i cant stick at a diet for more than 5 days

I don't diet, I simply eat less then I burn every day

Don't call it a diet, call it a lifestyle change.

Don't be unrealistic in your goals. Break your weight loss goals up into small portions.
Don't be unrealistic in your intentions. Eating "no unhealthy foods" and exercising every single day can be unrealistic if you're normally sedentary.

Ease into your changes.

I prelog my day, trying to come in between 1700-1900.

Then I go about my day, sticking to what is logged. I weigh my food and measure my liquids for accuracy. I always fit in some ice cream and a cookie or two.

I go to bed happy and start over the next day.

Like all the other "pros" out there, we DON'T diet. Diets are usually overly restrictive and unsustainable. You need to get out of the diet mentality and make a permanent lifestyle change. Whatever you do to lose the weight needs to be something you are willing and able to continue with for the rest of your life. Otherwise, once you stop the diet the weight comes back.

You don't need to punish yourself, cut out all the good things, or follow crazy fads. Just watch your calories. Sub in healthy options when you can and don't be afraid to enjoy your favorites. Just make it all fit within your calories and/or earn more calories through exercise. It's really VERY simple once you learn the "trick" to it.

I ate 1,700 calories worth of food I enjoy each day and chose activities I enjoyed doing.

This.

I haven't eliminated anything from my diet, and I eat the foods I've always eaten. I just make everything fit into my calorie goal for the day (1700 calories). I have modified some of my favorite meals to be more nutritionally balanced, and I pay close attention to portion sizes, but nothing is off limits.

Just eat at a moderate deficit, choose foods you like, and find exercises you enjoy.

Don't call it a diet, call it a lifestyle change.

Don't be unrealistic in your goals. Break your weight loss goals up into small portions.
Don't be unrealistic in your intentions. Eating "no unhealthy foods" and exercising every single day can be unrealistic if you're normally sedentary.

Ease into your changes.

This ^.
Follow these guidelines and you'll be good to go.
ps. I'm a 1911 man myself. =8^)

throw out the word diet its a live it.. i plan on eating this way the rest of my life
throw out the word cant.. it doesnt exist. you do what you set your mind to
log honestly
follow the power of 3.. eat clean you decide what that means to you
train mean- 30 min of exercise a day
drink water

this is what has worked for me. you have to find what works for you.

baby steps= big goals you didnt put the weight on overnight it wont come off overnight.. be patient.

set smart goals

http://www.fitnessmantra.info/2007/09/13/smart-goal-setting-for-fitness-and-weight-management/

believe in yourself.. you CAN do this.

my log is open if you want ideas.

i also have a group anyone is welcome to join

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/groups/home/18785-motivation-support-and-accountability

I don't diet, I count calories. So if I want that cookie (which is rare now) then I have to work out to lose the calories or eat less during the day or both. This is a life changing commitment. If you want to be healthy than you have to be accountable for what you put in your mouth. I always thought I ate healthy until I realized how many calories I was really consuming. There are some salads out there that are more than your daily allowance. It is not a diet, it is about making better choices. Once I realized the cake or cookie calories were more than a decent healthy meal I no longer desired to eat the sweets. Another huge calorie intake is drinks. I mostly drink water. Juice and other drinks just aren't worth the calories.

Good Luck. Eating healthy will not only help you lose weight but you will feel so much better. Sugar and garbage food just makes you feel awful (even if you exercise).

...would rather focus on you...

As others indicate, it's not a "diet."

Why do you believe you're not able to do this?

Best wishes.

how do u pro,s do it

Step 1 is acknowledging that it isn't "can't" - it's "won't".

I don't disagree but...well. *hands you flame proof vest*

Don't give up everything you love...just learn how to eat fewer calories than you burn.

Edited for typo.

The trick is to find the easiest way to eat and live that still results in actual fat loss. This fat loss need not be fast. The goal isn't to lose weight as quickly as possible, it's to reach your goal weight/bf% and stay there for life. It doesn't matter if it takes longer to get there, what matters is that when you get there, you stay there for the long term.

