New member - one month NO progress!?

Well... Maybe sodium caused you to retain water if you ate out. However: The 80:20 rule is good to keep in mind. If you eat healthy 80% of the time, then the occasional treat (the other 20%) is okay. I, for example, allow myself a piece of chocolate or some other treat almost daily. (Not a lot of chocolate, about 5-10g of the dark stuff). Learn what "guilty" foods have the lowest and highest amount per calories per serving, and choose wisely. And going out to eat once is okay. It is a lifestyle, not temporary, and I suppose you are not planning on never going out for a meal again.

Also: 1200 calories may be a bit low considering you have very little weight to lose. What is your height? Unless you are quite short I would guess that is below your BMR, and most certainly below TDEE (Look for the "road map" in the forums).

And are you actually weighing and measuring out your foods? It is very easy to underestimate the amount of food on your plate. This could actually be the reason for your weight-gain.

ETA: You drink Bailey's almost every day. For me that is really somewhat unnecessary, but I rarely drink anyway. There are also pastries on a lot of days (went through all of november), and you seem to choose things like "skinny taste" when choosing generics. Are you sure this is what you are actually eating.

From your diary i make the wild assumption you are from Denmark (I am from Sweden). I know some typical danish food to be very unhealthy. Also, a lot of your processed foods have 0 sodium. This simply is not accurate. And remember to log the salt you put in your food too. Lots of sodium there. (I am very bad at logging salt myself, but I try to).

BMR is your Basal Metabolic Rate, or the amount of calories you would need to put into your body just to maintain your weight if you slept all day.

using http://www.fat2fitradio.com/tools/bmr/ I calculate your BMR to be around 1400 calories. You should never eat below this. Are you shooting for 2 pounds/week by any chance? That is way too much if you only have 5kg (10-12 lbs) to lose. Up your calories to around 1400 instead and eat back your exercise calories. Or use the TDEE (total daily energy expenditure) from the calculator and make a 250-500 cut from that and don't eat your exercise calories. Your choice. Just make sure you, on average, net above BMR.

I know this is probably not the answer you want, but you actually have to read the label of the foods you eat. Most foods have sodium on the label. And there is no guarantee that the database entry for a different brand will match. Different brands have very different nutrition. I think this inaccuracy may be your answer.

As for the Bailey's, it is good that you actually measure it out. I, too, reacted on the very small amounts. Also: Are you sure you only have 100ml of milk in a glass? That is not that much.

I guess Denmark must have an institute of food of some sort (or if you read scandinavian languages: try the swedish Livsmedelsverket). There you could find some useful data on foods. And you may have to create your own foods by copying down the label into MFP.

I agree @asarwe, because if you choose a diet - it's not for few months, but for rest of your life (generally). I don't think that you should be guilty, because it happens often - our weight is more or less changing and it depends on the body or metabolism. You do not weight so much that your body would give away those 5 kilos in just a month. Moreover, your body gains weight fast if you are on a strict diet. It's normal and the best option is to eat healthy as you said you do, and do a workout which you think is pleasant for you - if you do a strenght training, you would gain more weight, but it's because muscles weight way more than fats - obviously and the overall body mass is not really that important. If you do cardio exercises - yoga, jogging, bicycle or gymnastics, you would lose fat and train your 'inner' muscles which are not that visible, but sure gives you health and nice forms. I guess you all know that, but just wanted to repeat that it's really not so strange that on lower body mass you gain weight faster.

WAIT! Before you INCREASE your calories, really look to see exactly how many calories you are eating. You have already seen where you have underestimated some of your servings. Go back and edit your daily diaries to see what your actual daily intake it. Then add up all the calories you have eaten for the past 2-3 weeks, and divide by the number of days to get your average daily intake. I saw several days you went over, one day was quite a bit over, probably enough to wipe out your entire week's deficit.

Next, what type of exercise are you doing? I saw one day with around 1400 exercise calories. That is very difficult to burn in one day for the average person. If you are walking or cycling and use the MFP calculators, note that they can give you a number that is as much as 50% higher than your actual burn, SO if you are eating back your exercise calories, which on many days you apparently were, then the overestimation of calories burned, added to the underestimation of calories consumed, could put you eating a whole lot more than you realize.So get an accurate count on your calories in and out before you start adding more. I would suggest getting a Heart Rate Monitor that has a chest strap, to wear when you exercise to get a more accurate count. Polar FT4 or FT7 are very good brands that a lot of people on here use and they are very accurate.

And like everyone else said, be patient. You will normally lose a lot the first week or two, then slow down drastically the next week or two while your body adjusts. But if after a month you aren't seeing any progress at all, then you are probably eating too many calories. Get some accurate numbers and start from there.

I would try to underestimate my exercise, just becuse MFP estimates it wrong. I have a HRM, but it is only accurate above a certain heart rate anyway. Make sure you put a low intensity on cycling and walking, since it is easy to overestimate this.

Or use the TDEE apporach and fit it into your daily goals and not eat back anything.I find this approach much easier since I don't have to keep track of all the walking I do in a day.

I feel you on the student economy thing, it sucks! I got my HRM as a gift from my parents, would not have been able to afford it otherwise.

It sounds like you have a more reasonable outlook on this now. I find that living in the real world helps. I. for exemple, had a terrible week diet-wise this week. But i just dust myself off and try to keep on track. Studying is hard sometimes, and the brain needs fuel.

If you have a Lidl near you, I got mine there for £12.99. It probably overestimates my calorie burned so I take a 3rd off just in case and don't eat all the calories back.

Glad you posted and got some advice, would hate to see people discouraged and quitting when they've made such a positive decision for themselves! x