I honestly feel like I can't do this.

You can do it! You just have to figure out what works for you. It takes some time, trial, and error to make plan that will work. I really hope you weren't trying to get by on 800 calories a day. Take the time to read the boards on here and read some of the success stories. Typically they explain what they did to lose the weight.

You can do this! You have to eat at least 1200 calories a day. Anything under that will slow down your metabolism. Try doing maybe 1500 calories to start until your body adjusts to a smaller intestine and the hunger pains will eventually lessen. Dont drink away your calories. Always drink diet pop if you are addicted to having some type of taste because they are usually 0 calories but water is always best! You can also look for flavored water but check the calories because not all flavored water has calories of zero. Hope this helps!

sounds like you just need to find something else to keep your hands busy. look for a new hobby- try knitting while watching TV. see if your local dog shelter needs volunteer dog walkers, etc. i obsess about food too, but i've realized it's most related to boredom. also higher sugar foods and processed foods spike your blood sugar, then you crash quickly afterwards making you want to eat again. try to eat more protein, and less sugar and processed foods.

i would also encourage you to keep a diary for at least a week. everytime you eat blog about what you eat, how you felt at that time, what you were doing, etc. it will help you notice your patterns so you can figure out a plan to break those bad habits.

snacking is a habit, just have to break that habit. it's not easy, but you CAN do it.

If there's something you want to make sure you don't eat, DO NOT buy it when you do your grocery shopping. If you know you can't keep yourself from eating hot dogs, mac and cheese, etc. pass them up. Worked for me-- I really like the Red Baron single serve cheese pizzas but I know they're horrible for me so I just don't buy them anymore.

you can still have snacks just have healthier ones like celery or baby carrots with either peanut butter or hummus, light string cheeses, low fat yogurts, grapes, apples, oranges

Bump for later

If I only had 800 calories in a day I might eat the tv remote along w/the Hot Dogs and Mac & Cheese!! Up those cals a bit - be sure and eat filling foods rather than junk and go to bed earlier (says the girl who was up at midnight last night and most nights)....

Are you eating enough protein? If you are, and are still hungry, fill yourself with fruits & veggies. You can eat A TON of produce for not very many calories and it will fill you up!

Please add me-
I am eating about 1200 cal daily, and exercising almost daily (5-6 times/week... sometimes my little one sabotages my plans!)

You HAVE to learn to listen to your body. Your stomach will growl when you are truly hungry. Once I got into the rhythm of eating when I was HUNGRY, not when I was bored, or when something yummy was offered, I started doing much better. I realized that I had not felt that hungry feeling much in the last 4 years, because I was always snacking.
AND- once you start eating only when you are actually hungry- you will find that ANYTHING you eat tastes fantastic. Raw baby spinach, broccoli, chicken breast- I look forward to eating these things, when before, when I was eating all the time, regardless of what my body needed, these things did not appeal to me.

You have to retrain your brain. If you know that you are up late, eat light early, then save a good chunk of calories for late night.
I cook up a bunch of chicken breast for the week and buy baby spinach, a solid block of pecorino romano, and I like Drew's dressings (especially garlic peppercorn and shiitake ginger), and eat 1 or 2 big salads a day- 130 grams of baby spinach, 7.5 grams of grated pecorino romano, 3-4 oz of chicken. I dress the greens in 1T of dressing, and then cut up the chicken in 3/4" cubes, then coat them in the grated cheese. Toss it up with fresh ground pepper and a sprinkle of Himalayan Pink Sea salt, and bob'syouruncle.

I would recommend that you cut out sugars and carbs for two weeks to start out. Some people will disagree with this, but, I found that it killed my cravings for carbs and sugar. Carbs and sugar act like a drug in the brain, and tell you to eat more of them even if you are full. It is much easier to tackle this journey when you are in control of your cravings a bit more.

I am a night owl as well- usually up until 3-4 am EST, so do add me if you like. I will be up and around MFP latenight.

This is possible!!!

It must be something about Ohio girls. lol Cleveland is my hometown. I'm not going to address exercise, your calories, etc. I will just tell you that I am a snacker. My nightly snack used to be Haagen Daz coffee ice cream and potato chips. I lost 50 pounds over 2 years ago - the same 50 for about the 10th time - and have not put any back on. I knew I would never be able to eat dinner and eat nothing else in the evening. I replaced the Haagen Daz with Skinny Cow cones and sandwiches and a while later I would have a 100 calorie bag of popcorn. I would always plan for my snacks, and still do. It gives me something to look forward to. You don't need to stop eating after a certain time. You can't deprive yourself. That was always my mistake in the past. You can definitely do this. Don't worry if it goes slower than you'd like. You'll get used to eating differently and will keep it off long term. Good luck.