So, what you need is a small calorie deficit (set your MFP goal to lose 1lb a week, or if you only have a few lbs to lose, then 0.5lb a week), aim to eat all the things your body needs from foods that you like (protein, fat, carbs, vitamins, minerals, fibre water) and with your remaining calories, eat what you want. Do exercise that you enjoy and will find easy to stick to, and eat back your exercise calories (be realistic about calorie burns though, MFP tends to overestimate those). You have to track your food intake carefully, I'd recommend using a digital scale and weighing your food, to be sure that you're logging everything accurately.

Then give yourself targets for long term compliance. Your first target is a 1 week goal. i.e. stick with the above for 1 week. Then have a 3 week goal, a 1 month goal, a 3 month goal, a 6 month goal, a 1 year goal.... etc etc etc. By the time you get to 1 month, you should find you're in the habit of eating better, logging your food and doing regular exercise that you enjoy, and it should get even easier.

Monitor your weight weekly, but don't stress out about 1 week gains, look for a trend overall. If your weight is generally going down, even if the occasional week it goes up (e.g. TOM week or after a day of eating a lot of sodium) then you're doing it right and keep going. If it stays the same for several weeks, or there's a consistent pattern of weight gain, then lower your calorie goal. If you're losing more than 1lb a week, or you're feeling constantly hungry/crankyaa/tired etc then raise your calorie goal.

Also monitor inches and how you look in the mirror. If your weight stays the same or goes up, but the inches are going down, then *this does not count* you're doing it right and don't lower your calories unless the inch loss also stops, or if you reach goal (as in a goal dress size, rather than a goal weight, because that counts more than the scale).

^^^These people speak truth! I use a bodymedia to determine what I burn. Lately been having a hard time staying under on my intake, but I usually have good results with it. The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over, and expecting different results. You need to figure out what you need to change. It has to be something that you can live with for the rest of your life, or you will eventually fail. So many people out there don't want to hear it. Lift more, move more, eat more, be successful. That's my motto anyway.

I'll tell you the secret: It's a combination of choosing your favorite way of dieting and personal motivation. People say some lack willpower, but willpower is a small piece of the equation. We all have the willpower to lose weight. Hell, if I told you to eat a magic fruit and you'll be at your goal weight, you would probably have the willpower to eat the damn fruit right?

Choosing the right diet is the first key. IF you start a "Only eat grapefruit for 10 days" diet, you're probably going to fail because 1) that would suck to eat. and 2) in 10 days you aren't guaranteed a ****load of weight loss. Now if someone told you to eat a grapefruit once a day and change nothing else, it would probably be something you could stick with for probably the rest of your life. Even at 1 a day, it might be an inconvenience, but for the greater good of your weight loss, you would probably do it right?

The second key is personal motivation. Lets assume that you have never heard of sdlanodcm. You don't even know what it is, and have NO clue what it does. if I told you they sold hamburgers, delicious hamburgers and french fries, you might be more tempted to go. Now turn that word around. Mcdonalds. Suddenly you know what it is. What they sell. They are programmed into your head to think about delicious hamburgers french fries, and you will probably jump at the chance to eat it. You think I'm going no where with this logic? Wrong. It's all in the advertising. Just like all the commercials on T.V. about weight loss pills that work, you see the before picture and the after picture. You start to wonder if they are real, and that using their method, you too can lose all that weight.

This is where it leads to MY story. My story begins with wanting to lose weight. The key was I wanted to enjoy the diet. I stumbled onto a subdivision of a website with a diet I hadn't heard of. The Ketogenic diet. I saw it on www.reddit.com/r/keto. The Ketogenic diet looked like it was Atkins on crack. Low carb, high fat, moderate protein. I was skeptical. I love breads and I love rice and beans and potatoes. But then I saw the foods I could still eat (some of it in moderation, like alcohol). Steaks, eggs, butter, fatty foods that don't even sound like diet food; Bacon, broccoli, cauliflower, pizza (low carb one) pepperoni, liquor, etc. etc. etc. I could eat that. That doesn't sound THAT hard to do. Bam! I had found a diet I could do. They say it takes you 21 days to start a habit. If I could do something in 21 days and not revert to my old ways, I could definitely stick to it for a long time.

