I want to give up

Lounmoun

So it has been 4 weeks with zero change on the scale or in body measurements?
You are eating at maintenance then. You need to change something in your CICO to lose weight not give up.

What are your stats- age, height, weight, activity level without exercise?

If you are logging exercise and eating exercise calories you may be overestimating burns. Check that. A lot of people only eat a portion of their exercise calories.
Are you using an activity tracker? Is it synced to mfp? Is it possible you are double counting some exercise?
http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10499662/double-counting

Check your food logging for accuracy. Use a food scale. Check that the entries you select from the database are correct.

Some things you may find useful to look over:
http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10179969/weight-loss-flow-chart-2-0/p1
http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10460011/the-ultimate-guide-to-mfp#latest
http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10084670/it-is-unlikely-that-you-will-lose-weight-consistently-i-e-weight-loss-is-not-linear/p1
http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10359984/women-menstrual-cycle-weight-and-fitness-matters/p1
http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/818082/exercise-calories-again-wtf/p1
http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10423219/eat-back-half-your-exercise-calories/p1

KeepRunningFatboy

heish7146 wrote: »

I'm discouraged, I'm pissed, and I want to give up.

Maybe where you need to begin is by working on changing your mindset? Pain can be a great internal motivator for change. Here's a suggestion, if it's not applicable I apologize. Read what to say when you talk to yourself by shad helmstatter. Pay attention to self talk levels 3 & 4. I use silent meditation self talk and written self talk. And I find it powerful to use for my food and exercise choices.

demorelli

There is a small percentage of people who burn fewer calories than calculators predict. If the other advice here doesn't help your progress, you might restrict your calories further for a short time (a week or two at most) and see if that works. There are other people using mfp who are successfully losing weight despite having this problem. I think there is a group but I'm not sure.

DaveDR7

Hi Heish
Just read what you said below.

heish7146 wrote: »

I'm really beginning to have the "*kitten* its." I have been consciously eating within my calorie goal, and exercising 3-5 times a week and the scale is not budging. What's the point of this crap is nothing is changing?

I'm not perfect. Some days I do eat over my goal.
I'm eating mainly veggies and lean meats. If I do chose to eat grains, they are whole grains.
I drink at least 6 glasses of water a day goal is 8-12, and have cut out my daily Diet Pepsi. (At most I have two a week)

Just re-read what you have written and be honest with yourself, you need a kick up the derrière, I'm sorry but that's it in a nut shell, you just want an excuse to give up, because in your mind you're already there, you've been cheating yourself; "some days I do eat over my goal" ..... yeah, really? How much do you go over your goal? The 300- 800 calories you burn off in exercise, no wonder you're still sitting at the same weight. You think some fairy god-mother is going to flick her wand and you're magically going to lose the weight you want. You're saying one thing, but doing another; "I've cut out my daily Diet Pepsi, at most I have 2" I bet you it's 3 or 4!?

You want to change, but you're still eating way too many calories, it's not nice to tell you this, but if you want to change, you're going to have to be honest with yourself and I'm reading between the lines in what you're saying here and I'm telling you, it's time to stop cheating, dig-deeper and this week force yourself to do things properly this week!
No more cheating!
Cut out the crap, that's the excess food and Diet Pepsi's too!

heish7146 wrote: »

I started slowly with exercising
Cardio
- 20 mins/3 days for for first week
-30-40 mins/5 days second week
-50-60 mins /4 days third week
-40-60 mins/ 3 days fourth week
-This week I've begun to add strength training

The best thing you could have done, well done!!! Cardio is going to get you fitter, but are you testing yourself every couple of weeks, can you do more of the same exercises in a minute than you used to? Are you using a HRM?
If you're doing this and reducing your calorie intake, you will definitely be losing weigh, so you must be rewarding yourself with that extra Diet Pepsi you love so much or some chocolate because you've been a good girl for exercising!
But now the reality check, you're 4 weeks in, you should have seen a massive change in your fitness levels, you should be able to run up the stairs and have your breathing under control in 30 seconds, if you can then well done again and this will only confirm what you already know..... you're eating/drinking too many calories!
I'm beginning to hate Cardio, I'm learning if you don't step it up, the benefits don't get better, my weight is Yo-yoing, because even I'm doing things wrong, I go under my BMR some days, all this does is help to store my excess fat and build more; I don't like having to dig deep, I don't like putting that extra effort in, to lose that extra couple of pounds this week, it's much easier to maintain the same exercise regime and not step it up a couple of notches, I've learned this week it might be better for me to do less time on cardio but raise the bar in "all out" exercise...... I hate this, because it hurts, it burns, I'm so out of breath and then I realise all that extra breathing, in through my nose out through my mouth is literally burning fat too and getting me fitter!

heish7146 wrote: »

And before someone jumps on this... muscle weighs more than fat. My clothes fit the same. I'm discouraged, I'm pissed, and I want to give up.