Anthony Robbins 'Awakening the Giant Within' taught me how to mentally reprogram myself. It will teach you too. it is called the pain vs. pleasure principle. and it works. I started at 300 lbs and entirely addicted to food. try it. Get the audiobook if you want. i used to listen while i would take my beginner small walks.

Here is a video with a piece:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NfSj4_n_C_s

I'm sorry but I haven't read all the replies so I may be repeating what others have said. You said it yourself, you are addicted to food or addicted to the additives, preservatives, the sugar and everything else the food industry adds to our food to make us addicted. I am guilty of it, too, even though I've learned better. If you don't know about the effects of processed food on our bodies and mind, learn about it. Slowly start substituting hot dogs and mac and cheese with real food. Eat more real food, 800 calories are never enough. Train your body to sleep earlier if you can (another big problem for me). And if you're not exercising, start. Best of luck, you can do it, we all can.

I felt this way especially when I started this journey. Amazingly I still feel this way at times even in maintenance when everyone tells me I shouldn't. We are all human. We have good days and bad days, all of our lives. The tools you find and use to get out of a funk will serve you the rest of your life, and you will always need them. I call it sharpening your sword for battle and you will always need to keep your blade sharp for the rest of your life. We may get to relax at times for a few moments, but life is a bit of work until the end.

There is nothing easy about this journey. Don't give up. Keep your eye on the prize. You do not have to be perfect to do this. You just have to have more good days than not. A bad day is not the end of the world. Tomorrow is a new day. Just pick it right up again. Be kind to yourself at all times and never beat yourself up.

Being on a calorie deficit is hard. You can't do this journey on will power alone. You must set up your environment for success. Have a team around you in your real life, not just online. Get trigger foods out of the house. It will take some sacrifice and it's not easy. You might have to say no to some social events sometimes.

Too many changes at once can be hard on some people. I've always eaten healthy so it easy for me to simply eat less. Eating at a calorie deficit is hard on people; even a small deficit puts your body in a state of flux with hormones and such. Everyone is different. Some people can handle a deeper calorie deficit than others, this is not right or wrong, it just is. Stress in your life affects your hunger hormones; lack of sleep, fatigue, job stress, family stress, financial stress, etc. Add in emotional eating issues and it gets even more complicated. Most people can only handle so much change/stress at once, they try to do too much and fail. Sometimes it might be a better strategy to eat at maintenance and make some small changes first, it really depends on how much stress you are taking in at the moment.

For me it's all about a calorie budget. I had less of a budget available when I was losing weight, more to spend now that I'm maintaining and all the tools I used for weight loss come into play for the rest of my life maintaining.

When you have accumulated excess fat, you have accumulated a debt. It is hard to pay off the debt (you have less calories to spend). If you are sitting next to someone your same gender and height and they are not overweight and you are, they get to eat more than you (have more calories to spend) because they are debt free. You have less calories to spend because you are paying off your debt.

There is no mystery to weight loss, everyone thinks something is wrong, their metabolism is broken, they have low thyroid, they have menopause or whatever issue, they are as unique as a snowflake, whatever. I thought a lot of these things once too but once the doctor helped resolve the health issues for me I learned there is still no magic pill. Most people eat more than they need to and are not at good at estimating calories as they think they are. Most people have a lower BMR than they think they do. The only way to know for sure is to go to a lab and have it tested. It doesn't seem fair to have to eat less and feel a little hunger. It's hard to face the truth of it, very hard. It's not fun. It's drudgery at times. But if you learn to enjoy your smaller amounts of food (necessary to lose weight, since the reason we got fat in the first place was eating too much whether we knew it or not), and rejoice in your victories it can be done.

Wishing you the best! -Bobbie

Wow. I am truly touched by every post that I read. I read this entire thread and I honestly teared up a few times (in a good way and because of how true what you're all saying was)

I have opened my diary. I didn't realize people had them opened. You will find it very sporadic as I haven't kept up with it like I should.

I have no idea what macros are, but I'm going to try going to the help post a couple of you suggested.

The 800 thing wasn't/isn't my every day goal. It was yesterday because I was trying "the military diet" to jumpstart my diet.. I was/am going for 1000 calories per day.. I will bump it up to 1200 after reading what you've all said.

I've always ate junk food. Always. My mom could make a 4 course, brilliant meal, and I'd rather eat a t.v. dinner or fast food. The amount I'm eating though definitely changed during pregnancy. I was a partier and drank beer all the time and smoked cigarettes. I quit both of those things while I was pregnant and just constantly ate.

I'm glad I posted this so I can re-read what you've all written when I need to. I've also added tons of new people on here and hope to get to know everyone

I've wanted to change my sleep habits for a long time. I'm going to shoot for going to sleep around 1am. That's early for me.

I am going to try this 1200 thing with exercise and I will bump this thread up in 2 weeks to let you all know my progress.

Thank you again every one of you for taking the time to read and to reply!

THIS is AWESOME! Glad you did not give up.