Carbs & Cals - weight loss help!

Just a glance through your diary, it would seem you are either not logging everything or you're having several days that you're eating under half of the 1200. 1200 is a minimum and you're exercising on top of that so should be eating back about half the exercise calories on top of that.

See the above infographic and make sure you're hitting your 1200 calories.

Give it time. The process does work!

You should do measures at all your body too.
Sometimes you don't lose weight on the first weeks, but you lose measures... and that's also good.
And be always motivated...
I'm loosing 1 kg per week with the 1200 cal and gym... it works!

I am going to guess you are not logging everything you eat...for example Sun Jan 8th 258 calories of chicken slices...

To lose weight you need to eat less than you burn and if you aren't going to log then you have to go by a few things and the scale is one of them.

HOwever if you are logging everything you need to seek help.

Your body needs fat. Going too low on fat will result in damage to skin/hair/nails. Also fat is necessary to help the absorption of some vitamins/minerals. While protein is useful, there is no reason to have 180g per day at your body weight. Increase fat, don't be afraid of it.

But as to the weight loss: give it time. The body naturally fluctuates 3-5 pounds (or more!) in terms of water weight. You could be retaining water now due to sodium intake, hormones/TOM or a number of other reasons.

erickirb wrote: »

I would also point out that 20-27 grams of fat is probably too low. Fat is a important to get enough of, it is not the enemy. A simple rule of thumb is a minimum of 0.35 grams per lb of body weight. So, if you weigh 140lbs then you should get a minimum of 49 grams of fat. If someone is overweight, it may be better to look at 0.4 to 0.45 grams per lb of goal body weight as a minimum

20 is too low, but 27 is okay at that calorie amount. It's okay to go down to .25 grams per pound of bodyweight. I do, and I'm fine because I don't find fat satiating and want to spend my calories elsewhere. Fat also gives me digestive issues that are unpleasant. I don't have brittle nails, dry skin, or any signs that people warn about with having too low a fat intake.

This really is down to preference and experience with how you do eating at that level.

Back to the OP. Do stop logging in Fitbit. I honestly don't know how you do it. I tried once and it was a royal pain!

Log here in MFP, consistently. As Trigden said, it looks like you're already pretty lean, and with that being the case, it's just going to take some time.

Also? Did you just start exercising? If your program is new, you might be retaining water from muscle repair.

180g protein seems like a lot to me, but it depends on your height I guess. I'm 6'2" tall, 180lbs and tend to eat around 180g of protein a day sometimes a hair more or a hair less but I'm not losing weight any longer as I'm at my target weight or below it. Don't fall for the 1g/lb of protein unless you're at your target weight. Either start with the .8g/lb estimate or 1g/lb of your target weight. Also with high protein diets you want to pay close attention to both your water intake and your fiber intake or the extra weight your hanging onto might be in your colon (not to be gross).

I've been repeatedly told, and no I don't have references, that fat in your diet does not equal fat on your body. Carbs are energy, and if you're working out a lot you need carbs. The reason most people want to keep fat low is because it's double the calories of protein and carbs, so low fat = low calorie. But your body needs a regular amount of fat to build muscle. I did a lot better gaining muscle and losing fat overall when I tinkered with my macros using the calculators over at iifym.com. I simply plug those numbers into MFP.

Add me ! I'm active !

That is a lot of protein - excessive, almost -especially for a woman, unless you're doing some serious bodybuilding. Check out some of the low carb groups. You need more fat, for sure. "Fat is bad" is scientifically incorrect, especially if you're doing low carb.

DanLoginov wrote: »

mizzmarble wrote: »

Hi Guys
I've been eating a max of 1200 cals a day, which is made up of 180g protein, 60g or less of carbs and between 25-27g fat. I have also been going to the gym at least 5 times a week, purely focusing on cardio to try and shift the fat.
However the scales have not changed
I do feel like ive lost weight especially around my middle, but maybe I'm imagining it.... but just wondered why scales show no change Am I better sticking at it and measuring myself instead? Just don't want to lose motivation and wondered if anyone can suggest or advise on this.

Don't just do cardio and there's no reason to eat that much protein unless you are a bodybuilder who's trying to lower fat but maintain as much muscle possible.

My advice don't do so much cardio and focus on weights or bodyweight training.

While I agree that 180 g of protein is too high for OP, it is always ideal to focus on losing fat and maintain as much muscle as possible.