What am I doing wrong, please help :)

I'm on the same boat..I try And try but see no lost and just give up:bigsmile: :sad:

Eat more food. 2000 calories is the average for the average woman, so I'm sure you can eat more than 1200 in nutritious whole foods and lose weight. Go to www.fat2fitradio.com/tools, plug your numbers into BMR/Calorie calculator and pull the appropriate number according to your activity level from the bottom of the page.

What he said! That's where I got my numbers for increasing my calories.

I used this tool, and it told me to eat 2703 calories a day! My current calorie intake is set for 1430. My weight loss progress has been slow, and 2703 scares me.

Speaking as someone who actually became over weight by hardly eating anything, you should bump it up to 1300 or 1400, or atleast be eating back your exercise calories. If you're afraid, add a little bit each day or week. For example, add on an 100 calories a week or 25 calories every few days. It might take some trial and error to figure out what will make you lose. Also, I've had great results from cycling my calories. One week I'll eat 1500 a day, the next week I'll eat 1200. You should keep your body guessing!

You need to be at least eating your Base Metabolic Rate. Anything under your BMR is technically starving. And when you splurge on 1200 calories, the body stores every single calorie. I recently upped my calories to 1798 from 1200 and I feel soooo much better and am still losing weight. Don't be afraid to eat more, as long as it is nutricious not just Big Macs and Cokes.

yes eat more dont be afraid, at least try for two weeks before you dismiss the notion

Wonder if this still works if you are just tracking calories with minimal exercise?

I works for everyone -- eat no fewer calories than your BMR. If you exercise, eat the exercise calories too.

Your body gets used to how much you eat. This is not necessarily a good thing when you are eating too little.

WHY 1200 CALORIES (or fewer) MIGHT BE A BAD IDEA:

You lose weight for a while and maybe you will make it to goal (the bigger you are, the longer this will work, however most people can't get those last 10-20 lbs off at 1200 calories).

The longer you do this, the longer your metabolism has to adjust downward and get used to 1200 calories. Assuming you make it to goal, you want to maintain, right? What do you think is going to happen when/if you get there and it's time to maintain, when you start trying to eat "maintenance" calories? You'll gain. Welcome back to the yo-yo.


WHY EATING AT THE TDEE (Total Daily Energy Expenditure) OF YOUR GOAL WEIGHT MIGHT BE A BETTER IDEA:

Eat now, like the thin you at maintenance. Fat2Ftiradio.com can help you find the TDEE of your ideal weight: Choose ALL CALCULATORS, MILITARY BODY FAT%, then get your bodyfat estimate. Now calculate your BMR, and look in the chart below to see the TDEE of your goal weight -- that is how much the thin you will eat at maintenance.

Eating at maintenance for your ideal weight is a great idea because you will eat THIS SAME AMOUNT of calories for life. Your metabolism will not slow down to match too little fuel (1200 calories), and consequently stall on the way to goal, or cause you to gain when you try to increase calories later to maintain.

BTW, if you have been eating below your BMR for an extended period of time, and especially if you have been stalled/plateaued for an extended period of time, you may experience a slight gain for some weeks after you increase to the proper amount of calories. However, at the point where your body adjusts to the proper amount of fuel based on your dally activities, you will begin to lose again and break through the plateau.

Blessings.

Thanks so much for all of your help. So if I'm 5'8 and weigh 146 my BMI is 22.2. How many calories must I eat based on that? (Hope that makes sense, it really can be overwhelming trying to figure out all these numbers).

BMR - basal metabolic rate (not BMI - body mass index). MFP has a formula in TOOLS above, or you can try fat2fitradio.com, as I described above.

Then customize your MFP goals with your daily calorie allowance.

blessings.

I'm struggling to shift the weight too. I started off fine. For the first two weeks I lost 3lb a week, however for the last 9 days I've not lost anything I've just stayed the same weight and it's so frustrating. I'm eating between 1100 and 1400 kcal a day, then I take the dogs for a 45 minute walk every day. Tuesdays I do an hour of Pilates. I've started doing 35 minutes one a week on my Wii Zumba game, and I've bought myself a weighted hula hoop to try out.
Last Saturday I did a 10 mile walk with my dog, but I just don't seem to been burning the weight off now
I'm feeling very dejected.

This all makes sense once you think about it...I have been living on 1200 calories for the last two months and have been getting nowhere fast. Sure I have lost weight, but nowhere near what the math was telling me I should lose. I went and looked at the eat more to weigh less group, and you know what, it all makes sense. My BMR is around 1600, and I have been trying to live on 1200, which is less calories than I need to exist in a comatose state. I wasn't hungry, but I wasn't happy, I didn't have enough energy and had a bit of a temper LOL.

The thing that did it for me was when I thought, what happens when I am at my goal weight?? What happens when I want to eat more than 1200cal? My body will go into fat storing mode, that's what!! It will jump for joy and store all of those extra calories I have been denying it for however long.

According to the calculations my TDEE (total daily energy expenditure) is around 2500 if I stick a 15% deficit on there I need to be eating approx 2100 calories a day. That's a hell of a lot more than 1200!! What I have seen on the boards that people who follow this method are happy, and seem to be building muscle as well as losing weight. Which is something we all want to do.

So my advice is to pop on over to http://www.myfitnesspal.com/groups/home/3817-eat-more-to-weigh-less and see what it is all about. It does make perfect sense when you think about it in a logical way

Ok so it says my BMR is 1459. Then at the bottom it says how many calories should I eat and gives you a couple of different numbers depending on your activity level. So I should be eating 1459 or one of those numbers at the bottom?

You should be eating one of the ones on the bottom. The higher one is your maintenance calories and the lower one is the weight loss calories. It takes into account your activity levels so you don't need to eat back exercise calories (except if you have a super work out and go below your BMR, then you just need to eat back the difference to get you above your BMR of 1459)