HELP I am not losing weight **TEARS UP**

Without seeing your journal, I can't really give you any advice. It really depends on what your calorie goal is, and how much under you're eating. If you're set at 1200, you need to NET at the very least 1200 per day. NEVER EVER go under that. That means that if you work out, you have to still eat at least 1200 cals. Eat more veggies if you're not getting enough of those, and drink TONS of water.

I also wanted to say that you need to make sure you're eating 2000mg or less of sodium per day. Sodium can REALLY screw up your weight.

Maybe try ZIG-ZAGGING..
It worked for me..
Don't give up though!
Keep On Keeping On!

Without seeing your journal, I can't really give you any advice. It really depends on what your calorie goal is, and how much under you're eating. If you're set at 1200, you need to NET at the very least 1200 per day. NEVER EVER go under that. That means that if you work out, you have to still eat at least 1200 cals. Eat more veggies if you're not getting enough of those, and drink TONS of water.

I also wanted to say that you need to make sure you're eating 2000mg or less of sodium per day. Sodium can REALLY screw up your weight.

Agreed, I'm at 1,200 right now and I'm careful to try and accurately count my calories because going under 1,200 is actually unhealthy for your body. You go into 'starvation mode' and your metabolism plummets, so you end up putting on weigh from what fat and unused carbs your body is storing. Be sure to eat at least 1,200, you may want to give yourself 50-75 calories of leeway (that's what I do) just to be on the safe side.

Also, DO NOT fret about 1-2 lbs, even up to 4-5 because in a single day, a human can gain and lose that much, usually it's water weight. And, being female, you know that we fluctuate up and down a lot. Don't beat yourself up too hard and make sure you're getting your 1,200 calories!

Keep in mind that if you suddenly starting working out so much you are retaining water because of it. Your body needs it to repair your muscles, especially if you did some strength training, too.

It might even be because of the time of the month.. before my period for example i always gain a few pounds. Don't give up, as for the junk food.. eat some of it, don't deny yourself some, just don't go crazy on it and you'll be fine!

I feel like I wrote this post myself! we have similar stats, I'm also a lawyer (and gained a bunch of weight during law school), and gained two pounds this week despite working out more than normal and staying under my calorie goal. I'm going to keep trucking though, hoping it will balance out in a week or two if I just keep doing what I know I need to do. And I'll take my measurements in hopes there's some success there to keep me motivated...
friend me if you want - we can encourage each other to stick to it!

If it can help you, few weeks ago, I gained 2 pounds....but at the exact same time lost 1 inch at my hips and half aan inch at my waist. The scale is an imperfect tool and can't really tell you exactly what is going on. So you gained 2 pounds.....2 pounds of what? Unless you over ate by 7000 calories in the week, it can't be fat. Is it water since you asked more of your muscles.....big chance. Are you near TOM?

Stop using the scale to mesure how good you are doing. You know your did good this week. Trust your body it will give you the resutls you want

I had a bad week 2 weeks ago, You just gotta suck it up and drive on, Don't give in to the weekend, Have fun, but remember your goals. and what you are doing this for

If you worked out and you usually dont, your muscles are trying to build themselves (they are literally "scabbing up" and using more blood) . Also, if you don't eat enough calories to work out with, your body will store fat. You have to give your body time to catch up to the "shock". You are doing great, dont freak out (stress makes you gain!) If you continue to work out, you may see a larger number on the scale for a bit...then you literally wake up one morning lighter and more tone. I lost 98 lbs a couple years ago and had that exact thing happen to me numerous times. When you work out, it is a good idea to measure your inches too. that way even if your weight levels out for a bit or gets a little higher, you can see taht your inches are going down. It really helps moments like these. DONT GIVE UP! I hate that feeling like it's hopeless. It's not honey. You're doing great, keep it up! And don't cry!

Advice #1: Hard one to take in...don't let it get you down!
Advice #2: Some of us take longer to see results....don't give up
Advice #3: Eat ALL your calories: This is where alot of people end up messing up. if you worked out all week and gained lets say 300 calories burned per workout...you GOTTA eat those calories
Advice #4: Check your fat intake...make better choices....when I first started I ate whatever I wanted, thinking so long as I only eat
my 1200 I am ok...what I found later was that the choices of what I ate made all the difference!
Advice #4: Go ahead and cry and get mad, but then wipe your tears....pull up your big girl panties and don't let this defeat you. we've all done that before and that is WHY we are here on MFP.
Advice #5: If your gonna drink.....which is not a good choice...drink light and as for being around food, make choices that will not take you too far off track....take a veggie or turkey burger with you if your going to a bbq and ask the bbq master to throw it on the barbie for you....

Friend me! here to encourage and support you!

Well said cpumeu!

Drink tons of water and eat back your exercise calories, if you set up MFP correctly with your weight and your goal each week it will build the deficit in for you. If you are not consuming enough calories your body will be in starvation mode.

When you eat make sure every calorie counts. Don't eat those 100 calorie snacks, that is an empty 100 calories, eat a banana, a medium one is 105 calories and is full of nutrients. Just make sure those calories you are eating are ones that are good for you.

Make sure you have breakfast everyday and try to eat 5-6 smaller meals throughout the day. Doing this will tell your body, that you are at no risk of starving and so it is ok to burn stored calories. This is when your metabolism will start to go up. this doesn't happen overnight, you have to be patient.

Change your workout routines. Our bodies adapt to become more efficient. If you do the same workout all the time your body will figure out how to do that process and not spend as much calories doing it. It is a great survival tactic of our bodies but not so great for weight loss. Also if you are not doing any resistence or weight training you should be doing some. Muscles burn calories. If you are only doing cardio 25% or so of your weight loss could be from muscle loss, this will make it harder to keep losing.

Only worry if it stays that way for a week. My scale will say I gained 6 lbs in 5 minutes sometimes! Digital and spring loaded scales are not all that accurate or consistent. Get on your scale with a 5lb weight or something and check it.

I find myself with the same issue so I dont personally weigh in everyday since our weight fluctuates day to day. Keep possitive!

My advice... THROW THAT SCALE OUT THE WINDOW!!!

Judge your weight by how your clothes fit. I get pissed when I look at the scale and it goes up but then I remember how much I weighed and how much I lost (60 pounds). Look at your TOTAL weight loss as a VICTORY!!!

Also, in order to gain 2 pounds, it means you have to eat and store 5000 calories in fat cells. 1 pound of fat is 2500 calories

1 pound of fat is 3500 calories... not 2500 hundred. So she'd need to eat and store 7,000 calories. Highly doubt that happened.

In reply to another poster, muscle does not weight more then fat. They weigh the same but muscle is more dense and compact then fat.

To Op: Try drinking more water and changing up you're exercise. Also try eating only a little bit of your exercise calories and see if that helps.