What am I doing wrong? Help!

From my experience. It's not just how many calories you eat and exercise but WHAT you eat and WHAT kind of exercise you do.

Extreme examples:

DIET
If you are eating 1400 calories from McDonlads high fat, wrong CH food you probably won't loose weight. Cause ur body will be hungry. However, if you give ur body good nutrients from Salad, Whole wheat pasta, fruits and lean meat or good fat (avocado/olive oil) the same amount of calories will be good for you - you won't be hungry and MORE IMPORTANT, ur insulin levels will be kept in a low range thus u will lose weight.

EXERCICE
In order for you to start loosing weight you have to be doing cardio for 20 min at a high heart rate. According to your age will vary . The key is, do some cardio - get tired for 20 min at least- and then move to weights (low ones) do different exercises that will help you tonnify you body and create little muscle (muscle burns more calories daily that fat).

Doing this you should feel a nice change in your body. If your in a gym, i would recomend you to get a personal assistant for a day or two so s/he shows you the right way to do the exercices.

Hope it help. GOod luck

Eva

Pd: Sorry for my "bad" english, my main language is spanish and switching languages makes my english go down the hill xD

40 was my year to start the upward climb on the scale...I will be 60 this month, just started The Fast Metabolism Diet, I'm on day 3 and have lost 3lbs. This is supposed to reprogram your broken metabolism. I suggest taking a look at the book, written by a nutritionist with a proven track record. Good luck to you on your journey.

This is me too! I was in gymnastics for 10 yrs, ran track and field in middle and high school and stay obsessively active until 5 years after my son was born. All of a sudden I got lazy. Well that's what I call it.

I have been exercising since Nov 2012; 3-7 miles per day consisting of power walking/jogging/running/bicycling and I loose 5 gain 5, etc. About the same time the year before, Nov 2011 - Feb 2012 - I lost 20 lbs. I don't know what is going on now. The only thing I haven't been doing is strength training. So I have starting incorporating that into my workouts.

I am used to weighing 130 or so pounds and now I am up in the 145-149 range, HATE IT!!! I do have more muscle but I have a bunch of jiggle that I want to get rid of; that's what I want to loose.

I will be 44 in a couple months. I had my first born at age 35 and couldn't wait to get the doctors approval to start exercising again. I was up to 4 miles walking as soon as I got the okay and continued for the next 4 or so years.

Then I went down hill. I started eating more and didn't care. I rarely exercised.

I am tired of hearing you are getting older. I am 44 and still doing 3-5 back handsprings in a row. I plan to do them until I'm 50. lol

I haved read and re-read and taken advice from other friends who are in shape, etc.

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I am a yo-yo dieter. I go up and down every year. So, this is my story and I welcome any input or advice.

Every year I always gain weight during the fall/winter months (because I don't track my calories and I stop exercising - my fault - I stress eat because I am a teacher and that is the way I cope), and around March I begin eating and exercising to lose the weight because I feel awful about myself and I want to get back in the clothes I have in my closet that I can't wear anymore. I seem to do this every year As soon as it gets warm and the sun is shining I get motivated to get back on track.

So, when I have done this in the past I usually lose 5 pounds within the first 2 weeks, then I taper off and lose 1-2 pounds a week. Well, not this time. I have been eating 1200-1400 calories a day and even exercised 5 days last week. Since I have started doing this (almost a month) I have lost nothing! Actually I go up and down a pound every week.

People say don't worry about the number, but how you feel and how your clothes fit. No Way!!! The number really needs to go down. I am overweight and my BMI is too high.

So, after doing this for a month and no weight loss should I get my thyroid checked? Should l give it more time since I am almost 40 and it gets harder to lose? At this point I really want to lose weight, and just need someone to tell me what to eat, when to eat, and what exercise I should be doing. I really wanted to lose 25 pounds by June, but don't know how to accomplish it. HELP!!!!!

I eat approx 1500 calories a day - (set to 1200 but I eat about half of my exercise calories back). On strength training days, I eat approx 100 calories more. I have faith that if I keep doing what I'm doing - weights 3x per week - adding lil more weights each time and cardio (zumba) 3x per week - the weight will come off.

Stay patient - keep working and it'll happen. Have you lost any inches at all? If you're not tracking them, please do.

Good luck to you!!

Good advice right here ^^^

So far these are the basics i've found have been successful for myself and others around me on MFP

1) Eat your TDEE - 10-20% by creating a calorie deficit your body will use stored fats to fuel your body to live

2) Strength Training! I can't stress this enough. the more lean muscle mass you have the higher your metabolic rate will be resulting in you burning more calories naturally day to day, plus you want to be fit not skinny. Strength training also helps tone muscle and skin as it reshapes to fit the new you.

