Please Help Me - I Don't Know What I'm Doing Wrong

1. Your BMR is not 1200, it is about 1448. Check it here. http://www.myfitnesspal.com/tools/bmr-calculator
2. Adding your exercise calories to that does not give you your TDEE. You first have to multiply it by the activity factor. Even completely sedentary people get a 1.2, but most people are more like 1.5. So that makes your TDEE 2172 (all numbers are estimates, every human is slightly different and we cannot be put on a chart precisely).
3. A healthy deficit is 20% of TDEE. So you should be aiming for 1737 a day, which can be rounded to 1700, since it's all estimates anyway.

This is your starting point. Eat 1700 a day and lift weights, for a FULL MONTH.
Do NOT step on a scale during that month.
After a full month, judge your progress by what you see in the mirror, how you feel, and how your clothes fit, not by any numbers on a box on the floor, or any numbers some dude at the gym told you while poking you with plastic things...numbers mean nothing.
IF you do not notice ANY positive changes after that whole month, tweak your calorie intake SLIGHTLY by going down to 1600 or so, and try that for at least 3 weeks before making a decision if it has helped or not.

My personal opinion? You ate way too little for way too long, you screwed your metabolism over, and it is going to take some work to fix it. Eating 1200 or less a day again is not going to do you any long term favors. Fix your furnace so it burns properly.

This thread has been better than daytime TV - thanks all!

Just wondering does anyone think that the best thing the OP could do is step away from the spreadsheets and HRMs (not one, but two!), stop obsessing about food and weight (esp when in a healthy range anyway), and just chill out?

There really maybe some truth to this.^^^^

I'm watching every move I make like a hawk and maybe I'm sabotaging my efforts - almost like I'm not 'allowing' myself to lose weight. Maybe I need to just step back and let it happen.

Thank you. I am seriously considering this^

Your metabolism doesn't "BREAK" at worst 10% decline. making it the 1,700 calories TDEE down to 1,500(rounded). The op said she has been doing 1,700 calories with no results. For the 10,000th's time she should eat less.

This thread has been better than daytime TV - thanks all!

Just wondering does anyone think that the best thing the OP could do is step away from the spreadsheets and HRMs (not one, but two!), stop obsessing about food and weight (esp when in a healthy range anyway), and just chill out?

There really maybe some truth to this.^^^^

I'm watching every move I make like a hawk and maybe I'm sabotaging my efforts - almost like I'm not 'allowing' myself to lose weight. Maybe I need to just step back and let it happen.

Thank you. I am seriously considering this^

I would like everyone's input on my situation. Caution: If you don't give me the answer I am looking for or like I plan to call you a troll. ( ;

"in addition, if someone gives me really really good advice, I will not acknowledge it's existence or say thank you for correcting my glaring errors... I will only argue with everyone else and ignore the best piece of truth and knowledge in the thread"

Well let me lay it out for you, because you obviously can't read. Here are all the responses I have either thanked or said I would take their advice:

NUMBER 1

It's great that you maintained a food journal in the past and started again. There are a few things, though.

1. Your entries from day to day are very random - from calories eaten to exercise and even macros. You don't seem to be adhering to a set pattern. Even if you follow a cyclical schedule, such as carb or calorie cycling, you should have a target to reach daily and/or weekly.

2. Stop weighing yourself daily - It will just make you paranoid.

3. Stop doing 900-1000 calories of cardio - Too much exercise places a significant amount of stress on the endocrine system and can cause spikes in cortisol that result in abnormal amounts of water retention. You also lose excessive amounts of lean body mass which thus lowers Resting Metabolic Rate even further. Engage predominantly in strength-training 3-4 days per week with 1 or 2 HIIT sessions that average between 250-500 calories.

Honestly, your best day was 9/10/12: 1664 calories eaten; 434 exercise calories; 83g carbs, 89 fats, 131 protein.

