Why isn't my weight going down? Could I be retaining water?

You could be retaining water, but you should still be seeing the weight creep down even so. Water retention from exercise usually goes away after a couple of weeks once your body gets used to the routine.

More likely is that you're underestimating calories burned and overestimating calories eaten. How accurate is your logging? Are you using a food scale? A heart rate monitor?

My first instinct would be to cut the cheat day out for a few weeks and see what happens.

Without accurate information it's really difficult to tell what might be happening. If January 26 is an accurate picture of how you eat and exercise then you're undereating by quite a bit. It looks like maybe you're trying to eat less than you burn? If so, you're forgetting about all of the calories your body burns just by being alive.

Get an estimate of your TDEE from a site like http://scoobysworkshop.com/calorie-calculator/ This is your Total Daily Energy Expenditure. It's the number of calories your body burns in a day and also what you could eat to maintain your current weight. Take a moderate deficit from this (about 20% - Scooby does the math for you).

And I still say ditch the cheat day. Severely undereating six days a week only to pig out on the seventh can really confuse your body's responses, and not in the good way.

seeing as you've only logged 2 days (or that's all i saw and i went back 1.5 weeks) what i see is someone not eating. 800 calories, 900 calories. you need to eat more. someone mentioned maybe you're over estimating your calories eaten i hope this is not true. why have a cheat day so high? why not just spread those cheat day calories out over the week.

I haven't really used MFP before to log what I eat (usually carry around a notebook where I log everything in) so I just quickly filled in what I basically eat nearly all the time. I don't trust myself in the slightest to eat a moderate amount of junk food each day at all, I tried it a few months ago and I was really lacking self control. It seems when I deny myself junk 6 days of the week, I eventually get used to the idea that I'm not getting junk food so I end up forgetting about it.

who says anything about eating junk food. eggs, turkey, hummus, fish, tuna, red meat, cheese, fruits, veggies, beans all these are good for you and will up your calorie intake which you need if you are exercising like you say you are.

sorry to be blunt but you are doing it wrong, here's the why;

1. doing cardio 2 hours and eating 1200 calories or less is a wrong starting point.

SIMPLY BECAUSE YOU DO NOT HAVE THE METABOLIC CAPACITY TO BURN THE FAT

PLEASE SEE THIS VIDEO TO UNDERSTAND

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QHHzie6XRGk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EY1DsZMNfNw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hw3kfRkqVWU

give yourself TIME..... you can only coax the fat, focus on building your metabolic capacity by exercising regularly and eating in a decent amount of caloric deficit, NOT an aggressive amount for starters.

seeing as you've only logged 2 days (or that's all i saw and i went back 1.5 weeks) what i see is someone not eating. 800 calories, 900 calories. you need to eat more. someone mentioned maybe you're over estimating your calories eaten i hope this is not true. why have a cheat day so high? why not just spread those cheat day calories out over the week.

I haven't really used MFP before to log what I eat (usually carry around a notebook where I log everything in) so I just quickly filled in what I basically eat nearly all the time. I don't trust myself in the slightest to eat a moderate amount of junk food each day at all, I tried it a few months ago and I was really lacking self control. It seems when I deny myself junk 6 days of the week, I eventually get used to the idea that I'm not getting junk food so I end up forgetting about it.

who says anything about eating junk food. eggs, turkey, hummus, fish, tuna, red meat, cheese, fruits, veggies, beans all these are good for you and will up your calorie intake which you need if you are exercising like you say you are.

I'm quite a picky eater and a vegetarian so I don't really eat foods like eggs, turkey, hummus, fish, tuna or red meat. I eat cheese sometimes but rarely (once a week kind of thing) and I eat my 5 a day in the form of apples, bananas, nuts, grapes and carrots, sometimes sweet corn.

Hummus is vegetarian and absolutely delicious. You need protein and fat. Good vegetarian sources: beans, lentils, tofu, Greek yogurt, olive oil, avocado, nuts and nut butters.