Why isn't calorie counting working for me?

jayeffbee41

So I started myfitnesspal two weeks ago. It's put me on 1200 calories a day, I want to lose 10lb. I have logged religiously for two whole weeks, stayed within calories and macros that have been set) plus been doing extra walking (and eating those calories per some posts I read) and have not lost any weight. My diet is mainly clean food, very little processed (I have oven chips from time to time). I have the odd glass of red wine which is logged. Am finding it very frustrating when I should be losing 1lb a week. Does anyone have any idea as to why this isn't working for me?

psuLemon

Do you use a food scale? Can you open your food diary? Can you provide your height, weight, sex, age and workout routine? With 10 lbs to lose, I suspect you chose the most aggressive option (2 lbs per week) when in reality you should be consuming more calories. But with only doing this for 2 weeks and increased exercise, it's probably water retention.


BTW, the average women I know is losing between 1700-2100 calories and man is 2000-2600.

Jkn921

Are you 100% sure you've been sticking to the calorie goal - by weighing things etc.? Usually that's a big factor and sometimes people don't account snacks here and there in their diary and those calories can add up quickly. Not saying that is what you're doing, just something to be aware of.

1200cals for 10lbs seems quite low to be honest, I'm wanting to lose 10lbs too by 1lb a week and it's set me to 1520 calories which is a lot easier - I'll increase that to 1600+ after I lose a few more pounds. That could be it - your deficit may be too big and you should eat a little more? (I'll wait for someone to give you better advice on that possibly if that may be the cause).

jayeffbee41

Thanks for replying. Yes I weigh everything. What do you mean by open my food diary? I'm 5'6", 148lb. At the moment my workout is walking so I wear a weightwatchers pedometer, get to healthy by the end of work (c6000 steps) and then go for a brisk 30 minute walk in the evening.

jayeffbee41

Thanks for replying. I weigh everything. I suspect the calories are too low but I don't seem to be able to alter it!

mizroxy13

I noticed that I stopped losing when I ate my walking calories back. That might be your issue. You can maybe eat 30%-50% back but that's it. I've read opinions on both sides so I ate them back just to try it out for two weeks and stalled hard.

psuLemon

Thanks for replying. Yes I weigh everything. What do you mean by open my food diary? I'm 5'6", 148lb. At the moment my workout is walking so I wear a weightwatchers pedometer, get to healthy by the end of work (c6000 steps) and then go for a brisk 30 minute walk in the evening.

To open your food diary use the below link. Also, I assume you are female?

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/account/diary_settings

LivingtheLeanDream

when you only have 10lbs to lose it takes longer. It took me the best part of a year to lose 14lbs. I didn't want to half starve myself so ate around 1400 cals plus ate half my exercise cals back. I did up my exercise, going from doing hardly anything to working out 5 days for 40 min a week and walking whenever I could.

Be patient, stick at what you're doing and soon you will start seeing results - your aim should be to lose 1/2lb to 1lb per week..it will happen if you stick with it .

mbbseb

I can't lose eating my exercise calories. I can use some of them but can't lose using all of them. I'm 5'5' 198 and it has me eating 1200 with a sedentary lifestyle. I sit most of my day @ work. Of course I do eat some of my exercise cal because it's hard to eat 1200. This has to be a lifestyle change so it needs to be a change you can live with.

Jkn921

Thanks for replying. I weigh everything. I suspect the calories are too low but I don't seem to be able to alter it!

Change your settings up 1lb or 0.5lbs per week and keep doing what you are doing, you're doing great! These habits will make it easier than giving up right away, well done for sticking at it for 2 weeks. Look at it this way, you can eat more now

All4Me2014xx

You can change your calorie goal by going to:

My Home>Goals>Change Goals>Custom

timberowl

If you get desperate/frustrated enough I'm a pretty big fan of the BodyMedia arm band. It costs about $150 new, and a $7/month subscription fee. You wear it 23/7 and it tells you 95%< accuracy how many calories you're burning. It'll automatically adjust your calories on MFP. If you don't want to eat them all back you can set your net calories lower (i.e. 1000). I wear mine every day. Not only does it make it easier to tell how many calories you're really burning and what your personal metabolism is (it tracks more than just motion, but also body temperature!) but you can sync it with Everymove and Earndit as well as Walgreens for free stuff! The more you move, the more points you rack up and the more stuff you earn!

