Nutrition is the hardest part of living a healthy lifestyle? I had to just block out the things that I had been eating for years and just think about what the future me was going to look like. that is what motivated me not to want to eat them things anymore. I can tell you that living this life now is so more rewarding than the old me. Tigergem3 and hbowserfit stay strong I know you guys can do this!!!!!!!!!

I've done a lot of diets in my life. A LOT. I was even a Weight Watchers leader for a year or so. I've lost a lot of weight, and I've gained back a lot of weight. The last year or so, I've been doing a kind of modified low carb/paleo-ish/Whole 30 thing. And I have to say the low carbs have really killed my cravings.

I used to easily sit down and eat a bowlful of cashews, now it's my snack, 1 ounce. One day I "splurged" and had two ounces of almonds and it was actually too much. And I'm not one of those people who goes on and on saying she's never tempted. On other diets, by 3PM, I was ready to eat an elephant. Not so much with the low carb thing. Read up on it, see if it's for you. I ignored the low carb thing for a long long time before becoming a believer.

Try a protein supplement, get a good protein powder or similar. Mix it with 100ml of Soya Milk, not only does it get your protein levels up for the day but if you sip it over a few minutes it gives your body the psychological feeling that you've eaten something and as it's high protein will keep you full for a while. If you want to go crazy you can add things like peanut butter to it and get all sorts of extra tasty.

I've got 2 types of protein depending on what I'm doing:

Optimum Nutrition 100% Whey for straight after exercise
Optimum Nutrition Casein for that afternoon slump or right before bed

The reason I have 2 is that the Whey works quickly, in 30 mins, to get protein into the muscle for recovery as you need straight after exercise, while Casein takes 3 hours to digest so is what keeps you fuller for longer.

There are loads of reports, comments, reviews of protein powders on here and all over the web and as long as you are exercising when using them I've seen nothing negative on them, only positives. Do some research and see what you think.

I'd suggest getting the Optimum Nutrition stuff, or similar as the cheaper ones have a lot of 'filler', ie you end up with high calorie content and carbs with a minimal protein intake which is not what you actually want.

Hope that helps a bit. If you want more info and can't find it / find it a bit confusing I'm happy to relay what I've found...

Or...if money is an issue, look to eat things like low fat Cottage Cheese just before bed, it is high in protein and takes time to digest - so similar effect to the Casein supplement, just not quite as expensive or specialised...

You can change your diet to a much higher protein one so,

◾Lean cuts of meat: top sirloin, flank steak, lean ground beef
◾Poultry: chicken and turkey, white and dark meat
◾Fish: halibut, sole, salmon
◾Eggs
◾Dairy: whey, casein, Greek yogurt, cottage cheese
◾Plants: soy, beans, nuts, grains, etc.

However, I found it's not always possible to do this and / or survive during a hectic day at work, family, kids, dog etc so the protein supplements were a quick and easy way to do it. I changed my diet slightly but used the powders to bring my protein levels up.

So how many calories are you having a day and what is your bmr?

And that is made up of what % ratio of carbs : protein : fat?

Eating less than your target calorie amount is actually bad as you need fat and carbs to actually lose weight, believe it or not, and also you are far more likely to fall off the wagon as you are hungry and start to crave sweets etc.

So in a week you total calories is about 16000
4 good day = 5200
3 bad days = 6000
Net calorie intake = 11200

Almost 5000 less than your bmr so you should be losing some weight???

The trick is to eat to your goal. The problem you might be having is that when you starve the body, ie eat a lot less calories that you need the body goes into shock mode.

When it does this it looks to hold onto the main energy stores you have, your fat, and uses up the short term energy stores, muscle.

It also might explain why you get tired at 3pm, if you work out in the morning and your body is in shock then you've used up your muscle store energy and so get tired.

I don't know if this is true but is guess some of your yo-yo weight is down to this. Water retention is also a possibility, same principle if you don't drink enough your body tries to store what it needs.

It's an amazing thing your body, it does everything it can to self preserve.

I've struggled with hitting my calorie goals and it's taken a bit of time and effort to get them right, I hit them generally now but I'm currently wrestling with the right carb:fat:protein ratios work for me.

My suggestion is if you have low fat Greek yoghurt, try full fat for a few days, adds calories, fat and protein, tick. Work through your diet and see where you can add little gains here and there. Don't go and think 'I've got 1000 calories left - Pizza Hut for me!', it doesn't work like that either. It takes time to get it right and everyone is different.

As long as you are honest with your BMR, exercise calories and log everything that passes your lips it's all possible to lose weight, tone up and make it a healthy lifestyle - that lasts.

Your ratio is basically 40% carb / 40% protein / 20% fat which is great for weight loss and exercise, I just think you need to eat more in the same ratio to burn fat and not muscle.

And drink more!

Oh, and don't weight yourself each day, it will just stress you out - once a week is more than enough - it's why Shaun T asks you to measure yourself too, some people don't lose much weight but really tone and shape up, and feel great for it, (remember muscle weighs more than fat)...

Hope that helps somewhat.

Thank you for all your help MadFrankie!!! I really appreciate the time you have given me! I will work on the suggestions you gave me And keep at this T25 thing, i cant wait for measurements this week. I think i made more progress in my waist !

Oh, and another thing, don't get hung up on your weight. As I mentioned before muscle weighs more that fat. Try calculating you % body fat and use that as your weekly comparison.

I know most online ones aren't exactly accurate but if you use the same one and measure and calculate it in the same way you need to just see a decrease in the numbers. Remember it's not about just losing weight to make you slim and toned, you want to lose the fat and keep the lean muscle.

You might find your weight stays the same but your body fat % is going down! the more it goes down the more you will appear toned and slimmer.