I'm gaining weight on a 1200 cal diet!

Honestly, given your age and not knowing anything else besides the info you've given, I would probably guess you're not eating enough. I can't see your diary, but if you're measuring your portions and you're sure of the calorie counts, then maybe try upping your calories. Do you eat much salty food? Sodium will make you retain water and it shows on the scale. At your age and weight, I would be almost certain you're not taking in enough calories.

It could be that most of the weight gain happened when you weren't exercising (and possibly eating more?), you're just seeing it now.

Are you logging, weighing and measuring everything accurately?

Are you eating back all or some or none of your exercise calories?

The scale will fluctuate wildly over days and sometimes weeks, it's the trend over months that matters most. Or so I tell myself!

If your honest about your intake, weighing and measuring.
Stop weighing yourself for at least a week.
The exercise idea above sounds possible.
Menstruation effects all women by at least a kilo in their cycle.
Stop weighing yourself all the time, its a mistake.

I had the same situation here ( minus joining the police ) I started exercising and gained 2 kilos the 1st 5 - 6 weeks and people told me exactly the same; it is water retention from your muscles getting ready for what we were inflicting upon them! after that initial period now I am loosing little by little (which is what i want since I have a low goal).

So I'd say don't worry keep doing.

And I am with the rest; 1200 cal is way too low. You should eat more, otherwise what you are doing is forcing your body to go to starvation mode and the moment you eat a bit more your body will produce as much fat as it can for just in case.

Don't do that to your body.

:huh:

Not to say that crash diets are good, because they are not. But you are getting advice that to lose weight you need to up your calorie intake. This contradicts the laws of physics...

EDIT: I know what people are trying to say by the way, I just think it's the wrong way of saying it. Like if you have a full tank of fuel in a car, you will burn it up quicker if you drive fast (crash diet). If you drive slowly, it will slowly decrease, but your engine will be healthier long term (a life change).

LOL, I guess I should have said "At 1200 calories, I didn't lose an ounce. When I upped my calories to 1550 based on my BMR and TDEE, I found some success" : )

Right! It's a confusing concept when you're first starting.

Essentially, if you're eating too low calorie, your body is reluctant to let go of the fat/energy you have stored. This causes weight loss to eventually become sluggish, not to mention the other taxing effects of such a dangerous number.

When eating at a number that is right for you based on factors such as height weight and age, your body releases said fat/energy stores because it isn't sent into panic mode that it is "starving" or in a famine.

Edit: Also, I bet you're burning a ton of calories doing your cardio. Are you eating any of it back? If not, it's almost certain you're not losing weight because you're burning TOO MUCH! haha.

Water retention, eating too much sodium, and what stage of your monthly cycle you're in are also factors, but I'm willing to bet it's that you're not eating enough. Look into the group "eat more to weigh less" on this site!

It's a tough one without knowing what you're eating exactly. It doesn't make sense that you would stop losing on a diet of 1200 calories. Sometimes weight stalls for a couple of weeks and then re-adjusts so you may just need to give it more time. There could be a number of reasons for the scale going up though such as cortisol, water retention, general fluctuations...are you measuring too? The scale should not be your only indicator of weight loss. I don't think weighing every day is bad at all, unless you become obsessive and get really upset at the fluctuations. But weighing in every day is actually the best indicator of what your weight is doing. Weighing once a week isn't foolproof because that one day you might be retaining more water or something.

Also, you've just lost a good chunk of weight in one month. Weight loss slows the more you lose and is not linear. If you're not eating back your exercise calories your body may have reached a point where it is over stressed and therefore fighting back harder to retain your current weight. It's highly unlikely you are gaining fat if you are in a deficit though, that just isn't possible.

Make sure you're getting enough protein to repair muscles after exercise, try incorporating strength training into your workout routine as opposed to just cardio and maybe try lowering carbs a bit if you are eating high amounts of those.

you are storing water...from the exercise

no you don't go into starvation mode that is a myth...your body wont hold onto fat at low calories otherwise we would have people who look like skelatons from starvation.

as well if you truely are eating 1200 and not losing...you wont lose at 1550 either...

Okay, well I haven't been logging as much as I should be, but what I have is pretty stereotypical of what I eat in a day. My diary is now public. I don't know if that's of use to people. I don't tend to measure exact amounts, but if it's carbs (so pasta, grains or rice) I get the food scales out.

The 1200 calorie thing was given to me by MFP, so I'm a bit confused about why it would tell me to do that if it's an unhealthy amount to be eating...

You are probably eating more than you think you are since you aren't logging and don't measure everything. I don't say this to be mean, it's just that research shows that the majority of us suck at estimating what we are eating mentally. Weight loss success goes way up just by adding in logging in a food diary.

Are you eating your exercise calories? I disagree that 1200 is going to hurt you, but with MFP, you are supposed to eat the exercise calories too. (Some just eat 1/2 back to account for overestimating on the equipment or the calculators.)

I didn't know I was supposed to eating all of it back... I always thought that was the wrong thing to do, and have heard that from other weight loss-related sites. I always assumed it would render the exercise pointless, especially with swimming as it makes you get an appetite.

With MFP, they calculate your initial deficit based on your stats and base activity level. A lot of other sites rely on what you say you'll do instead of what you do. With MFP, you will lose weight at your initial # even if you do no exercise at all. The exercise will help you get a bit more to eat and help you with overall health, fitness, and energy.

So if you sat around all day and had a maintenance # of 1800 calories, you would lose 1 lb a week on 1300 calories. If you added 400 calories worth of exercise to that, you'd be up to 2200 calories, and you would lose 1 lb a week on 1700 calories or 2 lbs a week at 1200.

I'm not opposed to 1200 calories like many are, but they can be much harder to stick with. I like to find my maintenance # and allow myself to eat within my lowest # (1200) and my maintenance. So if my loss # is 1200, and my maintenance pre-exercise is 1600, I can eat anywhere between 1200 and 1600 depending on my needs that day. I can add exercise calories to that if I earn them.

You are most likely eating much more than 1200 calories.
You logged one day out of 21 days.