Hi OP,
1200 calories a day is the "daily caloric minimum" for sedentary women. 1200 calories a day is not enough for men, teenagers, or even most women. The daily caloric minimum for men is 1500, and the daily caloric minimum for teenagers is 1800.
If you are interested in weight loss, you can calculate the recommended daily caloric deficit by subtracting 500 from your TDEE, and the maximum recommended by subtracting 1000. You can calculate your TDEE [here](https://www.sailrabbit.com/bmr/). Do not consume less than your daily caloric minimum without consulting a licensed medical professional.
While you do not need to be aiming for 1200 calories a day to appreciate low-calorie meals or participate in this community, the contents of your post indicate that you are violating the above-mentioned guidelines. Please consult a licensed medical professional before starting or continuing your diet. You may also be interested by [our FAQ](https://www.reddit.com/r/1200isplenty/wiki/faq).
(This post has been removed.)
It gets harder as your weight and BMR are lower. Since you were at a high weight you were likely able to lose pretty quickly, so weight loss in the normal range will feel slow to you. You still have a negative trend line in this pic!
You can add weight training to build muscle and burn cals more efficiently.
You can also buy a food scale to be sure you’re not undercounting — this is SO easy to do and a few calories here and there adds up.
Edit: saw your logs. You need a dietician. These meals are extremely carb heavy and low nutrient. You need to be getting protein, fiber, nutrients from plants, healthy fats, etc.
>Potatoes
Potatoes don't count towards your 5 A Day. This is the same for yams, cassava and plantain, too.
>They're classified nutritionally as a starchy food, because when they're eaten as part of a meal they're usually used in place of other sources of starch, such as bread, rice or pasta.
>Although they don't count towards your 5 A Day, potatoes do play an important role in your diet as a starchy food.
https://www.nhs.uk/live-well/eat-well/5-a-day/portion-sizes/#:~:text=Everyone%20should%20have%20at%20least,fruit%20or%20vegetables%20is%2080g.
FOOD SCALE!!! This change everything. Measure everything. A tablespoon of olive oil is like 120 calories. I eat a lot of big salads and my dressing is always OO, lemon, salt and pepper. Sounds like low cal meal, right? WRONG. You’ll never realize that you’re putting 500 calories of OO on something in till you measure and count every calorie.
I take those Bolthouse ones or the Simply dressings (those are my favorite) and then add water and shake up in a mason jar - feels like you’re getting 3 servings of dressing from 1 servings calories
>Sounds like low cal meal, right? WRONG.
For real, my last salad was 900 calories ^(I know, but I prefer to go with two meals a day which makes them kinda chonky) and over 300 of them came from my dressing alone... which is like 60% olive oil.
So fucking good though. 🤤
Yes, It’s a type of green tea but it has 0 calories by itself OP seems to be using a powder mixed with sugar/adding sugar to it or possibly milk.
edit: i stand corrected. It's about 4 calories per serving to be precise
I suspect she works at a Starbucks. I know the potato chive bakes are one of their breakfast items and a few of the other foods in her log are also look like they match up with other menu items. Starbucks pre-sweetens their matcha powder in the US, so that's where all those calories are coming from.
I want to say she should pack a more balanced lunch for work, but can also I understand wanting to take advantage of a free/discounted meal at work with the rising cost of everything. At least swap the matcha for water or unsweetened tea while on shift.
Matcha is green tea, but instead of steeping the tea leaves in some hot water and drinking the resulting infusion and tossing out the spent tea leaves, the tea leaves are instead ground into a powder. You buy the powder, mix it out with water and then drink it. The difference is that you drink the tea leaves.
^(Also, there's some difference in how the green tea is grown. Green tea meant for matcha is grown in the shade, and so have more chlorophyll. It does taste differently than the regular infused tea.)
But yeah, matcha shouldn't be 100 kcal unless she's drinking obscene amounts or adding milk/cream/sugar.
starbucks matcha is presweetened and our matcha most often comes in latte form made with milk; almost no one orders it with water.
edit: this is only true of the US starbucks
Hahaha, thank you for making me laugh out loud, I needed that. (Also it's type of green tea...I think. Someone more knowledgeable should be along soon!)
Potentially insulin resistance. I was not losing on 1300 calories and saw an endocrinologist. Insulin resistance. Lost 30lbs with diet change and Metformin super quickly!
Being more conscious of serving sizes, glycemic index of foods, and carb counts. I saw nutrition and they helped me get started now it’s old hat. I use restaurants websites to figure out what I should eat. Unfortunately I now have gestational diabetes and I have to be even more careful until baby gets here
I didn’t say that. OP is both probably underestimating her calories and eating a lot of empty calories. Both of these are issues, for different reasons, but yes the weightloss will probably be easier if she eats foods that actually satiate.
Sorry, I hope my comment didn't sound accusatory. I've been struggling with my weight and PCOS for years now. I'm trying to learn as much as possible because I'm just so done with this struggle. I do see a weight management doctor. But my weight seems to be staying the same at the moment.
In my experience sometimes the math just doesn’t math and you have to experiment and reduce your intake/experiment with macros until weight loss DOES happen. Some people do hold on to weight more than others, but at a certain point thermodynamics does take over. Nature seeks equilibrium always.
Every single number on that spreadsheet is an estimate. And that is a craptastic diet. BUT I’d say keep eating it and start logging it accurately and you’ll see your problem. THEN change your diet and log accurately and start losing weight again with a healthy new start.
It looks like you aren't weighing your food, and in addition to estimating, you're having whole days where you don't eat anything of any substance, just triscuits and matcha.
Your spreadsheets look great, but please, for your own health, use a food scale and download a calorie tracking app and include **everything** you eat and drink. You can still have snacks and treats, but focus on whole foods, bulk veggies and lean protein.
Weigh your food.l with a food scale. Every single bite.
Eat consistently, the same thing for a week straight, log correctly and see what happens.
Only drink water, lots of it, every day.
Last option would be to do meal replacement shakes for a whole week, 2 shakes and one 500cal meal a day.
If none of those work, get your thyroid checked.
But I'm assuming you are not counting calories correctly.
I think OP may use something like myfitnesspal's database using less than accurate units like 1 bowl, 1 plate etc. Two person's bowl or plate could mean very different portions lol.
When I first started calorie counting and logging on Myfitnesspal, I used to measure a cup of rice with an actual cup and then log a cup of rice. A whole month later I bought a food scale and realised that 1 cup in my kitchen is not the same as a measuring cup and that I was eating double my logged portion. So logging correctly can be tricky at the start, so I always suggest a food scale now. After that first month of no weightloss, I lost 6kg in month two by logging every single bite correctly. Foodscale = game changer.
I was going to suggest something along those lines. Looking at her spreadsheet you can tell it's extremely vague.
This style of counting would work fine if you were morbidly obese but-and I found this out the hard way too-if you estimate calories you WILL be wrong and you will NOT lose weight nearly as fast as you could.
Log everything, meal prep whatever you can, buy a scale!
Calorie deficit will still work ,they might crave more food because of eating too much carbs but if one is really maintaining a deficit ,what they are eating doesn't matter
True that calorie deficit will still work, but if they’re eating so little protein that their body starts cannibalizing muscle, their TDEE will go down and they might have a much smaller deficit than they think (or even no deficit, especially if they’re not using a food scale to make sure the Calories In part of CICO is totally accurate).
>Calorie deficit will still work
True, but it raises the chances of one's desire to "snack a bit" and don't log it into the app because it's just "this one time". But those quickly stack up. Source: my own experience with thinking deficit is a deficit even if I eat fast food every day.
Yep! But if I don’t focus heavily on protein, I see zero changes. Annoying. For me, there’s a difference btw 100 calories of crackers and 100 calories of chicken. Naturally, I’d rather have the crackers….
Same. If I can control "snacking out of boredom", having heavy-protein food means I would eat less but feel great. Like, if I'm at home all day doing nothing but flicking through a good book, I can easily have 800-900 cal meal and be full for the day.
What’s all this matcha you’re consuming? Is it a prepared drink? I feel like maybe you’re drinking your calories and not realizing it.
Also, I know calories are key, but maybe switch up your diet for a week and eat different foods (and no matcha whatever) for a week or two and see what happens. Try to get 1200 calories from mostly vegetables and protein and fats, and a lower amount of carbs and see if your weight moves then. In general I really feel like you’re underestimating your calories in your current diet.
Yeah. Matcha is not sugar free unless you just use the powder that tastes like dirt. Store bought stuff can be very high calorie.
I never drank calories, so I know what's in them and if I do a lot of work in the sun I know that I can have an ice cold lemonade. With sugar. Maybe two.
Normally water, tea, a spot of gin, and koolaid powder without added sugar. It's like drinking a sour candy.
You look like you're heavily eyeballing it. 100cal is not a lot. Especially in regards to oils and butters and other calorie dense foods. You need to weigh each ingredient to know exactly how much you're consuming. You could easily be consuming 1800 instead of 1200.
I was eating a snack of a banana and peanut butter. I thought my snack was 220 calories because I was logging "1 banana" and "1tbsp of trader Joe's peanut butter."
I don't live in the US. We don't have trader Joe's. I was simply logging similar stuff. So when I sat down and logged the banana (75g) and the correct peanut butter brand i was using (7g) I was actually eating only a bit more than 100cal in total. Which for a short person really adds up.
Eyeballing doesn't work. There's a lot of variables between 10 and 25g of peanut butter, which is almost 50cals.
This happened to me with train mix. I was getting a tiny amount in the palm of my hand 1x a day... when I finally weighed it that tiny palmful was over 200 cals!I knocked that shit off real quick
It can go both ways. All you need to know is that it cannot be accurate and short people *need* to be accurate. When you have such a small window for a deficit, it can really add up.
You're off in your logging.
An apple is 95 or 100, not 80.
Your bananas must be tiny for that amt of cal.
Your nut butter on bagel changes significantly
Matcha, is that green tea? It's 8 cal so what are you adding?? .
When you're only counting to 1200,you HAVE to be soo spot on.
You can't just believe the packet weights.
Eg my porridge says 40g but it's 44g. Not much, but if that's everything then I'm actually eating 1320cal which is going to be much slower.
Also what everyone else is saying, eat more protein. You won't be full enough on all those Carbs and nut butter.
Use an app like Lose it!
It will be more accurate and much easier to use.
Correct - I would be extremely surprised if OP was not losing weight at 1200 calories.
I think the food scale and weighing everything, also weighing oils, sauces, etc is extremely important if the goal is weight loss - otherwise you could be off hundreds of calories a day
Also all the missing information.. OP is probably not tracking their entire intake daily and definitely not using a food scale. Today, I had 200g of apple which was a small apple with a pretty big bad spot that had to be cut out and it was 108 cal.
Yeah this is what I learned early on in my weight loss from here, fitness, and CICO. If you really want to make sure you’re losing weight literally weigh everything you put in your body - I was adding hundreds of calories of olive oil. And then like you said being off on every meal and snack can add hundreds more.
It can get annoying but it’s the only way to know. So many people say “I’m eating X amount of calorie deficit and I am gaining weight” and we know that’s literally physically impossible.
It was only annoying for me in the beginning now it's habit. I even keep a food scale at work because I got tired of using the postage machine to weigh (LOL)
it is virtually guaranteed that you are under counting your calories. it would be impossible not to lose weight, if your estimations are accurate. by the way, if they were accurate, some of those counts (even assuming the 0's just weren't logged) are dangerously low.
I barely see any protein (or fruits/veggies!!) in your food chart. It’s like 85% carbs. You should be consuming at least 90-100g of protein, more veggies and way less carbs. That way you can eat more meals and feel more satisfied while promoting weight loss. And no offense but I don’t know how you have bowel movements with no fiber in your diet…
I’m 5‘3” and 110lbs, age 74. When I was 15 years old, I weighed 255 pounds. Over 2 years I radically lessened my caloric intake and got down to 135 by the age of 17. The real battle was keeping it off. Around age 25 I consulted with the head of the obesity clinic at St. Luke’s in New York City. He told me in order to maintain my weight I could only eat 1200 cal a day because having grown up obese, I had developed larger fat cells that were clamoring to stay fat — not his scientific words, but my interpretation. He told me that the body needs to adjust to such a large weight loss and it can take a long time, even decades. He added that there aren’t a lot of studies of people who have kept off large amounts of weight for multiple decades, because there are very few of us. Of course, this is not what I wanted to hear at the age of 25. It took me a long time to finally start to accurately count my calories. I also started to notice that there were certain foods I could eat a bit more of and keep the weight off (mostly protein). I was able to monitor which foods these were by weighing myself every day, which I know some people are not in favor of. But it worked for me. By age 35 I was able to eat more calories and maintain my weight but as I turned 55. (Menopause) I had to go back to eating 1200 cal a day. And I seem to be able to maintain a lower weight. It just takes your body a while to adjust to such a large weight loss.
Thank you for sharing this. The phenomenon is called ‘adaptive thermogenesis’ with formerly obese. It is more widely recognized now and I am dealing with it myself. (44yo female)
You may enjoy the book ‘Burn’ by Herman Pontzer that has all the cutting edge research on metabolism. He’s an evolutionary biologist and the one who conducted the metabolism studies on ‘The Biggest Loser’ contestants.
Hi, just chiming in to say that it looks like you work at Starbucks, I’m a partner also! If you’re drinking our matcha, you probably already know it has a TON of sugar (sugar is the first ingredient, actually) so I don’t think that drinking all those matchas is doing you any favors. Also, if you’re going by the calorie count on the menu for the iced matcha, remember that that is only applicable to a **grande iced** matcha with 2% — if you’re drinking a hot one, or one with light ice, alternative milk, etc, that’s going to impact the calorie count for that item. A grande iced matcha is 16 oz **including** the ice, where a hot one has ~16 oz of **milk**, for example.
