Cannot lose weight and very frustrated.

If you are going to disagree with every suggestion, why are you asking? My opinion is that you may be overthinking this a bit. You don't lead a sedentary lifestyle so you should set it differently. It will give you more calories to eat.....eat them. Your body needs fuel to work and do what you are asking it to do. Food is not the enemy. You are working too hard and are going to burn yourself out. Try what people are suggesting and relax. Trust your body, and other people....we can help.

This is my opinion on stuff.

If you want to lose weight, you need to stop doing P90X and do cardio only.

If you are losing inches, but not losing weight, then you are gaining muscle weight while losing fat weight, but only in equal portions. (or there about) Which is a good thing, but it sounds like that's not what you want.

Unfortunately you can't have it both ways.

If you want to change your body composition, do exactly what you are doing. You are losing an inch a week. That's a good thing. Lift heavier for your P90X. And eat more.

If you want to lose fat, then stop P90X and just do solely cardio. And eat more protein so you don't lose a lot of the muscle you currently have.

WHAT??? Bad bad advice. Programs like P90X will help you lose more fat then cardio while retaining lean muscle.

Cardio does not help you lose weight, cardio allows you to eat more food to keep the same caloric deficit. (Cardio has other benefits such as increased endurance and strengthening of the heart, but for weigh loss it is a 0 sum game, burn 400 cals, eat 400 back) It is a much better idea to do only a little cardio and a heavy strength training routine while in a caloric deficit to lose body fat while retaining lean muscle. If you do cardio you need to eat those cals back so your body doesn't burn muscle.

And no, she will not be gaining muscle on a 1000 cal/day diet no matter how much she lifts.

I understand EXACTLY how you feel. I'm 4'11, and I have 30-40 lbs to lose. I started out with 1200 and burning off 300-350 calories a day. After 4 weeks, I was losing inches, but not pounds. I was incredibly frustrated. I spoke to my doctor, and I told her that I had lost weight before eating 900 calories a day and working out for 30-40 minutes a day. She suggested I try that again. So, ignoring everybody's cries of 'You're not eating enough!', I cut my calories to 1000, burned off 400 a day, and lost a pound. I'm taking multivitamins and eating clean. I'm also monitoring my nutrient intakes to make sure I'm getting enough.

I'm now eating between 900-1000 a day, and burning off about 400-500 calories with a combination of strength and cardio. I'm still losing the same amount of inches as I had before (proving that I'm still burning fat, not muscle...plus I can actually SEE some muscles now), and the scale is finally moving.

You just need to figure out what works for YOU. Everybody is different, and everybody loses differently. Try something for about 2 weeks, and if you don't see positive changes, try something else.

Hope you find what works for you!

You do realize that you lose inches when you lose muscle right? The only way to track if you are losing muscle as well as fat is start trying body fat vs weight to do a comparison of how much weight you are losing compared to how much fat you are losing. Something to consider during your weight loss journey.

You do realize that you lose inches when you lose muscle right? The only way to track if you are losing muscle as well as fat is start trying body fat vs weight to do a comparison of how much weight you are losing compared to how much fat you are losing. Something to consider during your weight loss journey.

I don't understand what you're trying to say. Yes, I do understand that everybody loses a little muscle. However, like I mentioned in my post, I can actually see visible cut lines now. Just feeling around my thighs, I'm pretty sure I can tell what's fat and what's muscle.

have a couple of glasses of red wine :-)

sometimes a "shock" to my system gets me off that plateau

1450 x 1.2 = 1740 (TDEE)

Start eating 1740 calories and use your exercise burn as your deficit. Start lifting heavy 3 times a week , cardio 1-2 times a week and calculate your macros to fit your body. 1 lb of protein per lean body mass and .45 grams of fat per lean body mass. Carbs will fill automatically. Usually 40/30/30 is a good ratio but it depends on everyones lean body mass. My ratio is 45/25/25. Good luck

Hi there-

It can be really difficult when you are trying so many different things and not seeing the results you want. I understand your frustration. If you don't mind my asking, what kinds of foods are you eating? Do you think you may have any food allergies that you are unaware of? Perhaps a thyroid deficiency that has gone undiagnosed?

If you TRULY don't believe that you are eating too little for what you are doing ( I don't know that only you know what you are doing, we only go based on what you tell us), I would definitely see if there may be another underlying issue that you don't know about.

