I can't stick to my calories.

Now that you realize your problem it is easier to fix!! I would suggest eating breakfast later. Also are you snacking? Pick low-calorie snacks and subsitute one meal for a low calorie frozen dinner

According to your profile, sll of your inspirations are other people except for being able to wear "skinny clothes." First, you have to want this for yourself and your own health. If you are really 150 pounds over weight, you have too much to lose to be doing it for other people. To lose the amount you have on your profile, you will have to get your eating under control and pre log each day. That way, you will know how many calories you have planned and when. I would not really worry about exercise at this point, Losing weight is 80% food and only 20% exercise. So, change your mindset so you are doing this for YOU and start planning your food each day and stick as close to your plan as possible. Once you get that under control, change your mindset so your exercise is for your fitness, not for "more food." Believe me, that will take about a year so you are in this for the long haul. Having lost over 90 pounds myself after failing many times in the past, trust me, this is not going to be easy. You will need to work at it every day. So, go for it! :flowerforyou:

extremely difficult for me to plan ahead

If I don't plan ahead I'd always go over. You just really have to try and find the time to plan, it makes a world of difference.

Yep. When you start thinking about getting food, log what you're going to eat (you can adjust the values after), and see how many calories you have left for the rest of the day... so you can adjust the quantities or switch a few things if needed.

You really need to be able to plan ahead to make it work... even if 'planning ahead' is just leaving enough calories for dinner.

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If you want it, you need the willpower to do it. You have that willpower, you just need to exercise it.

Planning is the easiest way. Even if you know you're out and about, think ahead about what your options are. Planning and smaller portions should help.

Maybe more support would help? Feel free to add me, message me, or whatever, remind me to post my diary, etc. I'm looking for support. Sorry about the wall of text
Amandacheryl (user name)

More support will do nothing if you're not willing to do it yourself.
Plan ahead. Only you can do that. Only you will know if you're sticking to it... not your friends list.... no one but yourself.

You can have a cheering section, and that's awesome... but they will never be the only reason you need to change your habits or put effort into making the change.

Work out!! I can almost never stay with my calorie count unless I work out and "earn" some extra calories through out the day. If you aren't at the point where you can handle much exercise, just go for a walk or put the treadmill on a low setting. Every little bit helps. I would also recommend snacking on fruits and vegetables. They'll make you feel fuller on fewer calories than a lot of other snacks.

I could have written this myself. It's all about planning. Make a commitment to planning, and go from there.

Is the scale moving? If it is moving at 2000 calories, I would not stress at this point. Even if the scale is moving slower than you'd like, if it is still moving downwards, you're making progress. Is your goal too low? Don't be afraid to bump it up to 1 lb a week to get into the routine of reduced eating. Goals can always be adjusted.

Are you drinking enough water? Are you eating out of stress or emotion?

This is a lifelong journey. You're not just losing weight, you're learning about yourself, retraining and tweaking along the way.

Losing a lot of weight is VERY hard work. Do you really want to do that? Because it sounds like you want to be thin, but don't want to do the work of losing. If you don't want to do the work, don't do it! But be happy with your choice! Enjoy your life and your food without the guilt and depression and worrying. Stop beating yourself up. You can start losing when you're ready. The most important thing is to be happy. So make the choice that makes you happiest!! If the thing you WANT is to do all the work of losing weight...

VISIT A DOCTOR, who can give you a rough estimate of a calorie goal for the day. They can determine if you have physical problems, will tell you what kind of foods you should and shouldn't be eating, and guide you on your journey. Follow their advice over everyone else's. They know more about what you need than your friends, co-workers and Internet friends.

EAT RIGHT. Your doctor may stress this over a number. A lot of doctors balk a bit at numbers, stressing weight loss as a by-product of healthy living. But they'll give you a number, if you press. Cut out the junk food. "Egads! No! I can't live and be happy without my cookies!" Yeah, you can. To paraphrase SamIAm, "Try it, try it, you will see!" After a month, you won't even miss them.

Your doctor will probably stress a lifestyle change over portion adjustments. Supposedly, it works better long-term and it does make you healthier. Start working in more fruits and veggies - half of everything should be fruits and veggies. Also lean, white meat. Whole grain breads. Low or no-fat dairy. Not so much sodium. Take it slow, but work towards it!

Save your occasional treat for rare occasions, like birthdays and holidays. (If you celebrate a lot of those, lol, make them very small treats.). Eventually, you will stop thinking of these things as treats and start viewing them as unhealthy food items you don't even want all that much. (It's Ture! Really! I know you don't believe it now, lol, but it happens to everyone who eats well!)

If you're sticking to a number of calories, stick to it. If you're using the numbers, you have to use them and do that work. It means weighing and measuring all your food. It's a big pain in the butt, but it's necessary. If you want to use the numbers - and I really think it would benefit you - weigh and measure. The first few days will be rough, while your stomach is shrinking and your body is adjusting to the new, lower intake, but it gets easier with time.

EXERCISE. You say you've started and yay that. Find things you like. Walk, swim, lift weights - whatever you like. Keep doing it. If you find that you no longer enjoy what you're doing, do something else. Just don't take a break. Have the something else decided upon and do it.

BE COMMITTED. You must WANT it. You must want to do the work. If you don't, you'll fail and send yourself back into guilt and sadness. Do you feel like you actually have motivation? If you don't, put if off to do later, when you are motivated. Either commit to doing it or commit to not doing it. Then live happily with your choice. If you're going to lose weight, commit to seeing the doctor, eating right and exercising.

