I'm not in a rush to lose weight I would rather lose it consistently and slowly than lose it fast but gain it all back. I've been eating 1500-1600 calories a day and this week the scale didn't move. Usually I excise as well. An hour long exercise class 4-5 times a week. Since I haven't been excerising this past week (I had a really bad cold) do you think that could be a factor? Maybe I need to eat less on the days I don't exercise. 1200 calories a day is really low for me though and I don't know if its doable long term. I'm 5' 5" 152 pounds.

Sometimes when I am sick the scale won't move no matter what I do. Have you gone over to the freediet.com website and looked at their calorie calculators? That is where I get my calorie goals from.

Don't judge it by 1 week. And when you have a cold, your body holds onto water (hello congestion). Just keep doing what you are doing. 1200 is really low.

Yeah 1200 is quite low, persist with it and see what happens after another week or so.

Personally, I'd stick with the 1500 - 1600 cals you're doing. For me, 1200 calories was starvation. But then again, I need a lot of food volume, so for me it was.

And think of it this way. You need something you can live with. Forever. Maintenance won't be that much different than what you're doing now - maybe just a few hundred more calories. Please don't live a diet of deprivation. Take it from me. It will only backfire in the end, and then you find yourself drifting from diet to diet. If I could take back the years of doing that, I would.

When i was in weight loss mode i usually ate 1200 - 1500 although 1200 was pretty low id be reaaally hungry if i didnt plan out filling low cal foods all the time. Dont waste half your calories on say a slice of cake cause then your going to be hungry the rest of the day and will only have like 700 cals left for the entire day. 1500 is way easier to do longer term but you can cycle between a range to mix things up