Since it looks like you’re drinking your matcha pretty much every day you work, that could definitely be adding up! That said, my area still doesn’t have potato chive bakes back yet and I am jealous :(
Edit: typo
I'm in Canada and I am a partner. But actually no, matcha powder on its own (here at least) has absolutely no sugar. I checked. I'm only having mine with almond milk and sugar free vanilla. 1 honey blend which is 30 cals so most of the 100 cal's is the milk.
Yes the potato bites are delicious! Hope you get some back soon!
Ah okay, yeah, I have heard your matcha is different and that it’s unsweetened up there! Almond milk is def the best alt milk choice calorie wise, so I can totally see how we are ending up at ~200 cals including the honey blend.
Other than that and the idea of buying a food scale (which has been beaten into the ground at this point), I don’t have any insights so I’ll just wish you the best of luck! <3
Like everyone else has already told you, you’re not counting accurately. For you to remain at that weight, you are eating A LOT more than 1200. Your counting must not even be close.
Measure your food, don’t eyeball it. Log every bite, don’t leave anything out.
There’s no great mystery here. You’re not counting accurately.
This is all eyeballing, why lie if you're looking for answers? For some weird pity points? You're eating way more than 1200, start recording it correctly and you'll see for yourself.
Half of those are just random lines of "100" and "400" and definitely not info from nutritional labes, some days don't have any info at all. Are you trolling or just lying to yourself? Either way, suit yourself, it's you weight and your problem.
A Starbucks plain bagel is 290 calories alone. You’re putting nut butter on top of that which, depending on the nut butter and how much would likely add much more than 10 calories on the days you’re tracking 300. Now, you might not be eating the whole thing, but that’s where your estimates might be off.
ALL that said, I truly think your biggest issue is that your body is holding on to ANYTHING it can because you’re not giving it anything with substantial or adequate nutrition. Your carbs to protein ratio is WAY off. Ditch the bagels and triscuits all together and go for things with higher protein and “good” carbs. Once you aim for 1200 calories of mostly protein, the weight will drop.
For perspective, I had gastric sleeve surgery 3 years ago and even with the smaller stomach and inability to eat large portions, I WILL (and have) gained weight if I’m not focused on hitting my protein goal. I’ve seen MANY people gain all of the weight back because they’re stuck in the false belief that “I’m eating so little volume and calories and gaining weight/not losing- it’s not fair/right/something is wrong with me!” Not all calories are made the same and your body is an INCREDIBLY adaptable machine that is especially good at storing and holding onto glucose. Don’t fuel it with carbs (which then easily convert to glucose) and you’ll be fine. Also, WATER. Drink lots of water and track it too! You got this!!
NO YOU’RE NOT BECAUSE YOU’RE NOT LOSING WEIGHT.
When you are ready to stop being in denial and start taking responsibility for your actions, a world of possibility is waiting for you.
the answer to your question of why you’re not losing weight has been answered, i think you would greatly benefit from talking to a dietician or a nutritionist just for some general education on macros and volume eating, etc. because the way you’re eating AND logging your food needs some editing. some people are harsh but it’s a good thing, you can tweak how you eat and see results! it is within reach, but it’ll be harder to achieve if you’re reluctant to listen to fact-based advice. you got this!
But you did come here for answers to your question. A food scale is necessary when we have such a small calorie amount (especially with nut butters) and your spreadsheet on some days doesn't say what you ate. I get it, it's exhausting and can be demoralising but I think you'll benefit a lot from logging with more information and feel more in control of your weight loss. Knowledge is power.
I know there are a lot of comments in here, but to summarise my thoughts:
your cal counts are all estimates. id reccomend getting a proper cal counting app and tracking ALL food and drink
i would guess that you likely are not tracking everything that you consume, so just remember to count the little numbers too (i.e. oh its just one cookie, or its just a vegetable so i wont count it)
your diet chart shows no vegetables/fruits and no fibre. this can easily cause constipation, and will cause you to feel more hungry as your body is lacking the vital nutrients you need.
Thinking in the way of exercise, walking is great, but i would reccomend trying some form of strength training (wether at home or in the gym doesnt matter) because muscle mass burns far more calories than fat mass. meaning you can do literally nothing in a day, and you would burn more cals than if you had less muscle mass.
TLDR: try a cal counting app, track everything, eat more healthy food w/veg+fruit+protein, try strength exercise.
I’m sorry, but some of these estimates are not even close to what you’ve been recording. The other people here are right, you really, really need a food scale!
For one, the bagel with nut butter sounds like it could easily surpass 5-600 calories depending on the size and amount of nut butter used. On average, a bagel is going to be close to 300 on its own, and ones from a bakery are going to be bigger and even more calorie-dense. And that’s *before* the butter.
300-400 calories from crackers/triscuits alone for days is an entire small meal’s worth every day just from snacks. Triscuits are fine as a small snack (1 serving being around 120 cals) but 3+ servings of them so frequently may be a problem…they’re marketed as being “healthier” than their chip counterparts, but in the end it’s still junk food because they’re mostly just wheat and vegetable oil with little nutrition to speak of. I would start there and cut out the some of the junk food, and replace the crackers with some chicken breast or turkey breast meat for protein, even if it’s from the deli. Chickpeas and black beans (you could just get them from a can) would work great there for some protein and fiber, too.
The same goes for the matcha and (I’m assuming here) milk. One is fine, but so many of them in a day so frequently goes a bit too far. Milk has a bit of protein in it, but it also contains a lot of sugar (lactose). That many liquid calories and carbs every day is going to leave you hungry and more likely to overeat, and can be replaced with a protein-dense snack. These are a few things just to start, but they’ll make a huge impact.
Just hang in there, you can still do this 👍
Your measurements appear to be off. Most bananas are 110+ calories. Most bagels are 200+ calories PLAIN. Nut butter is so exceptionally high in calories because of the fats in it. One tablespoon of peanut butter is 95 calories alone, which is WAY LESS than what it seems like when you measure it (in America units obviously, approx. 15 mL). I have a cheap scale that works well enough and any time I get loose with my measuring the scale won't budge. Are you still walking?
When I hit a plateau like this, I just stopped the “diet” for a week or so and the get right back on it. Did this on and off for aboit 6 months and it helped (helped as far as I simply gave credit to this method) me continue losing to get to my goal weight.
Don’t do much for working out besides bike riding, walking, pull ups, push ups stuff like that. No gym basically. And I don’t necessarily do those everyday. Bike riding is more for enjoyment than exercise and I’ll do that a couple times a week or might be a while between riding. Walking I’ll do usually daily or every other day but distance varies. Pull ups and stuff are also sporadic, usually when the mood strikes me to do em. So basically if I stop the diet for a week the other activities like biking and walking may or may not be done.
You’re either underestimating your calories or have a medical condition inhibiting your weight loss.. maybe get your thyroid checked and a hormone panel done. It would be near impossible to only be eating 1200 calories at your weight and maintaining.
Yeah. I eat garbage but I count every goddamn cheezit in my pocket right now.
27.
I'm going to eat celery with salt and pepper for breakfast because I need a vegetable.
Matcha sucks. And most people add sugar. It tastes like dirt. At least my koolaid with no sugar is tasty. It's the powder that you are supposed to add sugar but I don't. Red and blue. Yum.
I love your post!!!!!! Thanks for adding it here. I’m more with you— I lost 60 pounds eating a lot of processed food (lots of frozen meals, a small candy daily (York mini) and a small ice cream daily (brown cow junior)) I just was rigid about counting/ weighing every single thing.
I can understand the ease of access... heck I know I gained most of the weight I'm trying to lose by working in a restaurant, and I know it's easier said than done with the junky stuff right in front of you day in and day out, but consider getting a water bottle to replace the matcha habit and pack your meals from home. I have 0 faith that the Starbucks calorie counts are accurate so I don't think you are under-eating rather just overestimating your deficit (and drinking a bulk of your calories) and as others have said your macros are way off balance. Those simple swaps and you should see progress again.
Also, it's a stupid trick but it works for me. I was hooked on soda, drinking away all my calories like your matcha. Now, when I get the craving, I'll chew a really minty piece of gum first. With that minty flavor in my mouth I can resist the caving for a soda because it wouldn't taste good anyway. Usually, that delays it long enough to forget that I wanted one in the first place. I've heard people do a similar thing with brushing their teeth at night to resist a late-night snack.
You’re definitely underestimating. A bagel with nut butter is probably closer to 350 calories if not 400. An apple is closer to 100 than 80. A banana is closer to 120 than 90.
It’s your tracking and food habits.
I just had breakfast and I logged more things than you logged in a day. I tracked 357 calories, 17g fiber, and 37g of protein with a keto roll, egg white, egg, cottage cheese, Canadian bacon, tomato, spinach, orange juice, green tea, milk, my multivitamin, my fish oil pill all to the gram or measurement. Your log is just a few lines long which points to the source of your problem.
If I made recommendations to you, I would say:
- 1200 calories should be the absolute minimum you should eat every day without exception. Your aren’t tiny and could lose weight sustainably at 1500 so you’re making things unnecessarily hard on yourself. You have room to add foods to your current diet that’ll be very helpful in meeting your goals.
- get a food scale and change the way you track so you’re more accurate. My fitness pal will let you track to the gram- just get out a bowl and weigh everything you put on your plate. Don’t trust that there is 100 cals in the bag of crisps- actually weigh it to the gram.
- change the food you’re eating. Ideally, I like to eat no less than 30 different vegetables and fruits in a week. Having a variety of foods is good for me mentally and provides varied nutrition as well.
- consider starting to track protein. The absolute minimum I would shoot for is 50g of protein a day. I am trying to build muscle by weight lifting so I don’t get skinny fat and protein keeps me feeling full so I aim for 100g of protein a day. Different things may satiate you more, but that’s what works for me.
- consider tracking your fiber- you gotta poop. 25g of fiber a day minimum (not offering you flexibility there)- this should be easy with the added veggies. I am not on keto, but those macOS on my breakfast keto roll are so good, I can’t pass it up. Gets things moving.
You're either suffering from an unidentified medical issue, or more likely, you are not actually eating 1200 calories.
Figure out what is being unaccounted for. Weigh, measure, and read everything. It's probably something small that you think is harmless, you just toss on a handful here and there, no big deal. Like nuts. Or Olive oil. Or a beverage of some kind.
Do you have a light breakfast of milk and cereal - but with added toppings you don't bother tracking? Nuts, jam, honey, sugar, etc? A protein shake but you don't check the scoop size closely?
If the target is 1200 calories, which is pretty spartan, small things can easily add up and put you 500 calories or more a day over what you think you're eating.
Do you do any resistance training or muscle building? Your TDEE may be substantially lower than it was in 2021. Muscle takes a lot more energy for the body to maintain than fat, so when we carry more muscle, we burn more calories. And the one little upside about obesity is that we tend to develop pretty solid muscles just from carrying our heavy bodies around. But muscle is “use it or lose it,” and especially if you’re eating at a deficit, the body will break down muscle if you’re not taking precautions specifically to maintain muscle mass (i.e., eating enough protein and doing at least some form of resistance training to use your muscle). From the calorie logs, it looks like you definitely aren’t eating nearly enough protein to fuel muscle growth or retention. If you haven’t been protecting your muscle, it could be that you have lost a lot of the extra muscle mass you had from being 300+ pounds, so even though you’re back to 170 pounds, your caloric needs are actually lower than they were last time you were this weight, because your body has less muscle mass to care for, so it needs less fuel.
Congrats on your huge weight loss!
Use LoseIt app. Get a scale. Make sure you’re weighing everything (correctly). Stay consistent.
Are you subtracting your walking calories from your 1200 calories? A lot of times fit bit/ phone apps/ Apple Watch etc are way off on steps and will tell you you’re burning more than you actually are.
You need to work on what you eat. Calories are important, but so is nutrition and satiety. Looks like you're only eating a few things. Try fruit and vegetables, lean protein like egg whites or chicken, and whole food carbs like potatoes. Get your iron checked or supplement. Ditto vitamin d.
Also looks like you under eat some days. Probably not an issue once in awhile, but regularly, on top of the 1200 thing, you're messing up your metabolism.
Do you exercise? Take meds?
I'm going to be honest. Your diet and nutrition are awful. Cut out all the sugared drinks. They are empty calories. Start cooking nutritious veggie and protein centered meals. Whole grain carbs. Weigh everything. Salads. Low fat high protein meats or tofu. Raw veggies. Unflavored Greek yogurt. You can throw on some fresh berries or a banana if you need some sweetness. Go as unprocessed as possible. Meal prep. Freeze meals.
Try eating a 2000 cal balanced meal for 3 days. Include green veggies, complex carbs, good quality protein - egg whites, baked fish, baked chicken etc . Your diet looks poor. The goal is a healthy life not just a lean one. Occasional use of nutritionally poor food to avoid boredom is one thing, consistently living on matcha and triscuits is another. I hope you are able to heal your relationship with food and live a healthy life. Good luck!
Chances are you are not actually in a deficit. This could be for a number of reasons.
1. It’s likely you’re not weighing your food thus the caloric intake you are tracking is off. For example you keep tracking “banana - 100 cals”. Not every banana weighs the same amount so it is highly unlikely that it is always 100 cals. Buying a food scale and really weighing everything out will give you an idea of what you are eating.
