Help! What did you do to lose the weight?

♥Lexi♥

Hi everyone. I have been trying all kinds of things to lose weight and I'm only having minimal success. currently i'm eating about 1200 to 1400 cals a day and working out 6 days a week burning 1200 cals a workout. in 2 months i've only lost 5lbs. those of you having success, please tell us what u are doing to lose the weight. Thanks all for your time.:flowerforyou:

1200 cals per workout? If your only eating 1200-1400 cals a day, you are putting your body into 'starvation mode.' Your body thinks that you are depriving it of food, and therefore, holds onto calories. You need to eat, and yes work out, but keep in mind, you need to leave your body calories.
Try eating clean, and have a bigger breakfast, light lunch and lighter dinner. Drink plenty of water. That tends to do it.
All the best! :drinker:

SOOZIE429

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unicorn1081

want to read but need to sleep.

ha ha ha! i feel you.

kevin3344

Simply put, you need to eat more. I know it sounds counter-productive but 1,200 cals while burning 1,200 cals is just not enough.

Open your diary. Go to Settings > Diary Settings > Diary Sharing and change it to Public.

We'll need to see a breakdown of what your eating vs. what you're burning exercise-wise..

SarabellPlus3

I agree with the others. First, are you sure you're burning that many calories? If you are (knowing that gym machines lie to us... --sigh--), then EAT UP! You need more fuel to work that hard!

I know those are frustrating numbers to see, but also keep in mind how your clothes are fitting, and take measurements. Keep up the good work, and best of luck!

leilaphoenix

Are you REALLY burning 1200 calories in 1 workout! That seems like a lot. Maybe invest in a Heart Rate Monitor to be sure. It might be that you are hugely overestimating what you are burning...

kmbrooks15

Follow MFP. That's really all there is to it.

BTW, if you're only eating 1200 calories and then burning 1200 calories in a day, you are essentially not feeding your body at all. You use up all that energy in your workout, and there's nothing left to live on! If I was your body, I wouldn't want to lose weight, I'd be scared and try to save all the energy I can.

You have to eat to lose weight. Log your exercise calories and eat them back. MFP is set up to work that way. Trust me.

This is pretty much what I was going to suggest, too. You need to EAT.

I'd also like to know what kind of workouts you're doing that burn 1200! And how do you know it's 1200? MFP sometimes overestimates workout calories (so many factors go into your calorie burn).

nonafit

I too think that investing in HRM is a worthy choice. I did 40 minutes of slow jogging and 20 over minutes of 30 DS Level 1 back to back. Left my HRM on for additional of 30 minutes after the workout. The cal burnt was 700. May be you can share with us the workouts. And if all else doesn't make sense may be you should see the doctors and see what they got to say.

5kidsforme

I have had good luck with 1420 calories a day. I don't excercise as much as you. Maybe 4-5 times a week (walking and Jazzercise) at about 200-300 cal. a workout. Be careful when calculating your calories that you eat and the amount you burn off. It is a very common mistake that dieters will underestimate the amount of calories that they eat and overestimate the number of calories that they burn off. At least that is what happend to me before I started logging in EVERYTHING I ate in MFP!! I couldn't figure out why I wasnt' losing weight, it was pretty simple for me....I was just eating a lot more than I realized. That's when I started logging it all here and the weight started coming off. Also, I do eat my exercise calories but usually only an extra 200 calories. Good luck!!

maemiller

sounds like your body is going into starvation mode. I would bring your calories up, maybe 1500-1600 calories.

engineman312

if you don't already have a food scale, get one. for $20-$30, its probably the most useful tool to combat weight loss. it is like the M4 rifle of weight loss. and get some measuring cups and spoons to properly measure out foods. thats like the M203 40 mm grenade launcher rifle attachment of weight loss. if weight loss were a video game, and you had that, you'd be poppin' noobs left and right.

EuroDriver12

if you don't already have a food scale, get one. for $20-$30, its probably the most useful tool to combat weight loss. it is like the M4 rifle of weight loss. and get some measuring cups and spoons to properly measure out foods. thats like the M203 40 mm grenade launcher rifle attachment of weight loss. if weight loss were a video game, and you had that, you'd be poppin' noobs left and right.

lmfao!!!! take it ur a big multiplayer FPS fan?

vim_n_vigor

How are you feeling? I would bet that you aren't feeling too great exercising that much and eating that little. Food is not the enemy. With that much working out, you should be getting a lot of lean protein in your diet, and should also be getting in a decent amount of carbs for all that energy you are burning. 1200 calories is too low for someone doing that much activity. If you have your setting as sedentary, you should change that right away to active. I am 5'4'' with a desk job and eat almost 1500 calories before eating any exercise calories back. Good luck!

writtenINthestars

If you are truly burning 1200 cals a workout at least 6 days a week....you are eating way too little. For that kind of burn, you could easily eat 2000 cals a day.

EngiAli

What are you doing that is burning 1200 Calories per workout, that would be something like 1.5 to 2 hours of running? Plus your food journal isn't public so its hard to weigh in on what you are eating. Sounds like you went from zero to 100 and freaked your body out. Sounds like you need to cool it down on the workouts a bit and up your calories a bit.

LeanMeanFitnessMachine

Are you eating back your exercise cals? And are you absolutely SURE you're burning 1200 EVERY workout? It takes alot of time and alot of effort to burn that much EVERY workout. Try getting a HRM to be sure :-)

ajball90

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thebigbige

What's your sodium intake? How much water are you drinking? Have you been measuring yourself to see if you've been losing size.

unicorn1081

Follow MFP. That's really all there is to it.

BTW, if you're only eating 1200 calories and then burning 1200 calories in a day, you are essentially not feeding your body at all. You use up all that energy in your workout, and there's nothing left to live on! If I was your body, I wouldn't want to lose weight, I'd be scared and try to save all the energy I can.

You have to eat to lose weight. Log your exercise calories and eat them back. MFP is set up to work that way. Trust me.

This is pretty much what I was going to suggest, too. You need to EAT.

I'd also like to know what kind of workouts you're doing that burn 1200! And how do you know it's 1200? MFP sometimes overestimates workout calories (so many factors go into your calorie burn).

i usually go by the machine at the gym. If it's not 1200 it's close because I burn 1200 according to the machine. I know it's alot but when I get going I can do it so I do. some days I dont but most days I do. but I'm learning that many people burn alot less and lose weight so I'll be evaluating that part of my weight loss program too. thanks!

unicorn1081

I too think that investing in HRM is a worthy choice. I did 40 minutes of slow jogging and 20 over minutes of 30 DS Level 1 back to back. Left my HRM on for additional of 30 minutes after the workout. The cal burnt was 700. May be you can share with us the workouts. And if all else doesn't make sense may be you should see the doctors and see what they got to say.

I burn my cals on the eliptical because that's what helped me lose weight in 2009. I lost 51lbs in about 6 months. so I figured I'd do that again but i see now I need to change up my routines. that should be fun. thanks!:flowerforyou: