1200 calories is way too low for your level of activity. Your body is in what they call "starvation mode" where it is holding onto every pound for fear it may need to use it as fuel later on. The only way you're going to start to lose weight is to eat more calories everyday.
I know that sounds funny, because it goes against what we've been taught our whole lives: you have to practically starve yourself to lose weight. But it doesn't work that way. You have to feed your body enough *healthy* food to get it to finally let go of its "safety hold" on the fat.
I truly starved myself for a year at less than 800 calories a day. Did I lose weight? Yep, a bunch at first. And then I stopped losing, no matter how low I cut my calories and how much I worked out. And then... would you believe it... I actually started gaining, slowly, on 400 calories a day. My metabolism was so incredibly slow that it was hoarding every calorie I put in my mouth to store as fat.
I SLOWLY upped my calories to 1800 (which is the minimum most educated doctors recommend to not slow your metabolism) and stayed there for about a year until I started training for a half-marathon. Then I starting eating about 2100 and the weight was practically dropping off me (and not because of an increase in activity - I was doing roughly the same amount as before). My body thought 1800 was too little. So now I eat between 2000-2300 a day and average out at about 2100.
Still skeptical? You can't eat 1800 calories of McDonald's and lose weight. Nor can you eat 2 meals of 900 calories each and lose. It has to be small, healthy meals of lean proteins, steamed veggies, non-processed grains & fruits.
Good luck!
-------------------- Elizabeth
all those years it wasn't IBS - it was celiac!
send me an email: liz@dopple.net
Posts
Ah-ha!
