Low Carb High Protein and Working Out

My concern about what your doctor has set up for you is that when you do lower carb you need to up your fat. Thats where your energy is going to come from.

I'm also concerned that at 1200 calories and that much exercise, your net calories per day is very low. While you'll lose in the short term, it's tough to build muscle when you have nothing left for fueling them. Purely my opinion.

Is your doctor monitoring you? If so, I would be asking him/her, not a bunch of random internet people. You will get so many different answers and opinions here from people with the best intentions but absolutely no medical knowledge at all and you will end up even more confused.

Speak to your doc, they might not have intended for you to do intense excersise while on such low calories.

My doctor has me doing a 1200 calorie diet in which my carbs are between 80-100, protein is between 80-120 depending upon workouts, and fat is 40 or below.
My doc thinks I have to stay in the range I'm in to lose weight best even though I'm working out hard. I'd love to get some feedback from anyone else.

Is your doctor a nutritionist, a bariatrician, a cardiologist, or in some other specialty where they have had advanced training on nutrition?
Because if they are not, I would not trust their advice. I speak from experience. I had a doctor try to put me on an 800 calorie per-day diet where she didn't want to supervise me - "just come back in when you've lost 25 pounds." Needless to say, I didn't last long on that diet! Most doctors receive a few HOURS of nutritional education in their entire 7 years of medical school. Just because they are certified in "internal medicine," or another specialty, that doesn't mean they know anything about nutrition. They may know just enough to be dangerous. Not slamming any doctors who may be on here - but it wasn't until I met with a nutritionist that I started understanding why no doctor that I ever talked to seemed to really know anything useful about losing weight through diet modification. I would get a second opinion. Hope that helps.

I'm trying to get in shape and lose baby weight. I'm 27. My doctor has me doing a 1200 calorie diet in which my carbs are between 80-100, protein is between 80-120 depending upon workouts, and fat is 40 or below. I've been doing great with the diet and I've been able to lose 7.5 lbs of body fat while gaining 4 lbs of muscle over the past 2 weeks.

am I the only that noticed this gem..??? four pounds of muscle in two weeks while eating 1200 cals…suuuurrrrreeeeeee

Seems like she's using one of those scales.

IMO ?
Doctor's, for the most part, know bugger all about nutrition and healthy weight loss.
I suggest you up your calories, so you are at least netting 1200 (ie, you are eating back what you burn exercising)
and also try upping either fat or carbs. I am honestly not surprised you are struggling, I would be dying doing my workouts on that sort of level of carbs, but then I do a lot of interval cardio as well as weights. I have tried going lower carb, higher fat, and it just did not work for me, personally. It is not going to be suited to all people. You need to find what works for you, and allows you to sustain this.

IMO ?
Doctor's, for the most part, know bugger all about nutrition and healthy weight loss.

This (and what another poster said earlier) is quite correct, unfortunately.

My medical school had about 25 hours in total. It wasn't until my own diagnosis of Type II diabetes that I delved deeper into research on nutrition, and found out almost everything I thought I "knew" about nutrition may have been the conventional-wisdom - but wasn't correct.

I suggest you up your calories, so you are at least netting 1200 (ie, you are eating back what you burn exercising)
and also try upping either fat or carbs. I am honestly not surprised you are struggling, I would be dying doing my workouts on that sort of level of carbs, but then I do a lot of interval cardio as well as weights. I have tried going lower carb, higher fat, and it just did not work for me, personally. It is not going to be suited to all people. You need to find what works for you, and allows you to sustain this.

Unless you are incredibly, oddly petite - 1200 calories a day at the kind of exercise you're doing isn't enough. I won't personally make a recommendation on WHAT you do, other than educate yourself about TDEE and your BMR and true calories required, and tailor your intake from there.

Also, with the amount of carbohydrate you're eating - it's what many would consider "low carb" but probably NOT low enough to get you keto-adapted. As such you're primary fuel source is glucose - but you're not getting ENOUGH of it. To rectify this you need to either increase your carbohydrate intake, OR reduce it to below 50 and increase fat more.

That being said though I don't personally recommend going into ketosis UNLESS you have a medical reason for doing so. It's really not necessary unless you have an impaired glucose metabolism. If you're insulin-resistant and/or have hyperglycaemia it's great. But the vast majority of dieters simply do NOT need it.

The insulin-resistant that can benefit from keto include people with PCOS, Hashimoto's thyroiditis, Metabolic Syndrome, Type II diabetes, etc. If you're only a little overweight and don't have one of the above issues, I'd stick with natural, whole foods ... a slight caloric deficit ... and moderation in your macros.

I am lactating but since I’m trying to lose weight and working out hard I’m pumping and dump for the time being. I have an oversupply so I have enough frozen milk to last for quite some time. My doctor and pediatrician said that it wasn’t safe to workout really hard and cut calories while nursing because of the release of toxins that would be in the milk, hence the pumping and dumping.

Oh...this makes me want to cry. Any diet/exercise regimen that requires you to pump and dump your milk is wrong, wrong, wrong. Please do the research - there are some enzymes and other important things that get killed off when you freeze milk. Also, there is more to the breastfeeding experience than just putting milk into the baby. Feeding is supposed to be a bonding and nurturing experience. I am sorry if this sounds mean or insensitive, but the priority right now needs to be nurturing your baby, not getting your pre-baby body back. I know there are a lot of bad messages in the media about this where women are expected to rebound immediately. If your doctor is echoing these messages, he is a *&^%!. Please, PLEASE get off the regimen your doctor put you on - he is giving you very bad advice - and just eat normally until you can go see a nutritionist. You need to give yourself a break and consider what is best for YOU, as a mom, and your baby. Good luck to you.

My doctor is a family physician. He has a scale that tells your body fat, muscle, and water weight so that’s how I got the numbers. I have no idea how accurate those scales are but he acted like it was very accurate. I thought 4lbs of muscle seemed like a lot but again I’m very new to this so I have no idea. I am lactating but since I’m trying to lose weight and working out hard I’m pumping and dump for the time being. I have an oversupply so I have enough frozen milk to last for quite some time. My doctor and pediatrician said that it wasn’t safe to workout really hard and cut calories while nursing because of the release of toxins that would be in the milk, hence the pumping and dumping. My doctor is completely aware of my exercise regimen and food intake. I actually saw him yesterday because I wanted to make sure that I didn’t need to increase my carbs because I was struggling and really not feeling well when working out. He said to stick with the low carbs and increase protein. He also said not to eat back exercise calories or it would defeat the purpose. Thanks for all the advice. I’m going to make an appointment with a nutritionist asap. Like I said, I’m very new to this. I have been a runner since middle school and always ate decent but never had to keep tabs on it until spending 4 months on bed rest from a horrible pregnancy.

Honestly it sounds like he doesn't understand MFP, which is common because it's the only plan I know of where you're meant to eat back exercise calories. But if you're eating your calorie goal then you're ALREADY at a deficit without exercise. You are a new mom and you're breast feeding-- if anything you need to be eating more. I think I've heard 300-500 extra calories per day just for that, without the cardio and all. No wonder you feel terrible.

I can't speak to the breast feeding part-- I don't know much about it and I don't want to give you bad advice. However, there are a few things here that are worrisome. I don't like telling people not to listen to their doctor, so instead I'm going to suggest you ask for a referral to a dietician.

The drs who told you to pump and dump, they do not deserve to be called drs. I do not know where you live and what the laws are in your country, but where I am it would be enough to report them for malpractice.