This is driving me NUTS not losing and i have a LOT to lose

groundhawg

First of all, its important to not become demotivated. Your choice to become healthier is an excellent choice, but it does take work, dedication, and time. I've foudn through experience and friends' experience that the slowest the weight loss, the more sustainable. You've lost 20 pounds already, and that is excellent. Thats no small feat. Its a fantastic start, so don't be too hard on yourself.

That said, I dont want to repeat everynoe by telling you to make better food choices. I agree, that you should. You need to be feeding yourself real fuel. Its the different between putting gas and rubbing alcohol into your car, whole, real foods are real gas, fast food being the rubbing alcohol. If you find that your schedule prevents you from preparing food I suggest websites like onceamonthmom.com it really revolutionized my ability to cook for myself and diet.

And measure, measure,measure. Measure yourself, you are probably building some muscle from all the walking, and probably losing fat, but you wont know if you dont measure. Measure you food to ensure you are being honest with yourself.

And finally I would NOT suggest eating only 1200 calories a day. Or 1600. You may have plateau'd because your body is literally shocked by whats happening. This will pass. For someone your height and current weight I think MFP has you set correctly, though I wouldnt eat an exercise calories back because MFP usually over estimates those.

I ran your numbers through a TDEE calculator and it gave me the following:

Step 4: View Your Results(assuming an age of 35)
CARBS PROTEIN FAT FIBER CALORIES
GRAMS per day -4.4 350 157.5 70 - 88 2800
GRAMS per meal -1.5 116.7 52.5 23 - 29 933

You need to drastically inctrease your protein and healthy fats, and stay away from sugar-laden thigns to reduce carbs.

Your body will get used to the changes. You will see improvement again.

maegmez

Honestly, if I ate like that, I would not expect a weight loss. I know it's down to the calories in but eating junk and fast food is not the way to get healthy. As mentioned above, you don't have to do away with pizza and mcdonalds but everything in moderation.

I went back to beginning of June and didn't see a single fruit or veg. I saw no breakfast foods, skipping meals is not good for your metabolism. Get rid of your "I shouldn't have ate that" category and list it as snacks. You want your diary to feel good, that does not.

Eating vegetables is very filling and great for your body! If you want pizza, make it yourself. You can make the dough up the night before or in the morning and then all you have to do is roll it out. You normally get to large crusts from a recipe but you can get 3 by making it super thin. Go easy on the cheese and sause but do add grilled chicken or some protein. If you go for pepperoni, slice them in half and spread them out. They are so high in sodium. Only eat half the pizza and then load half your plate with veggies. As you can see, loaded the right way, you can have more pizza than your takeaway pizza.

Bottom line, you should load every dinner plate with veggies.

Sunshine2plus2

I started at 330pds myself. Just watch your food and continue with the walking! I must say when you finally get in a pattern of losing weight make sure you have a cheat meal once a week. Its helps you continue losing and "shocks" the body to keep burning fat! Good luck dont give it! It will be worth it!

lrnlvr

Great information everyone, everyone is so supportive on this forum and it helps so much. Alot of people asked about skipping breakfast, I have insomnia and typically wake about 12 every day. My breakfast is usually my lunch i just had not gotten around the time to change it. My sleep habits are part of the reason why im doing so much exercise because im trying to wear myself out so i can actually sleep. As to those who found my "unspeakable s" in the diary and yes their are alot of them i can definitely see how thats affecting me. Im going to hide the diary again and come back in a month with better eating habits more vegetables/fruits and hopefully be a little less ashamed of it. Im determined to get this number down ! thanks a ton guys its much appreciated ! Feel free to follow me and kick me in the *kitten* as well

maegmez

Hiding your diary to hide your unmentionables isn't going to help you because they will still be visible to you! It doesn't matter what we think of your foods, you have to be happy with your choices. This is a lifelong journey and how you eat while losing weight MUST be the way you eat for life.

You really need to have 3 good healthy meals a day.

You got some great advice here, now it's down to you on what you do with that.

