Have given up hope.

Log your food consistently and honestly, as accurately as possible. Knowing what you're eating allows you to adjust your intake as needed.

Get a kitchen scale and weigh out your portions. Its more accurate and I find it easier using measuring cups and spoons.

Patience and consistently are key. Everyday does not need to be perfect, you just need more good days than bad ones.

How long have you been at it and what are you doing to track and measure your food?

Here's some of the reasons that you could be stalling

Calories in Vs Calories out- If you aren't weighing and measuring your food properly you could very well be consuming more calories than you think you are. Food should be weighed on a food scale (even peanut butter should be weighed) and only liquids should be measured in a measuring cup. Also when you get your first calorie target you should think of it as an estimate or starting point, it will need to be tweaked. Assuming you are doing everything correctly you might need to lower it. With that in mind, never go below 1,200 calories per day and never strive to lose more than 2lb / week. I honestly recommend a .5 lb to 1 lb / week goal.

Recording Activity- Do you record your activity and eat back the calories? This can be dangerous if you over state the calories burnt while exercising then eat back those calories. Generally speaking, a great way to keep yourself accountable when doing cardio is to use a heart rate monitor to measure intensity. You burn more calories running or power walking at your target heart rate than you do just casually strolling down the street. One suggestion, if you don't put on your gym attire to do it then don't record it.

If your weekly activity is consistent you could also stop recording your calories from exercise entirely and just work that number into your overall calorie goal then tweak your calorie target as you go.

One tip, I generally reduce myfitness pal's estimates for calories burnt by 25% to even 75% based on the type of activity. Worst case scenario I under estimate the calories I burnt and just have a bigger deficit.

Another tip, be human. It took a long period of time to get to the weight you are at now and if you take a long term approach to weight loss it will be easier to achieve and will have longer lasting results. You do not have to eat "Clean" to lose weight, eat what ever you want. Also don't be afraid to go to a Brazilian Steak house (all you can eat steak, nuff said) or attend an office happy hour once in a while. Record everything the best you can and hold yourself accountable and over time you will find yourself losing weight and feeling great.

You aren't consistently logging (one day out of a week stretch, and other days around it only have one meal logged), you have a lot of generic entries, and there's no sign of a food scale being used. Start cleaning up your logging and you'll lose weight. community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/1296011/calorie-counting-101#latest

Try and remember why you started doing all of this and how you felt when you started it. Right now, you can choose to either give up on everything you've accomplished to far and in two months you will have regretted that decision, or you can choose to keep up with the diet and exercise and in two months you will have more energy, you will have lost a few pounds, you will probably sweat less, etc. Noone can lose your weight for you but yourself so you mustn't give up. Otherwise, you will probably just go through all of this again in six months time or a year.. so, you may as well do it right this time

Just logging my food was what it took for me. I started using MFP because I knew I was eating too much and I wanted to know how much. I never did figure that out (probably 3000-3600 calories per day), because when I would see that I had already eaten so much during a day, I would quit eating, just to keep from going over the goal.

Willpower is overrated and before you try again, let's get your hope back. What evidence would you need to show that you have a chance at a different sort of life?

skinnymenow84 wrote: »

Thank you all for the help!!! I am going to take all of the comments in and get back on it! Thanks again!!

That's the spirit++