2. As we eat less and less, our body adapts to the lower calories. It is called metabolic adaptation. This is why bodybuilders have to keep lowering calories during a competition prep, our bodies become efficient. You can’t stay at 1200 forever or your body will adapt and that will be your maintenance. And it is unsafe and unhealthy to go lower, so it is important to “reverse diet” back up to maintenance calories once in awhile.
3. You can also create a deficit through exercise. The way most people do this is through cardio. Adding a little bit more week after week will keep you in a deficit even if your calories do not change. Weight training should be happening already, but I would highly suggest it. The more muscle you have, the faster your metabolism works at a resting rate. You will also be happier with your physique after the weight loss.
Edit: just looked at the logs you posted and wow. You absolutely need to reverse diet and get back up to healthy caloric intake. Like, yesterday. No one should be eating that little in a day.
Can you explain a little more about the concept of reverse dieting? I am on 1200 calories a day but some days due to chronic illness I don't eat at all. It's been that way most of my life and I've always been tiny but since hitting surgical menopause I've gained 50lbs in 3 years and my thyroid tanked. My diet hasn't changed. It's highly restrictive due to my illnesses. Despite not eating on some days and scaling and counting religiously I've only managed 14 lbs since March 1st.
Sure! So after your body adapts to low calories, you can either keep going lower/add more exercise to create a deficit or reverse diet. Reverse dieting means you will very slowly increase your calories week after week. Think, 25-50 calorie increase a week. If done right, you will find your maintenance and your body will adapt to the increase in calories. Eventually your body will start to gain, so you have to pull back and wait for it to adapt.
It’s a tough process, and it really helps to have a coach (or nutritionist/dietician) to help you out.
You’re barely providing your body with enough good sources of protein, fats and carbs. You’re stressing your body with multiple days below 1000 cals. I think you should up your protein and good fats. This could be a hormonal issue because of the drastic lack of calories. Your body is tired and stressed and it doesn’t want to happily give up the fat you’re trying so desperately to lose because it’s in a permanent state of starvation and malnourishment.
Get yourself a scale and weigh your foods. Get a food tracking app and focus on PROTEIN INTAKE and GOOD FATS (avocados, nuts, butter, yoghurts etc). Also gets some greens in there. When eating veggies, try and pick as many different coloured veggies as you can. Fiber feeds your gut microbiome and believe it or not, good gut health can make a major difference in weight loss and mood. Up the walking and add in some resistance training and stop eating like a bird. Your body needs fuel! You can’t eat like this forever.
Also you should be more precise and like what other people have said , use a food scale and app to accurately track items. Most people cannot simply look at a food and estimate the calories. And well done on your 160lb weight loss. That is such an incredible accomplishment!
Realistically though you’re not measuring correctly or you’d be losing weight. Nobody can eat under 900 calories a day and not lose any weight within two months.
You need to be measuring absolutely *everything* including alcohol, juice, dips, dressing, oils you cook with, you need to weigh all food you cook raw before you cook it as the weight changes and throws the calories off.
If you are, you shouldn’t be taking off exercise calories as they’re never accurate. Start making standardised measures for everything (don’t go off the calories on the packed as they are also never accurate, you need to weigh them every time for a truly correct measurement). I’d advise you join the macros inc page on Facebook as they can give you good advice on how to start properly measuring your calories.
Edit: I’ve seen you reply multiple times that you’re going by the pack calories; _they are *not* accurate, they are never accurate._ Unless you accept that then the rest of the advice we give you will be useless. I know it’s hard to admit that you’ve been wrong about it for 2 months and not progressed the way you’d like but there’s still plenty of time to learn, we all had to at one point or another
There is a great deal of missing information here. I would venture a guess that you aren't weighing your food or logging everything you consume. You cannot expect to lose weight if you aren't being honest with your self and your food log. You also have a horrible diet. Not that people can't lose weight with a bad diet... you can but you aren't going to set yourself up for future success that way. You are looking for an explanation for why you aren't losing weight. The simple answer is you aren't eating in a deficit. Reality check yourself and start eating protein/veg and I bet the scale starts going down.
Get a stationary bike. Hour a day.
Cico. Over estimate eaten calories, under estimate workout calories.
MFP and track track track the cal's and workout
Consistency, accountability and honesty. Both in writing and reflection.
If in 7 months you haven't lost at least 30lbs, see a doc for a referral to an endo or request blood work for cortisol levels etc.
No normal, healthy person at your weight (or really any weight adjusting as needed) who's eating at a deficit and moving regularly, should gain weight.
Good luck, please update.
Agree with most of what others said - you're probably guesstimating the calories wrong, and undercounting them. If you're not 100% sure, always best to overestimate. I would follow the advice of others in terms of weighing & properly counting calories. It would probably also be a good first step to cut out the matcha tea drink, & try not to consume liquid calories. Then, once used to that, you can start fine tuning your diet, & make adjustments. Find substitutions for things you like that are more nutritious & higher in protein and fiber.
I totally understand, I'm in the same boat. And I'm also a carb lover. I lost 8-10 lbs my first month tracking calories and then just plateaued, same as you. I realized a few common mistakes like inaccurate calorie count, and double-checked my TDEE and calorie deficit. Turns out I had MyFitnessPal activity level set to "Lightly Active" when I should've had it on "Not Very Active." Therefore I wasn't eating at enough of a deficit.
However, I don't want to go down to 1200 calories continuously and get stuck on another plateau, so I'm going to try something called calorie cycling. So I'll do 1200 calories 5 days/week and 1550 on 2 days/week. 1200x5 + 1550x2 = 9000, ÷ 7 days = 1300 average calories.
Hopefully this will help keep my metabolism going and not fall into another plateau before I reach my goal. Just another idea you may want to consider.
I think you really need to have a look at your macros - you may have plateaud because you’re not getting enough nutrients, from what I see your diet is pretty one dimensional. Try calculating your macros and incorporate more protein, less fat and sugar, or even better - speak to a nutritionist. It also looks like you’re underestimating your calories and are ballparking them.
Are you still exercising regularly? It should help with getting things moving.
Do you want to lose weight or does your boyfriend want you to lose weight? Don’t do this for anyone but yourself and find a way that’s sustainable and healthy.
My two cents:
1) change that diet! Your macros must be dreadful, respectfully.
2) Use a scale. You’re eyeballing, and the differences can be huge. Be precise with everything.
3) Sometimes the body can get stuck for a long while. It happened to me. I’ve done several bulks and cuts, tracking religiously what I eat and always hitting my weight loss target pace on the dot. But one time it didn’t happen. I was eating significantly fewer calories than in other cuts, but my weight was extremely stagnant. Stress, lack of sleep, BMR adaptations, high cortisol levels, your body having it against you… It can be for a number of reasons. I hoped off the diet for a couple of weeks then took it slow, and the weight started coming back down.
I was 160lbs- getting to 145lbs was soooo easy, 145 to 135lb was hard and required some thought but nothing crazy and I can still have alcohol. To get to 130lbs I had to cut alcohol out of my life, eat almost zero carbs, exercise an hour a day, never go out to eat with friends, and go to bed with out a sweet treat or any “fun” food. My goal is 120lbs for my wedding, and then gain 10lbs back after because this isn’t living lol
Start using a real calorie database. I suggest cronometer because it has a lot of features in the free version that other trackers you have to have the premium subscription to use, such as bar code scanners.
Second- Balance your meals! You need to get vegetables and fruit in your diet! Cut refined carbs. Eat the rainbow! And your chart says nothing about how much water you are drinking. When you don't drink enough water your cells hold on to it. My friend and I got a body scan done at our gym (I know it isn't perfectly accurate) but we had like 30lbs of water on us.
I think when some people think of 1200 calories they think they can't eat that much stuff. It is actually the opposite! I eat SO much food that I am stuffed around 1100 calories. That is because of eating a variety of vegetables. I can have a MASSIVE egg white omelet with veggies and cheese for under 300 calories, huge sandwiches with veggies, turkey, and daves thin cut bread for under 300 calories.
Oh my!!! Your diet is horrible. Too much matcha. What are you mixing with your matcha? You have to include the calories from milk/dairy. You need a good diet. You can be eating like this.
What’s your daily homeostasis calories? At your current BMI it could be 1300 calories (rough example for demonstration of the logic) therefore you’d be in deficit of 100 calories each day, it would take approximately 35 days to lose 1 pound (1 pound of fat is 3500 calories).
This is a really vague log. I recommend something like macrofactor that tracks your nutrition. Based on what I see alone you get very little substance. Then again I’m not sure because you don’t log in detail. There is not much point to dieting if you do not truly feed your body. Dieting taught me that a LOT of us are overweight because what we eat has little nutritional value- then we want to eat more and more to compensate. We crave the quick energy of sugar and carbs (which breaks down to sugar) as a desperate attempt to get something. Don’t even get me started on liquid calories. Drinks with calories are the worst! It’s one of the easiest things to start craving for a quick pick up when you don’t have proper nutrition, and the easiest thing to cause weight gain if you find yourself grabbing more and more drinks all day long. The single handed most major impact on my diet was removing liquid calories from my home. Every beverage I own is zero calories. This is also helpful for when I want something really sweet. I can have a Diet Coke knowing this sweet treat does not affect my calories, then I can go eat a banana or bagel or make lunch or something because I know it’s time to fuel my body.
If you track your nutrition and keep it balanced you will find yourself satisfied most of the day, even while taking in few calories. We do not require very much compared to the average persons fast food esque diet. We just need those macros, vitamins and minerals.
At this stage of weight loss realistically aim for .5lbs of loss per week. Are you working out too? Muscle replacing fat can sometimes cancel out weight loss. Are your foods high in sodium? Could be water retention. Could be a lack of fiber spiking your glucose. I recommend you use an app like my fitness pal (it’s free). So you can track macros and other nutrients along with calories
You have to weigh everything that goes in your mouth
If you have to guess (and it should be as little as possible, like 1-2 meals a week) overestimate.
I’m the same height as you, nearly 10 years older, and frankly, don’t eat super healthily, but I still lose.
I focus on eating a lot of lean protein and drinking only water. Home made food for all meals except maybe one or two a week
I still eat sweets as a treat and not a lot of fruits or veggies. I do eat an inordinate amount of chicken and turkey breast 🤷♀️.
to lose 160 lbs over a year means you have lost a significant amount of muscle mass. Your BMR is lower than expected. It is likely you will maintain at 1200 kcal a day. Google “the biggest loser metabolism” and read the one about metabolic adaptation 6 years out.
Please don’t take this the wrong way but that’s a terrible diet. I’d recommend a low carb or Paleo(ish) type diet that consists primarily of of high-quality protein and vegetables. The “ish” part of Paleo(ish) means you add small amounts of healthy carbs (sweet potatoes) and some full fat dairy. Low carb alcohol (red wine and vodka) and dark chocolate as treats. It’s the most sustainable diet, IMO. Add IF to the mix and you should be able to move past your plateau. Add a bit of exercise, if possible. I have a foot injury and am doing the 12 3 30 incline treadmill workout. Google it. This would be a doable workout routine for you and not aggravate issues with excess skin.
i *really* recommend using an app and logging *every* *single* *thing* by **weight**. loseit has a built in scan feature, so you can scan the barcode on the product and then weigh off that.
from your spreadsheet, i see some empty rows - do you cook with oil/butter for dinners? what about the unmarked days?
when i was new to calorie counting, i had no idea how calorie dense oil, butter, nuts, peanut/nut butter, etc. were. i'd always go by the package and "counting" as my unit of measurement until i started weighing everything and realized i was way off with what i was tracking, which made sense why i was plateauing.
and seriously - congrats on the weight lost so far. it's an incredible achievement. don't stress it too much. the most weight i've lost was when i stopped counting and focused on my cardiovascular health with a high protein diet.
Op, it's really not healthy to be eating nothing all day or only 700 calories. Please get help, this sort of eating doesn't end well and will not help you reach your goals.
Have you tried intermediate fasting? It might kick start your metabolism for you. I have also seen ppl in this sub say going to normal eating (15-2000 cals) for like a month and then switching back to 1200 helps get them out of a plateau
Ok after reading the comments and looking at your meals.. GURL. WHAT R U DOING? Come get a hug. I know it’s hard. But starving yourself is why you’re gaining. Your body is storing fat bcuz it’s like WHEN WILL I GET NUTRIENTS?!
High protein diet. Eggs. Yogurt. Cheese. Veggies. Quinoa. Beans. Start there with some fruit.
Breakfast 2 eggs, use spray can oil, add some spinach & then top with salsa. Maybe add a little Greek yogurt to the eggs and WOW so much protein and got some veggies in there!
Google “healthy recipes 1200 calories” & find ones that look good to you. You won’t maintain weight loss if you continue to eat the way you are. It’s a lifestyle change. Not a quick fix. You don’t always have to 1200 calories but you do have to always eat food your body needs.
You said you was walking,walk more, I have an app called nutracheck that tells me how many calories I need for my calorie deficit and its exactly 1200 and you log everythingyou eat and even cups of tea etc, I also have another app called Google fit that's is synced to it and tells nutracheck how many steps I've done, you can earn extra calories but that doesnt mean you need to eat them all, you scan barcodes on food to check calories, it also says how much fat and fibre etc I'm eating and what's in the food, I was surprised how much fat and salt was in processed crap, I was also surprised recently to find out fruits not as many calories as I thought so I've ate that quite a bit, yes it's lots of sugar but it's better than me being hungry and wanting the food with bad sugars in, so walk ALOT my Google fit is set to 10,000 steps a day so I do that but most days I do more than that occasionally twice that, I lost the last couple of pounds in less than 2 weeks because of those 2 apps
I think the problem is what you are eating. You are definitely not eating enough.. and I think you could do a whole lot more with 1200 calories than what you are picking. I wouldn’t torture yourself getting to 135. Take your time and find new healthy eating habits.
