No progress.... EVER! Frustration!

Since you're otherwise quite small, light and slender, maybe you should check with a doctor to see if you're having any food intolerance that's causing bloating.

I train 6 days per week, I eat perfectly, and still there are no inches coming off my damned naval. I know it takes time but SURELY I should see SOME kind of progress.. even half a damned inch?! I've been at this for like 2 months or something and I've been running 3 times a week since March ffs!

Been there. Done that. The story of how I finally got over it ---> http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/740340-i-lost-60-lbs-at-age-51-anyone-can-any-workout

It kind of depends on where you are at, are you short or tall, do you have a lot of weight to lose or are you near the end of your transformation.

The 1200 calorie minimum is relative to your BMR. If you are a bigger person this is a low number, if you are small like me this is a large number, barely below my RMR. This 1200 may work okay for most people but for short females like me it's way too much. If you are like me, petite and short and you think you might fall into the same category then you need to seek approval of your doctor. I went lower and when I showed my doctor the research links for eating less in Brad Pilon’s Eat Stop Eat and the calorie guide for me in “The Venus Index Workout Manual” he said “Great. Do it!” So I did and it worked, but I think that is because I am short.

Taller people have more room in their calorie budget to go up or down. Shorter people like me have less room and get frustrated with "eat more" because that typically does not work for us. If you are confused about it don't just listen to the "eat more" bullies, do some research and get approval from your doctor, then tell the bullies who "call you on the pad for eating too low" that you are under a doctor’s care and to please leave you alone.

Once I got leaner I had to taper UP my calories. The leaner you get the less of a calorie deficit your body can handle. It needs to be a long slow shallow deficit. For me still under a doctor’s care, this is around 1000-1200 calories because I am so short, petite, and am under 12% body fat where I truly can go into starvation mode if I ate under 1000 calories. I have supporting documentation below. Again, you must seek your doctor’s advice. No one here can tell you how many calories to eat, either up or down.

Seek advice from your doctor. Myself or anyone else on here can’t tell you how much to eat, or to go up or down. If you have a lot of body fat reserves you would be surprised at how little you can eat (unless you have emotional eating issues or disorders). The leaner you get the less your body has to draw from and then you have to taper up your calories. There is no such thing as starvation mode for woman over 12% body fat or men over 6% body fat. I pretty much proved that for myself by staying strong and building muscle and doing what I did. I'm the leanest, most muscular, and most fit that I have ever been in my life at almost 52 years old. My doctor looked at my blood work throughout my journey and it remained fine even with “taking breaks from eating” for periods of time and eating less. Even now at less than 12% body fat everything is A-OKAY. I am healthy, active, and vibrant, muscular not skinny. I have never had eating disorders nor do I now. If you have eating disorders you should not be on a diet unless you are under a doctor’s care and/or get those issues resolved first. I do not advocate unhealthy eating or promote eating disorders.

While there is no one size fits all I listed the things that worked for me here --> http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/740340-i-lost-60-lbs-at-age-51-anyone-can-any-workout

I found the following quotes helpful for sorting through all the myths plastered all over the place.

What is the exact number of calories for you?

We’ve been trying to figure out an exact NUMBER of calories that everyone should be eating, without recognizing that everyone is slightly different. In truth, the calories aren’t the end game. Your body is. So the EXACT amount of Calories that are right for you is the EXACT amount that will allow you to maintain your ideal bodyweight no matter what some calculator or chart says.

In other words, an online calculator might tell you that you need to eat 2,500 calories
per day to maintain your ideal bodyweight. But the only way to know for sure if this is
the right amount for you is to test it out. If you gain weight or can’t lose weight eating
that much, then you know you need to eat less to lose weight no matter how many
calculators and text books say otherwise.

This doesn’t mean your metabolism is broken, it just means the estimate of your needs
was just a bit off.

-John Barban (The Body Centric Calorie Guide from the Venus Index and Adonis Index Manuals)

The Theory of Fat Availability:
•There is a set amount of fat that can be released from a fat cell.
•The more fat you have, the more fat can be used as a fuel when dieting.
•The less fat you have, the less fat can be used as a fuel when dieting.
•Towards the end of a transformation, when body fat is extremely low you
may not have enough fat to handle a large caloric deficit anymore.

At the extreme low end, when your body fat cannot ‘keep up’ with the energy deficit
you've imposed on your body, the energy MUST come from SOMEWHERE. This is
when you are at risk of losing lean body mass during dieting (commonly referred to
as ‘starvation mode’). This happens at extremely low levels of body fat, under 6% in
men and 12% in women [Friedl K.E. J Appl Phsiol, 1994].

-Brad Pilon and John Barban (from The Reverse Taper Diet in The Adonis Index and Venus Index manuals)

Switch it up. Take a break from the cardio 2 days/wk like mentioned, eat a few more calories. Shock ur body Get it out of it's routine think way

You're already at a pretty low weight. Probably in your BMI unless you're extremely short. When you get in the lower numbers of your BMI, your body gets comfortable and doesn't want to lose, so it's harder. I learned in a bio class about it I forget the term, but it's our body's biological set weight. Some people's set weight is higher or lower depending on their genetics. Take it easy. The lower you get into the numbers of your BMI, the harder to lose. Just like it's easier to lose for heavier people. It's frustrating, but it might take you longer, be patient.

I was listening to a Jillian Michaels podcast where she talks about people trying to lose "vanity pounds", ie your body isn't overweight and therefor wanting to lose weight. She talked about how it's a totally different ballgame to someone who is trying to lose 50 or 100 pounds, because your body is healthy at the weight that it is and will do anything to keep it that way. She had callers who had the exact same problem as you, that they were incredibly fit, ate very clean and restricted calories and couldn't lose any weight.

Apparently anything over a 1,000 calorie deficit (750 is ideal) is far too large of a deficit if you're not overweight, and your body will slow it's metabolism down, going into starvation mode to resist losing what your body views as necessary weight. Even if you are eating 1600 cals, if you're burning 3,000 a day then you might not lose any weight, it might cannibalize your muscle to reserve the fat.

If you can afford it, maybe buy a fitbit or a body bug to accurately measure your bmr, and then you can determine what your true deficit is. Otherwise, if you've been going at it since March (well done) then maybe its worth experimenting around with changing your macros (ie proportion of carbs, protein and fat) and make sure that you are changing your workout routine every few weeks.

Hope it helps

^^ likes this.

I suggest switching up your exercise routine, maybe heavier lifting.

If you can do swimming where you are, I -highly- suggest doing that.

well I just lost about 10 pounds in the last week from stress and it is making me sad cause I already see flab :-( time for sit ups and push ups and whatever else I can do!

it's not only about food. again you could be overtraining - I had a plateau for 2.5 years because of that.

If you only focus on food then yeah you may be frustrated.