What am I doing wrong?

I eat maybe 1200-1300 calories a day. I am extremely good at nutrition. I am 15, 5' 8'' and weight about 155. I am muscular so that is why I weight so much. I am generally slender but I could definitely tone up. I want to be about 145 or 140. I row moderately for about an hour a day and usually go on the exercise bike for a half an hour at night. I am pretty active I'd say and yet I don't really see results. The scale never budges. I've been doing this for about a month and a half... HELP!

I would try mixing up your exercise routine and making sure you're changing up meals and foods everyday. You could try upping the intensity of your workout. But just make sure you count all your calories and make sure the caloric expenditure is greater than that. Get lots of sleep and drink lots of water. Stick with it, you could just be at a plateau and most of all just keep eatign healthy!

You're not losing anything because you are drastically under eating. We teen girls are supposed to consume at LEAST 1500 a day and that is only if you're really short, light and absolutely sedentary. If you continue underrating your body will start using your muscles as fuel and as a result your metabolism will slow down.

I put in your stats on the childrens energy calculator HERE:

http://www.bcm.edu/cnrc/energycalculator.cfm

For someone as active as you at your height and weight you can maintain your weight at 3311 calories. Subtract 500 from that and around 2800 is what you should eat on active days to lose weight.And on days you do nothing you can safley eat around 2015 calories. 

If you have trouble eating enough calories, like so many do, try cooking with a tbsp or two of olive oil. That adds calories without to much bulk.  Also by  adding full fat dairy and nuts/nut butters to your menu you shouldn't have to much trouble meeting your calorie goal.

I wish you the best of luck.

~Sam

as said by silverwitchsam...teens should have a minimum of 1500 for females and 1800 for males, with any activity that number goes up considerably. shoot for a deficit of about 500 since you don't have much weight to lose and that will get you 1 pound lost each week. you will ruin your metabolism and likely set yourself up to be overweight in the future by crash dieting. you are still growing and you need enough energy to fuel your metabolic needs and develop internally!! boost your cals!

DUDE, you are 15 years old! You need to eat. A LOT. You are still growing and will continue to for the next 7 or so years. That means you need more calories than the "average" person. When I was your age I was eating about 3000 calories a day and still was in damn good shape. Roughly your same size too. BTW you are not extremely good at nutrition. Easy to tell from your post... Eat man, eat!

I know that you say I am eating too little, but it seems to me that in order to lose weight, you really need to stick to a very low cal nutritional plan. I eat a lot of fruit and veggies and protein and actually a good amount of carbs. For me, the weight does not come off easily. I don't think a diet should really be easy; its hard for me to stick to, but I do because I have to. I know below 1200 is extremely dangerous, and I never go under that. 1200-1300 seems like a good goal. Maybe I'm just pushing myself too far, I don't know. But I am desperate to be thin.

Original Post by jordynx10:

I know that you say I am eating too little, but it seems to me that in order to lose weight, you really need to stick to a very low cal nutritional plan. I eat a lot of fruit and veggies and protein and actually a good amount of carbs. For me, the weight does not come off easily. I don't think a diet should really be easy; its hard for me to stick to, but I do because I have to. I know below 1200 is extremely dangerous, and I never go under that. 1200-1300 seems like a good goal. Maybe I'm just pushing myself too far, I don't know. But I am desperate to be thin.

First of all the weight isn't coming off easily because you are STARVING yourself. If you keep eating so little you'll end up with a slow metabolism and weight loss will be even more difficult for you, especially as you get older.

An secondly why in the world do you want weight loss to be hard? If you eat enough your body is happy, and your happy. If you eat your needs the weight will come off. Just keep it balanced and healthy. There is no need for this to be very hard.

And finally, yes you are pushing yourself to hard. I think you know that. If you don't want to listen to me or Chrissy, fine, then go speak to your doctor. Your desperation to be thin and eating habits are very worrying. I think it'd be best for you to speak to a professional since it seems like you aren't going to listen to what we tell you.

I'm sorry if I came off rude or mean in any way. That's just the way I am.

~Sam

I agree with Sam. You say you weigh "so much" cause you are muscular. I'm 5' 9" and 160lbs. I'm no where near being overweight. If you are muscular at all, for a 15yr old, it seems to me you are fine. You need to see a doctor bro if you think you need to lose weight.