Diets & Weight Maintenance Support Group

Hi. Everybody who is trying to lose weight has had the experience you are describing - where they think they are doing everything right, and they don't show a loss. Try not to get discouraged. Keep doing what you are doing. Keep an eye on the number of calories you are consuming and how big your portions of food are. Just "eating healthy" may not get the weight off. You also have to make sure you are consuming fewer calories. Keep in mind that there are reasons besides weight loss -- like the state of your overall health -- to eat properly. Be proud of the changes you have made and pat yourself on the back. Change is not easy and sometimes comes slowly. Just keep at it.

I know you must be discouraged by not seeing the change on the scale. That's frustrating.

Please keep doing the good work! Sometimes during exercise programs you gain a little more muscle which can weigh more than body fat, so you don't always see the change on the scale right away. The awesome thing about the increase in muscle is that it will also increase your metabolism to help you burn more calories throughout the day. You will see the changes on the scale.
Keep the intensity up in your workouts!

You can do it, so can I!

Every scale is a bit different, so if you weigh yourself on different scales, that difference could hide a weight loss.

Remember that if you regularly exercise you will gain muscle. Make sure you are measuring yourself too, not just looking at the scales. I lost 1 cm off both my thighs, but the scale stood absolutely still. Keep up the good work, and remember this isn't just about losing weight, it is also about getting healthy!

I know how you feel! Keep tryng! Everything stated here is good to remember.

i am still trying my arse off, i still have days where i over eat and it drives me nuts. i cant just stop when i feel full my brain tells me to keep going and going until i am so freaken full i can barely move. i am trying to eat small but i am hungry 24/7 and that is making me crazy, hence why i do this. why is this happening to me? how can i make changes when my mind wont allow me too?

Have you talked to a doctor? A doctor and a nutritionist can really help you devise a program that will work.

I look for "free foods" that I can eat when I am nervous. Raw veggies work for me, as long as I don't salt them, or use them to dip into sour cream based products!

Hunger is your bodies way of telling you, you are running low on immediate fuel. It is a feeling you should learn to appreciate, you should be hungry before each meal. You should start to feel it about an hour before (at least). If you are truly physically hungry All the Time, you need to eat more. If your body thinks you are starving or if you don't eat for 8 hours, your metabolism will actually drop by about 40%, you will get hungry, you will get grumpy, you will burn less fat and you will be so much more likely to binge.
You should also eat something small before and after your exercise, to make sure you keep your energy levels up. Doesn't have to be big a banana and a glass of milk are perfect.
Also keep in mind, the food habits you have had in the past have months/years of learned behavior behind them, the binging, the over eating, the emotional connections we have with hunger and feeling full. Don't expect they will just go away, you need to work as much on your mental state around food as you do the food you eat. Really put time aside to learn from your mistakes, Every binge, Every overeating episode, comes from you, not from a weakness, but a overwhelming strength to satisfy something inside you. You need to find out why you react the way you do, and what need (emotional or otherwise) it fills. Then you need to replay that moment, the emotions, the fears, the loss of control. What in that instant of 'Oh yes' that we all have, did the food relieve? Before the guilt takes over. Then you need to replay it in your mind with how you would have liked to have handled the moment. The ideal outcome, that presumably didn't lead to a binge. If you don't adress the mental reasons why you seek comfort or relief in food. Once life gets hard, and the diet gets broken, all the weight will come back. It does get easier, but dont expect that hard work that you plan on doing in the short term will undo what took your whole life to create. Dont expect a loss every week, but be consistent, and your determination and effort will pay off. It is the sum of your actions that count. So be strong and Never give up.