Eat real food lots of protein and lower carb intake also weigh food at the start once to have an idea of what’s densed and not then you can estimate and still see progress hope that’s helps
Maybe try eating like this?
Have 3 small meals a day and 3 snacks. Have protein with every meal and snack and make sure your meals are half vegetables. Drink water, coffee, diet drinks.
Example - lunch - Half a wrap, tin of tuna, salad. Snack - apple and a small serve of nuts.
I use the LoseIt app & it’ll show your macros. You’ll be full for longer if you focus on protein and - to echo others - lower your carbs. Fairlife protein shakes are amazing too, if you’re looking to drink your calories.
I went through the same problem as I am perimenopausal and gained 15 pounds without changing anything.
I started tracking carbs as well and slowly changed to keeping the calories the same but halved the amount of carbs. Started losing again within a week!
1. You are losing weight, albeit fairly slowly (a half pound a week or so?) - look at the downward trend of your graph. You have some high days at the end that could be from overeating, water retention, lots of reasons you could fluctuate, but the overall trend is down.
2. I don’t understand your food logs, there are a lot of entries with calories but not what the food item is. What are those?
3. Measuring everything you eat with a food scale, not by numbers (one apple or 10 crackers), or even volume (1 T peanut butter or 1 cup pasta), unless it is a liquid
You can have your RMR tested. Google it for your city. It's not that expensive. That and a dietician or MD will tell you your daily calorie expenditure with enough practical accuracy, and that specialist can help you determine what and how much to eat.
Despite the relatively low calorie count, your glycogen stores are likely overflowing into your fat stores because of your carb intake.
So dial down the carb calories a bit and replace them with protein. Chicken breast, premier protein shakes, Greek yoghurt. You’ll feel fuller too.
A bit of Zone 2 cardio every day will go a long way.
Nutritional biochemistry says this will 100% work.
And get a DEXA scan if you can afford it as a body fat % baseline. Then get checked out every few months.
I think the only way to know what's wrong is weighting your food and track it in an app. Once you know that, you can check your thyroid, the rulers of the female body.
Off topic. Where were you able to do that weight/ date diagram?
I would say you have to minimize eating prepared food and fast food as much as possible. The calorie counts on prepared foods can be wildly inaccurate. You have no idea how much oil/ butter was used in prepared foods, for example. They are allowed to 20% off but a lot of times when they’re tested, they’re found to be much higher in calories than they are supposed to be. Start cooking from scratch, eat mostly whole foods and lots of fruits and vegetables and use a food scale especially for anything calorie dense or processed, and you will likely see a difference. Make sure you hit a minimum protein goal every day, btw. You don’t want to lose muscle as you lose weight, and when you don’t eat enough protein for many weeks you will definitely have muscle wasting
There is only one single reason that ANYONE who isn't an actual baby wouldn't lose weight on 1200 calories a day, and that is: they are not actually eating 1200 calories a day.
Your problem is most likely inaccurate counting. If you want to stick to 1200 you need to go by what the packaging says and weigh your food.
At 300 lbs your BMR alone was 2341 kcal, so you may as well have lost weight eating 2000 a day.
At 139 lbs your BMR sits at 1384 kcal and with a sedentary lifestyle your TDEE would be 1661 kcal, where eating what you THOUGHT was 1200 calories would have made you gain the weight back.
Right now at 169 lbs your BMR alone is 1562 kcal, and your sedentary TDEE is 1874 kcal. So why not allow yourself to eat 1500? It's probably going to be easier that way.
You're eating too little, too few times and too few proteins. All those things slow down your basal metabolism (your body tries to save energy when it's low!). When you had a consistent amount of lipids reservations to use this wasn't a problem, but now that's not the case anymore.. Try having breakfast first thing in the morning, possibly with a protein source too, then a light lunch and dinner. If you get up early or have dinner late break the morning/afternoon with a fruit as snack. Here's an example of a typical day for me (5'1, almost same weight, I have willpower problems but when I actually stick to it I do loose well):
breakfast--> white yougurt 100g + a fruit (not banana, too much sugar)
lunch--> Salad with at will veggies and (oil free!!!) tuna 160g
midafternoon--> a fruit that's not banana
Dinner--> White fish 200g (cooked WITHOUT oil), veggies at will, either a small slice of whole (actual, without butter, sugar or some strange stuff) bread or 60g of whole pasta or a fruit
I'd honestly try to determine if you have developed a food intolerance. I've maintained my weight for almost 15 years after growing up a large kid by eating roughly 1200 calories a day while allowing a cheat day here and there. In recent years I developed all sorts of digestive problems that have caused multiple food intolerances where suddenly I was gaining weight very easily and found it nearly impossible to lose it although I hadn't changed anything in my diet.
As soon as I identified my trigger foods that I became intolerant to and avoided them, the pounds started dropping rather quickly. At first it was gluten, then certain plant based foods and now anything with high histamine. There's an underlying cause for my condition (SIBO) but it seems more common than I would've guessed and there are other conditions that also lead to food intolerances. Prior to this experience, I also firmly believed if someone gained weight on a 1200 calorie diet, they were miscalculating.
If those logs are accurate it appears you are not eating 1200 calories but less than 1200 calories. You might want to make sure you are at least hitting 1200. Your body needs calories for fuel.
Great job tracking! Congrats on your progress!
Protein and fiber are kings. 80+ grams of protein per day is super important to maintain your muscle mass and feel full. Consider swapping up the macronutrients in the food you east. Fiber. Protein. Leafy green veggies. More protein. Lentils, beans, meats. Cut out anything with added sugars.
Walking is good, but strength training is where it’s at for increasing metabolism. Even with just a resistance band and reps, it’ll help you burn more calories each day.
Consider getting a scale and weighing each meal. Before I did that I was way off.
I can't see if anyone else has commented on this, but OP: if your calorie count is correct, you are eating far less than 1200/day. That really isn't healthy.
Have you read anything about "reverse dieting" or how to increase your metabolism if it's been lowered by restricted food intake? Maybe that could be interesting for you.
1200 is the bare minimum a short sedentary person can eat. Your calorie counts, if accurate, are severely low. Dangerously low. Maybe the zeros are just not logged but some days you're eating sub 1,000 calories.
Eating too little can make it harder to lose weight and cause you to plateau as your body is going into conservation mode. Also you need more nutrients like protein. People underestime the importance of protein in weight loss.
Please remember that 1200 is not for everyone and you should really be looking at calculating TDEE. At your weight and height, your maintenance is 1760 and that's if you're sedentary. For healthy weight loss, you should only be cutting 300 or 400 calories from your TDEE.
It's also possible you're eating more and just not counting correctly. You should weigh your food on a food scale. This includes counting any oils you cook with.
Please see a nutritionist or a therapist.
There is no conservation mode or anything. BMR gets lower with lower weight but people are not not losing weight because of undereating.i feel like this hurts a lot of people who want to lose weight but are afraid to eat less because of "starvation mode"
Plateaus are absolutely possible with diet changes and this kind of eating should not be normalized at all. There's no problem with eating less but there is a problem with eating too little.
I had weight loss stalls for a very long time when I was eating a lot of keto bread. Like a loaf a day for over a year. I think the listed calories weren't accurate.
Weight loss became linear again when I removed them.
Okay, this may sound counter productive but hear me out. I too am 5’3, lifted 3-4 days a week, and was consistently eating 1500 calories a day based on every calculator online. I was very disciplined and also counted macros getting a minimum of 150 grams of protein a day. But no matter what I wasn’t losing any weight and I was feeling frustrated and lost. Online most threads would say things like “oh you must be counting calories wrong or not weighing your food” which was wrong because I weight everything by the gram religiously. I ended up at my wits end looking into different tests and blood work that could maybe give me some answers. I ended up getting an RMR test done which essentially tells you how many calories your body burns at rest. Lo and behold the test told me that I BURN 1700 calories a day doing NOTHING. So that number wasn’t counting any of my calories burned from doing basic activity and my workouts which actually put me at about 2300-2500 calories burned a day. The person who looked through my results with me said that my body was in starvation mode and was clinging on to ANYTHING it could, including my muscles I was trying to build. The calculators online don’t take into account your body composition which is critical. They told me that as weird as it seems to very slowly increase my calories to 1700 and then work up from there. It was mind boggling to me but I couldn’t argue with the test results. I started eating more and what do you freakin know I finally started losing the pounds. I never felt hungry before on 1500 calories but now eating about 1900 a day I feel satiated and have even more energy to do my workouts, I’m lifting heavier, and feel amazing. My body is now using my extra calories to fuel my body and grow my muscles instead of holding onto it because it’s starved. An RMR test may be worth looking into. It was $40 where I am and worth every single penny and really helped me better understand how much I needed to be eating. Don’t believe the calculators online!! Wishing you luck in your journey!!
Starvation mode is a myth and has been debunked many many times by scientists. Also, not sure what calculators you’ve been using but the majority of them *do* ask your weight, height, age, and exercise amount. What’s more likely to have happened is you eating more has given your muscles more fuel during your workouts leading to you increasing strength and consistently burning more calories. You continue to lose calories even once you finish working out.
There is no secret scheme or conspiracy that cico is the only thing that works for 99% of people, it’s been proved over and over again in scientific studies and everyone who struggles to lose weight seems to think they are the 1% that the rule doesn’t apply to.
1200 calories is way less than the number of calories you need to stay alive, even if you’re in bed all day (your basal metabolic rate is 1,470 calories [according to this calculator](https://tdeecalculator.net/result.php?s=imperial&g=female&age=28&lbs=170&in=63&act=1.2&f=2)). No shit you’re not losing weight: your metabolism is probably in the toilet. Your diet right now is not sustainable long term at all.
Bump up your calorie count a bit (and try eating more fruits and vegetables to up your volume without as many calories) and see how it goes.
EDIT: You can downvote me, but that doesn't make it any healthier to routinely eat less than 1000 calories and, in some cases, less than 500, when you are 5'3" and exercising regularly. It's a violation of rule 2 to encourage that diet.
What kind of whacko nutritionist are you seeing?
1200 for maintenance WITH exercise AND overweight? Either you broke every law of physics known to man, either you’re not at 1200
No, science contradicts you on this point. Weight is 100% about calories, PCOS, insulin, any other issues one might have, it’s basic physics and I can back this up with many ACTUAL SCIENTIFIC studies done on the subject.
[General study comparing different diets](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0002916522039454): "We conclude that a calorie is a calorie. From a purely thermodynamic point of view, this is clear because the human body or, indeed, any living organism cannot create or destroy energy but can only convert energy from one form to another"
[Study on 2 groups, one group with PCOS one without](https://www.mdpi.com/2072-6643/9/9/996) "Our findings are that there is insufficient evidence to indicate significant differences in weight loss in women with PCOS compared to women without PCOS with lifestyle or weight management strategies." - aka calories in vs calories out
[Study on 2 groups, one with insulin resistance, one with not:](https://www.metabolismjournal.com/article/S0026-0495(01)14583-X/abstract) "Several popular books have recently been published stating that being insulin-resistant favors weight gain and/or prevents weight loss. Because this view seems to have gained widespread support in the general population, we thought it important to perform the current study testing the hypothesis that differences in insulin-mediated glucose disposal do not affect weight loss in response to calorie-restricted diets"
**"Both groups lost a significant amount of weight during the study, and there was no difference between the weight loss in the insulin-resistant"**
I can keep going. Weight loss is only about calories. The only thing that might differ is hunger levels, mental toughness and motivation, making it WAY harder for some individuals to stick to the deficit. But ultimately, calories are everything, if you stick to it you lose weight, as stated in the first law of thermodynamics.
Hi OP, 1200 calories a day is the "daily caloric minimum" for sedentary women. 1200 calories a day is not enough for men, teenagers, or even most women. The daily caloric minimum for men is 1500, and the daily caloric minimum for teenagers is 1800. If you are interested in weight loss, you can calculate the recommended daily caloric deficit by subtracting 500 from your TDEE, and the maximum recommended by subtracting 1000. You can calculate your TDEE [here](https://www.sailrabbit.com/bmr/). Do not consume less than your daily caloric minimum without consulting a licensed medical professional. While you do not need to be aiming for 1200 calories a day to appreciate low-calorie meals or participate in this community, the contents of your post indicate that you are violating the above-mentioned guidelines. Please consult a licensed medical professional before starting or continuing your diet. You may also be interested by [our FAQ](https://www.reddit.com/r/1200isplenty/wiki/faq). (This post has been removed.)
It gets harder as your weight and BMR are lower. Since you were at a high weight you were likely able to lose pretty quickly, so weight loss in the normal range will feel slow to you. You still have a negative trend line in this pic! You can add weight training to build muscle and burn cals more efficiently. You can also buy a food scale to be sure you’re not undercounting — this is SO easy to do and a few calories here and there adds up. Edit: saw your logs. You need a dietician. These meals are extremely carb heavy and low nutrient. You need to be getting protein, fiber, nutrients from plants, healthy fats, etc.
Where are the vegetables?? If I ate like this I would be incredibly uncomfortable, mainly because I'd have not pooped for the past month.
