Am I eating too few calories while burning too many??

I guess right now I am a little stumped at what I am doing wrong.  I started counting my calories on Jan 5th.  I have been trying to stay at 1200 a day, some times I may be over by 200 at most, other days I may be under by 100.  On my profile I put my activity level to sedentary as I work from home and sit at my desk most of the day. Because I am working with so few calories in a day I am making good food choices.  Lots of chicken and salads, oatmeal, Go-lean cereal.  I am weighing and measuring my food.  

Now for exercise I purchased a HRM and am using that to calculate how many calories I am burning during my workouts in the gym.  My goal everyday at the gym is to burn between 500-600 calories.  I am going to the gym 6 days a week.  

Here are my stats

36 years old

5'3"

Start Weight 135

Current Weight 135

Goal weight 120

Now, I feel funny saying this but I am wondering if I am not eating enough.  However, I do not feel like I am going hungary.  I spread my calories out throughout the day.  

Anyone have any insight or tips for me??  

Thanks everyone for even taking the time to read this long post.  :) 

If you're exercising that much then, yea, you should be consuming more calories.

I think that's the only problem. Your food choices seem pretty good.

I agree you need to eat at least another 400-500 cals.  I'm guessing you burn about 2300 including exercise a day and you need to be eating 500 or more less than that, so about 1700cals (this is just an estimate)

Are you loosing weight too quickly or not fast enough?  By your calorie deficit, you should hit your goal in 3 to 4 months tops!

By my calculations from your stats, your BMR should be 1650 calories.  So dropping to 1200 calories in your diet is OK providing you are getting all the vitamins and minerals your body needs.  Couple the 500 calorie drop from exercise should equate to a 2 pound a week drop.  Don't count on this being a predictable number on a weekly basis.  On a month to month basis it will average out very close that that number.

Now if you are only using the scale as your form of measurement - in the immortal words of Gomer Pyle USMC "Shame! Shame! Shame!"  You females have it tough enough with hormone cycles and mood changes that go with it, now throw in a little water retention, a bad day, hop on the scale and ta-da instant depression!  Compare month over month results with the scale but also consider measuring body fat percentage and tape measure results as well.

With your exercise, if you are trading muscle for fat, the scale won't budge but you will look like a goddess in the mirror and you will be the envy of your friends on how your clothes fit you!  Measuring body fat percentage helps make sense of this and your tape measure will also show the results.

All in all, I think your program is a sound one, just give it some time and measure the results a couple of other ways. - Best wishes!

i'm no expert but it sounds like exactly what i was doing a few weeks ago..i lost weight at first, then it stopped and i gained a little back.

i upped my calorie intake and weight has been falling off of me.

Thank you all for the replies.  I am going to up my calories and see how that may work for me.  I am learning that losing weight is more science then math, if it were just math I would think that I would be losing something!  

Thanks again!!

a rule i like to go for is to eat 1/3 of what you burn in a workout in addition to your regular intake. if i were you i'd stay around 1300-1400 and eat an exta 200 or so on days you work out. u may be slipping into starvation at 1100-1200 cals a day

Original Post by bigdad:

 

By my calculations from your stats, your BMR should be 1650 calories. 

I doubt that's right. My BMR is about 1450, and I'm the same weight but several inches taller and 9 years younger (so should have higher bmr).

Remember BMR is how much you burn in a coma, not how much you burn at sedentary. Just to keep the terms straight. If you want to calculate it, try www.phord.com/cc

Original Post by amethystgirl:

Original Post by bigdad:

 

By my calculations from your stats, your BMR should be 1650 calories. 

I doubt that's right. My BMR is about 1450, and I'm the same weight but several inches taller and 9 years younger (so should have higher bmr).

Remember BMR is how much you burn in a coma, not how much you burn at sedentary. Just to keep the terms straight. If you want to calculate it, try www.phord.com/cc

 I love that website! By your stats on that site your BMR is 1275 so don't eat below that amount. With burning 500 cals from exercise your burn is 2026 - 2126 (i added in the extra exercise calories since moderately active gives 446 from exercise.) If you want to lose a pound a week then eat 500 cals less then your burn. 1516-1616 cals to eat a day. It's really good to know your fat % to enter on that site too cause it slightly affects your stats to take in if you have more muscle. Also it will tell you your Maximum Fat Calorie Expenditure to know your max deficit for burning fat and anything past that goes into burning muscle etc as well.