Starvation mode? And skipping breakfast? Help!

[balenciaga]

I only want to lose about 5 to 7 lbs, just got a bit of baby blubber to shift. have been calorie counting religiously for about a month and have only lost about 2lbs :(

I'm trying to eat around 1200 - 1500 a day on mfp and also walking around an hour a day so am inputting that in as well and taking into account the extra calories I can have from the exercise

I'm also not having breakfast til at least midday as trying to stick to eating between 12 and 8 (the 8 hour diet) and also because the later I eat breakfast the easier it is to eat less after that

But why am I not losing weight? Am I eating too little so I'm in starvation mode? Or is it because I'm not having breakfast? There's so much conflicting advice everywhere, Feeling so despondent

Anyone?

Hi, I don't really know a great deal but wanted to post what I think.

I think you need to check what calories you should be having in order to lose weight. I am 5ft 4, 9 stone 3 and would like to lose another 4lb, if I want to do it in a couple of weeks I am looking at around 1000 cals with 3-5 sessions of exercise a week. If I ate 1500 cals I probably wouldn't lose anything at all. There are lots of online calculators you can use.

www.healthyweightforum.org/eng/calculators/calories-required/

Be careful with this calculator as the level of exercise you would need for a moderate lifestyle is 3-5 high impact hours a week so do over estimate that part.

With the exercise I would be careful as presumably it depends on how fast/far you are walking in that hour for how many calories you burn, given that it is not high impact exercise do you need to eat those calories extra? (forgive me if that advice is wrong - I am no expert)

It really depends on whether you actually need to lose lbs or do you need to tone up, I was at my lowest weight but still had baby blubber, no amount of weight loss was shifting that, now I can be a good 1/2 stone heavier and look slimmer with smaller waist and hips.

Zany makes a good point about exercise. I do about 6-8 hours of high impact exercise a week - I couldn't do any more and work as well . It's a big commitment to fitting it all in. I aim to get at least 500 calories from every session and I don't eat the calories I gain from it.

Most weight loss comes from diet, not exercise, and it's harder to lose a little bit than a lot IME. You need to do 1200 cals a day max plus your walking to see a difference. Even with the weight loss, you may still be flabby, so you might like to find an exercise you enjoy to get the tone and definition back.

I have lost half a stone since 1 April on this regime (8st 13lb to 8st 5lb). I'm taking off another 5lb and I expect that to take some time.

I don't know much about the 8 hour diet but leaving breakfast until 12 o lock can't be good! Especially eating quite late in the evening.

I think if you have a good healthy / hearty breakfast in the morning, then have a medium lunch and then small dinner with perhaps a healthy snack inbetween will be much better - keep your metabolism up.

Your body needs food!

This is only from my experience - I spent years 'dieting' cutting calories etc. But as soon as I started eating healthily and regularly, cutting the junk out completely and regularly exercising - it came straight off!

Everyones different so I guess you have to do what works for you :-)

Mfp is incredibly generous in terms of exercise calories. Something to be aware of, perhaps?