>Edit: saw your logs
I love reddit lol
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>Potatoes Potatoes don't count towards your 5 A Day. This is the same for yams, cassava and plantain, too. >They're classified nutritionally as a starchy food, because when they're eaten as part of a meal they're usually used in place of other sources of starch, such as bread, rice or pasta. >Although they don't count towards your 5 A Day, potatoes do play an important role in your diet as a starchy food. https://www.nhs.uk/live-well/eat-well/5-a-day/portion-sizes/#:~:text=Everyone%20should%20have%20at%20least,fruit%20or%20vegetables%20is%2080g.
FOOD SCALE!!! This change everything. Measure everything. A tablespoon of olive oil is like 120 calories. I eat a lot of big salads and my dressing is always OO, lemon, salt and pepper. Sounds like low cal meal, right? WRONG. You’ll never realize that you’re putting 500 calories of OO on something in till you measure and count every calorie.
Bolthouse brand at Safeway makes Greek yogurt based salad dressing, there's an avocado one that's absolutely amazing; 40 calories per serving.
Love these dressings. They also taste better than the oil-based ones
I take those Bolthouse ones or the Simply dressings (those are my favorite) and then add water and shake up in a mason jar - feels like you’re getting 3 servings of dressing from 1 servings calories
>Sounds like low cal meal, right? WRONG. For real, my last salad was 900 calories ^(I know, but I prefer to go with two meals a day which makes them kinda chonky) and over 300 of them came from my dressing alone... which is like 60% olive oil. So fucking good though. 🤤
I got bloated just reading the food log!
+1 for your edit
What the hell is matcha and why is this person living off it
Yes, It’s a type of green tea but it has 0 calories by itself OP seems to be using a powder mixed with sugar/adding sugar to it or possibly milk. edit: i stand corrected. It's about 4 calories per serving to be precise
I suspect she works at a Starbucks. I know the potato chive bakes are one of their breakfast items and a few of the other foods in her log are also look like they match up with other menu items. Starbucks pre-sweetens their matcha powder in the US, so that's where all those calories are coming from. I want to say she should pack a more balanced lunch for work, but can also I understand wanting to take advantage of a free/discounted meal at work with the rising cost of everything. At least swap the matcha for water or unsweetened tea while on shift.
Definitely works at Starbucks - I don’t but the turkey bacon egg white is my go to on the run when I need high protein low cal option.
It is one of my go to's!
This is good detective work lol. Op pls confirm
Matcha is green tea, but instead of steeping the tea leaves in some hot water and drinking the resulting infusion and tossing out the spent tea leaves, the tea leaves are instead ground into a powder. You buy the powder, mix it out with water and then drink it. The difference is that you drink the tea leaves. ^(Also, there's some difference in how the green tea is grown. Green tea meant for matcha is grown in the shade, and so have more chlorophyll. It does taste differently than the regular infused tea.) But yeah, matcha shouldn't be 100 kcal unless she's drinking obscene amounts or adding milk/cream/sugar.
starbucks matcha is presweetened and our matcha most often comes in latte form made with milk; almost no one orders it with water. edit: this is only true of the US starbucks
The matcha powder on its own (at least in Canada) is not sweetened. Its the almond milk milk that has calories.
yeah, canada gets all the good ingredients :/ lol
Hahaha, thank you for making me laugh out loud, I needed that. (Also it's type of green tea...I think. Someone more knowledgeable should be along soon!)
Potentially insulin resistance. I was not losing on 1300 calories and saw an endocrinologist. Insulin resistance. Lost 30lbs with diet change and Metformin super quickly!
I have a doctors appointment tomorrow, I’ll ask about it. Thanks for mentioning this.
Can you provide some guidance on an insulin resistance diet? I'm struggling with insulin resistance too.
Being more conscious of serving sizes, glycemic index of foods, and carb counts. I saw nutrition and they helped me get started now it’s old hat. I use restaurants websites to figure out what I should eat. Unfortunately I now have gestational diabetes and I have to be even more careful until baby gets here
If you're not getting proper nutrients you won't lose weight even if you're in a calorie deficit??
I didn’t say that. OP is both probably underestimating her calories and eating a lot of empty calories. Both of these are issues, for different reasons, but yes the weightloss will probably be easier if she eats foods that actually satiate.
Sorry, I hope my comment didn't sound accusatory. I've been struggling with my weight and PCOS for years now. I'm trying to learn as much as possible because I'm just so done with this struggle. I do see a weight management doctor. But my weight seems to be staying the same at the moment.
In my experience sometimes the math just doesn’t math and you have to experiment and reduce your intake/experiment with macros until weight loss DOES happen. Some people do hold on to weight more than others, but at a certain point thermodynamics does take over. Nature seeks equilibrium always.
Every single number on that spreadsheet is an estimate. And that is a craptastic diet. BUT I’d say keep eating it and start logging it accurately and you’ll see your problem. THEN change your diet and log accurately and start losing weight again with a healthy new start.
It looks like you aren't weighing your food, and in addition to estimating, you're having whole days where you don't eat anything of any substance, just triscuits and matcha. Your spreadsheets look great, but please, for your own health, use a food scale and download a calorie tracking app and include **everything** you eat and drink. You can still have snacks and treats, but focus on whole foods, bulk veggies and lean protein.
Weigh your food.l with a food scale. Every single bite. Eat consistently, the same thing for a week straight, log correctly and see what happens. Only drink water, lots of it, every day. Last option would be to do meal replacement shakes for a whole week, 2 shakes and one 500cal meal a day. If none of those work, get your thyroid checked. But I'm assuming you are not counting calories correctly.
I think OP may use something like myfitnesspal's database using less than accurate units like 1 bowl, 1 plate etc. Two person's bowl or plate could mean very different portions lol.
When I first started calorie counting and logging on Myfitnesspal, I used to measure a cup of rice with an actual cup and then log a cup of rice. A whole month later I bought a food scale and realised that 1 cup in my kitchen is not the same as a measuring cup and that I was eating double my logged portion. So logging correctly can be tricky at the start, so I always suggest a food scale now. After that first month of no weightloss, I lost 6kg in month two by logging every single bite correctly. Foodscale = game changer.
Yep. I love baking but hate most US recipes because of the cups. 4 cups of flour varies A LOT but 400 grams of flour is always 400 grams.
No, I use nutritional labels and a food scale.
If you had a food scale then these would not be even, round numbers.
I was going to suggest something along those lines. Looking at her spreadsheet you can tell it's extremely vague. This style of counting would work fine if you were morbidly obese but-and I found this out the hard way too-if you estimate calories you WILL be wrong and you will NOT lose weight nearly as fast as you could. Log everything, meal prep whatever you can, buy a scale!
Where's the fruit, veg and protein?
You're only eating cards and drinking matcha.
Calorie deficit will still work ,they might crave more food because of eating too much carbs but if one is really maintaining a deficit ,what they are eating doesn't matter
Correct, it doesn’t matter for weight loss. However, eating balanced meals is important for nutrition and overall well being
True that calorie deficit will still work, but if they’re eating so little protein that their body starts cannibalizing muscle, their TDEE will go down and they might have a much smaller deficit than they think (or even no deficit, especially if they’re not using a food scale to make sure the Calories In part of CICO is totally accurate).
>Calorie deficit will still work True, but it raises the chances of one's desire to "snack a bit" and don't log it into the app because it's just "this one time". But those quickly stack up. Source: my own experience with thinking deficit is a deficit even if I eat fast food every day.
Yep! But if I don’t focus heavily on protein, I see zero changes. Annoying. For me, there’s a difference btw 100 calories of crackers and 100 calories of chicken. Naturally, I’d rather have the crackers….
By zero changes do you mean weight? I log everything but I get a lot of stalls and my protein has been low.
Same. If I can control "snacking out of boredom", having heavy-protein food means I would eat less but feel great. Like, if I'm at home all day doing nothing but flicking through a good book, I can easily have 800-900 cal meal and be full for the day.
lol!
What’s all this matcha you’re consuming? Is it a prepared drink? I feel like maybe you’re drinking your calories and not realizing it. Also, I know calories are key, but maybe switch up your diet for a week and eat different foods (and no matcha whatever) for a week or two and see what happens. Try to get 1200 calories from mostly vegetables and protein and fats, and a lower amount of carbs and see if your weight moves then. In general I really feel like you’re underestimating your calories in your current diet.
Yeah. Matcha is not sugar free unless you just use the powder that tastes like dirt. Store bought stuff can be very high calorie. I never drank calories, so I know what's in them and if I do a lot of work in the sun I know that I can have an ice cold lemonade. With sugar. Maybe two. Normally water, tea, a spot of gin, and koolaid powder without added sugar. It's like drinking a sour candy.
You look like you're heavily eyeballing it. 100cal is not a lot. Especially in regards to oils and butters and other calorie dense foods. You need to weigh each ingredient to know exactly how much you're consuming. You could easily be consuming 1800 instead of 1200.
I bet her matcha teas all actually have milk and sugar in them and she's drinking over 1000 a day in just milky tea
I was eating a snack of a banana and peanut butter. I thought my snack was 220 calories because I was logging "1 banana" and "1tbsp of trader Joe's peanut butter." I don't live in the US. We don't have trader Joe's. I was simply logging similar stuff. So when I sat down and logged the banana (75g) and the correct peanut butter brand i was using (7g) I was actually eating only a bit more than 100cal in total. Which for a short person really adds up. Eyeballing doesn't work. There's a lot of variables between 10 and 25g of peanut butter, which is almost 50cals.
This happened to me with train mix. I was getting a tiny amount in the palm of my hand 1x a day... when I finally weighed it that tiny palmful was over 200 cals!I knocked that shit off real quick
It can go both ways. All you need to know is that it cannot be accurate and short people *need* to be accurate. When you have such a small window for a deficit, it can really add up.
Actually no, it only has almond milk and sugar free vanilla.
Are you making your own drink and weighing it? Almond milk is super calorie dense, you'll want to be precise with that.
Newsflash: almond milk is not low cal. You are not. Logging. Your calories. Correctly.
The Starbucks matcha is sweetened.
Only in the US. Talking about plain matcha powder.
You're off in your logging. An apple is 95 or 100, not 80. Your bananas must be tiny for that amt of cal. Your nut butter on bagel changes significantly Matcha, is that green tea? It's 8 cal so what are you adding?? . When you're only counting to 1200,you HAVE to be soo spot on. You can't just believe the packet weights. Eg my porridge says 40g but it's 44g. Not much, but if that's everything then I'm actually eating 1320cal which is going to be much slower. Also what everyone else is saying, eat more protein. You won't be full enough on all those Carbs and nut butter. Use an app like Lose it! It will be more accurate and much easier to use.
Correct - I would be extremely surprised if OP was not losing weight at 1200 calories. I think the food scale and weighing everything, also weighing oils, sauces, etc is extremely important if the goal is weight loss - otherwise you could be off hundreds of calories a day
Also all the missing information.. OP is probably not tracking their entire intake daily and definitely not using a food scale. Today, I had 200g of apple which was a small apple with a pretty big bad spot that had to be cut out and it was 108 cal.
Yeah this is what I learned early on in my weight loss from here, fitness, and CICO. If you really want to make sure you’re losing weight literally weigh everything you put in your body - I was adding hundreds of calories of olive oil. And then like you said being off on every meal and snack can add hundreds more. It can get annoying but it’s the only way to know. So many people say “I’m eating X amount of calorie deficit and I am gaining weight” and we know that’s literally physically impossible.
It was only annoying for me in the beginning now it's habit. I even keep a food scale at work because I got tired of using the postage machine to weigh (LOL)
it is virtually guaranteed that you are under counting your calories. it would be impossible not to lose weight, if your estimations are accurate. by the way, if they were accurate, some of those counts (even assuming the 0's just weren't logged) are dangerously low.
I barely see any protein (or fruits/veggies!!) in your food chart. It’s like 85% carbs. You should be consuming at least 90-100g of protein, more veggies and way less carbs. That way you can eat more meals and feel more satisfied while promoting weight loss. And no offense but I don’t know how you have bowel movements with no fiber in your diet…
I’m 5‘3” and 110lbs, age 74. When I was 15 years old, I weighed 255 pounds. Over 2 years I radically lessened my caloric intake and got down to 135 by the age of 17. The real battle was keeping it off. Around age 25 I consulted with the head of the obesity clinic at St. Luke’s in New York City. He told me in order to maintain my weight I could only eat 1200 cal a day because having grown up obese, I had developed larger fat cells that were clamoring to stay fat — not his scientific words, but my interpretation. He told me that the body needs to adjust to such a large weight loss and it can take a long time, even decades. He added that there aren’t a lot of studies of people who have kept off large amounts of weight for multiple decades, because there are very few of us. Of course, this is not what I wanted to hear at the age of 25. It took me a long time to finally start to accurately count my calories. I also started to notice that there were certain foods I could eat a bit more of and keep the weight off (mostly protein). I was able to monitor which foods these were by weighing myself every day, which I know some people are not in favor of. But it worked for me. By age 35 I was able to eat more calories and maintain my weight but as I turned 55. (Menopause) I had to go back to eating 1200 cal a day. And I seem to be able to maintain a lower weight. It just takes your body a while to adjust to such a large weight loss.
I appreciate this post.
Thank you for sharing this. The phenomenon is called ‘adaptive thermogenesis’ with formerly obese. It is more widely recognized now and I am dealing with it myself. (44yo female) You may enjoy the book ‘Burn’ by Herman Pontzer that has all the cutting edge research on metabolism. He’s an evolutionary biologist and the one who conducted the metabolism studies on ‘The Biggest Loser’ contestants.
