Have I ruined my metabolism?

Op, just took a peek at your food diary and you're using cups, ounces, grams, serving sizes etc. This can lead to all sorts of issues. Use your food scale, set to GRAMS, and weigh everything that way. Start doing that, keep tracking your food intake, hit the calorie target MFP sets for you and then finally-GIVE IT TIME. Stop jumping around from one fad to the next, and just have some patience

mrsblakedavis wrote: »

to address some of the below -

- yes, weighing and measuring ALL of my food, even condiments.

- i am following a ratio of 30% carbs, 35% fat, and 35% protein after researching macros. Been doing this for about 2-3 months.

I researched 21 day fix today, and it says (if I follow that plan, which I am not) I should be eating 1800-2200 calories a day based on my weight! I am a woman - I have NEVER been afforded that many calories!
...Which brings me to my next point. I had a brief thought of - wow, what if I am not eating enough calories? The thought of nearly increasing my intake of calories and even more weight gain had me squirming.

The truth is - everyone says just try different things until it works but (IMO) my weight really should be coming off for the amount of effort I am putting in. I really have no clue what I am doing - I just try to eat very simply, very healthfully with no additives and avoid processed food. How can that not be enough?

I'm shorter than you, weigh less than you, older than you, and get in the 1800-2200 calorie range with exercise. I'm not trying to lose 2 pounds per week though. I did 1 pound per week for the first 30 pounds and my goal is 0.5 pound per week for the next 20-30 pounds.

Since you are gaining weight while eating less than 1800-2200 calories, something's wrong. People often underestimate their food intake and overestimate their exercise burns. Many here suggest to eat back just 50% of the MFP exercise calories - you can change this number manually as you enter your exercise.

Another thing that happens is when people eat too few calories, they erase their deficit with a binge or cheat meal.

I suggest you shoot for a 1 pound per week weight loss goal and tighten up your calorie and exercise logging.

if you're not losing and you don't have a problem like a thyroid condition, you're not eating less than you burn - it's actually that simple. you can eat low carb foods, high carb foods, all twinkies, all pizza, all salads. for the sake of losing weight, 1400 calories per day of pizza is the same as 1400 calories of egg whites, chicken breasts or chocolate ice cream.

weigh everything as grams - no tablespoon or cup measurements.

if you can avoid fast food, it's easier as they can easily go over a couple hundred calories vs the listed calories for some items, so if you eat fast food, you don't really have any idea how many calories you're eating. otherwise since most fast food and stuff like chipotle is so calorie dense, maybe you could eat half of your order and take the rest home for another meal?

i was thinking after i posted this - i've seen chipotle and taco bell staff use much more and much less sour cream - some use half what others use, and the same with cheese. there could easily be 300 calories difference at chipotle for the same item as they put on handsful of cheese, and some guys have huge hands while some women have very small hands.

mrsblakedavis wrote: »

so question - is it best practice to forget the brand of egg (ie, don't choose "Trader Joes" brand eggs) - but just use a generic scrambled egg entry, weigh my cooked eggs in grams and then enter it that way?

How do you measure olive oil or coconut oil in grams? Use the Tare feature and weigh it in a container?

That's how I do it. I zero the scale, open up the jar and then put it on the scale. Then I subtract the original number minus the number I get after scooping. Example: the container of my butter weighs 215 grams with the top off, then after I take out some of the butter it's now 210 grams, so that tells me I've used five grams of butter.

http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/1234699/logging-accurately-step-by-step-guide

http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/1290491/how-and-why-to-use-a-digital-food-scale