I've hit rock bottom and I can't take this anymore... it's depressing

johnnyr24

It's killing me here I just can't take this anymore. I have hit rock bottom. 1 month going on 2 months of solid 1 hour workouts each and everyday and you mean to tell me I have not lost weight or not that much? I eat so much salads and vegetables everyday you might as well call me a vegetable itself! Today (well yesterday by now) I took my shirt off and took a good look in the mirror and I didn't like what I saw one bit. I hate myself for it.

I hate man boobs and double chins I just want them to go away forever. When I was growing up my dad used to tell me if I kept eating I would end up looking like a blow fish which in return made me depressed so I kept eating to my depression. But I started working out and in the back of my head I can hear the words "look like a blow fish" in my dads voice follow me so this motivates me to work out even harder so that I can someday prove to my dad that his words were false.

The scale goes up and down so somewhere I must be losing weight I just can't get it to go down from the 200 mark. Today I weighed in at 201 lbs. I used to weigh 140 back when I was a teenager in High School. I just don't know what else to do. Some days I feel like just giving up others I keep reminding myself that if I work hard I shall reap good results for all my hard work. What keeps you going? What helps you? Cause my motivation level is back down to zero. I need advice please

MyChocolateDiet

just keep doing it. the results will all of a sudden surprise you one day if you have a "whoosh".

scorpiophoenix

Are you logging everything you eat? Do you do cardio to burn more calories? That's what I do and I keep going because it's been working. Feel free to add me if you want. It doesn't all have to be salads and harsh workouts.

pdxwine

The first thing, I would recommend, will sound hard. You need to kick the negative thoughts to the curb. You need to have positive thoughts (not hating what you see, or beating yourself up for not being at goal.

You mentioned that you eat a lot of salads and vegetables. What is in the salads? What other foods are you eating? Perhaps you are not getting the proper nutrition?

What type of workouts are you doing? It may be that you have added muscle?

Have you spoken with your Dr. for their advice?

Have faith in yourself. You can do it.

50sFit

You lose the battle if you quit, so make sure you're following the MFP recommendations for slow, steady and lasting weight loss. The results will come.
I know!

johnnyr24

Thank you all for the responses. I should consider logging more of what I eat this is where I feel I lack. Mostly I eat chicken salads or I try to eat like chicken with veggies or something. Either I forget to log what I eat or I just don't because I didn't think logging salads and veggies was all that important but I will have to get into that habit of logging stuff.

I do loads of cardio which is what I do most of. I got the 30 day shred by Jillian Michaels but I like to mix it up a bit. Sometimes I do 30 day shred other days I do jump rope and running outside. I'm not so sure about building muscle since I don't really do weight lifting so much mostly I just do my cardio workouts. But I always do my workouts everyday for an hour.

LeslieTSUK

Sits and waits for the MFP'ers that will say..
Your not weighing everything.
Your not logging everything.
Must be conning yourself.
Must be lieing.
Less calories in than out.

But honestly, talking as somebody that has been through same thing, depression and stress themselves can stop you loosing weight.

I found trying to loose weight to prove a point never worked for me, nor did trying to loose weight for health or other people.

If I was totally honest I wouldnt be slowly loosing weight now, but I have a goal I want to achieve and I know if I am over weight it will be used against me so am doing it to take that scenario out of the equation.

Don't be hard on yourself, take each day as it comes, keep doing your exercising, and sheesh live a little, have some of your favorite foods.

Loosing weight is not about dieting, it is about changing your life, adopting a style that makes you happy and that you can do over the next 10, 20, 30, 40, 50 years.

Do your diary in advance, make meals your going to enjoy, and try chill out, rome wasnt built in a day, it took a long long time.

You can do it, and you know you can, relax and enjoy it as best you can.

ingasmile2

Until you get in the habit of weighing and measuring your food and drink you will not know if you are eating at a deficit to lose weight. Working out does only about 20% of weight loss, 80% is eating at a deficit.

Do you even know how many calories you are supposed to be eating everyday??

Seems like you think that one hour of working out and eating "salads" is going to make you lose weight.

I am losing weight and yet I eat no salad at all. It is all about the deficit.

Inga

libbydoodle11

You will get there. Keep plugging away. It takes determination, you will pull through. Maybe try changing up your workout routine, cooking more of your meals and logging your food. If the scale doesn't seem to budge start recording your measurements so you can look back and actually see your progress. Take a new pic each month. This may also help to see how far you have come when you start to feel out of sorts. Keep going. You are worth all of the effort.

trungalung

You are your own biggest motivator so stop being so hard on yourself. Take before and progressing pictures. Try to find the smallest details in those pics and keep telling yourself you're making improvements. Weight is not everything since it fluctuates a lot. Use other methods like measurements, body fat percentage, and most important of all - how you particularly feel health wise.

I was stuck at 178 lbs for 3 weeks straight before dropping down again. But I knew my body was losing fat because my waist was getting thinner and body fat trend was going down.

awesomejdad

If you want to quit then quit, if you want to progress the keep putting in the work. You can workout all you want but it won't make a bit of difference if your not eating less calories. Not on terms of fat loss anyway. Workout, eat right, be patient.....PERIOD!!!

trinatrina1984

LeslieTSUK wrote: »

Sits and waits for the MFP'ers that will say..
Your not weighing everything.
Your not logging everything.
Must be conning yourself.
Must be lieing.
Less calories in than out.

