Help, not loosing weight on 1200 cal a day

Help,

I need advice badly. I have been great at watching what I eat and counting calories. The tools on this site told me i shoulld be eating 1700 cal a days but that is just too much. I lowered it to 1200 and vary it over the course of the week. I am very active on the weekend with hiking and climbing on both days most of the time. I exercise almost every day during the week.  Sometimes intensove, sometimes just a jog. I am going to start wt lfting this week to see if that helps too. On the weekend though, i have to bump my calorie intake by alot in order to feed my body from the strenous hiking i do. At first i lost 3 pounds, but now I have gained them all back- this weight loss and gain has occured in one month. Does anyone have advice for me about my weekend eating and my general weight loss not happening for me??

I am 5'4" 150 pounds. this seems to be my weight always. i never go above 150.

thanks

nicole

Why did you think eating 1700 is too much? I have very similar stats to you (5'4", 160 lbs) and am far less active, yet I have been losing weight eating around 1700/day. 1200 is the minimum for a tiny, sedentary older woman. Since you are so active, it is possible that your metabolism is slowing down since you are not giving your body the energy it needs. Try increasing your calories!

I would say to eat more protein to build muscle mass and to eat more calories. Hiking is a really good workout and you probably burn a lot from hiking. If that doesn't work, I'd go see somebody about hypothryoidism; it runs in my family and I've watched all the women struggle with their weight.

You answered your own question actually; the site told you to eat 1700, but you decided that was too much, well, the site was right, I know it sounds weird, but eating less does not mean losing more, your body thinks, with all the hard work outs especially, it does not get enough nutrients, so it is holding on to whatever it does get, just try it, start eating more and you will see you will start losing!

Happy travels!!

How old are you? you are definetly not eating enough! go back to at least 1700, if not more, and make sure you are getting a proper balance of fats/protien/carbs,

AND take into consideration muscle gain vs fat loss.  You don't have much weight to lose, really, but increasing your calorie intake to 1700 or more should help.. at 1200, with working out, you are starving your body..

I'm also 5'4 and at my heaviest I weighed 178lbs. When I first started counting (10 months ago), I was losing on 1400 cals but was not very active (walking a couple of miles per day). I have since increased my activity level (swimming, running and lifting weights) and my calorie intake considerably and am at 143lbs.

I really think you need to increase your calorie intake. Clearly you are not fueling your body properly which is why you are not losing even though you are asking your body to do a lot of physical activity.

Do you feel cold all the time, especially your fingers and toes?

If so, your metabolism's slowed down. Happened to me. During that time, my weight didn't budge. Then I varied my calorie intake and I lost like 3 pounds the next week.

It takes time so you need to be patient. Also I would advise upping your calorie intake to what CC advises, else you could be eating too little which can hinder weight loss as the body goes into starve mode and starts conserving all its fat stores.

I started at 12 stone 5 and am now 11.1 which took about 2.5 months on 1600 calories a day. It does work you just need to be realistic about the time in which the weight comes off :)

Why is 1700 too much?  Too full, the number scares you, you know it's just not for you, your parents eat less, the expected loss is too slow?  Give us a reason so we can have an idea of what's going on here.

I would suggest getting a heart rate monitor so you can see how many calories all of your activities are actually burning. 1700 sounds about right to maintain without any activity so I really do think you're eating way too few calories.  You may need to adjust your foods to more calorie dense foods.  I l ike to aim for a daily deficit between 300-500.

well DUH you're not losing weight..

I have to agree with most of everyone else.  I am 5'4" tall, 160# and 46 years old.  That's down from 232#.  I walk about 30 minutes a day, 3 days a week right now and eat 1700 most weekdays and about 2000-2300 on the weekends to maintain my weight.  The only difference between what I ate while I was losing and now is not much.  But I exercised strenuously  5-7 days a week for an hour when I was losing.  I lost just over 70# in 18months and have kept it off for about 9 months.  I will lose about another 10# this year when I start biking again.

Slowly increase your calories, about 100 calories a week for the next several weeks to get up to at least 1700 calories.  You may gain a few more pounds, but then you'll start seeing the weight slide off.  Do not panic at the few # weight gain, your body is trying to protect you, but soon it will figure out that it doesn't have to hang onto the calories when it figures out that you're not going to starve it again.

Best of luck.  This does work.  There's a lot of us here to testify to that.  Have a great week.

Leslie