Getting discouraged, fast

Try eating more to accomodate your exercise in to your deficit. With all your exercise you're probably putting your body into starvation mode and it wants to hold on to all the fat once there. You need to nourish your body properly before it will burn your fat reserves.

i agree!

i have always been told that 1200 is the LOWEST you want to go!! but if you dr said 1000 was ok what do i know haha.....make sure you are AT 1200 (or 1000), dont go below and like marisama says, when you work out you need to replace the cals burned so your body isnt in starvation mode!!

good luck

I think your doctor is smoking crack. You are putting your body into starvation mode. Especially with all the exercising you are doing. I've lost 57 lbs on the Food Lovers program, www.myfoodlovers.com.

Weigh in only once a week. Weigh in as soon as you get up after you pee. Do not weigh yourself thru out the day.
Eat something within 1 hour of waking up. Eat every 2 to 3 hours all day long until 1 hour before bedtime.
Become a label detective and remove all food that has ingredients like white enriched flour, white sugar, high fructose corn syrup.
Snacks should be kept under 200 calories and not include white flour, white sugar, corn syrup or anything else you cannot pronounce. Try fruit.
Your meals should be protein, fast carb (potato, rice) and a slow carb (veggies) in the correct portions. You need to eat to keep your metabolism burning the fat.

Here are the correct proportions for each meal for a woman:

total calories for a meal - between 300 to 500
protein between 15 to 30 g
carbs - 30 to 45 g
fat - 20 to 30 % or LESS of total calories
fiber - at least 5 g (20 to 25 g/day)
Sodium - LESS than 700 mgs per meal.

This food plan absolutely works. It's taught me how to eat, how to cook, the right portions. It's not a diet, it's a new lifestyle that I will do for the rest of my life.

Hope this helps and check out the website. Christine

Thanks for the great advise. I'm sure a lot of us will benefit from all this info:flowerforyou:

I think your doctor is smoking crack. You are putting your body into starvation mode. Especially with all the exercising you are doing. I've lost 57 lbs on the Food Lovers program, www.myfoodlovers.com.

Weigh in only once a week. Weigh in as soon as you get up after you pee. Do not weigh yourself thru out the day.
Eat something within 1 hour of waking up. Eat every 2 to 3 hours all day long until 1 hour before bedtime.
Become a label detective and remove all food that has ingredients like white enriched flour, white sugar, high fructose corn syrup.
Snacks should be kept under 200 calories and not include white flour, white sugar, corn syrup or anything else you cannot pronounce. Try fruit.
Your meals should be protein, fast carb (potato, rice) and a slow carb (veggies) in the correct portions. You need to eat to keep your metabolism burning the fat.

Here are the correct proportions for each meal for a woman:

total calories for a meal - between 300 to 500
protein between 15 to 30 g
carbs - 30 to 45 g
fat - 20 to 30 % or LESS of total calories
fiber - at least 5 g (20 to 25 g/day)
Sodium - LESS than 700 mgs per meal.

This food plan absolutely works. It's taught me how to eat, how to cook, the right portions. It's not a diet, it's a new lifestyle that I will do for the rest of my life.

Hope this helps and check out the website. Christine

I just wanted to thank you for this post. I've never seen anything lined out like that for a meal and I think it will be really helpful to me. I also have been stuck at just over 200 pounds for two months. It is very frustrating. I'm not even seeing a difference in my clothes. However, I can tell I'm stronger and able to do more so I know good things are happening inside of me, but I am so ready to see the fat start melting off my belly!!! My chiropractor has been real encouraging telling me that right now my body is just converting fat to muscle and he can definitely tell a difference in muscle tone. My brother-in-law who has lost over 70 pounds says that eventually my body will catch up or balance out or something like that and I will start to see the fat weight go down. So please hang in there with me. Maybe we will both break 200 together.
April

Hi. I briefly glanced at your food diary, and one suggestion for helping you get over the hump would be to cut out fast food and add more veggies, fruits and healthy proteins (chicken, lean pork, eggs, beans). The quality of your calories is as important as keeping them low. Healthier, lower-calorie choices actually allow you to eat more, too! (bonus!) There are plenty of good posts on this site about healthy options...check the "recipes" section. Good luck and stick with it!

I also looked at your food diary - there are quite a few days that you don't have recorded, but I did notice that on days when you did record, you were a good bit over the 1000-1200 calorie goal. I agree that 1000 is too low, but if you can net between 1200-1400 (including your exercise calories) that should put you on the right path.

And I agree with previous posters - you could eat so much more food if you were eating more fresh food and less processed & fast food. Sodium might be the big culprit that is blocking your weight loss.

I can lose weight like crazy on a 1200 calorie diet & lots of exercise until I hit 215 pounds. And then my body freaks out (this is the 2nd time I've been here -- the first time, 5 years ago, I gave up & quit because I couldn't get past the plateau. This time is WAY different in terms of what I'm doing and how much I know about what I'm doing, but just the same I hit that plateau at the exact same spot). I have to eat *more.* I hit the plateau at 216.4 pounds 2 months ago. I started eating more (roughly 1350-1450 calories on days I exercise). After 3 weeks of eating more, I dropped 6 pounds in 3 weeks. Now, at the lowest weight I've ever been in my adult life, I've hit another wall. I've started eating even MORE. Now 1400-1500 on days I exercise, 1300-1400 days I don't exercise -- I determine about how much to eat by eating roughly 1350 base calories and eating roughly 25-50% of my exercise calories.
No wonder I've never been able to break through and get below that weight before -- eating *more* is the answer and I never would've guessed. Thanks to MFP I know better now. Eating LESS, when you're already on a significantly reduced calorie diet is NEVER going to be the right answer.

Also, be sure you're eating quality calories. 300 calories of beer are not equal to 300 calories of lean proteins, veggies, and good fats. Your body doesn't just need calories, it needs *nutrition.*