Okay... be brutal!

if you're trying to lose weight, I highly suggest you cut out all that butter... it's not doing you any favors. That's probably the one small thing you can change that will make the biggest difference

If any of you who have had success shedding large amounts of extra smush are bored and would like to take a look at my diary...please do! Be brutal (but constructive please...) and tell me how I am doing as far as what I am eating? Give my any tips you may have or advice on what I could do to improve?

What has your weight done in the last month with what you have been doing?

You are ingesting tons of sodium and not sure if it is dr. ordered or not but you should be drinking tons of water if you are going to have that much sodium. I usually stick to 15 glasses if my sodium is in the red. You could be drinking that and not logging it, but that was the first thing I noticed.

Now I realize I haven't lost gobs of weight, but I have lost 18 lbs, 2 pant sizes, and about 15 inches in 10 weeks so I'd say I'm somewhat successful at this.

Personally, I don't see anything wrong with butter in your diet or eating a light breakfast if that's what you prefer. You've been under your calorie goal so you've been doing good there. How do you feel eating the way you are? Do you feel good? Engergized? Satisfied? Bloated? Tired? Are you losing weight? All those things (and more) should factor into how you choose your foods.

You seem to eat a lot of packaged foods. Those don't work for me- I'm left unsatisfied and I end up eating more because of the low nutrition quality. But those seem to work fine for others and it's hard to argue with the convenience. But if you're looking to change things up, I would suggest more fresh foods, certainly some fruit and veg. If you're the type who thinks you don't like veggies, I challenge you to rethink that. Make out a list of the ones you DO like. Go through the entire produce section of your grocery store if you need the visual aid. You might be surprised what you actually do like.

I also need to eat more protein than what MFP recommends to be satisfied. Maybe playing around with your macros is something to consider as well.

I would say you need more whole unprocessed foods like fruits, veggies, nuts, seeds, ancient grains like quinoa and spelt, legumes, avocados, healthy oils like Olive and coconut etc etc. Its OK to eat things out of a box but it should be in moderation. The more whole foods, the better. I am for less than 20% of my diet. The other 80% are organic foods that are grow on a tree or in the ground Good luck!

Not enough fruits, vegetables or protein, way too much packaged foods.

cut the butter out.. I use other stuff. like if I want butter on my toast, I spray a little of the Pam Butter flavor spray (0 cals with butter flavor!) on it and put SF jelly on it. If you want butter on your baked potato than don't do it.. I use fat free sour cream or salsa on my baked potatoes (about 20 cals each). And I agree with the other poster.. You need to start eating a little more protien in the morning. Try doing a tablespoon of peanut butter on your toast with plain old cinamon. Or I love breakfast tacos. It's just scrambled eggs with a little onoin and a 1/2 cup of frozen hashbrown (again I use the PAM butter spray in my pan, no oil) I put that into a couple of don pancho corn tortilla shells (100cals for both) put salsa on it.. Yum! Good way to start the day. And try to make your own lunches. You can pack them the night before (that's what I do).. That store bought frozen meal stuff has too much sodium and it's just a little bit of food. it won't fill you up! Also I put my meals for tomorrow into MFP the night before. Shoot I already put it in for tomorrow, so I know what I have to work with for dinner.

Good luck on your journey and remember just to keep going.. It's up to you. If you want it bad enough you will get it.

Some high protien snacks that I love. LowFat cottage cheese (I use a lil sriracha chili sauce in mine, but some like fruit.) Hard boiled eggs (again I usually put hot sauce on mine lol) and I like a half cup Non fat plain yogurt with .33 cup frozen blueberries and a little splenda.. Yummy! All delish and all high in protien. it will get you through the day without going over on cals or sodium.!

This shouldn't be too brutal...

1. Minimize the fat (sorry, no more butter).
2. Half your carbs.
3. Nearly double your protein.
4. Cut the sugars as much as possible.
5. Shift more calories to the morning.

1. Dietary fat doesn't make you fat
2. Carbs aren't the enemy (unless she is diabetic, has PCOS or another metabolic condition)
3. Wow. I agree with this point
4. Unless #2 is a factor this really won't make a difference in regards to weight loss
5. Oh yeah.....cause eating at night makes you fat.......um no.

Try Smart Balance light butter, shift those saved calories over to more protein distributed more evenly to prevent the hungries. Get five fruits and veggies. Too many potatoes in one serving. 1/2 cup of starch is usually about right for a lady. But if you're an athlete, 1 cup, but that was over a cup of potatoes, which breakdown into sugar fast I believe.

1. Less fast food, processed/boxed food.
2. More lean protein, fruits and veggies. (yogurt, string cheese is a good choice, cottage cheese, lean meats and fresh veggies and fruit- FRESH)
3. Whole grains.
4, Less sugary cereals.
5. A more substantial breakfast to fuel your day.

