not losing weight. please help!

Because you're short & not exercising. You're probably only eating enough to maintain your weight. I'm 5'2.5". If I ate 1,500-2,000 calories every day & not exercising I'd be gaining weight too.

How active are you normally on a daily basis? If you eat too many calories, yes you can gain weight. But, it's also possible if you're not eating enough you can gain weight too. I recommend, if you're not very active now and not exercising, first start going for walks, or starting a program. Check out the Fitness and Exercise forums and see what people are doing there.

Your profile ticker says you'd like to lose 12 pounds. How much do you really want to lose? Set up MFP to lose .5lb/wk if it's 12 pounds. If you're actually overweight by around 30 pounds then you can try 1lb/wk for the first 10 or so, but then adjust to .5/wk after that. Then eat the number of calories the program gives you for around four weeks. 2lb/wk is unrealistic for the amount of weight you want to lose. So try setting up MFP and following it the way it's intended first. If it's not working after about four weeks, you'll have to reevaluate your goals and adjust from there.

I thought that to maintain your weight you should eat 2000 calories so since im eating less than that I should at least lose some weight, even if it's not 2lbs A week like my profile says I should lose based on my height weight and age. How many calories are you consuming? What kind of exercise are you doing and what are your results?

No.
If you are 5'3" eating 2,000 calories a day & not exercising, I'm pretty darn sure you'd be gaining weight. Not even maintaining - gaining.
You are about half an inch taller than me, so your minimum calories shouldn't be that much more than mine. Find out your BMR (base metabolic rate) & TDEE (total daily energy expenditure.) In between those numbers are the calories you should be consuming. It definitely will not be 2,000.
I started doing Insanity 3 weeks ago & I'm not even losing 2lbs a week eating 1,300 calories. I'm losing about .75lb per week toning & gaining muscle while losing fat.
At 5'3", eating 2,000 calories & not exercising, I would not be complaining that you're not losing 2lbs a week. I'd be thanking the stars I wasn't gaining 2lbs a week.

I thought that to maintain your weight you should eat 2000 calories so since im eating less than that I should at least lose some weight, even if it's not 2lbs A week like my profile says I should lose based on my height weight and age. How many calories are you consuming? What kind of exercise are you doing and what are your results?

Um, I'm 5'7" and my MAINTENANCE is 1700. I would gain at 2000 calories and I'm a lot taller than you and only a little lighter. 2000 calories for a small person like you is a bit high for weight loss I'd say, unless you are VERY active. MFP had me set to 1350 for loss.

I don't want to tell this person to eat 1,200 or feel like she needs to starve herself. I'm a firm believer no one should ever have to go hungry. I can understand the big change going from eating 2,000+ calories for a short person who doesn't exercise & then deciding to try & lose weight. I also don't know the intimate details of her life to make assumptions telling her what she should be eating. But it's not 2,000 calories. Or 1,800. Or probably even 1,600. At 5'3" and no exercise, since that is about my height, I'd guesstimate 1,400-1,500 might be good to start out with. After a couple weeks of logging & seeing if you're full/ hungry/ decided to exercise more/ etc., reevaluate.

Surprised that nobody mentioned this but, are you accurately measuring your food. This is usually the #1 thing on the troubleshooting list.

Do you have a food scale?

If you are "eye balling" food portions, I can guarantee this is your problem.

^^yep, this is a very common problem. And when you take into consideration, the average TDEE for someone of your size, OP, is a little over 1,800 when sedentary, it does not take much to take you up to maintenance.

I am about your height and have got into trouble by thinking that 2000 calories was a maintenance level. As others have said, it isn't for us shorties! Jesz124 has linked to a calorie calculator and I think it all makes more sense if you have some sort of idea what your TDEE (the calories you burn in a day) is. You'll probably find it's about 1800 or less if you're sedentary.

That means that you WILL lose weight on 1500, but that it will be slow. In my opinion, there is nothing wrong with slow! I eat round about that and I lose weight so slowly that I can't really see any progress from week to week. However, I use the report charts on MFP and that allows me to see progress from month to month instead. MFP has you losing weight on a 1000 calorie deficit for 2 lb a week. You're probably eating closer to a 250 calorie deficit, so you'd expect to lose maybe 1/2 a pound a week - but because it's such a small amount and because weight fluctuates, you'll need quite a long period of time to really see a difference. You might notice it over the next few weeks.

You are absolutely right that you are eating a deficit and so should be losing weight - it's just that it's a smaller deficit than you thought.

For me, personally, I find 1200 hard to stick to, but I don't find 1500 hard to stick to, so for that reason I prefer to eat more and lose more slowly. I also feel that it's worth adding in a little strength training, even if you do nothing else, just to preserve muscle.

Edit: Of course, as you lose weight your TDEE will drop and your deficit will get smaller, so you'll lose even more slowly unless you cut calories a little more (or increase exercise to up your TDEE).

so nice to see a thread with comments/suggestions that say something else besides " you need to up your calories" or "eat more to lose more".. The sad reality of it, is maybe we need to eat less ??? maybe at some point you may need to up when lifting and working on muscle. But to start you need a DEFICIT.

If I ate more to lose more, I'd be more obese.