Struggling with weight loss. I feel like giving up.

It sounds like 1200 isn't enough calories for you. If its leaving you hungry try setting MFP to losing 0.5 or 1 pound a week. That way you will get enough food so you don't feel like binging the next day.

I'd also recommend increasing your calories, especially your protein/fat intake. This would make you feel fuller and take your body out of the starvation mode.

Hi read my blog.... we've all had wobbles, add me on here and I'll try to help, I don't judge either

I agree with the posters above. You are being too strict on yourself on the 1,200 calorie days, leaving yourself hungry and depressed, which is bringing on the bouts of bingeing - both from hunger and just to make yourself feel better.

What exercise are you doing? It seems like you are feeling quite down, and I'm sure that a half an hour cycle around a park, or an hour walk each day would work wonders.

I also understand your privacy concerns, but I think you might benefit more from this site if you open up your diary and add some more friends - it's certainly helping me to be more accountable and think more about what i'm eating to have perfect strangers see what i eat each day (:

Good luck! I really believe you can do it.

This sounds very familiar to me! I have tried for years to lose weight, but it's always been a small goal set for a time not far away, and I have rarely ever managed it. It's only when I accepted that what I really wanted was to really change my life for the long term, and that I wasn't going to get where I wanted by my next holiday, or that wedding coming up or something else, that actually it would be months, maybe well over a year of gradual progress. It's only when I accepted that that things started to work for me. I've been on this site for two months now, I have lost twelve pounds (which is 5 more than I lost in the 6 months preceding this when I was setting short goals and trying to knock off a few pounds here and there). Every day I find it frustrating because I haven't got to the point where I can buy new clothes yet, and I don't feel like I have got any of my confidence back yet, but I have to keep reminding myself that this isn't going to work if I want instant gratification, and I must keep going because I will get there in time, and hopefully once I get there I will have changed my life and my outlook forever.

I know it's hard when you want to look good and feel good for a specific event coming up, but I'm sure your boyfriend would rather know that you are working on the long term goal, and that you are confident that you'll eventually get there.

I hope this helps! Good luck! x

Part of your problem is that you are within your target zone already, so you are going to lose weight more slowly than people with more to lose. I'm 5'4" have lost 12 pounds and am at 143. I'm aiming at 130 pounds. My nutritiionist wants me to lose more than 1200 calories because she said I am starving myself.

I'm in a stressful situation myself = I am going to be visiting my 92 year old mom for about a week and a half and she has memory problems. I'll be by myself because my brother is going to be on a cruise during this time. I'm trying to plan my meals so that I stay within a reasonable level. And I'm going to have my brother show me how to use his ski machine before he leaves on his trip.

You probably need to aim at one half to 1 pound a week at your level. And you probably need to eat more than 1200 calories per day.

Like some of the others have said increase your daily cals just a little, so you eat the same amount every day, don't think of it as a quick fix, do it slowly and surely and make it a habit to log everything you consume. You can have the odd day off for special occasions, but get back to it the next day. A loss of a pound a day or half a pound is a good way to go.

Good luck

If you keep eating 1200 calories and binging the next day, why don't you eat 1600-1800 calories each day and give yourself a treat like some a hot chocolate or a bit of ice cream every day so that you don't need to binge?

Just believe in yourself, be confident and surround yourself with like minded people and eventually you'll get there.

Tbh, you are the classic yo-yo dieter.

Please don’t take any of this as a criticism, because it is certainly not. I was in the exact same boat (and still am, occasionally) for many years.

In my honest opinion and from personal experience, the only thing that’s going to make you lose weight is for you to want to be slim and healthy more than you want food. That’s it. There’s no magical motivator, it’s down to you.

You can help yourself find it easier though. Maybe you aren’t eating enough calories, or you need to follow a diet. Or maybe if you like a binge, you need to workout more to ‘earn’ those calories. You need to find something that works for you.

Good luck.

Hi, I am 5'4.5, my starting weight on here was 148. I am however in a different age bracket.
I slowly lost 8lbs using the 1200 MFP allowance, and actually managed not to feel hungry on that. After reading numerous articles on Starvation mode, Tdee etc I re checked my measurements on another site, I used fat2fit radio which gave me between 13-1400 cal daily allowance. So I did increase my daily allowance to 1300. I am trying to get my protein levels higher. Again this is a point picked up in other articles which said that protein assists with weight loss. So everything I do I try to do for a two week period to see if it works, if it doesnt I try something else. Increasing my cals even by 100 then eating back some exercise calories seems to be working for me.

Your doing well but finding out what is right for you can be a slow process, just don't give up, its not impossible.