Stopped losing weight?

Evil_Girl12

I've been doing alright but now I've stopped losing weight for a few weeks. I started off eating 1200 at the start of my diet but upped it to 1400 since I wasn't sure if 1200 was healthy but I had kept on losing weight.
I'm not sure what I can do to get the weight off so last week I put my calories back down to 1200 and decided I could just go over every once in a while but I then read somewhere that it can be good to go back up to maintenance for a bit.
What should I do? Thanks!

Egilley

I'm in the same boat. I have a 1200 calorie budget and can't go any lower. I eat my exercise calories which brings me up to about 1700 calories, and that is enough food for me. I eat tons of fruits and veggies and I exercise very regularly. I really want to lose only about 4 more pounds. But it's not coming off anymore. I do cardio every day, and about three days a week I do some weight training, but I have a tendency to put on muscle quickly. Not just toning, but actual bulky muscle, which doesn't look great on my stocky frame.

I am starting to think that maybe I should change the foods I eat within my 1700 calories. Since I am really into fruits, which are sugary, maybe I should shift away from them a bit and start eating more fats and protein.

I don't know if I want to stick with the recommended 50% carbs, 30% fat, 20% protein. Maybe a little lower carbs and more protein?

I do think that going up to maintenance for a bit might not be a bad idea. But I don't have any scientific or even anecdotal evidence to support it.

diannethegeek

How long has it been since you've seen a drop on the scale and what has changed in your routine? Increasing calories or changing/increasing your exercise can cause a small water weight increase, which often masks any fat loss happening in the background. But these are temporary stalls and should go away after a couple of weeks. Likewise women tend to hold onto some extra water weight around our TOM, which can cause stalls or slight gains on the scales.

Are you tracking your intake accurately? But that I mean logging everything, including condiments and veggies, as well as using a food scale to log your portions. It's possible to lose weight without a food scale, but you might have to put up with some bumps along the way because of the inconsistencies with measuring cups.

Are you exercising and if so are you eating back any of your earned exercise calories? These are meant to be eaten, assuming you are able to measure them accurately. MFP and gym machines have a tendency to overestimate your burn with certain exercises. Depending on what you're doing and/or how you're estimating your burn, it might be necessary to eat back a portion of these (50-75%).

Would you be comfortable opening your diary for us? It really can help to have a couple of extra pairs of eyes take a look at your routine. You can do this by going to Settings at the top of the page, then choose Diary Settings, and then Public and Save Changes.

Stats would also be helpful (height, weight, age). 1200 calories is on the low side for many people but there's not way to tell for sure without more details.