Best of luck!

Liftng4Lis

Two weeks is not very long, these things take time. You didn't gain the 10 pounds in two weeks. Additionally, you have your goal set pretty aggressively for only wanting to lose 10 pounds. Lower it to 1/2 pound a week, as you'll find its more sustainable.

mizroxy13

@mbbseb I think it might be because it has you calculated really low. I am the same weight and only two inches taller at sedentary and I'm at 1500 and losing consistently. I used the IIFYM calculator (http://iifym.com/iifym-calculator/) to determine my goals, so maybe that's why. I couldn't do 1200 either!

Nikki_42

Two weeks isn't long at all. If you were eating bad before that, and then suddenly lowered your calories your body probably hasn't had time to adjust. (it's going into that starvation mode and actually trying to store the fatt), Once it realizes you aren't 'starving', you'll start to lose weight.

That's completely off the top of my head. :-)

2013sk

Have you set MFP to lose 2lbs a week or 1lbs???

Because you haven't got a lot to lose, bump up your calories & set it to lose 0.5lbs a weeks.

I think they say if you have under 10lbs to lose this is better

Slow & steady wins the race.

Its harder to lose weight the less weight you have.

I know.. I am struggling to drop a couple of lbs in a week. Just managed 0.5lbs this week : )

jayeffbee41

Thanks everyone for your replies. I have opened my food diary. Can you let me know when you've looked at it so that I can make it private again. Yes am female.

FindingAmy77

that is not much for steps.. do more

WalkingAlong

A couple thoughts on your diary:

Nothing is logged yesterday. Do you have it on paper somewhere?

I didn't look at every day's total but the 6-8 I did were over 1200, all in the 1300-1650 range. Though I see that often you're walking increased the goal.

There are some tiny portions. Is your scale accurate? 4 calories of lettuce and 6 of cucumber? I know they're low cal foods but that's so little of it.

Also, how old are you? At 'normal' BMI it might take you actually hitting 1200 for a while, especially if you're older. I know psulemon said most females he knows can lose at 1700-2100 but I'm 49 and 150lbs. and only burn 1700 some days (per Fitbit) so I need to go much lower to lose.

Also, the 6000 steps is around what's considered normal, daily movement so I wouldn't count those as 'exercise' and the 30 minute brisk walk is probably only good for 50-100 calories max.

Good luck!

chargraves

How did you set your activity level on mfp? Sedentary, mod active, active? The reason I ask is that I have seen some people with sedentary desk jobs set themselves to moderately active then eat back their exercise calories which they have already counted when setting their activity level.

evileen99

If you get desperate/frustrated enough I'm a pretty big fan of the BodyMedia arm band. It costs about $150 new, and a $7/month subscription fee. You wear it 23/7 and it tells you 95%< accuracy how many calories you're burning. It'll automatically adjust your calories on MFP. If you don't want to eat them all back you can set your net calories lower (i.e. 1000).

Best of luck!

Actually, the BodyMedia link is $99 and the core $79. And you get a six month subscription free.

garnerish

plus been doing extra walking (and eating those calories per some posts I read)

I imagine this is where an issue is arising.

Most of the things that count calories burned from walking are way off in their estimations.

Try a week without eating back the walking calories.

iheartinsanity

If you get desperate/frustrated enough I'm a pretty big fan of the BodyMedia arm band. It costs about $150 new, and a $7/month subscription fee. You wear it 23/7 and it tells you 95%< accuracy how many calories you're burning. It'll automatically adjust your calories on MFP. If you don't want to eat them all back you can set your net calories lower (i.e. 1000). I wear mine every day. Not only does it make it easier to tell how many calories you're really burning and what your personal metabolism is (it tracks more than just motion, but also body temperature!) but you can sync it with Everymove and Earndit as well as Walgreens for free stuff! The more you move, the more points you rack up and the more stuff you earn!