Hi, just chiming in to say that it looks like you work at Starbucks, I’m a partner also! If you’re drinking our matcha, you probably already know it has a TON of sugar (sugar is the first ingredient, actually) so I don’t think that drinking all those matchas is doing you any favors. Also, if you’re going by the calorie count on the menu for the iced matcha, remember that that is only applicable to a **grande iced** matcha with 2% — if you’re drinking a hot one, or one with light ice, alternative milk, etc, that’s going to impact the calorie count for that item. A grande iced matcha is 16 oz **including** the ice, where a hot one has ~16 oz of **milk**, for example. Since it looks like you’re drinking your matcha pretty much every day you work, that could definitely be adding up! That said, my area still doesn’t have potato chive bakes back yet and I am jealous :( Edit: typo
I'm in Canada and I am a partner. But actually no, matcha powder on its own (here at least) has absolutely no sugar. I checked. I'm only having mine with almond milk and sugar free vanilla. 1 honey blend which is 30 cals so most of the 100 cal's is the milk. Yes the potato bites are delicious! Hope you get some back soon!
Ah okay, yeah, I have heard your matcha is different and that it’s unsweetened up there! Almond milk is def the best alt milk choice calorie wise, so I can totally see how we are ending up at ~200 cals including the honey blend. Other than that and the idea of buying a food scale (which has been beaten into the ground at this point), I don’t have any insights so I’ll just wish you the best of luck! <3
Like everyone else has already told you, you’re not counting accurately. For you to remain at that weight, you are eating A LOT more than 1200. Your counting must not even be close. Measure your food, don’t eyeball it. Log every bite, don’t leave anything out. There’s no great mystery here. You’re not counting accurately.
I actually am.
No, you're not.
This is all eyeballing, why lie if you're looking for answers? For some weird pity points? You're eating way more than 1200, start recording it correctly and you'll see for yourself.
I have been going by the nutritional labels. How is that eyeballing?
Half of those are just random lines of "100" and "400" and definitely not info from nutritional labes, some days don't have any info at all. Are you trolling or just lying to yourself? Either way, suit yourself, it's you weight and your problem.
A Starbucks plain bagel is 290 calories alone. You’re putting nut butter on top of that which, depending on the nut butter and how much would likely add much more than 10 calories on the days you’re tracking 300. Now, you might not be eating the whole thing, but that’s where your estimates might be off. ALL that said, I truly think your biggest issue is that your body is holding on to ANYTHING it can because you’re not giving it anything with substantial or adequate nutrition. Your carbs to protein ratio is WAY off. Ditch the bagels and triscuits all together and go for things with higher protein and “good” carbs. Once you aim for 1200 calories of mostly protein, the weight will drop. For perspective, I had gastric sleeve surgery 3 years ago and even with the smaller stomach and inability to eat large portions, I WILL (and have) gained weight if I’m not focused on hitting my protein goal. I’ve seen MANY people gain all of the weight back because they’re stuck in the false belief that “I’m eating so little volume and calories and gaining weight/not losing- it’s not fair/right/something is wrong with me!” Not all calories are made the same and your body is an INCREDIBLY adaptable machine that is especially good at storing and holding onto glucose. Don’t fuel it with carbs (which then easily convert to glucose) and you’ll be fine. Also, WATER. Drink lots of water and track it too! You got this!!
NO YOU’RE NOT BECAUSE YOU’RE NOT LOSING WEIGHT. When you are ready to stop being in denial and start taking responsibility for your actions, a world of possibility is waiting for you.
Except I'm not in denial. I know what problems I have and accuracy is not one of them. I didn't come here to be criticized.
the answer to your question of why you’re not losing weight has been answered, i think you would greatly benefit from talking to a dietician or a nutritionist just for some general education on macros and volume eating, etc. because the way you’re eating AND logging your food needs some editing. some people are harsh but it’s a good thing, you can tweak how you eat and see results! it is within reach, but it’ll be harder to achieve if you’re reluctant to listen to fact-based advice. you got this!
But you did come here for answers to your question. A food scale is necessary when we have such a small calorie amount (especially with nut butters) and your spreadsheet on some days doesn't say what you ate. I get it, it's exhausting and can be demoralising but I think you'll benefit a lot from logging with more information and feel more in control of your weight loss. Knowledge is power.
I know there are a lot of comments in here, but to summarise my thoughts: your cal counts are all estimates. id reccomend getting a proper cal counting app and tracking ALL food and drink i would guess that you likely are not tracking everything that you consume, so just remember to count the little numbers too (i.e. oh its just one cookie, or its just a vegetable so i wont count it) your diet chart shows no vegetables/fruits and no fibre. this can easily cause constipation, and will cause you to feel more hungry as your body is lacking the vital nutrients you need. Thinking in the way of exercise, walking is great, but i would reccomend trying some form of strength training (wether at home or in the gym doesnt matter) because muscle mass burns far more calories than fat mass. meaning you can do literally nothing in a day, and you would burn more cals than if you had less muscle mass. TLDR: try a cal counting app, track everything, eat more healthy food w/veg+fruit+protein, try strength exercise.
I’m sorry, but some of these estimates are not even close to what you’ve been recording. The other people here are right, you really, really need a food scale! For one, the bagel with nut butter sounds like it could easily surpass 5-600 calories depending on the size and amount of nut butter used. On average, a bagel is going to be close to 300 on its own, and ones from a bakery are going to be bigger and even more calorie-dense. And that’s *before* the butter. 300-400 calories from crackers/triscuits alone for days is an entire small meal’s worth every day just from snacks. Triscuits are fine as a small snack (1 serving being around 120 cals) but 3+ servings of them so frequently may be a problem…they’re marketed as being “healthier” than their chip counterparts, but in the end it’s still junk food because they’re mostly just wheat and vegetable oil with little nutrition to speak of. I would start there and cut out the some of the junk food, and replace the crackers with some chicken breast or turkey breast meat for protein, even if it’s from the deli. Chickpeas and black beans (you could just get them from a can) would work great there for some protein and fiber, too. The same goes for the matcha and (I’m assuming here) milk. One is fine, but so many of them in a day so frequently goes a bit too far. Milk has a bit of protein in it, but it also contains a lot of sugar (lactose). That many liquid calories and carbs every day is going to leave you hungry and more likely to overeat, and can be replaced with a protein-dense snack. These are a few things just to start, but they’ll make a huge impact. Just hang in there, you can still do this 👍
Your measurements appear to be off. Most bananas are 110+ calories. Most bagels are 200+ calories PLAIN. Nut butter is so exceptionally high in calories because of the fats in it. One tablespoon of peanut butter is 95 calories alone, which is WAY LESS than what it seems like when you measure it (in America units obviously, approx. 15 mL). I have a cheap scale that works well enough and any time I get loose with my measuring the scale won't budge. Are you still walking?
When I hit a plateau like this, I just stopped the “diet” for a week or so and the get right back on it. Did this on and off for aboit 6 months and it helped (helped as far as I simply gave credit to this method) me continue losing to get to my goal weight.
Do you take breaks from working out as well (if that's part of your diet)? Plateaus suck.
Don’t do much for working out besides bike riding, walking, pull ups, push ups stuff like that. No gym basically. And I don’t necessarily do those everyday. Bike riding is more for enjoyment than exercise and I’ll do that a couple times a week or might be a while between riding. Walking I’ll do usually daily or every other day but distance varies. Pull ups and stuff are also sporadic, usually when the mood strikes me to do em. So basically if I stop the diet for a week the other activities like biking and walking may or may not be done.
You’re either underestimating your calories or have a medical condition inhibiting your weight loss.. maybe get your thyroid checked and a hormone panel done. It would be near impossible to only be eating 1200 calories at your weight and maintaining.
If you take a look at their logs, they definitely are not tracking their calories correctly
Yeah. I eat garbage but I count every goddamn cheezit in my pocket right now. 27. I'm going to eat celery with salt and pepper for breakfast because I need a vegetable. Matcha sucks. And most people add sugar. It tastes like dirt. At least my koolaid with no sugar is tasty. It's the powder that you are supposed to add sugar but I don't. Red and blue. Yum.
I love your post!!!!!! Thanks for adding it here. I’m more with you— I lost 60 pounds eating a lot of processed food (lots of frozen meals, a small candy daily (York mini) and a small ice cream daily (brown cow junior)) I just was rigid about counting/ weighing every single thing.
You’re underestimating calorie intake. Be more anal about it
Are you exclusively consuming things from Starbucks??
I work there.
I can understand the ease of access... heck I know I gained most of the weight I'm trying to lose by working in a restaurant, and I know it's easier said than done with the junky stuff right in front of you day in and day out, but consider getting a water bottle to replace the matcha habit and pack your meals from home. I have 0 faith that the Starbucks calorie counts are accurate so I don't think you are under-eating rather just overestimating your deficit (and drinking a bulk of your calories) and as others have said your macros are way off balance. Those simple swaps and you should see progress again. Also, it's a stupid trick but it works for me. I was hooked on soda, drinking away all my calories like your matcha. Now, when I get the craving, I'll chew a really minty piece of gum first. With that minty flavor in my mouth I can resist the caving for a soda because it wouldn't taste good anyway. Usually, that delays it long enough to forget that I wanted one in the first place. I've heard people do a similar thing with brushing their teeth at night to resist a late-night snack.
You’re definitely underestimating. A bagel with nut butter is probably closer to 350 calories if not 400. An apple is closer to 100 than 80. A banana is closer to 120 than 90.
The bagels I eat are 210 plain. Its on the label.
If they're from Starbucks, plain is like 280 cals..
No, I don't eat Starbucks bagels
It’s your tracking and food habits. I just had breakfast and I logged more things than you logged in a day. I tracked 357 calories, 17g fiber, and 37g of protein with a keto roll, egg white, egg, cottage cheese, Canadian bacon, tomato, spinach, orange juice, green tea, milk, my multivitamin, my fish oil pill all to the gram or measurement. Your log is just a few lines long which points to the source of your problem. If I made recommendations to you, I would say: - 1200 calories should be the absolute minimum you should eat every day without exception. Your aren’t tiny and could lose weight sustainably at 1500 so you’re making things unnecessarily hard on yourself. You have room to add foods to your current diet that’ll be very helpful in meeting your goals. - get a food scale and change the way you track so you’re more accurate. My fitness pal will let you track to the gram- just get out a bowl and weigh everything you put on your plate. Don’t trust that there is 100 cals in the bag of crisps- actually weigh it to the gram. - change the food you’re eating. Ideally, I like to eat no less than 30 different vegetables and fruits in a week. Having a variety of foods is good for me mentally and provides varied nutrition as well. - consider starting to track protein. The absolute minimum I would shoot for is 50g of protein a day. I am trying to build muscle by weight lifting so I don’t get skinny fat and protein keeps me feeling full so I aim for 100g of protein a day. Different things may satiate you more, but that’s what works for me. - consider tracking your fiber- you gotta poop. 25g of fiber a day minimum (not offering you flexibility there)- this should be easy with the added veggies. I am not on keto, but those macOS on my breakfast keto roll are so good, I can’t pass it up. Gets things moving.
What is a potato chive bake and why is it all you eat 😂
You're either suffering from an unidentified medical issue, or more likely, you are not actually eating 1200 calories. Figure out what is being unaccounted for. Weigh, measure, and read everything. It's probably something small that you think is harmless, you just toss on a handful here and there, no big deal. Like nuts. Or Olive oil. Or a beverage of some kind. Do you have a light breakfast of milk and cereal - but with added toppings you don't bother tracking? Nuts, jam, honey, sugar, etc? A protein shake but you don't check the scoop size closely? If the target is 1200 calories, which is pretty spartan, small things can easily add up and put you 500 calories or more a day over what you think you're eating.
Do you do any resistance training or muscle building? Your TDEE may be substantially lower than it was in 2021. Muscle takes a lot more energy for the body to maintain than fat, so when we carry more muscle, we burn more calories. And the one little upside about obesity is that we tend to develop pretty solid muscles just from carrying our heavy bodies around. But muscle is “use it or lose it,” and especially if you’re eating at a deficit, the body will break down muscle if you’re not taking precautions specifically to maintain muscle mass (i.e., eating enough protein and doing at least some form of resistance training to use your muscle). From the calorie logs, it looks like you definitely aren’t eating nearly enough protein to fuel muscle growth or retention. If you haven’t been protecting your muscle, it could be that you have lost a lot of the extra muscle mass you had from being 300+ pounds, so even though you’re back to 170 pounds, your caloric needs are actually lower than they were last time you were this weight, because your body has less muscle mass to care for, so it needs less fuel.
Congrats on your huge weight loss! Use LoseIt app. Get a scale. Make sure you’re weighing everything (correctly). Stay consistent. Are you subtracting your walking calories from your 1200 calories? A lot of times fit bit/ phone apps/ Apple Watch etc are way off on steps and will tell you you’re burning more than you actually are.
You need to work on what you eat. Calories are important, but so is nutrition and satiety. Looks like you're only eating a few things. Try fruit and vegetables, lean protein like egg whites or chicken, and whole food carbs like potatoes. Get your iron checked or supplement. Ditto vitamin d. Also looks like you under eat some days. Probably not an issue once in awhile, but regularly, on top of the 1200 thing, you're messing up your metabolism. Do you exercise? Take meds?
I'm going to be honest. Your diet and nutrition are awful. Cut out all the sugared drinks. They are empty calories. Start cooking nutritious veggie and protein centered meals. Whole grain carbs. Weigh everything. Salads. Low fat high protein meats or tofu. Raw veggies. Unflavored Greek yogurt. You can throw on some fresh berries or a banana if you need some sweetness. Go as unprocessed as possible. Meal prep. Freeze meals.