Rephrase every sentence that begins with "I can't do it because..." into "I can do this because..." and find an ending. Find a way. Use your imagination. As the nuns used to tell us, "God gave you a brain. Use it."

BE DETERMINED. If you're determined, nothing will stop you. Not your cravings, not unsupportive words or looks from others. Not anything. Whatever obstacles come up (including a day where you overeat), you'll keep going. You won't say, "I don't feel like getting in the pool today, so I will take one day off." You'll know that one can turn into two and then thirty, so you just won't. You'll be driven to do it, every day. Because you want to succeed.

When your wimpy self thinks, "I'm too fat for the gym or a bathing suit," the determination will say, "Well, that's too damn bad, because I'm doing it, anyway."

BE PATIENT. Because Oh, my God. You're going to have to do this work every single day for a year (at least, maybe two years) and although at first the scale will go down a lot, after that you will have to live with doing everything right (working so hard!) and only seeing little adjustments in the scale. Sometimes it will go up a bit and you'll be like, "HOW?! From where?!" Scale fluctuations happen. You have to be patient and wait for the weight loss.

Also, the more you lose, the freaking harder it gets! If you thought there would be a nice payoff to doing it right and losing your first fifty pounds, think again! The payoff is that the next fifty are harder. I'm about halfway and it's never been harder for me. So, you really need the patience, lol.

TAKE PICTURES. I wish to God I had done that when I started. It's so important, IMO. Such a huge reward for when you know you've lost, say 50 pounds, but you don't think you look much better and can't believe you look like the Model My Diet girl or how your friends say you look. Plus, then you can show yourself, "I looked like that. I look like this. I did this." When you see no difference in the mirror, comparing pictures will help. I recommend a pic every ten to fifteen pounds. Nobody else has to see them.

BE FLEXIBLE. Find what works for you. At first, you just force it - the eating well and exercising. It sucks a lot. As time goes on, you'll begin to notice what you like and what you don't. You have to do what works for YOU. Maybe you pre-plan, maybe you take it as it comes, bearing in mind you have to meet calorie goals. Maybe you don't like the gym and would rather walk or bike ride. Maybe you want to figure out your TDEE and do the math and follow that. It's such a long road that changing things up is almost inevitable. Find what you like and stick with that. Everyone has to walk their own path.

Follow the doctor's instructions, first and foremost. Then, read other people's ideas and stories. Maybe you find inspiration there.

But no wimpiness and no "I Cant"s and no excuses. Do not coddle yourself and don't give your sob story to others and let their polite coddling be an excuse.

If you don't want it, don't do it. If you do, then DO IT.

I wrote more for you than I think I've ever written. So, there you go.

Good luck.

You can love what you put in your mouth, or you can love the body you are living in. You only get to pick one. It should be an easy choice if you are really that unhappy.

Food is just fuel. People get way too attached to the notion of taste. Recognize food as just a necessity and stop treating it like a treat or reward, and I promise it suddenly becomes much easier to eat properly.

I disagree with this. You can enjoy what you eat (and you should) and love your body. Yes, food is fuel, but you can still eat things that you enjoy. I love the berries and veggies and Greek yogurt I eat everyday. I also love the Goldfish Grahams and peanut butter I eat every day. I think that is the reason people give up, because they think they have to cut out everything they enjoy, and they don't!

Planning is pretty much the most important aspect to weight loss. It doesn't mean that you can't make changes as you go, but at least you start out with some kind of structure.

If 1400 is too hard for you, aim for 1800 or some smaller deficit that is still enough to lose at.

I don't plan ahead but I also tend to just choose to save up calories for the evening so it works out ok. And if I 'blow it' by hitting 1500 instead of 1300, I call it a victory because it's still a deficit.

You can love what you put in your mouth, or you can love the body you are living in. You only get to pick one. It should be an easy choice if you are really that unhappy.

Or you can love both but make healthier choices. Switch from vanilla soy milk to unsweetened almond milk - learn to kick the sweetness and after a little while your body will adjust!

This will save calories, but soy milk has protein similar to milk, whereas almond milk has almost none. If you want to keep the protein you could switch to lite or unsweetened soy milk.

Sometimes by saying "I can't" that is a self-fulfilling prophecy.
You can. Do you want it badly enough?

You can do this. And you can eat almost anything - you just can't eat very much of some things.

1.Figure out what your trigger foods are. For me it was pasta and ice cream - I could never stick to portions. So I started buying single portion ice cream and I don't make pasta at home. I do think I'll be able to add it back soon because I have a better perception of what amount of food a skinny type person should eat.

2. You can go out to eat. Order your favorite and ask for a box. Put half of it aside. I was shocked that I was satisfied with half of what I ate before. I'd never ordered a small fry since I've been old enough to order my own food, but guess what. It was enough.

3. Find snacks that work for you. For me it's grapes, ff pudding, and Graze Box. The max I'm gonna hit even with the sweetest Graze Box snack is 250 calories. Most of them are less.

4. Plan ahead as much as possible. I will sometimes plan dinner and then eat the rest of the day on whatever is left. I often find myself eating less now for dinner than I thought giving me some leeway.

5. Don't drink your calories.

I hope this helps and I hope you keep trying.