1200 calorie diet

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emilyhultin
emilyhultin Posts: 38 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
i’m eating around 1200 calories a day, and doing exercise on top of that (running and weight lifting) and yet i still see the scale number going up occasionally. this is really discouraging me, does anyone know why this is happening?
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  • pinggolfer96
    pinggolfer96 Posts: 2,248 Member
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    How are you tracking your food?
  • emilyhultin
    emilyhultin Posts: 38 Member
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    pinggolfer96 wrote: »
    How are you tracking your food?

    tracking everything on mfp.
  • emilyhultin
    emilyhultin Posts: 38 Member
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    malibu927 wrote: »
    emilyhultin wrote: »
    pinggolfer96 wrote: »
    How are you tracking your food?

    tracking everything on mfp.

    But how are you measuring your intake? Food scale? Measuring cups? Eyeballing portions?

    How long has your weight been increasing?

    mostly through measuring cups. i guess it hasn’t been increasing for that long, this could just be a little thing that needs to pass. idk.
  • collectingblues
    collectingblues Posts: 2,541 Member
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    Is the exercise new? It's common to see a scale increase when you start a new exercise routine, because you're holding on to more water to repair your muscles. That'll pass in six weeks or so.
  • WinoGelato
    WinoGelato Posts: 13,454 Member
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    Are you logging and eating back the exercise calories?

    How much weight do you have to lose?

    What rate of loss did you choose?

    As mentioned above, weight can fluctuate for a lot of reasons, and logging accurately with a food scale will help ensure you aren’t eating more than you think. That said, 1200 is the lowest recommended goal for women and isn’t necessary to go that low for a lot of people in order to lose. Even if you do stick with it, it is a NET goal so if you exercise your should eat back some of those calories to keep the NET intake at 1200.
  • emilyhultin
    emilyhultin Posts: 38 Member
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    WinoGelato wrote: »
    Are you logging and eating back the exercise calories?

    How much weight do you have to lose?

    What rate of loss did you choose?

    As mentioned above, weight can fluctuate for a lot of reasons, and logging accurately with a food scale will help ensure you aren’t eating more than you think. That said, 1200 is the lowest recommended goal for women and isn’t necessary to go that low for a lot of people in order to lose. Even if you do stick with it, it is a NET goal so if you exercise your should eat back some of those calories to keep the NET intake at 1200.

    i am logging exercises. i tend to have around 500-600 extra calories left at the end of the day. i want to lose about 10 more pounds.
  • whitpauly
    whitpauly Posts: 1,483 Member
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    apullum wrote: »
    If you're using measuring cups and not seeing the weight loss you expect, then you're likely eating more than you think. Measuring cups are not ideal for solid food. Think about measuring a cup of dry rice. What does that full cup look like? Now imagine that you added a few more grains on top...then a few more...and a little more. Is it still a cup? You can pile quite a lot of rice on top of the cup without spilling any, but it's hard to say when it's no longer accurate to call it a cup. A scale removes this uncertainty.

    This is too true,I had bought some frozen lasagna and it said 1 cup serving size on the box,I crammed that lasagna into the measuring cu so tight! Had to be about 3 servings :D after that I started weighing and my eyes were defo opened
  • VUA21
    VUA21 Posts: 2,072 Member
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    The less excess body fat you have, the harder it is to lose by weight. The closer you get to ideal, the more patient you need to be to get there. A better method would be to do weekly measurements (waist, hips, arms, thighs) as those numbers will probably change before any real change on a scale.
  • Silentpadna
    Silentpadna Posts: 1,306 Member
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    emilyhultin wrote: »
    i’m eating around 1200 calories a day, and doing exercise on top of that (running and weight lifting) and yet i still see the scale number going up occasionally. this is really discouraging me, does anyone know why this is happening?

    There have been a lot of quick answers in this thread, but your post(s) lack context.

    One answer is obviously true, regardless of context. No matter what you do, the scale will go up occasionally. It always has and always will because the scale measures all of the components of your weight - including fluid, which fluctuates at a far bigger amplitude than any fat gain or loss. You need time....lots of it....to notice an actual trend. There's not enough information given to know whether you have established any trend.

    Other than that, your question needs more context, like:

    1. What is your current age/height/weight?
    2. How long have you been doing this?
    3. Where did your 1200 calories/day come from?
    4. How much weight do you have to lose and how much are you trying lose per week? (I think you answered 10 pounds already, which means it will be slow).
    5. How long have you been exercising and how much? If you are exercising "on top of" your 1200 calories, are you accounting for that in your intake? Hint: be careful with this!


    As others have said, there are many factors. As near as I can tell, I haven't seen a defined problem from your post because no matter what, the scale will fluctuate.

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