Jennbecca33 wrote: »

Hi there! I think we messaged back and forth a bit. Welcome!

So yes, it looks like you calculated your calories correctly using Scooby with a 5-6 hour activity level. You are doing a lot of workouts. Do they make you tired or feel like you will burn out? You might benefit from decreasing some of your exercise and giving your body another rest day. You do not have any time built in for your body to recover after exercise. Too much exercise will stress the body as well as eating too little calories. Combine the two stressors and you find that your progress will stall. You really don't have to kill yourself at the gym to get better results - it's actually working against your progress right now. Since your workouts alone add up to almost 6 hours, you probably need to move up to the highest activity level. When using Scooby, you need to include your daily activity in your calculation as well. This may easily push you up into the highest activity level. It does seem like a lot of food, but you are doing a lot of workouts, so you have to eat accordingly. Women are usually always shocked to see how many calories their body actually needs. Eating 1200 cals is way too low for anyone and can cause your weight loss/inch loss to completely stall out, as it has in your case. If you choose to decrease your workouts a bit, you can adjust your calculation on Scooby. For example, I workout 4 times a week for 30 minutes and I choose 3-5 hour activity level for myself since I'm a stay-home mom and I'm moving around quite a bit through the day as opposed to a desk job.

You will want to increase your calories very slowly. You don't need to jump right to 1800 if you've only been eating 1200. Add 100 calories daily every week - 1300 daily one week, 1400 daily the next week and slowly work your way up to your 2221 calorie level. This will give your body and mind time to adjust to eating more. Adding calories too quickly will cause weight gain (mostly water, but still discouraging), so do increase slowly. As you increase, you will become more hungry as your metabolism speeds up and you'll feel like eating more. Use full fat foods like olive oil, real butter, milk, cheese, peanut butter, avocado, cheese, nuts, lean proteins, eggs, whole grains and vegetables, and enjoy treats in moderation - whatever you like. You won't have to choose low-fat items anymore. I'm not one to advocate for limiting or taking out certain food groups out of the diet - for example carbs. You will need carbs for energy. You don't have to do anything crazy and there don't have to be any crazy rules. Just slowly work up to your 15% deficit calorie level. Once you reach that level, stay there for several weeks and monitor your progress and see how you do. Eating enough is so important for proper fat loss. Let us know how you do.