Not eating enough?!

You should never eat less than 1200 calories a day and if you exercise that day, you should be eating much more than that! Eating less than what your body needs to fuel itself will cause your metabolism to try to adjust, meaning it slows down, making it even harder for you to lose weight. If you do this for a long enough time, your metabolism will slow down to the point where you can actually gain weight on such a restricted diet.

If you're going over in other areas like sugar or sodium, yet you're eating so few calories, it sounds like you need to adjust what foods you are eating. You could eat 1500 calories of fruit, veggies, whole grains, etc and have room to spare as far as sugar and sodium goes, but 500 calories of processed food can give you enough sodium for 2 days worth!

I personally think you should be eating at least 1200 calories a day before working out. I don't always eat back my exercise calories like most people on this site will tell you to do. In weight watchers it's optional to eat back your "points" you earn for exercise and I apply that same rule here. However, I do believe that you should still eat 1200 calories a day because 1000 is not enough for a healthy body. When I work out hard (I burn usually 400-500 calories) I'll eat 1400 a day total and 1200 a day if I haven't worked out. Keep an eye on your sodium and make sure you're drinking plenty of water.... as for the sugar... I'm over almost every single day even if I don't eat a single piece of candy, etc. Fruit, milk, peanut butter, etc pretty high sugar counts, but I don't worry about it b/c every thing has sugar. I do try and make sure not to eat high sugar foods though. And if you have 100-200 calories left over eat a piece of toast w/ a tbsp of peanut butter on it or drink a glass of milk.

Good luck and congrats on your weight loss so far.

instead of eating something to get the extra calories why not drink a protein shake to get more calories. I talked to my doctor because I was like you in the beginning wasn't eating more then maybe 1000 if I was lucky and after speaking with my dr she said for my height age and weight in order to loose weight I should be eating closer to 1600 calories! I thought she was nuts but once I started eating around 1300 calories I did notice the weight starting to come off a little easier. Like I said instead of eating the calories to get to at least 1200 drink a protein shake or 2. Good Luck!!!

If you set up MFP right to start with then the daily calorie goal that MFP gives you already has a calorie deficit built in to lose weight. That said, you should eat close to the calorie goal MFP gives you each day including eating back most of your exercise calories. If you are too far under your daily calorie goal you are very likely to cause your body to hang onto the fat it has by either slowing down or even stopping fat loss. It may not happen right away but eventually you will most likely plateau. If you have a lot of weight to lose you can probably get away with it longer but as you have less to lose your body will plateau easier. May sound counter-intuitive but that's just the way it is.

I agree with this, and I am an example of someone who plateaued by eating too little. The only thing that I don't agree with is the eating back the calories earned by exercise. That seems to vary greatly by person. I can eat mine back, no problem. Other people gain when they do. You should use MFP's baseline calories as your daily goal, and 1,000 is way too low for most people.

Bump

I think you definitely need more protein. I'd add more protein to both breakfast and lunch. If you don't eat enough protein, chances are you'll lose quite a bit of muscle mass along with the fat!

1g per pound of lean body mass is the general recommendation. Eating more than that won't harm you, either (unless you eat like 300g every day). I'm 5' 1.5", 131lbs and I eat 100+ grams of protein every day.

The "light" foods you are eating- the balsamic vinaigrette and the Yoplait- are loaded with sugar, and the Yoplait is probably all artificial sweetener. To increase your calories you are better off eating the full calorie versions. It will give you the added calories you need and it is better for your body overall. You can add more snacks in there- a piece of fruit, vegetables with some sort of dip like hummus, peanut butter and celery, etc.

i completely agree with all this.