900 calories a day

[BroadDaylight]

I run around 100 miles a month and do a 30-minute HIIT three times a week, and 15 minute dumbbell workout every morning.

I eat healthily, no junk food, nothing processed and cook from scratch. I log my food and my daily calories are between 1200-1500 a day but I'm just maintaining, even with exercise.

I am still a stone (maybe a little more) overweight and it's making me depressed. I can't shift it.

I've read that because of my height (5'1) I need to reduce my calories to 800-900 per day, has anyone had success this way?

You need to weigh every morsel that goes into your mouth. Not being sarcastic but there is no way someone with your activity level is maintaining on 1200-1500 per day. My 4 ft 10 cousin with PCOS and hypothyroidism has a similar activity level to you but weighs approx 7 stones and she maintains on 1600!

I’m really shocked you’re not losing weight.
Are you actually weighing everything? Logging everything ?
Saying that you’re doing 5k p/d which is around 300calories. So not as much as you would think.

Also how much do you actually weigh

I weigh everything, gram for gram. :( I even log my 1 morning black coffee which accounts for 4kcal.

I'm just maintaining and it's so frustrating, I increased my running mileage and it didn't make any difference either.

How long have you been stuck on the last stone?

Prior to this plateau, I lost 3.5 stone, luckily I realise how important it is to log every single thing. It's just this last stone that won't shift :( I worry my metabolism is screwed?

You really need to look up "Team RH" on Facebook. They explain it all brilliantly.

How much do u weigh OP?
I'm short too and not overweight but would like to be a bit slimmer. I find it really hard to lose weight although am quite a bit less active than you!
Maybe you dont need to lose weight?

On 900 kcal your metabolism will be much more screwed.

Maybe your metabolism is off kilter.
I mentioned not being able to lose a final stone to my GP and she told me to eat whatever I wanted for one weekend in order to kick start my metabolism into thinking “ bloody hell, calorie overload here, need to ramp up to burn those calories.”
Sounds like you’ve plateaued. There’s no point reducing your calories as your metabolism will slow down even more.

How long have you been stuck on the last stone?

Around 7/8 months, I thought it may start to come off gradually, even 1lb a month I'd be delighted with.

What are you eating for your calories? Are you eating lots of carbs?

Is that stone to get into the healthy range or are you there already?

You absolutely are not eating what you say you're eating. No way, no how, not possible. If what you've said it true then you need to urgently seek medical treatment - I'm not kidding. You're very, very, very unwell if you're correct.
I'm your height, I was 80kg and I'm now 50kg. I ate 1400 calories per day at the start of my weightloss, and 1300 towards the end. I lost the weight very rapidly. I can maintain at around 1700-1900 depending on the day.
We do a similar amount of exercise I think.
Either you need to reassess or seek medical attention.

What sort of running do you do? Do you just plod along at a slow pace or do you do, for example, interval training to burn more calories?

Also, how much muscle would you say you have? Muscle really helps the body burn through calories.

What’s your carb g per day? I was diagnosed with type 2 earlier this year and limit my carbs to no more than 100g per day and around 1200 calories so far I’ve lost over 4st and got my glucose levels down to within normal range.

My BMI is 24 so I'm at the upper end of healthy, but the thing is I have quite a bit of obvious subcutaneous fat around my middle still, 10-14 lbs definitely still needs to go, it's not healthy.

You need to fuel the fire, have you tried upping your cal?

Are you sleeping enough? And letting your body rest sufficiently. I never lose weight on days I exercise but plenty Bon the days I don't. Which is very odd

No or very few carbs. More good fat. Look up Keto and stick to it. Sometimes a switch around will get things moving again

Look up reverse dieting. I can't explain it very well but it might help you. You do sometimes need to eat more to fuel your workouts properly so you can burn off more. Have a look at Courtney Black on Instagram. She's a personal trainer running insane live hiit sessions (sometimes twice daily) so she's very fit and she's maintaining on 2000 calories at 5'2. Her workouts are very effective (is your hiit actually hiit?) What do you do with your weights also?

Are you tracking your measurements also?

Try eating at maintenance for a month or so. It's likely that as you've been calorie restricting for a while your body has come to expect this reduced amount and has reacted accordingly. Apparently eating at maintenance can reset this.

You are starving yourself. Very dangerous.

I run every day, around 40 miles a week so about 150-200 miles in a month. I'm not fast but the whole run is cardio heart rate as a minimum. I do no other exercise (apart from walking). So perhaps comparable to you given you HIIT every week on top of running.

I'm 162cm, which is 5 foot 3 and three quarters (to be pedantic!). My BMI is usually between 24-26 I would maintain on 1200-1500 calories. To lose I aim for 800-1000 calories. Which I find entirely doable even when running every day.

I'm not dieting right now, but when I am:

I am very careful to make every calorie I eat "worth it" though. I don't eat any sugar (inc fruits) or processed carbs. I will have wholegrain carbs the day before a long run though, but that's the only time I have -carbs. I aim for 7-10 vegetable portions a day and always have at least 1 portion of pulses in that. Most of my meals are 75% above ground vegetables and 25% lean protein.

I don't have breakfast and don't snack between meals. I don't drink alcohol and drink at least 3 litres of water a day. My downfall is coffee, which I love. But I use artificial sweetener, not sugar.

What are you eating? Dairy stops me losing and so does alcohol even if I stay under calories