Can't lose weight eating 1200 calories
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mrichi1
Posts: 4 Member
I'm 5'2" 127 lbs trying to get down to 115. I started dieting in April at 129 lbs. and eating 1300 calories per day and lost only 2 lbs between April-August. I've eaten 1200-1250 calories every day for 3 weeks and haven't lost even .1 of a pound. I even started exercising over the past few weeks (walking briskly for 30 min a day several days a week) with no result. I'm wondering if it's a medication I'm on or if there's something else I'm doing wrong. i recently stopped taking the medication that may have been messing with my metabolism. Should I keep trying to eat at 1200 calories and see if I lose weight? Or should I eat more calories to try to increase my metabolism? Or should I eat fewer calories?
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Replies
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Sorry to inflict this chart yet again on the forums, but @mrichi1 have a read through it, you will probably find your answer within.
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Expect a slow weight loss because of your height and weight.
Try to add more walking if it is the only exercise you can do.
Make sure you weigh all your food and choose the correct entry for it. Double check.
1200 to 1300 calories per day seems appropriate for your height and activity level.
Unfortunately you have no margin for errors with your stats.
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I'm 5'4 and years ago, at my heaviest, I was 130+ lbs (probably less than 136, but I can't remember how much exactly). Not sure what my body fat was either. It wasn't good. And, I didn't like how I looked/felt. This is what I did to fix it: I fixed my intake to 1450 calories per day, lifted weights 3-4x per week and did a little cardio with each weight session (no more than 45 minutes of cardio and after a few months, I reduced that to no more than 10-15 minutes cardio per session as a warm up for lifting). I was doing higher reps (10 to 15) and lower weights at first, and switched to lower reps (maybe 6-8), higher weights as my form and strength got better. I probably stayed at 3 sets per exercise throughout. Maybe around 5 different lifts per session. At the beginning, I did whole body workouts, and as time went on, I divided it up into areas like: 1) legs and back, 2) arms, chest, etc. I think I was using a few machines at first and transitioned to mostly free weights as I improved. After around a month or two, I bumped up calories to 1,650 or more. Here's my result: it took at least a month for me to notice an improvement in my body's appearance. After 3 months, others started to notice--and really notice! (between 3 and 6 months, I started getting a lot of compliments.) After 6 months, I was down to around 118 lbs and 16% body fat with nice overall muscles and ab definition (and I felt very strong--I also felt like steep hill sprints were fun/easy, which was something I never dreamed of enjoying). No one ever would have accused me of being bulky--that's something my body just does not do no matter how much I lift. I've stayed under 130 ever since (really, I maintain at about 120 lbs very consistently). During all of this, I didn't care how much I weighed, I kept my focus on strength gains. The weight and body fat reduction came as a secondary gain. I learned patience and consistency are my body's best friends.8
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Don't starve yourself or your body will fight you and keep the weight ON. Eat sensibly with 3 meals a day. Don't snack much. Drink lots of water and keep moving.2
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FitnessMinnesotaGal wrote: »Don't starve yourself or your body will fight you and keep the weight ON. Eat sensibly with 3 meals a day. Don't snack much. Drink lots of water and keep moving.
Dieting myths here.
OP, look over the chart. Because you are shorter and lighter, it will be more difficult to lose the weight. Tighten up your logging, and keep in mind that water retention happens for several reasons, sodium, TOM, and new exercise will cause some water retention. This will mask any losses that you may have. Give is some more time. Do some reading, particularly the most helpful posts threads at the top of this forum and the getting started forum. Those were so important when I first started.7 -
FitnessMinnesotaGal wrote: »Don't starve yourself or your body will fight you and keep the weight ON. Eat sensibly with 3 meals a day. Don't snack much. Drink lots of water and keep moving.
"Starvation mode," as it's being described here doesn't exist. If three meals a day and little snacking works for you--great! If not, find out what does. Meal timing and frequency don't cause weight gain or weight loss, a caloric deficit (taking in fewer calories than you burn) is what decides our weight. Personally, I have my diary set to six meals a day and this worked well for me in weight loss and in maintenance. Find your path.
