18 days...no change.

I want to make a suggestion that irritates a bunch of people, and I completely agree with the opposing view train of thought, but here it goes....

While accurately logging and maintaining a calorie deficit, reduce your carb intake to almost nothing, to like 25 - 35 grams (or below 59 at least). The immediate effect will be at least a couple pounds of water weight lost after 4 or 5 days. To make up for the lack of carbs for energy, you should increase your fat intake.

This has worked for me, though I attribute the actual weight loss to calorie deficit, not some magic low carb, high fat keto diet.
What not eating carbs for means for me is that I have several hundred calories available for more satisfying foods.

So when I stopped eating bread, past, rice, potatoes, ect with every meal, at least 300- 400 calories were made available to me for things like blue cheese dressing (on my green salad), cheese, butter, etc... And that seemed to help keep me full longer.

Just a thought on what worked for me, but believe me, if you love bread and pasta and don't want to cut them out, then go for it. A simple calorie deficit really does work.

Like people have said, you need to be at a deficit to lose weight.

The few days I checked in your diary were all over your goal. If you go over your goal that substantially a few times a week you just won't lose weight, that's it I'm afraid..

You can eat whatever you want, if you want to live off mcnuggets and cookies go ahead, you may not feel great about it and will be deficient in some vital vitamins and stuff, but you can lose weight, as long as you stay within your calorie goal.

Also, I've found when I have a high sodium meal (most ready meals and takeouts and that tbh) my weight loss doesn't show the next day. Oh and also weigh yourself the same time in the same conditions every time, like Monday morning at 8am after toilet in the nude.

Unfortunately in your case, you just have to eat less!

And as others have said, buy a digital scale and use that for ALL your food. There is no real way of getting a correct calorielog from a teaspoon of that and a medium *insert fruit/veggie*. Scales are the way to go!

I want to just start off by saying I commend you for 18 days of straight logging in!! This is a JOURNEY and you will mess up sometimes....but you will LEARN and IMPROVE everytime!! I've been on my "journey" since January and have definitely hit many bumps in the road (such as no weight loss for a long period of time....scale fluctuating....etc) The good news is you already accomplished one goal....and that's logging everyday....CONGRATS! That really is a big deal and I'm super proud of you! Your next goal could just be a little tweaking.....I've had to tweaked my eating a couple times already to consistently lose weight...but they were minor changes......slowly over time......TOO MUCH TOO SOON and I'm "destined to fail" or give up....and I refuse to do that this time! For me personally....I started with my first goal of just "logging in everyday"......and I did it! 2nd goal was staying at 150-350 deficit on a regular basis.....and I did it! My 3rd goal (this is all over months and months of time).....was to watch my sodium/carb in take...just kind of be mindful of it...... I did it! Then later on.......I learned that my body did PHENOMENAL when it had more "real" food as oppose to drive thrus/processed/boxed or canned foods. I still have them or go to drive thru....or eat processed.....but it's no 80% real food/20% drive thru or processed.....and this has really helped me ALOT! I have a little so I do not feel deprived but overall I'm eating whole foods..... chicken, green beans, chef salads, ground turkey, fruit, eggs, etc.....this along with just an addition 20 min walk extra to my workout routines have made the BIGGEST differences.....so anywho! Keep up the great work......stay positive.....and continue to learn what works and doesn't work for your body with making minor tweaks over time....and you'll be on your way!!!

No, I don't think you are right. I agree with anna3067. I fully intend to have delicious McDonalds apple pies and chicken nuggets and chocolate sometimes while continuing to work on my calorie deficit.

you need to clean up your diet if you are really serious...eating chocolate and McDonalds chicken nuggets are apple pies are not going to help

The only thing to keep in mind with eating food from a fast food place (any food place, really) is that the calories may not be exact. So what the menu has listed could be up to 20% off, so you could be getting a lot more calories than you realize.

I am not saying that you should never eat them again, but if you aren't able to measure your food, it's hard to realize exactly what you are taking in.

First, I empathize with you in that it can be very frustrating to not see the scale drop after 18 days. In reviewing your post I also
agree that the "free meals" may be stalling your weight loss.

If you figure you need to have a deficit of 3500 calories over the course of 7 days, and that is basically 500 per day less than you need to eat to maintain your weight, then each day that you don't meet the 500 calorie deficit, you will come up short on the chance of meeting the 3500 by the end of the week.

Have you considered instead of having "free meals," having a free "snack" instead? A meal can be a LOT of calories and like some other posters have said, the free meals could be basically cancelling out whatever deficit that you have earned in the week, resulting in no loss.

One other thing that might be impacting your weight loss is if you do eat the extra calories that MFP credits to you for your activity for the day. So, for example when you finish logging for the day it will often say that you have earned a certain number of calories for your activity (or exercise). I usually do not eat any more calories than my goal calories per day. If it says I have an extra 400 or more calories for the day due to my activity, I just ignore that.

I also have found that you have to be careful because the MFP calorie counts can be off a bit. I will often scan my items if I can (if there is a bar code), but if I cannot then I will search and look at several examples to try to find the most accurate calorie count possible. I also err on the side of overestimating the number of calories rather than underestimating because I want the calories to be as accurate as possible or I am just misleading myself.

You do need to weigh things and measure. Studies have found that those who measure do lose more weight. It is easy for portions sizes to creep up in size over time if you are not measuring regularly. Have you ever measured a 1/4 cup of rice for example? I still am shocked each time when I see how little that actually is. The measuring also teaches us what a normal portion size should be. In this country, our portion sizes are outrageous, no wonder so many people are obese!

Another positive is that losing it slowly allows for you to learn the measured sizes of portions and the calorie levels which takes time to learn. I have also read that the body and skin also adjust better to weight loss if it is 1-2 lbs. per week. Drink half your weight per day in water (according to Dr. Daniel Amen), and don't drink your calories, eat fresh fruits, veggies, and whole grains as much as you can. Good luck!

well said!

Ok I can tell you what's going wrong. I looked at your last 8 days. It goes about this

Date Desired | Actual
9/5 1460 | 3037
9/4 1460 | 1509
9/3 1460 | 1501
9/2 1460 | 1736
9/1 1460 | 1754
8/31 1460 | 1658
8/30 1460 | 1276
8/29 1460 3007

---

9/6 11680 15478

Calorie Surplus = +3798
Now even with working out you can't beat that surplus, not unless you're a marathon machine.
The Splurge days account for near 73% of that surplus

Here Is what I recommend (cause it works for me and I don't work out at all.)
Take a Pound Add a zero and call that the daily calories it takes to maintain that pound.
10 pound=100 calories
100 pounds = 1000 calories

Assume if you consistently ate 1500 everyday with no working out you'd eventually weigh 150 pounds.
Your food surplus Currently equals on average to 1,973 daily. (Because of the splurge days) I would estimate your weight is between 190-200 Right now? (according to your weight not changing.

You should be eating a little less as a female If you are near 5'5 or so Try dropping to 1100. (this is what I am eating)
Have A splurge day only once a week, Even so Do not let that exceed 1,800C.

If you are Working at a desk Try to convert to a standing one. Standing hurts, Standing sucks, But it is VERY effective. I burn 1/3 of my calorie intake standing for 8 hours a day. Which gives me a little room to eat more so I don't feel famished.

Remember the food pyramid. If you never have Grain your body will demand it. same for meat, and you'll overeatit. So Eat dairy, Meat and grains at least once a day separately. And don't forget some sugar as well (like in your coffee) Just don't overdo it. You're body needs breaks from burning fat and the sugar will help to give it a good fluctuation of Carb/Fat burn So it doesn't feel like it's dying.

Assume if you consistently ate 1500 everyday with no working out you'd eventually weigh 150 pounds.

Yep. This is what my doctor & dietician say: multiply your healthy goal weight by 10, and there's your calories to eat to get to that weight.
She's only wanting to lose 8 lb, so there's not going to be much room for error... and she's making a lot of errors, as you pointed out.

I measure and weigh my food already. I am over a bit sometimes but still in a deficit. I set it at 500 calorie deficit and I don't care if I only make it by 250 calories any given day, it's still a deficit for me. I don't care if it's slow progress so maybe I'm being inpatient.

My high calorie day is my free meal day, which a lot of people do. I have 1-2 free meals on the weekends. I'm not willing to get rid of that, it keeps me sane the rest of week. I don't think future free meal days will be 1500 cal. I know I binged that day and it felt disgusting, I just ate to eat.

There's no way I can eat less than this. Soooo do I just need to give it more time? Or am I destined to fail with this as usual.

you are not in deficit:-) If you were by definition your weight would reduce. Remember everyone's body is different and MFP guesses that you are average. I would drop your calorie target by 500 and see what happens. As people have already said if its your weight isn't going up or down your are eating at your TDEE. Good luck

Just never have had the patience to be exact and account for every ounce of food taken in. Because of this bit of personal laziness I just began recording what I thought the portion size was. Over about a month I had a guess or rough estimate of what I was taking in and an average calorie (guess) intake. I had lost no weight during this period, instead of refining the detail of intake I just set a goal 200 calories less per day than the last month average and continued to track holding the new level of calorie intake. Not much happened so lowered by another 200. Now I am losing weight at the rate I wanted without measuring every item. Be sure to record all item eaten and best guess of amount, be honest. Also the quality of food eaten is a major component to successful weight loss.