Exercising and eating right but gaining weight

yeah i weigh out most of my foods, but even if they werent exact i still wouldnt go over the 1200 as i try to eat around 1100 and dont eat back my workout calories unless on a rare occasion i eat out or somthing? im guessing it is to do with toning and building muscle? however its really strange to me. and im not used to using a measuring tape!! i guess just keep sticking at the workouts and clean eating and hope to see some results?! i often gain weight around a certain time of the month-my doctor told me thats usually just bloating and hormone levels changing

your body could be in starvation mode... and holding on/gaining... u need to eat more

Thanks for the tips. I have noticed my stomach being a little smaller I'm just not seeing anything on the scale and I don't want continue with something that is not going to work. Won't eating more make me just gain that much more? I also just moved to near sea level and before I was at 5,000ft I don't know if elevation would change anything or not except for that I can run 3 miles much much easier.

1200 is the minimum gross calories for a sedentary female...it's based on yo being sedentary...no exercise or anything. It's also a massive deficit from you maintenance level of calories. Most women who don't even workout maintain at around 2,000 calories...ever wonder why they have 2,000 and 2,500...because most women maintain around 2000 and most men around 2500.

I would suggest doing a little research on how this tool is used and understand that it is a NEAT method calculator which makes any exercise an extra activity. Failure to properly fuel your body causes all kinds of ****ty problems.

Also go ahead and grab a dictionary and look up the word GOAL....

I have had the same issue for the last two or three weeks. I even experimented with eating lunch and dinner at a restaurant, to bump UP my calories, and that was the only day I lost weight. I'm a little confused about plateaus, starvation mode, told my doctor I thought I might not be eating enough, after what I have read here about eating back your exercise calories (or half those calories in case they are exaggerated). Can anyone suggest healthy fat content? Does having a fat deficit do anything negative or does the body just use carbs, protein, instead?

I've been having this same issue, although not with such a rigorous exercise program. I was getting basically no exercise during the summer (I still tried to jog occasionally, but it was my first summer living alone, so I had way bigger concerns than eating organic or exercising 5 days a week). Now that I'm back at school, I'm at the gym 5 days a week and trying to do some mild cardio and stretching even on my rest days. I've started tracking my calories again, and eat around 1200 (I usually aim for about 1100 to leave some margin for error), and I eat back some of my exercised calories, usually in the form of an egg for some protein.
Overall, I'm taking much better care of myself now than I was before.... and I've gained 6.5 pounds and 1.5 inches around my waist in three weeks! Granted, I am much, much more stressed now than I was at home, and I'm wondering if that's a factor. Still, yesterday alone I ate 1300 calories, burned about 200 with some mild cardio and as many strength reps as I had time for (I rarely have time for more than 30 minutes at the gym), and I weighed myself today, same time, same clothes... and I'd gained half a pound?
It's incredibly frustrating, especially since I'm now a higher weight and the same measurements than I was my freshman year of college - previously the unhealthiest I've ever been, when I was paying no attention to what I ate and had never even thought about exercising. What the heck is going on????