I ran your numbers based on your stats and your TDEE, if you engaged in moderate activity up to five days a week was 2137 calories to maintain weight. At your height and weight, you should set a weekly weight loss goal of 0.75 lb - no greater than this. Thus, you should be eating about 1760 per day.

Thank you! But on average I am eating around 1700 calories a day - random or not - the average comes out to be 1700. Shouldn't my calorie intake be the same too?

NUMBER 2

Thank you for all your help everybody

But I'm still completely confused. I'm operating at a deficit, eating 1700 calories on average now for 2 months, weight lifting and doing cardio regularly and I'm STILL not losing weight.

The only time in my life that I DID lose weight was back when I was eating a 1000 calories. I'm starting to think that's my only choice - because I HAVE been eating enough, I HAVE been doing cardio and weight lifting, I HAVE been drinking enough water, and I HAVE been tracking my calories accurately - and alas, nothing is happening.

NUMBER 3

I admit to being a little confused since you kinda seem to want someone to tell you that going back to your old ways is okay since you lost weight back then.

Go to a dr. Talk to a nutritionist. Understand what you would do to your body if you fell back on to old habits. I honestly don't know how you felt good. You didn't eat enough to fuel your body to do anything, much less live a full day and workout.

As for what are you are doing wrong, you got really great advice here from a smart man. But seriously, get a health check.

Thanks for your imput, but it 'seems' to me that you maybe reading into this way too much. I do not want people to tell me to eat how I was, and I'm not lying when I say that I felt good - do you honestly think I could eat that low for months if I really felt that bad or didn't have enough calories to 'function'?

No. Not a chance.

With all do respect, please do not 'assume' my intentions.

NUMBER 4

1) Stop all cardio for one month
2) Reduce caloric intake to 1400 calories. Increase protein intake to 120g/day minimum. Carb intake should be at least 50g. Fat intake should be at least 40g. I recommend lean meats, fruits, veggies, and grains (rice and quinoa are great), so ensure you have enough to eat and are not hungry. ENSURE CALORIE TRACKING IS ACCURATE.
3) Weight train 3 days/week, 1 hour per day (see routine below).
4) After 1 month, reintroduce cardio as desired. Do as much low-intensity stead state cardio as you feel like (e.g. walking), and up to 3 10-20 minute sessions of HIIT per week. HIIT should have a rest:work ratio of 1 or higher (i.e. sprint for 30 seconds, rest for 30 seconds... for most people 20 seconds of sprinting and 40 seconds of rest will yield better results).
5) Do not "eat back" workout calories.
6) If losing weight faster than 1.5 lbs/week, increase caloric intake. Once under 20% body fat, you'll need to change a few things, but this should provide for quick, linear weight loss til then.

Failure to lose weight on this regimen would be due to underestimating caloric intake.

Sample weight routine:
All movements are done with 2-3 warm-up sets, and 3 working sets.
Working sets are "reverse pyramid" style:
set 1 = 6-8 reps at max possible weight
set 2 = reduce weight by 10-15%, do 8-10 reps
set 3 = reduce weight by 10-15%, do 10-12 reps

Day 1:
Deadlift
Bench Press

Day 2:
Military Press
Chin-up

Day 3:
Squat
Dip

Any reasonable weight training routine will work, this is just an example. I recommend large compound movements with relatively low volume to ensure there are no issues with recovery time while at a significant caloric deficit.

WOW. THANK YOU SO MUCH! I think I'm really going to try this. Quick question though, why would I have to increase if I'm losing more than 1.5 pounds a week? That doesn't seem that much to me? I'm not saying that it 'isn't much' it just doesn't 'sound' that much to me.

NUMBER 5

I guess my issue here is, it's OBVIOUS that I'm operating at a deficit with my exercise. Why then am I not losing weight?

And if 1000 calories is TOO LITTLE, then why was that the ONLY time I've ever lost weight and felt good (not to mention look good)?

