Dear MFP So Frustrated

ajbeans

Yes I know the last couple of days on my diary are horrible as I have been emotionally eating after hearing my mother has cancer, however I am talking about the "Big Picture" Like 2 months worth of dieting. I will have to work on the sodium intake, which is soooo hard as everything "healthy" seems to have a crap load of salt in it. Thank you all for your feedback. I do know that Cheetos are not the best thing in the world, but that is only from a few days of stress eating. If I have to eat absilutely perfect 7 days a week, then there really is no way that I can do this, I always thought being healthy was eating in moderation. I will have to check out ways to lower my sodium intake. Any suggestions would be great!

I'm sorry to hear you're going through that with your mom. Prayers for you.

I did look back through your diary for a couple of weeks until it looked like there were no earlier entries, and my previous comment still stands. You go over on your cals frequently, and on the 29th it was more than 1,000 over. I'm not beating you up about it, just showing you the bigger picture. It's ok to go over once in a while, and sometimes it's even a good thing to go over. But it's a common occurrence over the last couple of weeks. I understand you're in extenuating circumstances, but this is probably why you're struggling with the weight. Don't kick yourself over it -- you're dealing with a lot right now, and it's understandable that you can't be perfect. Nobody is perfect anyway.

tuffytuffy1

So sorry about your mom (

I noticed what everyone else noticed, the high sodium. I started MFP 2.5 months ago and ate a Lean Cuisine every single day for lunch. Very low cal, but very high sodium. Well, I barely lost anything for the longest time until recently. Last week I started making my meals all homemade, no processed lunches or dinners, and I cut down significantly on diet soda. I am finally starting to see the scale move in the right direction.

I saw an entry in your diary, some sort of frozen dinner, try substituting your own homemade versions of those meals. It definitely sucks as far as convenience, but it is working, at least for me. I try to make two portions of all my homemade foods so it gives me a little bit of a break as far as time consumption. GOOD LUCK!

HeidiMightyRawr

Yes I know the last couple of days on my diary are horrible as I have been emotionally eating after hearing my mother has cancer, however I am talking about the "Big Picture" Like 2 months worth of dieting. I will have to work on the sodium intake, which is soooo hard as everything "healthy" seems to have a crap load of salt in it. Thank you all for your feedback. I do know that Cheetos are not the best thing in the world, but that is only from a few days of stress eating. If I have to eat absilutely perfect 7 days a week, then there really is no way that I can do this, I always thought being healthy was eating in moderation. I will have to check out ways to lower my sodium intake. Any suggestions would be great!

Sorry to hear about your mum
If you are not losing weight even when eating well, a visit to the doc might be the best option. However, the only "healthy" foods that will have excessive amounts of sodium in are prepackaged ready meal style foods. They advertise themselves as being good for you as they are low calorie and low fat etc but they take lots of sugar and salt to help preserve them and make them taste good. Typically, the less ingredients an item has, the better, even if it means adding a few more calories.
Things such as fresh fruit & veg (even frozen veg), meat (that doesn't already come seasoned) and basically anything that's in the most natural form you can think of in going to have really low sodium levels.

Jojeen

I have been in your position. Working very hard to eat the right amount of calories and "healthy" foods, working out, and seeing no results or gains.

In May, I began working with a nutritionist and all I have to say is "Wow!" I have never had this kind of success at weight loss, ever!

It has been really hard, but I do not eat sugar, flour, grains, starches, or chemicals (ie - msg or preservatives). The biggest thing is to read your labels and if there is any sugar (dextrose, sugar, beet sugar, corn solids, etc.) do not get it. I make sure to eat mostly vegetables, lean protein, beans, nuts and fruit. Eat the protein earlier in the day and the fruit later in the day. Eat 5 meals a day and make sure to balance your higher (natural) sugar foods (carrots and fruit) with a little bit of protein (I like almonds and pistachios) to keep it from processing so quickly in your body. Use real salt and good oils like extra virgin olive oil, real butter, coconut oil, flax oil, or grapeseed oil.

My best friend and I have been working on this since May and we have consistently lost weight except for our planned cheat weekends. We have both lost 46 pounds.

Don't give up, hopefully you will find the right eating plan for your body and you will soon be losing weight, not spirit!

Jennyzfit

1. I looked at your food diary and your sodium intake is through the roof!!! I think you are eating way to much processed foods.
2. Cut back on your processed food choices, and incorporate some fresh veggies, fruits, whole grains. Avoid the packaged stuff for awhile and see what happens.
3. What kind of exercise are you doing? Maybe you should up your intensity or try other options. Are there any classes at your gym you would be interested it??
4. Don't eat back all your exercise calories. I normally eat back half. You could be overestimating your calories burned.

Good luck!

I totallly agree with this. I also found more cardio helped overcome my obsacle of plateau.

Unknown

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evesacks

1. Clean up your diet, cut out processed foods including salt and aspartame, its not just about calories.
2. MFP often overestimates exercise calories try just eating half of them, or only eating them if hungry.
3. You often seem to go over calories - if you go over its ok but then don't eat your exercise calories the next day.
4. Interval training can get you over a plateau.

michelegrayson

I understand your frustation but don't give up! You will only have more weight to lose down the road! Instead use the tools of MFP to figure out what is NOT working for you. Based on your comments and the facts your diary reveal, you can possibly conclude:

- you eat when you are stressed so maybe you can look at this behavior and see what changes you can make (I learned I eat when I am stressing on conference calls/meetings so I changed this habit to No eating while on the phone!)

- you eat unbalanced meals, making yourself hungry later (I learned I ate too many carbs at one meal and not enough protein in antoher so I started really trying to eat balanced AT EACH MEAL: Protein, Lots of Veggies, and a LITTLE carbs).

- You may have a sodium issue that is making you retain water (I'm the opposite. I have extremely low blood pressure and have to take in more salt but i only learned this when I went and saw a doctor to try and figure out what was wrong. I also found out I had pernicous anemia which can be deadly. I only went ot the doctor when changing the way I was eating, sleeping, working out was not changing what I felt like, which was crap!. I credit the tools of MFP for helping me narrow this down).

What I am saying is this is a lifetime journey and you have a great tool here and wonderful resources to REALLY learn what works for you. Clearly what you are doing is not working and it is frustrating you so I would consider making some changes..you are worth that investment!

Good luck!

PS - I'm sorry to hear about your mother and hope that it all works out well for her. I went thru this with my mom two years ago and I freaked so I know how stressful it is for you right now. Be gentle with yourself and make your good health a priority. This will help make you stronger emotionally, mentally and physically for her. I speak from experience...its a long haul.

sp53

You don't look overweight, according to you photo. Maybe exercise will help you feel happier with your body.

tigersword

I know there are people that will disagree, but according to the trainer at the boot camp I went to over the summer the calories burned shouldn't be eaten if you want weight loss.

That depends on how your diet is setup. MFP sets a weight loss deficit in your daily calorie goal, so yes, you eat your exercise calories back. If you eat your maintenance calories, and then use exercise to create a deficit, then no, you don't eat them back.

Creating a deficit with both your diet and exercise is just asking for health problems, and will cause you to burn off muscle instead of fat.