Frustrated and need advice

This might sound a bit confusing but increase your calories to 1400 or so. Make sure if you are exercising you are eating back any calories you burn. The reason I suggest this is because 1200 is a very low target. Nobody should ever drop below 1200 for females and 1500 for males because otherwise your metabolism will shut down and go into starvation mode which means any food you eat will be stored as fat. Trust me it actually will probably benefit you more to eat that little bit extra each day. Hope that helps. Happy to chat more if you want to add me as a friend.

All kinds of things can influence your weight loss or lack therof in a short period of time. I think MFP is a bit too liberal on the estimate of calories burned. I am going to figure out how to use my Heart Rate Monitor to get a better handle on actual calories burned. I think you should be happy that you've lost four. A lot of people hit plateaus for two weeks or more. If you keep it up you will probably break through and start losing again. I would work out a bit longer if I was in your shoes.

Definitely eat more, especially eat back most of your workout calories.

Congratulations on the 4 pounds!
I looked quickly at your diary at the totals. Your carbs and fat tend to be high or over and your protien is low. Maybe you could work on that end. Your doing great! Each pound and step is one day closer to your goal. Hang in there!

Make sure you verify all the nutrients in the foods you log in. I know it can be a pain to verify all the other entries, but I have found it a lot where all the nutrients are not filled in. Maybe because the person putting it in wasn't worried about that particular item. Sodium is a biggy. I noticed one entry that didn't have the sodium amount, and it would have been pretty high which would make a huge difference. Congrats on the 4 lbs. Keep it up!!!!:happy:

I agree with previous posts. 1200 is too few calories. You need to bump it to 1400. Also, be sure you have a protein and a complex carb (non starchy veggie or whole wheat pasta/bread, etc.) at EACH meal. I have 5 to 6 small meals a day. This keeps my metabolism burning throughout the day. Cut out Diet Sodas and packaged foods. Hope this helps.

I wasn't losing on 1200 calories either (despite running for 1 hour 3x per week). It turns out, my settings were wrong.

You may want to read this, then adjust your settings accordingly: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/61706-guide-to-calorie-deficits

Because of my job, I had my settings at sedentary. Turns out, that's wrong (because I also work out).

The link says:

" if you do some walking every day (or at least 4 days a week) or other light activity for at least 30 minutes cumulative at least 4 times a week, you are lightly active. If you do 60 minutes of light activity 5 days a week or do some kind of sport that requires walking or light jogging (say swimming or mailman or warehouse employee) then you are active, If you do a physically demanding activity (one that makes you sweat) for 4 days a week or more and for more than 1 hour a day, you are very active (like a coach that runs drills or you play volleyball). When in doubt, go down 1 level, you'd rather burn more than you think than less."

it also said: Generally someone with a BMI over 32 can do a 1000 calorie a day (2 lbs a week) deficit With a BMI of 30 to 32 a deficit of 750 calories is generally correct (about 1.5 lbs a week) With a BMI of 28 to 30 a deficit of 500 calories is about right (about 1 lb a week) With a BMI of 26 to 28 a deficit of about 300 calories is perfect (about 1/2 lb a week)

Since changing my settings, I've started dropping! YAY!