Been exercising and nothing!

The calorie intake sounds very low to me. I'm 5'2, 128 and I exercise about 4 to 5 times per week and eat between 1300 - 1800 calories, depending on how hard I worked out.

Eat more than 800! You should eat a minimum of 1200... and no less!

If you aren't logging your calories, then you probably don't have any idea how much you're eating. You are most likely eating much more than you think. Get a scale and start weighing everything, no matter how healthy it is. Log your calories. 800 calories is not a good number to shoot for. 1200 is the minimum for an adult woman. You may need even more than that depending on your height, weight, and activity level.

Good luck with your journey!

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Calories are way to low, so whenever you eat. your body is going to hold on to any food it can get, and turn it into fat.

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The most likely answer here is that you're eating much more than you think you are. If you were really eating 800 calories and exercising, while that's not healthy, you would lose weight.

Hi everyone,

I'm hoping someone can help me, I'm at a loss of what to do. I've been exercising since November and I'm still at 130. I really don't see any change in body either, I think I'm eating healthier. I do high protein/fiber low carbs. I'm trying to get lean and reach my goal weight of 120, I'm 5"4.
I've kicked up my exercising to 4 times a week and am eating about 800 calories a day, does this calorie intake sound right?

OK, a little bit of back to basics.

Losing weight is a fairly simple situation of burning more energy than you consume. You don't have much to lose, and given your complementary objective of reducing bodyfat percentage you need to think as much about the quality of both food and exercise as calorie deficit. Notwithstanding that there is no fitness/ weight loss reason to go for a high protein/ low carb diet unless you have an underlying health reason. Lots of low carb zealots around here but you need to fuel your training so that should be your priority.

I would suggest that you set yourself a fairly modest rate of loss, but think quite hard about your training. You'll benefit most from a combination of cardio dominant sessions and resistance training sessions. Subject to how experienced a trainer you are there are a range of options.

Cardio, or CV, training burns calories up and improves your heart performance. It'll affect your resting heart rate, which is a good indicator of overall health. Take your HR when you wake, and track it. Personally I run, cycle and row and at the moment I'm doing 5-7 CV sessions per week, generally between 8 and 12 Km run.

Resistance training will improve your strength and muscular endurance, your priority on this defines what type of workout you do. If you're not already doing this kind of thing then start just with bodyweight sessions; press ups, sit ups, dips, pull ups and the like. Google "you are your own gym" to give you some ideas. Resistance training is important for your general condition and it's the main thing that will retain lean muscle while you lose weight, so improving your bodyfat percentage. I do two or three bodyweight sessions per week, as my priority is running performance I don't do much more than that.

In 10 months I've reduced my bodyfat percentage by 7% mainly through CV work, so whilst resistance training will probably lead to a faster rate of improvement it's not the only contributor.

Going back to your calorie intake - As you reduce your intake your body will lose mass from fat stores, muscles and other organs. You need a minimum intake to avoid damage to your system, and the generally accepted minimum for women is 1200cals per day. There is some movement around that but most places stick with that as a net minimum, so eat back your expenditure to avoid going below there.

By working everything in combination, and being smart about your goals, then you should see success.

From a personal perspective I measure success through sports performance rather than weight. I'm behind target on weight loss, but my resting heart rate is significantly reduced, bodyfat percentage is lower and my running performance has improved dramatically in ten months. My clothes fit me a lot better, so I feel generally more comfortable with myself.

All the best.