The reason MFPers often suggest this, or more often just ask about whether you are weighing / logging accurately is because this is often where people go wrong. I'm not in any way saying you are conning or lieing to yourself but you do need to make sure you know how many calories you are consuming. Its great you are getting stuck into the exercise, so sorry to be this person but

Are you weighing / logging all your food accurately? - if not start to do so
- How long has the weight loss stopped for? - As frustrating as it is be patient
- Keep at it, good luck

20yearsyounger

You eat salads everyday, what about the salad dressing? How much of that do you eat? I was so surprised when I realized that the salads at one of my past favorite restaurants had more calories than the burgers.

johnnyr24

I always make time no matter what for my 1 hour workouts everyday and I make my food in advance so I don't have any excuses to not eat healthy. As for salads and stuff I try to stay away from the dressing if possible. Every once in a while I might use some blue cheese or ranch but very little not even that much.

I use a fitness tape measure and even the tape measure indicates that my measurements are exactly the same I have been stuck at 42-43 inches for more then a month now. Sometimes it goes up an inch and then by my next measurement it goes back down but it's stuck on the same number mostly which indicates I am able to hold the same weight but just not get it to go down which is the hard part.

As for food I just usually look up how many calories are in the food and make sure when I add up the numbers I don't go over the 2140 that Myfitnesspal has added to me to consume daily. I have had days where I ate about half my calories only I always figured if you eat less calories then this would help the weight loss process.

trinatrina1984

might be worth having a read of this...

http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/872212

999tigger

johnnyr24 wrote: »

I always make time no matter what for my 1 hour workouts everyday and I make my food in advance so I don't have any excuses to not eat healthy. As for salads and stuff I try to stay away from the dressing if possible. Every once in a while I might use some blue cheese or ranch but very little not even that much.

I use a fitness tape measure and even the tape measure indicates that my measurements are exactly the same I have been stuck at 42-43 inches for more then a month now. Sometimes it goes up an inch and then by my next measurement it goes back down but it's stuck on the same number mostly which indicates I am able to hold the same weight but just not get it to go down which is the hard part.

As for food I just usually look up how many calories are in the food and make sure when I add up the numbers I don't go over the 2140 that Myfitnesspal has added to me to consume daily. I have had days where I ate about half my calories only I always figured if you eat less calories then this would help the weight loss process.

Its the same old standard answers im afraid. You need to log your food so that you know how much you are eating and that you are maintaining a deficit. The #1 answer as to why people arent losing is becayse they arent at a deficit for a consistent period. You dont do this so you dont have a clue whether you are at a deficit or not.

2140 calories seems like a lot tbh. Are you eating exercise calories as well? As you arent recording then you have no idea what state your deficit is in. Id, have thought something like 1600 would have made more sense, but put it through MFP again and go for 1lb a week.

Please start logging and recording consistently. Not only is it importnat for maintaing the deficit, the havit of logging helps you understand what food you are consuming and what you need to survive in terms of calories but visually as you weigh things out and get a better idea of portion control.

Your exercise also needs to be consistent. I would do resistance as well and eat at most 50% back. If you arent logging you cnat know, but realise exercise calories tend to be about 500-700 an hour. It helps but it isnt as important as logging food. Try this plan for about 3 weeks and report back.

wmcmurray61

Here is my advice: I see that you have lost 7 lbs. That is something to feel victorious about! Stop beating yourself up because it doesn't help. Don't compare yourself to other people. You can't do that because everybody is different. Log your food completely. Include salad dressing and all the other little extras that seem like nothing. They add up and quickly. The thing I did that helped me the most and gave me a BIG kick start when NOTHING else worked was I gave up my lifelong habit of drinking soda. I was literally drinking more calories than I was eating! I stopped drinking soda and started drinking water, juice, tea and coffee ONLY. The first week really sucked. Not gonna lie. But losing 12 lbs in a month was highly motivating. You can DO this and I know you will. Now, to get 'er done, you have to believe that yourself. Good luck!

wmcmurray61

Oh and I think that what you are describing is a weight loss plateau. They are frustrating but a physiological fact of life, I'm afraid. You are temporarily stuck. But take heart. It is temporary. Keep it up. Work just a little harder. You WILL get there. Oh! And for awhile there I was writing down WHY I wanted to eat every time I ate. Was I really hungry? Or was I bored, angry, tired etc. It was very enlightening. I figured out that I was eating for all the wrong reasons.

runningforthetrain

I think it is really important to remember your weight is only one aspect of who you are. Like the above poster said- please celebrate the 7 lbs you have lost. That is great! Keep up the good work. Maybe slow your expectations a little and eat something you really enjoy- as long as it is within your calorie restriction. It sounds like you recognize you need to put more effort into logging and accuracy of calorie count.

angelexperiment

johnnyr24 wrote: »

Thank you all for the responses. I should consider logging more of what I eat this is where I feel I lack. Mostly I eat chicken salads or I try to eat like chicken with veggies or something. Either I forget to log what I eat or I just don't because I didn't think logging salads and veggies was all that important but I will have to get into that habit of logging stuff.

I do loads of cardio which is what I do most of. I got the 30 day shred by Jillian Michaels but I like to mix it up a bit. Sometimes I do 30 day shred other days I do jump rope and running outside. I'm not so sure about building muscle since I don't really do weight lifting so much mostly I just do my cardio workouts. But I always do my workouts everyday for an hour.

Logging daily will help you may be eating more calories or not enough! And same with exercise you may need to work out more or less too.

31flavors

If you are sure that your food tracking is accurate, you might try cutting back on the cardio and adding some work with weights for your 1 hour workouts. I think our bodies adapt to the long, slow cardio, and it starts to become less effective over time. Another thing you could try is adding some higher intensity intervals to your cardio. Just speed up for a bit to increase your heart rate, slow back down until your heart rate comes down, repeat several times. Also, don't add back in the calories you burn with exercise.

But don't give up, you've lost 7 lbs already, and that's great!