I'm gaining weight on a 1200 cal diet!

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  • jstout365
    jstout365 Posts: 1,686 Member
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    Read this:

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1080242-a-guide-to-get-you-started-on-your-path-to-sexypants

    And log your food accurately. You are most likely underestimating intake and overestimating exercise burn.
  • FlaxMilk
    FlaxMilk Posts: 3,452 Member
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    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.
  • robyn_kuscher
    robyn_kuscher Posts: 6
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    Okay, so my thoughts on this are:

    1: Measure and weigh absolutely everything and set some sort of reminder so I can remember to record things
    2: Work from how many calories my stationary bike is telling me I've burned, rather than how many calories MFP tells me I have when I input exercise
    3: As for swimming and working out calories... uh... kinda at a loss with that one but assume around 300 cal because that seems to be the average amount on various sites?
  • kr1stadee
    kr1stadee Posts: 1,774 Member
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    You are most likely eating much more than 1200 calories.
    You logged one day out of 21 days.
  • FlaxMilk
    FlaxMilk Posts: 3,452 Member
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    Okay, so my thoughts on this are:

    1: Measure and weigh absolutely everything and set some sort of reminder so I can remember to record things
    2: Work from how many calories my stationary bike is telling me I've burned, rather than how many calories MFP tells me I have when I input exercise
    3: As for swimming and working out calories... uh... kinda at a loss with that one but assume around 300 cal because that seems to be the average amount on various sites?

    Many exercise machines overestimate your calories burned. It takes some trial and error to figure out the right formula for you.

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