Why am I not losing? Low calorie and exercising...

I don't have any advice, but I feel your pain. I've almost plateaued. At least you've lost 15lbs! I only lost 5 within the first week and a half of watching what I eat and follow MFP's counts but over the last three weeks haven't BUDGED on the scale OR the measuring tape. argh! The only thing for me that I can think of is I guess I need to exercise DAILY no matter what and maybe change up what I do more often.

A couple of things - and these will probably be repeated as I type this...

It's possible you're not getting enough calories per day, especially as active as you are

Don't just look at calories, look at your fat, carbs and sodium levels - if you go over any of these consistently, you may need to change up how you eat.

I very much believe you are not eating enough. Eat the calories that MFP is telling you to eat. I hardly ever eat back all of my exercise calories, but I usually eat around 200 of them back because of my Recovery drink. Additionally, watch your sodium level. If you are over on that a lot, you more than likely are retaining water. Which brings me to the water intake. How's that for you on a daily basis? Make sure you are getting at least 64 oz a day. Also, try drinking 16 oz of green tea. This will help speed up your metabolism. I hope this helps. Good luck!!

Your exercising and your probably building muscle! Muscle weighs more than fat! Don't watch the scale, measure yourself and most important...STICK WITH IT! Your probably losing inches! I feel your pain on the weight....but I am also feeling the results! I can feel how my clothes fit better! Good luck and I hope you end up with the results you want!

I don't understand...I stay at or below the calorie intake that MFP suggests, I excercise for 4 to 5 times a week, plus walk at least 2 hours a week...and now I've added the 30 Day Shred to my schedule!! I haven't dropped a single pound...! When I started watching what I ate in January I lost 13 pounds in a month just like that...then I hit a plateau...and haven't been able to shake it off! I'm very discouraged :sad: I thought that excercising 4 or 5 times a week would jump start my weight loss...and it did...2 pounds...then I hit another plateau which I've been in for 2 months. I know that I should keep going but some change would be nice to see. Very discouraged

Are you eating your exercise calories? Have you taken your measurements? Start there and see what happens. Also if you have a heart rate monitor you can use it while working out to accurately calculate calories burned. You might be overestimating exercise calories and underestimating food intake calories.

Another suggestion - eat 5-6 small meals instead of 2-3 larger ones. and if at all possible try working out in the morning to boost your metabolism for the day (I know this can be hard but it's work the best for me). Good luck!

Another thig to look at would be the sodium intake. if you are eating things high in sodium your baody will retain more water = no weight loss.
you may also want to change up your exercise routine. Your body won't react as well if you just do the same things all the time.
Switch it up!

I was in the same predicament. Exercising 5-6 days a week, eating the right things, etc. Then I joined a gym and started really intense workouts most days of the week and saw the nutritionist at the gym who told me that I wasn't eating enough. I upped my calories to 1600-1900 daily (from the 1500 recommended by MFP) and I lost 3lbs and 1.5 inches in about 10 days. Eating more really does seem to help!

If you eat too little, I have learned that your body will start taking the muscle calories and eating your muscles... Muscle burns our fat!

If the goal MFP gave you is 1200 then you aren't eating enough. You need fuel for exercise. Otherwise your body is just going to try and protect your fat and burn off muscle. It will store more food as fat. Keep your NET calories above 1200 and eat back your exercise calories.

Want to change your physique? Start by realizing that whatever shape you're in right now is your body's way of adapting to the lifestyle you're living. It's your body's attempt to survive. So the strategy is simple. We're going to give your body a very specific “environment” – a particular mix of activities, nutrition, and recovery – and your body is going to adapt by becoming leaner, stronger, and healthier.

Every change you throw at your body triggers a response. The problem with many diet and exercise programs is that they can accidentally encourage your body to defend fat, shed muscle, increase appetite and even lower its metabolism. The key to fast results is to know exactly which actions will cause your body to adapt by becoming fitter.

Maybe you've tried before to get in shape. But for some reason, you didn't get the results you wanted. If you're like I used to be, you've repeated that cycle year after year to no avail. Maybe you've failed so many times that you think of yourself as a “special case.” You've started to believe your entire metabolism consists of a little turtle on a treadmill. You wonder whether you've got the fat gene. You're convinced that no matter how hard you diet, your cells can still be seen eating Twinkies when viewed under a microscope.

Look. You're not a special case. Even if you had the fat gene (common among Pima Indians but rare otherwise), you'd only be burning 50-60 calories a day less than anybody else. Even if you've been diagnosed with a metabolic difficulty such as diabetes or hypothyroidism, you can still be successful with proper medical support. Most probably, other approaches failed you either because they were missing important pieces, focused on the wrong things, or produced results so slowly that you just gave up. What you need most is good information. You're in the right place.
The law of unintended consequences

Your body is an amazing feedback system aimed at balance and survival. Humans are at the top of the food chain because they are able to adapt to their environment. Every action produces a reaction. Every change in its environment triggers a survival response. It's important to keep that in mind when you plan your fitness program. If you treat your body as an enemy to be conquered, you'll produce unintended results.

For example, if you severely cut off the supply of food to your body, it will defend itself by slowing down its metabolism to survive starvation. The body will shed muscle mass the same way that you would throw cargo from a plane that was low on fuel, and it will reduce its thyroid activity to conserve energy. The body will also actually defend its fat stores. In anorexia, muscle loss can be so profound that fat as a percentage of body weight actually rises. Extreme carbohydrate restriction also causes muscle loss, dehydration, and slower metabolism, which is why even successful Atkins dieters can have a significant rebound in weight after they stop the diet (don't worry – the advice on this site will prevent that from happening).

