1200 calories, gaining weight, freaking out

It could be just water weight. Remember to weigh yourself after you use the bathroom and before you eat.
Are you eating healthy? 1,200 calories doesn't mean you can eat whatever. Keep eating clean and lean!

If you are more active than ever, I would reevaluate your caloric needs. Chances are you need MORE calories to sustain you doing more activity. I hit a wall very early on, eating only 1200 calories. Then I decided to bump up my calories to about 1500 a day. It worked! The weight is still coming off. It slows down after the first little while anyway. But 1200 calories is the minimum # of calories any woman should eat a day... regardless of her weight. I don't know how much you weigh or what your goal weight is, but I would really recommend eating more, not less. Your body holds onto what energy it has to conserve it if it's not getting the fuel it needs to sustain daily activity. This could be why you are gaining weight/stalled with your weight loss.

Depending on your salt intake you can gain up to 10 lb! I know that if I drink any alcohol or eat really salty foods I swell up like a sponge! Then it takes me about 5 to 7 days to get back to where I was. The trick to this hole thing is not to get frustrated and do not give up! You should be changing your eating habits and making a new way of life. There should never be a time limit to being fit and eating healthy! Do not get frustrated just keep on trucking! i have decided to add walking to my way of life and that has boosted my weight loss. Try to up your exercise. If you keep on going and you don't give up you will be fine.....

The previous posts of watching what you're 1200 cals are made of, and when you're eating them is fantastic advice. If you feel you're gaining too much weight (upwards of 10lbs) in a short space of time, you may consider getting you're thyroid hormone levels checked, juuust to make sure. It can't hurt anyways to have a physical, and see what's going on. If you're hours are rough, try keeping small, healthy snacks with you that you can munch on every 2 hours, even at work. Planning out these 5 to 6 small meals at the beginning of each day is so helpful. Snacks like cut fruit and vegetables, and trail mix (eat in moderation), are the best. Keep a water bottle with you throughout your day, and drink at least 4-6 bottles worth, since you may be getting dehydrated. This leads to increased salt levels in your body, so that when you do end up drinking water, you're body holds onto it to dilute those natural salts instead of filtering it through properly. You may end up going to the bathroom more initially, but it's all for health. Hope this was helpful, all the best!!!

Make sure you have a healthy mix of nutrients in your diet.

As others have said it could be water weight. If you are eating fewer calories than you are burning the weight gain cannot be fat it is physically impossible. Assuming your diet is healthy in the last week I would stick to it and see what happens in a couple of weeks. I know it can be really hard when the scales do not agree with your activity/diet but you have to trust in the correct way of doing things.

The anomalies in weight loss rates is a key thing for fad diets etc as people are so vulnerable when the scales disagree, but if you keep on a healthy lifestyle you will be better off in the long run.

I found out that I am eating too little, and sometimes MFP doesn't do the calculations properly. I will probably have to raise it again from what it is right now. If you are active, you are probably need to adjust how many calories you should be eating. Go find a calorie calculator online that lets you put in your activity level, too, and then subtract 200-300 from it and put it in MFP.

Also remember that what you eat is very important, too, not just the calories. And make sure to log drinks and sauces, because those aren't calorie free. Try to cut out sugar from your diet if you haven't already. That alone will help increase your nutrients and give you better quality foods to eat so that you can eat more of those. If you're already doing this, you can ignore this bit of advice.