I just want a success story already :(

Firstly, thanks for having your diary open when you ask this question. I HATE people who ask for help but don't let anyone see the full picture. :bigsmile:

Here's my suggestion: I don't see much in the way of fruit and vegies in your food diary. Now, I am well aware of the whole 'a calorie is a calorie' debate but I think it truly makes a difference and if you've tried for this long and not had much success then I'd definitely be thinking of giving it a go to see if it would work.

Hope you have some success soon! :happy:

I second weighing your food. I know, with me, my estimates were way off one way or the other depending on how I felt that day. 1 cup of rice or pasta or whatever could be either 1/2 cup or 1 1/2 cups.

QFT

I'm pretty sure this is the cause of my current plateau. I NEVER weigh/measure my food and clearly my guesstimates are off.


Also, I'm exactly the same height as you and I would be so super stoked to be your weight right now. I know I wasn't happy at that weight when I was there, but it sounds like you have a much better body composition than I had back then, so give yourself some props!

Perhaps you're not logging your calories correctly. It's the only logical explanation. Make sure you aren't underestimating calories or forgetting about some (such as baking oils). Weigh what you eat for a period of time to check this.

If you aren't weighing and measuring your food you cant know how many calories you are eating.

Start weighing and measuring absolutely everything for a few weeks to make sure you're eating ~1600 calories. If you still cant lose weight after that you need to increase your deficit

I am the exact same way.

Its frustrating to know you are doing everything that people suggest and still see nothing.

Just know that you aren't alone and I"m gonig to be following the same advice too.

I've noticed that MFP overestimates calories burned, if you're logging your workouts. So, in addition to potentially under reporting your intake, your calories burned may be overestimated as well.

I would seriously consider buying a device that will more accurately estimate calories burned. It helps take the guesswork out of figuring what your intake should be. The bodymedia armband is quite accurate in estimating calories burned. I've had much success with it in the past. I recently joined MFP and have lost about a pound a week with it. It's incredibly motivating and teaches you how much you're actually burning with each activity you perform. Of course for this to be effective, I'd also weigh and measure all of your food, as others suggested. Feel free to add me for support and/or message me for more info.

I am 5'4" too and I don't think I would lose eating that much. I try to eat between 1200 and 1400, regardless of exercise. I also wonder if you are getting a true measurement on your calorie burn? Do you use MFP or a HRM? When I switched from MFP to using a HRM to measure my burn (mostly from elliptical, walking, and strength training) my calorie burn was only half what I had thought it was. I believe fiber and protein are so very important. Maybe if your diet had more fiber and protein and less fat and carbs it would help? Everyone is different-just some ideas.

This is good advice! Starting measuring/weighing your food. It works.
Also, the protein is REALLY important. Try adding a whey protein shake. It may take a while to find one that works for you in terms of taste, calories and price, but it's worth the effort. There are other ways to get more protein (chicken breast, lean meats, etc) but I like these with breakfast to give me a boost of protein after morning workouts
Good luck. Don't give up and stay open to the advice offered

The problem either lies in one or two areas. By you not weighing you are eating more than you think you are which is inhibiting your weight loss. Start tracking and faithfully eat that amount and see if you start to lose.

If not then bottom line is you need to decrease current daily intake or increase your daily expenditure (excercise) or a combination of both. Good news is you have 230 days of data so it should be easy to cut like 300 calories and start to lose.

Quick estimation for break even calorie intake is "weight" times 11. 152 times 11 equals 1672 calories estimated to BREAK even, NOT gain.
You will need to net below that to lose weight. 350 below every day (1323) will lose 3 pounds per month. IF you count accurately.

Calorie counting is so frustrating when people are pulling you in all different directions...Never eat less than 1200, never eat less than 1600, never eat more than 2000 calories a day....gggrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

It definitely is! But it's all about pinning down your maintenance calories imo. No one really knows if it's 1200 or 2000 for you. But if you measure and track over a period of a few weeks, you should be able to pin down that number and go from there.

Sadly I love my food as well but thats why I make on healthy meal and drink protein shakes with fat free milk instead. they are so thick and nasty you wont want to eat.

good luck!

Did you mean to say "tasty"?

Hey Saaaaam,

I realize it can be overwhelming and frustrating when everyone on MFP says different things It's different for everyone, so it may just be a trial and error thing for you. If eating at 20% of your TDEE didn't work, then maybe you oughtta try a lower calorie goal for a few weeks - just to see what happens? If that doesn't work, maybe re-evaluate your food choices. Honestly, the first thing I noticed when flipping back through your diary is your meat/cheese : vegetable/fruit ratio. There were very little vegetables logged. Maybe you're eating them and not logging them, but I'm a veggie fanatic, and I find that I lose more weight in weeks when I eat a lot of veggies and high fiber foods (dark green salads, beans, apples, etc....).

I'm not sure about the science behind this, but I think of it like this: giving your body access to the nutrients it wants (e.g. dark green roughage like spinach, mixed greens, broccoli - or other veggies like asparagus, eggplant, zucchini) gives your body the option to take what it needs and 'pass on' what it doesn't. If the majority of your food is nutrient deficient, your body is going to cling to it in an attempt to find nutrients it needs/wants.

I love to eat pizza, burgers and beer occasionally just like the next girl (I'm from Oklahoma, afterall ), but I generally try to do a good job of getting a big salad in every other day and incorporating vegetables into recipes that didn't originally call for them. Feel free to send me a friend request if you'd like to check out my diary. Hopefully this info was helpful!

Kyli