Need a little guidance on my food diary

OliveBruises

As of today I've logged in for 55 days in a row and I've also lost 13 lbs. First I want to say that I am very proud of this loss!!
However, recently I've started to feel a bit discouraged. I eat clean for the most part (I ate a little bad this past weekend though since it was my birthday, so try not to focus on that). I lost 10 lbs the first month (Jan)... but this month I've only lost 3 lbs.. and those 3 lbs were an up & down battle with the scale. Now I know you aren't supposed to judge everything by what the scale says. But I haven't really felt different in the past couple weeks either. I definitely don't expect to lose 10 lbs every month, but this past month has been a bit frustrating. So, I guess I basically want to make sure I'm doing everything correct.

Per MFP, I should be eating 1200 calories a day. Per the BMR calculator, I should be eating 1420 calories a day. I went with 1350. I set my carbs at 40% and fat/protein at 30% each. I don't always succeed at this - usually when it's off I've eaten too many carbs & not enough protein but I'm going to guess most of those carbs come from veggies. And I have really been making it a point to try and get more protein in. The fat is mainly good fats – avocados, nuts, EVOO, coconut oil, etc. I work out at least 4x per week - when I go to the gym I typically run on the elliptical (sometimes intervals) for about 30 minutes and then do strength training for 30+ minutes. When I can't get to the gym 4x a week, I fill in the missing days with a Jillian Michaels video. On non-work out days, I still do things to stay active such as take my dog for a walk, clean the house, run errands, etc… basically NOT sitting around unless I’m at work. I do work full-time at a desk job though so I am sitting at the computer during my job for the most part… you know, unless I’m getting up to make copies, get more water, or use the rest room cause I’m trying to drink at least 12-16 cups of water per day! 

As far as eating is concerned, I eat pretty clean (like I said, besides this past weekend where I didn't stray off too bad - just a little worse than the norm due to it being my birthday). The only thing I've really changed from last month to this month is that last month I drank fresh juice each morning. This month we bought a Vitamix so I started replacing the morning juice with a morning smoothie. The morning smoothie is some fruit, but also veggies & whey protein etc., but I figured the extra fiber wouldn’t be a bad thing! Then if I'm hungry before lunch, I have a small snack. Lunch time I usually eat some protein, veggies & smart carbs (brown rice/quinoa/cous cous/lo carb tortilla/Ezekiel bread, etc). I sometimes have an after lunch snack (Greek yogurt or nuts usually). And we started doing veggie based smoothies for dinner as well so that we aren't eating as much right before bed AND we are getting more nutrients in our bodies. [When I say we, I am referring to my boyfriend and I].

I read so much on here that I don't know if I'm eating too little.. too much... or if I'm eating fine and I'm just at a point where my body is adjusting. I plan on sticking to this even though I’m getting discouraged, I just want to make sure that what I’m sticking to is going to work eventually. My mind is in such a good place with my diet this time around & I know I’m going to finally get where I want to be! I guess I just need some reassurance or possibly a little direction. Thanks in advance to anyone that answers! I’ll go make my diary public right now. Oh and if anyone needs to know what we put in our dinner smoothies, I can share the ingredients.

OliveBruises

Any successful people that can help me out? I just need to know if someone else has been here before

hosleyb

Well, I just joined this site in an attempt to help me bridge the gap between 165 and 155lbs. about half a year ago I weighed somewhere between 180 and 200 pounds which i got down to 165 relatively quickly as I began to go to the gym and such. From personal experience, I've found that of course for everyone it's easier to lose weight when you have more weight to lose, and as your approach your ideal body weight it becomes harder. What can really kill you is those weekends where you decide it wont be that bad if you order Chinese food and just eat whatever you want since "it's only the weekend", but it's that attitude that kind of putts you in the up down struggle with your wait. A couple recommendations would be to of course try to be as consistent as possible in what you eat, and try to cut out some of the things you mentioned like juice and fruit smoothies. though healthy, fruit is loaded with sugars and smoothies have kind of become a misconceived healthy drink , despite often containing loads of calories. The more beverages you can replace with water the better. Also I would look into the afterburner effect, this video does a good job of explaining it and it helped me out a lot. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vFeb4CgBiE8. Other then that I think you're just at the point where you need to force the pounds out through exercise and can't get there with just diet. Try to be conscious about the fact that all forms of alcohol contain loads of calories, and of course there's the pizza rolls and chips etc. that always seem to find there way to your stomach at parties, just something to be mindful of if you party at all.

OliveBruises

Well, I just joined this site in an attempt to help me bridge the gap between 165 and 155lbs. about half a year ago I weighed somewhere between 180 and 200 pounds which i got down to 165 relatively quickly as I began to go to the gym and such. From personal experience, I've found that of course for everyone it's easier to lose weight when you have more weight to lose, and as your approach your ideal body weight it becomes harder. What can really kill you is those weekends where you decide it wont be that bad if you order Chinese food and just eat whatever you want since "it's only the weekend", but it's that attitude that kind of putts you in the up down struggle with your wait. A couple recommendations would be to of course try to be as consistent as possible in what you eat, and try to cut out some of the things you mentioned like juice and fruit smoothies. though healthy, fruit is loaded with sugars and smoothies have kind of become a misconceived healthy drink , despite often containing loads of calories. The more beverages you can replace with water the better. Also I would look into the afterburner effect, this video does a good job of explaining it and it helped me out a lot. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vFeb4CgBiE8. Other then that I think you're just at the point where you need to force the pounds out through exercise and can't get there with just diet. Try to be conscious about the fact that all forms of alcohol contain loads of calories, and of course there's the pizza rolls and chips etc. that always seem to find there way to your stomach at parties, just something to be mindful of if you party at all.

I appreciate your feedback & will look at that video when I get a chance. Regarding the smoothies - that is why I explained my smoothies. They aren't all fruit. I add fruit to my morning smoothie only (today only contained half a banana and a kiwi with the skin) and that is because I know I'll burn off those sugars throughout the day - plus the natural sugar from the fruit is a better wake-me-up than coffee. My dinner smoothies consist of veggies - sweet potato, kale, carrots, spinach, cucumber, etc. Also, I don't eat Chinese on the weekend, I track everything all weekend long and that is why I made my diary public so that people could look at it before assuming what I eat and giving me advice that doesn't apply to me. Even this weekend when it was my birthday I did drink - but I counted for all those calories and I barely went over because I worked out and I ate a salad for dinner instead of pasta or pizza. This is why I don't understand why I'm at this plateau - aside from this weekend when I barely splurged, I normally eat good throughout the weekend as well. So I don't know what I'm doing wrong. Are the smoothies messing me up even though the night one is all veggies and I only add a little fruit to my AM smoothie? I thought smoothies would digest better - especially at night. And I'm not starving myself by any means... so I don't get it.
Also - diet is the way to get there, more so than exercise. It's 80% diet and 20% exercise. I exercise 4x a week AND I eat clean so I just don't get it. This is why I need advice from someone who has been there. Although again - I do appreciate you taking your time to help me out, really!