3) DITCH THE SCALES!!! Regardless of what people say weight doesn't matter if you know your Lean muscle mass and body fat % Get out your tape measure and get your body fat % tested. weight can fluctuate by as mucha s 6lbs from eating a large meal, needing the bathroom, water in muscles to help repare after strength training or having a larger than normal sodium intake causing a retention of water.

Losing 'weight' off the scales doesn't necessarily mean you're losing fat you could be losing water and Muscle mass which once gone can leave room for more fat to be stored and cause terrible problems in later life(osteoporosis....etc)

This is a lifestyle change you've yo-yo'd in the past, don't aim to lose weight you could end up finding it again and gaining it all back plus more.

Instead this time treat it as you're going to lead a healthier lifestyle you as a person shouldn't feel tired all the time or grumpy but happy, energetic and you'll notice it in other parts of you're life.

Good luck

Could you elaborate on how this is a problem? It may help my efforts. Thanks!

Eating 1200 calories or less per day over a prolonged period of time will repress your metabolism to the point were you cannot burn fat without starvation.

BUT that's not what she said. she's eating 1200-1400 a day. She's not eating less than 1200 a day. That would def not work in her favor if so.

what are you doing for exercising? is it vigorous? are you breaking a sweat and busting your butt? i mean really, its hard work and yes as we get to that near 40 mark, it doesnt make it any easier.

I measured myself I think back in January. I should re-measure and see where I am at.

Okay I am a Pollock so bare with me.

So you eat 1500 cals per day and lets say you exercise and burn 500 calories; so you really only ate 1000 cals, correct? Do you eat more cals to get back up to the 1500 or stay at the 1000 cals?

I work at a computer all day. I think the website was fat 2 fit. It said I should eat either 1784 cals (1-3 days of exercise) or 2010 (3-5 days of exercise). I am not able to eat that many calories in a day. Even drinking protien shakes, I can't do it and eat healthy!

I also have a Fit Bit tracker. The calorie tracking is based on my activity through out the day. I usually go over my calories. But hardly ever go over my calories on MFP.

I had the same problem a couple of weeks ago. I agree with others that for some people eating 1200 cal. or less a day is way too low. I'm exercising 4-5 days per week and have drastically cut out sugar from candy, sweets, coffee drinks, etc. I've changed up my diet to include a ton of veggies and fruit as well. When I hit my plateau a couple of weeks ago, I continued with the same types of foods, I just upped my calories to about 2000 for a few days, then reduced it back to my goal of between 1600-1900. This week the pounds started coming off again. The name of the game is not giving up and not expecting the weight to come off in a short period of time. Shows like the Biggest Loser have got many people thinking that weight loss happens fast... It doesn't. It's a slow process, but it's a good process. If you go slow, you are more likely going to be smoking hot 2, 5, even 10 years from now.

SCSmallman is probably the most helpful in this thread.

I don't eat "clean" but I do eat within my macros most days, which is what my body needs to stay healthy. Don't assume because something is low carb or fat that it's healthy just as you don't need to eat only natural things to be healthy. I usually have a handful of crackers and/or teddy grahams and a 100 cal pack of cookies daily, and I usually stay within my macros - though I eat at roughly 1700 daily and try to net an average of 1500-1600 on exercise days. I found my BMR (it's between 1380 and 1450 depending on what counter) and make sure to ALWAYS net over it so I don't risk slowing my metabolism down.

So far these are the basics i've found have been successful for myself and others around me on MFP

1) Eat your TDEE - 10-20% by creating a calorie deficit your body will use stored fats to fuel your body to live

2) Strength Training! I can't stress this enough. the more lean muscle mass you have the higher your metabolic rate will be resulting in you burning more calories naturally day to day, plus you want to be fit not skinny. Strength training also helps tone muscle and skin as it reshapes to fit the new you.

3) DITCH THE SCALES!!! Regardless of what people say weight doesn't matter if you know your Lean muscle mass and body fat % Get out your tape measure and get your body fat % tested. weight can fluctuate by as mucha s 6lbs from eating a large meal, needing the bathroom, water in muscles to help repare after strength training or having a larger than normal sodium intake causing a retention of water.

Losing 'weight' off the scales doesn't necessarily mean you're losing fat you could be losing water and Muscle mass which once gone can leave room for more fat to be stored and cause terrible problems in later life(osteoporosis....etc)

This is a lifestyle change you've yo-yo'd in the past, don't aim to lose weight you could end up finding it again and gaining it all back plus more.

Instead this time treat it as you're going to lead a healthier lifestyle you as a person shouldn't feel tired all the time or grumpy but happy, energetic and you'll notice it in other parts of you're life.

Good luck

Good post!