Frustrated and Fuming: Help needed, please!

^^ What he said!


NBEric you've misread what the OP posted. She states she is eating 1200 calories and burning 2500. So by those accounts she is at -1300 NET calories.

OP if you continue doing what you're doing the weight will start coming off soon. It will be because you are starving yourself. You'll also probably lose hair, teeth and so on.

What the OP has posted (if it's all accurate) is not starvation mode, it's flat out starvation. The body initially holds on to what it can but it will start working soon. It won't be healthy but the weight will be gone.

^^ What he said!


NBEric you've misread what the OP posted. She states she is eating 1200 calories and burning 2500. So by those accounts she is at -1300 NET calories.

OP if you continue doing what you're doing the weight will start coming off soon. It will be because you are starving yourself. You'll also probably lose hair, teeth and so on.

What the OP has posted (if it's all accurate) is not starvation mode, it's flat out starvation. The body initially holds on to what it can but it will start working soon. It won't be healthy but the weight will be gone.

Actually, YOU misread what the original poster said. She is eating 1200 calories per day and burns 2500 calories EACH WEEK. I agree with NBEric...her net is too low.

You need to be eating back your exercise calories. Your NET should not be below 1200 each day. Your body is hungry, so it is reluctant to give up anything here. It is holding onto the fat in order to sustain itself because it is not getting fed enough and thinks a famine is coming. Keep doing what you are doing....workout, eat your veggies, and lean meats, drink lots of water, but EAT MORE.

Thanks for all these comments! It has become a lively debate :flowerforyou:

Well, I may have used the word "diet" in the wrong sense, what I am basically doing is eating healthy food (but keeping it to 1300 cals a day) and adding gym sessions (totaling 2500 cals/week) and I think it is the right way to go about it. I am not doing any fad-diet, no jenny or south beach, or whatever is in fashion now.

Usually, this "life style" should work like a charm (quoting another poster) but this time I am just adding on... also, I am not weighing myself excessively - which can be a bad and destructive habit. :huh:

My BMR is 1700 cals.

I would add to the suggestion of observing your NSV's- how do your clothes fit, how do you feel in general, has the quality of your sleep increased, etc. Don't be so obsessed with seeing your numbers drop, especially if you are doing strength training.

Hi there, this might help. Copied from Psulemon's advice and this guy knows his stuff:

Total Daily Energy Expended (TDEE). Your weight loss is actually based on the amount of energy you expend throughout the entire day (TDEE) since you burn calories above and beyond your BMR. BMR is the amount of calories you burn in a coma; your bodies' functioning calories essentially. Even if you work behind a desk, you still burn calories (walking to your desk, bathroom, going to lunch, etc.. ) that would multiply on top of your BMR (see below for criteria).

* Sedentary = BMR X 1.2 (little or no exercise, desk job)
* Lightly active = BMR X 1.375 (light exercise/sports 1-3 days/wk)
* Mod. active = BMR X 1.55 (moderate exercise/sports 3-5 days/wk)
* Very active = BMR X 1.725 (hard exercise/sports 6-7 days/wk)
* Extr. active = BMR X 1.9 (hard daily exercise/sports & physical job or 2X day training, i.e marathon, contest etc.)



With this in mind, you need to take your BMR, add in your TDEE factor and then create a deficit.


TDEE = 1450 * 1.2 = 1740 (this is just and example - use your own BMR to calculate)

In this case, if you work out and burn 500 calories on average it would be

= 1750+500 = 2250


From this number, you create a deficit. The more weight you have to lose, the higher the deficit (see below).


If you have 75+ lbs to lose 2 lbs/week is ideal,
If you have 40-75 lbs to lose 1.5 lbs/week is ideal,
If you have 25-40 lbs to lose 1 lbs/week is ideal,
If you have 15 -25 lbs to lose 0.5 to 1.0 lbs/week is ideal, and
If you have less than 15 lbs to lose 0.5 lbs/week is ideal.


The reason you need a smaller deficit, is you body fights to preserve fat when it see it depleting as it's the first place for energy. And when you eliminate the energy, your body does whatever it can to hold on to this energy source. So what do you do? You feed your body enough that it doesn't feel like it needs to store. This is also why it's important to eat back exercise calories if you follow MFP's suggestion and dont include it in your TDEE.


Now, when it comes to your BMR, it is really not recommended to eat below it and instead exercise more so you can eat more. Since the metabolism is a intelligent tool, it can and will adapt based on food intake. If you eat below your BMR, it will slow down to work more efficiently. This is also why its important to do weight lifting and eat enough protein; this will allow you to sustain lean muscle mass which is the biggest driver for your metabolism. This is also a reason to aim for a slower lost to prevent the metabolism from slowing and increasing long term success.


So there are many factors involved in fine-tuning what works for you. My TDEE is 2347 so I subtracted 500 from that (a little over 20%) to eat 1800 cals per day, and DO NOT eat exercise cals back as they are already factored in. I workout at high intensity 4 times a week for upto an hour per workout. I include weight training and cardio. My macros are Carbs 40%, Protein 30%, Fat 30%. I lose about 1 lb a week consistantly.

Now when I was only consuming 1300-1500 cals per day my weight stalled or even went up. I was also working out 6 times a week and found this to be too much for me personally. Since upping my cals and working out less, my weight has started going down again. So you need to figure out what works for you and when you try something like upping cals or different workouts, only do one thing at a time for at least 2-4 weeks before tweeking again. Hope this helps.