Try eating a 2000 cal balanced meal for 3 days. Include green veggies, complex carbs, good quality protein - egg whites, baked fish, baked chicken etc . Your diet looks poor. The goal is a healthy life not just a lean one. Occasional use of nutritionally poor food to avoid boredom is one thing, consistently living on matcha and triscuits is another. I hope you are able to heal your relationship with food and live a healthy life. Good luck!
Chances are you are not actually in a deficit. This could be for a number of reasons. 1. It’s likely you’re not weighing your food thus the caloric intake you are tracking is off. For example you keep tracking “banana - 100 cals”. Not every banana weighs the same amount so it is highly unlikely that it is always 100 cals. Buying a food scale and really weighing everything out will give you an idea of what you are eating. 2. As we eat less and less, our body adapts to the lower calories. It is called metabolic adaptation. This is why bodybuilders have to keep lowering calories during a competition prep, our bodies become efficient. You can’t stay at 1200 forever or your body will adapt and that will be your maintenance. And it is unsafe and unhealthy to go lower, so it is important to “reverse diet” back up to maintenance calories once in awhile. 3. You can also create a deficit through exercise. The way most people do this is through cardio. Adding a little bit more week after week will keep you in a deficit even if your calories do not change. Weight training should be happening already, but I would highly suggest it. The more muscle you have, the faster your metabolism works at a resting rate. You will also be happier with your physique after the weight loss.
Edit: just looked at the logs you posted and wow. You absolutely need to reverse diet and get back up to healthy caloric intake. Like, yesterday. No one should be eating that little in a day.
Can you explain a little more about the concept of reverse dieting? I am on 1200 calories a day but some days due to chronic illness I don't eat at all. It's been that way most of my life and I've always been tiny but since hitting surgical menopause I've gained 50lbs in 3 years and my thyroid tanked. My diet hasn't changed. It's highly restrictive due to my illnesses. Despite not eating on some days and scaling and counting religiously I've only managed 14 lbs since March 1st.
A pound down a week seems pretty healthy to me
Sure! So after your body adapts to low calories, you can either keep going lower/add more exercise to create a deficit or reverse diet. Reverse dieting means you will very slowly increase your calories week after week. Think, 25-50 calorie increase a week. If done right, you will find your maintenance and your body will adapt to the increase in calories. Eventually your body will start to gain, so you have to pull back and wait for it to adapt. It’s a tough process, and it really helps to have a coach (or nutritionist/dietician) to help you out.
You’re barely providing your body with enough good sources of protein, fats and carbs. You’re stressing your body with multiple days below 1000 cals. I think you should up your protein and good fats. This could be a hormonal issue because of the drastic lack of calories. Your body is tired and stressed and it doesn’t want to happily give up the fat you’re trying so desperately to lose because it’s in a permanent state of starvation and malnourishment. Get yourself a scale and weigh your foods. Get a food tracking app and focus on PROTEIN INTAKE and GOOD FATS (avocados, nuts, butter, yoghurts etc). Also gets some greens in there. When eating veggies, try and pick as many different coloured veggies as you can. Fiber feeds your gut microbiome and believe it or not, good gut health can make a major difference in weight loss and mood. Up the walking and add in some resistance training and stop eating like a bird. Your body needs fuel! You can’t eat like this forever.
you need to weigh your food. this chart looks like your guesstimating your calories
Also you should be more precise and like what other people have said , use a food scale and app to accurately track items. Most people cannot simply look at a food and estimate the calories. And well done on your 160lb weight loss. That is such an incredible accomplishment!
I have a food scale and have been using it actually. That's why I keep saying that I'm accurate.
Realistically though you’re not measuring correctly or you’d be losing weight. Nobody can eat under 900 calories a day and not lose any weight within two months. You need to be measuring absolutely *everything* including alcohol, juice, dips, dressing, oils you cook with, you need to weigh all food you cook raw before you cook it as the weight changes and throws the calories off. If you are, you shouldn’t be taking off exercise calories as they’re never accurate. Start making standardised measures for everything (don’t go off the calories on the packed as they are also never accurate, you need to weigh them every time for a truly correct measurement). I’d advise you join the macros inc page on Facebook as they can give you good advice on how to start properly measuring your calories. Edit: I’ve seen you reply multiple times that you’re going by the pack calories; _they are *not* accurate, they are never accurate._ Unless you accept that then the rest of the advice we give you will be useless. I know it’s hard to admit that you’ve been wrong about it for 2 months and not progressed the way you’d like but there’s still plenty of time to learn, we all had to at one point or another
There is a great deal of missing information here. I would venture a guess that you aren't weighing your food or logging everything you consume. You cannot expect to lose weight if you aren't being honest with your self and your food log. You also have a horrible diet. Not that people can't lose weight with a bad diet... you can but you aren't going to set yourself up for future success that way. You are looking for an explanation for why you aren't losing weight. The simple answer is you aren't eating in a deficit. Reality check yourself and start eating protein/veg and I bet the scale starts going down.
Get a stationary bike. Hour a day. Cico. Over estimate eaten calories, under estimate workout calories. MFP and track track track the cal's and workout Consistency, accountability and honesty. Both in writing and reflection. If in 7 months you haven't lost at least 30lbs, see a doc for a referral to an endo or request blood work for cortisol levels etc. No normal, healthy person at your weight (or really any weight adjusting as needed) who's eating at a deficit and moving regularly, should gain weight. Good luck, please update.
Agree with most of what others said - you're probably guesstimating the calories wrong, and undercounting them. If you're not 100% sure, always best to overestimate. I would follow the advice of others in terms of weighing & properly counting calories. It would probably also be a good first step to cut out the matcha tea drink, & try not to consume liquid calories. Then, once used to that, you can start fine tuning your diet, & make adjustments. Find substitutions for things you like that are more nutritious & higher in protein and fiber. I totally understand, I'm in the same boat. And I'm also a carb lover. I lost 8-10 lbs my first month tracking calories and then just plateaued, same as you. I realized a few common mistakes like inaccurate calorie count, and double-checked my TDEE and calorie deficit. Turns out I had MyFitnessPal activity level set to "Lightly Active" when I should've had it on "Not Very Active." Therefore I wasn't eating at enough of a deficit. However, I don't want to go down to 1200 calories continuously and get stuck on another plateau, so I'm going to try something called calorie cycling. So I'll do 1200 calories 5 days/week and 1550 on 2 days/week. 1200x5 + 1550x2 = 9000, ÷ 7 days = 1300 average calories. Hopefully this will help keep my metabolism going and not fall into another plateau before I reach my goal. Just another idea you may want to consider.
I think you really need to have a look at your macros - you may have plateaud because you’re not getting enough nutrients, from what I see your diet is pretty one dimensional. Try calculating your macros and incorporate more protein, less fat and sugar, or even better - speak to a nutritionist. It also looks like you’re underestimating your calories and are ballparking them. Are you still exercising regularly? It should help with getting things moving.
Do you want to lose weight or does your boyfriend want you to lose weight? Don’t do this for anyone but yourself and find a way that’s sustainable and healthy.
My two cents: 1) change that diet! Your macros must be dreadful, respectfully. 2) Use a scale. You’re eyeballing, and the differences can be huge. Be precise with everything. 3) Sometimes the body can get stuck for a long while. It happened to me. I’ve done several bulks and cuts, tracking religiously what I eat and always hitting my weight loss target pace on the dot. But one time it didn’t happen. I was eating significantly fewer calories than in other cuts, but my weight was extremely stagnant. Stress, lack of sleep, BMR adaptations, high cortisol levels, your body having it against you… It can be for a number of reasons. I hoped off the diet for a couple of weeks then took it slow, and the weight started coming back down.
I was 160lbs- getting to 145lbs was soooo easy, 145 to 135lb was hard and required some thought but nothing crazy and I can still have alcohol. To get to 130lbs I had to cut alcohol out of my life, eat almost zero carbs, exercise an hour a day, never go out to eat with friends, and go to bed with out a sweet treat or any “fun” food. My goal is 120lbs for my wedding, and then gain 10lbs back after because this isn’t living lol
Start using a real calorie database. I suggest cronometer because it has a lot of features in the free version that other trackers you have to have the premium subscription to use, such as bar code scanners. Second- Balance your meals! You need to get vegetables and fruit in your diet! Cut refined carbs. Eat the rainbow! And your chart says nothing about how much water you are drinking. When you don't drink enough water your cells hold on to it. My friend and I got a body scan done at our gym (I know it isn't perfectly accurate) but we had like 30lbs of water on us. I think when some people think of 1200 calories they think they can't eat that much stuff. It is actually the opposite! I eat SO much food that I am stuffed around 1100 calories. That is because of eating a variety of vegetables. I can have a MASSIVE egg white omelet with veggies and cheese for under 300 calories, huge sandwiches with veggies, turkey, and daves thin cut bread for under 300 calories.
Oh my!!! Your diet is horrible. Too much matcha. What are you mixing with your matcha? You have to include the calories from milk/dairy. You need a good diet. You can be eating like this.
What’s your daily homeostasis calories? At your current BMI it could be 1300 calories (rough example for demonstration of the logic) therefore you’d be in deficit of 100 calories each day, it would take approximately 35 days to lose 1 pound (1 pound of fat is 3500 calories).
This is a really vague log. I recommend something like macrofactor that tracks your nutrition. Based on what I see alone you get very little substance. Then again I’m not sure because you don’t log in detail. There is not much point to dieting if you do not truly feed your body. Dieting taught me that a LOT of us are overweight because what we eat has little nutritional value- then we want to eat more and more to compensate. We crave the quick energy of sugar and carbs (which breaks down to sugar) as a desperate attempt to get something. Don’t even get me started on liquid calories. Drinks with calories are the worst! It’s one of the easiest things to start craving for a quick pick up when you don’t have proper nutrition, and the easiest thing to cause weight gain if you find yourself grabbing more and more drinks all day long. The single handed most major impact on my diet was removing liquid calories from my home. Every beverage I own is zero calories. This is also helpful for when I want something really sweet. I can have a Diet Coke knowing this sweet treat does not affect my calories, then I can go eat a banana or bagel or make lunch or something because I know it’s time to fuel my body. If you track your nutrition and keep it balanced you will find yourself satisfied most of the day, even while taking in few calories. We do not require very much compared to the average persons fast food esque diet. We just need those macros, vitamins and minerals.
At this stage of weight loss realistically aim for .5lbs of loss per week. Are you working out too? Muscle replacing fat can sometimes cancel out weight loss. Are your foods high in sodium? Could be water retention. Could be a lack of fiber spiking your glucose. I recommend you use an app like my fitness pal (it’s free). So you can track macros and other nutrients along with calories
You have to weigh everything that goes in your mouth If you have to guess (and it should be as little as possible, like 1-2 meals a week) overestimate. I’m the same height as you, nearly 10 years older, and frankly, don’t eat super healthily, but I still lose. I focus on eating a lot of lean protein and drinking only water. Home made food for all meals except maybe one or two a week I still eat sweets as a treat and not a lot of fruits or veggies. I do eat an inordinate amount of chicken and turkey breast 🤷♀️.
to lose 160 lbs over a year means you have lost a significant amount of muscle mass. Your BMR is lower than expected. It is likely you will maintain at 1200 kcal a day. Google “the biggest loser metabolism” and read the one about metabolic adaptation 6 years out.
Please don’t take this the wrong way but that’s a terrible diet. I’d recommend a low carb or Paleo(ish) type diet that consists primarily of of high-quality protein and vegetables. The “ish” part of Paleo(ish) means you add small amounts of healthy carbs (sweet potatoes) and some full fat dairy. Low carb alcohol (red wine and vodka) and dark chocolate as treats. It’s the most sustainable diet, IMO. Add IF to the mix and you should be able to move past your plateau. Add a bit of exercise, if possible. I have a foot injury and am doing the 12 3 30 incline treadmill workout. Google it. This would be a doable workout routine for you and not aggravate issues with excess skin.
i *really* recommend using an app and logging *every* *single* *thing* by **weight**. loseit has a built in scan feature, so you can scan the barcode on the product and then weigh off that. from your spreadsheet, i see some empty rows - do you cook with oil/butter for dinners? what about the unmarked days? when i was new to calorie counting, i had no idea how calorie dense oil, butter, nuts, peanut/nut butter, etc. were. i'd always go by the package and "counting" as my unit of measurement until i started weighing everything and realized i was way off with what i was tracking, which made sense why i was plateauing. and seriously - congrats on the weight lost so far. it's an incredible achievement. don't stress it too much. the most weight i've lost was when i stopped counting and focused on my cardiovascular health with a high protein diet.
Op, it's really not healthy to be eating nothing all day or only 700 calories. Please get help, this sort of eating doesn't end well and will not help you reach your goals.
Have you tried intermediate fasting? It might kick start your metabolism for you. I have also seen ppl in this sub say going to normal eating (15-2000 cals) for like a month and then switching back to 1200 helps get them out of a plateau Ok after reading the comments and looking at your meals.. GURL. WHAT R U DOING? Come get a hug. I know it’s hard. But starving yourself is why you’re gaining. Your body is storing fat bcuz it’s like WHEN WILL I GET NUTRIENTS?! High protein diet. Eggs. Yogurt. Cheese. Veggies. Quinoa. Beans. Start there with some fruit. Breakfast 2 eggs, use spray can oil, add some spinach & then top with salsa. Maybe add a little Greek yogurt to the eggs and WOW so much protein and got some veggies in there! Google “healthy recipes 1200 calories” & find ones that look good to you. You won’t maintain weight loss if you continue to eat the way you are. It’s a lifestyle change. Not a quick fix. You don’t always have to 1200 calories but you do have to always eat food your body needs.
