WHAT AM I DOING WRONG?

I agree with what others have said---too much processed food. It tends to be high in sodium, which you don't need. I would echo the poster who said that you should try to eat "cleaner" and drink way more water as it is a good detox agent. You can lose a lot of weight fast on the Atkins diet but it is not healthy long term. You must eat fruits and vegetables if you are going to be healthy. I would also echo the poster who said that you need to eat more protein--chicken and fish are especially your friends. Also, "creamed corn" has a lot of carbs (starch in the cream sauce). Buttered corn would be a better choice---you don't sacrifice much in taste or satisfaction but you are not taking in simple carbs that way. There is new research out that shows that some obese people can quickly convert simple carbs into high blood glucose and then into fructose (too complex to get into here as to why that is a very bad thing) and that their bodies will refuse to burn fat under those conditions!:huh: You must train your body to burn fat for fuel and that takes a bit of determination along with a very tight diet. By that I mean it must be very tightly controlled. I will try to post something over the next couple of days that includes suggestions for the obese. Obesity is a medical condition. It can be beaten, but there are very specific things you must do if you are going to be able to burn fat and retain your health.

Start overestimating your food intake and underestimating your exercise. I used to err in the other direction, and no weight came off!

I'm no expert but.... I do notice that you seem to be "eating back" calories you've burned, I did this as well when first starting MFP but then after meeting with a dietitian, I've learned not to do that. So just because you've burned say 250 calories doesn't mean you have 250 extra calories to eat, you can't lose weight if you "eat back" everything you burn, so leave those calories alone
As for the whole carb/sodium/protein intake things, I am lost, I set my calories where my dietitian and have left there and seem to being doing just fine. I do agree with increasing your water intake also.
Good luck and feel free to add me if you like

That is, unless you filled out your settings correctly so that you are already at a deficit without exercise *and* you log accurately. Otherwise, the exercise will put you at too high of a deficit which can stall your weight loss.

I'm no expert but.... I do notice that you seem to be "eating back" calories you've burned, I did this as well when first starting MFP but then after meeting with a dietitian, I've learned not to do that. So just because you've burned say 250 calories doesn't mean you have 250 extra calories to eat, you can't lose weight if you "eat back" everything you burn, so leave those calories alone
As for the whole carb/sodium/protein intake things, I am lost, I set my calories where my dietitian and have left there and seem to being doing just fine. I do agree with increasing your water intake also.
Good luck and feel free to add me if you like

I eat back most of my exercise calories, and I've lost over 50lbs.

You have to fuel your body. Someone with a lot of weight to lose can eat at a higher calorie deficit for a while. The closer you get to your goal weight, the smaller the deficit has to become.

Try maybe eating back half of your calories, see how that goes. But whatever you do, you need to stick with it for at least 3-4 weeks to see if anything really changes.

Good luck!

Carbohydrates come in many different forms. You shouldn't be worrying about carbs, that's your main mistake. I ate four cups of chopped kale yesterday, an extremely healthy low calorie food, and it had 27gs of carbs. What you do want to avoid at all times is complex carbohydrates (bread, rice). To put it short and sweet, keep burning calories and stay in a calorie deficit; eat a lot of leafy greens, they will fill you up and they are low in calories; as someone has already said, EAT LOTS OR LEAN PROTEIN AND GOOD LUCK!

I agreed with you until you said to avoid complex carbohydrates. Complex carbohydrates digest slower than simple carbohydrates (e.g. sugar and refined flour), so those are actually "good carbs." High fiber carbs are better for you. There is no reason to NOT eat rice or bread. Also, some carbs contain "resistant starch" such as bananas and sweet potatoes. (Or even cold starches like in a potato salad.) Resistant starches do not get digested in the small intestines at all. They digest very slowly, keeping you full for longer.

Starches are a long chain of simple sugars. Since the chain is so long, it takes longer for them to digest than simple carbs so that there isn't a big blood sugar spike with resulting crash. Some grains are better than others, such as barley and rice. White flour is the one to avoid if you have blood sugar issues. But if you have no insulin resistance or glucose issues, then white flour is fine in moderation.

I agree pretty much with what you have said here. Complex carbohydrates are certainly fine for MOST people to eat on a diet. Sugars must be eaten lightly and in fruit---but not in large quantities. (It's important to remember that bears get very fat eating huge quantities of wild blueberries in August :wink) Your advice works fine for someone who does not have a serious problem with obesity which I suspect this poster has since she mentioned fears that she would not be here to see her son grow up and that she could not go on the rides with him at the fair. Obesity is a medical condition that must be carefully managed and what works for the merely overweight, will often not work with the very obese. She may need to cut out all grain and grain products for a while. It is always healthiest for everyone to get our carbohydrates from vegetables and moderate intake of fruit.

I'm seeing a lot of fast food and processed food in the last week and a half or so. Also, a lot of your foods say "homemade." Did you actually put in the recipe for these? If not, you need to be careful. Someone's homemade item may be completely different from what you are eating.

One other thing is the sweet n low. I know it's zero calories, but there is some sugar in there. The actual sweet n low product is too fine, so the sugar acts as a carrier. In small amounts it's really negligible, but some days you have more than 5 packets of the stuff. I just think this is a lot. Go with either a creamer without trans fats, or the sugars. Try not to do both, and start to cut down on them too. I personally think one packet of sweet n low is entirely too sweet; I couldn't imagine three in one cup of coffee!

I agree with everyone else, give it more time, eat cleaner, and watch your sodium. :flowerforyou:

What? There is no sugar in sweet n low. "sweet n low is too fine so the sugar acts as a carrier"?? This makes no sense. I agree that too much artificial sweetner is not a good thing for optimal health, but what you are saying isn't true.

I apologize, I should be more clear and speak in less general terms. Sweet n low contains Dextrose, a simple sugar.

"Dextrose is simply a form of glucose. Some food packagers like to use "dextrose" on their packaging instead of "glucose" because they believe that people have negative associations with glucose. This sugar is extremely abundant in nature, and it can be found in numerous plant and animal tissues, often along with other sugars such as fructose. The body relies on glucose for energy, using this sugar to power cells. When people measure their blood sugar, they are actually measuring the amount of dissolved glucose in the blood.

The molecular formula for glucose/dextrose and fructose is actually the same. Both sugars are considered to be hexoses, meaning that they have six carbon atoms attached to 12 hydrogen atoms and six oxygen atoms. The differing ways in which molecules can be attached cause various hexoses to behave differently, creating different chemical compounds which lend the hexoses some distinct properties."

Edit: There are many different types of "sugars." Sugar is a general term to describe a variety of sweeteners.