What am I doing wrong, please help :)

Hmm, interesting reading ... so I'm not eating enough?!
I've been trying to stick to 1200 kcal a day, so I've been eating between 1100 and 1400 kcal a day.
The website you've linked to says my BMR is 1529 and I should be eating 1922 to loose the weight?!
Yikes! I've been under eating by up to 822kcal a day!

By eating so less you are shutting down your metabolism and making it even harder to lose weight. You NEED to eat that many calories to function. By eating only 1200 cal you are just setting yourself up for the cycle, there is going to be a binge because you body simply can't handle living on so little food.

Give the 1922 calories a good go, for at least 6 weeks, what have you got to lose really Savannah?? I think to really get it you need a light bulb moment. Anyone who is wondering about this should go and look at the http://www.myfitnesspal.com/groups/home/3817-eat-more-to-weigh-less group on here.

i did the same thing for a few weeks and then talked to my friend and she told me i wasn't eating enough protein and i had to eat half of my exercise cals because my body was storing what i ate because after exercise days it was hungry but i wasn't giving it enough with my increased metabolism and the body stored what i did rather then burn it off.... so i changed it, ate much much more protein and half exercise cals and lost weight every week, 1 - 1.5 lbs....

1.Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) quantifies the number of calories your body burns in its idle state such as sleeping.


2.TDEE - Total Daily Energy Expenditure (TDEE) quantifies the number of calories you burn in a day. This measure is best estimated by scaling your Basal Metabolic Rate to your level of activity. TDEE is critical in tailoring your nutrition plan to desired fitness goals.

IF YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS GO TO THE GROUP "" EAT MORE TO WEIGH LESS '''

MFP pal Anewlucia started the group EAT MORE TO WEIGH LESS ....I copied and pasted this information below from one of her threads that may helpful.

What is BMR?
Your basal metabolic rate, or BMR, is the minimum calorific requirement needed to sustain life in a resting individual. It can be looked at as being the amount of energy (measured in calories) expended by the body to remain in bed all day!

What is TDEE?
TDEE is the common abbreviation for Total Daily Energy Expenditure which is a metric to calculate the amount of calories your body needs to function in a day. This is quite similar to BMR; in fact, you need your BMR to calculate your TDEE; but your TDEE accounts for your average daily activity as well to give a figure truer to your specific situation. Basically, the TDEE calculation relies on categorizing your daily activity into one of the metrics' predetermined groupings:

Sedentary - desk job and little to no exercise
Lightly Active - light exercise/sports 1-3 days/wk
Moderately Active - moderate exercise/sports 3-5 days/wk (****SIDE NOTE - even if you have a desk job most people fit right here when you workout 3-5 days a week)
Very Active - hard exercise/sports 6-7 days/wk
Extremely Active - hard daily exercise/sports & physical job or training
Once you have determined where you fit in on the TDEE activity rate scale, this activity rate is used to weight your BMR giving you a more accurate assessment of how many calories you really need throughout the course of the day.

Here is a link to a site that you plug in your information and it will provide your BMR and TDEE along with your Cut value (again, if you workout 3-5 times a week select "Moderate" and the "Select Your Goal" option you will select is "Lose Fat - 15% caloric reduction.

You can get your bmr and tdee number from here :http://www.fitnessfrog.com/calculators

So now, you should have your BMR, TDEE, and Cut Value (TDEE - 15%)

Here is a video that talks about this in great detail that hopefully will clear up any questions you may have:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eYi9xjIRvbY&feature=g-all-u

If TDEE is figured out correctly, then exercise cals don't *have* to be eaten back because, technically, TDEE figures them in. The underlying factor here, is that most people underestimate their activity levels, (for fear of being told to eat "too much") and then proceed to under eat. If a person is burning 1000 cals/day in exercise, then that should be figured into their TDEE, meaning their TDEE should be AT LEAST 1000 cals more than their BMR. If this is not the case then they are undercutting themselves on the cals. So a person w/a BMR of 1300, that puts up 1000 cal burns should have come up w/a TDEE calculation of 2400 or more. So any situation where a person is not getting those calculations, they should be eating back some of those exercise cals.

So if you come up w/BMR=1300, TDEE=1800, you need to either A)eat back some cals, or recalculate your TDEE to include the *actual* burns that you're getting.

So to cut using *true* TDEE figures, you'd just eat a flat TDEE (-15%), as long as TDEE is correct. It should be fine. But if you are using MFP's calculations, or are not getting a TDEE that includes the amount you burn each day *plus* BMR, you need to eat back some exercise cals.

Yep. Eat more.

Ive just totally confused myself by looking up my bmr & tdee & now dont have a clue how many calories to eat.

Mfp has me set to eat 1330 calories a day-i want to lose 1lb a week & have my activity level set to sedentary,just incase i dont get round to exercising.

Im 35yrs old,5'8 & currently weight 158lbs,aiming for 150lbs.

Although ive lost 9lbs since joining,there are weeks i havent lost & sometimes it takes more than week to lose 1lb,even though ive stuck to my calories all week.

According to fat 2 fit radio,my bmr is 1497 & at sedentary,i should be eating 1756 or 2012 if i exercise 1-3 times a week.

According to fitnessfrog,my tdee is 1789 with no exercise & 2050 if i exercise 2-3 times a week.

So,sorry if i sound dumb,but exactly how many calories should i eat a day,to lose 1lb a week-as my brain has turned to mush haha.

Any help greatly appreciated-thank you

Oh,i do tend to exercise at least twice a week,using Exerbeat on the wii-usually burning over 400 calories a time,which i do sometimes eat back half,but it does scare me as dont know how accurate the calorie burn is.

So I've changed my calorie intake because of this thread and instead of eating 1100kcal - 1300kcal, I've been eating 1500kcal - 1800kcal. With exercise I'm averaging about 1550kcal for the last three days. I'll weight myself later and see if it's helped my weight loss. I may cry if I get onthe scales and find I've put weight on.

Hi, this is a very common problem. Look up previous posts, you will see this question has come up ALOT and ppl have provided very detailed answers. In basic, 1200 calories is generally way too low, you need to eat more. And you MUST eat back your exercise calories.

This....you need to eat back the exercise calories or at least some of them. Good luck with it!

My saving grace was giving myself a range...

ROCK BOTTOM: 1200 Calories Net
TARGET: MFP lose 1 lb a week until that got to 1200 cal then switch to lose 1/2 lb a week
TOP of RANGE: Goal Weight Maintenance Calories

As long as I keep in that range I'll continue to lose weight....

^^^ This is great advice. No need to get complex and plug in your own numbers and determine your TDEE then not record your exercise calories as they're already included etc. etc.

Just use MFP as designed. Record your exercise calories and eat back most of them. It's worked for me and dozens of my friends. There is no "1200 calorie diet".

I was in the same situation and I had to up my calorie intake and chnage up my workout routine. Good luck