Someone please explain, 30+ pounds to lose.

What do you consider slow?

Youve lost 18 already. That's awesome!

How slow is slow? With 30-40 pounds to lose you want to aim for 1 - 1 1/2 pounds per week maximum.

You don't appear to be weighing your foods and you eat out a lot. That's not a problem and you can definitely still lose weight this way, but you may have to accept slower weight loss when you don't have as much control over what goes into your food.

Have you ever bought a pizza? Like $3.99 can buy you a medium Hot'N'Ready pizza at Little Caesar's. Have you ever made a healthy meal? Far more expensive from my experience, unless you like munching on lettuce and carrots all day. Just saying.

Not to the OP, just forgot to quote.

I realized after I posted this that people were going to tell me about getting a scale, I know I should! But being in college, I can't really afford one nor do I honestly think I'll use it /:
As far as food goes, I consider it a win to not have pizza and beer every night with my friends. I'm working on the nutrition though!

Thanks for the thoughts.

But you can afford to go out eat all the time. Gotcha. :laugh:

Well I never thought of that until you so rudely brought it to my attention, so thank you I suppose. It doesn't change the fact that I'm the worst cook on the planet. But I'll try

Those scales are on amazon and cost about ten bucks or less. You can afford one. It's the excuse not to weigh that's holding you back. No one wants to limit their intake, no one wants to actually be accountable for the food they're eating having (gasp) and effect on how their body looks.
Don't cheat yourself by fudging numbers, log accurately, eat according to what will create a deficit for you, and progress.
1.6lbs a week is mighty respectable, btw.

Also, I usually add twice the food I eat (for example if I have half a cup I log a cup) to be sure I didn't over eat, and I log half of my exercise (took an hour cardio class, I only log 30 min) so I don't ever estimate. How could I still be going over?

Also I guess it's not as slow as I thought, I did the math and I've lost about 1.6 pounds a week.

I guess I'm just getting impatient.

A lot of your diary entries show you only logging (for examples) half or 2/3 a sandwich or 1/4 of a loaded baked potato or 3/4 a cup of cereal...does this really mean you're only eating 1/4 to 1/3 of a sandwich or 1/8 of a loaded potato or 3/8 (?!) of a cup of cereal?? How do you even measure that? If you find yourself stalling you're probably going to want to take an honest look at these estimations.

As a side note, given that you are hoping to one day become a dietitian, you're going to have to have these same conversations with people coming to you for help and you're going to be the one calling shenanigans on their excuses. I think that's what people here are trying to do for you, help you eliminate the excuses so that you can see the progress you want.

I looked at your diary and the only thing I wanted to bring up here that others haven't is when you go to restaurants and choose items from the database that are actually from other restaurants, that can be really tricky. By this I mean, even if a side dish at 2 restaurants looked and tasted identical, and you were logging exactly what ONE of their sites said nutrition-wise it doesn't mean the dish is really all that close in a different restaurant. I understand as a college student you may be going out to eat a lot because you're busy and what not...but this is one fast way to jack up your calories quite a bit (high or low). For example I have gone to a local burger place that posts their accurate nutritional info and a small double hamburger was 650 but at Steak N' Shake the "exact same thing" is 390 calories. Or with ice cream...a scoop from Braum's is around 170-230 calories, a large scoop from the custard shop could be close to 500 calories.

I realized after I posted this that people were going to tell me about getting a scale, I know I should! But being in college, I can't really afford one nor do I honestly think I'll use it /:
As far as food goes, I consider it a win to not have pizza and beer every night with my friends. I'm working on the nutrition though!

Thanks for the thoughts.

But you can afford to go out eat all the time. Gotcha. :laugh:

I don't mean to sound like I am ganging up on the OP or anything but this is kind of what I thought too. I was truly a poor college student and if I was going to have a restaurant meal it was either a date with someone out of college already, or a birthday meal from my parents LOL. Not three times a day to various chains.

I realized after I posted this that people were going to tell me about getting a scale, I know I should! But being in college, I can't really afford one nor do I honestly think I'll use it /:
As far as food goes, I consider it a win to not have pizza and beer every night with my friends. I'm working on the nutrition though!

Thanks for the thoughts.

You're just full of excuses aren't you?

If you can't track something accurately you won't get good results.

When I'm in a lab doing submaximal testing on a subject do you think I'm guessing what their V02 is? I sure as hell don't sit there and say, "Uhh. I guess you're at 60% at the moment, let's push it a little harder". God no. I have a calibrated machine that gives me exact readings.

