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So if I'm understanding your post correctly, you've been eating 1200-1400 kcal per day yet your weight has been stable at ~215 pounds. This either means: Your total daily energy expenditure (TDEE) is also around 1200-1400 calories per day, OR You're eating a lot more calories than you think. Let's explore each of these in more detail. Based on your height and weight, your TDEE should probably be 1800 to 2200 calories per day. Just your BMR or Basal Metabolic Rate (the number of calories your body burns per day just to keep you alive), should be ~1500-1800 calories per day. There are lots of reasons this could be lower, but for your TDEE to be 1300, you'd have to have a BMR in the neighborhood of ~900 calories per day or as much as HALF of what we'd expect. This would be exceptionally low considering your size. BMRs that low tend to only be seen in elderly frail women. To be clear, without having a metabolic test, we can't know for sure, but this does seem unlikely. A more logical reason for this discrepancy is that you're actually eating a lot more than you think. Calorie overestimation is extremely common (unlike extremely low BMRs), thus I lean toward this as an explanation. I have seen some suggestions stating that the magnitude of this may be as high as 40-50% underestimated. In other words, someone could think they're eating 1500 calories, but they are actually eating 2200+. So where do people go wrong? Misreading/misunderstanding nutrition labels. It's not uncommon for people to confuse a serving with a container of food. Sometimes, manufacturers will list a serving of something, but what you're actually eating may be 2 or more servings. Accepting as fact the calorie counts on nutrition labels. In the US, calorie counts on nutrition labels can be off by as much as 10% before manufacturers would be expected to adjust the calorie count. Keep in mind, though that manufacturers are self policing here and really don't have a lot on incentive to make sure these are correct. Many people simply guess at serving sizes, especially if it's a meal they made themselves. This can lead to wildly inaccurate calorie counts Also very common when they are making meals themselves is to just look up a calorie count for a similar food, but this also can be really inaccurate. Lots of people guess at amounts, thus you may think you're getting say 1 cup of a food, when it's actually 1.5 cups. Speaking of measuring by cups, this also is wildly inaccurate. To properly measure calories, you really need to weigh EVERYTHING you eat IN GRAMS. Any other method just isn't very accurate. I also wanted to touch briefly on your comment on exercise. While I think it's great that you're exercising, this really has nothing to do with weight loss. Lot;s of studies show that increasing energy expenditure through lower levels of exercise like you're getting typically leads to lowering your energy expenditure elsewhere throughout the day. This means you really have no increased calories burned and shouldn't think this means it's okay to eat more as a result.

p.s. tracking my calories is proving to be extra challenging with the amount of eating out im doing. i need to take the ridiculous amount of time to input all my food at these restaurants, or stop eating so much at said restaurants. neither if which i am willing to do. arg.

cookies. ate about ½ of each of the cookies in this Crumbl mini sampler pack (milk chocolate chip, lemon glaze and candy egg Brownie) 295 calories for what i ate (i.e., the peices on the plate)...at least thats what the Crumbl website says

Chicken Paprikash w/ quinoa

I echo all the above. Patience, you won't loose every week. You will stall a lot. Use the knowledge on this site. Ask anything and someone will have had that issue. Chapstick, laxatives and Biotin. Lack of liquids does terrible things to our bodies. Dry lips are bad. Waking with a dry mouth is scary. Going over a week without pooping is hurty.

Just wanted to drop in say...he's an idiot! Your a diamond so let that light shine! Then everything everyone else said ❤️

i've tried these picture calculators and am not entirely convinced they get the cal count right...especially with intricately-plated resto meals with those 10-ingredient sauce swooshes and crab-infused potato puffs lololololzzzzz. my own inquiry mind, ha! i like to know what calorie burn im at, and these days im on super-exercise mode, so i know im probably at a higher level than "normal". plus, i've sort of been trying to put on some weight since February, and my "unsuccessful-ness" of it all is starting to annoy me. (though secretly i kinda enjoy seeing a low number on the scale. sort of. kinda. i thinks. hello eating disorder!) ironically, i feel great. no health issues nor complaints. energy for days, and i can keep up (if not surpass) all the 20-somethings in class (p.s. im 53 this year). so i dunno.

I agree with @SpartanMaker eating more might sound crazy but it works! Resistance training has completely transformed my body. I started incorporating it around 4–5 months post-op, and the weight started dropping like crazy. My body looked significantly better compared to when I was just doing cardio. Around 6–7 months post-op, I added 30 minutes of running at least 5 days a week, and at that time, I was eating between 2,100–2,300 calories daily. Even with that intake, I was losing weight and had actually dropped below my goal weight. I had to take a break due to surgery, and during that time my weight fluctuated upward—which was really frustrating. Even though I cut my calories and kept my macros on point, the scale wasn’t moving the way I wanted it to. But now that I’m back to resistance training (I’m not cleared to run yet), my weight is slowly trending back down again. I say try it! If you would like some guidance I have a few circuits that I do and has worked really well! I am happy to share ❤️

sushi lunch!. (check-marked the items i ate! lol) 423 calories. plus shared a 350ml bottle of sake beforehand (so another 210 cals on top of that for a total of 633 cals)

I have been doing so much cooking lately so here’s a few meals. Pan seared tilapia, braised kale, masked potatoes, fried maduros, tzimmes. Roasted lamb and potatoes, braised kale, fried maduros, tzimmes. Honey sesame chicken breast, mixed vegetables with quinoa, roasted potatoes. Wholemeal apple and forest fruit hand pie.