Why am I not losing weight? :(

You are correct. As long as you consume 500 calories a day under your BMR, you will lose 1 lb per week. What's more than likely happening, is that you're eating too few calories, which is putting your body into "starvation mode". Try increasing your calorie intake slowly until you start losing weight again. Remember, if you do exercise, you need to consume the amount of calories you burnt so that you don't go too far under your TDEE.

This happened to me too. I was doing Jilian's ripped in 30 and lost 4 lbs the 1st week. Then, I was discouraged because the next 2 wks I lost nothing and gained 2 lbs.

I changed up the exercise to walking at least an hour and 15 min of strength/lifting lite weights. I upped my protein, veggies, and water and lowered the white stuff(sugar, bread, rice, etc), most importantly nothing salty, minimal processed food. I felt like I had to trick my body into losing, almost like it was too comfortable with my routine.

Im losing again this week, so far only 1 lbs. At least the scale is moving again. I tried to tell myself I gained muscle except I believe I was just eating too much salt and not sweating enough. Even just walking 4 miles one time a wk and 1-2 miles the other 2 times/wk allowed me to eat and not feel deprived and still lose a little. This is my 3 rd time with MFP and Im gonna keep at it...I quit losing quite often and I have learned to just change the activities and foods until I figure out the reason my body is hanging on to the weight and sometimes it is because youre not eating enough. Or not getting a sweat while working out, hence the HRM. Dont get discouraged, keep at it.

It looks like you skip meals a lot and eat a lot of snacks made up of "wasted calories" (foods that lack nutritional value). My advice is to eat regular meals every day to keep your metabolism going -- and make those meals include veggies, meat, whole grains, dairy, fruits, seeds/nuts, beans (all the nutritious stuff). It seems like everyone on here is telling you to eat more, and I agree, but eat more healthy foods, don't replace meals with drinks.

It looks like you skip meals a lot and eat a lot of snacks made up of "wasted calories" (foods that lack nutritional value). My advice is to eat regular meals every day to keep your metabolism going -- and make those meals include veggies, meat, whole grains, dairy, fruits, seeds/nuts, beans (all the nutritious stuff). It seems like everyone on here is telling you to eat more, and I agree, but eat more healthy foods, don't replace meals with drinks.

I back this post 100%. Just a little add-to, your biggest meal should ALWAYS be your breakfast. Breakfast jump starts your metabolism, if you skip it or don't eat enough, you're cheating yourself. Make sure it's healthy, though... 100% whole wheat cereals, eggs, veggies, nuts... etc. One of my favorite weight loss saying is "Don't drink your calories"! Keep any liquids to a minimum that are more than 5 calories per serving (this includes fruit juices...). You're also not consuming enough water by what your diary shows.

I've got my calories set to 1200, my goal -2lbs/week, I walk even if just for a short distance daily, Roller skate once a week and keep my calories in check! I'm hardly seeing any movement! My last weight loss was a month ago now

Walking for a short distance and roller skating weekly is not going to make any difference - you are sedentary unless you hit the equivalent of about 6000 steps every day which is two to three miles. Losing two pounds a week means cutting 1000 calories a day, it's completely unrealistic for someone who is not at least obese or for most sedentary people. Net above your basal metabolic rate, do some proper exercise, be sure you are eating the recommended servings from ALL the food groups - enough fruits, veggies, oily fish, dairy etc.

As far as I understand it, although working out helps move everything along, as long as you are ingesting less calories than you are burning, you should be losing weight. Correct?

Even if you are not exercising at all on a diet of 1200 calories you should be losing weight.
One of two options here - you are not getting enough protein and fat into your diet. Fat is crucial for losing weight as it assists in regulating your hormones. Protein is crucial to weight loss also.

Option two - go to the Dr and have a blood test, you could potentially have a thyroid problem? Sorry

p.s be patient toooo

You are correct. As long as you consume 500 calories a day under your BMR, you will lose 1 lb per week. What's more than likely happening, is that you're eating too few calories, which is putting your body into "starvation mode". Try increasing your calorie intake slowly until you start losing weight again. Remember, if you do exercise, you need to consume the amount of calories you burnt so that you don't go too far under your TDEE.

