I don't think you tried eating more for long enough. If you were undereating for several weeks, you will need several weeks of eating enough to offset that. Go back to the 1500 (or more; are you using the tools to make sure your deficit isn't over 1000??) and stick with it or up it occasionally. Your body is HUNGRY and that's why it won't let go.

Yes, I'm perfectly comfortable now saying that I didn't lose weight because I ate too little. I think many, many women now realize that they've done the same. You have to do it right or you will stall/not lose. Our bodies WANT to survive!!

what kind of foods do you eat on the prism plan? how much water do you drink? what are your ratios for fat, protien, and carbs?

To maintain your weight you need 2080 calories a day. You should only have a 500 calorie deficit so you should eat around 1580 a day, minimum.

A week isn't long enough to give your body a chance to correct itself.

Don't give up, keep working hard, you'll get to where you want to be!

I have no medical problems and have been told by a dr. in the past that 1200 is an okay calorie intake to lose weight. I don't eat bad carbs, I eat lots of fruit, veggies. I looked on my pie chart for the last 7 days and it said an average of 19 fat, 22 protein, 25 carbs. However sometime I add  manually to my calorie counter and it does not account for those items so I don't know how inaccurate it is. I follow the prism food list. It tells you what you should be eating and how much of it to have a balanced day.

Do you always weigh yourself on the same scale?  If so maybe try weighing in on a different one just to be sure.

It's very satisfying to see pounds come off, but you should be measuring yourself to see if you are losing inches.  A lot of people lose inches while the scale doesn't budge, and then 'woosh' when the scale finally moves.   Muscle weighs more than fat, so you could be adding muscle and burning fat and remain close to the same weight.   Measuring your body to see if you are losing inches is the better metric to see if you are making progress.

Good luck :)

Original Post by becomingjessie:

 have been told by a dr. in the past that 1200 is an okay calorie intake to lose weight.

 But I think a lot of doctors are actually rather ignorant about the total picture of weight loss. I have been a fairly knowledgeable medical consumer for years and it wasn't until joining CC that I learned about eating ENOUGH. Doctors keep up in many things but there is no way they can keep up in everything, and even something this simple could take time to penetrate the nutrition guidelines that are re-written for docs periodically. 1200 is the MINIMUM healthy allowance for a women; docs know that. The rest of the stuff may be information learned since they have had their training. If you bring this up, a good doctor will take tiime to find out more and get back to you. He won't just brush it off as "distorted internet information."

Good luck.

Edit: I should say I could never understand how I could be so active and not lose weight when I would a lot eat less. After a week of nothing happening, I'd assume it just wasn't going to work and I would go back to normal eating, and I wouldn't gain but I wouldn't lose, either. Now I realize I was eating too little and not giving myself enough time. But to starve for a week and see nothing change--that was depressing! I bet a lot of people have done that and thought, "well, I guess I just cannot lose!!" I think understanding about the deficit and its healthy limit is critical and fairly unknown among the general public.

By the logic you guys are using it would be impossible to starve to death because you can't lose weight on a low calorie diet.

No matter how her body is adjusting to her diet it is finding energy to run.  If she was burning muscle you'd still see weight loss.   The real answer is you are making mistakes on the logging of your calories or you are mistaken about your daily burn.  There is no magical answer, there is no voodoo trick of the body.  You aren't losing weight because you don't have a caloric deficit. 

I'm making no statement on the health of a low calorie diet vs. a reasonable caloric deficit.  But it is a logical fallacy to imply that too much of a caloric deficit results in no weight loss.  You guys have warped truth into silliness.

Truth:

A diet that is too low on calories (The in) will result in a reduction in total calories burned (The Out).  As a result of "The in" being too low "The out" will drop when their ceases to be a deficit you cease to lose weight.

Lie:

There is a daily caloric deficit of over 1000 for an extended period and the person fails to lose weight.

  It has never happened in the history of the universe and it never will. 

Original Post by tisroc:

By the logic you guys are using it would be impossible to starve to death because you can't lose weight on a low calorie diet.

No matter how her body is adjusting to her diet it is finding energy to run. If she was burning muscle you'd still see weight loss. The real answer is you are making mistakes on the logging of your calories or you are mistaken about your daily burn. There is no magical answer, there is no voodoo trick of the body. You aren't losing weight because you don't have a caloric deficit.

I'm making no statement on the health of a low calorie diet vs. a reasonable caloric deficit. But it is a logical fallacy to imply that too much of a caloric deficit results in no weight loss. You guys have warped truth into silliness.

Truth:

A diet that is too low on calories (The in) will result in a reduction in total calories burned (The Out). As a result of "The in" being too low "The out" will drop when their ceases to be a deficit you cease to lose weight.

Lie:

There is a daily caloric deficit of over 1000 for an extended period and the person fails to lose weight.

It has never happened in the history of the universe and it never will.

I needed to hear something different! Thank you. I would be extremely surprised if I was making a mistake in my calorie counting.  I do however wonder about the accuracy of my burn.  It seems to me that you agree that my metabolism has slowed down, right? What do you suggests?  Burn more, eat less, that is all I know how to do.   I don't understand all the middle stuff people are always talking about.  Even if I was eating too little and my body for a period of time tried to hold on to it's beloved fat, sooner or later it would have to say, "just let her have it". Right?

Someone else suggested I start measuring myself and I have been only on a monthly bases but I will do it more often and see what happens.  However a pound is a pound and muscle does not weigh more then fat.  A pound of muscle simple take up a lot less room then a pound of fat and that is why you can lose nothing and still drop in inches.

