I am sorry:( I feel like this though and not sure about you but life right now is so stressful and a million things going on and at times I feel forever-fat! It does take a lot of effort and sometimes if one thing isn't working we must try another....I hope you wont give up...I haven't but admit I am right there with you!

I can really relate to your frustration. I'm having a hard time of it too. If only there were just some way to reset our brains so we would eat only when hungry. But food is such a pleasure! Taste, texture, and I'm even coming to realize I like having my mouth full (I know THAT sounds weird). Anyway, I just keep coming back to square one and starting over.
I've given up many times over the years and even tried to tell myself it just wasn't that big a deal, but it really is for me. I'm not happy with the way I look or how winded I get just walking up a flight of stairs! And every time I came back to that fact after giving up, I'd ended up allowing 20+ more pounds to pile on.
If you can, cut yourself some slack. This weight loss thing is HARD. If it weren't we'd all be slender and healthy. If you really don't like being fat, please don't give up.

I have been stuck for years but I refuse to give up. I don't keep telling people that I am on a diet.. but I know it inside. I know I am not very good at this, but I could maintain my weight and I am proud of that. I might still weight the same in the coming next 10 years but I am *not* giving up on myself because the fact that I don't give up gives me hope and makes me feel a bit more confident about myself.

So I say don't give up. You might not be able to lose the weight this month or this year. But hey, even if you can lose it the next year or in 3 years, would you be happy about it? I know it's hard to wait and to hold on but we must. There is no other way.
At least that's how I feel.

Hi Musicchickie:
You are so young and sometimes we think just take the easy way out. Nothing worthwhile in life is easy, so please don't give up. Maybe just take another approach. Try eating healthier foods, smaller portions and more excercise throughout the day.
Please post your updates because this weight thing is important and worth trying to change. Lets all be healthier, so we can feel better. It is worth it.....

Please don't give up. I know weight loss is super hard and I have days I want to throw in the towel also. But Ive found that if I keep myself totally focused on the weight loss journey it really helps. Throughout the day, I am on this site, reading, replying and posting. Im on a website logging my food constantly. Im counting my glasses of water. I read about others who have succeeded, books and small articles. I watch success stories on youtube daily. My whole life is about weight loss. Im in a small group of accountability buddies and we talk each day. On the diets and maintenance site they have one on one support buddies assigned each month. I think the lady that runs the weekly weigh in over there runs the buddy program also, so talk to her if you want a buddy. Its summer time now, think how great it will be to start school in September 30+ pounds thinner!! You CAN do this, you just have to commit to it, really really commit. Keep an eye on the finish line, you will get there! Good luck in your weight loss journey.

Did anybody read the on-line news article today on Papa Joe Aviance? He spoke of the "light bulb moment." This is the instant that you decide you've had enough and you're willing to do whatever it takes to change. The article is very interesting. It tells how he went on what he calls the 99-Cent Diet and lost 250 lbs. He bought his foods from the 99-Cent store. If you interested, the article will be very encouraging.

Thanks, Flowers, that was a good article! (just type his name in and it should pop right up, its on yahoo)

You're welcome jen. I'm thinking of visiting the dollar store. Smile.

Instead of pushing yourself towards a goal and berating yourself when you don't manage it, maybe look at it a different way. Step back a little. If you had a child, would you treat them that way? Forcing them to do things, making them unhappy and then shouting at them and telling them they are a failure? Or how about if a friend came to you with the same problem, what would you tell them? Would you say they were an awful person, a failure, fat and ugly and nobody would ever like them? I doubt that.

So why not do the same with yourself you would with a child or a friend? Treat yourself gently, be encouraging. If you are 2lb over your "goal weight", or ate a few biscuits one day, so what? As long as you are trying to maintain a healthy lifestyle, exercising when you can and more or less keeping on track with a healthy diet, does it really matter? To my mind the most important thing is to find a lifestyle which is reasonably healthy (whatever that means to you), and can be maintained. To me that is better than going on some faddy diet and then regaining the weight when you come off it. Earth shattering as it might appear in this day and age, being fat is not a crime, nor is it the end of the world. It certainly does not mean you are a failure.

Thank you guys for your support. I actually have some motivation today. It is 11:50 AM, and today I jogged a half of a mile, did 20 jumping jacks, 20 sit ups, and had a bottle of water, with a bowl of Special K cereal for breakfast. I feel motivated today.And Flowers, I read that article, and that is really inspiring. I will have to see if my mom can take me to the dollar store for some of my shopping. (Or when I get a job lol).

I feel for you, musicchickie, we all know it isn't easy, and we are here to give you some moral support.

Sometimes all we can do is to have the courage to last through another day or week. I like the weekly weigh ins here. It helps to know where you're at with specific goals to reach and charting the progress toward them.

I am part of a program through my health insurance to lose weight, but there they require a doctor's recommendation to participate, a definite BMI measurement showing obesity, and certain rules to follow, like: Try to consume at least 1400 calories daily. Anything less than that should be done with careful medical supervision.

I was skinny until I was age 34 and became pregnant for the first time. After that, it was harder to track "fat weight" but I had a layer of extra fat across my abdomen after my third child was born when I was 38.5 years old. I was particularly trying to "eat healthy" during that pregnancy.

