Somebody please help me see where I'm going wrong!

If you want mcdonalds, eat mcdonalds. Just eat less of it.

Use measuring cups, a scale and smaller plates. Don't cut everything out. Just start small.

For me, it was starting to substitute other things..... I used to get Wendy's 5 days a week, burger, fries, coke. I dropped the fries and switched to unsweetened iced tea. I switched from burger to grilled chicken sandwich. 15 pounds dropped off in a matter of about 8 weeks. Now when I do go to Wendy's, I get a large chili with cheese.

Plan some treats into your days and count it in your calories so you won't be as likely to go off the rails trying to go all healthy and then off the wagon.

Need2exerc1se is right. Small actions, done consistently and faithfully, make a big difference over the long haul. Pick one or two small changes that are sustainable for you, and release yourself from expecting immediate results. You can do it!

Need2Exerc1se wrote: »

Maybe a complete change isn't what you need right now. Try focusing on calories without making any drastic changes in your diet. Make a few small changes. Then, once you have that under control, make another change. Then another, and another, and how ever many you need to make until you have reached your goals.

And remember, a diet does not need to consist of 100% "healthy foods" to be a "healthy diet". You can eat for health and still have treats. Balance is the key.

So much this!

So many people think that being "healthy" means giving up everything we love and eating rabbit food three meals each day. Forget what you think you know about weight loss. You don't need to eat "healthy" or "clean" to lose weight. There's no magical combination of foods to eat (or avoid) unless you have a medical issue. Eating after a certain time of day won't store fat. No foods "burn fat" and you can't reduce fat in one specific area by doing something special. Drinking lots of water doesn't have an affect on weight loss. I think that covers most of it.

Babysteps! Start slow. Make little changes and keep doing those things until they become habit then add another change. Right now, that change should be getting into the habit of weighing and measuring your food and logging every single thing you eat an drink. That's it. Log everything down to chewing gum and vitamins. You don't need to change what you're eating or how much you're eating yet, just log it all and be brutally honest with yourself. You may not like what you're seeing but you'll learn a lot more if you can correlate what you're eating, with how many calories it contains.

If you don't own a kitchen scale, buy one and use it. Most food should be weighed, not measured, even salad dressing and peanut butter packaging gives servings in grams. If you're inaccurate with your logging your results will not be what you think they should be and that leads to frustration when the scale isn't moving.

After a week or so of logging, look back over your diary and figure out where you can make some substitutions that will have big impact just like a previous poster mentioned she did. Smaller portions at meals. Swapping one or two sweetened drinks with water or something zero calorie. Strive to stay at or just under the calorie goal MFP sets for you every single day. Don't worry about sugar, carbs, fat and protein for now. Once you get logging and staying under your calorie goal you can focus on those things including figuring out your TDEE, BMR, etc.

Exercise isn't needed for weight loss but it's important for fitness and overall health. Don't join a gym right away (babysteps!) just start moving more. Find an activity that you like whether that's walking, running, swimming, biking, Zumba, or whatever. Do something you like so that you'll want to stick with it. Working out shouldn't be something you dread each day.

Take "before" pictures so you can better judge your progress visually. The measuring tape is at least as important as the bathroom scale. Measure your chest, waist, hips, thighs and any other body part you want to track and start recording them in MFP now. When the scale isn't moving your body might still be shrinking especially if you're lifting weights.

The most important thing right now is that what you're doing is sustainable. You shouldn't be trying to reach an end goal weight but changing your eating habits for life so you don't gain the weight back. That means that whichever way you're eating while you lose weight should be the way you plan to eat once you reach your goal, just a little more.

lemon_kisses_kiki wrote: »

