metabolism wrecked?

I'm shorter than you, weigh less than you, am sedentary... and my calories to lose 1/2 a pound a week are 1400 a day. I'd guess that you need 1500 a day, minimum... change the settings on MFP to lose a pound or 1/2 a pound a week.

you only eat 1200 and burn 700!! holy chit your only on 500 cals a day!! seriously ur gonna destroy urself.

You need to up your calories for sure, stop thinking of matabolism and think of muscle. on 500 calories your gonna have absolutely no strength or muscle left in a few months and once that happens you will start getting worse.

The less muscle you have the less calories your gonna be able to eat as muscle burns sooo many calories and the weaker and less toned your gonna get.

you need to stop doing cardio.. increase cals to 1400-1500 and lift heavy.. if not.. I will look out for your thread asking why your skinny fat

Basically this. You don't have to stop the cardio, but definitely eat your calories back. When you eat at an extreme deficit your body does not function correctly and you will not lose weight.
Eat more to lose.

you need to stop doing cardio.. increase cals to 1400-1500 and lift heavy.. if not.. I will look out for your thread asking why your skinny fat

Hi there, might be a bit of a dumb question but what is skinny fat?

you only eat 1200 and burn 700!! holy chit your only on 500 cals a day!! seriously ur gonna destroy urself.

You need to up your calories for sure, stop thinking of matabolism and think of muscle. on 500 calories your gonna have absolutely no strength or muscle left in a few months and once that happens you will start getting worse.

The less muscle you have the less calories your gonna be able to eat as muscle burns sooo many calories and the weaker and less toned your gonna get.

you need to stop doing cardio.. increase cals to 1400-1500 and lift heavy.. if not.. I will look out for your thread asking why your skinny fat

Basically this. You don't have to stop the cardio, but definitely eat your calories back. When you eat at an extreme deficit your body does not function correctly and you will not lose weight.
Eat more to lose.

This ^^^^

So you all think I should up my calorie intake to 1400/1500 and eat my calories I've burnt? Sorry if I seem a bit dim but how does weight loss come into it if there is no deficit in weekly calories?
X

http://iifym.com/iifym-calculator/
This will approximate how many calories your body burns in a day. Everyone that I've known and seen is still at a deficit when eating 2000 calories per day.

you need to stop doing cardio.. increase cals to 1400-1500 and lift heavy.. if not.. I will look out for your thread asking why your skinny fat

Hi there, might be a bit of a dumb question but what is skinny fat?

Heya,, skinny fat is what a lot of women get who only do cardio and dont focus/care on muscle because they think it makes them look "bulky" or "manly" or some other nonsense. Ever see women who are small as hell but still complain they are fat or have small bellys that hang out or big thighs? thats the kind of women who have destroyed muscles,, can only eat 1000 calories a day and are usually tired/weak/grumpy.

Each pound of muscle takes 20-30 calories to maintain, fat takes only 5 calories and so women who dont have any muscle then start asking why they gain weight on so few calories...

just though of a good analogy.. take a bag,, fill it with cusions.. fill another bag with rocks.. the bag with rocks is gonna be heavier but more compact. The bag of cusions is gonna be squishy and bulgy and soft, same with your body. if you have muscle.. you may weigh more but your gonna be more toned, lean and better looking. Weight does not translate to appearance or appeal

Eat more to lose weight?

Yes, I'm a six foot male and tried to lose weight on 2000 calories a day while 93kg, and I would even eat back any cardio calories but I wasn't loosing weight. I moved my calories up to 2400, dropped cardio at the same time because I was feeling worn down, and I've gone down to 90kg since. It does seem counterintuitative but too big a calorie deficit is as bad or worse than being on a calorie surplus.

Try not to over complicate things when you are starting out, thats my motto anyway.

My 2 tips would be...

1. Drink plenty of water - I work on about 2-2.5l per day - around 4 pints (UK) and I drink at least 2 cups of Green Tea.

Drinking water tells your body it's going to get plenty so it will let go of the stored water it is holding. This is why if you start doing this you will see a motivating initial weight loss happen. It will also get your metabolism started - you will read that drinking ice cold water as soon as you wake up is a good way to do this. Personally, cold water is all I can take but still better than not having any..

2. Eat you calories that your body requires to function correctly. This would be the full amount of calories required to do what you do including exercise less 20-25%. Use the figures from here and it should tell you what you need to consume daily - eat this fully...

Also consider that you need to eat enough food so your body knows that the next intake is coming. Again, it stops your body storing it for later use when you are not feeding it. Therefore eat smaller portions and more frequently. This in my mind has 2 benefits, your body knows that it can use the energy you have just given it and you never feel hungry because eating little and often is better than 1 massive meal and 2 smaller meals. As your body is constantly working to process the energy then it helps keep your metabolism up.

You need to understand what your nutrition and calorie needs are. MFP reduces your calorie intake to lose up to 2lbs per week, which is about as much as you want to for permanent weight loss. Clearly this depends on your starting weight and you may see more extreme losses at the outset and if you are exercising correctly etc and eating properly.

Where you start exceeding your calorie deficit then you risk your body hanging onto energy - stores as fat.. You could even lose muscle and gain fat and think you are staying the same. You need to lose fat and maintain muscle. Protein is important for muscle. Again it is possible to lose fat and build muscle - therefore seeing the scales not moving as you expect but at the outset you should see them move.

As you get the basics right, you can then start to look at your food intake/nutrition intake. Try and eat clean (i.e. veg/meat/fruit - not processed or sauces etc) - if you eat clean and eat your full calorie intake, I guarantee you will not be hungry.

One person I would recommend you google is Matt Lovell. He is/was the nutritionist for the England Rugby team and is a well respected person when it comes down to nutrition. I am trying to adopt some of the things he talks about. 1kg of asparagus has same carbs as a pitta bread - which fills you most? It's this kind of thinking that will help you keep full because you can eat more if it's the right things.

Hope that helps.

I'm in the process of trying to get my calories up to my TDEE from the very same thing. Years of undereating, bouts of alternately restricting/starving and binging, blah blah. I'm done with that life. It's time to be healthy. I'd love a likeminded friend.

Have you done any research on TDEE and BMR? I read a lot about it, and it made so much sense to me. I'm currently eating 1200, but I'm going to be adding 100 calories/day each week until I reach 1900 to maintain my current weight. Just one of many sources of info: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/680246-tdee-bmr-what-they-are-and-what-to-do-with-them

Correct. I added calories 100 at a time, every other week until I started gaining weight. When I gained, I kept my calories there for a few more weeks, then added again. I kept doing this again until I reached my TDEE. I also added carbs, so my body could adjust to having them again. If you are a cardio bunny....STOP!! Lift weights and try HIIT cardio a few times a week. Your body will be addicted to cardio and will be resistent to letting go of body fat, otherwise. I strongly suggest you go to Layne Nordin's site and watch all his videos on Metobolic Damage. Good stuff...scientifically back, too. :-)

I'm kind of in the same boat, when I don't see a weight loss like I think I should I restrict more, and then more, and then more. It's a vicious cycle. I'm a runner too (at least I was until tendonitis in my foot set in) I have thought of food as an enemy to be conquered my whole life, that's just how I was taught to think growing up, and overcoming that mindset has been incredibly difficult. One thing that has been pretty helpful to me is that I started crossfit a couple weeks ago, I just could not do the workouts without eating more, it just wasn't possible. I started reading about 'eating to perform', this has helped me think of food as an ally rather than an enemy. Just a thought, it's still difficult and I think probably takes a lot of time to completely change the way you think of food, it's a process. I hope that all these comments are helpful.