I feel like throwing in the towel! HELP!!

You did not say anything about your exercise. Start walking.

it might be try to re evaluate your cal goal re do your bmr and see what it says and yes you might need to up your cals because u might be in starvation mmode and storing everything aka the 1-2 lb rolercoster

Don't throw in the towel! Sounds like you were doing awesome, take a short rest and get back at it, good luck!

Most people can not sustain a 1200 calorie diet for very long. It's not healthy for most people to try and lose 2lbs per week. Set MFP to lose 1lb per week and eat back your exercise calories. That is more sustainable in the long run.

^^THIS.

I upped my calories, got rid of the trapped feeling, and the weight loss resumed.

can i suggest you open your diary, it helps people to give advice.

As much as we all want to help, we can only speculate as there is not enough information given. Additionally, your diary is closed which doesn't allow us to look for it.

If you'd like some honest suggestions, I say open it up, put out there your weekly routine. At the very least, FR me...and we can walk through the process.

Try www.freedieting.com They give you numbers to "zig zag" your calories and a more realistic calorie intake. MFP gives you very low calories and I was stuck too when following a low calorie intake (gained some too). Now I eat more, splurge on my high calorie days and my weight is slowly coming down again, plus don't ever feel deprived.

Basically zig zig or calorie cycling is never eating the same amount of calories a day.

Trust me, been there done that...the "strict diet" and it never worked for me. Always wind up gaining. The zig zag method helps me live a more realistic lifestyle. I have hypothyroidism and it makes weight loss hard, but this is working. Not loosing weight overnight, but it's coming off. Slowly but surely. :-)

ps exercise a little everyday. I make it a goal to at least walk my dog if not anything else on a day.

A person can maintain 1200 calories for a short amount of time before their body will start to feel deprived. Try upping your calories to at least your BMR and add in some strength training and/or interval cardio. I know when I was eating 1200 calories, I was cranky, fatigued, and just didn't feel satisfied.

When my husband left for basic training I thought to my self I am not going to let him come home to a fat wife. I limited myself on almost everything.... I did drop 20 lbs..... Then the deprivation started and I started overeating. I gained back 10 of the 20 I lost I've since list 6 of the 10 I gained from not depriving myself. I east alot, i'm small portions. You don't have to deprive yourself but you do need to maintain some kind of control of what you are putting in you're mouth. if your eating alt maybe try balding what your eating.

Take a deep breath and know....
The good news is you don't have to be perfect, you just have to be better.

Here's how I started:

1) tracking for a couple of weeks before I worried about losing.
(although seeing what I was eating I couldn't help but rein back a bit)

2) seeing where I could make small changes on things that weren't that important to me.
(Don't even think of taking chocolate out of my diet!!!)
--Reducing quantities where I won't notice it so much
--Swapping out things instead of eliminating them.

3) Look at my diary and started adding foods that had positive healthy effects specifically for the health issue in my family.
I found most of the things I "should" add were really yummy too! salmon, avocado, oatmeal, mango, red grapes....
(Sort of think of food as medicine to deal with family history of various health issue oatmeal is good for heart health, mango and red grapes lower cholesterol, tumeric and cinnamon good for arthritis)

4) every couple of weeks I see where I can make another couple of small changes.
If you completely revamp your diet, it's way easy to revert to old ways in times of stress. (and who doesn't have stress?)
If you make a series of small changes, food still offers you some sense of comfort.
sort of a comfort continuum, and after a while the first small changes will seem comforting in themselves.
You don't have to be perfect you just have to do better.

5) also rather than being uberstrict with the target MFP set for me. I was happier once I gave myself a range:

ROCK BOTTOM: 1200 cal
TARGET: MFP Calories for lose 1 lb a week (when that hit 1200 I changed to lose 1/2 lb per week)
TOP OF RANGE: Maintain Calories for my GOAL Weight.

---

(SAFETY VALVE: Maintain Calories for CURRENT Weight - remember to keep updating this number as you lose)

---

I naturally tended to do 2-4 days between 1200-1300 cal then a day at about 1500-1600 cal then back to the 1200-1300 cal. (No hard science here, but I credit the zig-zagging calories with preventing plateaus.)

--As long as I stayed under the top of my range I should continue to lose, even if it is at a slower rate.
--As long as I don't go past my safety valve I shouldn't gain.

BUT... The closer you get to your goal the smaller your range. (frustrating)


6) I only worry about it 1 lb at a time.
Once I found ways to lessen the stress, I found it way easier to focus on the process and let the results follow. (It's what worked for me some people need the stress to get them motivated. Me I get scared and overwhelmed and don't see the big goal as achievable. )

Food is not the enemy.

Oddly enough on my journey here I've reduced guilt over food.
I have the occasional treat and I fully enjoy it with no guilt involved.
The thing is since I'm not eating crap all the time, now the occasional treat is just that a TREAT it's special and I enjoy it so much more than when I was unconsciously shovel junk food into my face.

I figure if I've got a good plan that I can actually maintain I can keep this off for a long time to come, without feeling deprived.

Good Luck

I was in your shoes in February. I had a month-long plateau... and I felt much the same way you are feeling.

So I dialed things back a little -- started walking instead of doing crazy elliptical workouts; started eating more of my exercise calories; shook up my slate of meals and foods that I was eating over and over and most importantly, tried to stop stressing.

I didn't want to quit, but I figured I would take it easier -- not go crazy, but not kill myself anymore either... and BAM, the weight loss kicked back in. If you are eating a lot of the same foods and doing a lot of the same exercises, then maybe try to shake things up a little... and don't stress over it. I think that's a key factor.

Whatever you do, don't "quit"! Honestly, you'll just feel worse if you start gaining (and not losing) those little pounds... If you keep doing what you're doing, you'll swing back around and feel better for staying true!

Hang in there!!!

I have the same issue, been stuck on my last 1-2 lbs to my goal. I used to be less strict about calories a few months ago and was losing weight. Maybe I do need to do a bit of calorie cycling or up my calories again a bit (im at 1200).

So I feel your pain, but do keep up. Try a few different things like workouts when you can (even if just 20 minutes) and change your calorie intake for a few weeks and see how you feel.

do you eat a good variety of foods? Are you getting enough fiber? Is your exercise the same day in day out? you need to change things up with eating and exercise. Keep it interesting. try a new food a week, try a new work out program. Back in Dec I did a 30 day program on about.com.. it was great maybe you should check it out. http://exercise.about.com/c/ec/26.htm i think i lost 9 pounds. Good luck!

OK I feel like throwing in the towel. I have been on a very strict 1200 calorie diet since feb.. Lost 26lbs then about 7-8 weeks ago it stopped and I keep gaining and losing the same couple of pounds. This past weekend I just lost my will power and ate alot. Now I feel like I can't quit eating. How can I get back with it? Is my calorie intake to low? Help!!

Willpower and diet? You're doing it incorrectly. You're not eating enough, minimum a person should eat is bodyweight * 10 to lose weight, most people eat about bodyweight * 12 to lose weight.

If I did my body weight *10 that would only give me an extra 10 calories from my current 1200. XD

DONT LOSE HOPE!!!

Check out this thread from yesterday....search for TOPIC: TIRED..PLATEAUD...SCALE NOT MOVING !!!FOUND MY ANSWER !!!!

There were a lot of people who vouched for it and a lot of people commented. Keep trying new things until you find what works for you!

Good Luck.