Well, you CANNOT be operating a deficit and not lose weight. Whatever we may not know about the complexities of how the body works, we do know enough to be sure about that.

So that leaves two possibilities: Either your data on "total calories consumed" are wrong, or your body uses less energy than you think it does. According to http://www.answers.com/topic/basal-metabolic-rate the minimum energy expenditure to just keep the body going (doing no mechanical work, e.g. lying in bed) is 1200 to 1800 kcal/day, but as low as 700 kcal/day in some individuals.

I can't *know* which of the two it is, but on the face of it, it seems more likely your data is wrong than that you have a serious metabolic condition. You are quite healthy, neither obese nor underweight, and that suggests you have a normal metabolism. Your data on the other hand seems to be all over the place. Both exercise and food intake varies a lot from day to day and also from month to month. In July you exercised on 2 days, once burning 216 kcal and the other day 1851.

You can sanity check your own data by converting weight loss into calories. Your basic everyday consumption equals the sum of calories consumed in any period minus exercise plus calories burned from fat. Fat is 9 kcal/gram whether it comes off your body's storage or in the food. I would do this calculation if your data was a table (so I could simply copy it over into Excel), but as it is an image you'll have to do it yourself.

For example, based on your Aug 2012 data, you lost 3 pounds. Assuming all of it was fat, that's 1.36kg * 9000kcal/kg = 12 240 kcal. Food intake was 31*1375 = 42 625, of which exercise took 31*75 = 2325 kcal. Based on this data your basic metabolic consumption was 12 240 + 42 625 - 2325 = 52540 kcal over 31 days, which works out to just under 1700 kcal/day. The point isn't to find out what your rate is but to check the sanity of your data, and 1700kcal/day is not completely crazy and so indicates your data for august *may* be correct.

My suggestion is that you do this same calculation for all of the other months to see whether there is any consistency. If there is not, and your data suggests a basic metabolic rate that varies wildly from month to month, I'd suspect the data rather than the metabolism if you have no other indicators of metabolic problems. If you aren't sure, take your data with you to your doctor, who should be able to investigate whether you have any metabolism issues.

One last point: The above calculation assumes all of the weight loss came from fat. This does not really matter when using it just to check if data from month to month yields consistent results, so long as the proportion of the weight loss that came from fat is about the same. But here your very variable data could be a bit of a problem. If you change the amount of carbs drastically, you also change how much water your body holds. (Btw I saw one poster say your body "can be up to 50% water"; a normal healthy body is actually about 70% water!) If you lost 1 lb of water weight in one month (eating little carbs) and regained it the next, this would greatly affect the result. To see this, assume you'd actually lost 3 lb of fat in both months. Since you lost 1 lb of water too the first month, you'll record a weight loss of 4 lb. The next month you'll record only 2 lb, half as much, even though your water weight has nothing to do with your energy balance.

I would advice you to make a moderate plan of at least 1300 kcal/day, with a fixed energy distribution between carbs, protein and fat. Then try to stick to it stringently enough that you get consistent weeks. (Being consistent on a daily basis is hard, especially when you need to watch carbs/fat/protein separately in addition to total calories. And at least I find that I need to allow myself a little more on weekends than the rest of the week. But say you get at leasts 1200kcal every day, and not more than 1400kcal per day on average in any week, and you'll be on your way, losing weight quite slowly but steadily.)

Thank you so much for your input, however, I would bet close to anything that my data is EXTREMELY close to being accurate based upon the level of effort I put forth every day to weigh out EVERY SINGLE OUNCE that goes into my mouth. On top of that, I use 2 SEPARATE heart rate monitors (alternating between each workout) and each read off nearly the EXACT SAME calorie expenditure range during my workouts.

As far as the 'extremes' in my calorie intake, it is not a reflection of the inaccuracy of my data. On the contrary, it's due to me PURPOSELY trying to cycling calories on a daily basis in an attempt to lose fat.

