What am I doing wrong?

you should really be eating at least 1200 calories/day...anything less than that and your body will start to starve and hold on to weight...too may people are afraid to eat but truth is u must fuel the fire or it will burn out..good luck

You're not eating enough. Eat more, weigh less.

It sounds like you need to increase your calorie intake. I know that sounds not right, but it is true.

Hi Guys,

I have been working so hard to loose weight but it is just not coming off, I am sick of people telling me that I must be eating more then I put in my food diary because I am not.

I eat no more that 1000 calories a day and I count them properly as its mostly tinned food.
I go to the gym 4 times a week and do HIIT training because I was told this is the best way to burn fat,

I warm up for 5 mins on the treadmill then I run at speed 10 (which is as fast as I can go for a minute), I then drop down to walking pace for about 2 minutes and then go again at speed 10 for a minute. I repeat this 8 times which takes about 20 mins. It only burns around 110 calories but I feel really good after am I done.

I have been at this for 3 weeks and not lost a single pound, I know it sounds impossible because if you reduce your calorie intake you should be dropping weight but I am not. I have tried so hard and am running out of ideas. My gym buddies all say give it more time but surely I should have dropped a pound by now.

I am 13 stone and 5'5 and so upset. Please help.

http://www.hussmanfitness.org/html/TPAdaptation.html

Working With Your Body - The Basic Strategy
By John P. Hussman, Ph.D.
All rights reserved and actively enforced.


The goal of this site is to help you to transform your physique by walking you step-by-step through everything you need to know about exercise physiology and nutrition. I know that a lot of you have “tried everything,” and because there are so many approaches that have failed you, there's a real risk that you'll quit again and again if you don't see results immediately, or if you don't fully understand why your fitness program should work. Worse, there may be some missing pieces in your program, which could lead to slow progress even though you're hard at work. My hope is that this information will help you to stay on track - to turn effort into results - and to reach your goal.

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.



You are not eating enough. Combine that with exercise (especially cardio) and all you're doing is slowing your metabolism and eating up your lean muscle mass.

Same as everyone else, eat more.......find a balance your body requires......I have to net 1400 a day to keep from going into starvation mode...(found this out my not losing, but gaining for several weeks in a row..) ..
Good Luck

Why ARE you only eating 1000 calories? You have to know that everything on this site points to everyone needs to eat over 1200 calories. If you say stuff like everyone says this and everyone says that, yet not have your diary open, that makes people think stuff. If you ask for help you have to be really asking for help, and we cant help you if you know you need more than 1200 calories to lose weight, yet you choose to not do what is recommended. Every day you that you close out your diary, im sure that MFP is telling you that you are running the risk of starvation mode. Yet you still only eat 1000 calories. Also, if you are working out as much as you say, im sure you are burning WAY more than 120 calories!!!! You need to get a heart rate monitor and see. I burn 120 calories doing dishes and sweeping for 20 mins. A HRM will tell you what the real deal is... Somethings got to give. You cant make up your own diet plan and disregard proven facts and then cry about things not working for you...

another thing I would suggest is tracking your sodium intake; I am seeing in your diary some restaurant food such as the Indian food and McDonald's and I would almost guarantee they are going to be high in sodium. Another thing you need to also up is your intake of water - especially with a higher sodium intake.

I personally find I enjoy doing different things for cardio each day. I will run one day, do the stairstepper (my fav!), or use the elliptical. The stairstepper is my favorite because I find that my knee which I hurt a few years ago aches a little if I run every day. I also always get a great hard workout on the stairstepper. I do it by intervals going slow steps for a while and then fast for another section and then back, about four minutes each interval.