God damn people are stupid these days.

No offense to the OP but the poor college student excuse just definitely is that...an EXCUSE!! I have been poor as *kitten* for the past 4 years and my first year was absolutely horrific. I ate only the food on campus and wasn't working out and just rotted in my dorm room and cried and ate badly. That summer, I decided to quit the excuses and just do it and from that day on I never looked back. Now?? Couldn't tell you the last time I went out to eat at school. If my friends want to do something I will gladly do it but if it must involve food I do it on my cheat meal day. Other than that, I won't eat with them. Don't be afraid to do the EXACT OPPOSITE of what everyone else is doing. It is actually quite liberating. I watch my roommates eat disgusting food every day while I go to the grocery store once a week spend $50 on raw chicken, bags of salad, bags of fresh veggies, yogurt, etc. Baking chicken in the oven takes about 40 minutes and in the last 10 minutes I steam my veggies on the stove. VOILA! I am living paycheck to paycheck barely making ends meet right now but I am happy because my goals come first in my life. Also, I've never used a food scale and never had an issue. I would suggest changing your nutrition before you go the food scale route. You would probably see better results. Hope you find your success!!

I am no expert at all here, but after looking at your diary, I am wondering if you need to make some changes in your eating habits? It doesn't look like you eat much of any fruits or veggies. Also, it looks like you have a lot of "take out" meals. You dont eat a whole lot each day but the little bit of foods you do eat dont seam like the best options??? I would suggest planning ahead, making your meals and lunches.

I do agree with people on the scale issue -- you can find good ones on Amazon for less than $20-30. Here is one I bought: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001N07KUE/ref=wms_ohs_product?ie=UTF8&psc=1

It really can be a game changer.

But you say that you're losing 1.6 lb/week and exercising -- that's a good number. The more fat you lose versus muscle, the slow the numbers on the scale will go. This is because 1 lb of fat releases 3500 kcals, where as 1 lb of muscle releases far fewer kcals (somewhere from 600-1500 kcals). So, when you have a 3500 calorie deficit, if it's all fat, you'll only lose 1 lb. But if it's all muscle that's lost, that could be as much as 5.8 lbs on the scale.

Two ways you can reduce the muscle loss of the equation (i.e. and increase your percentage of fat) is (1) heavy lifting and (2) sufficient protein intake (debate on what this is, but I use 0.7 g protein per lb bodyweight). Most exercise also helps this equation, but heavy lifting has been shown specifically.

So, when you're losing more fat and less muscle in a caloric deficit, the scale goes down slower. So, 1.6 lbs is actually a very good number if you're exercising (especially heavy lifting) and eating enough protein. You're doing pretty good!

For lifting, check out this story -- she's the same size at 117 lbs, 132 lbs and 141 lbs -- the difference is that she put on a lot more muscle and improved her body comp. I find it really inspirational: http://www.nerdfitness.com/blog/2011/07/21/meet-staci-your-new-powerlifting-super-hero/

Also, I usually add twice the food I eat (for example if I have half a cup I log a cup) to be sure I didn't over eat, and I log half of my exercise (took an hour cardio class, I only log 30 min) so I don't ever estimate. How could I still be going over?

Also I guess it's not as slow as I thought, I did the math and I've lost about 1.6 pounds a week.

I guess I'm just getting impatient.

A lot of your diary entries show you only logging (for examples) half or 2/3 a sandwich or 1/4 of a loaded baked potato or 3/4 a cup of cereal...does this really mean you're only eating 1/4 to 1/3 of a sandwich or 1/8 of a loaded potato or 3/8 (?!) of a cup of cereal?? How do you even measure that? If you find yourself stalling you're probably going to want to take an honest look at these estimations.

As a side note, given that you are hoping to one day become a dietitian, you're going to have to have these same conversations with people coming to you for help and you're going to be the one calling shenanigans on their excuses. I think that's what people here are trying to do for you, help you eliminate the excuses so that you can see the progress you want.

If I log half a sandwich, I only ate a 1/3 or a 1/4. Sometimes I log a 1/4 if I took a bite if someone else's sandwich. How do I measure half a serving of cereal? 1/4 cup milk? With a measuring cup. Potato? Cut it into eighths.

OP, just wanted to point out if you do get a food scale, it is very easy to measure the amount of potato you're having in grams, milks in fluid ounces or mL, cereal in ounces or grams. Most do tare and conversions. It is insanely easier to measure food on a scale than with eye-balling or measuring cups/spoons.