what am i doing wrong?

You HAVE to eat them...many others had the same question and if you search there are MANY threads on the topic.....goodluck.



dd

Hi I have just been trough the same thing and basically you are not eating enough I have spent the l nearly a mnth not losing because I had to fight to get my body out of starvation because I was only eating 1000 or so and exercising basically at 1st Feb I decided to follow the advice repeated time and time again on this site and I lost 4lbs this week and I get to eat 1600 to 1800 cals a day which is my daily 1220 plus exercise (be careful not to over estimate the exercise you do) I usually eat 60 to 70 % of my exercise cals plus my 1220 I figure I probably use another 10% of my exercise cals nibbling. I too struggled at first to eat my cals if you like milk have a glass of milk before bed have a couple of milky coffees through the day or I have low fat cocoa which is great after dinner bout 9pm when I start to get bored and tend to raid the cupboards.

But it is no myth you HAVE TO EAT TO LOSE I have been converted and I am never going back.

If you look back you can probably find some really detailed posts on this site because sooo many people ask the same thing.

Good luck

Okay after reading all of these other posts that you have to eat at least 1200 or your body thinks it's starving maybe I should rethink my calorie intake. Like you, I just get so frustrated b/c I want the scale to move fast and it doesn't seem to be moving anywhere. I also feel like on paper I'm doing everything right but I want instant results. I guess anything worth it will take time!

getting thinner thighs you need to trust what you read here 1000 cals IS NOT HEALTHY you may lose weight because your body is basically eating itself to provide energy 1200 cals plus exercise cals you gotta eat them it is the only long term healthy solution I have been there several times and I know the only way to lose weight is to eat eventually eating only 1000 cals a day your body will stop losing then if you increase you cal intake you body begins to store everything as fat and you will gain rapidly this is yoyo dieting lose eat gain lose eat gain.

In your profile you said you wanted to have energy well exercise and EAT and you will have energy. Increasing your cals per day will help lose weight buut if you have been only eating 1200 and exercising it can take 2 - 4 weeks or so to correct your metabolism there is lots of info about this on the net. You even gain a couple of pound before your body fixes itself.

You need to do your own research but 1000 cals a day is unhealthy.

Also, I would pay closer attention to where your calories are coming from (carbs, proteins, fats). Are you staying in the guidelines, or are they heavily uneven? I am allowed about 1300 calories without counting my exercise calories, but my protein was WAY down and I was feeling run down and tired instead of pumped up from my workouts. When I raised my protein intake a little, but stayed in my calorie range, I LOST FASTER. It stands to reason, since I added strength training to my workout plus my daily cardio. My muscles were begging for lean protein. I also stay full longer. Good Luck!

I read all these 1200 calorie posts and people talking about how hard it is to get there, and I think, "wow! am I really that much of a pig?" I mean, I could reach 1200 calories, healthily in like 2 seconds

I struggle when eating healthy to eat 1200 a day because I am (was) a binge eater which I am sure a lot of people are. I would eat next to nothing all week being good (so you think eating 500 to 1000 cals a day) sending my body into starvation mode (google this and you will get loads of info it is far from rubbish) then the weekend and I would eat let myself of the leash and drink and eat chocolate and other junk no longer in moderation and because my body was in self preservation mode it hung onto every single ounce of fat hence why I still am not at my ideal weight.

I now eat my cals and exercise cals which I discussed with my doc and he agreed was the correct thing to do (plus I was still not sure so I did some research on the net)

I no longer binge eat and I still enjoy choccy but in moderation in my diet

The best diet is NOT TO DIET exercise, eat and enjoy life all in moderation.

Ok, I really don't mean to be rude, but if you couldn't eat even 1200 calories a day you wouldn't be overweight. If you added up the calories you ate to gain and maintain your current weight you would probably be shocked how much you had to consume on a daily basis to reach and maintain that weight.

A simple way to figure out how many calories you need to maintain a certain weight (or reach a certain weight) is to multiply the weight you want to maintain by 10 and add the body weight to that.
Example:
You want to be 120 lbs so 120 x 10 +120 = 1320 calories a day (before exercise) to maintain
For men, you double the added body weight.

So if you weigh, lets say 150, you would have had to consume 1650 calories a day to maintain that 150 lbs.

What is hard for most people is going from an easy pre prepared, packaged or mostly fast food diet to a healthier fresher diet. You really do seem to get more food because it is more nutritionally sound, yes 1200 calories worth of veggies would be a lot of eating.

YOU need water, sleep, food and exercise to reach and maintain weight sucessfully. You may need to increase your calories, and remember, the above math is BEFORE you exercise, if you exercise you need to eat some additional calories (this is why athletes tend to become porkers after they quit their sport, they get used to eating all the calories, but there isn't any exercise going on).

You will lose weight, slow and steady wins the race.

Oh, and razboo has a point too, calorie dense foods are not all bad, you might think of having higher calorie food in small portions to get your calories without feeling like all you are doing is grazing all day and that you can't possibly eat all your calories. Food for thought

yeah girl you need to eat your 1200 calories otherwise your body thinks you are starving and holds on to the fat.

Yes, booooozzzzee can be the devil for gaining a lovely .....as we say in Canada "Molson Muscle", cutting out booze can really help drop the calories in a day