Why am I not losing weight?

According to the many pages I've read on starvation mode... You would literally need to get rid of 95% of your fat stores before you would go into starvation mode.

What do you think fat is for? It's used for times of famine. If you didn't lose weight due to caloric insufficiency then you wouldn't die of starvation a complete stick.

Don't confuse the effects of starving that are mis-applied to what is called starvation mode. 2 different things.
A diet really just is controlled starving.
Starving is what you referred to - though you mention no effects to that losing 95% of fat stores.

What would you say about the true effects of starvation mode kicking in with just a mere 25% deficit from a tested measured TDEE for an obese person?
True effects?
Your body slows down amount of spontaneous daily activity. Your body becomes more metabolically efficient and burns less on everything. Net effect, your real TDEE is much less than potential.

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/blog/heybales/view/reduced-metabolism-tdee-beyond-expected-from-weight-loss-616251

This may be an eye opener.

Not for the OP though, not with mere 2 weeks. But heading that direction if she keeps it up.

Though I do find it incredible that bad logging is being blamed for somehow overcoming what must be close to a 1000-1300 calorie deficit to potential TDEE.

Other research where they aren't as positive about getting over it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2i_cmltmQ6A

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1077746-starvation-mode-adaptive-thermogenesis-and-weight-loss

According to the many pages I've read on starvation mode... You would literally need to get rid of 95% of your fat stores before you would go into starvation mode.

What do you think fat is for? It's used for times of famine. If you didn't lose weight due to caloric insufficiency then you wouldn't die of starvation a complete stick.

Don't confuse the effects of starving that are mis-applied to what is called starvation mode. 2 different things.

A diet really just is controlled starving.
Starving is what you referred to - though you mention no effects to that losing 95% of fat stores.

What would you say about the true effects of starvation mode kicking in with just a mere 25% deficit from a tested measured TDEE for an obese person?
True effects?
Your body slows down amount of spontaneous daily activity. Your body becomes more metabolically efficient and burns less on everything. Net effect, your real TDEE is much less than potential.

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/blog/heybales/view/reduced-metabolism-tdee-beyond-expected-from-weight-loss-616251

This may be an eye opener.

Not for the OP though, not with mere 2 weeks. But heading that direction if she keeps it up.

Though I do find it incredible that bad logging is being blamed for somehow overcoming what must be close to a 1000-1300 calorie deficit to potential TDEE.

Other research where they aren't as positive about getting over it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2i_cmltmQ6A

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1077746-starvation-mode-adaptive-thermogenesis-and-weight-loss

Very interesting study! Thanks for posting this! I am watching the HBO special now! :P

The slowdowns you speak of would not be nearly enough to cause weight loss to halt. Even at 50% reduction from tdee subjects in the Minnesota starvation experiment all still continued to lose weight despite any metabolic slowdown.
I also believe so many people are absolutely terrible at logging. Anytime you see 6 days of logging and a blank day I almost assume it was a day full of pizza, alcohol, candy, etc. If you eat 1200 calories 6 days a week and 3500 on day 7, you did the equivalent of eating 1700 every day. I really do believe that 99% of people claiming not to lose weight at very low calorie levels are either confused about their intake or dishonest about their cheat days.

Well, actually the results from the deficit were enough to cause the effect, but small enough that the reduced TDEE would eventually cause no deficit to be in place and weight loss to stop, IF you kept basing the math on what was or could be.

But as the study you referenced did, this study they kept lowering intake to always be 25% below tested TDEE (nice having a lab). So they compensated for suppression by just constantly eating less and less. And true the studies show about a max 20-25% suppression to TDEE, but look at what that eating calorie level would be then.

So indeed, you can keep eating less and less and eventually you will start losing again. And then as TDEE lowers with less weight, eat less again. Do the math for the end game to reach goal weight, and many would have to be either eating 800 calories with reasonable amount of exercise, or 1200 with a whole lot of exercise. That's a scary maintenance. If you reach goal weight that limited.

And very true for logging like in this case, where there is no weight loss at all. And if exercise calories had been eaten back with inflated values (which they were not in this case) even a worse effect.
But for ones that were successful for 20-50 lbs and then it slowed and stopped - doubtful that's suddenly the issue.

Perhaps it's embarrassment in bad logging that causes some not to report back how much they were off in total inflated calories daily, but the ones I have seen report back are maybe 200-300 inflated. Not nearly enough to wipe out a 1000 or more deficit they should have had in place.

I think the cheat days and meal binges are bigger deal too. "I gain weight only eating 1200". Huh, yeah, that may be your goal usually hit, but as you point out, it averages 1700 in reality. And their workouts eating 1200 were probably so pathetic they barely burned anything.

I gained four pounds the first week I started exercising.

Give it time. As in a month or two. If you are losing weight your body will give you certain hints, even if the scale doesn't budge. They can include:

disrupted sleep habits (for instance waking up 2 - 3 hours early for no particular reason)
increased cravings, headache, tiredness, mood swings, irritability, a sense of malaise. It's not pleasant but they are indicators if you find the scale has stopped moving.

For me these symptoms are the worst in the first two weeks of dieting and deepen if my calories swing rapidly from one day to the next - even if the deficit only a couple hundred calories.

Losing weight is no fun, but if you feel perfectly comfortable and not the least bit peckish around food, you may be eating at maintenance.