomorph-how-to-work-with-what-you-have

    False. Body types don't affect weight loss.
  • mumblemagic
    mumblemagic Posts: 1,090 Member
    sijomial wrote: »
    Cahgetsfit wrote: »
    FitnessMinnesotaGal wrote: »
    Don't starve yourself or your body will fight you and keep the weight ON. Eat sensibly with 3 meals a day. Don't snack much. Drink lots of water and keep moving.

    I would argue towards eating smaller meals more often during the day - like 5-6 meals per day.

    But that's just what I found has worked for me and what every single weightloss/body scultpting coach person out there (just about) says.

    Speeding up metabolism and all that. eat every 3-4 hours tops.

    Splitting your calorie intake different ways / meal frequency / meal timing doesn't boost your metabolism - that's just a myth I'm afraid.

    OP - suggest you make your diary public if you want specific advice. The most common issue is simply that logging is inaccurate and you are eating more than you think.

    It's also worth noting that the scientific evidence behind the "little and often" advice has been refuted. Take a look at the links within this article:

    articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2010/04/13/should-you-eat-many-small-meals-each-day.aspx
  • cerise_noir
    cerise_noir Posts: 5,468 Member
    mumblemagic wrote: »
    sijomial wrote: »
    Cahgetsfit wrote: »
    FitnessMinnesotaGal wrote: »
    Don't starve yourself or your body will fight you and keep the weight ON. Eat sensibly with 3 meals a day. Don't snack much. Drink lots of water and keep moving.

    I would argue towards eating smaller meals more often during the day - like 5-6 meals per day.

    But that's just what I found has worked for me and what every single weightloss/body scultpting coach person out there (just about) says.

    Speeding up metabolism and all that. eat every 3-4 hours tops.

    Splitting your calorie intake different ways / meal frequency / meal timing doesn't boost your metabolism - that's just a myth I'm afraid.

    OP - suggest you make your diary public if you want specific advice. The most common issue is simply that logging is inaccurate and you are eating more than you think.

    It's also worth noting that the scientific evidence behind the "little and often" advice has been refuted. Take a look at the links within this article:

    articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2010/04/13/should-you-eat-many-small-meals-each-day.aspx

    You lost me at 'Mercola'...

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