1200 Calories a day, a ton of cardio and GAINING? !

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  • Dlacenere
    Dlacenere Posts: 198 Member
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    Please eat more, you will never sustain this diet and you will never see results. When I used to eat 1200 calories, I lost weight and it was all muscle and I gained fat. I was skinny fat. You must eat more to fuel your body and those workouts if you want to increase your lean body mass. The more LBM, the more calories you will burn. Eat quite a bit more, increase your protein, cut cardio back some and start lifting weights, it will change your life - I promise.
  • ladyraven68
    ladyraven68 Posts: 2,003 Member
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    http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/fat-loss/why-big-caloric-deficits-and-lots-of-activity-can-hurt-fat-loss.html
  • ladyraven68
    ladyraven68 Posts: 2,003 Member
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    I'm going to disagree with the others. Before I say you're eating too much or too little, how tall are you? Depending on your height you may or may not be eating enough. Adjust your intake by 200 - 300 calories either up or down and see how that goes. I do agree with the poster who said to add in some weight training and switch out some of the cardio.

    I never eat back my exercise calories. Some people do, and some don't, you have to find what works best for you.

    Adjust her calories 300 down, from 900???
  • tamerkins2
    tamerkins2 Posts: 212
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    I'm going to disagree with the others. Before I say you're eating too much or too little, how tall are you? Depending on your height you may or may not be eating enough. Adjust your intake by 200 - 300 calories either up or down and see how that goes. I do agree with the poster who said to add in some weight training and switch out some of the cardio.

    I never eat back my exercise calories. Some people do, and some don't, you have to find what works best for you.

    She is 5'7 and weighs 151 lbs. How is 900 calories eating enough? I take that back - at ANY height/weight, 900 calories is never enough!!
  • tamerkins2
    tamerkins2 Posts: 212
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    I'm going to disagree with the others. Before I say you're eating too much or too little, how tall are you? Depending on your height you may or may not be eating enough. Adjust your intake by 200 - 300 calories either up or down and see how that goes. I do agree with the poster who said to add in some weight training and switch out some of the cardio.

    I never eat back my exercise calories. Some people do, and some don't, you have to find what works best for you.

    Adjust her calories 300 down, from 900???

    RIGHT??? Come on.
  • AmyRhubarb
    AmyRhubarb Posts: 6,890 Member
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    I agree with the others, definitely sounds like a case of under eating, and possibly over training as well. But definitely not eating enough to fuel those workouts. I also recommend the road map thread - awesome information in there.

    Another good read: http://www.shapefit.com/overtraining-exercising-too-much.html
  • TinaLRoman
    TinaLRoman Posts: 41 Member
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    I'm going to disagree with the others. Before I say you're eating too much or too little, how tall are you? Depending on your height you may or may not be eating enough. Adjust your intake by 200 - 300 calories either up or down and see how that goes. I do agree with the poster who said to add in some weight training and switch out some of the cardio.

    I never eat back my exercise calories. Some people do, and some don't, you have to find what works best for you.

    Adjust her calories 300 down, from 900???

    No the original 1200.
  • Mischievous_Rascal
    Mischievous_Rascal Posts: 1,791 Member
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    You're starving yourself and as a result your body is holding on to every shred of fat/nutrition it can, rather than burning it off. I would guess if you start eating more (ie, bumping up to ~1500 cals/day) you will start to drop pounds after 3-4 weeks.

    this.

    i would also consider reducing your cardio in favour of full body strenght training and a little HIIT if you do want to do cardio.

    Exactly.
  • Jocolette
    Jocolette Posts: 9 Member
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    One question:

    Do you care about your health or a number on a scale more?

    My health, before I sound like too much of a whiner I will add that I FEEL 100% better since i started eating clean and excersizing nomatter what weight. And regardless of the number on the scale will never go back to my previous lifestyle, however I was looking forward to dropping some pounds when I started and thus am a little "blah" about that...
    just out of interest is there any reason why you eat in a 7 hour time frame? your diary is set with breakfast at 12, and then you are finished with dinner by 7pm?

    There was a point in the summer where I was trying intermittent fasting about the same time when I started working out. I should have mentioned this before but I went down to 141while.intermittent fasting and then started gaining fairly consistently from that point. I like the intermittent fasting routine and my boyfriend is on the same schedule so it helps us coordinate.
  • nixirain
    nixirain Posts: 448 Member
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    I'm going to disagree with the others. Before I say you're eating too much or too little, how tall are you? Depending on your height you may or may not be eating enough. Adjust your intake by 200 - 300 calories either up or down and see how that goes. I do agree with the poster who said to add in some weight training and switch out some of the cardio.

    I never eat back my exercise calories. Some people do, and some don't, you have to find what works best for you.