NUMBER 6

But... eating just your BMR and exercise calories, it should still be under maintenance. BMR is like NO movement, add in daily living and thermic effect of food, you're still burning more than just BMR + exercise cals.

Agreed. However, that just reflects that there's even MORE of a problem But thank you

NUMBER 7

Sleep might help, though. It really makes a big difference, from what researchers are finding. Strength training may help. It is supposed to boost the basal body rate. Relaxation work and an anti-inflammatory diet might help, because of the way they are thought to target the hormonal systems. A more consistent diet may help, by keeping blood sugar more stable and reducing the stress response, or so I have read.

A thorough checkup sounds like a great idea, in case blood sugar or thyroid or adrenal problems are making this even harder.

Thank you. I do plan on getting a checkup ASAP next week just to rule out any problems.

What is an anti-inflammatory diet? I've never heard of that before.

Thank you for your input

NUMBER 8

you came to the wrong place for dietary advice.

go to your doctor and then maybe a nutritionist.

you need professional advice. you will not find that here.

Good advice. As I said before, I am seeing doctor ASAP next weeks to rule out any issues.

Any suggestions on how to go about seeing a nutritionist? I live in a relatively small town, so I'm pretty clueless.

NUMBER 9

Have you tried measuring your basal body temperature? Taking that daily for a month or two might give some valuable data. An ovulation thermometer or basal body thermometer may be more accurate, doesn't cost much more, and reduces the risk you'll be told it must be the thermometer's fault.

(Falling outside of the center of the bell curve can be a royal pain. Sometimes that's all it is, but sometimes it really does indicate something is wrong.)

Another approach you might consider is the "leptin diet" - there are books, but most of the info you would need can be found free at wellnessresources.com. A lot of it targets appetite, which is not your problem, but a lot of it also targets the way other hormonal systems interact. Whether it would work fotlr you - who knows?

I know a lot of people are kind of panicking over your "restricted" diet. I lived for years on 900 carefully chosen calories a day. Had to bump it up a little due to illness; not loving the results.

Thank you!

What's considered normal temperature? And doesn't it fluctuate throughout the day? - If so, when is the best time to take it to compare?

If my temperature is abnormal, what does that suggest??

NUMBER 10

Wherever possible use free weights, this will enable you to strengthen your 'core' as well as isolated muscles giving you a more balanced body and the means to use your targetted muscles in a more effective way.

Thank you much!

NUMBER 11

I may be new *here* but I used to be a fitness/health fanatic and simply got off track for several years.

One thing we cannot see in your charts is WHAT you are eating.... you know, of what your caloric intake consists. If you're eating candy bars (for instance) your body is not getting the vitamins and minerals it needs to keep your motor running properly.

I'm two inches taller than you and my fat MAX for a day is 40 grams, therefore I'm sure your max could be less. When I add a workout (Jillian Michaels 30 Day Shred), my fat intake MAX is 50 grams..... with that said, I noticed something on your charts that I didn't see anyone else mention - your recent averages were the following:

July - your average daily fat intake was 86.3 grams per day
August - average daily fat intake was 93.4 grams per day
Sept - average daily fat intake was 106.1 grams per day
Oct - average daily fat intake (so far) was 90.4 grams per day

I see on one day your fat consumed was 163 grams - that's four times what my charts recommend sticking to..... and yes, I realize everyone is different but I'm just saying what I'm seeing with the post you provided. If you're not losing fat, that may be part of the equation right there.

To boot, none of us here have any idea what KIND of fat is producing these numbers. Chocolate? French Fries? Salmon?

If you keep your caloric/workout levels reasonably stable you'll probably see an improvement. That way your body will dial in as to "what to expect" and know what it can "keep" and "get rid of".... I have been sticking to what my chart tells me to do religiously and I've been steady with my weight loss. It's made me realize I was simply eating too much whether it was protein, carbs - whatever.

