So frustrated! Does anyone have this problem??

The people who cut soda and lose weight did so by creating a calorie deficit. You need to do the same. First, I think your daily energy needs are overstated - where did you get 3000+ from? I used the Mifflin St Jeor calculator and came up with just under 2400 at sedentary. Using Katch-Mcardle and an estimated body fat % of 50 and your daily needs would drop to just over 2000. I see that you said you go to the gym about 3xs per week, but I wouldn't count that as "active" or even lightly active. How much activity do you get in your daily life outside of going to the gym?

Set your MFP goal to sedentary and to lose 1 pound per week. Record your exercise when you do it and eat some of those calories if you need to. Make sure you ACCURATELY track everything you consume. This can best be done by weighing everything you eat and making sure you choose the correct entry in the database. If you don't have a food scale, now would be the time to get one to make sure that you are being accurate in your logging. Keeping an accurate log is really going to be the only way you can know if you really can't lose weight or not.

I took a peek at the past few days of your diary and would suggest weighing as well. Meats and cheeses aren't easily measured by the slice because different deli employees slice differently. Same for the spaghetti dinners (a meal that still stumps me every time I try to add it to my diary!). Try weighing rather than eyeballing a cup.

Maybe watch the sodium as well? You could be covering up losses with water retention.

Other than that I think you are making good choices and just need to employ the hardest technique of all...patience.

Since she has a baby, though, I would say "lightly active" -- you ever taken care of one of those things? EXHAUSTING.

Thank you everyone for your responses! I will look into getting a food scale and try that and see what happens. Maybe I'm underestimating what I eat...

without a food scale yes

and I noticed you missed the entire weekend last weekend...

Logging accurately means you are weighing solids, measuring liquids and choosing the correct entries.

do not use entries that start with generic...

If the entries starting with homemade are yours great otherwise don't use them.

Make sure the confirmations are more than a couple on the nutrional values...

Check the nutritional values just don't assume they are correct...there are lots of entries that are not here in the database.

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1234699-logging-accurately-step-by-step-guide?hl=Logging+accurately&page=3#posts-19337078

I recommend getting a scale and measuring your food, sounds like for whatever reason your not getting a deficit.

You really need to make sure the things you are eating have the right caloric settings. I've noticed on here that there are many items not logged correctly. If I see it, I'll correct it, but make sure you go off the label of the item. Don't just take it for what it says, make sure it's correct. Then you can go back to it the next time you eat it by using the recent category in your foods. That and like others said, weigh the foods. And be truthful about what you're eating and how much. I usually try to overestimate my intake rather than underestimate to give myself some wiggle room. Two weeks isn't long enough, either, Give it some time! When my wife and I diet, I always lose quick and she hates it, but over time hers starts coming off, too, and we both lose weight, but hers is always slower to come off. So be patient!

You don't need to cut out carbs, in fact I urge you not too. Yes focus more on protein is good but don't cut carbs. Eat good carbs not bad carbs, focus on that. Over time I have changed to whole wheat bread, pasta etc. It took awhile to adjust to the taste but now I love it and in fact hate white bread or white pastas.
Eating out....... is there a way for you to pack your own lunches, breakfast or snacks? I do it daily granted I work in an office setting but I do no matter what to avoid all that temptation, Eating out even at a healthy place isn't all that healthy, they might advertise its healthy but 9 times out of 10 if you look at the sodium content it will amaze you. I use to think getting a salad at a restaurant was a healthy choice, um not so much, even if you don't have salad dressing its still loaded. I guess myself personally I prefer to prepare all my meals myself, I know what goes in them, the salt content etc, I preplan my meals on Sundays for the entire week. I prepare my breakfast & lunches & snacks for the week so they are all ready to grab every single day, I menu plan on our dinners weeks in advance so every night you can look at the calendar and know what we are having. Easier for grocery shopping as well. I avoid all trigger foods in my house. For myself to lose 135 lbs and maintain that I have realized planning, prepping, weighing, tracking is key to my success. I probably could stop weighing and tracking cuz I am confident in my choices and portions but it gives me rest of my mind to watch my daily intake plus if I gain I can figure out why. My body is super sensitive to sodium intakes and also fiber. Carbs my body could care less how much I take in. Calories and protein as well. 4 years and finally figuring this out, its a process to learn your body. Just pick better carbs. For myself fruit & veggies I eat as much as I want even if it puts my carbs over limit I know they are good carbs so no guilt in it. Myself I focus on protein & veggies on my lunch & dinners, I do usually make rice or some type of potato for the side but I give myself a small portion and I eat it last if I am still hungry. Pasta I make once a week in my house if that. Trust me watching your carbs at first is hard cuz your in a carb coma or drunk as I call it, so your detoxing and your body craves it and freaks out, it passes and trust me once you start putting healthy carbs in your body and do put some bad carbs in your body you will notice the difference big time!

