Massive Lifestyle Change- No results! :(

You've been doing this less than a month. You didn't get to your breaking point in a month, so why would you think tangible change would happen in this time? There IS already a difference, even if you can't put your hands on it yet. Those small changes will keep piling up and will be visible sooner rather than later, so just keep banging on. And you'll be great!

It's not easy, but be patient. It WILL happen. Keep doing what you're doing and stop being so hard on yourself.

PS- it took a month for the scale to move in the direction I wanted to. In fact, it went up a few pounds. But it went down again. 95 times, in fact.

Oh crap. I just checked my MFP numbers. 1800 *is* .5 lbs a week for a 30 year old 5'8" 190 lb sedentary woman. To lose weight eating 1800 calories you either have to be very precise with your food logging and weighing, and/or exercising to earn more food calories. If you're not weighing your food on a food scale OP, it really may be quite likely that you're wiping out your deficit by consuming too many calories

Yep. Actually 1800 calories is only about 1/3 pound loss per week at sedentary. Calorie burns tend to be over estimated, so it would be VERY easy to wipe out a deficit with no exercise and even easier if eating back any exercise calories.

Okay. 1800 calories seems kind of high unless you didn't enter your settings right. I'm 5'7" at SW 215 my calories were 1690 set at sedentary no exercise. My BMR is around 1548 now. So after losing some I've changed from sedentary no exercise to sedentary with 5x a week 30 minutes. Still at 1610. If I followed MFP no exercise my calories are in the 1420 range. I think you need to check your settings.
Also start weighing your foods and don't forget drinks.

1,800 is not high at all based on her stats.

Yep. And IMO Higher is better because you can probably fit in more foods you like, which will greatly help long term compliance to your new lifestyle. Lower numbers usually come from setting up the tool to lose weight in the higher range every week, like 2 lbs a week instead of 1 or even .5 depending on what you feel you can accomplish

Oh crap. I just checked my MFP numbers. 1800 *is* .5 lbs a week for a 30 year old 5'8" 190 lb sedentary woman. To lose weight eating 1800 calories you either have to be very precise with your food logging and weighing, and/or exercising to earn more food calories. If you're not weighing your food on a food scale OP, it really may be quite likely that you're wiping out your deficit by consuming too many calories

Was not clear in my comment - the 1,800 was gross - and assumed exercise.

I opened my diary but have only been doing it for a few days and I don't think I ever 100% made it complete...
I can't wait to read all these responses! Haven't had a chance yet!

Before making ant conclusions, I would recommend starting to log - and doing it as accurately as possible. Until you do, you do not know how much you are eating. Assess in a few weeks.

You do not need to give up food items to have it work .. you just need to be in a deficit.

Weigh you food .. this is critical at least til the weight you want to lose is gone.

And secondly .. ditch the scale. It really is stupid .. you should be concerned more on how your body is changing .. body fat measurements and physical measurements .. ie inches and not the scale.

The whole losing fat and gaining muscle thing is crap too ..

You are probably eating more than you think you are .. and over estimating your exercise burns .. or both. Search here at MFP .. there are a zillion threads just like yours from beginners.

But don't worry you will figure it out .. it is also not a race .. patience. :flowerforyou:

Get thee a digital food scale and use it. Too many items logged in cups. If it's not a freely pouring liquid such as milk, it can be weighed on a food scale and logged. Try to focus on doing that for as many items as you can

Unfortunately, I know that I could never stick to weighing all my food, I can't even imagine...

^^^^^
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This will be your downfall


1750-1800 for your stats is CORRECT (this is TDEE method WITH EXERCISE and 20% reduction)

I was close to your stats....and lost 1 lb per week on the above calories, then after 15 pounds lost, I dropped it down to 1650, have now lost another 14 pounds so far. That's with working out 3 strength days, 1 plyometrics, 1 yoga, 1 light cardio per week.

It took around 3 1/2 - 4 weeks in the beginning for my body to start losing on the above regiment. Its been going down consistently every week.

I'm not surprised at how many responses you received, and plus you're a phenomenal topic starter! I hate to set the bar so low but a) you actually came back and posted still keeping your spirits high, and b) you opened your diary when asked. I have a feeling you'll be just fine!