Best of luck!

Ditto to this. Had bodymedia for over 18 months and it's changed my life. I love it and it's so worth the investment.

tigerblue

When you are so close to your goal things get tricky! Basically, because your weight is (relatively) low, 1200 does not give you a big deficit. It is an appropriate deficit, but there will not be much room for error. If you are off a little on your logging, then that can chip away at your deficit. Then, if you overestimate calorie burn, that takes more deficit. Pretty soon your deficit is gone. Also, when you add in exercise calories you are "doubling up" because you are adding in the calories that you would already have burned just in regular life. I find that I have to look at my exercise burn, and then subtract one calorie for each minute I exercised. (I got that number by looking at my estimated BMR.). Sometimes I just log 50 calories less than I burn for every 30 minutes exercised to be sure.

When you are larger, these inaccuracies will not cancel out your deficit, but when you are smaller, it can be a problem and it sounds like that is what is happening for you. I had the same issue, so I know it well!

Also, because your loss will be much slower than when you are larger, hormone fluctuations may mask your loss, so keep good records as to your weight (I weigh daily and log it every time) so you will be able to see what is happening over the long term--like every month!

tigerblue

If you get desperate/frustrated enough I'm a pretty big fan of the BodyMedia arm band. It costs about $150 new, and a $7/month subscription fee. You wear it 23/7 and it tells you 95%< accuracy how many calories you're burning. It'll automatically adjust your calories on MFP. If you don't want to eat them all back you can set your net calories lower (i.e. 1000). I wear mine every day. Not only does it make it easier to tell how many calories you're really burning and what your personal metabolism is (it tracks more than just motion, but also body temperature!) but you can sync it with Everymove and Earndit as well as Walgreens for free stuff! The more you move, the more points you rack up and the more stuff you earn!

Best of luck!

Ditto to this. Had bodymedia for over 18 months and it's changed my life. I love it and it's so worth the investment.

But be careful--it is not accurate for everyone! Mine reports burns about 700 calories too high. It resulted in a 10 lb weight gain for me. I know now that it is only 69% accurate for me, so although I do wear it and compare numbers from day to day and to make sure that I keep my activity up, (I know what an active day looks like for me on the Bodymedia now), I do not connect it to MFP. I use 69% of it's monthly average burns to set my goals on MFP.

lynndot1

10lbs isn't a lot, especially if that's all you need to lose.

I've been "losing 10-15 pounds" since the beginning of this year, starting at 132lbs...at 132 pounds I was not overweight so I totally admit the last 10 are vanity pounds (trying to relive my high school glory days, haha) - which is why I'm not "trying" too hard to get back down to 120. I rarely count calories beyond estimating as I go throughout my day, and weigh myself a couple times a week. As long as the number doesn't go up I don't obsess about it or worry too much about "dieting." After 3-4 months of this I'm down to 125lbs. Is it fast weight loss? No. But it's very doable for me because I typically eat the same kinds of foods so I have an idea of what calories I'm eating day to day. If you aren't good at portion estimating then you might want to be more strict - but at the end of the day, don't beat yourself up if you're a little off. It's not an exact science. Eat good food, be relatively active, and most importantly give yourself time. I probably could have crash dieted to drop from 130 -> 125, but it would have sucked. A lot...I like food. Haha.

_runnerbean_

I think the mistake you are making is eating back those exercise calories. If you are doing hard cardio for an hour a day (eg running, step aerobics) then it's ok to eat some of those calories back. However the walking you describe would only bring you to around 10k steps per day which is not that much really. I do 14k steps per day and go to the gym/run/do aerobics DVD on most days too. I didn't have that much to lose when I started but I have lost 17lb since June. Either stop eating back your walking calories or add in some more intensive exercise. Good luck with it.

