Diary/ Exercise Help please - something is not working.

As far as the weight loss plateau, either drop calories a bit or add more cardio to create a bigger calorie deficit. You said you've been eating 1200 calories a day for a while now, seems like your body has adjusted to that. You'll have to lower your calorie intake or burn more calories to continue to lose weight. You can't continue to lose weight eating at the same calorie deficit forever, your body will eventually adapt.

I agree with morebean13

Not eating enough; overtraining without proper fuel.

Sort of related; take from it what you will:

From one of my old posts from a similar topic:

OK. I'm gonna give this a shot. I am an avid lifelong athlete. I have never been overweight, however, I used to eat too few calories (without knowing it), and a couple years ago, I actually GAINED weight bc of having slowed my metabolism to the point that every little extra treat I ate caused a weight gain, even though overall my calories were too low. THIS DOES HAPPEN.

It is also the reason so many fat people stay fat. They restrict their calories so low, slow their metabolisms, binge (even a little), gain weight, restrict more . . . . and so on and so on. But they are still fat.

It is also the reason most people can't lose that last 10-20 lbs. For real.

1. MFP has a deficit built in. Let's say you're trying to lose 1 lb/ week. That is a 500/day deficit from your BMR (the amount of calories your body needs to complete basic functions.

2. You exercise and burn 500 calories. Now you are at a 1000 deficit. If you eat back those 500 exercise calories, you refuel your body and you still have a 500 deficit for that 1 lb loss. If you DON'T eat back those calories, you have too little fuel. This is bad. This is too much of a deficit for basic functions. If you do this for a long time, you will STOP LOSING WEIGHT. Why? bc your metabolism will slow down -- it's like a brownout--not quite enough electricity to make the whole city (your body) run, so it has to slow down some things. You will probably start being tired a lot, your skin and hair might start to look worse, and you might even gain weight. But you might NOT be hungry -- your body is getting used to fewer calories. That's bad.


That's when you start to gain weight. Let's say you're running along, eating 1200 calories a day, and exercising 400 calories a day, so net is 800. You're losing, you think this is great. You keep doing it, but after a while you stop losing. hmmmmm. One weekend you go out to a special event and have a slice of pizza and a beer. 1 slice of pizza and 1 beer. So you ate maybe 2000 calories that day and exercised off 400, so net 1600. BOOM! You gain 3 lbs! What?!

Next, you freak out and restrict yourself down to 1000 calories a day and work out extra hard, burning 500 calories. Great, netting 500 now. You don't lose any weight, but you sure feel tired. Better get some red bull.

Are you getting the picture?

EDIT: When you work out, you need fuel. Food is fuel. If you don't eat back those exercise calories, you will not only have a big calorie deficit, you will have an ENERGY deficit. Remember, the calorie deficit for weight loss is built in when you use MFP. Exercising basically earns you more calories because you must refuel.
--

There are many people who will tell you not to eat exercise calories. Before you take their advice, you might want to see whether they are at goal, have EVER been at goal, or have ever been able to maintain at goal. If anyone says to you 'THE LAST TIME I LOST WEIGHT", just stop listening right there.

Ask some athletes whether or not they replenish their bodies with food equal to the calories they burn. Ask people who are fit and have achieved and maintained a healthy weight for some years. Don't ask people who count walking across a parking lot as exercise.

Here's an interesting case study about how to stay fat while consuming only 700 calories a day. Take a moment, you'll be glad you did:

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/3047-700-calories-a-day-and-not-losing

blessings.

It sounds to me like you're doing well, and should just stress less and keep at it. If you keep at a plateau, maybe up your eating for a while, then go back down.

Thanks guys, great advice here.

Based on your stats, your BMR is 1326 cals/day.
Assuming you're lightly active, as most people aren't truly sedentary without some sort of injury prohibiting movement,
1.375 x 1326 = 1823 cals <-- this is your TDEE
Take a 20% cut from your TDEE:
0.8 x 1823 = 1458 cals, round to 1450. <--- This should be your target calories.

Ah, this makes sense - I worked out all my numbers based on being sedentary. I also wonder now, if in addition my body composition is changing and my body is burning more and therefore needs more?.
I start with a weight trainer next week, so the advice about higher protein is sound too.

And, no - I will never take advice about calorie restricting - I yo yo'd for years, same 5 - 10 lbs all the time. Now I am in for the long haul, slow and steady with the goal of being strong and fit (and less wobbly, but I hope that goes along for the ride!). I am 35 lbs down from my original start weight now so I am not screwing it up for a quick fix.

I shall promptly change my stats and go and raid the fridge! :laugh:

As you lose weight, even the 20% cut may get to be a little high, and you'll want to slooowwwly taper that down until you're at maintenance. So if you find that when you up your calories, you're all the sudden starving all the time (which may very well happen when your metabolism "wakes up" a bit, you might want to raise the cals a bit more.

Just for the benefit of others reading- properly setting a deficit works for everyone. People with more weight to lose can afford bigger calorie deficits. Because the OP is already in a healthy weight range and trying to trim down the last few "vanity" lbs, she needs to have a smaller margin than a heavier person would.

Also, MFP has different multiplier for Lightly Active, 1.35, so the goal MFP shows will be slightly off, besides which you can't do % off, but lbs off.

