A life without soda, salt, alcohol, juice, red meats, etc.

There are so many thoughtful people on here.

I wonder if you are providing yourself with all the minerals and vitamins you need. Some of us need a different balance. Any food is only worth the sum of what it provides in the way of nutrition.

I have lived for 50 years doing the supposed "right thing" for myself, to realise my health issues including my bodies reluctance to loose weight actually comes down to not doing the right thing for me. Some foods, none animal, contain the toxin salicylate which facilitates weight gain and so much more. Other foods can be affected by the way they are cooked. Oil which is used at too high a temperature causes another toxin. Our bodies need fats to create our hormones and other essential fatty acids and so much more, meats of any variety will contribute a great deal. Even the disparaged milk provides more than calcium for cells as well as teeth and bones, iodine essential for hormones, natural antiseptic in your moist secretions, round your eyes, in you mouth and along your digestive tract and so much more. Salt the "devil" in all foods is essential for the internal and external balance if our cells and much more. It is true we are better off consuming fewer carbs but even these have their place.

Living at a calorie restriction makes achieving our essential nutrients so much harder especially when you are under average height. Even a well shaped, normal sized, shorter figure will look more "floored" as it is packed into a small package. The style of dress can work wonders when used to accentuate and lengthen what you have. Being the size we were when at school or college is not always the best size for us.

All the very best in your search for what is right for yourself.

LaurenFOB2301 wrote: »

I definitely know what a 4 oz. piece of chicken looks like lol

I am not saying this to insult you, so don't think I'm trying to imply you're not an intelligent or self aware person, or anything.

But chances are extremely good that you're not as accurate on your intake as you think you are. Please understand this is coming from someone who has been dieting off and on since she was TWELVE. I know that a serving of meat is supposed to be about the size of a deck of cards, I know that serving of pasta is half a cup which is about half the size of a tennis ball -- all that smack.

If you do not measure (and I mean use a scale rather than volume measurement) every damn gram that goes in your mouth, you cannot be sure of your intake.

The handful of raisins you eat because you're starving when you get home from work while you're prepping dinner... That counts and needs to be weighed. The creamer in your coffee counts. (IF you're like me and use half-n-half that does add up quick). The oil you use to sautee those very healthy veggies -- totally counts and needs to be accounted for in your diet.

If I am making this out to be a tedious, obsessive pain in the butt... Well, you're right. It totally is. But after doing that for a period of time, you WILL have a much greater and more accurate understanding of your caloric intake.

(I say this as someone who would have sworn on a stack of Bibles I had to exercise a million hours a week and eat less than 1,200 calories a day to lose weight. Not really true. I do work out about five hours a week, true enough, but I am losing a pound a week pretty steadily at an average of 1773 calories a day and I'm a short, middle-aged yo-yo dieter!)

Take a look at this, and especially the video about how measuring foods can be inaccurate compared to weighing:
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/872212-you-re-probably-eating-more-than-you-think

I agree that you think you're on track with calories, but you might be underestimating your intake (it's something we ALL do if we try to eyeball).

I have this one.

I checked it's accuracy against the calibrated weights at work normally used on an analytical scale. This one is in the acceptable range all the time for the standards a laboratory scale is held too.

http://www.amazon.com/Finesseur-Precision-Digital-Scale-Kitchen/dp/B00CQD4TNI/ref=sr_1_40?ie=UTF8&qid=1422801957&sr=8-40&keywords=digital+food+scale

Absolutely weigh and measure everything. Eyeballing what you are eating and guessing at it is going to cause you problems and frustration. Calories do matter. What those calories are, not so much. That doesn't mean stop eating healthy, it just means you don't have to be so fanatical about it.

I saw many people post that it doesn't matter what you eat and that isn't true. I wouldn't suggest eating fast food or junk food regularly even if you keep to under your daily calorie goal. It's still important to eat healthy, just eat less calories and weigh your food. I even weigh food that is portioned out, (like eggs, bread, etc.) to get an accurate serving amount for my log. You have to burn more calories than what you consume to lose weight but eating healthy is just as important. This is a lifestyle not a quick fix.

@kenmiller75 You will lose weight on a calorie deficit whether you eat "healthily" or not. One of the really awful misconceptions a lot of people have is that if they eat the "healthy" foods they will lose weight. Unless they're in a calorie deficit, that is simply not so.

What CAN happen is that people will switch from eating, say, a bunch of pizza and twinkies to eating a lot of, oh I don't know, salads or something, and they'll find they lose weight. But that's because they're more satisfied on fewer calories because it's darned hard to eat enough lettuce to match how many calories are in a pizza.

That is not to say that I think people should not have the french fry to broccoli ratio heavily weighted in favor of the green stuff. But in terms of actual weight loss, it makes very little difference.

Which brings up the excellent point that weight loss and health are simply not a 1:1 ratio, either!

Just think, if you eat only 50 extra calories a day than you burn off, you will gain over 5lbs a year consistently. So making sure your averages are less than what you burn on a weekly basis is the way to go.

LaurenFOB2301 wrote: »

I definitely know what a 4 oz. piece of chicken looks like lol

Can you tell a 4 oz piece of chicken from a 5 oz piece? If not that's a 25% error rate - accuracy matters.