Then the second key appeared. I started reading stories online in this forum of people like me and you. Not spokespersons on television. Nobody was selling me ****. It was simply, I've been doing this for 10 days and I've already lost X pounds. The results were too good to be true. I started seeing more posts of people losing ten, twenty, fifty, a hundred pounds! And I thought "well maybe just like the television commercials, there could be some extreme results for a small number of participants". Then I started reading more and more and more people with results. Not just weight, but actual inches lost. Others were feeling healthier. Some could sleep better, others had better skin and hair. Regardless, it started to look better and better. Then I read some other stories about people who hadn't lost weight, and had issues with the diet. They were constipated, felt gross eating so much fat, etc. etc. No real issues of anyone gaining weight. thought. Weird! So I started the diet. For ****s and giggles I tried it full blown Keto for 1 week. I weighed myself at the beginning of the week and at the end of the week. Holy ****. I lost 15 pounds! This was too good to be true. I continued two more weeks and by the end of the month I was down 35 pounds. The weight was dropping off. Clothes started fitting better. Suddenly, the loss of appetite began. I wasn't as hungry anymore. The cravings for chocolates, sweets, breads were almost non-existent. Every time I got a craving, I would look at a picture of my at my heaviest and I would think, well...this craving will pass. I would have cheat days every month or so, but always maintained myself to a strict diet every day when i didn't cheat. Suddenly 6 months later I was down 105+ pounds. I was looking better, my ego and self esteem shot through the roof.

I wish the story ended with a happy ending. It didn't. For other reasons I won't really get into, I stopped doing the diet. I felt confident about myself and thought the hard part was done, I had lost the weight now it would be easier to keep off and I went back to my habits of eating unhealthy foods. Suddenly 2 years later I'm right back to where I began, as if I hadn't lost weight at all.

BUT, I'm starting over again. 24 days ago I vowed to fix the mistakes I committed and not only fix the symptoms, but also the reason for my overeating. I'm down 24 pounds (haven't lost weight in 3 days) so in 21 days I lost 24 pounds, and I'm hoping for it to continue falling off. Some of my clothes fit a little better, but I have a long way to go (goal weight loss of 250 pounds, to arrive at 200 pounds myself) but I know that it works, I have seen the results first hand, so I know I can do it and I know I can achieve weight loss again.

Hope this helped.

I have had the same problem.

A few things that has helped me to lose 13lbs so for this month.

10,000 Steps a Day
I bought a Fitbit and set a goal for 10,000 steps a day. If your not usually active like I wasn't, this can take some energy to achieve. But when you wake up eat day knowing you need to do 10,000 steps you think about more ways to be active on your feet walking, and you think twice about what you put into you body if you are going to be actively on your feet for more than a hour day.

Pre Planning
Pre planning is important. Plan your meals the night before. Keep low calorie snacks at home. And track everything you eat. I get overwhelmed with to much cooking. So I have 3 slim fast through out the day, and 2 chicken thighs and veggies from el polo loco for dinner. I randomly replace the slim fast with other low carb meals I cook like fish, pork chops, turkey, etc.


Limit what you focus on
I struggle with focus. But coming into the new year, I decided to make 2 things things my main focus and losing weight is 1 of the things. So when I get distracted with the things in life, I refer to my list of the 2 things that are important to me, and everything else doesn't matter.

Hope that helps. Don't give up.

Once again, I'm loving my fitbit. I think it's the foundation to my success so far. I have now completed 19 days of doing 10,000 steps a day, which I'm happy about because i would usually give up by now.