1,200 calorie diet, not losing weight anymore

Kyliejo0371 wrote: »

MFP say 2,010 when I changed it to .5 lbs a week. Dr says 1,200....I did a calculation online and it says 1,600- 1,800 for weight loss ; 1,320 for extreme weight loss

So why not eat the 2010? Doctors don't get enough education on nutrition to really give advice, they recommend 1200cal because they know most people won't actually pull that off. MFP is at least using a fairly accurate formula to figure out what you should be eating. You still need to adequately fuel yourself, after all. When you start using the food scale you'll start seeing just how much you're actually eating.

Hi.
I totally understand what’s happening to you. I have been there. I had been on 1200 cal intake for years without dieting due to hectic stressful life and I was putting on weight !!! .How was that possible ? I thought. I checked my macros, and realised that most of my intake came from carbs, almost no fat, almost no protein . The result: I had lost most of my muscles and my metabolism was a mess. Started eating clever:minding the macros and went up to 1500 cal. I lost 18 pounds in 4 months eating more than ever before. Lost 6%fat and increased 3% muscle at the same time, and I am 42 years old. Not a teenager anymore. I tell you, to show you that it is possible. Small changes can do a lot.What I suggest you to do is:

1-Don’t just aim to loose weight, but to loose fat instead. Get one of those scales that can tell your proportion on fat and muscle. Sometimes you feel discouraged because you didn’t loose weight, but you lost fat, and gained muscle. Muscle weights.You should be so happy if that happens or even more than actually loosing weight. Muscle will help you to have a more efficient metabolism. A simple scale will not show this. Lately, I haven’t lost weight but still lost fat and gained muscle, and I am extremely happy about it.

2-Don’t always eat the same amount of calories. Our bodies not always follow mathematics. 1+1=2. What I mean is that our body is designed to adapt to what they get, so if always gets 1200, (by the way that is quite low . Are you feeling ok?) your body will adapt to the “emergency state” of only having 1200 cal.
Instead, have some days with higher cal intake, and some lower. I am not saying that you should eat a piece of cake to increase cal intake. Still get those cal from healthy food. If you do that, your body will not get into “emergency state” of starvation and save cal. I normally have between 1400-1500, but on a heavy workout day I may get even up to 1700, and enjoy it all the way😁.

3-Experiment with Macros. You should not ignore protein intake, for the sake of your muscles and metabolism in general, but you can experiment with the amount of fat and carbs you eat within your calorie intake. Some people feel great having high fat low carb diet and still lose weight. Healthy fat by the way( nuts, avocado, olive oil ...that kind of stuff...) and some other people feel great with high carb low fat. Try, and see how your body reacts. MyFitnessPal can help you to track your macros easily. It took me a while to figure out what was best for me.

4-Run away from insane no common sense advice or diet. If it sounds dangerous, it probably is. Is your health what we are talking about.

Of course, If you had any health issue you should be careful about taking anyone else advice. Personally, I don’t have any health issue at present and this has worked for me.
I hope my experience can be of any help, and remember: You can do it. It’s just finding what works more efficiently for you. The ideal thing would be finding an experienced professional that kept an eye on you, but unfortunately, they are not that many these days.

This is a reminder that I use:
“If I am eating a healthy diet and doing exercise, I will feel great and get some kind of results( losing fat or increasing muscle). If I don’t feel great in the process, I better check where’s room for improvement”