No weight loss on 1200 cals a day

[MissAtomicBomb1]

So I'm 43, weigh 10st 5 and am 4ft 11

Started a half hearted diet after Xmas by cutting snack and skipping breakfast. Lost 3lb fairly quickly then nothing.
I would really like to shift another half a stone before my holiday in a few months so dropped my cals to 1200, logging cals on mfp, weighing portions etc.
Nothing in 2 weeks!! So disappointed as I'm trying so hard.

What do I do?

• drop cals further? (Seems dropping below 1200 a day isn't recommended though?)

• switch to something else e.g low carb/fasting

• eat more?!

Any ideas appreciated

Reduce carbs and increase veg by the same amount. Drink more water. Exercise more, doesn't have to be a lot to make a difference. A 10-minute walk around the block is better than nothing.

How active are you? With a sedentary lifestyle, at that weight and height your TDEE is just over 1400 cals a day. You need to be in the moderately active range AND eating 1200 cals a day to lose 1lb per week. You have my sympathies - being short is really hard when it comes to losing weight

I'm 5 foot 3 and don't start losing weight until cut down to 800 calories and walking at least 6k a day. It's shit.

Move more - walk 10k steps every single day and do 3 x 1 hr proper workouts a week.

Measure all your food and count all your calories in case portions and toppings are creeping up. Sprinkling just 3 shelled walnuts on top of a healthy bowl of greek yoghurt and berries would add an extra 80 calories.Drizzling a 'little' olive oil over a salad adds 120 calories a tablespoon - 10% of your entire daily intake. If you drink milky tea, it's easy to clock up an extra 200 cals on a few mugfuls.

I’m 5” and need to drop to 800 cals and exercise daily to lose weight. I lost 10kg in 12 weeks being really strict on 800cals and keto. When I eat ‘normally’ even healthily, I put on weight.

Weights. Only thing that works for me. Middle aged spread, maybe menopause BUT when I started doing kettle bell and smalls weights at home it fell off - quickly. I aim for 1200 a day but if I got over if I’m starving it’s not a huge issue.

5 times a week. I’m 45 and lost three stone last year doing this.

I didn’t faff about with elaborate low cal meals I just calorie counted and found my groove with what made me feel fuller for longer and avoided bread & pasta

Found you tube vids for arms, tummy and whole body kettle bell.

I’m 9 stone now and feel physically strong - better than when I was in my 30s and just ‘thin’

Stay off the scales ( at least fortnightly) Measure your body with take as you may see the difference there first

Perhaps try lowering the carb cals and upping the healthy protein ones.

Also, I stalled for 3/4 weeks after 2 or 3 weeks when I started. Apparently it's to do with our set point

Give it a little longer dont decrease any further and then watch your clothes fall of you and initially people saying, "you lost weight" and then the week after, "are you ok"!!
you don't want to lose too much weight too quickly

Thanks all, I do a couple of walks a week, plus have a job where I stand up and walk around all day. Will try adding in weights too.

I might give it another 2 weeks then see about dropping down further to 800
Honestly though I'm not sure that would be sustainable for me beyond a week or two. I mean how to you even get enough nutrition?!

For me 800 cals means I skip breakfast. I have an early lunch and early-ish dinner. So between 11.30/12 I'll have for example, two poached eggs, two turkey rashers and some fibre gluten free crisps breads. That's about 300 calories. Then for dinner I'll have a massive, finely chopped salad with tonnes of leaves and cucumber and tomatoes and either a tin of tuna, some feta or goats cheese or some grilled chicken breast. I dress it with just lemon juice or balsamic - no oil. For dessert I'll have a 10 cal jelly. I don't drink any calories at all through the week so black coffee and water only. Im taking vitamin d and vitamin c daily.

For the people who do an hour of exercise AND walk 10k steps - how do you find the time to do this if you work, have children, housework etc? I can usually only do one or the other.

Can I ask what size weights you use and any workouts you recommend?

Try intermittent fasting.

Reduce to 1000k, eat between 12pm and 8pm only.

I lost weight using the above method and relaxed a little on weekends a

Need to restart this tbh.

what are you eating?

cut out sweet stuff, highly processed food, margarine, vegetable oil, - this stuff makes your weight go up

Eat fresh vegetables.

avoid snacks, because they make your insulin spike, even if the number of calories is tiny

Do not eat artificial sweeteners - they also make your insulin spike

The fastest and easiest way is likely to be changing what you eat, eat far less carbs. Intermittent Fasting would be good too; time restrict your eating to a 6 hour window so you can have lunch at 1pm and dinner at 6pm.

You really don’t need to worry about nutrition in this day and age.

For example eggs contain everything our bodies needs except for vitamin c.

If you ate a couple of eggs a day and a handful or berries each week that is all the nutrition (in terms of vitamins and minerals) you need.

Fat and protein will keep you satiated long after you eat, and for many people carbs just make us more hungry.

None of this stuff.

I cut out UPFs a long time ago. Mostly cook my own meals so I know exactly what's in them.

Only eat breakfast 2-3 times a week & it's always a table spoon of Greek yoghurt, teaspoon of honey, 20g of granola & some berries. Around 250 cals

Lunch is soup or a salad 200 cals max

Dinner typically stuff I make for the family like chicken tikka wraps, sausages & lentils, chilli made with lean beef. I've started swapping rice for cauliflower rice & pasta for green beans. Usually 600-700 cals.

I do drink lots of tea & coffee with milk so I probably need to cut back & switch to skimmed.
Also have a couple of glasses of wine over the weekend but I'm not dropping those!

I definitely don't overeat or eat the 'wrong' things. The weight crept on after having a baby & then overeating in lockdown.
I've always been able to shift it easily just by cutting back for a while but I think as I've got older my base metabolic rate must have got lower. Plus the fact I'm so short. It's stubborn to shift!

I think maybe I'll have a look at intermittent fasting instead. Perhaps I need a different approach.

read "why we eat to much" by andrew jenkinson

That looks really interesting, thanks for the recommendation

There is nothing wrong with losing weight quickly as Fast800 has shown.

It's a bit of a myth about metabolic rate slowing with age - what happens is we become less and less active as we get older.

Second weights.
Please don't drop to 800 calories! I know you are quite short but you just wont get the nutrients you need and you'll be hungry and at risk for snacking.
I lost 1.5 stone last year and have kept it off, and when I hit plateaus I would increase my calories for a week by 300 - 400 a day (and make sure its decent stuff with the odd bit of cake) then go back to my weight lost cals, that always gave me a bit of a boost.
Can you up your protein intake and give yourself another 100 call or do to play with?
Hows your sleep and water intake?

I wouldn't change what you're doing. Stay consistent and it'll start to come off again.

Being active is what works for me. Weights, pilates, martial arts and running. I also stretch and use a foam roller at least once a week, so basically I do some kind of workout every single day, even the rest days are active recovery.

I don’t recommend buying kettle bells and just lifting them. We are lazy by nature and it’s easy to cheat. Structured classes with tempo guidelines work for me and help me push myself harder.

Walking everywhere also helps.

Up your steps. I’m 5ft 1 and eat 1200 but I have to burn over 2000 to lose so I need to do 15k steps a day plus