Constructive Diary Criticism Requested

Kimberly,
Before I start, let me refer you to the title of your original post: "Constructive diary criticism requested." That is what you asked for; that is what you're receiving. Let me also state up front that I am maintaining/recomping at my goal weight after losing over 40 pounds in about five months and then having surgery, that I am not a "clean eater," but I incorporate delicious frozen yogurt every day and fairly empty-calorie treats a few times a week into the 1460 calorie net target I'm maintaining at (being pretty active, I eat closer to 1700-1800 calories most days). And I am not an "annoying person" obsessed with my food. In fact, because I'm very busy with my full-time job, my household, and multiple volunteer commitments, I eat out more often than I prepare food at home. If you want to see what my days look like, I'll accept a friend request from you so you can poke around my diary.

Now, I'll share some things I see from a quick peek back at your diary. There is no criticism here, only observation, interpretation, and suggestions.

1. As a general rule, you don't seem to be eating much protein or fiber. On your diet, most people I know would probably never have a bowel movement. "Calories in/calories out" is the first step, but is not all that matters. A rule of thumb often cited on MFP is as follows:
- 1g protein per pound of lean body mass (for a wild estimate, you could say this is 70% of your weight).
- 0.35g fat per pound of total weight
- let the rest fall where it may
These two threads are very, very useful (more so than an arbitrary 80/20 rule imho) in figuring out those macros and still being able to eat your cheesecake.
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/819055-setting-your-calorie-and-macro-targets
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/925464-fitting-it-in-giggity

2. You say you have set your TDEE at a level someone else has identified as "moderately active." You're also logging activities such as 30 minutes of walking here, 20 minutes of 5mph running there, 90 minutes of gardening, a few hours of cleaning, 30 minutes of mowing the lawn. People would normally include such activity in their TDEE. I see that you're not eating back all of those calories, but it appears that sometimes you are; hence I'd suggest that you may be double-counting your calorie burn in some cases. Whatever you include in your TDEE should not be logged as a calorie-burning activity. Here's a point of reference for you: My actual calorie expenditure matches my TDEE at the "sedentary" level on a day when I've covered approximately 2-4 miles walking at 3mph or above.

3. All of these entries in your diary appear to be estimates. It's not just food that needs to be measured accurately; it's also activity. A BodyMedia band or Fitbit might help you a lot by giving you a better handle on how many calories you burn every day.

4. You don't seem to log water at all, nor many other drinks aside from the occasional glass of lemonade or wine. When you eat processed foods, their higher sodium content can contribute to water retention. A solution to this, counterintuitive though it may seem, is to drink more water and flush it out. If you truly aren't drinking water (or something!), I would hazard a guess that upping your water intake would probably result in a fairly quick drop of a few pounds in "water weight."

I mentioned the "sedentary" vs "moderately active" TDEE. Here is another point of reference for you, just so you have something to compare with. Yesterday, according to my Fitbit, I burned 1850 calories. Subtracting out my BMR, the burn from physical activity was about 600 calories. That included walking over four miles, running another 1.5 miles or so at a pace of 5mph, 7 flights of stair climbing, and 68 flights of stair sprints (run up two flights, walk back down, do it again -- that took 40-50 minutes to complete and was sweat-dripping, heart-thumping, heavy-breathing fun).

I won't bother going any further with comments on food in general, because that seems to upset you. But if you measure your intake and output accurately and you work on those macros, especially getting your protein up, I believe you'll find yourself naturally making healthier and more weight-loss-conducive food choices over time. And you will lose weight, potentially gain strength, and end up firmer and leaner. The basic math does work. I think you're just dealing with too many unknowns in your equation at the moment.

Good luck with your quest to find what's holding you back and change it. I hope the time I've spent here helps you with that quest in some way.

Ann you hit the nail on the head. Life is just not worth living if you are constantly watching and obsessing over everything is it? I went out to an Indian buffet with work on Friday. Was I supposed to eat a salad? hahahaha. Or was I supposed to say no thanks, you guys go poison your bodies with that terrible garbage while I sit here by myself and eat some carrots. That is NOT real life. It's just not!
I am going to start weighing my food more and working out more now that I've gotten past the beginning stages of working out consistently again. I like this idea of 80/20. 80 percent eating on plan then 20 eating mostly what you want within your calories.
I'm also going to look into the body media. I think that will help me alot as well, if I can afford it.

While I agree there is a balance to be found, if your goal is to lose weight then you need to put your thumb on the scale a little bit until you get to maintenance. If the Indian buffet is more important, that's fine, but your weight loss will be slower if not plateaued for a bit.

I am a 31 yr old female and 1600 is actually pretty close to my maintenance calorie intake. I am at 1360 for weight loss. But tjat is net, I eat back my exercise calories.

I'd say recalculate your TDEE as sedentary, and then use your excercise as a bonus. If you use MFP cals for exercise (instead of say a HRM) I would only eat half (because MFP over estimates). I lost nearly 90 pounds on processed 'crap' and feel good, so I have no comments there. If you are truly measuring correct (enough) (and you must be, why else the 70 lbs loss?), all I can think of is a goal that is just a tad to high (which might also explain the loss-gain-loss-gain, which sounds like maintaining...).