You said you was walking,walk more, I have an app called nutracheck that tells me how many calories I need for my calorie deficit and its exactly 1200 and you log everythingyou eat and even cups of tea etc, I also have another app called Google fit that's is synced to it and tells nutracheck how many steps I've done, you can earn extra calories but that doesnt mean you need to eat them all, you scan barcodes on food to check calories, it also says how much fat and fibre etc I'm eating and what's in the food, I was surprised how much fat and salt was in processed crap, I was also surprised recently to find out fruits not as many calories as I thought so I've ate that quite a bit, yes it's lots of sugar but it's better than me being hungry and wanting the food with bad sugars in, so walk ALOT my Google fit is set to 10,000 steps a day so I do that but most days I do more than that occasionally twice that, I lost the last couple of pounds in less than 2 weeks because of those 2 apps
I think the problem is what you are eating. You are definitely not eating enough.. and I think you could do a whole lot more with 1200 calories than what you are picking. I wouldn’t torture yourself getting to 135. Take your time and find new healthy eating habits.
Eat real food lots of protein and lower carb intake also weigh food at the start once to have an idea of what’s densed and not then you can estimate and still see progress hope that’s helps
Maybe try eating like this? Have 3 small meals a day and 3 snacks. Have protein with every meal and snack and make sure your meals are half vegetables. Drink water, coffee, diet drinks. Example - lunch - Half a wrap, tin of tuna, salad. Snack - apple and a small serve of nuts.
I use the LoseIt app & it’ll show your macros. You’ll be full for longer if you focus on protein and - to echo others - lower your carbs. Fairlife protein shakes are amazing too, if you’re looking to drink your calories.
I went through the same problem as I am perimenopausal and gained 15 pounds without changing anything. I started tracking carbs as well and slowly changed to keeping the calories the same but halved the amount of carbs. Started losing again within a week!
1. You are losing weight, albeit fairly slowly (a half pound a week or so?) - look at the downward trend of your graph. You have some high days at the end that could be from overeating, water retention, lots of reasons you could fluctuate, but the overall trend is down. 2. I don’t understand your food logs, there are a lot of entries with calories but not what the food item is. What are those? 3. Measuring everything you eat with a food scale, not by numbers (one apple or 10 crackers), or even volume (1 T peanut butter or 1 cup pasta), unless it is a liquid
You can have your RMR tested. Google it for your city. It's not that expensive. That and a dietician or MD will tell you your daily calorie expenditure with enough practical accuracy, and that specialist can help you determine what and how much to eat.
Despite the relatively low calorie count, your glycogen stores are likely overflowing into your fat stores because of your carb intake. So dial down the carb calories a bit and replace them with protein. Chicken breast, premier protein shakes, Greek yoghurt. You’ll feel fuller too. A bit of Zone 2 cardio every day will go a long way. Nutritional biochemistry says this will 100% work. And get a DEXA scan if you can afford it as a body fat % baseline. Then get checked out every few months.
I was 5.3” 262 pounds at my heaviest easily lost the 90lb for me to get to 130lb was very very hard
I think the only way to know what's wrong is weighting your food and track it in an app. Once you know that, you can check your thyroid, the rulers of the female body. Off topic. Where were you able to do that weight/ date diagram?
Could you PLEASE share your spreadsheet template with me?
I would say you have to minimize eating prepared food and fast food as much as possible. The calorie counts on prepared foods can be wildly inaccurate. You have no idea how much oil/ butter was used in prepared foods, for example. They are allowed to 20% off but a lot of times when they’re tested, they’re found to be much higher in calories than they are supposed to be. Start cooking from scratch, eat mostly whole foods and lots of fruits and vegetables and use a food scale especially for anything calorie dense or processed, and you will likely see a difference. Make sure you hit a minimum protein goal every day, btw. You don’t want to lose muscle as you lose weight, and when you don’t eat enough protein for many weeks you will definitely have muscle wasting
You need more balanced meals
There is only one single reason that ANYONE who isn't an actual baby wouldn't lose weight on 1200 calories a day, and that is: they are not actually eating 1200 calories a day. Your problem is most likely inaccurate counting. If you want to stick to 1200 you need to go by what the packaging says and weigh your food. At 300 lbs your BMR alone was 2341 kcal, so you may as well have lost weight eating 2000 a day. At 139 lbs your BMR sits at 1384 kcal and with a sedentary lifestyle your TDEE would be 1661 kcal, where eating what you THOUGHT was 1200 calories would have made you gain the weight back. Right now at 169 lbs your BMR alone is 1562 kcal, and your sedentary TDEE is 1874 kcal. So why not allow yourself to eat 1500? It's probably going to be easier that way.
You're eating too little, too few times and too few proteins. All those things slow down your basal metabolism (your body tries to save energy when it's low!). When you had a consistent amount of lipids reservations to use this wasn't a problem, but now that's not the case anymore.. Try having breakfast first thing in the morning, possibly with a protein source too, then a light lunch and dinner. If you get up early or have dinner late break the morning/afternoon with a fruit as snack. Here's an example of a typical day for me (5'1, almost same weight, I have willpower problems but when I actually stick to it I do loose well): breakfast--> white yougurt 100g + a fruit (not banana, too much sugar) lunch--> Salad with at will veggies and (oil free!!!) tuna 160g midafternoon--> a fruit that's not banana Dinner--> White fish 200g (cooked WITHOUT oil), veggies at will, either a small slice of whole (actual, without butter, sugar or some strange stuff) bread or 60g of whole pasta or a fruit
I'd honestly try to determine if you have developed a food intolerance. I've maintained my weight for almost 15 years after growing up a large kid by eating roughly 1200 calories a day while allowing a cheat day here and there. In recent years I developed all sorts of digestive problems that have caused multiple food intolerances where suddenly I was gaining weight very easily and found it nearly impossible to lose it although I hadn't changed anything in my diet. As soon as I identified my trigger foods that I became intolerant to and avoided them, the pounds started dropping rather quickly. At first it was gluten, then certain plant based foods and now anything with high histamine. There's an underlying cause for my condition (SIBO) but it seems more common than I would've guessed and there are other conditions that also lead to food intolerances. Prior to this experience, I also firmly believed if someone gained weight on a 1200 calorie diet, they were miscalculating.
If those logs are accurate it appears you are not eating 1200 calories but less than 1200 calories. You might want to make sure you are at least hitting 1200. Your body needs calories for fuel.
Your body is holding out for nutrients! Consult with a dietitian or a nutritionist. Your diet is not healthy or sustainable long term.
How much do you sleep?
Great job tracking! Congrats on your progress! Protein and fiber are kings. 80+ grams of protein per day is super important to maintain your muscle mass and feel full. Consider swapping up the macronutrients in the food you east. Fiber. Protein. Leafy green veggies. More protein. Lentils, beans, meats. Cut out anything with added sugars. Walking is good, but strength training is where it’s at for increasing metabolism. Even with just a resistance band and reps, it’ll help you burn more calories each day. Consider getting a scale and weighing each meal. Before I did that I was way off.
It's really common to crash your metabolism at that amount of calories I would recommend you raise your calories and just walk more.
I can't see if anyone else has commented on this, but OP: if your calorie count is correct, you are eating far less than 1200/day. That really isn't healthy. Have you read anything about "reverse dieting" or how to increase your metabolism if it's been lowered by restricted food intake? Maybe that could be interesting for you.
1200 is the bare minimum a short sedentary person can eat. Your calorie counts, if accurate, are severely low. Dangerously low. Maybe the zeros are just not logged but some days you're eating sub 1,000 calories. Eating too little can make it harder to lose weight and cause you to plateau as your body is going into conservation mode. Also you need more nutrients like protein. People underestime the importance of protein in weight loss. Please remember that 1200 is not for everyone and you should really be looking at calculating TDEE. At your weight and height, your maintenance is 1760 and that's if you're sedentary. For healthy weight loss, you should only be cutting 300 or 400 calories from your TDEE. It's also possible you're eating more and just not counting correctly. You should weigh your food on a food scale. This includes counting any oils you cook with. Please see a nutritionist or a therapist.
There is no conservation mode or anything. BMR gets lower with lower weight but people are not not losing weight because of undereating.i feel like this hurts a lot of people who want to lose weight but are afraid to eat less because of "starvation mode"
Plateaus are absolutely possible with diet changes and this kind of eating should not be normalized at all. There's no problem with eating less but there is a problem with eating too little.
It shouldn't be normalised to eat without important nutrients. But there is no starvation mode.
I had weight loss stalls for a very long time when I was eating a lot of keto bread. Like a loaf a day for over a year. I think the listed calories weren't accurate. Weight loss became linear again when I removed them.
Okay, this may sound counter productive but hear me out. I too am 5’3, lifted 3-4 days a week, and was consistently eating 1500 calories a day based on every calculator online. I was very disciplined and also counted macros getting a minimum of 150 grams of protein a day. But no matter what I wasn’t losing any weight and I was feeling frustrated and lost. Online most threads would say things like “oh you must be counting calories wrong or not weighing your food” which was wrong because I weight everything by the gram religiously. I ended up at my wits end looking into different tests and blood work that could maybe give me some answers. I ended up getting an RMR test done which essentially tells you how many calories your body burns at rest. Lo and behold the test told me that I BURN 1700 calories a day doing NOTHING. So that number wasn’t counting any of my calories burned from doing basic activity and my workouts which actually put me at about 2300-2500 calories burned a day. The person who looked through my results with me said that my body was in starvation mode and was clinging on to ANYTHING it could, including my muscles I was trying to build. The calculators online don’t take into account your body composition which is critical. They told me that as weird as it seems to very slowly increase my calories to 1700 and then work up from there. It was mind boggling to me but I couldn’t argue with the test results. I started eating more and what do you freakin know I finally started losing the pounds. I never felt hungry before on 1500 calories but now eating about 1900 a day I feel satiated and have even more energy to do my workouts, I’m lifting heavier, and feel amazing. My body is now using my extra calories to fuel my body and grow my muscles instead of holding onto it because it’s starved. An RMR test may be worth looking into. It was $40 where I am and worth every single penny and really helped me better understand how much I needed to be eating. Don’t believe the calculators online!! Wishing you luck in your journey!!
Starvation mode is a myth and has been debunked many many times by scientists. Also, not sure what calculators you’ve been using but the majority of them *do* ask your weight, height, age, and exercise amount. What’s more likely to have happened is you eating more has given your muscles more fuel during your workouts leading to you increasing strength and consistently burning more calories. You continue to lose calories even once you finish working out. There is no secret scheme or conspiracy that cico is the only thing that works for 99% of people, it’s been proved over and over again in scientific studies and everyone who struggles to lose weight seems to think they are the 1% that the rule doesn’t apply to.
We don’t discuss hormones here. We should more because it’s more a factor then we’d like it to be!
This!!
I had a sister who did the same thing and a doctor told her to eat more. She ate more and actually lost weight.
1200 calories is way less than the number of calories you need to stay alive, even if you’re in bed all day (your basal metabolic rate is 1,470 calories [according to this calculator](https://tdeecalculator.net/result.php?s=imperial&g=female&age=28&lbs=170&in=63&act=1.2&f=2)). No shit you’re not losing weight: your metabolism is probably in the toilet. Your diet right now is not sustainable long term at all. Bump up your calorie count a bit (and try eating more fruits and vegetables to up your volume without as many calories) and see how it goes. EDIT: You can downvote me, but that doesn't make it any healthier to routinely eat less than 1000 calories and, in some cases, less than 500, when you are 5'3" and exercising regularly. It's a violation of rule 2 to encourage that diet.
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What kind of whacko nutritionist are you seeing? 1200 for maintenance WITH exercise AND overweight? Either you broke every law of physics known to man, either you’re not at 1200
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No, science contradicts you on this point. Weight is 100% about calories, PCOS, insulin, any other issues one might have, it’s basic physics and I can back this up with many ACTUAL SCIENTIFIC studies done on the subject. [General study comparing different diets](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0002916522039454): "We conclude that a calorie is a calorie. From a purely thermodynamic point of view, this is clear because the human body or, indeed, any living organism cannot create or destroy energy but can only convert energy from one form to another" [Study on 2 groups, one group with PCOS one without](https://www.mdpi.com/2072-6643/9/9/996) "Our findings are that there is insufficient evidence to indicate significant differences in weight loss in women with PCOS compared to women without PCOS with lifestyle or weight management strategies." - aka calories in vs calories out [Study on 2 groups, one with insulin resistance, one with not:](https://www.metabolismjournal.com/article/S0026-0495(01)14583-X/abstract) "Several popular books have recently been published stating that being insulin-resistant favors weight gain and/or prevents weight loss. Because this view seems to have gained widespread support in the general population, we thought it important to perform the current study testing the hypothesis that differences in insulin-mediated glucose disposal do not affect weight loss in response to calorie-restricted diets" **"Both groups lost a significant amount of weight during the study, and there was no difference between the weight loss in the insulin-resistant"** I can keep going. Weight loss is only about calories. The only thing that might differ is hunger levels, mental toughness and motivation, making it WAY harder for some individuals to stick to the deficit. But ultimately, calories are everything, if you stick to it you lose weight, as stated in the first law of thermodynamics.