1200 Calories!!
 

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Everyone's metabolism is different, but at your height & weight 1200 calories per day is at the very low end in order to get the nutrients your body demands. All of the doctor's advice I have seen cautions not to go below 1200 calories per day without being monitored by a physician. Have you had your thyroid hormones checked? Are you including some "good" oils in your diet from olive oil or nuts? Are you putting on muscle, which is more dense, and losing fat and causing the scale not to move? Have you changed the batteries in your scale?

You may want to make an appointment with your doctor and discuss all of your concerns and have a through blood work panel done. Try finding a doctor who focuses on weight loss or nutrition.

How are do you only eat that many calories a day and still not be hungry? Are you taking an appetite supressant?

OMG! My body would eat me alive if I ate that few of calories!! Literally! LOL!! Okay, first of all you are in such a severe deficit your body is thinking there just isn't any food to eat so it HANGS onto every last calorie and stores it away as reserve. Now I know that you would think that your body will use up its fat stores first in times of starvation, but it won't. It will break down your lean muscle mass and even your organs because they have a higher nutritional value than fat. You may have lost 12 lbs in 3 weeks, but I can guarantee you that only a fraction of that was fat. It was probably 3/4 lean muscle mass and fluid and the remaining 1/4 fat. That's why they don't recommend you losing more than 2lbs in a weeks time, because it isn't going to be all fat you are losing. Find out your body's resting metabolic rate and it will tell you how many calories you burn every day by just sitting still. You will end up getting a number like 1400-1500 maybe even more. You should only be in about a 200-300 calorie deficit a day, meaning if your BMR is 1400 you shouldn't drop below 1100-1200. The more exercise you do, the more calories your body will burn and the more calories you will need to take in. Trust me, you're not going to get anywhere by starving. You may not feel hungry, but you are starving your body. It could be that your body is so used to being starved that your hunger drive has been supressed. If you don't take in adequate nutrition, you aren't going to be able to build lean muscle and burn fat, your body will hang on to every calorie and you won't make any progress. Once you start eating right, you may see a slight increase in your weight at first but once you begin to exercise, your body will re-calibrate itself and your metabolism will increase, enabling you to burn off fat and lose weight!! I know it's extremely hard to wrap your head around, because you figure the less you eat the more you will lose, but it doesn't work that way. Hang in there and don't get discouraged! Good luck!

What were you eating before you started dieting? Are you saying that even prior to dieting you didn't eat more than 1200 calories a day?

(I'm a former Jenny Craig CM, pardon my baby weight gain (lol) I really do know what I'm talking about...)

1. Are you sure you're counting your calories correctly? I know people sometimes think they are eating a certain number of calories but are actually eating more because they're misgudging their portion sizes, "forgetting things" etc.

2. What was your eating like before you started your weight loss plan? And what plan are you on now?