Your rate of loss will be slow as you're already at a healthy weight. Try a goal of .5 pounds per week (general guideline if you have less than 25 pounds to lose).
The closer you get to your goal, the tighter your logging needs to be. @Christine_72 posted the flow chart. If you're not weighing all solid foods (including eggs, pieces of fruit and packaged foods) and using measuring cups for liquids, it can really help you know what you're eating. From personal experience, it can be hard to know for sure without those tools, which makes everything else even more guesswork.7 -
FitnessMinnesotaGal wrote: »Don't starve yourself or your body will fight you and keep the weight ON. Eat sensibly with 3 meals a day. Don't snack much. Drink lots of water and keep moving.
I would argue towards eating smaller meals more often during the day - like 5-6 meals per day.
But that's just what I found has worked for me and what every single weightloss/body scultpting coach person out there (just about) says.
Speeding up metabolism and all that. eat every 3-4 hours tops.1 -
Stay at a 1200 minimum. If you do more than your 30 min brisk walk, eat back 50-75% of your calories. The brisk walk is probably 2-3 km and fits within a sedentary lifestyle which is 2500 steps.
Your loss will be slow and slower. Patience and meticulous logging is required. Read the chart above and take the information to heart.
What you eat, and the timing of your food is not important. I would encourage you to make protein and fats your priority, let carbs fill in the rest.
I am 5'1 and went from 130 to a maintenance of 100-105 ( small boned so it's a good weight) and the weight came off at a fraction of a pound a week.
I would encourage you to up your exercise and include some weight lifting. Remember that you do need to fuel your workouts so eat back the calories. The health benefits as well as improving your body composition are well worth it.
Cheers, h.1 -
Cahgetsfit wrote: »FitnessMinnesotaGal wrote: »Don't starve yourself or your body will fight you and keep the weight ON. Eat sensibly with 3 meals a day. Don't snack much. Drink lots of water and keep moving.
I would argue towards eating smaller meals more often during the day - like 5-6 meals per day.
But that's just what I found has worked for me and what every single weightloss/body scultpting coach person out there (just about) says.
Speeding up metabolism and all that. eat every 3-4 hours tops.
Splitting your calorie intake different ways / meal frequency / meal timing doesn't boost your metabolism - that's just a myth I'm afraid.
OP - suggest you make your diary public if you want specific advice. The most common issue is simply that logging is inaccurate and you are eating more than you think.10 -
Don't worry so much about it and keep doing what you're doing! It is normal when we are not overweight the weight goes off slower. I can relate with you as I'm 5'1 myself and weigh 125 lbs and it's also getting difficult sometimes. Use exercise (so many benefits aside from looking great) and try eating as healthy as you can
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I'm 5'2" 127 lbs trying to get down to 115. I started dieting in April at 129 lbs. and eating 1300 calories per day and lost only 2 lbs between April-August. I've eaten 1200-1250 calories every day for 3 weeks and haven't lost even .1 of a pound. I even started exercising over the past few weeks (walking briskly for 30 min a day several days a week) with no result. I'm wondering if it's a medication I'm on or if there's something else I'm doing wrong. i recently stopped taking the medication that may have been messing with my metabolism. Should I keep trying to eat at 1200 calories and see if I lose weight? Or should I eat more calories to try to increase my metabolism? Or should I eat fewer calories?
Even a miscalculation going over by a couple hundred calories in a day can cause a stall with you being so close to goal weight. Your deficit is not very big. If you are currently measuring by volume or "eyeballing" portions, then try switching to weighing with a kitchen scale in grams. It is more accurate.
Your weight loss may have stalled temporarily, but at least you are not gaining! Don't give up. When you update your current stats with MFP try plugging in a goal of losing 0.5 pound a week. What number does it give you?
No one on MFP forums will recommend advice regarding your medication. You should talk to your physician. Some can affect weight as a side effect. You mentioned that you recently stopped so you might see a drop soon if that was the cause.
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Cahgetsfit wrote: »FitnessMinnesotaGal wrote: »Don't starve yourself or your body will fight you and keep the weight ON. Eat sensibly with 3 meals a day. Don't snack much. Drink lots of water and keep moving.