There you have it, you already want to give up, that's not the mindset you need. It's time you stop *kitten* footing around, cut out the rubbish.
For 2 weeks, be honest with yourself, write everything into your plan, every extra snack you take, measure your meals/weights, cut the freaking Diet Pepsi completely!!!!
10 mins of hard Cardio is probably better than 30 mins of easy going Cardio, dig deeper and faster this week, give yourself time to recover.
If you do all that this week and you don't lose a couple of pounds, then either you're still cheating yourself or you have one of those bodies that despite hard exercise and dieting you maintain your body weight, medical science would pay a lot to examine and test you, then you could afford liposuction! ( the easier way to lose weight and you can easily lose ££££'s that way)
So want to try harder this week or give up?
You can feel sorry for yourself, you can deny you're not doing anything wrong, but deep down, you already know this and you know you're not doing everything perfect, this is why you're crying out for help.
No more cheating, time to be perfect, dig deep and hard to exercise harder/faster, come back next week and tell me you've lost more than a couple of pounds and you'll be on the right road to recovery.
Start this weekend and keep it up for one week to see a difference you can make to your life!

MissMaggieMuffin

serindipte wrote: »

As one above said, if you give up, then it won't change.. it may, but it will likely be up instead of down. You've been given good advice by previous posters, but I want to push more on the food scale and here's why:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bnnpUYmr0OM

To the OP, hope you hang in there and see this through!

Reading all these posts has been so inspiring, particularly the advice to WEIGH food. Thought I was doing a reasonably good job of measuring but, after some frustration with not losing as quickly as I hoped, went out and bought a scale. Yep, my measuring and/or estimates were way off! Sometimes in my favour, but mostly not.

Sally123422

I totally . Get it I was the same way 6 years ago I started gaining weight for no reason so I started exercising more and it didn't help every time I ate sweets I would gain more weight then the calories per pound add it up it didn't make any sense then I realized that your hormones have more to play then your calories and exercise that's why some people can eat a lot and don't gain weight and others eat right and gain weight everyone is different at some point your body either gets overwhelmed and exhausted from making hormones or you're not absorbing the nutrients to make the hormones I started with balancing my intestines so that I could absorb nutrients better I found ReNew Life first colon cleanse is a really good product to takes about 14 days then I started taking probiotics to give my intestines the good bacteria which helps you make and absorb a lot of enzymes and nutrients after that I started taking a tsp liquid cod liver oil in the past people used to eat liver once a week the reason being is that there's something in the liver helps balance your hormones I also started taking spirulina which helps reverse insulin resistance insulin is another hormone that affects your weight also 200 mcg of chromium gtf and sunflower lecithin and vitamin E only natual d alpha not dl form and vitamin D these are all vitamins that your body uses to keep your hormones balanced and then i take calcium at night. Give your body what it needs it will do the work for you. Dont stress about it that makes bad hormones that tell you to gain weight. Hope this helps Sally

KMathilde

First off, congrats on sticking with it and getting a scale to help you reassess your calorie intake! Good move. It's the best way to really be accountable for creating that deficit. Secondly, I know what you're going through. The way I have to think about it to avoid getting discouraged is that I've made changes that will sustain me for a better life, health and fitness overall. If my weight loss has stalled for the time being, I guess it's what my body needs. I'm tinkering with - as others have suggested - upping the intensity, either through improving speed, resistance or duration of my workouts. So far, that's not making much of a difference but it's OKAY! The plateau will break. Lastly, the fact that you've invested the time, belief and energy in yourself is awesome! Keep going. We believe in you.

vickib30008

If you have done all of the above and are still struggling, try to change things up. Eat your biggest meal at a different time of day, try changing your exercise routine and definitely make sure you are drinking enough water.
Oh and I don't know if its true but I heard the caramel coloring in colas can retard weigh loss. Best wishes.