Tanie98

give it time,be patient

scintillaa

I love how everyone on this forum automatically assumed that you simply weren't REALLY sticking to your calorie goal. I have other theories. You're eating too few calories, you're not eating enough fat and you might be dumping too much sugar into your bloodstream.
First off 1200 Calories is the minimum amount of calories a person burns per day in order to stay alive (keep your heart pumping, your organs functioning). When the idea of bringing someone down to that many calories, it was called a starvation diet. Because that was what it was. Starvation. When you bring your body down to that level, your body does a few things. You might lose 1 pound quickly while you're body adjusts, but ultimately what you're body will do, is bring down your body temperature, make you lethargic and try to conserve as much energy (fat) as it can, because you are now starving. Instead, it will start to cannibalize your muscle mass, which it figures is preferable to burning your fat stores, because your fat stores are both valuable (they are actually what feed your organs) and they require less calories to maintain. And as a result of this, your body now burns less calories while at rest because there is less muscle mass to maintain. So now, you have more fat, and fat is what feeds your organs. So your fat is not letting the nutrition in the fat cells at a rate that can feed your body at the rate it needs. So you're double starving. Outside to make yourself thin, and inside your body isn't releasing what nutrients you do take in. In fact, its slowing down the rate that its burning your fat, and using your insulin to feed your cells what little you are eating , which also adds more fat to your fat cells. While this would be great if you were a hunter gatherer who could only eat every few days, as a modern human, this sucks.

So, try this instead - first you want to prevent your insulin from wreaking havoc on your fat cells. You do this in two ways. first - cut down on your consumption of carbohydrates. A good general rule is to keep carbohydrate consumption to less than 100 carbs per day. but UP your calorie consumption to 1500 or 1800 (better)

Easiest way to do this:

First:

keep your cardio where it is -- about 30 minutes per day should be fine


Things to Eliminate:
Cut out starch and sugar (wheat, potatoes - including those chips, starchy vegetables, and fruits like bananas, peaches, and apples, also cut out LOW FAT dairy) --- this does include alcohol. Which your body will burn instead of your fat every time. Once glass of wine on the weekends won't kill you, but it will slow your weight loss.

Include
Eat as many other salad vegetables as you want. Some of my favorites are Eggplant, broccoli, cauliflower, spinach, zucchini, cucumbers, spaghetti squash, tomatoes

Include:
Whole fat dairy products - whole fat dairy is a good source of protein and fat. This will fill you up longer, give you more energy and prevent the lactose (milk sugar) from wreaking havoc on your bloodstream. Include, whole milk yogurt, Whole fat cheeses (like mozzarella - NOT PART SKIM) ,Heavy cream (or heavy whipping cream -- I like to make my own whipped cream, but you can buy sugar free heavy whipped cream also), full fat sour cream, whole milk ricotta cheese, and real butter.

Include
Eggs - Do NOT seperate the egg from the egg white. Eat them whole.

Include
Full Fat Meat- Caveat - Do not go for lean meats. Trust me. This will make you starve. Examples: Chicken with the skin ON, Sirloin steak, Lamb chops, lam shoulder chops, Pork. Try to limit your consumption of protein to about 1 gram per kilogram of your body weight. This to will keep you full. Fish is also a good option, but a bit expensive. My favorites are Cod, Flounder, Scallops and Lobster.

Include:
Berries - Berries are great for that sugar fix. Limit yourself to maybe 10 strawberries, or a half cup of blueberries - Try to always eat these with a source of fat, such as heavy whipped cream or cheese.
Nuts - My personal favorite are macadamias. Limit yourself to about 1 to 2 ounces per day.

Include:
Fats
Olive Oil, Coconut Oil, Walnut Oil, Real mayonnaise (go for organic here, avoid soy products), Avocado, Butter - I eat half an avocado per day

I usually eat about 75 total carbohydrates- and about 45 to 50 net carbs (net carbs= Total carbs - Fiber - sugar alcohols)per day, which and am losing about 1 to 3 pounds per week.

