Eating 1200 Calories and NOT Losing Weight? Here’s Why.
Still eating 1200 Calories and not losing weight? Read on to learn why.
If you are eating 1200 calories and not losing weight, I understand why you are frustrated. You’ve probably been told that eating 1200 calories and not losing weight is not possible– you must be doing something wrong. You’ve probably told yourself you need to add more cardio. You’ve probably thought about even cutting those calories lower- am I right? DON’T! If you are eating 1200 calories and not losing weight, there is a reason! Based on what I’ve learned, 1200 calories is TYPICALLY too low for most women ESPECIALLY if you are working out in addition to eating 1200 calories. Where this idea came from about the 1200 calorie a day diet I don’t know- but use this blog post as your red flag. The reason you are eating 1200 calories and not losing weight is because you are likely undereating and overtraining like I did for years — you PROBABLY. need to slowly up your calories through a reverse diet (I suggest you do this through a qualified trainer….I recommend Alex Mazzurco who I used– you can inquire with her here) and heal your body. You’ll be surprised how your body will recover and rebound when it is FUELED!! We’ll get into that later in this post. Just know that LIKE YOU– I too was once eating 1200 calories and not losing weight. I too was frustrated and angry. But I learned why it wasn’t working. In this post I’ll share what I’ve learned has worked and how I have now transformed my body at age 52 and recently lost 24 inches and 18+ pounds and am still losing and will likely hit. my goal weight of 138 in the next month or so! EASILY– the way it should be. Weight loss should be a death sentence and 1200 calories a day is close to it. Let’s dive in and learn why 1200 calorie a day diets are not a good idea anymore, shall we?
Why you are eating 1200 calories and not losing weight.
Before we go any further, I want to say that I’m writing this post from MY EXPERIENCE. Everything here is written in my OPINION. I’m not writing this as if this is in medical journal– this is my opinion based on a lot of reading and data and information from trainers and doctors– so you do with it what you will, my goal is always to help you make better informed decisions, not to suggest that I am the only right perspective out there.
The reason you are (probably) eating 1200 calories and not losing weight is– if you are like I was for years– you are probably UNDEREATING (1200 calories is incredibly low, that’s the lowest anyone should go for daily caloric intake) and OVERTRAINING.
If you are exercising daily 4-6x a week and burning even 200-250 calories, you are overdoing it and your body is in WTH mode.
Whether you call it “starvation mode” or cortisol-is-getting-jacked-up mode or whatever, things are NOT GOOD. Your body is not being taken care of…..and ultimately, IT WILL FIGHT YOU BACK.
You’ll start to gain weight around your middle. That’s the cortisol/stress reaction. It happened to me. Your body and your mind are STRESSED THE HELL OUT that you are so active and UNDERFED and then — you are probably wigging out every day WORRYING ABOUT YOUR WEIGHT– so you are adding extra anxiety– and THAT is affecting your cortisol. This becomes a hurricane of bad hormonal activity underneath the skin.
If you add in anything else like taking antibiotics, birth control pills, anti-depressants, or any other kinds of prescribed drugs….that plus any kinds of fake foods with bad chemicals…..that plus all the lovely environmental factors affecting our hormones….you’ve got a tsunami of madness going on preventing your body from performing as it should.
Crazy right? IT ALL ADDS UP. But see, this is the BIG PICTURE stuff that we all don’t think about — for years I ONLY thought about my workouts and my calories.
It took me years to understand the “bigger picture” part of things…..how much my anxiety and my STRESSING OUT ABOUT MY BODY and losing weight was ADDING TO THE PROBLEM and jacking up my cortisol and messing up my hormones. I didn’t realize that because I was on The Pill and Spironolactone, my testosterone was suppressed and that was making it very hard to lose fat. I didn’t know that all the antibiotics I was on were creating a nightmare in my gut. I didn’t realize that 2 hours of training a day was overtraining. I didn’t realize how much of a binge eater I had become. I didn’t realize a LOT. I hope that by sharing here– I help a lot of YOU wake up. The more we talk about these things the more we can get past them.
The bottom line is this– starving ourselves or close to it and overtraining and being obsessive about our weight loss is a road to destroying our health. I was DESTRUCTIVE to my body for years and had to UNDO a lot…..I want to SAVE YOU TIME!! Don’t make the mistakes I did! Stop eating too little! Eat more! Lift heavy- focus on rest and recovery and self-care…..you’d be amazed what that will do for you.
In my future blog posts, I will go into greater detail on what that looks like. In other words– how do we get away from this diet culture that’s been around for decades of 1200 calorie diets (there is nothing wrong with a diet ok??) and get to a place where we respect and understand our bodies more and give ourselves more GRACE and TIME and understanding and stop the whole COMPARISON thing…..these are all lessons I have learned and practices I’ve adapted that have helped me tremendously in my “new” life.
I’m not the overwhelmingly insecure woman I was 3 years ago. I’m happy to share how I got here. So be sure you are subscribed– I’d love to take you with me.
Tell me where you are right now– are you currently dieting and eating a really calorically LOW diet? Does it freak you out the idea of a reverse diet and healing? Or do you know that’s what you need? What questions can I answer? Let’s stop treating ourselves like crap and running ourselves in the ground all for the sake of losing weight. Fitness is supposed to be FUN. I’m losing weight now and — I’m eating foods I LOVE, enjoying adult beverages, working out actually less than ever, loving my life and feeling GREAT..this is how it should be!! No more feeling dead to the world and stressed out all the time! Cheers to that!!!
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