Almost 5 months , ZERO PROGRESS. mannn i just feel hopless

:huh:


http://www.myfitnesspal.com/forums/show/15-success-stories

You're doing it wrong.

Exercising is great! Good for you and BE PROUD of that!

I was like you for a long time. I exercised a lot, but my weight didn't go down. It wasn't until I started understanding how to eat food that I saw the pounds go down. I joined WW and for the first time in my life, I learned how to eat properly in portions. I also realized that sometimes I wasn't eating enough. It was really important to eat enough calories every day but make them COUNT--eating foods with substance and nutrition.

However, because I had been exercising for a long time already, I had already started to notice some inches coming off and feeling better and feeling stronger. If you're losing some weight and gaining some back, it's probably due to building muscle, which is more dense than fat.

Keep working out--it's good for you! Be proud of your accomplishment! Now, take some time to really focus on your eating, and you will probably see a big change.

P.S. I love this app, but another website that I like is supertracker from usda.gov. Input your info, and it will tell you how many servings of fruit, veggies, protein, and grains you need a day. It's through that app that I discovered I was consuming WAY too much sodium, so that has been helping.

My sister-in-law is always telling me that you can't out exercise nutrition. Meaning that you have to burn more than you eat it is that simple if you will. I am not saying that is it easy by any means because I know how hard it all is. I am saying that if you work out everyday for two hours and burn a total of 1000 calories and then consume a large plate of fetticini alfredo although your body knows you feel great the ratio of calories consumed would still be higher than what you burned. It sucks I know. It seems like you work so hard and get no where...very frustrating. I have been working out now for five years due to health issues and feel as though I get no where as well. I am now trying to log all my food and trying to be more attentive to what I put in my mouth. This is the first week of doing that so I'll see how it goes. Good luck to you

They say 80% of losing weight is what you eat, the other 20% is exercise. So focus on eating as opposed to exercise.

Try eating healthier foods than what you're eating now and cut down on exercise at first, keep it balanced, log your calories, take measurements, ect.

I started in May, since then I've lost around 90LBS. Pretty much a steady and consistent loss every week.

I wouldn't see the point in exercising myself hard, just to go and eat a load of crap afterwards. It's like you're defeating the object of having exercised in the first place. Or that you exercise so much so you can justify the crap you eat.

Anyway, good luck man, try to amend the kinds of foods you eat.

So answer yourself this.. Do you LIKE busting your *kitten* everyday? Sore muscles, gallons of sweat, huffing and puffing along only to sabotage ALL that effort for food? Is it worth it? Do you still get the same benefits of that feel good exercise energy boost if you weigh it down with junk food?? While exercise and over all health and fitness go hand in hand NUTRITION is 90 percent of this battle with the bulge! Sounds like you got the fitness part down. So imagine how good it will feel and be vain for a minute and think of how good you will look when you stop sabotaging your own efforts. The only thing standing between you and your health is at the end of your fork! Best wishes!

Are you logging your food? That was the key step for me.

When I started, I just logged, didn't change anything about what I ate. Just started tracking it so I could see what my food day looks like. It was a pretty eye opening experience.

Baby steps - start with a small step that doesn't require you to actually give anything up. And then we can go from there.

I workout 6 days a week. It took me 8 months to be really happy with my progress, although by taking pictures/ measurements of myself every month I could see progress long before then. See my profile pictures. Progress takes time and does not go in a straight line. I was very frustrated at the beginning too but it is worth it to stick with it.

Are you being honest with yourself? Are you logging your food?Your diary is closed so its difficult for anyone to give you any specific advice, but i think you're proabably just netting close to your TDEE which is why you're maintaining.

Do this and you *will* lose weight:

1) Eat mostly to get the nutrition your body needs, and less for enjoyment. Establish a healthful diet and learn to enjoy healthful foods, and make eating less a part of your life.

2) Three meals a day: breakfast, lunch, and dinner. That's it. No snacks, and no "in between" meals.

3) Give up sugar. No sugar in coffee, soda, or on cereal. Give up fruit juice -- it's mainly just another form of sugar. Water is the only liquid you need.

4) In the beginning, establish a very regulated moderate calorie diet. Don't follow any sort of fad. Just pick a selection of foods that add up to a normal balanced diet -- whole grains, veggies, fruit, dairy, a little meat, etc. But start out by having exactly the same three meals each day -- the same foods and the same amounts. Weigh the portions on a scale. Consider frozen dinners. Healthy Choice, Lean Cuisine, Kashi, Smart Ones, and probably other brands have several that are low in calories and saturated fat, 25% daily value or less of sodium, and high in fiber.

5) Weigh yourself every day on a 0.2 lb. accuracy scale. Your weight will fluctuate, but with a constant diet it should trend down over every two or three days. If it doesn't, eliminate items from your diet or reduce the size of portions until your weight does go down. (If you don't have a 0.2 lb. accuracy scale, I'd recommend the EatSmart Precision Plus Digital Scale, which is sold on Amazon.) Don't obsess over the scale — let it be your friend and point the way to a weight losing diet.

6) When you have achieved a weight losing diet, then you can start making adjustments to add variety, but make sure that you keep losing weight.

7) Start a program of regular daily exercise.

I am a full time college student who live on campus at UCSD. We have to pay $2350 at the start of every year that goes to "Dining Dollars" this means no matter what I have to spend $2350 on food at dining halls, couple this with the fact that I have no financial backup from any where else means I have to survive on Dining Hall food that is typically pretty unhealthy. I lost 60 lbs last year alone and it was all done by making sure I stayed under the calorie limit every day. As I began to see the calories in things I started to weigh more options more and more. Certain things like bagels and pizza, etc. just seemed like it wasn't worth the calories any longer. I cut out cheese almost completely even though most of the time it was free with whatever I was eating. I would say no cheese please, which as it turns out is often covered up by the burrito or chicken sandwich that I am eating after throwing some salsa (not hot sauce) on it. Try to cut out carbs where ever you can and it will make a tremendous difference. I swear I probably went weeks without carbs without even counting last year. Also something I find that works for me that everyone swears against, I weigh myself right when I get to the gym and again after I am done working out. I weighed over 300 lbs. back then and so I saw immediate results, they probably were't the most accurate of readings but they helped me tremendously because whenever i ate horribly I would also see immediate weight gain which helped me the next day. Understand that after you drink a bunch of water your weight is going to go up but you can compare the starting numbers from day to day as well as the ending numbers.

For me, exercise is the easy part but the food is hard. I've been here since March and have fallen off the wagon over and over already. I've been consistent for the past 2 months and I've lost 21 pounds. I bought a food scale, prepared all my meals at home (including treats), started working out 30 minutes a day, 5 days a week and here I am. It's hard, but it's do-able.

If I'm feeling like a big failure or need some motivation, I visit the success stories board. There are so many inspiring people there and the before/after pictures make it feel real to me, like I can really do this.

If you need a friend, feel free to add me!

Perfect advice,

What is your height and cw
lets see what you want to lose