To think my fitness pal lies

[Poptart4]

I've been religiously logging everything and keeping within my 1200 cals per day but haven't lost a single pound. I'm now thinking that my fitness pal is giving me the wrong calorie information.

Do you trust they are right with the amount of calories they say are in your food?

Or maybe I need to eat less than 1200 to lose weight. For context I'm 5ft 4 and 10st 10lbs. I'd like to get back to 9 stone but losing hope as I'm getting no where.

Are you weighing absolutely everything and checking it against the nutritional information on the back of the packet or are you for example searching ‘carrot’ and guessing you have 100g? I used to do this and wondered why I was losing weight extremely slow.

Are you tracking things such as oil that you cook with and milk if you have tea/coffee? Stupid things add up such as a few small forkfuls of dinner whilst you are cooking to try it. If your BMR is only 150 calories above what you’re aiming for it won’t be hard to do at all because you only have very few calorie leeway before you’re accidentally over your 1200 goal.

People need to check and not blindly trust it. Once you find which one fits it stays so no need to check all the time, but if you are using something fir the first time, yes. Check.
Sometimes goods codes seem to be shared.
Pak choi logged as fatty german salami nit available in UK. That was bit of a heart attack😂

However, it shouldn't make THAT big difference overall.

Start exercising.

Like @Lemonsole I have only seen weight loss after my PT told me to stick to 1500 calories per day and at least 90g protein. Prior to that I was sticking to much lower calories, exercising and barely any protein and saw zero loss in months. I don’t track carbs but with those calories and protein goals I have found I don’t have much room left for excess carbs! I use MFP and I loosely check that the calories on there match the packaging of the food (e.g Greek yoghurt) and once you have input it once, you can just add from your history. I also scan the barcode in sometimes

Have a look at Team RH.
1200 is not sustainable.
I've lost a stone going from 11st to 10st eating 1700 cals a day. When my loss slowed I upped my steps from 10k to 15k. I also do 3 workouts a week lifting weights.
I track everything of mfp a typical day would be
45g all bran, almond milk, 60g raspberries 150g Skyr
Wholemeal bagel, 120g cooked chicken, salad, mayo or other condiment
Stir fry/pasta/burger/roast dinner/curry always with veg, lean protein and a carb like noodles, rice or potato
This leaves room for snacks, treats and drinks (ice cream, chocolate, fruit, crisps).
Are you sticking to the 1200 all week then having a cheat day at the weekend because this is quite common. You will be less likely to do this if you eat more through the week

I should add the gist of my post is don’t stop your calories- increase them- and up your protein. I saw lbs drop within a week so you will quickly know if it’s working for you!

It’s the only thing that works for me weight-loss wise. Are you inputting all the calories correctly?
Also, 1200 is not many cals at all. I’m the same height as you, smaller built (so lighter), and easily lose on 1200 (prob at least half a pound a week). I usually set it to 1300 as I tend to burn around 1600 a day (according to Fitbit). Maybe your body is in starvation mode & hanging on to the cals?

How old are you op? Sorry if I missed it. You are small and don't have a huge amount to lose. Calculators are all estimates.

For me, middle aged and a bit overweight proper exercise and lifting / weight training has really helped. I can eat more, not be starving hungry and look better than I have in a very long time.

I want to be able to enjoy life not be stuck on 1000 cal per day.

@idontlikealdi I'm 37.

Lots of great advice on this thread. Thank you everyone, I will try all suggestions.

Follow team RH on Facebook, you don't have to sign up to anything and the videos are a bit much sometimes but the advice is sound and works.

Basically 10 to 15k steps a day, 3x weight exercises a week, track everything and get your protein as high as you can and be in a calorie deficit. You'll mostly lose 2lb a week but it will stay off and he teaches you how to refeed after so you're not constantly yo yo dieting