    You are wrong. She said she is 5'7" in her post....It is a good Idea to read the entire post before you answer a question... 900-1200 calories is too low for most people especially for an extended period of time.
  • likitisplit
    likitisplit Posts: 9,420 Member
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    What is your body fat % now?
  • Angeloftheshore
    Angeloftheshore Posts: 227 Member
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    For me, eating back my exercise calories was the ONLY way I lost weight. I am at 1200 before any exercise. I stalled out and felt horrible (low blood sugar) when I wasn't eating them back. Now if I have a huge exercise burn day (900-1000 cals) I will only eat back up to my goal weight maintenance calories for sedentary. I have only been doing this change for about three weeks but it's working.
  • CuteWittleWifey
    CuteWittleWifey Posts: 60
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    Another one of these...REALLY...
  • RobinvdM
    RobinvdM Posts: 634 Member
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    You have your daily goals set to 900. That is where you are going wrong. Your body isn't going to be in a hurry to drop weight if you aren't going to give it a replacement fuel source. When/If you workout make sure you eat back your workout calories at the bare minimum. Calculate your BMR/TDEE using any online calculator and adjust your calories from there.

    Unless you are on some kind of medically supervised diet, eating 1200 or less AND doing a lot of workouts just isn't going to work for sustainable weight loss.

    ETA: I am 5'7" and when I get there, my BMR at 150 should be about 1380 ish, there is no good cause to be eating so deeply (900) under.
  • TavistockToad
    TavistockToad Posts: 35,719 Member
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    There was a point in the summer where I was trying intermittent fasting about the same time when I started working out. I should have mentioned this before but I went down to 141while.intermittent fasting and then started gaining fairly consistently from that point. I like the intermittent fasting routine and my boyfriend is on the same schedule so it helps us coordinate.

    i figured it was probably IF, but thought i woudl check!

    If you up your cals you may well gain to start with, but once your body gets used to it you will lose again!

    also, if you increase your strength training you may not see losses on the scales but you WILL see losses in body fat.
  • oh_em_gee
    oh_em_gee Posts: 887 Member
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    Make sure you get your protein and fat. Yes, eat fat. It's a nutrient too. I'm not suggesting you fry bacon in butter and drink some olive oil, but there is a such thing as a healthy fat intake. Protein is crucial when you're working out that much. I am lightly active and I eat at least 1 gram for every 2 pounds of ideal weight. So, since my ideal if 140-150 pounds, I need 70-75 grams of protein. And I'm not doing an hour of cardio a day. The whole point of working out is to build muscle, allow yourself to do that by fueling your body.
  • norcal_yogi
    norcal_yogi Posts: 675 Member
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    what you are trying just isn't going to work in the long (or short, it seems) run.

    i have tried and failed with that type of schedule/diet.

    you need to listen to your body, be kind to it, and FUEL it.

    you will be much happier overall and the weight will start dropping!
  • RiannonC
    RiannonC Posts: 145 Member
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    If you have been doing this for the better part of a year as you say, and you actually are never hungry as you said, that suggests to me that your body truly isn't burning the 12-1400 calories you have been eating daily (IF you have been estimating your calories consumed accurately). Maybe you do only burn 900-1000 calories a day. The thing is, at your height and weight, you definitely should definitely be burning more than that. After a year, your body should have shown a loss.

    I think you really need to go see a doctor at this point to find out why your metabolism is so slow. The fact that you increased calories consumed from 900 to 12-1400 and your body didn't adjust to that, but put on more weight, indicates to me that it may not adapt well to further raising your calories either. Some people have hormonal or thyroid issues that need to be resolved before they can up their calories and it sounds to me like you could possibly be in that group. Good luck.
  • tenajh
    tenajh Posts: 208 Member
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    See a certified nutritionist and be honest, print out what you are eating and doing. There are very few people on MFP that are certified in nutrition, you will be surprised and happy to actually find out what you really need to do to put your body in its best physical state. Good Luck, ps, if you have a Max Muscle in your area, they have certified nutritionists to talk to there.
  • rduhlir
    rduhlir Posts: 3,550 Member
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    Yes I just changed my diary goal today to 900. Everything ive read paired with my stats tells me to eat more but being never hungry and gaining discourages me from that... I am not eating back what Ive burned. Just total intake of 1200

    Okay...look at it this way. You eat 900 calories, then workout for 30 minutes running on a treadmill and burn 300 caloires and don't eat them back. Then you are actually only intaking 600. Does this make sense? Extreme calorie deficit diets are dangerous and should ONLY BE DONE UNDER MD SUPERVISION, not to mention technically against MFP policy. I say that all in caps because people seem to think that they can do them and have no lasting effects. But in reality with as little as you are eating you are losing muscle mass rapidly...why? Because the body will get rid of the one thing that burns energy the fastest which is muscle. So no matter how much you lift, your body will fight that by shredding unneeded muscle, which will lower your metabolism. You have to eat.

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