Help Me Get Started: What Am I Doing Wrong?

Wow! I am getting a lot of useful help! Thank you so much, guys.

First, I'd like to thank Brandolin11 for that excellent math. I had tried to do a BMR once but I did not calculate everything well and it was based on this "lose 20lbs in one month" nonsense I was desperate enough to try.

I will try to remove using as much olive oil as I do use from my diet. Is vinegar an ok substitute? I also have a light Italian dressing from Aldi's I like. Perhaps I can measure out exactly one serving and use that? I have nothing against raw veggies but I like a but of extra flavor to them.

I keep getting mixed opinions on how many carbs I should be having. Should I only have 100 grams a day? Should I JUST watch the calories? I'm not going to remove fruit from my diet. I want to stay healthy and if I get hungry, I'd rather eat fruit over something less nutrient rich or go hungry (which will make me eat more later).

JessHealthKick, thank you for your suggestions as well! If Splenda has no calories, is it really bad to have? As for weighing food, like I said, I cannot afford a food scale at this time but I do measure things in cups. Is this an ok substitute for now? I was thinking about getting a scale anyway because I use a lot of BBC recipes and am getting tired of converting grams into cups....its really a bad guesstimation, really. I should have picked it up when Aldi's had it but I lost my opportunity and need to save a bit now.

How does this sound for a meal plan for tomorrow?:

Breakfast: 1-cup of fat-free vanilla yohgurt with strawberries and 1 serving of Grape Nuts (I love using this cereal this because I can't afford granola where I am!) with coffee (no sugar, 1/3 cup skim milk)

Lunch: Skip (I have a busy day... 8am-10:45am in the classroom, 11am-2pm in job1, 2:30pm-6:30pm job 2)

Snacks: Oven-baked apple slices sprinkles with cinnamon and 20 baby carrots

Dinner: 1 can of Aldi's tomato soup with salad (romaine lettuce, cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers, and 2 hard-boiled eggs)

This has limited carbs, a good range of nutrition, and should help keep me full. I am only worried about being foodless aside from snacks from 2pm-6:30pm since my snacks won't fill me up enough to replace a lunch. I ALWAYS struggle with lunch. I won't have time to cook a proper dinner, especially if I want to eat when I go home and then go to the gym for an elliptical trainer workout or to the other gym for an hour of froggy-style swimming.

Doesn't sound like enough calories to me. Maybe add some more to your snack and dinner, esp since you're skipping lunch. Maybe you can squeeze in a sandwich or salad with your snack?

Here is a crazy idea.

Log everything on here. After all that is the biggest reason you joined, right? maybe?
If you log on paper, then you have to figure out what it means.

If you log everyting on here, MFP keeps tracks of calories, macros, some micros, ect.
When you do log, measure accurately. Any Dollar store has every single Tsp/Tbs/1/2Tsp/1/2Tbs, ect you will need for 1 dollar. I mean the whole set for $1.
Same for 1 Cup, 1/2 Cup, 1/3 Cup, ect the whole set for $1.

A food scale is a must. Let me repeat that again with emphasize. A FOOD SCALE IS A MUST!!!! Especially one that does g's and oz's.

December is coming up. Ask for an early Christmas present if that is out of your budget.

Go back to your goals and settings and start there.

Are you a male or female: F check
Enter date of birth (necessary for age which is important to estimate your calorie needs).
Your current weight
Your height
What you want your weight to be
And put in either senditary or lightly active. Maybe being a grad student justifies you as lightly active.

Your weight loss goal for your current weight and height as someone suggested should be no more than 1 lb or 1/2 lb per week.
Seriosly, the less weight you have to loose, the harder it gets.

press Update Profile, and wala: MFP tells you a whole bunch of things you need to eat.

It tells you how many calories in a day you should eat. It tells you how much of a percentage of Protein vs Fat vs Carbs you should be eating. It tells you some micros such as fiber, vitamin A & C, calcium, and iron. Sugar get's tricky. Unless you eat Lucky Charms or Donuts, it's a waste. 2 pieces of fruit will almost get you over the sugar levels. In that case, just hit your carbs. The sugar level they make you follow is strictly your "added sugars" limit; however MFP doesn't know the difference in how to track between "added sugars" and sugars normally found in whole foods like fruits and vegatables.

