what if you dont...?

I would also never have the nerve to blame my children for my own food choices or lack thereof. Different strokes for different folks I guess. You don't have to like what I say, and I don't have to like what you say. Welcome to the real world. If being realistic makes me a biznatch, so be it.

Everyone offered great suggestions on how to add good foods to your eating plan without adding much bulk.

And yes, too bad I'm not Jillian... she's rich and has a great body and can scream in someone's face on national tv. I on the other hand, am forced to treat people on message boards like ants (more sarcasm).

I really do hope you figure it out and take some of these suggestions to heart.

Glad to help. Here's one idea. There's a delicious light chilled Spanish summer soup called gazpacho. If you don't know it there's a million recipes online and no correct one. You put tomatoes, cucumbers, green or red peppers and some onion in a blender and blend until - it's the texture you like it, smoother or chunker, then chill. On its own this would have very few calories but the Spanish recipe adds olive oil, and the point is you could add one tablespoon or half a cup, in fact it tastes better with more olive oil because it emulsifies with the other ingredients. You wouldn't notice the extra calories and it's a light summer meal with a piece of bread and some protein like a slice of ham or my preference, humous.

Hey there, don't let the comments get to you. It's confusing starting out at first and I can understand that you've got some stuff to catch up on.

If you need an example of 1300-1500 calorie intakes feel free to check out my diary which should be open. I try to plug in everything I eat in the raw form since most of the cooked recipes don't work for me (most of the recipes are for US brands and I don't live there). If it seems like I have tons of stuff in a meal it's because I've put in the ingredients and not the cooked meal. Hope this helps.

Also, before I forget, there's a website called skinnytaste that has good low calorie recipes. I've tried out some of them and they are awesome.

Haha makes me laugh when everyone gets stressed

End of the day if you are going to the gym and eating healthier in time weight will fall off. Im new to this site and theres sooooo many theories on here its UNBELIEVABLE. I have had over 300-400 calories left each day and im still losing weight yesterday after my workout i had nearly 2000 calories. EVERYONE is different and you are more than aware your eating habits were s-h-i-tty so you improve them and work out, your body will let you know if its unhappy with you.

People cant type their tone of their voice so maybe sometimes advice sounds very harsh when just written.

Read a lot of this and think the key is eat better, move more! I am sure you won't find it as much of a problem as I would eat the world, always a starver!! You probably know what to do, but try to eat little, often and well if you appetite is low, it will help you to keep your metabolism going.

RayRay Everyone's bodies are different. What has worked for me is to make sure I eat over 1200 cals per day--but ONLY in the food calories consumed category. I don't worry about eating back up to 1200 in the net calories. This is the best way for me to lose consistently. I read somewhere that for a good gradual weight loss just make sure you don't have a net caloric deficit greater then 500 cals per day. If that doesn't work for you try playing around with it. You should lose some even if you do eat back up to 1200 net, but see how your body responses.

I don't think people on here mean to be hurtful, but they can be sometimes. True of all forums everywhere I think. Sometimes as we get closer to our goals and it gets easier to maintain our diets we can lose perspective of what it was like starting out. When we begin a journey like this 8 out of 10 people IMO need encouragement toward there goals and not "Jillian" style tough love. That's for later, maybe the last 20lbs or so, when we get complacent and think about quitting before we reach our goals. Most people on the over weight side of things are really good at being hard on themselves...that's sometimes why we turned to food to begin with. Starting out is really hard and it's easy to give up, but you need to remember that YOU ARE WORTH THIS.

Not eating can really hurt your metabolism. Case in point, one of my best friends in the world has an issue with taking time for herself. Often she'll say things like "This is the first thing I've had to eat all day!" at dinner time. She wonders why she's not losing weight because she "never eats." She is obese and I worry that she's slowly killing herself. I love her to death and if I thought she would listen to me I would tell her that when I started trying to eat better it was really hard to make myself have breakfast (didn't feel hungry), but I started with a small snack when I got up, and eventually I worked up to a larger, but healthier, meal. I noticed that when I have a larger breakfast I end up not eating late (part of why I probably wasn't hungry!), so maybe breakfast really is one of the most important meals of the day!

My go to mid afternoon snack is a packet of trader joe's "Just a handful" no salt dry roasted almonds, 210 calories, but full of "good fats" fiber and protein. Could be just the boost you're looking for! I'd say "good luck" but luck has nothing to do with it! You got this thing, hang in there, it'll get easier over time.

Exercise aside, there is no way that you can be eating under 1000 cals a day and not lose weight unless you are already severely underweight or 4ft tall.

Either you aren't logging accurately, or you haven't been going at it long enough to have made a difference yet. I didn't have any weight loss for the first month or more. That is totally normal.