waste of time or nah..

dgains5041

it seems that losing for nothing i eat something bam there it is the scale jumped about 5 6 poundsi know it water or w.e but its been like this for a minute now same thing over and over with no progress since its almost pointless it seems but idk i do the calorie count thing and stuff and its sstill not working i was at 254 went back to 260 and reapeat process its starting to get frustrating.

Merkavar

My guess is your not doin the calorie count thing properly.

Is your diary open? Do you weigh your food?

Do you eat back exercise calories?

RodaRose

Be much more precise amount measuring and weighing food. If you want, you can add more home cooked meals so that you know the exact calorie count.

ljashley1952

I've been doing MFP for 6 months and have lost 4 pounds only. I'm not giving up because I know the reason. When I filled out the questions about ht, wt, level of activity I lied. It said that at my ht and wt I could not lose if I was sedentary. It won't calculate anything below 1200 calories a day, so I had to say I worked out 2-3 times a week in order to get it to calculate a plan for me. I am working on trying to get to a point where I really am working out 3-4 times a week, so I can keep a calorie deficit. The other thing that I have found is that it's really easy to under-estimate the amount of food I'm eating. The little things add up very quickly. Things like mayo, butter, the taste sampling while cooking...etc. So I bought a great little digital food scale. I weigh everything that I can't get an exact calorie count for. Like I don't bother with things like carrots or celery. I just write down how many stalks or if it's a small apple. But I weight my meat, pasta, rice and things like if I make meatloaf. I weigh everything and I search the database for everything. I don't log things that have less than 10 or so calories unless they add up to enough to put me over my limit. Hope this helps.

Sued0nim

Log properly

Weigh all your food
Choose database entries with care and double check them
Do not cheat

meet your defecit across the week

Sued0nim

Copied from another thread, because seriously these two together are the best advice you'll ever get

thanks to @blankiefinder and @TheOwlhouseDesigns


This

blankiefinder wrote: »

If you're not losing weight, you're not in a deficit.

I'm going to give you my standard MFP advice:

Buy a food scale, weigh and log everything.

Do cardio if you want, and if you do, only eat back 50% of your calories. Lift weights and hit your protein goal to help maintain muscle mass while losing.

Cheat meals that take you over maintenance will sabotage your efforts. Log the cheat meals too (falls under the 'log everything' rule).

Eat anything you want in moderation, keeping in mind that your diet will be easier to stick with if you chose foods that make it easier to stay under your calories without feeling hungry.

Also it would be a good idea to read some of the stickies at the top of the various forums such as:
Calorie Counting 101
Logging Accuracy, Consistency, & You're Probably Eating More Than You Think
A Guide To Get You Started on Your Path To Sexy Pants

And

TheOwlhouseDesigns wrote: »

there is your problem you measure with cups instead of weighing ALL your food

See this short video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JVjWPclrWVY

= BEST ADVICE EVAH![/quote]

blankiefinder

Aw, thanks @rabbitjb !

The only two things I'll add is: 1. Don't give up. My motto here is "If you're tired of starting over, stop giving up!"
2. Learn, learn, learn. If you're not losing over a long term (weeks not days) then you're not in a deficit. Learn to log properly.

NoIdea101NoIdea

Are you being quite 'extreme' with the difference in eating day per day. By that I mean, I used to restrict-binge quite a lot, (USED to) and I would find that heavily restricting for four or five days would see me drop a couple of pounds on the scale (at least). But then I would 'break' from having been so restrictive, eat like a normal human being for a day and would weigh in the next day about 4lbs heavier. So I would restrict heavily again to lose it again, and the cycle would just repeat itself.

My advice would be to weigh and log everything to make sure you are sticking to roughly the same amount of calories a day, try not to eat a huge meal late at night and weigh in first thing in the morning. I have found this helps me see my weight loss more consistently, less fluctuating. Good luck!