what am I doing wrong

Drink lots of water. Try not to eat back your workout cals. It is recommended that HALF of your cals for weight loss (3500 cals = 1lb) comes from restriction and HALF come from working out. Is your calorie/day limit set appropriately?

A month may not be enough time. I saw nothing in a month. After 3 great weeks, 2 awful weeks (for xmas) and then right back on track for the past 2 weeks and after adjusting my cal intake... I have noticed that I am losing finally.

Drink lots of water
Stick to appropriate cal intake (NOT what MFP suggests)
Keep working out
Stop staring at the scale

I clicked around a bit in your diary and honestly I don't like what I see. Since Christmas, for like 10 days there is no food logged, just "2140 calories" every day. What the heck is that?
Then after that, there is a lot of
- mashed potatoes
- peanut butter
- prepacked prepared beef or whatever
- rice
-pizza
-Quick added calories - even entries like 870 kcal! (??)

This may sound harsh but I literally barely see any vegetables apart from a couple tomatoes and onions. Fruit is just banana. And this is just not going to work. What you are consuming may taste good but is not balanced. You will simply HAVE to eat salad and spinach (not a quiche full of fat and cheese and a spoonful of spinach, but spinach as a side dish to for example grilled salmon) and like greek salad or cucumbers or broccolis or whatever. You probably don't like any of these foods but believe me they can be tasty if you are hungry. :-)

And not the prepackaged, creamed up versions with a ton of starch and whatnot in it. Steaming or sauteeing vegetables is no rocket science.
Also, from these foods you will be able to eat a LOT MORE too.

Hi there, reading posts I agree with the sodium topic as I have to watch that very carefully. I notice eating a healthy chicken breast is fine, but restaurants add a ton of sodium to chicken (for an example), so I don't eat it in restaurants anymore.

Two other things...buy a food scale and start actually reading labels and weighing out the portions to the grams indicated on the package and see what happens after doing that. Do no eyeball your food as we are often way off. You'll know what I mean when you see that a serving of bread might be 1 slice, but people often have 2 slices for a sandwich...that can be over 200 calories right there if you eat for instance Oat Nut bread. My husband starting weighing his food a couple years ago and lost over 35 pounds just managing that way, with exercise.

Also, I agree with another post ... do not eat your calories back. Try that for a week or so as well and see how that goes. If you feel hungry, eat good protein and complex carbs.

I've been in a bootcamp workout since May 1, 2012 and it took me 6 months to actually start feeling really good and seeing my body gradually adjust...and I was already a good eater and fairly active. Everyone is different, but please don't be discouraged, stay with it. You'll never regret that you are treating yourself well. Look at this as a lifelong quest to be the best you can be every day!

Stay strong!
Michelle

im not an expert by far. but my guess would be that you may need to leave a greater calorie deficit. i just started january 1st and started at 260 pounds. i eat about 1500 calories a day and 1 hour or more of exercise a day on my elliptical and have seen results. i have lost 20 pounds so far doing this. i think it depends how quickly you want results. the more work you put into it and can be disciplined in your eating, your going to see more of a drastic loss. if your ok with just a pound here and there you need to adjust accordingly.

also to be sure your eating more often and protein with every meal.

You've lost 20 lbs in less than 3 weeks?? That's great! And I must be doing something terribly wrong..

Never weight yourself after a cheat meal! The sodium (even in the "healthy options" causes the majority of people to retain water, which can bloat you (which makes it seem like you aren't losing inches), and increase your weight. I weigh myself saturday morning, before my cheat meal.

Pay special attention to high-calorie things like oils, butter, cheese, nuts, any fast snack items like crackers or chips.

Buy glasses that contain exactly a cup, for any liquids you are drinking that have calories.

It is really easy to miscalculate calories eaten - and without good data, you can't really adjust your attack.



*edit to say, oops....if I had read the whole thread...
Good job, OP, ordering a scale. I guess I'll just go ahead and delete that part in my post....:blushing:

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