Struggling to lose any weight :(

Hi Alysin,
I just saw your post! Great work on exercising daily and for 30 minutes each day as well. Ok, so your calorie intake is 1200-1300 and you weigh 140 pounds but would like to lose 20 pounds and weigh 120. Watching your calories and exercising daily for 16 straight days is a good start, but here are a couple of other things to consider -

How tall are you?
How old are you?
What TYPES of foods and calories are you taking in?

I would love to help you out with reaching your goals! Feel free to send me a friend request!

Krissattelberg

Vanity pounds are hard to lose. Depending on height, you may not even be classified as overweight.

Running &/or heavy weight lifting is what I've heard works for those last few pesky pounds to be loss. Good luck!

You can also take a alpha-adrenoceptor antagonist and do some LISS

I'm doing different exercises: work out videos that are low impact to moderate aerobics, elliptical, toning exercises.

I'm eating more healthy and less fast food. I'm not going crazy healthy though. I need more water and fruits and veggies for sure.

There is no such thing as toning. Do high intensity running and eat more protein and less everything else.

common pitfalls that I learned along the way (the hard way):

1.) eyeballing servings...not counting condiments and such...sneaking a little bit here or there (I used to grab stuff off my kiddo's plate all of the time without even thinking) and not logging it can quickly add up to more calories than you think you're consuming.

2.) Overestimating and even underestimating calorie burns from exercise...logging activity that should be included in your daily activity like doing laundry, etc can cause people to consume more calories than they think they are or conversely cause them to not consume enough calories for the body to properly function.

3.) Eating at a deficit that is so big your body goes into metabolic stall and starts storing everything. This also happens when you have a significant deficit built into your diet and you exercise and don't eat any of those calories back as it makes an already significant deficit even bigger. Make sure you're netting to your BMR or somewhere relatively close to that.

The leaner you are the harder it is to lose weight. It takes much longer for me to take off a pound than it used to. I also have to pay much more attention to the macros.

16 days is not a long time! Do the right things and you will see slow and steady progress.

Perhaps focus on building some muscle to change your body composition

I felt the same way when I started. I was not only eating 1200 calories but I was working out two hours a day and nothing was happening. Finally after a couple of weeks I lost a pound or two and then I have lost a maybe one half pound a week since. I
would make sure that you are measuring your food proportions properly as that could cause you to not lose as fast. Don't get discouraged it will happen. I just kept telling myself that I hadn't gained weight so that was a good thing!

You've always been 110-15 except the last 6 months? And you suddenly gained 20lbs in 6 months? Do you think you've been eating enough to gain that fast? That is some rapid weight gain on someone not prone to being heavy. You may want to give the dr a call unless you've been eating really really bad.

How tall are you?
How old are you?

I'm 33 and 5'5" I've always been 110-115, and over the last 6 months, I've put on about 20 pounds

You don't need to answer all of the following, but consider...

What else changed in the past 6 months? Could you be pregnant? What time is it during your cycle? (Some women gain as much as 10 pounds each month and lose it again -- although at your weight, it wouldn't be that dramatic.) It doesn't sound like you're eating enough. Have you calculated your BMR and TDEE? Have you been eating significantly below TDEE for longer than the 16 days? If none of this helps figure it out, you might want to check with a doctor about why your metabolism has suddenly shifted.

Check out the extracted information in http://www.myfitnesspal.com/blog/Robin_Bin/view/how-to-use-myfitnesspal-427993, and there's some excellent advice at http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/819925-the-basics-don-t-complicate-it

Good luck!

I'm 36 and about 5'8. I've got to actually increase my caloric intake and cut back on certain of my guilty pleasures in order to kick start losing weight. I started my fitness journey back on August 20, 2012 and I started out at a weight of 195 according to the scale. I haven't weighed myself recently, but will do so tomorrow for accountability purposes and will see where I am at now; I do know I am down to size large pants(16) and used to wear size extra large (18-20) but that's not where I really want to be.

What's your favorite exercise to do? Do you have a specific workout routine or a set time of day that you work out? Having both often helps out A LOT.

I don't know why people want to run around claiming that there is no such thing as a starvation mode...they are fooling themselves and trying to fool others, just as you say. There really is! I constantly see that in many of my family members and friends and it makes me feel sad for them. I know that cutting back on highly processed and/or refined foods, as well as cuttng out wheat and gluten(I had to because of a medical condition) containing foods often can help with weight loss. Some health conditions make weight loss next to impossible if one doesn't know he or she is living with it or doesn't know what to do to manage it. This was one of my problems for years...

It's a myth. It's been studied. It's been proven.

What proof? Keep in mind your results, and how you perceived you achieved them, is not proof of anything.

Back to the op's issue, use MFP as a tool to track your calories intake. Nothing more. Don't use it to calculate your calorie goal, don't log exercise, and for God sakes don't eat the calories back. The combination of these three things will result in inconsistent results.

Calculate your TDEE. Use various calculators and average the results. Deduct 500 calories and this is you daily goal. Track everything you eat and try your best to maintain this goal. Stick with it consistently and after a few weeks, if you are not losing, then deduct your calorie goal by another 100 and repeat, keeping in mind that TDEE calculations can vary and may need adjusted. As for exercise, get into a routine but don't get caught up with needing to know what you are burning. It's not important and none of the gadgets out there are accurate enough to consider logging.