Ok, so let me first explain my usual weight loss cycle... It starts like this: I begin making much better food choices and start going to the gym again. 1 week in I'll be 2lbs down, great! I try not to weigh myself all the time, so I'll leave it another week, only to discover the 2lbs has somehow gone back on! So I've been fighting my McDonald's demons for sweet fa?! Well then forget this..... And I binge and end up back at square one.
My regular diet is pretty terrible; infact it's awful. I eat absolutely nothing in moderation and am addicted to sugar. So for me to cut everything I love out and wrestle with my cravings to make good choices every day, which I totally despise (incase I haven't made it clear!) it just devastates me to see no results. I know 2 weeks is nothing, I totally understand that, but it's about the limit of my patience with regards missing out on my comfort food!
I focus on cooking healthy meals from scratch and really scrutinizing what I put in my food, and I enjoy the diet I have when I change my eating habits... So what is the point I'm missing? I'm aiming to eat 1600cals a day at the moment and I'm going to the gym 2-3 times a week. I work 4 days a week in a supermarket so my job is quite active. I'm 5'5 and currently 150lbs I really don't want to go any lower that 1600cals because it just isn't sustainable for me.

I haven't binged yet this time, I am determined to be patient for once!

Thanks for reading my ramblings, any honest advice would be much appreciated

1) STOP freaking out over changes in the numbers in the scale that are so small as to be meaningless. Seriously, I can lose up to 4 pounds OVERNIGHT just in water weight. (Which means that I also GAINED 4 pounds over the course of a day!) Little moves like that don't mean anything. You really aren't giving your changes enough time to be seeing changes in body weight at all! All you have seen is water! Either weigh yourself a LOT less or a LOT more. (I do the a lot more method. Seeing the numbers bounce all over the place is what demonstrated to me that what we see from weigh in nto weigh in is mostly water, nothing to fuss over.)

2) Don't be radical in your changes. I'm not a fast food fan, but obviously you enjoy it. So, get yourself a Happy Meal with milk for lunch. (550 calories, and a good macronutrient balance if you eat the apples!)

3) Don't rob yourself of sweets or treats, either, just be VERY conscious of them...buy very high quality treats like premium chocolate or gelato, weigh out SINGLE PORTIONS ONLY, and eat them sloooooowly and really get pleasure out of them. The worst eating habit of all is just stuffing food in your face without paying attention. Start savoring every bite....and only eat what you can and will enjoy to that degree...no shoving food in your mouth "just because."

4) Accept that weight loss takes time. You need to let go of the idea that ONE weigh in without a loss means that your efforts are "not worth it." It's not emotionally healthy to be "devastated" by normal patterns of weight loss. There is no finish line to this. You need to start eating in a way that you can eat for the rest of your life...swinging wildly from over-strict diets with unrealistic expectations to "screw this" binges will never have you feeling the way you want to feel!

deksgrl wrote: »

For me, it was starting to substitute other things..... I used to get Wendy's 5 days a week, burger, fries, coke. I dropped the fries and switched to unsweetened iced tea. I switched from burger to grilled chicken sandwich. 15 pounds dropped off in a matter of about 8 weeks. Now when I do go to Wendy's, I get a large chili with cheese.

Plan some treats into your days and count it in your calories so you won't be as likely to go off the rails trying to go all healthy and then off the wagon.

I dropped fries and hashbrowns years ago. I never liked them that much in the first place and I don't miss them. It helps tremendously when you're trying to behave.

You may love fries though -- but I bet you can find something else you eat that you could eat better.

+1 for measuring everything that you are eating. At 5'5" and 150lbs, you don't have too much to lose to begin with. So you should be at a small deficit. If you don't measure accurately, this small deficit can be wiped out by a couple of snacks in the day and then you're eating at maintenance. Long term overages will lead to the small gains. However, two lbs of fluctuation could be the time of the month water retention so you can't go by that. If the weight number freaks you out and makes you lose motivation, use a tape measure as your measure of progress. Keep honest and accurate logging and just stop looking at the scale as regularly if you can't handle the fluctuations because weight loss is definitely not linear. Best of luck!

2 lbs is nothing in terms of it coming back on the scale. That could be from needing to use the bathroom, how long ago you ate, and if you're post workout with all of the lactic acid built up.

Look for those non-scale victories. Mine didn't move for almost a month!! But I noticed a lot of my clothes feeling looser and a jacket I bought 3 months ago is now super roomy where as before the buttons were tight/pulling.

Fit what you want in your calories. Log everything as precisely as you can, use a food scale... then do the math. Find out your TDEE. You would have to eat 3500 calories over that to gain a pound of fat. If you log, and you know you ate under your TDEE, there's no reason to freak out over water weight gains.