Sticking to 1200 cals, exercise and not seeing much change

When I first started using MFP I also got discouraged!! I would start it then stop. I am now on my 3rd time trying it out. I was also told I was eating to little. So after my last attempt I gained more weight. I have ONCE again started using MFP but only to keep track of the foods I am eating. Good Luck to you & just stay focused!

Your diary isn't open, so we can't really evaluate what you're eating, and identify any pitfalls you might be falling into. It is much easier to lose eating high volume, low calorie foods than it is to lose eating a couple small handfulls of high calorie foods. Also, a lot of the calorie counts that you might be running into with restauraunt meals and pre-packaged foods stand a good chance of having inaccurate calorie counts. Restauraunts have been caught by independent labs serving foods that were sometimes DOUBLE what the stated calorie count was, with an average of most dishes being 18% low.

Most of the offending dishes in restauraunts were the lower calorie items. Prepackaged foods were shown to have on average 8% higher calories, which doesn't seem like much..

But if your cut is 15% of your TDEE, and what you are eating is low by 8%, that's half of your cut right there.

Additionally, if you are cutting 15% of your TDEE, and you maintain weight at 2000 calories, that would mean that it would take 12 days to lose 1 pound - (15% of 2000 calories is a -300 cut, and 300 calories per day would take 12.6 days to get to 3500, the amount of calories needed to cut in order to lose 1 pound).

If you maintain at a lower calorie rate than 2000, it would take even longer to cut 1 pound..

bump for later

Your diary isn't open, so we can't really evaluate what you're eating, and identify any pitfalls you might be falling into. It is much easier to lose eating high volume, low calorie foods than it is to lose eating a couple small handfulls of high calorie foods. Also, a lot of the calorie counts that you might be running into with restauraunt meals and pre-packaged foods stand a good chance of having inaccurate calorie counts. Restauraunts have been caught by independent labs serving foods that were sometimes DOUBLE what the stated calorie count was, with an average of most dishes being 18% low.

Actually, there are many of us on MFP who find it much easier to lose weight, and even resolve serious illnesses, by eating nutrient dense (high calorie, ie high fat) foods instead of "low calorie" foods. Not only that, because the volume of satisfying food that I eat is so much smaller, I also save $200-500 on my monthly grocery bill.

So, I understand that some people enjoy eating large salads and snacking frequently to fend off hunger, some of us have found a different, more satisfying (imo) way.

Agreed that packaged food and restaurant foods are not the ideal place to get the bulk of one's nutrition from.

No no, I meant, the difference between a McDonalds angus bacon cheeseburger, fries and a coke, which clocks in at 1600 calories, or any other comparable high cal meal. I didn't mean high fat foods in the way that calorie cutters use it - to us, high fat includes things like avocados, a decent slab of meat, rich cheeses and milk. All of which WE would consider "high fat" but compared to breaded and deep fat fried nonsense...

I was more highlighting the difference between the above meal and the same 1600 calories in relatively low cal foods, like baked chicken breast, ground turkey, leaner cuts of steak and pork, all of which would take in the neighborhood of TEN 4oz portions to even come close to the same calorie counts.

Yeah, I'm with you, I like eating too much to just stick to salads and snacks, eff that I want a steak and some potatoes with some steamed veggies and some nice casein ice cream for desert!

when i first started exercising and eatting right it was very frustrating because the weight was refusing to come off, I gave it time and made changes and ive lost over 20 pounds. i think the key is to work in cardio with your workout and to eat more often. if you are doing intense exercises 1200 calories may not be enough you might want to bump it up to 1400 and incorporate a lot of fresh fruits and vegis in ur meals.

Please start here.

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/groups/home/8017-in-place-of-a-road-map

^^^^^^^ this!

I think 1200 calories is too low that's why I changed mine. Here's a link that will explain it all :


http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/654536-in-place-of-a-road-map-2-0-revised-7-2-12:

Don't give up!:bigsmile:

I've been using myfitnesspal as a guideline for 3.5 weeks. Sticking to the 1200 cals, burning at least 300 in exercise daily 1/2 treadmill speed walk, 1/2 free weight and crunching, planks etc. Drinking lots of water, sleeping well...feeling great but seeing such small changes....measurement changes are minimal and lose about 2 pounds a week, then gain one, then lose one...etc...HALP!

make sure youre only weighing once a week, same time every time. your water weight is likely to be the same if you do, showing you the true results. i can weigh myself tonight and be 151 and weigh in the morning and be 149. its crazy.