1200 Calories

OMG YOU ONLY EAT 1200 CALORIES


grab your pitchforks ladies! lets get her!!

Seems like I sent the wrong message across. I'm looking for advice.. not sarcasm. Cut me a break. Eating on 1200 calories USED to work for me when I was not exercising. Now that I am, I'm not really moving on the scale nor am I feeling a difference in my clothing. I'm not quite sure how much to increase my caloric intake, I know nothing about this stuff. All I wanted was help from someone more experienced than me..

Wow, really sorry you're getting really rude responses. It seems some people didn't actually read and or understand your OP, what I see is 1.) you need to start logging everything, you have some days where you aren't logging consistently. If you don't have a food scale, get one. 2.) If you added exercise and didn't increase the calories you consume you need to do that. 1200 is the minimum and if you're exercising on top of that you need to eat those calories back. Be a little more flexible with the amount of calories you consume, don't be afraid you're going to gain a bunch of weight back. If you're in a deficit you'll lose. 3500 calories=one pound, so you'd have to be eating that amount to gain. It might come off a little slower, but you'll lose. Good luck and ignore the sarcastic/snotty responses. Not all of the people here are like that :flowerforyou:

You added exercise - good for you. Muscle weighs more than fat. You are gaining muscle while losing fat. You're probably not seeing results on your clothing because you're gaining muscle UNDER the fat. The scale is stuck for now because you're replacing the fat you're burning with muscle.
Just give it some time and you'll start losing again - and maybe even faster because exercise also ups your metabolism.
When I added exercise, I actually GAINED weight for a few weeks, then I started seeing my body and the scale dropping.

I just don't believe the whole eating too few calories thing. When I eat too little my weight drops.

This happened to me too. On 1200 and no exercise I lost. The I started working out most days, but not eating more to compensate and I stopped losing for a few weeks. I started to eat more to ensure that when I worked out my net cals were still always above 1100. Since then the weight has started to come off again at a steady rate. This may work for you - it may not. You have to try different things to see what suits your body best. Keep at it though. x

Do you overeat a lot on weekends? Is that why you don't log? I only ask because that is something that I used to do quite a bit and I was only lying to myself. Now I log on weekends, no matter how terrible it may be. I still lose pretty much every Friday.

What has been working for me is ensuring that everything is always moving. If I burn 300 calories everyday via exercise and eat 1200 calories a day then my body will determine this is normal and adjust accordingly then I will plateau. I aim for 1250 and then eat back SOME of my exercise calories. I almost always give myself one "cheat day". I do the same thing with my workouts. I aim for Cardio 5 days and Strength Training 2 days, on strength days I go 30 minutes Cardio and other days I go 60. I try to vary the workout using difference resistance/speed/activity.

Don't put too much fear into what one day of eating will do to your diet. Calories are a funny thing. We can never hope to measure intake and outtake exactly but you will find your rhythm. I had a HUGE fear of "cheat days" and missing workouts. I was sure that I would gain 5lbs as soon as I did. Funny thing though - once I added the "cheat day" my weight loss actually sped up. And the few times that I have only worked out 3 days a week - I still had the same 1-2 lb loss!

That said I agree you have to log everything that goes in your mouth. It is sad how fast calories can add up. Before I got serious about losing this weight I would think "I worked out today I can splurge on this" but what I didn't realize is that all it took was two weak moments of that and I had totally eaten back everything I worked off

As others have suggested it is all trial and error - then you find something that works and a few months later maybe that doesn't work so it is back to the drawing board.

Idk what all others said but skimming over your most current
entry, I believe cutting your carbs to maybe 130g and pushing
your protein up a tad might help. Carbs can be stored as unwanted
weight. I've been more successful as have others have by
eating that way .. it's up to you but it is worth a try if you're stuck.

Apart from al, the snarky comments I hope you got some good information out of all of that....
Once you get to goal you will thank yourself that you exercised. I'm not at goal but have been before, once without exercise. Once with cardio and weight training, believe me your body looks better with cardio and weights. Just look at some of the success stories on here. Don't be in a hurry it will come, log, track everything even bad days, and yes heart rate monitors are great.

Seems like I sent the wrong message across. I'm looking for advice.. not sarcasm. Cut me a break. Eating on 1200 calories USED to work for me when I was not exercising. Now that I am, I'm not really moving on the scale nor am I feeling a difference in my clothing. I'm not quite sure how much to increase my caloric intake, I know nothing about this stuff. All I wanted was help from someone more experienced than me..

Do you eat all of your exercise calories back?

If so, be careful you are not overestimating your exercise calories x

Seems like I sent the wrong message across. I'm looking for advice.. not sarcasm. Cut me a break. Eating on 1200 calories USED to work for me when I was not exercising. Now that I am, I'm not really moving on the scale nor am I feeling a difference in my clothing. I'm not quite sure how much to increase my caloric intake, I know nothing about this stuff. All I wanted was help from someone more experienced than me..

Do you eat all of your exercise calories back?

If so, be careful you are not overestimating your exercise calories x

I just started incorporating exercise, so not really. I would like to invest in a HRM at some point to ensure accuracy, but I try to eat a little less than my exercise calories allow for that reason. When I do cardio, I log exactly what the machines at the gym say when I get off of them!

Yes, be careful with that, some of the machines will not give you an accurate reading.

example, I have burned 750 calories on the treadmill and yet my HRM shows me as burning just 495 - bit of a difference there lol.

I guess the machines are just going by average info for an average sized person. Somebody did say once, that the treadmill at gyms, the calorie burns displayed on them are aimed for 180lb males.

Hello!! Firstly, just wanted to say - Don't worry, take a deep breath, re-evaluate, look at your strategy and take inventory of what has worked for you!

Don't listen to sarcastic or negative people, the world is flooded with them - and it is always their own issues that they are consumed with and projecting that negativity onto others.

You know your body better than anyone else and what works for one doesn't always work for another. Having said that, there are some standard rules you can employ that generally work.

I would make sure that if you are working out, perhaps get a heart rate monitor to see how many calories you are burning. Then, if 1200 cals is too little, I'd add in more protein-based snacks and meals and up your calories, protein will also help with muscle repair. You should also look at protein shakes and some supplements. Good nutritional supplements to meet the "gaps" in your diet can be purchased online - a good one is bodybuilding.com in the US but they do ship to AUS and I find their prices cheaper.

Good luck with it all. Don't stress! You are doing well. Stay positive and just experiment with your calories a little bit and you will find the answer.

You added exercise - good for you. Muscle weighs more than fat. You are gaining muscle while losing fat. You're probably not seeing results on your clothing because you're gaining muscle UNDER the fat. The scale is stuck for now because you're replacing the fat you're burning with muscle.
Just give it some time and you'll start losing again - and maybe even faster because exercise also ups your metabolism.
When I added exercise, I actually GAINED weight for a few weeks, then I started seeing my body and the scale dropping.

OP isn't gaining muscle at that low of an intake. Any gains at that point are going to be water retention from working out in order to repair muscle.

ETA: adding unicorns and flowers to ease the burn of knowledge so I don't insult any more dark knights of the forum...

you.. i like you