As you eat, and you look at the suggestion size, (eat only the suggested serving size) and log it. Use the spoons and cups (and scale when you get one). When you log, look at what macros and micros you are hitting. If you consumed a lot of protein earlier in the day but not enough carbs, MFP is tracking that for you. Follow them!!!

I like to know what brand of peanuts you are buying. I like to know what company is telling you that 40 peanuts is actually one serving size. How many calories do they say is in those 40 peanuts?

I have can of Kroger Cashews right here. Looking at the label, 1 serving size is 1/4 cup (28g). When I pour it, that comes to about 14 cashews. That is 160 cals.

Simple things like that will get you started in the right direction real fast. Just use the tools on here that MFP is giving you.

2 lbs in a month for your goal is HUGE!!!!!!!!!!!

You mention that you get your steps in. Do you have one of those FITBIT machines or something similar? If so, do you have it linked to your MFP account?

My humble $.02

Let's dissect this food plan and do some solid math, shall we?

1-cup of fat-free vanilla yohgurt = 250
Strawberries (1 cup of halves) = 49
Grape nuts (1/2 C.) = 210
Skim milk (1/3 C) = 30
Total Breakfast = 539

Oven-baked apple slices (1/2 C. Iowa State brand) = 110
20 baby carrots = 35
Total Snacks = 145

Tomato soup (1 C. Aldi’s) = 180
Romaine lettuce (4 C) = 32
Cucumbers (1 C. slices) = 16
Tomatoes (1/2 C. cherry) = 27
Peppers (1 pepper, chopped) = 46
Hard boiled eggs (2, large) = 140
Total Dinner = 441

Total Day = 1,125

Even if you picked the calorie plan of being totally sedentary and eating 1,230 to lose a lb a week... you're under. As you can see, you'd need an extra 100 calories.

Let's not even start in on how you're going to absolutely crash and burn going from breakfast to 6:30pm on a measley bowl of grape nuts! You are going to rip someone's arm off and eat it you'll be so nuts from the hunger. lol

If it were me, I'd pick the plan where I work out 3x a week, and lose 1 lb a week - getting this thing over in 10-15 weeks depending on how far you want to go.

This means you'd eat 1,480 a day.

And, that means tomorrow you'd get an extra THREE HUNDRED AND FIFTY FIVE calories over the plan you have for tomorrow. Right there? That's your lunch. Which you MUST eat.

There are always solutions to busy-ness and they almost always include meal prep ahead of time. Job laws require that people get a break at their places of employment - one of them HAS to let you take 10 mins and sit and eat. People here have already given some good suggestions for prep. There are coolers and thermoses and all sorts of neat apparatus out there these days which will keep hot food hot and cold food cold for hours - so you could literally just grab and eat, even without microwaving!

There are ALWAYS solutions - let this become your mantra. Start getting creative! You can do this!

Lunch: Skip (I have a busy day... 8am-10:45am in the classroom, 11am-2pm in job1, 2:30pm-6:30pm job 2)

Why skip? That is a huge range of time where you won't be eating. Bring something with you even if you prepare it the night before.

^^Listen to the man!! :-)

You also say you have salad /once/ a week, why not every day? I do! You can mix it up with lots of different vegetables, then have chicken breast, lean ham, turkey or tinned tuna/salmon as the protein. Pre-cook 1kg of chicken for the week, put it in 100g servings in the fridge/freezer. Pack your salad the night before.

Ever heard of "Salad-In-A-Jar"?

http://www.salad-in-a-jar.com/skinny-secrets/how-to-make-salad-in-a-jar-that-lasts-a-week-a-video-debut-and-faq

that seems so ridiculous to me... just rinse off what you need and throw it in a box the night before? I always have baby spinach leaves and rocket so no chopping required either (takes about 1 minute). Would be less time consuming than washing jars and sealing them etc I feel.

When you list the things you are doing, they seem like healthy habits. You are telling us you live this way but IF you were that should be working for you! My biggest problem was that I was telling myself I was doing the right things, but in reality I wasn't! Sounds like you know what they should be , so instead of saying I'm NOT doing this or NOT doing that, Find what works for you and DO IT!
Make sure you measure and track everything that goes in your mouth! You should limit your whole grains (oatmeal brown rice) to 1-2 , 1/2 cup serving per day! Fill your diary with fruits, veggies and lean proteins and you can't go wrong! You have to say "YES" to yourself before you can get anywhere!!!