Carbs versus Calories?

Also, i am allowed 1200 cals a day, but i workout and burn about 700 a day - should i be replacing those calories lost with food? Or only stick to the 1200.

Any tips on helping me lose weight would be helpful in my situation. I am pretty depressed that i have been working so hard and my weight wont seem to shift.

Counting calories with any accuracy requires a lot of time and effort.
But Do this and you *will* lose weight:

1) Eat mostly to get the nutrition your body needs, and less for enjoyment. Establish a healthful diet and learn to enjoy healthful foods.

2) Three meals a day: breakfast, lunch, and dinner. That's it. No snacks, and no "in between" meals.

3) Give up sugar. No sugar in coffee, soda, or on cereal. Give up fruit juice -- it's mainly just another form of sugar. Water is the only liquid you need.

4) In the beginning, establish a very regulated moderate calorie diet. Don't follow any sort of fad. Just pick a selection of foods that add up to a normal balanced diet -- whole grains, veggies, fruit, dairy, a little meat, etc. But start out by having exactly the same three meals each day -- the same foods and the same amounts. Weigh the portions on a scale. Consider frozen dinners. Healthy Choice, Lean Cuisine, Kashi, Smart Ones, and probably other brands have several that are low in calories and saturated fat, 25% daily value or less of sodium, and high in fiber.

5) Weigh yourself every day on a 0.2 lb. accuracy scale. Your weight will fluctuate, but with a constant diet it should trend down over every two or three days. If it doesn't, eliminate items from your diet or reduce the size of portions until your weight does go down. (If you don't have a 0.2 lb. accuracy scale, I'd recommend the EatSmart Precision Plus Digital Scale, which is sold on Amazon.) Don't obsess over the scale — let it be your friend and point the way to a weight losing diet.

6) When you have achieved a weight losing diet, then you can start making adjustments to add variety, but make sure that you keep losing weight.

7) Maintain your exercise program.

1) You can still eat healthful food that benefits your body that you actually enjoy. It's called COOKING. Google is your best friend when it comes to ground turkey, chicken, vegetables, any other recipe. Hell- there is a healthy version for just about anything you want. Just do a little research. I had shrimp alfredo (made with greek yogurt) last night for dinner. I was under my calorie goal and dinner was amazing.

2) Eat when you're hungry. I eat breakfast, snack, lunch, snack, dinner, snack. The "3 meal a day" thing is crap if you're hungry all the time.

3) You don't need to COMPLETELY give up sugar. I still get sugar in my diet, just not refined sugar (white breads, crackers, cakes, other "junk" food). I get my sugars from fruit, vegetables, limited dairy, etc.

4) You don't need to eat the same thing everyday. If control is your problem, make a list for yourself of some good recipes, healthy snacks you like, etc. and build your day off of that list. And, I avoid frozen dinners like the plague. If you REALLY have to, go for it. But it's a last resort for me.

5) Weigh yourself ONCE a week, at the same time each week (I do Monday mornings when I wake up before I work out or eat/drink anything). Also, a measuring tape will be your best friend. There are weeks where I lose nothing but drop in measurements.

6) You can have variety from the start. I can't stress enough how much Google can be your best friend when it comes to preparing food for yourself. I have 4 binders at home FILLED with recipes by section- chicken recipes, desserts, side dishes, etc.

7) Maintain your exercise program.... WHAT?! Okay, I actually agree with this one. But I will add that a consistent, healthy diet is absolutely key.

My point is, for the people who truly need help on this website, macros do matter. By eating a majority of calories from carbs, you're just making things more difficult.

I have to disagree. My macros are set to 45/20/35 and I'm doing my body all kinds of favors by losing fat and not overeating anymore, not to mention regular exercise.

That's fine, by all means keep doing what works. I was just giving my input. There's no right or wrong answer when it comes to nutrition. We could debate for hours and still wouldn't come to an agreement.

At the early stages such as you are the high carb, low carb debate is not important. The whole topic of carbs needs to be discussed with the context of where a person is at. Right now you should be able to drop weight using any calorie restriction. If you are not losing, please examine your methods to track your food quantities. I doubt you are eating 1200cal and will remain skeptical until you explain your methods. Resist the urge to make things more complicated than they need to be.

Some of us function better on low carbs and if you are one, by all means stick to it, but don't think it is required.

If you are seeking a low BF level it is very likely at some point you may need to lower your carb levels for reasons that can be found in a number of books. There is research that proves women do have it a bit more difficult when it comes to fat loss.