So much effort for nothing?

You are focused on the wrong things. Breads, etc don't make you fat. Eating too much does.

Eat all of the calories mfp gives you, along with some exercise calories.

Weigh everything on a food scale.

valshine wrote: »

Thanks for all of the feedback and tips. I'm a 29 year old female, 5'2" and currently about 162.4. I started at around 167 on June 1st. It seemed at first that it was going down at a steady rate then the pounds started going up and then not changing much. I can't seem to break past the 162 mark. I know it can fluctuate and I'm glad to be down the 4lbs but I'm working out harder than I ever have and I'm weighting and measuring all of my food and it's just a bit discouraging when it Seems like the more I do the more it goes up. It's possible I'm gaining muscle but I can't quite see where yet hahah
I'm gonna start measuring myself. I know I've lost a few centimeters around my waist from the way one pair of shorts fit but I know it's not inches from the way the rest of my shorts don't fit.
I lost most of the weight the first week I started being really serious so maybe it was just a shock to my body but then it was like 1 step forward, 2 steps back.
I'm not putting a fixed date for when I need to reach my goal but I do have a looong road ahead of me and a lot more research to do

There's a concept that has been very helpful to me with this process - the Pareto Principle. It states that 80% of problems come from 20% of root causes. It's a quick and easy tool to prioritize the factors that will help and dumping those factors that don't matter. From your initial post you seem to be concerned with the 80% that really doesn't matter.

I recommend opening up your diary and being honest throughout this process. This allows more experienced people to find potential errors in your logging activities.

Biological systems don't like changes, so you likely will not see the fat loss immediately, but over several weeks (4-6 on average). Those immediate gains/losses are water weight fluctuations. Your body enters into a defense mode when forced to adapt to a calorie deficit or increased physical activity and responds by taking on additional water to protect the cells. Need to incorporate some delayed gratification to this process and focus on the long game. Think marathon over sprint.

Other than that you're on a good starting path, just focus on your intake and accuracy of logging, make sure you're not overestimating exercise calories and when the number on the scale doesn't cooperate - focus on other gains such as increased strength, endurance, heart rate, measurements - hell anything that's moving in a desired direction.