Woah! I can't believe I've never noticed that! I mean, I kind of can, since I don't personally use the MFP calculation tools, but I can't believe nobody else has ever mentioned that to me! Good catch Haybales!

Here are the differences between TDEE table and non-exercise MFP table.

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/548314-losing-weight-in-maintenance?page=1#posts-7744322

Hey - 2 years ago I sat on my butt and watched tv - I have upped my exercise all the time - Now I push myself till I am purple and dripping and panting like a rabid dog. It is not pretty! :mad: (I kind of look like this <<)

Oh and my calories burns are guestimates - for cardio, I take the machine less 15%, for shred I log as Cardio on MFP, so they may be off, but I don't have a benchmark.

Well, that's exactly what I mean.

If you workout max each time, there is no denying you will feel like you are pushing the same level, and you are - but you will not be getting the improvement you could be getting, because your body never gets chance to recover and actually improve.

If undereating or undernourishing too, it even has a hard time recovering properly.

And your estimates of calories is badly off, undercutting that too, so not eating back enough to fuel those workouts. Which take a lot out of you, but at this point stress just for the sake of stress - probably little improvement.

No where near the improvement you could be having with correct rest.

Many people look at exercise as means to lose weight, and that's fine. But the stress from thinking that way - it would be better just to walk.

Diet is for losing weight, exercise is for heart health and body improvements, and it may or may not assist weight loss depending on how you do it.

If you do the exercise right - NOT all out each time, exercise can help with the weight loss while improving the body.

Suggest you think about why you are exercising - if for helping weight loss, then just walk and eat a tad bit more. And walking calories are very accurate.
http://www.exrx.net/Calculators/WalkRunMETs.html

If this is for improving the body and actually getting the most benefit from your workouts, then do them smarter.

You can drive a car with jack-rabbit starts for every take off and slamming on the brakes for every stop, but you will have premature wear on engine/transmission/transmission parts and terrible gas mileage. Not good for the car.

Monday - Jillians shred or 45 mins on the treadmill + 20 minutes light weights
Tuesday - ditto
Wednesday. Jillians shred AND 55 minutes jogging or walking at an incline.
Thursday: Horse riding lessons (jumping etc - hard work!). I may also do a shred.
Friday - Shred or cardio/ light weight session
Saturday. Shred.
Sunday: off

Now I push myself till I am purple and dripping and panting like a rabid dog. It is not pretty! :mad: (I kind of look like this <<)

Oh and my calories burns are guestimates - for cardio, I take the machine less 15%, for shred I log as Cardio on MFP, so they may be off, but I don't have a benchmark.

I am going to have to ask you to clarify this - I am not 100% sure what you are trying to say?

I have had plenty of energy for workouts until recently, I agree I need more fuel, but I want to keep on getting fitter.I work out to get fit and strong. I am improving - every workout I can run longer and faster, or do more weight or more reps. I have Sunday off completely and my Wednesday session is a nice long incline walk.
Are you saying I should work out more - or less?

So above quotes is why I'm saying you may indeed feel like you are working out hard, and making some improvements, but not near the level you could if eating correctly for that level, and adjusting the level to smarter workouts.

I'm guessing like most others than, time is limited, and getting the most from your workout time would be desired.

That's why in above post I suggested some tweaks to the workout schedule to cause just that.
Proper rest after hard days, so they can truly be hard days for improvement.
Mixing up what muscles are getting worked, so they can really be worked.
And allowing the rest/easy days to really benefit muscle repair.

So not a matter of working out more or less, time-wise I'm saying about the same, calorie-wise I'm saying less, effort-wise I'm saying more, positive effects I'm saying more benefit.

It's the same way you can do steady state cardio for 30 minutes and burn say 300 calories. Or you could do HIIT for 30 min which includes warm-up/cool-down, and only burn 200. But the net effect is your burn more calories all day on HIIT, and see more fat burning, and see bigger improvement, and despite the rest periods you'll be pushing yourself harder and feel it the next day.

In fact thinking about that now, to my suggestion in previous post for tweaks to routine, make Fri upper body lifting and short cardio. Make Sat lower body HIIT, perfectly followed by rest day Sunday. If HIIT is done right, you'll need it.

Mon - Make the cardio shorter and the weight lifting harder lower body.
Tue - shorter cardio lighter for recovery on legs, lifting on upper body.
Wed - leg cardio in aerobic zone.
Thu - recovery, skip shred., only horse or calm walking on incline fine.
Fri - short cardio, upper body lifting.
Sat - HIIT for lower body.
Sun - Rest.

1200 is too low! You should raise your calories. Also you're doing a lot of cardio and only light weights. Ease up on the cardio and try some heavy lifting (heavy lifting for you).

Wow, such great and intelligent advice on here!

I was trying to lose about 5-10kg last year to attend a wedding, a did so by eating 1200cals, alternating running with weights and didn't eat back my exercise calories because I thought it was all about creating the biggest calorie deficit possible. The first few weeks I saw big improvement, then after that I plateued quickly and it took months to drop anymore weight and tone up.

Once I had reached my goal, i thought it was time to celebrate and party and I put all the weight back on. Even with decent exercise and eating 1200 cals again I wasn't able to lose much, but after reading this I'm going to start eating back my exercise calories and focus on a smaller deficit. It's logical, but really helpful so thanks everyone. Given me a great boost of motivation