I am having No Success at all. Very frustrated & disappointed

It's hard to guess what might be going on without more information. Do you have MFP set to lose 1 pound per week? Are you weighing your foods? How are you handling exercise calories?

I don't know what you're asking. Are you asking if a busy person can lose weight?

You have to make time. We are ALL busy, but to succeed there has to be a effort made in changing habits.

I'm busy now too.. What I'm doing is buying smart ones ..all at or under 300 calories.. I pack that for lunch and take salad and raw vegetables…and an apple. y ou can do that. that way you can easily track and don't have to prepare meals. It isn' t ideal..but it gets you in the game. You have to take control.

Action expresses priority.

Instead of coming home from work and playing computer games I now come home and wash my gym clothes, do the dishes and prep my food. Instead of staying up late watching television I go to bed so that I can get up at 4am to hit the gym before work.

It's up to you to decide how important losing 20lbs is to you.

I'm pretty bad at prepping. Still eat fast food a LOT (though less than I used to). It's about logging your food and sticking to the calories MFP gives you. I can overeat on fast food and I can overeat on 'clean' eating too. It's about calories in < calories out.

i work full time and the work doesn't stop when i get home, either. i am 44 years old, 5 foot 5 inches, and weigh 156 because i partied it up this winter in Canada and even though i average 3 days a week at the gym for basically light cardio and weight circuit, i gained everything i lost last year with the help of MFP - the holidays plus crap weather for dog walking (oh yes, the dog got fat, too), plus wine. wine and beer and cider.

so, i'm back. i've set myself the goal of 145 lbs with a 2 lb loss per week. this is aggressive. it brings my intake down to 1200 a day. I CANNOT LOSE WEIGHT UNLESS I AM HELD ACCOUNTABLE BY SOMEONE OR SOME THING. in my case, that "some thing" is MFP. do i want to eat discount valentines day candy and wash it down with a big glass of Cabernet Sauvignon? yes. do i want to type that into my MFP food diary? no. so i just don't go there.

here's what i have eaten today, so far (it's dinner time here - yes, i eat early, because i get up at 5 am everyday - so i want my last meal to be early in relation to that):

breakfast: 1/2 cup egg white omlette, 2 tsp olive oil in pan, crumble 2 tbsp of light feta and toss on 2 tbsp of salsa. eat with one slice of home made rye bread. couple cups of coffee with splash of unsweetened almond milk
snack: 1 small apple
lunch: 1 can of chunk light tuna, splash of lemon juice, salt, pepper, and one small avocado. 1/2 cucumber
walked off 164 calories on my one hour lunch break
snack: 1 pillars turkey pepperoni and 1 slice low fat provolone
dinner: 1 cup bean thread noodles with 1 cup of assorted stir fried things (mostly veg - about 1 ounce chicken breast), 2 tbsp stir fry sauce

throughout the day: water and green tea

i still have over 400 of that 1200 calories left to snack away on before i go to bed at 9 pm

MFP sets the goals for me, allows me to track toward goals, and holds me accountable. this time, i'm not going to go "ok, i've lost 10 pounds - i can just wing it. i know what's in a serving of whatever. i don't have to track my calories". WRONG. my metabolism is waning, because i'm in my 40s and going through perimenopause - oh, and i have hashimoto's thyroiditis, too - but i don't blame my thyroid for anything, because i take medication for it. i have to use this tool to monitor what goes in my gob, otherwise one day i wake up and my pants don't fit.

so like all these other busy people are saying: set a goal, try hard to stay within the confines of the target calorie range, worry about it if you are not losing weight after religiously sticking with the calorie counts for the day. if you are not losing weight when you are eating the amount of calories recommended by the program, there is something wrong and maybe you should talk to someone about it.

and no fast food! pack your lunch the night before if you have to. no excuses!

elisa123gal wrote: »

I'm busy now too.. What I'm doing is buying smart ones ..all at or under 300 calories.. I pack that for lunch and take salad and raw vegetables…and an apple. y ou can do that. that way you can easily track and don't have to prepare meals. It isn' t ideal..but it gets you in the game. You have to take control.

This.

Fill your freezer with frozen meals (I prefer Lean Cuisine) and bags of frozen veggies. If you don't want to prepare things yourself, buy things that other people or companies have prepared for you. That gets you convenience and portion control.

I work 40 hour weeks (12:30-9pm M-F), which leaves 2 meals I have to find at work, while most people only need to find one. I work on a college campus so there's their cafeteria filled with pizza/fries/chicken fingers, and literally like 20 starbucks 'cafes' on the campus as well. You know how I do it? Pre-made foods. Do I have the time or energy (or fridge space) to meal prep? Hell no. Can I manage to bring in 5 soup cans for a week of lunches and 5 pre-made freezer meals for a week of dinners on Monday morning? Hell yes. Pair that with one Nature Valley protein bar in between the two in case I get the hungries (and maybe a black coffee or americano) and I'm easily under 1200 calories a day.

Bring everything you'll need and make it fit. Adjust as you see necessary. But I gotta say... Progresso makes great 'lite' (200 calories or less per can!) soups.