First time fatty! Need friends =]

I wish I could eat skittles for breakfast lol feel free to add me.

Welcome! I'm a newbie too and use MFP as motivation to keep at healthy living and to lose 8kgs. Nothing like having your diet shoved in your face in black and white to make you reach for a glass of water rather than that beer!

Well missy, I had a look at your diary and whilst I'm no expert, these are my thoughts if you need some advice.

You have to -- have to have to have to have to have to have to -- have breakfast every day. No ifs, no buts. It kickstarts your metabolism and gives you the energy for the day. And you need to have protein for breakfast. An egg and slice of multigrain/wholemeal bread, or yoghurt with nuts. Try to avoid cereals if possible because mostly they're full of sugar giving you a sugar rush and then 10am crash. Oats are a great breakfast cereal though with skim milk and a banana cut on top, just sprinkle some crushed almonds on top too (not too many though).

If you're going to have Subway, try to use a low fat dressing and if you have to have a creamy one, ranch is best I've heard. Not getting cheese will save you a tonne of calories and you really don't miss it because of all the flavours of the other ingredients. If you think you're going to be over calories for the day, pull the excess bread out of the bun so it's just a shell. Saves carbs and calories. YAY!

Keep the 'bad' food you eat to a day a week and call this your cheat day. Don't go overboard, I've heard of people eating their ENTIRE week's calories on their cheat day and then wondering why they're not losing weight. What's the point of that? It's pretty much a day where you can sample the things you love (not binge) so you don't feel like you're missing out. But you still need to eat some healthy food on this day and factor in the foods you're going to eat into your total week's calories.

Mac n Cheese is reeeeally really really not good for you in any shape or form. Avoid at all costs. As are crisps.

Try and have protein with every meal. It keeps your blood sugar level and also feeds muscle, fat hates it. If you have sugary stuff like fruit, have a few nuts (be careful though, nuts are really calorific. I had 15 almonds the other day or something and it was about 129 calories. Nearly died) like almonds or pistachios. Once again, the protein keeps your blood sugar levels from rollercoastering so you won't have the sugar crash/high.

Try not to just have days of eating just fruit. You need to fuel your body with protein, cereals and veges. Fruit is sugar and whilst it's not the same as cane sugar or refined sugar, you'll still get the sugar crash. The sugars also affect chemical reactions in your body. Michelle Bridges (the Australian Biggest Loser PT) has 2 books called Crunch Time and Losing the Last 5 Kgs. She talks about these chemical reactions, I learnt a tonne from reading them. Not sure if they're available in the US.

If you buy bread, try and get wholemeal or multigrain rather than white. You will REALLY notice the difference if you keep bread to an absolute minimum. Half a slice or a slice a day tops rather than 2 pieces. Eating REALLY clean (no pasta, bread, rice. Just fruits and veges, eggs and meat) makes my stomach SO flat within a day but as soon as I eat even a sniff of bread, my belly balloons.

Buy a tonne of healthy, non processed whole grain food, fruits and veges, (the Biggest Loser books generally have shopping lists in the back to take the guess work out), lean meats like turkey, chicken, beef and tuna/salmon, skim milks, canned tomatoes etc and spend a Saturday or Sunday cooking up big then measure the food into correctly weighed portions and freeze. That way you can never have an excuse for eating bad. Make sure the recipes ARE actually healthy, not pretend healthy.

My old PT's favourite saying is Cheese=Chubby. Limit it or if you neeeeed it, have low fat cheese.

Get yourself a kitchen scale and weigh EVERYthing. You'll be surprised at how you are over eating from underestimating serving sizes. Especially things like cheese. (WHY does full fat cheese have to be so calorific)

Other than that, you have days where you eat super well. On the days you don't eat well, keep tracking your food. Don't write the day off because it sometimes helps to work around a week's total rather than daily total calories. (I ALWAYS do that. I eat something bad then go F it, I'm eating crap all day. I log it and realise that if I'd just eaten the first thing and continued eating healthily, I would have been OK but noooo, I ate crap so ended up 220000938948927 calories over budget and then have to sit on a bike peddling my *kitten* off to work back some of the calories and feel guilty every day until I'm back to normal totals again).

Also, one last thing (which I always remind myself of), you could eat 1200 calories worth of Oreos or 1200 worth of ice cream and be under calories but it's not healthy or a balanced diet. There's no point being under calories if the food has no health value. Make sure you are eating healthily, not only for weight loss but to ensure you're getting fibre and staving off bowel cancer, vitamins and minerals for healthy skin etc.
There's a tonne of science in chemical reactions between foods and your hormones (anti diuretic hormone, insulin, glucagon etc) and how the body stores different foods and where in your body according to what type of food it is. For example, they say drinking tea with meals isn't great because there's compounds in the tea that bind with the iron in the food which makes it harder to digest. Sugar obviously interferes with insulin etc. There's a LOT to learn about nutrition. Makes me want to be a nutritionist!

Hope this helps and good luck. Add me as a friend if you want too, I only have 1

DIETS DON"T WORK!!! Use this opportunity to change your eating habits. You are young and have the opportunity to change and to save yourself a lot of (weight) grief in the future. Get yourself a food scale and a set of measuring cups and start using them! Please add me as a friend...:flowerforyou: