Any advice welcome.

It sounds like you were on the right track. What's bothering you? Perhaps counting calories isn't the way you ought to lose weight. Incorporating more exercise or just changing your eating habits all together might help. Drink more water, cut out pop completely.

Try not to eat processed foods. Shop the perimeter of the grocery store. Trust me, sometimes counting calories can make you angry and sad, to the point of you over-eating because you're thinking: "I'm already over my limit, it doesn't matter how much MORE I eat." But that's the truth. That's how I used to feel about it.

I think you just haven't seen or felt a significant difference yet, but I guarantee that when you do, you will go even further with your efforts to lose weight. In the meantime, little changes will help your body get to where you want it to be. Take it from me. I used to be 204 pounds, and I am now 162 or so. It wasn't until I got to my lower 180s that I started feeling more confident and took the extra steps to really get even more serious about my weightloss. I still have 25 more lbs to go, and even though I feel that I have plateaued, I am changing up my workout routine and completely altering my diet.

Most of the people on this website have been where you are. Don't get discouraged. I don't know what your personal situation is like, but I can tell you that the greatest thing you can do is work on yourself; your appearance, your attitude, and your view on how you feel about yourself.

Best of luck to you, honey. I hope my message helps lift your spirits a little bit. Add me as a friend if you would like to talk, need advice, or have any questions. I would be more than happy to try to help you through whatever it is that you need help with.

XOXO!!! Don't give up!

Maybe you could try ground turkey in place of hamburger. My family didn't even notice a difference when I made chili, tacos, etc with it. By the time I told them, they were hooked and now we don't eat hamburger, unless we go out. Hope this will help! GOOD LUCK - You CAN do this!!

Hi! congrats on all that wt loss! Its tough getting back to calorie counting! where do you think you get the extra calories from? I get mine from snacking - and my solution is to not buy the snacks. The only self control i have when it comes to chips and sweets is in the grocery store. I dont by the doritios and i dont buy the ice cream so that way when I'm at home i dont have the option. the foods i have are all low cal - fruits, veggies, low fat cheese sticks - that way i get a sweet or salty fix without over indulging. and this way you save yourself a few bucks - chips and ice cream arent cheap! and just google search "healthy food blogs" and you should find some helpful recipes! good luck with everything!

3.5 pounds is A LOT of weight to lose per week!! That's not terribly healthy. Try going a little slower. The slower you take it off, the harder it ist o put back on.

i know it can be discouraging, it happens to all of us at some point or another, we get frustrated, and we feel like it is hopeless. Even just this week I had a moment of doubt in myself, and wondered if maybe I was someone who just was made to be overweight. But I reminded of myself of what i was trying to accomplish, why I wanted to accomplish them, and thought about what I have already done! Then, after that I always turn to my MFP family for inspiration, advice, and support. We all have it in ourselves to achieve these goals, we just have to stay focused, and that is probably the hardest part.

I will give you some advice on what is working for me right now in terms of diet. I figured out what my daily current daily calorie burn was without doing a single thing, then determined how many pounds I wanted to drop per week, and then subtracted that from my weekly caloric intake. So if a pound equals 3,500 calories and I want to drop 2lbs per week ... I need to drop my calories by 7,000 per week. Lets say I currently consume 21,000 calories a week ... I now need to only consume 14,000 or 2,000 per day. But what is important to do so you don't plateau is to vary the calories EACH day, and never go under 1,200 calories. When you have 1,400 calories per day, everyday, you body begins to adjust itself and gets to knowing what it will be fed and what can be burned and what needs to be stored. However, if one day I eat 1,400 and another 2,000, and another 1700, and then 1400..so on and so forth ..the body never is tricked ... and as long as at the end of the week you didn't go over you the 21,000 ..you should see weight loss.

Exercise is also important and can feed into you weekly goal of needing to drop by 7000 a week. I personally do not eat back my calories and bank them ... but I have found for some people they have to eat their calories back.

I hope this wasn't too confusing. best of luck! keep at it.

I will chime in on the exercise side.... Find something that you like to do (or two or three different things) and set time aside to do them at least 5 times a week. Start out for 20minutes and over a few months build up to a hour or so. Biking, jogging, walking, swimming, it doesn't matter. What matters is that it is something that you enjoy so that you will look forward to doing it most days and will make time to exercise rather than reasons not to.

My ticker shows that I have lost 13lbs but that is just since joining MFP a month ago... I have lost 40+ lbs and managed to keep most of it off for 10 years now... For me the secret is that I love riding a bike through the woods.. enough to do so on 35 degree days or 100 degree days... As a result I can eat 500 more calories a day and still meet my goals... It makes it seem like I am not so much on a diet and just being a little more careful of what I am eating. It also really helps to keep the pounds off over the long haul.

This is not to say I don't agree with the nutrition advice others have contributed... All are good ways to get off the see-saw and on to a more sustainable path..

Best of luck to you and have fun!