You have a really lovely smile.

I agree with everyone else on the weighing. I got a cheap scale from Amazon for $15 - works great. It also teaches you what real portions look like.

Also, how are your clothes fitting? Any better? Sometimes the scale won't move, but you're losing inches - and that's absolutely progress.

I choose not to eat the calories I earn from exercise back. So if I earn 300 calories for my cardio, I don't eat an extra 300 calories for the day. This is a totally personal choice though.

This weight loss stuff can be so hard, but you can totally do it!!

Just some food for thought-

The first thing I saw in your diary was coffee creamer. I just realized after a month this is what was sabotaging my diet! I used roughly a bottle a week. I was estimating two servings, two tablespoons, 50 calories, twice a day is 100 cals, right? Imagine my surprise when I saw there are 64 servings in the container!!! That's wayyyy more than I estimated, and it was cancelling out my deficit every day.

Moral of the story- Measure everything.

You also have NO fruits or vegetables other than your small greek salad. Get those 5 servings a day by swapping these out for the chips at lunch (save 200 calories). Do this for the pumpkin seeds and cookies as well.

Instead of cereal for breakfast, get some protein in. Eggs, veggie sausage, greek yogurt are all great sources, and they will help keep you fuller for longer.

Hey Sonya!

I know this response is a little late (I "re-made" my MyFitnessPal account today). Like many of the people said above, eating out is something you definitely need to avoid if possible. I ate out A LOT a few months ago (because I had college classes from 8 AM until 3:15 PM and my college was SURROUNDED by fast food places). It was very convenient and fast, but not healthy. So I started packing a lunch the night before or I would wake up early in the morning and pack one.

It's important to know that losing around a pound, maybe two a week is healthy. You don't want to shed a crazy amount because it can have negative consequences. I looked at your food diary and noticed there were a lot of items that had high fructose corn syrup (which is what gets a lot of people). I'm going to school to be a registered dietitian and just took a class about nutrition and human development. IT CHANGED MY LIFE. Like someone else said, It's very important to always have fresh fruits and vegetables in one's diet (at least two of every color at every meal). Fruits and vegetables also provide an excellent amount of antioxidants, vitamins, necessary nutrients, etc. Like someone else stated, carbohydrates is very important. Contrary to popular belief, the energy we use comes from carbs, NOT protein.

Though my food diary may not reveal it today (I pigged out today, I'll be honest), I usually eat healthier than it shows. It's important, if you are going by the nutrition label, to be very weary of anything that has 15% or more of a particular nutrient. If it's 20%, it's already too high. In terms of ingredients, my professor taught us that if sugar is one of the first three items (or if the ingredient list has more than 3 listed sugars, you probably want to stay away from it). I lost about 7 lbs since March and feel fantastic.

You may not lose weight immediately, but focusing on nutrient content and not calorie content will benefit you in the long run. And, on days that you are unable to work out, it helps to walk those days. About 3-4 miles an hour is stated to be healthy if I recall (and my dogs absolutely love the long walks).

I hope I was able to be of some help.