[BeeOfTheBird]

For a week, I've been eating approximately 1200 calories per day. That's 1200 carefully tracked calories of healthy foods--vegetables, fruits, eggs, whole grains, beans, lowfat milk & yogurt--coupled with moderate exercise (Wii fit workouts and walking) and lots of water and green tea. I eat about every three hours. Yup, I know all the old weight loss tricks--been there, done that. It's always worked for me in the past. But this time around, the scale has refused to move, and I've been weighing myself using both my analog scale and the scale in the Wii fit balance board. I mean, NO results. I'm glad to be making a change for my health, but frankly, I need to see some weight loss soon or I might just give up.

What's the deal? Should I be consuming more calories? I'm already going to try to consume more protein and calcium, which may be part of the problem (low-calorie proteins can be tough to work into my vegetarian diet, but I do make an effort with legumes, dairy, and soy products). I've heard that the heavier you are the more calories you should consume for weight loss, within reason obviously. I'm considering upping it to 1400 calories, but naturally I'm scared of thwarting my efforts.

The thing is that the 1200 calorie diet has worked for me in the past, and I can't understand why it isn't now. Some differences:
1) I recently quit smoking,
2) I'm under a lot of stress right now (school, money, moving into a new house),
3) Before I've usually used OTC supplements. CoQ10, B-complex vitamins, and yes, diet pills. This time I'm not.

Is a higher-calorie diet plan part of the solution? I'd prefer to avoid diet pills this time around, for health's sake. This is just getting REALLY frustrating...

[dragonfly21]

how long have you been at this for? 1200 is a bit low, i would start off more in the 1400 -1600 range, but it just may be taking longer for you to lose weight. Not great news i know- but it's exactly what I'm going through right now..

[kabaker]

Just keep doing what you are doing. Sometimes it takes a bit for the weight loss to start.

[Iconised Ghost]

I agree, it might need a bit longer than a week before we can throw it out If its still not working this time next week, you could try increasing it to around 1300 maybe, and increase the intensity of your workouts.