About the scale, try not to be overwhelmed. Do you have one? Then step 1 is super simple. Get a digital scale that has both grams and ounces and has a Tare button. I like my scale better when the buttons are easy to push and kind of quiet. I don't know what your financial situation is but you can get one for less than $25 for sure. Less than 10 if you shop around or watch sales on Amazon.com, etc.

The easiest way to use my scale is to simply set it on the counter in the kitchen. Before I go to grab something, hit the on button. You may weigh items directly on the scale (careful of any hygiene / contamination issues especially with raw meat...), or just Tare the empty container and set your food down on it. I don't hit the "off" button ever. Usually I just let it time out.

There are tons of other tips out there for using a food scale and doing so very easily. Just do some searches and read up if you're interested; and if you've got specific questions or even just want us to type Some of the tips here for you, just ask.

OP I know you didn't want to weight your food, but sorry that is a tried and true method to achieve success. Remember that a little effort is all that is needed to make the difference between success and failure.

Look for the entries in the database that are preferably confirmed and have weights .. not in CUPS. That's not a real accurate way to measure food .. cups are crap.

So .. measure preferably in grams .. and use those entries, and trust me on this one, you can be way way out by guessing if you do not weigh your food .. and that could be enough to wipe out some or all of your deficit.

Is it necessary .. no but you take your chances if you don't. This is the best way to confirm that what you think is happening is actually happening. I weighed my food for 9 months .. and was very successful because of it. My weight loss journey is done .. and my food scale was a major part of it.

I think with the responses you have received you should be well on your way .. as there has been some good advice here.

You should at least commit to weighing everything for a couple of weeks to see how accurate your eyeballed or cup-measured portions really are. Then you might find it's not nearly as difficult as you thought it would be and keep doing it! If not, at least you will get a better idea of what a true portion of your most common foods looks like.

I did that and was blown away by how off I was. I don't weigh food all the time, but I try to, and I always do when my stats seem to be stuck for a few weeks...

Good luck!

. I'm not sure what all this "Do you weigh your food?" talk is about; I do not weigh my food nor do I know how. I don't think you have to weigh your food, just kind of judge how much it weighs and how heavy it is or something. ^_^

It's about getting an accurate count of what you're consuming. If you're entering inaccurate numbers into MFP and wondering why you're not losing weight even though you're in a deficit according to the site it can be pretty frustrating. That's why we see so many "am I in starvation mode?" and "is my metabolism messed up?" threads.

This is almost always due to either underestimating of calories in or overestimation of calories out. You don't need to give it very much time, if you're in a real deficit you'll see results pretty quickly.

I lost the majority of my weight before I ever bought a food scale, so I know that weight can be lost without one. But I will say that, for me, switching from measuring cups to the food scale has been so much easier. I no longer have to round up and wash all of those little cups and spoons. I don't have to worry about how I'm cutting or smashing my food into those little cups. I don't have to waste the time transferring everything from container to measuring cup to bowl. Now I just put my bowl down on the scale, add as much as I want of ingredient one, hit the tare button, add ingredient two, tare, add ingredient three, etc. And it makes partial servings so much easier to figure out as well, especially when I'm at the end of the carton and don't have quite enough to fill a measuring cup.

I thought a food scale would be so much harder to use than it actually is, for some reason. It's not for everyone, but for me it's so much more freeing than trying to pack everything into a measuring cup or spoon each time.

A food scale is a good tool, but that's it. It's not the only tool. If it feels like that would be too big of a change right now, that's fine. Keep an open mind and maybe you'll be ready to get one later.

OP, I would suggest just working on your logging skills first. There are some tricks to navigating the MFP database that can make a huge difference in how successful you are. I took a quick peek at your diary, and have a couple of suggestions:

1. Avoid entries marked "generic" or "homemade." You have no idea whether or not your recipe is even close to what the person who added that entry was using, so you could easily be off by a few hundred calories every time.

2. All entries marked with an asterisk (*) are user-created. Sometimes they can be very accurate, especially for packaged food, but not always. Try to pick entries without asterisks if you can. Entries that include "USDA" tend to be more accurate.

3. The recipe builder tool is a great resource if you make a lot of homemade food.

4. It's always more accurate to add each individual component of a meal than it is to look for an entry for the whole thing (add the eggs and the butter/oil as separate entries rather than finding one marked "scrambled eggs.")

Unfortunately, I know that I could never stick to weighing all my food, I can't even imagine...

Fine, so just eat less, because you're probably eating too much.