I also agree that you should start lifting heavier weights, and eating more protein to help build the muscle. When you put more muscle on your body, you burn more fat.

Here would be my big tip for you, and you can take this or leave it as you choose: I think that if you give your body enough nutrient dense food to feel satisfied, you will lose the weight. For example: eating a plate full of vegetables and fresh greens( romaine, kale, spinach, cabbage, beets, etc) and some lean protein( egg/egg white, chicken, fish, turkey, lentils, yogurt, peanut butter, small amounts of raw almonds, and walnuts) will give your body the nutrition it needs. PERHAPS you are already doing this, if so, GREAT, then forget what I said.

I will say this, I myself am almost 32. I'm 5'5( not as short as you, so I'm not trying to say that I "Know" what your going through, as I do not), and I hit a terrible wall when I turned 30, and had to change up how I was eating as well as the way I was exercising in order to get results. I have always been active( I'm a yoga teacher), but what I was doing wasn't enough, but when I began filling my plate will mostly green, and adding in everything else as "side" dishes, I lost 20lbs in 3 months naturally. Again, I'm not trying to say that what worked for me will automatically work for you, but anything is worth a try.

The book I read to help me was: Eat to live

You could also try looking into the body type books, that believe you should eat and exercise for your particular body type.

Again, not trying to tell you that I know WHAT you should do, but give options of things that you might try if you think they will help you get closer to breaking your plateau.

All the best!

It's definitely more about composition and fitness for me than just a number on the scale, but seeing that progress is nice too, and the fact that I don't feel significantly stronger or 'leaner' is troubling.

As far as lifting heavy, I guess I'll have to start. I've been trying to become more adjusted to strength training as I've never really done it before. That's really good advice!

Also, 1000-1100 is not too low for someone who's 5'1". I have an extremely small frame, and I'm carrying a lot of excess fat for my body size. Eating this much was recommended to me before by a dietician, however that was assuming little to no exercise.

EDIT: as far as 'netting' calories, I don't pay attention to that at all. My deficit is 500-1000 depending on how much I exercise during the day, and I keep it that way. My 'net' calories are typically pretty low.

i'm 5'1 also so i must say you're eating too little. maybe just maybe if you didn't exercise at all it might be fine but burning all those calories, you need to eat more to fuel your body. i've lost 13 lbs so far. you have to pay attention to the net calories you're getting each day. that's where you should focus. it may seem confusing but as long as you still have a defecit (approx 500) you'll lose weight (or at least body fat which matters not the number on the scale) good luck. i'm sure pleanty of ppl will respond to help with more detail

I guess I just need to wrap my brain around 'net' calories. At this point mine are consistently between 100-500, and MFP and other resources tell me to keep this above 800 at the least.

Blah. This is so much more complicated than it needs to be, I just cannot for the life of me get the scale to move whatsoever. Hopefully getting my diet more balanced and starting lifting will help. Otherwise I'm honestly just going to give up.

100-500??? Was it like this all along, or just since you've switched to 1000-1100 calories a day? Net calories is the most important number you should be looking at. You really should have at least 1200 NET at the end of the day. 500 calories is not enough to fuel your body, and that's all your giving it. Just because you eat 1100 calories doesn't mean your body gets it...if you're burning off 500 through exercise, then you're only left with 600 for fuel (to run your bodily functions..to keep you ALIVE). I'm really not trying to sound mean here, and I hope it's not coming across that way...but if you want to do well at this I think you really need to do some reading up on how the human body actually works. If you were only netting 100-500 even BEFORE when you were eating more, than that is 100% your problem with losing weight.

I would suggest eating more...and doing some heavy lifting. You'll lose weight and inches, and you'll be able to eat without fear. You could also stay at 1100-1200 calories and exercise..but in this case you need to eat all of your exercise calories back.

Again, for importance...the NET number of calories is the number that your body gets to actually use for fuel. The lower this number, the less fuel your body has to actually keep functioning.

Right. BMR. Gotcha

So, when I start lifting, do I eat more? If I do cardio, should I eat back my burns then, as well, or just partly?

All of them, assuming you calculate them correctly. If you are using MFP or the machines just eat back 60-75% as they tend to over estimate actual burn.