Eating correct calories and exercising with no weight loss

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I think I am doing the right thing, working out every day at least 30 min of cardio and some weights. I am only supposed to eat 1200 calories a day which I do but no weight loss. Ideas?

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  • richardheath
    richardheath Posts: 1,276 Member
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    Your ticker says you have lost 42 lb, so something is working. Have you just hit a plateau? How long for? What has changed?

    Without being able to see your diary, my first guess would be that you aren't logging accurately and are actually eating at maintenance.
  • TeaBea
    TeaBea Posts: 14,517 Member
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    I think I am doing the right thing, working out every day at least 30 min of cardio and some weights. I am only supposed to eat 1200 calories a day which I do but no weight loss. Ideas?

    MFP gave you 1200 calories based on "I want to lose XX pounds per week".......it's a lowest DEFAULT minimum.....not what's necessarily appropriate for you. It could be correct, but because it's a default.....I would check.

    If you have 75+ lbs to lose 2 lbs/week is ideal,
    If you have 40-75 lbs to lose 1.5 lbs/week is ideal,
    If you have 25-40 lbs to lose 1 lbs/week is ideal,
    If you have 15 -25 lbs to lose 0.5 to 1.0 lbs/week is ideal, and
    If you have less than 15 lbs to lose 0.5 lbs/week is ideal.

    That 1200 is BEFORE exercise.....so when you add workouts to MFP you "earn" extra calories. Ideally you should eat those calories too. However, MFP gives generous calorie estimates so many people just eat 50-75% back.

    Most likely you are eating more than you think. How are you measuring food? Weighing is the most accurate (especially dry goods). MFP's database is filled with incorrect entries, make sure the ones you choose are correct. This thread gives some really good information

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1234699-logging-accurately-step-by-step-guide

    How long has it been? Weight loss will not be linear. Some weeks you might lose nothing.....than bam 2 pounds. Also, if you are close to goal (10-15 pounds) a 1/2 pound a week loss is good progress. People close to goal just can't build deficits big enough without it being unhealthy.
  • KettyLoyd
    KettyLoyd Posts: 51
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    Losing weight is not a hard and fast thing. You need to wait for the results. As you have not mentioned that since how many days you are doing this practice, its not easy to find out the actual behind your problem. I think that you need to continue with the Cardio exercises, if you are doing this from not a long time. Otherwise, you need to increase your Cardio time period.
  • lemonsnowdrop
    lemonsnowdrop Posts: 1,298 Member
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    Do you weigh and measure everything? Do you eat back your exercise calories? You may be overestimating your burn or underestimating your intake.
  • rodduz
    rodduz Posts: 251 Member
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    Most likely underestimating how much you eat and overestimating how much exercises burn. Didn't matter so much when you had a more weight to lose but the more you lose, the harder it gets so check if you're logging accurately. The exercises on MFP tend to overestimate calorie burn in my opinion.