Typical daily meal plan for me:
2 Egg (full fat) omelet with butter and broccoli and cheddar

Lunch: (I make this on the weekend, pop pre-portions into the freezer and then to take with me to work)
Skinnytaste.com Crockpot picadillo -( you can find this recipe online. I made only a few modifications: I use full fat ground lamb instead of lean beef, we use two whole tomatoes instead of one tomato and tomato sauce, and we don't drain the fat after cooking the meat -- If you don't have a crockpot, you can make it on the stove -- this is under the name Cuban Picadillo on Skinnytaste.com)) -- With 1 half avocado and 2 tbsp of full fat organic sour cream(not for health reasons, organic dairy products usually last longer in the fridge) - this is what I like, but there are plenty of other ways to go. Basically, you want some kind of fatty meat, with some vegetables.

Snack: 1 ounce of nuts or 2 hardboiled eggs

Dinner: 1 serving of full fat meat: Chicken Thighs (skin on) marinated in olive oil, lemon juice, and a variety of spices (look up recipes online for baked chicken thighs OR Sirloin Steak, OR Lamb Shoulder Chops (cheaper than lamb chops) OR Cod, Flounder - Seasoned with butter, olive oil and a mix of spices -- Try to limit this to 4 ounces

Two Large portions of vegetables: I personally like eggplant and zucchini. My fiance likes Sauteed spinach (in olive oil) and cauliflower.

Dessert: 1/2 cup blueberries with 1/2 cup strawberries and 1/4 cup whipped heavy cream.

Now AFTER the first 4 days of eating like this:

Change your exercise.There's an adjustment period where you will feel like complete crap for about 3 days --- you'll have no energy and be hungry. After this, if you can ride it out, You will have a huge burst of energy)

Keep your cardio where it is. 30 minutes of walking per day is just fine.

You need to build some muscle. I suggest downloading the 7 minute workout app. If you wanted to be a body builder, this wouldn't be the app for you, but it will help you counteract the damage you've done by starving yourself. It really is only 7 minutes(I personally call it the worst 7 minutes of my day, but it works) -- start doing it every other day.

I know it sounds counter intuitive. But I swear, I've lost 17 lbs this way in the last few months.

tigerblue

I love how everyone on this forum automatically assumed that you simply weren't REALLY sticking to your calorie goal. I have other theories. You're eating too few calories, you're not eating enough fat and you might be dumping too much sugar into your bloodstream.
First off 1200 Calories is the minimum amount of calories a person burns per day in order to stay alive (keep your heart pumping, your organs functioning). When the idea of bringing someone down to that many calories, it was called a starvation diet. Because that was what it was. Starvation. When you bring your body down to that level, your body does a few things. You might lose 1 pound quickly while you're body adjusts, but ultimately what you're body will do, is bring down your body temperature, make you lethargic and try to conserve as much energy (fat) as it can, because you are now starving. Instead, it will start to cannibalize your muscle mass, which it figures is preferable to burning your fat stores, because your fat stores are both valuable (they are actually what feed your organs) and they require less calories to maintain. And as a result of this, your body now burns less calories while at rest because there is less muscle mass to maintain. So now, you have more fat, and fat is what feeds your organs. So your fat is not letting the nutrition in the fat cells at a rate that can feed your body at the rate it needs. So you're double starving. Outside to make yourself thin, and inside your body isn't releasing what nutrients you do take in. In fact, its slowing down the rate that its burning your fat, and using your insulin to feed your cells what little you are eating , which also adds more fat to your fat cells. While this would be great if you were a hunter gatherer who could only eat every few days, as a modern human, this sucks.