You mean 500 calories under TDEE, not BMR.

Yes I did. Thanks for correcting it.

It is great to see a fellow skater on this site!! I think you need some encouragement to push past this plateau... Are you eating all of your calories? Make sure you don't go under 1200 so you body isn't "starving". Also, eat carbs before you skate, you will need them for energy, and you will burn them off. My coach won't let us skate without eating carbs before we show up for practice. Maybe you need to try a different exercise for a while, muscle confusion... Hope this helps! Good luck!!!!

Hi,

Try reducing carbs, especially bread (even 100% whole wheat), eliminate soda, and reduce red meats/processed meats. I did two weeks of no processed foods and lost 11lbs. Good luck!

Don't eat more calories, you are probably just at a plateau, keep at it and it will come off, maybe add some Cardio into your routine?

I've read that anything under 1400 calories per day will put your body into "starvation mode" and your metabolism will effectively shut down as a survival method.

You need to eat more. I eat anywhere from 1550-1800 a day and I'm losing.

Feed your body. Up your calorie intake. Instead of doing 2lbs/week, do 1lb/week (which is the recommended setting) and you'll see the weight come off. It seems completely crazy, but its true. Try it for two weeks, if it doesn't work, then change it again.

Are you eating the calories that you burn after exercise? You should, MFP already takes a deficit from your calorie intake, so you need to eat those calories back. This is a topic that people do not agree on but I have found that it has worked for me, personally.

Everyone is different, so you need to figure out your numbers and see what works for you and your body. I do not recommend eating 1200 calories though.

Good luck!

"Eating more" isn't always the solution. 1200 calories isn't that low. She's not stalling because she's not eating enough.

Hi, I can feel your frustration through your post and I just hate to see that. I see some very good ideas and suggestions on here but the very best things that I see (and agree with) are:
Get that heart rate monitor but really research them and decide which one does what you need it to do. For me, if it didn't track calories accurately using my heart rate rather than a pedometer, I wasn't interested. I have the Polar (I can't remember the model) and it's helped me to really see what I'm doing. Before I had my Polar, I was guestimating what I was burning with my Insanity workouts based on what others at my height and weight were burning (Approximately 350 calories per video). I found that I was really burning 400-500 calories per work out! I also learned after wearing it an entire day and night and monitoring the calories burned at work and while I was sleeping that my body burnes about 1 calorie per minute during no activity or very light ativity (my job is super sedentary). So my point is that step one is really learning where and when you are burning those calories.

Also, I agree that the scale doesn't tell the whole story but it certainly helps. I wouldn't stop tracking that because it also helps you learn how your body reacts to your activities.

I noticed little or no change when I did Insanity the first time because I didn't change the quality of food I ate. I would eat 1200 cal. per day but it was not good quality (As many others have mentioned here). Beachbody (the folks who make my beloved Insanity) has a ton of free coaches who are all about helping and educating. Mine (Amanda Jones) gave me the recipe to what she calls her "Big as a head salad". And my friend, it really is huge. I am not a salad girl but knew that I needed to get my calories in a way that would make the exercise worth it. So I tried the salad and dressing and I'll be darned if I'm not hooked on it! I've had it for lunch for about two weeks now and have noticed that I feel better, sleep better, and work out more effectively. So what I'm saying here is that the saying "Abs are made in the kitchen, not in the gym" is so very true.

Please don't give up trying, just take a step back and use this as an opportunity to learn about your body and how it works. I will freely admit to eating nothing but three slices of Papa John's pizza all day because that was my calorie cap and thinking I had done well. I now cringe that I used to do that and know for sure why I was not successful my first round of Insanity! I started Insanity up again December 27th and (with the exeption of one week when the family had the flu..yeay), I've followed the regimine and have been smart about giving my body what it needed and hey, I've lost a few pounds.

Don't be discouraged, friend, you are among friends who have been there!
Here's the link to that salad and the dressing, just in case you are interested. That dressing is kind of like...heaven. Seriously.

http://www.amandakjones.com/amandas-big-head-salad.php