One thing that has helped me personally is I plan my meals on this site in advance. I'm talking two weeks in advance. I do it on purpose so I don't have a flub up in my numbers by the time 6pm rolls around because quite frankly I do want to eat dinner! I have my diary set so I chart what I eat every THREE hours so I am letting my body know it will be fed on a regular basis and the weight is just dropping off. I also have anything after 8pm set as the no-no zone, meaning... stop putting food in my piehole.... because anything I eat after that will just land on my *kitten* and stomach.

That's all. Now whether you take what I say into consideration or not, hope you find your answers and good luck!

Thank you so much for your reply!

I DO eat healthy, I don't have my food diary open because I don't want people to be critiquing it and criticising it. Now matter how 'clean' or 'perfect' it is, at least 5 people on here will say "well, you need to eat more of this, not that..." So I'm not even going to stroll down that road. But I will say that I eat very healthy - no processed food (except for a cookie or two on my high-calorie days), lots of green veggies (mainly spinach and broccali- my faves!), and high protein (tunafish 1x/week, sardines 3x/week, beef 3x week, and eggs and chicken practically every day).

Supplements: whey protein, omega 3,6,9 complex, and a multivitamin.

I eat high-fat because a ketogenic diet has worked for me in the past. I eat high fat on purpose. I gain rapidly when I consume too many carbs ( over 175grams/day).

Even though I COMPLETELY agree with your post, that if you're eating like crap it's going to be harder to lose, if it's really about calories-in, calories-out, then why does what I eat matter??? (this question is meant for those advocating that calories-in, calories-out are all that matter. Not you, as I completely agree that what you eat does matter

If I didn't specifically thank you, or say I was going to take your advice, it's because I felt as if it was bad advice.

So let me go ahead and revise your 'warning':

CAUTION: If you make assumptions about what I'm 'secretly' wanting to hear and cherry-pick my words apart without me actually saying those specific things I will not only call you a troll, but I will also tell you to get your head out of your rear-end and stop twisting people's words for your own pathetic pleasure.

1. Your BMR is not 1200, it is about 1448. Check it here. http://www.myfitnesspal.com/tools/bmr-calculator
2. Adding your exercise calories to that does not give you your TDEE. You first have to multiply it by the activity factor. Even completely sedentary people get a 1.2, but most people are more like 1.5. So that makes your TDEE 2172 (all numbers are estimates, every human is slightly different and we cannot be put on a chart precisely).
3. A healthy deficit is 20% of TDEE. So you should be aiming for 1737 a day, which can be rounded to 1700, since it's all estimates anyway.

This is your starting point. Eat 1700 a day and lift weights, for a FULL MONTH.
Do NOT step on a scale during that month.
After a full month, judge your progress by what you see in the mirror, how you feel, and how your clothes fit, not by any numbers on a box on the floor, or any numbers some dude at the gym told you while poking you with plastic things...numbers mean nothing.
IF you do not notice ANY positive changes after that whole month, tweak your calorie intake SLIGHTLY by going down to 1600 or so, and try that for at least 3 weeks before making a decision if it has helped or not.

My personal opinion? You ate way too little for way too long, you screwed your metabolism over, and it is going to take some work to fix it. Eating 1200 or less a day again is not going to do you any long term favors. Fix your furnace so it burns properly.

Not sure if you saw this amongst all the other stuff, but this is the best advice I have seen. Good luck to you!

Edited: I quoted the wrong post. hehe... fixed now.

WOW. I must of completely skipped over this one.

I agree, this is excellent advice. Thank you.

If I didn't specifically thank you, or say I was going to take your advice, it's because I felt as if it was bad advice.

So let me go ahead and revise your 'warning':

CAUTION: If you make assumptions about what I'm 'secretly' wanting to hear and cherry-pick my words apart without me actually saying those specific things I will not only call you a troll, but I will also tell you to get your head out of your rear-end and stop twisting people's words for your own pathetic pleasure.