I need help.

Motivation is fleeting. If you focus on building some good habits, they can see you through the rough spots.

#1 good habit is a food diary. Calculate a modest calorie deficit and try to hit your number. Get and use a food scale. Crunch the numbers and log everything into your food diary no matter what. Over your number? Put it in the diary. Wildly over? Keep your diary.

Give yourself time to adjust to the calorie counting learning curve. Plan each week and each day. Try to anticipate problems. Stress? When I have plan, execute and track in place, it’s a refuge from stress. With a plan I’m not just running around looking for something to eat.

Congrats on the loss. But keep in mind that going forward you are headed into uncharted waters. It’s a new day, not just a re-creation of what you did before. Good luck.

I also have problems with stress eating and binge eating. I don't have a solution for you, everyone's solution is different anyway, but what helps me is to just repeat to myself that the eating will not help the stress. It won't fix the problem, if anything it adds to it. I don't think it's about motivation at all because when you're in that moment and all you can think about is smothering your feelings with food, whatever motivation you had earlier isn't going to register one bit.

Cereal is my go-to comfort/binge food. I don't keep it in the house. If I get the urge to go get some from the shop I try and say to myself "That will not help me" and find something else to do. Do some dishes. Have a bath. Find a book. Look up something on the internet. Browse a forum! If distraction doesn't work, well it doesn't work but you don't need to beat yourself up about it because that doesn't help either!

Under-eating doesn't help, guilt doesn't help, over-restricting yourself does not help. I agree with 88olds. Have a solid plan in place so you're eating at a sensible deficit, you know what you're having for dinner/ snacks, you've made room for and planned some treats for yourself, you're eating food that keeps you satisfied. That's so much less for you to stress about when life is already stressful enough.

Things that keep me focused:
- Weigh every day. It’s the first thing I do in the morning so making good diet/exercise choices is one of the first things on my mind in the morning. I also track my weight using HappyScale which gives me a moving average which helps me keep the daily fluctuations in perspective.
- Keep a journal Journaling is a really important part of my success. It’s an emotional release (so helps with emotional eating) and helps me reflect on the choices I made each day.
- Set small goals, focus on 1 month at a time I started with 75 lbs to lose. That’s a big number and overwhelming, it can feel impossible to achieve. But focusing on just losing 5 lbs in one month that’s not so hard, I can do that.
- Be active in the weight loss community Whether it’s here on MFP, SparkPeople, Instagram, Facebook, whatever it really helps to have a community of people who will cheer you on and commiserate with the hard parts of losing weight and who can answers questions you have
- Know it’s okay to have bad days or even a bad week No one is perfect 100% of the time. You are going to have days you go over your calorie goal, you’re going to have days you don’t even count calories, you are going to miss workouts. And all of that is okay! Never give up just because you had a bad day or even a bad week. And don’t punish yourself for it either - diet and exercise are not ways to punish your body, they are ways to make your body strong. So if you have a bad day(s) that’s fine just pick yourself up and keep going.