Ninkyou

Great information everyone, everyone is so supportive on this forum and it helps so much. Alot of people asked about skipping breakfast, I have insomnia and typically wake about 12 every day. My breakfast is usually my lunch i just had not gotten around the time to change it. My sleep habits are part of the reason why im doing so much exercise because im trying to wear myself out so i can actually sleep. As to those who found my "unspeakable s" in the diary and yes their are alot of them i can definitely see how thats affecting me. Im going to hide the diary again and come back in a month with better eating habits more vegetables/fruits and hopefully be a little less ashamed of it. Im determined to get this number down ! thanks a ton guys its much appreciated ! Feel free to follow me and kick me in the *kitten* as well

I don't think there's anything to feel ashamed about. I didn't look at your diary, but I read other people's advice/posts. So you eat fast food. So did most of us, at some point. That's how and why we ended up here. Just too much of the wrong stuff, and in the wrong amounts. The first step was asking for help from others. There's nothing to feel ashamed about. At least you're making an attempt to better yourself. The next step is to slowly follow the excellent advice other posters have given you.

For example, say you eat McDonald's 5 times a week (one meal, each day). This week, only eat 4 meals at McDonald's, and replace one of the meals with a healthier meal. And then the following week, drop it to 3 meals at McDonalds, and so on, until eating at McDonald's is a thing of the past and something you really do on the rare occasion.

Eat more veggies. This one can be hard for some. Like for me, I only have 2-3 vegetables that I actually like/tolerate. So, I rotate the ones I like everyday in my meals. Green beans one day, broccoli the next, then peas, rinse and repeat.

Portion control. I've really struggled with this in the past. I've only recently started my new diet, so I'm still working on it. But, I've been picking foods that I can easily stick to the actual serving sizes, or get the right proportion. For example, Perdue Perfect Portion Chicken Breast. Comes in individually wrapped packages, and is 1 serving. 140 calories. I combine that with some Uncle Ben Ready Brown Rice, and half a bag of Steamables green beans. Total calories is 390. If you really needed more, you could bump it to 2 pieces of chicken, for a total of 530 calories. It's a good, balanced meal, it's filling, and it's tasty.

Snack, snack, snack. Keep you metabolism going with lots of healthy snacks. An apple in the morning (or in your cast, an hour or 2 after lunch). After lunch, have 2 more snacks before dinner. Fruit, veggies, 100 calorie snacks (which are still yummy, imo), yogurt, etc. Have a balanced dinner. After dinner, if you're still feeling hungry, have another snack. The snacking will help with your portion control too.

Drink LOTS of water. I struggled with this one too. At the beginning of the week, I had to really force myself to drink water. I went from drinking no water a day (I'd have 1-2 cans of soda a day previously), to drinking 4 cups of water (a bottle of water has 2 cups, and a little extra). Each day this week, I slowly upped my water. Finally, yesterday on my 4th day of diet, I hit 8 cups of water. I don't drink anymore soda. So go me! Haha. I feel like I'm swimming, and I have to go to the little girl's room ALOT, but it helps me feel full between snacks/meals, plus it's recommended to have that 8 cups.

I think you're definitely on the right path. You don't need to feel ashamed about your eating habits. Just slowly make changes here and there until you're eating well balance, healthier meals and snacks. I'm still new to dieting too, so I get it. It's hard to cut out that stuff. I don't think it has to be cut out 100%. Just cut out 95%, and have an occasional 5%

Good Luck!

LyndaKLove

Good luck to you. Keep us posted.

chopapopop

Check this out: http://choppysreviews.com/choppys-fat-loss-reviews/
This is where I found a weight loss plan that worked for me.

groundhawg

Don't be ashamed! This is a learning process for all of us. Honestly half of having a good and healthy lifestyle is just starting to get informed. I cant believe how much Ive learned since starting this whole process. And you'll learn a lot to. There is so much information out there, and we have to wade through it, and descide what works for each of us. Just try and stay positive towards your own body and your food.

stealthq

Keep in mind that sleep is a component of weight loss as well. If you have insomnia, you may have a more difficult time losing, so concentrating on getting as much quality sleep as you can is important as well.

I think you're setting yourself on the right track and will see the weight resume coming off soon. Good luck and eat well