Not losing weight in deficit - do I need to eat more?

[amyva95]

Help please!

I've been trying to lose weight for the last 2 months and nothing will shift!

I'm 23, 5 ft 3 and around 8 stone 9 lb, and I want to get down to 8 stone (particularly want to slim down  my thighs, hips and waist) . 

I go to the gym around 5 times a week, according to my fitbit my daily steps is normally between 15,000-20,000 and on the days I exercise my total calories burned is normally 2,300+ (about 400 normally burned from the actual gym). 

I've been eating 1200 calories a day for the past month and I haven't noticed a difference in my weight, measurements or muscles. For 2 months before this I was doing the 5:2 diet (2 days a week eating just 500 calories), but I stopped this as I felt like with exercising so much it surely couldn't be a good combination. 

Is 1200 calories a day not enough if I'm burning around 2300? Should I up my calories to say 1,500? 

I feel like I'm getting nowhere and it's really disheartening! 

[Dominique]

So you’re currently 121 lbs (which corresponds to BMI 21.4, i.e. puts you in the lower half of the normal weight range) and you want to go down to 112 lbs (which is BMI 19.2, i.e. close to the lower limit of the normal weight range). This means you don’t really need to lose weight for health reasons, and is confirmed by your wish to slim down thighs, hips and waist. Since you’re more interested in improving body composition than  in losing weight, I would focus more on resistance training (you only said you went to the gym 5 times a week, but didn’t mention what you are doing) and on your diet’s quality than on eating way too few calories given your activity level. You could very well eat a lot more, maintain your current weight and build the kind of muscles that will give you this "toned" look.

Even if you still want to lose weight in spite of all, you should be able to do while eating more than 1200 calories. Given that you’re likely quite lean already and that you only want to lose 9 pounds, you don’t need to be very aggressive: at one pound per week, you would be done in just over two months.

Also focus on stress management and getting enough quality sleep. Eating at a caloric deficit is a source of stress in and of itself, and an unnecessarily large deficit can cause even more stress (stress is a powerful inhibitor of weight loss). 

[WavyDavey]

And when you do add resistance training, you may want to up the calories in a bit.

[bikerhiker]

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@amyva95 wrote:

Help please!

I've been trying to lose weight for the last 2 months and nothing will shift!

I'm 23, 5 ft 3 and around 8 stone 9 lb, and I want to get down to 8 stone (particularly want to slim down  my thighs, hips and waist) . 

I go to the gym around 5 times a week, according to my fitbit my daily steps is normally between 15,000-20,000 and on the days I exercise my total calories burned is normally 2,300+ (about 400 normally burned from the actual gym). 

I've been eating 1200 calories a day for the past month and I haven't noticed a difference in my weight, measurements or muscles. For 2 months before this I was doing the 5:2 diet (2 days a week eating just 500 calories), but I stopped this as I felt like with exercising so much it surely couldn't be a good combination. 

Is 1200 calories a day not enough if I'm burning around 2300? Should I up my calories to say 1,500? 

I feel like I'm getting nowhere and it's really disheartening! 

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Exercising 5 days a week is "NOT" going to help you lose weight.  Exercise is to create the potential for fitness, whereas rest is to realize that potential.  The key to effective cardio and strength training exercise is to have a lot of rest, so your body will have time to repair and grow lean muscle mass and allow you to perform your exercises with more speed, strength and endurance, thus allowing you to create even more caloric deficit and allowing burning of fat as part of its fuel source.  I think what you are doing now is that you are thinking in terms of calories in and calories out.  The problem with this notion is that our human body does not act like a machine and it certainly does not behave like it because it is biological.  A human body will not burn fat when it is subjected to physical and mental stress and exercising so much without allowing it to rest will cause the body to conserve its body fat.  

The key to losing weight is to help promote the body burn body fat and you can only do so by being patient, eating healthy by getting enough macros, nutrients, minerals and vitamins that you need for your activities.  Otherwise, you can potentially let your body breakdown, lower your metabolism and exposes you to potential illness and unforeseen injuries when you get tired going about your day.