So, try this instead - first you want to prevent your insulin from wreaking havoc on your fat cells. You do this in two ways. first - cut down on your consumption of carbohydrates. A good general rule is to keep carbohydrate consumption to less than 100 carbs per day. but UP your calorie consumption to 1500 or 1800 (better)

Easiest way to do this:

First:

keep your cardio where it is -- about 30 minutes per day should be fine


Things to Eliminate:
Cut out starch and sugar (wheat, potatoes - including those chips, starchy vegetables, and fruits like bananas, peaches, and apples, also cut out LOW FAT dairy) --- this does include alcohol. Which your body will burn instead of your fat every time. Once glass of wine on the weekends won't kill you, but it will slow your weight loss.

Include
Eat as many other salad vegetables as you want. Some of my favorites are Eggplant, broccoli, cauliflower, spinach, zucchini, cucumbers, spaghetti squash, tomatoes

Include:
Whole fat dairy products - whole fat dairy is a good source of protein and fat. This will fill you up longer, give you more energy and prevent the lactose (milk sugar) from wreaking havoc on your bloodstream. Include, whole milk yogurt, Whole fat cheeses (like mozzarella - NOT PART SKIM) ,Heavy cream (or heavy whipping cream -- I like to make my own whipped cream, but you can buy sugar free heavy whipped cream also), full fat sour cream, whole milk ricotta cheese, and real butter.

Include
Eggs - Do NOT seperate the egg from the egg white. Eat them whole.

Include
Full Fat Meat- Caveat - Do not go for lean meats. Trust me. This will make you starve. Examples: Chicken with the skin ON, Sirloin steak, Lamb chops, lam shoulder chops, Pork. Try to limit your consumption of protein to about 1 gram per kilogram of your body weight. This to will keep you full. Fish is also a good option, but a bit expensive. My favorites are Cod, Flounder, Scallops and Lobster.

Include:
Berries - Berries are great for that sugar fix. Limit yourself to maybe 10 strawberries, or a half cup of blueberries - Try to always eat these with a source of fat, such as heavy whipped cream or cheese.
Nuts - My personal favorite are macadamias. Limit yourself to about 1 to 2 ounces per day.

Include:
Fats
Olive Oil, Coconut Oil, Walnut Oil, Real mayonnaise (go for organic here, avoid soy products), Avocado, Butter - I eat half an avocado per day

I usually eat about 75 total carbohydrates- and about 45 to 50 net carbs (net carbs= Total carbs - Fiber - sugar alcohols)per day, which and am losing about 1 to 3 pounds per week.

Typical daily meal plan for me:
2 Egg (full fat) omelet with butter and broccoli and cheddar

Lunch: (I make this on the weekend, pop pre-portions into the freezer and then to take with me to work)
Skinnytaste.com Crockpot picadillo -( you can find this recipe online. I made only a few modifications: I use full fat ground lamb instead of lean beef, we use two whole tomatoes instead of one tomato and tomato sauce, and we don't drain the fat after cooking the meat -- If you don't have a crockpot, you can make it on the stove -- this is under the name Cuban Picadillo on Skinnytaste.com)) -- With 1 half avocado and 2 tbsp of full fat organic sour cream(not for health reasons, organic dairy products usually last longer in the fridge) - this is what I like, but there are plenty of other ways to go. Basically, you want some kind of fatty meat, with some vegetables.

Snack: 1 ounce of nuts or 2 hardboiled eggs

Dinner: 1 serving of full fat meat: Chicken Thighs (skin on) marinated in olive oil, lemon juice, and a variety of spices (look up recipes online for baked chicken thighs OR Sirloin Steak, OR Lamb Shoulder Chops (cheaper than lamb chops) OR Cod, Flounder - Seasoned with butter, olive oil and a mix of spices -- Try to limit this to 4 ounces

Two Large portions of vegetables: I personally like eggplant and zucchini. My fiance likes Sauteed spinach (in olive oil) and cauliflower.

Dessert: 1/2 cup blueberries with 1/2 cup strawberries and 1/4 cup whipped heavy cream.

