Been going for a month and lost no weight

The first thing I would suggest is do not eat your burned calories from exercising. In doing this you are actually wasting the time and energy you are spending on exercising, in my opinion. If you eat a few of those burned calories it's ok but not all of them, it's pure common sense. I do sympathize with you and understand your aggravation. Plus you have to remember that when your working out and building muscle mass, your not going to lose weight as that will come when it's ready. I mean nothing bad by what I have said to you, just speaking from experience.

Are you kidding me? If she was to do that she would be burning (approx) 2000 cals per day naturally, then eating 1200 cals per day, then burning an additional 200-300 on exercise creating an almost 1000 cals per day deficit. Again this is approximations based on average what people burn per day. 1000 calorie deficit is FAR TOO MUCH for her body to function.

OP, do not take this advice. It's terrible.

The first thing I would suggest is do not eat your burned calories from exercising. In doing this you are actually wasting the time and energy you are spending on exercising, in my opinion. If you eat a few of those burned calories it's ok but not all of them, it's pure common sense. I do sympathize with you and understand your aggravation. Plus you have to remember that when your working out and building muscle mass, your not going to lose weight as that will come when it's ready. I mean nothing bad by what I have said to you, just speaking from experience.

Thanks so much everybody for all your help! Lots to think about. For those that were asking, I've just done the calculator thingy:

BMR: 1542
TDEE: 1851
Daily calories to hit goal: 1481

So that would suggest I do need to up my calories. BUT what if the problem is I've been overcalculating calories burned during exercise? Then surely the opposite would be true.

Oh dear, I'm going to have to try a few things out aren't I?

If you take the 1481, this is 1851 less 20%. This should include your exercise calories and you would not be eating calories back. Eat near 1500, and do not eat extra cals for exercising. If you want to track it anyway just for motivational purposes, just put 1 calorie in your exercise log. You don't need to track it for the calories.

MFP gives you a lower amount of calories because it doesn't include exercise, so then when you do exercise you need to fuel it, your deficit is already built in. If MFP gave you 1200, then you add in cals for your exercise burn, that would also be about 1500.

Get it?

I don't use my exercise points either. If I did I would be eating a lot more than 2000 calories when I'm on 1200 calories a day and that is not as much food as you would think. I kinda combine My Fitness Pal with Weight Watchers so I eat a lot of fruits and vegetables (believe me some of them have more calories than you think) that way if I go over my calories I don't feel as bad. I also stopped drinking diet cokes and I hate water so I would make myself drink at least a couple of bottles of water a day. I have 3 - 33.8 oz bottles that I fill up daily and add flavoring.I didn't give up sodas altogether, I just have one every now and then. I also joined a weight lose challenge at work with some of my friends, we pay $15 and weigh in once a week, when the challenge is over whoever was the biggest loser wins the pot. You just have to hang in there... GOOD LUCK!!!

You eat 1500 every day. That is a 20% deficit.

I was just pointing out the difference between how MFP works and why you are supposed to eat exercise cals with that method.

I think your calories are much too low considering the amount of exercise you are doing as well - I'm on 1900 and losing. I follow the TDEE/BMR recommendations -

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/974888-in-place-of-a-road-map-2k13

Eat just above your BMR 1500 something, so you do not need to eat back the calories. then every 5lb you lose, recalculate. If you do an extremely strenuous exercise, then you will feel the need to eat more, then eat more. For example, I walked for 11 miles a couple of days ago, which is extraordinary as I only do 3 max 5 miles per day. I was starving and I did eat more that day. Do more bodyweight strength exercises, instead of pure cardio, so you would tone your body. Do not forget that you are very young so your metabolism is in better shape and you need to eat more than a middle age person, or someone who has been dieting at 1200 calories for a long time and busted their metabolism.

For people having this issue...i'd suggest that you are most like underestimating consumption and/or overestimating burn. This is just math...if the above is not the problem, please see your doctor as you may have an underlying medical condition and/or be on medications that interfere with metabolic rate. Otherwise, it is simple math and basic science.

- make sure you weight and measure everyting; I don't know how many people I've talked to who log 4oz chicken breast...and they tell me yeah...all I had was one breast. Well, one breast is usually more in the neighborhood of 8 oz and you only logged 4...you do that all day long and you're going to over eat. Weigh and measure your food and ingredients.

- If you are very overweight, you may be somewhat insulin resistant, even if you're not full on diabetic. It helps to reduce carbs here..particularly highly processed carbohydrates. I found greatest success with my carbs being 40% of my diet...I was somewhat insulin resistant when I started...when I reduced the carbs a bit (not low carbing) and kept those carbs to primarily natural sources, this helped the weight come off.

- Use a HRM to estimate calorie burn from aerobic activity. Do not log stuff like housework, etc. MFP intends you to eat back exercise calories, but I always did about 70% of what my HRM said to account for estimation error. If you're using databases and cardio machines, ask yourself if the burn you're getting is reasonable...most people burn far less than they think they burn during a given exercise event.

- Yes, eat back exercise calories with the MFP method. This isn't opinion...this is the way MFP is set up. this is why MFP ups your calorie goal when you log exercise. When in doubt get out a dictionary and look up the word GOAL. A goal is something to be achieved. Particularly when you're eating 1200 measly little calories, it is important to fuel your exercise. Under-eating for prolonged periods of time will cause metabolic damage.

Raw veggies boost my weight loss every time. I blast greens in a blender with tropical frozen UNSWEETENED fruit and a NECESSARY banana with water. Doing this makes them tolerable... Okay, and don't drink any other sugar. Just smoothies like that and water!