As another example, if you put your body under stress through overexertion and lack of sleep, it will respond by slowing down, reducing muscle growth, and increasing your appetite for junk food, carbohydrates and fat. If you feed your body excessive amounts of sugar and quickly digested carbohydrates, and it will shut off its ability to burn fat until those sugars are taken out of the bloodstream.

This website will show you how to work with your body to quickly produce the changes you want. In order to do that, you need to take actions that push your body to adapt – to build strength, burn fat, and increase fitness. You need a training program, not an exercise routine. You need a nutrition plan, not a diet. You need a challenge, not a few good habits you usually try to follow except when you don't.
Setting the right goal

John Dewey once said that a problem well-stated is half-solved. If you want to reach your goal, you have to define it correctly. See, a lot of people say “I want to lose weight.” Well, if losing weight is your goal, go on a no-carb diet. You'll lose a lot of weight – some of it will be fat, a lot of it will be water, and a dangerous amount will be muscle tissue. You'll lose weight quickly, but you'll slow your metabolism and gain fat more quickly once you go off the diet. Trust me on this. I've been there, done that.

The problem is that you've set the wrong goal. If you want to look better, have more energy and enjoy better health, the goal is not simply to “lose weight.” The goal is to improve your fitness level and body composition. That means losing fat, improving your aerobic capacity, training your strength and defending your muscle tissue. You can't do that with a no-carb diet. You will do it using the approach you'll learn on this website. Trust me on this one too. I know what it's like to feel fat, tired and helplessly out of shape. The whole point of this site is to help others avoid that, by sharing lessons that I had to learn the hard way.
Ready to change?

Right this minute, your body is the way it is because it has adapted to the lifestyle you've thrown at it, in an attempt to survive. Ever seen the directory at the mall with the little red arrow that says “you are here”? Well, fitness is the same way. You are here. You can't start anywhere else. So be kind to yourself. Don't beat yourself up. Don't worry about how much there is to do. Change your self-talk from “My body is my enemy” to “My body is my partner.” Accept where you are right now as the starting point, and start moving.

Changing your body requires more than just “going on a diet” for a few weeks. If you want to change your body, you have to make some changes to your lifestyle (which requires some discipline, but isn't as hard as it sounds). If you create the right environment, your body will adapt to it by becoming leaner, stronger, and more energetic. You can do this.

http://www.hussmanfitness.org/html/TPAdaptation.html (this site contains a lot of good information). I have learned that our body doesn't want to get rid of fat. It is there in case of famine (a throwback to our caveman days when food was scarce.

(sorry that the site seems to focus their info on low-carbers or no-carbers but the info applies to all of us. I have had my eyes opened in the last few months. So many myths out there).

Are you eating your calories back, that you get for exercising? Are you drinking enough water? I have found that as my activity level increases, it is important to eat at least half of the calories "earned" for exercise. I also try to mix up what I eat each day. It is so easy to get into a food rut, knowing what will keep our calorie goal in check. Also, look at all aspects of what you are eating (sodium, carbs, etc), not just the calorie content. Good luck!

I know this sounds crazy but eat more. I have been on this journey a long time (80 pounds lost total) and I have had a lot of plateau's some as long as 3 months and I was told by my WW leader at the time to eat more and I didn't believe her. Then she said to try it for one week what's the harm you have stayed the same for 2 months what's one more week and sure enough it worked.
What's one week in this journey! GIve it a try eat back 1/2 of your excercise calories every other day for one week. What's the worst that can happen you stay the same again and just think you got to eat more while doing it.

Good luck.

P.S. this is the first time I have ever written on one of these things - I was that passionate about your pain.

If you eat several times a day, that speeds up your metabolism, and allows the carbs to be absorbed easier, instead of being turned into fat.
Be sure that the food you eat really has the calories you think it does, and make sure you´ve got the right quantities down, etc. If you can, write down the recipe of what you make in the recipe section of MFP so that you get an accurate picture of the calories in the usual sandwiches, pasta dishes, etc. that you tend to eat. That´ll motivate you to put in a teaspoon of olive oil instead of a drizzle of a couple of tablespoons (that´s a difference of about 200 cals) in your pasta, for example.
If you can do some muscle toning with weights, that´s good, too, to increase the amount of muscle, which burns more calories than fat.
Fiber plus water apparently are good for burning fat. Even if it´s hard to get the fiber in, you definitely need the water to stay healthy.
There are lots more tips..... I keep a blog with them.

I havent read the responses so if this is a repeat I am sorry. But one check your settings. you sound moderatly active so make sure you set to the setting to that or at the very least slightly active. it will move your total calories for the day up and you will eat more. Also track exercise and eat back your calories. you dont have to eat them all but definatly enough to make sure your net total caories for the day are above 1200.

i know it sounds totally against what you "think" you should do to lose weight but eating more can jump start your weightloss again.

I am having the exact same challenge. I've been working out like crazy for 4 months and sticking to my MFP calories and I suspect that what everyone is saying here is correct. Before I started MFP I ate significantly more and was working out the same. Funnily enough I saw low-moderate weight loss. Now that I've reduced my calorie intake I have lost 0 pounds. It can be very discouraging. Our bodies are storing the food we are consuming because we arent eating them back. Eat more. Keep the faith and press on.

If you are eating below your MFP calorie goal, which is designed for you to add to exercise calories, your body is probably in starvation mode and holding on to every bit of fat. I was in the same boat and was losing slowly and then I decided to start eating more and voila, I lost 1 pound.

It's possible you're not getting enough calories per day, especially as active as you are

Not if she's not losing weight. Calorie deficit = weight loss. Eating more is going the wrong way.

100% agree. Not losing weight? Eat less. Do you weigh and record each gram of food you put in your mouth? If not, I would be willing to bet you are just simply eating too much. Sorry!