Depending on where you live, folks eat and think differently about eating healthy. If you live near Costco, they have a ton of great options (another good option is the Kirkland line of Albacore Tuna ...Kirkland has MANY high quality items. So, with the internet, you also have access to things. The learning curve on healthy eating can be based on many factors.
You are open to feedback. (and it doesn't need to be brutal to be helpful.)

Good job to see feedback.... that takes courage!

Dump the sugar -empty calories at best, lethal to fat shedding at worst.

Reduse the white carbs (breads, rice, pasta, cereal) -see above, all carbs break down into sugars to be stored as fat when not used for energy. You do not have to eliminate but do reduce them.

Cut your sodium -fluid retention and uncool for the kidneys.

Eat more whole foods -they feed your cells. processed, pre-packaged, boxed foods have way less nutrients your body needs and they as a whole contain more fat, more sugar, more sodium, more calories.

Not easy to give up all the good and easy foods but then again, it is not easy to look in the mirror at a person i don't recognize or even like. I wish you the very best. Eat better, move more and you will see results. Live this way to LIVE!

Fat is good if it is keeping you satisfied! If you are not satisfied and not losing, I would suggest cutting carbs and adding A LOT more protein. Carbs spike the blood sugar than make you crash and feel tired, depressed, and hungry. Try watch the movie Fat Head or read the book Wheat Belly if you can, they both explain what carbohydrates do to your blood and how wheat has become a franken food... Are you losing weight?

I am no dietician - let's get that out of the way right away.

Also, I did not view your diary since the other comments seemed to be a good summary.

Here are my thoughts: no pre-packaged foods unless absolutely necessary. I agree you should eat a lot of protein and more vegetables, while consuming fewer sugars and bad carbs.

I have been told forever to eat breakfast - I never eat breakfast. In fact, I do not eat solid food until around noon each day; just coffee and lots of it. lol When I plateaued recently, I tried to adjust by eating a small, protein filled breakfast every day for a month - I gained 5 pounds during that month (and did not cheat or add calories).

So, I still do not eat breakfast. I eat high protein, low carb (NO bad carbs), healthy snacks like nuts, and I try to watch my fat intake (but it is higher than my carb intake by a lot). I am nearing my goal weight, but have already lost over 60 pounds, so my loss is going slowly now...but still steadily along. A big thing is watching portion size and spreading my food out over the day. I eat approximately every 2-3 hours and drink LOTS of water.

This shouldn't be too brutal...

1. Minimize the fat (sorry, no more butter).
2. Half your carbs.
3. Nearly double your protein.
4. Cut the sugars as much as possible.
5. Shift more calories to the morning.

1. Dietary fat doesn't make you fat
2. Carbs aren't the enemy (unless she is diabetic, has PCOS or another metabolic condition)
3. Wow. I agree with this point
4. Unless #2 is a factor this really won't make a difference in regards to weight loss
5. Oh yeah.....cause eating at night makes you fat.......um no.

1. Can I just hug you for saying that? I see so many people going on about the evils of fat, when it reality if they looked at the crap replacing fat in the fat free foods they'd wonder how it even passes as food.
2. They aren't, but empty carbs (not talking about carbs found in things like fruits, veggies, etc) tend to take up a lot of space in the diet without providing much nutritional value. It won't necessarily have a negative impact on weight loss (unless you're someone that tends to eat more when consuming a bunch of empty carbs), but it's a good thing to watch for overall health.
3. No complaints here
4. It won't, but it does cause some people to eat more due to insulin response
5. It doesn't, but eating in the morning, and more throughout the day, vs starving all day and gorging on way more than you need at night can. If she's just not hungry until later, that's one thing, but a lot of people will consume way more calories if they wait until the evening to eat. It's a good thing to try out, to see if it causes less overall eating.

^^ This. I was basically typing up the same thing.
1. Dietary fat doesn't necessarily cause your body to retain fat, but that is a LOT (ex: 3 Tbsps??) and therefore a lot of calories.


I see a LOT of calories at night....sometimes almost your entire day's worth (after eating all day). That seems like a really large volume of food? It's so difficult to know without knowing other details about you.

Also, the calories burned per day seem insanely high. Impossibly high? I think you may need to reassess. What type of workouts are you doing that indicate such a high level of calories burned? Are you using a heart rate monitor?


Eat less, more real food (cut out the packaged crap and stop eating out). Reassess the calories burned.

1) If eating at a defecit and not having any pre-existing metabolic conditions the macros will have no effect on weight loss....Body composition is another story but that's not what was asked.

2) Please show me 1 study where macronutrients made a difference in weight loss.

3) Timing of meals has no effect. Amount of calories per day does.

4) I agree your burns seem ridiculously high. I would reassess.