You don't want to starve yourself because eventually you will get very frustrated from being so strict with yourself that eventually you will binge. Strict diets also cause metabolism to crash. The body knows it is being starved so it will do what it can to protect itself and one way is by slowly down its metabolism.

Also, as Lori pointed out, hair and skin really take a beating with crash diets.

Hang in there.:)

You know, it's really unhealthy to get so low in calories. Your body will lose water weight quickly, but go into starvestarvestarve mode and you'll retain more than lose. Keep up with the 1200. I eat 1600 a day (and one day I up it a bit so I can splurge) and I lose. I'm not some kind of gladiator either, I walk but thats most of it. Lose weight on the safe side, and a pound a week really adds up. Hang in there!!!

I'm slow at weight loss only because of my own sabotaging but I'm 4 years into this. Whenever I lost weight fast though, I have to say it was when I was fueling my body rather than starving it.

I lost 9 lbs in the last 2 weeks. Average caloric intake is around 1700/day with one 'i didn't count you' meal. And also dealing with PMS as well.

I've gone months 'doing everything right' but not losing any weight. But my body can be very stubborn at times and so can my head.

Successful long term weight loss requires that you eat. You can lose weight starving yourself, most of the weight won't be fat though. It'll be muscle.

Also, the scale is only one measure of weight loss. My clothes fit a lot looser today than they fit a couple weeks ago.

A year seems like a long time, but it's going to pass anyway. Might as well be slim after a year with good eating habits built to last the rest of your life. Losing weight is just the first part - the shortest part. Keeping that weight off for a lifetime is the real challenge. Focus on your long term goal - slim, healthy, energetic for a lifetime.

I don't mean to scare you at all, but the biology student in me keeps wanting to speak up. Have you ever heard of ketosis?

When you eat too little food, or too little carbs for that matter, after a while your body will go into this mode. You're turning on your own muscle (protein). Your body catabolizes this (oh, what the heck.. "eats it"). This does a lot of damage to you. It's reversible of course, but to continue this way is really under anorexic behavior. It is the reason that heart failure affects long term anorexics. Your heart is made of muscle, and if you hang out in ketosis, it'll affect the heart, as well as the rest of your muscles.

You said you've been trying to reach for higher calories and I really do applaud you. Please caution any other women/men/losers you might know to not strive for low-low calories. It really does hurt the body.

Please, just hang in there. You will reach your goal, and it won't take that long. Seriously, you messed up your metabolism when you ate so little. That is why crash diets are so unhealthy and why doctors and nutritionist only put super morbidly obese people on such restricted calories. (And usually that is to get the patient ready for weight loss surgery.) Do you have something special you are trying to lose weight for? A wedding, or reunion or something? What is your hurry? I always try to look at the bright side when I'm at a slow loss stage in my diet...as long as I'm losing, I'm not gaining....

Nope no hurry... Just hate being fat! I have all these cute little clothes still from when I was 140 and i want to wear them again. I want to regain the "caring" about how I look. Right now I don't. I figure, why bother, even if I dress nice & do my make up, I'm still fat.... I'm just sick of it. I reached that point where I finally realized how fat I actually was and now I want to hurry up and get away from that as fast as I can! And generally, I'm an impatient person anyways. :-)

I totally understand being impatient. There are days that I'm there myself. Today is one of them! ;)

Just keep being healthy and it will come off ... even if it is slowly! :)

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Oh honey, I hear you on hating the fat! LOL You've come along way, and I bet in a week or so when you are in the 100's you'll have a whole new lease on life. Maybe you are just bummin because you are almost ready to see that magical #1 and the scale is playing a mind game with you!

Exercise will also help "speed it up." Diet and exercise go hand in hand when it comes to weight loss. Are you exercising?

No, I'm horrible, I'm not. I work 45 hours a week, go to school for 15 and have a husband & a 3 year old. Time to exercise unfortunately is pretty much non existant. I want to buy aDVD to keep at home for when I have 20 minutes here or there to exercise, any suggestions?

I hear ya, I work full time and go to school full time too, but no kiddos (thankfully). Keep in mind: If you dont have your health, you dont have much. You have to make time for things like that. It's very important to keep healthy.
Take a walk during lunch.
A video would be good, especially if you can get up before everyone else and not be bothered.

I think maybe stop thinking of the end as the magic number. It may take a year to get the weight off, but that would mean in 6 months (by spring), you'll be half-way there!!!!

I have also stopped trying to look at the scale as my magical success measurer. How are you FEELING? 231 to 204 must make a difference! Try picking up something that weighs 27 lbs and enjoy the fact you used to carry that around!!

Also, 500-700 calories sounds like starvation mode. I think your body probably started living off muscle and is trying to store that fat because it thinks of this as an emergency situation!!! Keep the calories up, and make sure to get your exercise, and you will be fine!!!! ;)