I don't lose weight- scientific miracle?

Yes, which is entirely my point. If you don't lose calories at 1,200 calories a day eat less calories. You don't have to worry about health because you can eat more nutrients than the average person does in 500 calories then they do in 3,000.

The big picture is if you have fat to burn you need to be worried about nutrients not calories and you'd be surprised how many nutrients you can get in with so few calories. VLED is for anyone who has weight to lose whether it's 5 lbs or 50 lbs.

Wow. Thanks for sharing that, although I do find it absurd to include VLED in the mix of eating disorders. It also implies that eating a highly nutritious VLED is dangerous and again the overwhelming whole of scientific evidence confirms VLEDs are the best overall approach for long term weight loss and reversal of Type II diabetes. What's more dangerous, living with diabetes for 6 months unnecessarily on a moderate approach or using a VLED to reverse it in weeks?

Wow. Thanks for sharing that, although I do find it absurd to include VLED in the mix of eating disorders. It also implies that eating a highly nutritious VLED is dangerous and again the overwhelming whole of scientific evidence confirms VLEDs are the best overall approach for long term weight loss and reversal of Type II diabetes. What's more dangerous, living with diabetes for 6 months unnecessarily on a moderate approach or using a VLED to reverse it in weeks?

The issue is a VLED should ONLY be done under strict supervision / doctors care. To encourage it here in a forum as a solution is poor advice. Even if you were a medical professional - medical professionals cannot give this kind of advice over the internet.

As for your idea that a VLED is the best overall approach for long-term weight-loss or reversing Type II diabetes, this is simply untrue. Compared to a high-carb/low-fat diet, this may be true, but if you compare it to a VLCKD (very low carb ketogenic diet) the truth is that with a moderate deficit, VLCKD's reverse symptoms of Type II diabetes at the same rate as a VLED.

The reason VLED's work is they are, by nature, also VLCKD - though they're a starvation type instead of moderate deficit.

And even though it can take over a year to develop a nutrient deficiency, this doesn't mean we should recommend it to people. VLED's take serious monitoring and nutritional counselling.

VLCKD's are a much-safer, more-sustainable and proven-effective alternative to VLED's.

It's unfortunate that there are so many people out there that claim that eating in a particular way (paleo, low carb, vegan, raw food, etc etc etc) will result in weight loss even if there's no calorie deficit. The result is that some people put in a ton of effort to eat this way, then experience no weight loss, and get extremely frustrated. These diets work for some people because they make them feel full while they're still in a calorie deficit. I.e. they eat less than they burn off, and stop eating because they're full. But this doesn't work for everyone, some people will still manage to eat enough to be in maintenance, or even eat a surplus, no matter how strictly they follow these diets. I'm guessing that you're one such person.

You don't need to give up any foods that you want to eat. You do need to ensure that you're taking in adequate amounts of protein fat and carbohydrate, but not too much, so you're still in calorie deficit. You also need to ensure you're getting enough vitamins, minerals fibre and water......... the difficult bit is getting the right amount of protein, fat and carbs, and that's where MFP comes in... you need to *weigh* your food, and log it accurately. Log *everything* you eat or drink. Weighing is much more accurate than other methods of measuring foods - a lot of people come undone with cups and volume measurements as these can be out by 10% and that can obliterate your deficit and result in failing to lose weight. Eat all your daily MFP calorie goal, and set your macro ratios to 40% carb 30% fat 30% protein, and try to hit the targets for fat, carb and protein each day. If you don't hit it exactly, it's better to be over on protein and a little under on either of the other two. You can eat what you like to hit these goals, but try to include fresh fruit and veg somewhere along the line, and for some of the fat containing foods you eat to be foods high in essential fatty acids and fat soluble vitamins. Also try to get enough water to drink (can be in the form of other drinks, but if the drink contains calories you have to log the drink with your food). You need to eat back exercise calories, but this site tends to overestimate calorie burns so only eat back 80% of them.

Doing this ensures that you are eating at a deficit, as opposed to just hoping that the diet really will put you in a calorie deficit at the end of the day.

When you log everything like this, you can basically eat what you want so long as you're hitting your calorie goals (therefore are still in a deficit) and getting close to your macro (fat protein and carb) goals. It may seem like a real PITA logging everything, but when it becomes a habit and all your favourite foods are in your "my foods" categories and similar, logging becomes quick and easy. And you won't feel deprived because you'll be eating all the foods you want to eat, just maybe not in the same quantities as before.

Try this for a few weeks... if you're still not losing, then either subtract 100-200 calories and try again OR try to get more physical activity in for the same number of calories..... OR try only eating back 50% of exercise calories (in case the previous amount was an overestimate)... it's common to need to adjust the initial calorie estimate up or down, but you need to be sure you're logging accurately before there's any benefit in doing that, because inaccurate logging could put all your calories out by as much as 50% and explain why someone isn't losing weight.

note: if, after doing this, it transpires that you're not losing when eating a calorie number that's a lot lower than the estimates, then see a doctor because this could be indicative of a hormonal problem such as hypothyroidism. These conditions don't break the laws of physics - calories in v calories out is still true - what they do is slow the metabolism, i.e. make the calories out part of the equation lower than it should be, so weight loss isn't possible on the amount of calories you should be able to eat and still lose weight. Such conditions need to be treated, and the treatment usually results in it being easier to lose weight as the calories out side of the equation is back where it should be. BUT no-one should diagnose themselves with conditions like this if they haven't been logging accurately, because inaccurate logging is the main cause of failure to lose weight