advice on what i'm doing wrong

Are you under alot of stress? If so, try Yoga. I'm currently doing Biggest Loser Weightloss Yoga (its for beginners) and is easier than you'd think. I can feel my arms and legs working and after all the stress I have at work, I look forward to it because while I am stretching and breathing...I'm burning fat. I feel sooooo good after I'm done...like I just got out of a hot tub or something. I am wondering why I've never tried Yoga before!!!

Good luck

One pound equals 3500 calorie deficit. So you either have to burn 3500 cals/week, or decrease diet by that as well. I thought the 2000 cals is what a normal person eats, and if you want to lose a pound a week, you have to lower that by 500 cals. I would say you would want to eat around 1400-1500 calories, but then don't forget about your exercise cals. I try not to eat all of mine but at least 1/2.

I trust the site in there calculations in what I am suppose to eat, I am also a stay at home mom, and I just put my level as sedetary. My thought is anything extra burned there is a bonus. I always take measurements, the scale didn't move for me in weeks, but I was working out lots and was losing inches.
I always have a day (saturdays) where I eat whatever and don't count, I feel the body needs days like that to stay in check.
This is all just my opinion, but hope it helps some.

Keep at it, I am sure you will get there.

Why don't you play around with your calories to see what works for you? Decrease them for a month see what happens. Increase them for a month, see what happens, etc. Or, set your activity level to "sedentary" and log your cleaning as exercise. Why don't you set your food diary to public so we can take a look at what you're eating to give you some tips? Change up your exercise -- the body adjusts to exercise you've been doing for a long time to become more effiecient at it (which means you burn less doing it).

And what do you mean "give up?" This is a lifestyle change. You shouldn't be doing anything you can't keep up for the rest of your life. It's not like you can just "diet" and lose 70 pounds and then go right back to being lazy and eating whatever you ate that made you overweight in the first place. Right?

I don't get it.

I'd suggest throwing in 2 days of some kind of strength training with weights. Muscle burns fat. I know a lot of women think that they are gonna get bulky, but 99% of women don't make enough testosterone to do that. Cardio is great, it burns calories and helps your heart but that's pretty much where it ends. You should add 2 days of weight training to your 5 days of cardio and yes, you can do both on the same day... usually lifting weights comes first. And you don't have to spend a lot of time doing it... 15 to 20 minutes of the right exercises will be sufficient. Also instead of doing the standard 30 minutes at the same pace during cardio, try doing intervals. I'm sure you can find everything you need online... hope this helps. Just keep in mind, it's a lifelong, lifestyle change, not just a fad diet lasting only until you reach a goal weight or give up. Just go day by day... and go by how you feel too, not just the scale.

I am so sorry that you are sounding so discouraged! I think you are awesome for getting motivated to do this - since you are running after your son, do you put your work as the not-sedentary choice?

Also, maybe you are gaining some muscle weight on those weeks where the scale tips up a little? I try to measure my progress - I lost 3 lbs total in the past few weeks (I have been working out for a month or so but just started tracking food and eating healthy when I signed onto here). I didn't really believe the scales, because they can discourage you by not giving you a true measure of how your fat/muscle ratios have changed. I only really believed the scales once I realized that I fit back into some slacks that were previously too tight.

I would start paying close attention to how your clothes fit (of course, it is easier to measure how you fit into structured clothes, jeans, slacks, button downs, etc.), or even measuring yourself at key body points- there is an option on here to track that too!

Everyone's weight varies from time of day, or day to day - try weighing yourself at the same-ish time everyday. I seriously have a weight difference of 3 pounds from day to night, so I also don't really believe I've lost (or gained, haha) until I have several same-time-of-day weights that are different!

As far as caloric intake, I have found this tool is a great measure of how much you should eat - yes, the tool is sometimes tough to track the exercise - they don't tell me how much my Pilates burns, so I had to go to a calorie counter. I'll try to find the one that a gal posted on here in a diff discussion.

I hope this encourages you!

I have had a couple heated debates with a few friends about caloric intake.
The information you need is posted above. It's truth!

A friend of mine argued with me that her weight required her to eat 2,000 a day to shed the weight. Well, in fact, she started gaining after a while. She was not burning enough to offset that large intake. she would have to work out for at least 2 hours to get where she needed to be.

I am just a few pounds below you, my caloric intake is 1200 a day. 3.3liters of water as well. Drink your water, it will curve your hunger. Goal is to be negative due to working out.

Kids and laundry does burn calories, and I mean no disrespect at all. But if household chores were enough to stay fit, many people, including myself would be size 7's by now! lol It's just not enough.