I don't flippin get it!!

I would have to concur that you aren't eating enough. I checked your diary and you definitely need to eat more protein IMO. If you have already burned 648? calories on exercise and you only have 7 grams of protein. I would suggest try upping your protein intake for a bit and see if it helps you. Everyone's body is different so you really need to play with it and see what works best you. Also if you have been eating basically the same for a while now change it up some and see if that helps.

It may have a lot to do with what you are eating as well. Fast food is the worst. Try adding more fresh foods and less processed stuff. Make sure you are drinking your water as well.

After looking at your diary, I still say you aren't eating enough. Your body burns more calories throughout the day other than just your exercise. The only way MFP can account for those calories is through FitBit. BMR + exercise calories is still not enough.

Also, I would suggest that you replace tracking sugar with potassium. Sugar give your muscles the instant energy it needs to begin a workout, but it doesn't really interfere with weight loss, unless your body has trouble producing insulin. Potassium is an important electrolyte that helps to balance the sodium in your diet. Even if you maintain your sodium within your goal, if you are defecient in potassium, your body will retain water.

Very interesting fact about potassium. As someone who has learned to manage her high blood pressure without meds via sodium restriction, I'm very interested in researching this a little more. Thanks for the tip.

Your welcome! Here is a really great blog on the subject.

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/blog/UponThisRock/view/flushing-the-sodium-237431

I would say alot of it is with the type of food you have been eating. Looks like your eating out at least twice a day. Would try for more homemade meals and snacks. Try too up the veggies, fruits, and proteins. Lower your sodium and up your whole foods.
Just gving you my 2 cents. Feel free to add me if you want and we can help each other.

I took a quick glance at your diary and this is just my opinion so please take it with a grain of salt. Although your calaries are well controlled and staying under you daily goals, they're not the best calories for you. There is quite a bit of processed foods, fast food, high carb food, etc. I love to eat the same stuff, it's freakin delcious, but I'll try and kind of shock my system for two weeks (that's the goal but I usually only make it about a week and a half) by eating only clean ish, low carb foods. For example: Hard boiled eggs, spinach, steamed broccoli and cauliflower, salmon, hamburger (no bun, cheese, ketchup, etc), pork chops, greek yogurt (the taste sucks, but add some dry sugar free chocolate pudding mix to it), and sugar free jello is a great snack for me when i'm hungry, plus it's kind of sweet and only 10 calories!

Just my thoughts, good luck!:flowerforyou:

Took a quick peep at your diary and I don't think it's your calories. I think it's your diet.

First off- great job on staying committed to this process! You work out hard and you've obviously be watching what you're eating. Congrats on your success so far! Also, it takes a lot of courage to ask for help on these boards as people can be pretty critical. So hats off for that.

There are lots of methods to break a plateau- zig zag calories, change work out routines, etc. To me it looks like you should try tightening up your diet for 3 weeks and see if it makes a difference. A few suggestions:

-Try eating super clean. I don't think of this as a diet but more of a "healthy quota" Whenever I eat like this I ALWAYS see a weight loss. If you need to get to your caloric limit and you don't hit it within the below confines try adding more lean protein or veggies.
* 3-4 veggies (green leafy veggies or cruciferous ones like spinach, broccoli, cauliflower, asparagus, etc. NO STARCHES)
* 2 fruits (no more than that- and stay away from high sugar ones. try blueberries, strawberries, citruses, green apples,
cantaloupe. no bananas, peaches, grapes, or pears)
* 2 complex carbs
* 2-3 lean proteins (chicken, fish, turkey- no processed meats at all. no fatty fish)
*12-14 cups of water (and an additional 2 cups for every hour you workout)

Right now you're always staying below your calories but you're not necessarily eating clean. Try cutting out the following:
- Caffeine (lots of Starbucks on your diary. yummy but not necessarily good for the bod everyday)

- Dairy (try limiting yourself to just 1 serving of dairy a day)

- Processed meats (lunch meat, turkey sausage, etc. is full of sodium.)

-Fast food- I know you're staying under your cals but occasionally your sodium is too high relative to the amount of calories you have left to eat. Just because you're not in the red doesn't mean that your sodium is in check. Example: You have 800 calories left to eat and you have 500 mg of sodium left. Make sense?

- "Diet" foods- laughing cow cheese, frozen dinners, wheat thins, rice krispy treats, marshmallow fluff etc.- those small servings are OK in moderation but seems like you have about 2 servings of these foods a day. If you cut them out completely I'm sure you'll see a difference.

-Starches- I see lots of potatoes in your diet but not many green veggies.

Every body is different and some things that affect me may not affect you. But as a general rule of thumb- if you look at the people on these boards who have lost and maintained- they eat very clean. Tighten up your diet. Cut out the processed stuff. Eat more whole foods. You'll surely see a difference.

Stay focused. You can do it!:flowerforyou:

We have the exact same starting weight and goals and problems. I'm 5'3. My ACTUAL problem turned out to be my thyroid. I'm not saying it def is your problem, but it's worth getting it looked at...while they're at it have them check your vitamin D levels. Once I had my D checked I swear the pounds started melting off. Add me if you'd like, and good luck.

I swear it has taken me 2 years to lose what I have...from working out and NOTHING working to finding out it was my thyroid to getting the meds right, to now when I finally I'm gaining muscle and losing fat!

If you are asking for advice.. here goes. I chose a few dates and checked out your food diary. I'm not sure how you can be sure about everything you eat, because you are logging very little. My advice would be to LOG EVERYTHING. Be as accurate as possible; measure everything unless it's not necessary. I'll bet dollars to donuts you are eating much more than you think you are. It sounds like you have good motivation and are sticking to it. It would be a pity if something as simple as logging your food sabotages your efforts. Good luck! :flowerforyou:

swhitney2 : I have done many calculations on how much I should be eating and they ranged from 1500-1800. I tried that for awhile but found it really hard to hit. When I would try I would find unhealthy foods to just try to get up there so I lowered them back down to 1400. I will take your advice on the potassium. Sodium and sugar and hard for me but I try to stay with "healthy sodium and sugar".

All I can tell you is that I zigzagged, ate up, ate down... I did everything. Then I got my FitBit and discovered that on top of the 200 calories worth of walking for exercising that I was recording, I was missing out on the 800 calories of walking throughout the day that never even got recorded on MFP. My BMR is around 1800, but my TDEE is more like 3000. Sure I'm a pretty tall chick, but no matter how tall you are, MFP is not accurately accounting for TDEE, therefore anyone who follows their guidelines is not eating enough. I was stuck on a plateau for 3 months eating 1800 then 1500, the 2000, then back down to 1400. Guess at what caloric level I started losing again... 2500 calories!!