1200 calories, exercise, but no weight loss!!

...the body can go into starvation mode at a deficit such as she is eating...

No, it cannot, this has been proven over and over by any number of clinical studies.

BMR will drop, yes, by a small percentage. But nowhere near enough to cause a stall or, god forbid, weight gain.

that has been my problem!!!

u need to eat more!

"however you play it, you are not providing your body with enough energy to actually survive (well below your BMR) and that is silly"

Her body not only has enough energy (calories) to survive but to maintain her overweight status.

Maybe your scale is broke. Just keep on keeping on, it will happen, especially if you are doing what you say you are, we all stall sometimes, you are doing great, sounds like you have energy, so just stick with it.

When it comes to weight loss its less about the number of calories and more about the quality of calories and how they affect your hormones. So eat more protein and fat and less carbs and you can eat easily 1700 calories and lose weight. Counting calories is not effective at all. and when people do lose weight by cutting calories it is usually at the expense of muscle mass. Clean out your diet - ditch the gluten, sugar, processed foods, soy and dairy.

:huh:


See ticker below, that counting calories.

And I've lost 180 lbs.. and kept it off.. Sorry perhaps counting calories wasnt' the best phrase.. but you don't need to eat under 1200 calories to lose weight.

Not having read through all 12 pages of this thread.... I looked up your TDEE and w/o exercise your BMR is 1667. According to this formula in order to lose 41 lbs in a year you should eat 1600 calories. So, if you have set your MFP plan to sedentary and 2 pounds then that is probably how you got to 1200 (they usually don't give anyone a lower calorie intake than that).

At 5'5" you could be anywhere from 117-155 and be considered healthy. So at 164 to start I would think you probably should not be going for 2 lbs a week. You should start with 1. That will give you more calories. Then if you work out and you plan to use MFP the way it is designed you would eat back your exercise calories so that you NET the number of calories that MFP gives you.

In order to accurately enter calories consumed you need to weigh and measure, being off on serving sizes even by a little bit can add up if you are doing it at every meal, every day.

This is the calculator I use http://scoobysworkshop.com/calorie-calculator/ to determine my BMR and calories to lose. I also like to look up what my goal weight is and see what the maintenance calories will be once I get there. It helps since then I will know how many calories I will be able to eat moving forward to stay at my goal!

Good luck with this.

It just blows me away how many people say "eat more".

Joe: "Help! My house is on fire!"

Frank: "Here! Take these matches!"

No, you need flint and steel. Those matches are processed.

no, your eating more calories than you think, and possibly over estimating your exercise burn. if you were truly in a deficit, you would be losing weight.

When it comes to weight loss its less about the number of calories and more about the quality of calories and how they affect your hormones. So eat more protein and fat and less carbs and you can eat easily 1700 calories and lose weight. Counting calories is not effective at all. and when people do lose weight by cutting calories it is usually at the expense of muscle mass. Clean out your diet - ditch the gluten, sugar, processed foods, soy and dairy.

:huh:


See ticker below, that counting calories.

And I've lost 180 lbs.. and kept it off.. Sorry perhaps counting calories wasnt' the best phrase.. but you don't need to eat under 1200 calories to lose weight.

I can at least agree with you there. I do believe in eating nutrient dense food but to me, restricting things for the sake of weight loss is silly and unneeded. If that's the way you like to do it, fine. But it isn't the end all.

It's not silly and unneeded if people have hidden food intolerances. A lot of my clients live with vague, random symptoms thinking they are normal when they are actually related to food intolerances and when that particular food is removed not only do their symptoms go away but they also drop the weight that they were struggling to lose. You don't have to keep these foods out forever or necessarily avoid them 100% of the time. I was merely suggesting to this person to try it since they were struggling despite the restricted calories.

http://www.aworkoutroutine.com/starvation-mode/

LOVE IT

When it comes to weight loss its less about the number of calories and more about the quality of calories and how they affect your hormones. So eat more protein and fat and less carbs and you can eat easily 1700 calories and lose weight. Counting calories is not effective at all. and when people do lose weight by cutting calories it is usually at the expense of muscle mass. Clean out your diet - ditch the gluten, sugar, processed foods, soy and dairy.

:huh:


See ticker below, that counting calories.

And I've lost 180 lbs.. and kept it off.. Sorry perhaps counting calories wasnt' the best phrase.. but you don't need to eat under 1200 calories to lose weight.

I can at least agree with you there. I do believe in eating nutrient dense food but to me, restricting things for the sake of weight loss is silly and unneeded. If that's the way you like to do it, fine. But it isn't the end all.

It's not silly and unneeded if people have hidden food intolerances. A lot of my clients live with vague, random symptoms thinking they are normal when they are actually related to food intolerances and when that particular food is removed not only do their symptoms go away but they also drop the weight that they were struggling to lose. You don't have to keep these foods out forever or necessarily avoid them 100% of the time. I was merely suggesting to this person to try it since they were struggling despite the restricted calories.

