What Am I Doing Wrong?!? (Lengthy...sorry)

I didn't look at your food diary or anything, but just as a side note, maybe you should get your thyroid checked and stuff. Having kids can get it a little messed up sometimes. Might help!?

My personal experience is that if I don't workout almost everyday, the scale doesn't move. Everyone is different, but you might want to give it a try!

Try to make sure you drink atleast 80 ounces of water a day...it makes a huge difference. Try to walk some if you're not used to working out. I try to walk a mile everynight after dinner with the family. I walk alot in the morning but always try to walk 20 minutes after dinner. The thing that really worked for me the past month was watching how much sugar I eat. Not just sugar but whats in fruits and stuff as well. I switched to sugar free coffee creamer and truvia sweetner instead of sugar. Just a suggestion but I lost almost 10 pounds last month. I hope it helps.

This is a tough one - I've looked at your diary for the past week and I see some good choices, so honestly I'm not sure why the scale isn't moving for you. From a mathematical standpoint - it should.

I see a few teensy potential red flags in your post that MIGHT be your problem:

1) Exercise - you say you have a hard time exercising more than 1-2 times a week - well, honestly, you may have to find a way to make more time to squeeze a little more exercise in your day. It's your choice. We all have 24 hours in our day, many of us have jobs, families, kids, (insert excuse here) etc.... so you just have to make it a priority some how and find the time to get it done. You only need 15 minutes a day to do High Intensity Interval Training which is great for fat loss.

2) As you've said - you need to drink more water. Sure you'll have to pee alot at first, but your body will adjust. I try to drink at least 12-14 glasses a day. Other things in moderation are fine (alcohol) as a once in a while treat. Do you drink diet sodas? Although they are no calorie, the acidity of them can deplete you of minerals and mess up your thyroid and your metabolism. I'd kick the soda habit if you drink any at all.

3) Your macros look pretty good - I do see quite a bit of processed foods in your diary. Even the tyson chicken is not going to be as clean as plain, raw chicken.

4) Sodium isn't too terrible either, but try to aim for 1500 mg/day or less. I noticed you pick some things like generic homemade taco soup - sometimes the entries on MFP won't reflect the sodium content of the food you actually eat so just be aware and be careful there.

5) I don't see very many healthy fats in your diary (other than the walnuts). Do you like fish? This is a great way to get your Omega 3's and protein.

When I first joined MFP I followed this diet for 8 weeks to help me transition to cleaner eating habits. I've posted it if you want to give it a shot. I don't eat clean all the time (I like unhealthy stuff in moderation too), but it did give me a jump in the right direction.

6) You might want to track sugar too. No more than 10% of your calories from sugar. So if you eat 1600 cals a day, that would be 160 calories, divide by 4 (calories in one gram) and you would want to try to stay under 40 grams a day.

http://www.extremely-fit.com/fitness-tips/2011/01/8week-transition-diet/

I hope this helps you out. Good luck.

Edited to add: Make sure you use a scale and measuring cups/spoons. Don't eyeball what you eat - be accurate. Also, LOG everything. Those tiny snippets you forget to log actually DO add up.

I checked out your diary.

One thing for sure is (I don't know if maybe you forgot to log on those days). For sure do not go under 1,200 calories. Our bodies will go into starvation mode. Your body will think you are on a deserted island and hold onto your food so you will survive. Then when you start eating again it will hold on to that too thinking you might get put on a deserted island again. It is not until you consistently eat well that your body knows it is safe to let go.

The other is water. Our body is mainly made up of water. Again... I don't know if you forgot to log. We need the minimum 8 glasses of water. Try drinking two glasses before each meal. On top of getting your water in you will feel more full when you go to eat your meal.

Depending on what you have set as your weight loss 1 pound loss each week or more. MFP takes 250 calories off your food intake for each 1/2 pound you want to lose without exercise. My MFP is set for 1 pound down each week. Setting my calorie intake at 1580 calories for my height and weight. I can have 500 calories remaining on food intake after exercise and now go down 2 pounds each week. Any more than that deficit 1,000 calories is not recommended. Slow and steady wins the race and it becomes a lifestyle change. You want to be realistic.

I don't know if that helps.

loosing wt is a balance of NUTRITION & EXCERCISE it seems you got the nutrition part together so you may need to up the excercise if yr going once or twice a week how long are you there?

you have to really move that body more often if you want to see results.

I looked at the last 2 weeks of your diary and there appears to be 3 days that your NET calorie intake was REALLY low. With your daily calorie goal of 1600 calories per day averages out to 11,200 calories per week. Your total weekly intake for last week (Sat-Fri) was 8868 and the week before was only 8777. You may want to try increasing your calorie intake on the days that you put in a huge calorie burn.

Another thought is to try to be more consistent in your calorie intake instead of the zig-zagging.

Increasing your water intake can make a huge difference too!

Did you reset your calorie goals after losing the 25lbs previously? You can try resetting your MFP calorie goal. Make sure that your activity level is accurate too.

Just a few suggestions. Good Luck!

This may not solve your problem weight-wise, but health-wise you definitely need more fresh fruits and veggies.

Happy belated Bday!

With that info, your BMR should be around 1629. Activity level should probably be sedentary, possibly lightly active. So that would put maintenance around 1950 for sedentary, 2200 for lightly active. I would go with sedentary, particularly if you aren't losing on 1600.

For what you have to lose, 1 lb per week would be appropriate. So a cal goal of around 1450-1500 should be about right. So at 1600 you'd be losing maybe 1/2 lb per week - IF all logging was accurate.

I would highly recommend getting an HRM if you can swing it. I wouldn't be surprised if you (and MFP) are overestimating your burns a bit. If you can't get one right now, try eating just 50% of your exercise cals.

I would try tweaking the numbers a bit first. If that doesn't work after a month or so, I'd head to the doc to get some testing done for thyroid or other metabolic issues. :flowerforyou: