Please Look At mY Food Journal And Tell me Whats Wrong

You have to open your food diary for helpful suggestions...

Without looking at it all I can suggest is:

- Are you measuring all your food (kitchen scale, measuring cups, measuring spoons) Often we "think" a portion (or a cup, tbsp etc) are a certain size but when measured they aren't.

- Are you tracking your sodium? Drinking your water?

- How many calories are you eating? Too little and you can gain, too much and you can gain.

I can't see it.........

i made it public

It isn't showing up - did you maybe make it "friends only?"

I would start tracking your sodium. You eat a lot of processed foods which can make you retain water.

You don't eat a lot of fresh foods. Where's the veggies and fruits? You eat cookies and cheetos with breakfast, a can of tuna for lunch and sometimes broccoli for dinner. I would add more fresh foods and much less processed foods.

When you add in things into your tracker make sure you are measuring the foods, weighing them if needed and using the nutrional information on the packages you have.


Try making meal plans and making full meals with all food groups. Fruits, veggies, lean meats and grains.

what is your BMR?

From the looks of it you are eating wayyyyyyyy too much!

A goal of 2000 calories is perfectly reasonable for anyone who is larger or taller. Telling someone they are eating too much without knowing any information about them is irresponsible. If they take your advice and undereat, it will damage their metabolism and prevent weight loss.

OP: Please provide a little more information about yourself like your height, current weight, and goals. That will help us better advise you.

I would probably spread out the calories through the day. You're eating a gigantic breakfast and almost nothing later in the day. Try eating a balanced meal at all 3 meals including more fruits/veggies. Maybe limit the cheetos and other fun foods to one serving once or twice a week.

I only looked over the last week. However, I noticed that your daily calories are oddly spaced out (tend to have high calorie breakfast/lunch and very little dinner). I also noticed a lot of processed foods which tend to be calorie dense and nutritionally sparse. Didn't see much in the way of fresh veggies.

Are your entries estimates? I noticed on a couple days it looke like you may have duplicate entries (for instance you have 2 different sandwiches listed for the same meal, and on another you had a hot pocket and 2 diffferent "main dish" type entries).

In general, here is my advice.

Eat mostly food grown from plants (not processed in a plant). This means eating less processed foods and more whole, fresh foods. Think veggies, lean proteins (not in a can/carton, etc), some fruits, and whole grains. Try to cut back on "convenience" foods, as those are really only convenient for the food companies. They tend to be more expensive (versus cooking for yourself and are certainly not doing our waistlines any favors as they are rarely filling). I would also suggest limiting your "junk food" snacks. I notices quite a few cookie/chip type entries. As for dairy, keep it low fat and no sugar, greek yogurt with fresh fruit and/or a dollop of honey is a much better option than sweetened fruit flavored yogurts.

What is your water intake like? I didn't notice any entries but many of us don't bother to track it. It's very possible you are eting due to thirst. I like a slice of lime/lemon in my water, and even cucumber slices sometimes to change it up.

Don't get too discouraged. This is a process and a learning experience. It's taken years for most of us to learn the bad habits we are now trying to reverse. The weight didn't come on overnight, so it's only logical that it doesn't come off over night.

Best of luck!

Using MFP's BMR tool I got 1604, which (if sedentary) would give you a total daily caloric need of ~1925. Your goal is 1590, which should give you a daily deficit of 335, which is between .5 and 1 lb/week.

You've got a bunch of untracked days -- what happened there? Given that you tend to eat a fair amount of snacks (NOT JUDGING, just looking for the source of error) it would be easy to accidentally eat enough more than your goal to cancel out the days when you have been tracking and under.

I notice that you're logging and eating your exercise calories. Have you included exercise in your activity level? If you have, you shouldn't eat your exercise calories -- those calories are for above and beyond the daily activity. If you include exercise in your activity level AND enter/track your exercise separately, you're effectively counting the exercise twice. Choose one.

Everyone has been giving great advice on changing your eating habits. Great job on the 90 mins of exercise daily. That's tough. Especially w/ a full time job. But you can't out exercise a bad diet. Trust me, I've tried. :laugh:


You should change your diary to track sugar and sodium also. Once you change it to track those things that you are waaaayyy over every day.

The main things are the following:

1.) Eat less sugar
2.) Eat less salt/ sodium
3.) Eat more whole foods and limit your processed food.

I try to aim for 4-5 veggies, 2-3 fruits, 2-3 lean protein, and max 2 complex carbs.Focusing on hitting a healthy quota each day helps me feel like I'm not on a diet. Hope that helps. Good luck!

what is your BMR?

From the looks of it you are eating wayyyyyyyy too much!

A goal of 2000 calories is perfectly reasonable for anyone who is larger or taller. Telling someone they are eating too much without knowing any information about them is irresponsible. If they take your advice and undereat, it will damage their metabolism and prevent weight loss.

OP: Please provide a little more information about yourself like your height, current weight, and goals. That will help us better advise you.

2000 calories could also be a person's maintenance level and if she is doing that, she will lose nothing, only maintain.

Yeah, try to eliminate the processed foods. Try to eat more veggies, fruit, and lean proteins. I was similar to you in being stuck at the same weight, or around the same five pound window for months. When I made these changes, it jump started my weight loss again, thank goodness!