Amen tisroc!!!! I dropped 42 lbs in a matter of 3 months previously starving myself ( I don't recommend) but my point is the body will use the stored fat. In my case it did not take long to let go of it. The thing that kept me sane is that I weighed myself only once a month. I was going to a weight loss doctor and did not own a scale so I only got weighed when I went. I remember a 15 lb loss the first month and 14 the second and 13 the third it then took me 3 months to lose the last 10. So you will lose the weight at 1200 a day. I predict you will step on the scale one day and see a big loss. Quit sweating it and keep counting calories and getting some activity.

Original Post by r4eboxer:

Amen tisroc!!!! I dropped 42 lbs in a matter of 3 months previously starving myself ( I don't recommend) but my point is the body will use the stored fat. In my case it did not take long to let go of it. The thing that kept me sane is that I weighed myself only once a month. I was going to a weight loss doctor and did not own a scale so I only got weighed when I went. I remember a 15 lb loss the first month and 14 the second and 13 the third it then took me 3 months to lose the last 10. So you will lose the weight at 1200 a day. I predict you will step on the scale one day and see a big loss. Quit sweating it and keep counting calories and getting some activity.

Speak it!!!!  Are you male or F?  Men lose much faster them women.  I lost 13 the first month. I'm not sure I could lose that much this months since it is almost over and I have lost nothing.   I think my problem is the scale, it has so depressed me.  Did you measure yourself during the month to see if you had dropped inches? You said you would not recommend this to anyone, why?  I feel very satisfied on this 1200.

A limit on the maximum energy transfer rate from the human fat store in hypophagia is deduced from experimental data of underfed subjects maintaining moderate activity levels and is found to have a value of (290±25) kJ/kg d. A dietary restriction which exceeds the limited capability of the fat store to compensate for the energy deficiency results in an immediate decrease in the fat free mass (FFM).

S.S. Alpert Journal of Theoretical Biology Volume 233, Issue 1, 7 March 2005, Pages 1-13

Original Post by becomingjessie:

Even if I was eating too little and my body for a period of time tried to hold on to it's beloved fat, sooner or later it would have to say, "just let her have it". Right?

To me the quesiton is how long is "sooner or later" I'm sure it's different for different people. Unfortunately it's harder to get the nutrition (ie vitamens and what not) you need on fewer calories.

Original Post by becomingjessie:

 

However a pound is a pound and muscle does not weigh more then fat. A pound of muscle simple take up a lot less room then a pound of fat and that is why you can lose nothing and still drop in inches.

I think the full statement is "muscle weights more than fat per square inch" (or whatever volume you want to use). It's just that last phrase gets dropped. I have used the shorter phrase before (just a few minutes ago actually), but never intended to say that  pound of anything weights more than a pound of anything else.

Good luck!

becomingjessie:

I don't think you should reduce your calorie intake at all.  I don't believe going below 1200 would be healthy.  And as some suggested you could go to 1500, BUT and this is my point of contention raising your calories will NOT cause you to lose weight no matter h ow many people on this board are in some irrational denial.

You must increase your burn any way you can.   If time is limited you must do hard exercise with the time you have if you have more time everyday then you can do less intense cardio over a longer period of time.   Also try to burn an extra 100-200 calories a day just being active during the day whenever possible.  I have a very senditary job and I know that can be difficult but the answer to your problem is to become active, and it won't just be for when you are losing weight you are going to have to do it the rest of your healthy life.

To meklor or whatever name was:

Nobody is telling her to starve to death so get off your high horse.  If you aren't one of the people telling poeple to increase their intake as a solution to losing weight then I wasn't referring to you.  It's a basic math formula and it is boggling that people manage to confuse it.  Putting more "IN" without increasing the "OUT" will not result in weight loss, ever. 

She is already on the low side of the IN and I agree 1500 may be a better number, BUT at her current burn she is not losing at 1200, activity levels must increase.

For Further Discussion:

Starvation Mode - the process by which your body burns less calories each day as the result of insufficient intake.  The IN & OUT formula doesn't change, just one of the variables changes.  The Out decreases as the result of insufficient IN.

Plateau - Out & IN are equal. That's it nothing more nothing less.

This board would be far more helpful to people and their success if people would just learn those two simple things and stop sabotaging people's routines.

melkor, I'm female. I have to say that this diet for me (10 years ago YIKES) was the most unhealthy thing I have EVER done to myself. Everyone remember phen-phen. Well I took the phentermine part of it. Only took the pondomin sp? part a few times. I worked a job where I walked 10 hrs a day, the diet pills speed my metabolic rate way up. I remember getting dizzy in the shower. I took these pills on and off for 5 years, so yes they are addictive. I had a baby and began spinning into a DEEEPP depression. I was hospitalized 3 times. Counting calories is the only way for me now. Oh and I now have high blood pressure and heart palps occasionally too. STAY AWAY FROM ANY KIND OF DIET PILL, it is not worth it.

oops, i mean becomingjessie... melkor is in so many posts.

This time I started my weight loss at 212 (10 years ago I was 172) so I gained 30 lbs on top of the weight I dropped the wrong way. I am  at 180 right now. The first 10 lbs I lost was over a 2 year period (yes 2 years) then last year I lost 10 and so far this year 12 more. I'm on 1350 a day. Stay focused, just don't give up because the past month the scale has been unkind. It will become a friend again. I would like to add you as a friend and we can bad mouth the scale together HEE HEE. Good luck. I know you will make goal, in your time.