Extremely disappointed in myself

Well, I moved back home in May so I could lose weight.

I started off kinda on a slow start with my diet and exercise routine, but I didn't know nearly as much as I do now. I weighed myself at a local gym and I was 387. That was in July.

Since then I have kicked up my exercise routine a big notch, started eating healthier, and getting regular sleep.

I weighed myself yesterday.

I weighed 390 according to the scale.

I was furious, and I don't get it. I have went from a 4x shirt to a 3x. 50 size pants to 46. I'm on the 3rd week of couch to 5k and can endure it easily.

I will admit, i would cheat every other day. Nothing extreme, but something that wasn't in my diet and it usually didn't go over my calorie goal. I realized one night I was eating like 500 extra calories and didn't even realize it.

Would this really cripple my weight loss like that? Just 500 calories extra at night?

I don't know what I need help with, but I just really needed to tell someone, or something, because it's pissing me off more and more. Any suggestions and help is extremely welcome.

Why would you cheat? It's pointless & doesn't help your goal.

500 calories a night, over a week, is a pound in a week. Every other night figure 2 weeks for a pound.

You may also be gaining muscle. Muscle weighs way more than fat, so if you're shrinking, but the number on the scale isn't, that could be a factor.
The 500 calories that you don't particularly need isn't helping you either. Instead of say, chips, have celery. Or instead of ice cream, have an apple. It's little things that make the difference, and FAT content is more influential than CALORIC content.

If you're loosing sizes something good is happening. But, it also be a difference in scales, or depending on what exercises you're doing an increase in muscle. Keep doing what you're doing, but be careful with the cheating! If you are losing in sizes eventually the weight will come too.

Its the muscle weight, you can tell from your pants and shirt sizes going down that you are losing inches. Muscle takes less space but weighs more or the same as fat. Just keep up the work, and pay attention to the nutrition combined with cardio you will get to your goals.

your doing really well keep at it

Life is not perfect, and one imperfect day should not make you give up. If you find yourself eating more one day, then enjoy it and work out a bit harder the next day. One thing I do a lot now, before I eat anything, is wonder how long it will take me to work it off on a treadmill or elliptical... A bagel with cream cheese looks a lot less appetizing when you realize it'll take you 40 minutes to burn it off...

At the end of the day, it's about calories, so make sure you are honest with yourself and track _everything_ you consume. Taking responsibility for your calorie intake is the first step on your way to losing weight.

Stop lying to him...muscle does NOT weigh more than fat, a pound is a pound. And don't beat yourself up, if you are losing inches then somethings working!

Stop lying to him...muscle does NOT weigh more than fat, a pound is a pound. And don't beat yourself up, if you are losing inches then somethings working!

I litre of fat weighs less than one litre of muscle.... FACT So if he put on 15lbs of muscle and lost 12lbs of fat, he would in fact be smaller than before but weigh more...

If your clothes fit better, lay off the scale for a while and see what happens. Keep doing what your doing and you will be very surprised with the results, and very pleased the next time you do the scale. I had to do that for a while, Just relied on my clothes fitting better, next time I stepped on the scale at the Dr.'s office, 15 lbs were gone!! (too bad breaking my knee put them right back on) but im starting over, tomorrow is a new day. My advice~~

Stop lying to him...muscle does NOT weigh more than fat, a pound is a pound. And don't beat yourself up, if you are losing inches then somethings working!

I litre of fat weighs less than one litre of muscle.... FACT So if he put on 15lbs of muscle and lost 12lbs of fat, he would in fact be smaller than before but weigh more...

Not to be too trollish but I really don't understand your logic. It doesn't really matter whether you're talking about fat, muscle, granite or steel, 15 lbs is always going to weigh more than 12 lbs.

your doing really well keep at it

There's support, and then there is meaningless praise. This falls into the second category. If the OP started in May and has, over six months, gained three pounds, that isn't really well and he should not keep doing things the same.

OP: You may be sick of peoples advice, and that's okay, but I still want to try. It's great that you are making an effort to lose weight and start living a healthier lifestyle, and believe me, I and most of the people using MFP know how hard it can be. I know you can do it. The best advice I ever saw, about weight loss or most of life's problems, is that when things aren't working you need to stop, take a deep breath, and reevaluate. I looked back through your food diary for the past few weeks and what I see is that you aren't very consistent about logging. I would start there - get in the habit of logging every bite that goes in your mouth consistently. Don't worry the food being perfect. A lot of people will tell you that your protein has to be a certain level, or that you need to limit your carbs and sugar to succeed, and sure, eventually, that's true. But right now, and for at least the next 100 pounds, you just need to stay at/under your calorie goal. As for that, rerun your MFP goal. Is 1500 what the site gave you? It seems pretty low. Rerun it and be honest about your activity level (you live with your parents and aren't working, so I'm guessing that not counting workouts, you are sedentary or lightly active). If you are eating enough calories a day, you don't need to cheat, right? I also would not eat back exercise calories, again for at least 100 pounds or so. Just concentrate on that one easy to remember number, and as you start to succeed, you can work on finding the protein/fat/carb balance that works for you and look at your sodium, fiber and sugar levels to make sure they are within the ranges recommended for health. You're exercising already, so that's great. Keep it up!
I'm a big advocate of drinking water. If feel like it's helped me a lot. You'll see varying opinions, so take that for what it's worth. You need to get a scale at home. I know it's hard, because you need one with extra capacity, but it's important to weigh yourself weekly. There is no way you can figure out what's not working when you only have one July weight and one November weight to go on. Ditto on a food scale. It's important to be accurate, because your mind will play tricks on you and we, as humans but especially as fat humans, are notoriously poor judges of serving sizes. Walmart has a 440 capacity scale for $29 on their website and they also offer a variety of food scales under $20. These are small investments that will pay off in the long run.
Last, you have to look at the things that are standing in your way and make changes. It sounds like you need to find a job, any job, to get moving so you have something to do each day besides eat, meet people, and give yourself some freedom to make choices about your food. Until you can find a job, consider volunteering.

Good luck!

your doing really well keep at it

There's support, and then there is meaningless praise. This falls into the second category. If the OP started in May and has, over six months, gained three pounds, that isn't really well and he should not keep doing things the same.

Wrong. The scale is not the end all be all of weight loss.

You apparently missed the part where the OP said he went down a shirt size and from a size 50 pants to a 46...that's a pretty big improvement!