Am I being impatient?

I was eating 1200 cals for a long time then my weight loss grinded to a hault for 3 months i was working out daily and still not losing weight i upped my cals to 1500 and eating back my cals wham the weightloss started again

Your expectations are a bit unrealistic.

Are you 100% sure you're eating 1200 calories? Weighing and measuring everything and all that?

i agree on the water. I drink at least 4 liters a day, but I'm a thirsty girl. If I had a choice, I'd take fluids over food.

So for the past few weeks I've been eating 1200 calories a day. I'm 5'6" and now 200 pounds. This week my weight went from 198 on monday back to 200 today. I work out 5 days a week, 30 min, using HIIT dvd's. I am always hungry it seems. I sometimes will eat back around a third of my exercise calories. I might also mention that I am new to working out. Am I holding water from the workouts? I am drinking about 1 liter a day. How can my weight go up 2 pounds in 2 days with so much of a calorie deficit. I am just so bummed out that the scale is not going down. I am getting married in 3 months and would like to lose 20 pounds. What am I doing wrong?

Your BMR is 1661. If you include your exercise along with your daily activity, you're probably well over 2100+ TDEE. Try eating your BMR.

A.C.E. Certified Personal/Group FitnessTrainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

of course youre always hungry if you are on 1200 calories LOL

I don't think you're eating enough. I started at 230 5'6 F, and my beginning calories at a sedentary activity rate were over 1800. Now, at 210, my goal to maintain weight when working out 5 days per week is 2772. At a 25% deficit, I should still be eating 2079 and losing weight.

Assuming you're a female, you should be eating around 1900 calories at least. That's a 30% deficit, which is a lot. That includes your exercise calories, I believe. So I think your body is probably going into starvation mode. You're not really helping yourself lose weight. You're just making it harder on your body.

Plus, if you were to lose all your weight eating 1200 cals per day, do you really think you could keep that up for the rest of your life? How you lose weight is how you're going to maintain it.

Your expectations are a bit unrealistic.

Are you 100% sure you're eating 1200 calories? Weighing and measuring everything and all that?

I disagree... 3 mos and lose 20 pounds? 3 mos is 12 weeks... she can average 2 pounds a week... its VERY realistic

If a minor fluctuations like +2 bug you like this, then stop weighing so often, or at all.

That's only 1% of your body weight. I wish I could come up with an analogy, but your body is supposed to make these adjustments. You eat and store food, you store and excrete water, all that stuff is normal and it's what keeps you alive.

Say this until it sinks in: "A pound of weight is on the scale NOT A POUND OF EXCESS BODYFAT."

(I took a strange approach - for the longest time, I didn't weigh at all. I would go to the doctor's office quarterly, and then realize I lost another 5-10 pounds each time. Then I did the opposite, bought a scale and went all in. Weighed every day and realized how the fluctuations work, so they don't bug me at all. My pants fit just fine even if I'm up +7 pounds.

This... all this. If you are just starting out you can choose to take 1 of 2 approaches... 1. weigh yourself weekly, this way you will see progress through the fluctuations that happen throughout the week OR 2. weigh yourself more often and realize your bodyweight will fluctuate for any number of reasons and it might help you not worry about the ups and downs. I went with #2 and now weigh myself daily, every morning after my shower before any food or drink. Doing it at the same time right at the beginning of the day seems to help with the fluctuations and will have me weighing in likely at my lightest.

As for your intake, listen to ninerbuff... You need to eat more to begin with and then eat back most of your exercise calories. Most people (me included) think that the bigger the deficit, the faster you will lose the weight, but it doesn't really work that way... Your body will hold on to fat and start breaking down muscle which will leave you as a skinny fat person... Surely not what you want either! You'll lose weight and probably stay at the same BF%...

Remember, this is a journey that doesn't have any shortcuts either in exercise or diet. Put in the work, eat the right things in the right amounts to fuel your body while still eating at a deficit to help you lose the weight you want to lose. You'll get there, don't worry about it. Good luck!

Also, a lot of people will tell you that your expectations are unrealistic and you should be eating more than 1200 calories.

...and that's the only applicable part of this post.

Hmmm, yeah you're probably right. I have the 30DS but haven't used it yet. So tonight I will take measurements and pics and maybe eat a few more calories. I would be happy with 12 pounds, or even ten pounds but seeing the +2 is just so discouraging. I think I am too scale obsessed and I should probably stop that. Do you think 1 liter of water is enough?

I think if you give 30 DS a good shot, you'll see nice changes in measurements. Sometimes people don't necessarily see a huge drop in lbs., but if they begin to drop off it will be toward the middle or end of week 2...so don't give up or get discouraged. Just be consistent, keep eating healthy, and do the workout to the best of your ability. You'll probably be pleased with the results. Good luck to you and congrats on the impending marriage!

So for the past few weeks I've been eating 1200 calories a day. I'm 5'6" and now 200 pounds. This week my weight went from 198 on monday back to 200 today. I work out 5 days a week, 30 min, using HIIT dvd's. I am always hungry it seems. I sometimes will eat back around a third of my exercise calories. I might also mention that I am new to working out. Am I holding water from the workouts? I am drinking about 1 liter a day. How can my weight go up 2 pounds in 2 days with so much of a calorie deficit. I am just so bummed out that the scale is not going down. I am getting married in 3 months and would like to lose 20 pounds. What am I doing wrong?

You're female. You should expect this.

If you're hungry all the time, you're not doing a diet that is right for your body. Example: I used to do calorie counting, low-fat, high carb diets, and failed miserably. I had the willpower and the discipline, BUT I stayed hungry and never lost an ounce! What I ended up doing was introduce ONLY high quality, whole foods to my diet, this included full fat cheese and butter. YUM! I said "no" to crappy, store bought desserts. I started eating fruit as dessert...plain, fresh fruit. If I had rice, then I'd skip other starches and bread. If I had bread, I'd skip rice and other starches. (You should eat a protein/fat, veggie (green veggies, mainly), and a fruit at each meal. I cut back on my portion sizes. (It's easy to do this when you're treating yourself to a wide variety of flavors during each meal.) Stop snacking. Zero. You don't need it. If you're eating well, you won't want it, either. I read "French Women Don't Get Fat" and used it as my guide/bible. Eat mindfully. Don't feel guilty when eating--you are ALLOWED to enjoy your food! Stop when you're full. I did this and lost 15 lbs. pretty fast (a few months). I lost 1-2 lbs per week, at first, then .5 lbs per week after. The good thing about FWDGF, Is that it's set on a 3 month recasting period, so you could reasonably lose 15-20 lbs. by your wedding. Good luck!!!

hey hey! I don't get notifications on posts so I thought I would message you! How often do you weight yourself? It could easily be water or sodium or even sugar....how did you decide on teh 1200 calorie goal? Are you watching protein, carbs, fat? Do you take any supplements/vitamins?