I would argue towards eating smaller meals more often during the day - like 5-6 meals per day.
But that's just what I found has worked for me and what every single weightloss/body scultpting coach person out there (just about) says.
Speeding up metabolism and all that. eat every 3-4 hours tops.
Wrong, meal timing is irrelevant.4 -
Can you open your diary?3
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The thing i found that best works for me is not so much cutting calories but increasing exercising and having balanced carb/fat/protein intake. As an example I weighed roughly 280 pounds in January, i tried different diets none kept the weight off for long. I even cut my calories back to 1800, didn't work. One day i was watching a show and they talked about how much boxers ate a day and burned it off working out and exercising. That got me to thinking. Why starve myself. Why not just eat well and burn it off working out. I'm not saying do like i do and burn 1200 calories working out because you decided to eat everything in sight one day because you just felt like it. But you could try, increasing your calories to 1400 or 1500 and increase your work out. Also, try using protein shake after working out for your eat back. My typical routine as of late is 240 cal shake in the morning, eat whatever i want during the day, 240 protein shake evening, workout, 240 cal protein shake. My diet is roughly 2100 calories. My min workout is 240 calories. Anything calories over 2100 i add to my workout. I've lost roughly 3 pounds a week using this method and i'm down 30 pounds so far.1
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middlehaitch wrote: »Stay at a 1200 minimum. If you do more than your 30 min brisk walk, eat back 50-75% of your calories. The brisk walk is probably 2-3 km and fits within a sedentary lifestyle which is 2500 steps.
Your loss will be slow and slower. Patience and meticulous logging is required. Read the chart above and take the information to heart.
What you eat, and the timing of your food is not important. I would encourage you to make protein and fats your priority, let carbs fill in the rest.
I am 5'1 and went from 130 to a maintenance of 100-105 ( small boned so it's a good weight) and the weight came off at a fraction of a pound a week.
I would encourage you to up your exercise and include some weight lifting. Remember that you do need to fuel your workouts so eat back the calories. The health benefits as well as improving your body composition are well worth it.
Cheers, h.
^ThisCan you open your diary?
^And this.1 -
Use a food scale, seriously. I was stuck at a plateau for over a year then dropped 30lbs in 15weeks once I gave in an got a food scale. What I discovered was my portion sizes were 2-3X larger than what I was logging. "Eyeballing" it is not accurate.6
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I'm 5”3’. 12 weeks ago I was at my heaviest ever (not counting pregnancy) 136lbs. I've lost 12lbs in 12 weeks, I’m now down to 123 and aiming for 112lbs. It is difficult because of the height restrictions! Two days of the week I’m am completely sedentary making my TDEE 1500 cals so i've only got 300 cal margin. If you’re not weighing everything you eat that will be swallowed up. For instance I had over 1000 cals left to spend one day last week so I treated myself to a pizza and a chocolate tort. When I weighed the pizza which should have been 260g = 789 cals it was actually 340g so 1031cals. And my chocolate tort per ¼ slice 340 cals more like 450 cals after weighing. Luckily I adjusted the portion size but without weighing I would have a 352 surplus.
My other 5 days I try to be as active as possible Body Pump x 3 per week, Body Combat x 2 per week, Body balance x 2 per week, body attack x 2 per week, walk the children to school whenever possible, long walks with the dog at the weekend and be active as possible. I have a Fitbit charge tracker so on my active days I can eat loads more. Making small life style changes really help too. Like when I’m collecting dishes from the bedrooms I take one at a time down stairs to the dishwasher, or when my car went in for an MOT/Service instead of getting a lift to collect it I ran to the garage, taking the clean laundry back upstairs one item a time. It all adds up.
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Ah! I'm glad to see I'm not the only one who puts laundry away one piece at a time.1
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You're eating more than you think. I'm your height and have been 127. If you don't use a food scale - that is the reason you're not losing weight. When you're at a low deficit, every gram counts. I can easily underestimate a portion size by 40%.1
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What is your body type? If you're an endomorph like me it will make it almost impossible to lose weight without exercise. https://breakingmuscle.com/nutrition/the-story-of-the-endomorph-how-to-work-with-what-you-have0
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