Now AFTER the first 4 days of eating like this:

Change your exercise.There's an adjustment period where you will feel like complete crap for about 3 days --- you'll have no energy and be hungry. After this, if you can ride it out, You will have a huge burst of energy)

Keep your cardio where it is. 30 minutes of walking per day is just fine.

You need to build some muscle. I suggest downloading the 7 minute workout app. If you wanted to be a body builder, this wouldn't be the app for you, but it will help you counteract the damage you've done by starving yourself. It really is only 7 minutes(I personally call it the worst 7 minutes of my day, but it works) -- start doing it every other day.

I know it sounds counter intuitive. But I swear, I've lost 17 lbs this way in the last few months.

You have some very good suggestions here for eating well, and as you say, building muscle is essential for all of us for making it easier to acquire or maintain a healthy weight.

But 1200 is not the lowest number of calories to support our life systems for everyone. At 130 lbs, my BMR is below 1200. At my goal weight (115-120) my BMR is around 1100.

Now, at the op's weight, you are right, 1200 is probably the lowest she should go. Even for a net goal.

But be careful making blanket statements. .

I just wanted to put in this comment for others reading the thread, so they would know to investigate the facts. I spent 3 years trying to listen to people tell me that I should be basing my intake on a much higher BMR, and I gained 20 lbs. yes, there are plenty of people who would be starving themselves if they based their net goal on 1200. But there are plenty of us who have lower body weights and thus lower BMRs and who therefore have to use smaller numbers. And my goal weight is actually in the middle of healthy range for my height and frame, so I am not being drastic here.

scintillaa

You have some very good suggestions here for eating well, and as you say, building muscle is essential for all of us for making it easier to acquire or maintain a healthy weight.

But 1200 is not the lowest number of calories to support our life systems for everyone. At 130 lbs, my BMR is below 1200. At my goal weight (115-120) my BMR is around 1100.

Now, at the op's weight, you are right, 1200 is probably the lowest she should go. Even for a net goal.

But be careful making blanket statements. .

I just wanted to put in this comment for others reading the thread, so they would know to investigate the facts. I spent 3 years trying to listen to people tell me that I should be basing my intake on a much higher BMR, and I gained 20 lbs. yes, there are plenty of people who would be starving themselves if they based their net goal on 1200. But there are plenty of us who have lower body weights and thus lower BMRs and who therefore have to use smaller numbers. And my goal weight is actually in the middle of healthy range for my height and frame, so I am not being drastic here.

I agree with you, that it isn't good to make blanket statements. But if she is already walking 10K, steps which is a moderate activity level and limiting her consumption to a meager 1200 calories per day, there is something else going on with her body. With all my exercise, I just about hit 10K steps a day (I have a bodymedia too, its good advice, they're $99 right now...a great investment--my calories are tracked through myfitnesspal), sometimes a little higher. Yes, I do a half hour of strength training every other day, but I am losing between 1 and 3 pounds per week and eat close to 2200 calories per day, now.

Now, I'm heavier than her by about 20 or so pounds, but I've been put on a 1200 calorie per day diet too -- and I did the same thing she did. I worked out every day diligently. And yes, the weight came off -- very slowly. maybe a pound every other week or so...with lots of plateaus in between, but eventually, I was able to starve myself thin. I was hungry constantly, I had no energy (which means I had to force myself to work out, by sheer strength of will), and I was constantly irritable and my immune system was in the toilet. When I FINALLY made it down to my goal weight, I brought my calories back up to what the BMR formula said would be necessary to maintain my weight, I gained back every single pound + an extra 5 or 10 for my efforts, which sucks...and trying to just starve myself thin again didn't work as well the next time I tried it.

The major benefit of the diet i described in my previous post being: I am never hungry between meals (If I am, I can eat without feeling guilty about it), I have a ton of energy (more than enough to get through my work out, work, and the housework as needed), and I am eating legitimately delicious food...So sticking to this diet is easy.

I gave her the advice that worked for me when I was at my own wits end. At the very least, you can banish boneless-skinless chicken breast forever!