Well, intolerances aside. Calorie counting is king. Is it really possible to not lose any weight because of it? I just don't see how that's possible. I would assume it would make you feel like junk, but stall your loss?

hahahaha class !

When it comes to weight loss its less about the number of calories and more about the quality of calories and how they affect your hormones. So eat more protein and fat and less carbs and you can eat easily 1700 calories and lose weight. Counting calories is not effective at all. and when people do lose weight by cutting calories it is usually at the expense of muscle mass. Clean out your diet - ditch the gluten, sugar, processed foods, soy and dairy.

:huh:


See ticker below, that counting calories.

And I've lost 180 lbs.. and kept it off.. Sorry perhaps counting calories wasnt' the best phrase.. but you don't need to eat under 1200 calories to lose weight.

I can at least agree with you there. I do believe in eating nutrient dense food but to me, restricting things for the sake of weight loss is silly and unneeded. If that's the way you like to do it, fine. But it isn't the end all.

It's not silly and unneeded if people have hidden food intolerances. A lot of my clients live with vague, random symptoms thinking they are normal when they are actually related to food intolerances and when that particular food is removed not only do their symptoms go away but they also drop the weight that they were struggling to lose. You don't have to keep these foods out forever or necessarily avoid them 100% of the time. I was merely suggesting to this person to try it since they were struggling despite the restricted calories.

Well, intolerances aside. Calorie counting is king. Is it really possible to not lose any weight because of it? I just don't see how that's possible. I would assume it would make you feel like junk, but stall your loss?

absolutely, it can also cause inflammation that may look like weight gain. It can also disrupt your bacterial imbalance in your gut and research is showing that your intestinal flora can cause weight issues. In fact a new study came out a few months ago that the reason gastric bypass works has less to do with the decreased food intake and more to do with the changes in the bacteria flora. As well, hormones play such a huge role in weight loss, of course you can't eat unlimited calories and not gain weight but what types of foods you put into your body trigger different hormonal responses. And artificial food additives and sweeteners can mess with hormonal signalling, and I'm not just referring to the major ones like insulin and glucagon but also leptin, ghrelin as well.

The problem with this starvation mode that people keep bashing on here is that yes you will lose weight eventually if you restrict your calories (so yes those starving people are not obese) but your body will break down muscle to keep its metabolic processes functioning, and it becomes dangerous when the body breaks down smooth muscle to sustain itself. And yes of course very low calorie diets can be successful otherwise companies like weight watchers etc wouldn't make money but many of those people have done those diets multiple times and they get temporary success, then they gain the weight back and sometimes more and they keep doing the yo-yo up and down.

In for the ragequit because OP didn't get the answer she wanted.

What answer did she want? She doesn't seem to want the "eat less" or the "eat more" or anything lose in between.

I'm not sure. Maybe "oh you poor thing you can't help it"? I have no idea.

How sad. Most people on MFP seem to genuinely care and want to help. But, unfortunately, it only takes 1 or 2 (or 3 or 4) to take an innocent question and turn it into such a negative experience. Wonder how many folks have left MFP just because of the rudeness? If someone knows what the answer was that I wanted...please share. I don't want to eat less as it doesn't seem healthy to do so. I am concerned about eating more as I will gain. I am not asking for anyone's sympathy and am shocked at how a few can be so mean. Life is so much better when you are positive! You should try it!

You dragged this thread on for 10 pages and finally concluded with "screw it all, I refuse to weigh food!" to a thread full of extremely helpful, successful people who weigh food.

"The answer" is that you're eating much more than you think you are, and the reason you're eating more than you think you are is because you don't properly measure portions.

You can either fix that, and succeed, or you can continue to fail and whine. It's really your choice.

Is that mean? Maybe. But it's the truth.

I dragged this thread on?? You have basically hijacked this thread!! And don't use quotation marks to say I said something that I didn't! I appreciate 90% of the responses. You are one of the few that I find to be negative, rude, and sarcastic. I don't like my words being twisted. Please, go away. I will pm some of the sensible, level-headed members here and avoid public message boards. I hope you don't do this to every thread! Yikes!

It's interesting to me that you're reading so much into what Jonny has said (i.e. "negative, rude, and sarcastic"). It's also interesting to me that you want him to go away. He, Sara, Cindy, and several others have given you excellent advice, which you specifically solicited. These three specific people have been very successful with their weight loss, and they can provide excellent models for cutting, maintenance, and bulking. Just because you don't want to hear what they have to say doesn't mean they're not accurate in their assessment of your situation. For the record, I think they're correct. Unless you have some kind of metabolic condition, you're not logging your calories accurately. Maybe weighing everything seems like too much trouble. That's fine--you can just keep doing what you're doing and continue to not see any results. No one minds but you.

As for their being "positive"... Cindy and Jonny are two of the most positive people on my friends list. I'm not friends with Sara but I've seen many of her posts; they are, without a doubt, some of the most informative and positive posts on this forum.