Gaining and don't understand what I'm doing wrong

Do you weigh and measure everything you eat before you put it in your mouth?

You're logging huge calorie burns for a very small amount of exercise time and then eating back all those calories and sometimes more...

You cant take healthier foods into work with you? Or have cereal at work? even taking a fruit medley and having it packed up the night before work. There has to be alternatives for breakfast your lunch's often involve subways or nuggets, again, make a pack up for work if still there.

Something isn't right somewhere then, Do you have a HRM on when doing zumba? You seem to be doing a lot of exercise, so it must be your diet and food intake.

Don't think its great to have daily though, do you? seriously....looking at the rest of the diary as well, on a daily basis its not a balanced daily meal imo

I do an hour of zumba and going by my lifetrak is what calories I input for that workout. As far as measuring most of it is premeaaured and if not I over estimate.

- Don't estimate weigh and know for sure.
- Don't eat back more then half your exercise calories.

In addition I wouldn't go down to 1200-something calories as you have done since I doubt your BMR is that low.

I'd adjust carbs/fats and increase protein - maybe replace some of your meals with whole foods rather than processed. And like others have said - don't eat back your calories. Always weigh your food to ensure you know exactly how much you're eating. Buy a heart rate monitor (I personally don't have one, I don't know how much I'm burning, I just give a rough estimate; I'm still losing so the estimate can't be that bad) and be patient.

It doesn't tell us how much you weigh, but I assume you're not obese because you only show 20 lbs to lose. Have you used this calculator? http://caloriesburnedhq.com/zumba-calories-burned/

It looks fairly reasonable as long as you don't overestimate your intensity.

you sure like those sausage, eff and cheese muffins....500 calories every morning, then on another day you've had fries? for breakfast?

Try balancing all your meals throughout the day, bakes beans on toast (1/2 tin) is a great morning starter. Also try having different meals in the mornings, sure have your S/E/C muffin on a weekend, but I don't think having it daily is great

Oh ffs. While healthy, balanced meals are a noble goal, and important for overall fitness, I've been losing 1.5-2 lbs per week with multiple McDonald's runs during a very busy and stressful time at work. Someone isn't gaining because they eat a sausage mcmuffin instead of beans on toast (which I personally could not stomach in the morning).

OP: I ditto the others - are you accurately logging or guessing from entries previously loaded. Just today, I logged a tall chocolate chai tea latte from Starbucks. Per their nutritional menu, it's 250 calories made normally - every single normal entry I could find was only 190 calories, which is correct for a regular chai tea latte and 60 calories short for the chocolate chai. My point is that the entries for MFP are not always reliable, and you want to verify the listings if you want accuracy.

I would also be careful of exercise burns. I use a Fitbit to get my TDEE daily and eat to that - 1000 calories, which seems to work for me.

Beyond that, sometimes I just fluctuate. I was down to 307 last week, and after the weekend, I was up to 309. It's not linear, which is frustrating as all hell, but if you know that you are logging correctly and accurately and maintaining a caloric deficit, then if you stick with it you will lose. February was exceptionally frustrating for me, as I bounced all over the place while I started exercising and trying to sort out my diet/intake - I dropped to 313, then was up to 319 and it was driving me insane. But when I got settled and was eating enough calories each day and working out appropriately, the weight shifted and started coming off the way it should be. Plateaus and even small gains are a part of this, even though they are crazy-making.

Don't think its great to have daily though, do you? seriously....looking at the rest of the diary as well, on a daily basis its not a balanced daily meal imo

OP this is a simple calories in vs calories out issue.

you need to be accurate with your food. burns are tough to be accurate with so many people (myself included) employ the 80% of TDEE method. using this method, you dont need to worry about logging burns, as exercise is taken into account for you.
it works quite well.
what method are you using?

I have been trying to follow what this app has recommended for me due to my weight and height.

Yeah, the calorie intake the app spits out can be kind of ridiculous. It had me at 1200 cal/day when I'm 5'9" and somewhat active. I was so miserable and STARVING like that. Now I'm losing on 1700/day plus exercise calories. Definitely go read the link I posted.

I just about cried the first time I measured peanut butter. True story.

You too? That and finding out the calorie count for one Oreo.

I just about cried the first time I measured peanut butter. True story.

You too? That and finding out the calorie count for one Oreo.

What 53 calories for 1? I think thats perfectly reasonable

Sure, but I don't want one, I want the entire pack (and I have eaten the entire pack in one sitting). But turns out it wasn't that bad. Just the shock of knowing that tiny cookie has that many calories.