I knew not to diet while pregnant, but I was also given a booklet that suggested avoiding certain things like artificial colors that were in the boxes of macaroni and cheese that I would eat, and nitrites that were in lunchmeats. I avoided these things, but didn't replace them with other, more natural, good foods. I just got more and more tired and would collapse on the couch instead of eating a good lunch.

My due date was just after the New Year, and during the holidays I craved eggnog which I guzzled freely. It should have been obvious that I was reacting to not having fed myself properly for the pregnancy.

After my baby was born, both my husband and I were very sick. He was diagnosed with Mono and I was told I had borderline high cholesterol. I was asked to go on a low-fat diet.

I should have just been glad to not have eggnog available anymore and eat more like a normal person, but I didn't. I went overboard. I didn't even add Mayo to my sandwiches, and let the lettuce provide the juiciness for the dry bread. I just lost more energy and vitality.

That was the start of a long, ongoing struggle with losing 5 lbs only to regain 10 lbs. until my weight climbed from 132 lbs when I was very skinny to 200 lbs or more by age 60.

Enough of the saga for now. I gotta go.

I hate to just talk about myself on a comment to your post, but if you can learn from my mistakes, I suppose it would be worth it.

Somewhere along the way, I began to suspect that my weight gain, and several other symptoms, could be caused by the thyroid. My doctor was unhappy to be told to check something that he had not seen evidence for checking but he did it anyway and found me to be "in the normal range."

At age 52 there was evidence that I had Lupus, so he started checking my TSH every year until he retired, before I turned 60. The TSH was always in the normal range at that time.

In 2008, the year I turned 60, I had gained 5 lbs over the holidays and immediately lost it again after resuming my normal diet. Then for Mother's Day my son gave me 2 books by Dana Thornock--her Lean and Free 2000 Plus diet book and a cookbook that went along with it.

I really didn't use the cookbook, but in the main book she gave 2 choices of eating plans depending on how well you liked to track things that you eat. I wanted the simple approach, which was to eat 6 times a day, counting off on your fingers 5 things to eat.

1- water, at each meal and each snack.
2- veggies, at each meal except breakfast and each snack
3- whole grains, at each meal
4- protein, at each meal
5- fruits, and other sweet or fatty treats if still hungry.

Basically, it said to eat things in that order as much as possible and to gauge the amounts by asking ourselves the question, "Am I pleasantly satisfied?"

The only things to avoid were alcohol, caffeine, trans fats, and artificial sweeteners, and of course, illegal drugs or misusing legal ones.

I tried it, and in the two months or so afterward, I lost about 8 more pounds making a total weight loss for the year to date about 12 pounds.

Then I had my annual exam with the OB/gyn. She checked my TSH, scheduled me for mammograms and, because I was 60, insisted that I have my second colonoscopy, which I was supposed to have every 10 years after age 50.

My TSH was practically zero, meaning hyperthyroid to most doctors, and I hadn't found a new PCP since my old doctor retired.

I had the colonoscopy, but after the ordeal of the cleansing process, I found it very hard, if not impossible to resume my eating plan. The gastro-enterologist also warned me that "No one loses weight in America," implying that any weight loss for any reason was likely due to a disease. I regained the 12 pounds I lost.

I found a PCP who tested both the TSH and free T4. My TSH was still nearly zero but my FT4 showed me to be barely above the range for that thyroid hormone, so he said I didn't need medication at that time.

Sorry. I need to cut my story back... It just gets worse, though.

And so the hyperthyroid condition got worse. I was sent to an endocrinologist who treated what was Graves' Disease, or autoimmune hyperthyroidism. I gained weight fast and experienced other horrible symptoms on the medication.

After a year, I couldn't handle it any longer and stopped the anti-thyroid drug. I cancelled my next endo appointment. Then I spent a pleasant summer being somewhat hyperthyroid. Finally, I was pressured into going back to an endocrinologist, so I made an appointment with a different one for a "second opinion".

Endo #2 told me that Endo #1 had let me get hypothyroid, even though the first one had only told me that I was "in the normal range." He promised he would keep me in the upper part of normal, starting me out on the ATD slowly so I wouldn't gain weight.

He did start me out slowly but increased my dose when I asked him not to, because he didn't think I was getting into the normal range fast enough. I did gain weight, but slowly enough that he didn't seem to notice, and when he did, he just said I should eat less.

When I suddenly became hypothyroid under his treatment, he was quick enough to call me and tell me to reduce my dose of ATD, but was still keeping me on the hypo side of normal.

What I'm saying, is: It is almost impossible to lose weight and keep it off if your thyroid is not functioning in the optimum range, and not just in "the normal range."

Unfortunately, severe dieting can affect the most active form of the thyroid hormones--Free T3 such that you don't have enough to function well, or even avoid depression. But FT3 comes in such small amounts in the normal human body that it can not be measured directly and accurately in the blood tests.

The Endocrinologists, who should understand the thyroid best, often seem unsympathetic and unhelpful toward those with possibly low thyroid function and only care if you might be hyper, and worry excessively over that situation, imo.

So, if I could go back and do things over. I would be very careful not to diet excessively. I would try very hard to eat according to the plan I mentioned earlier, which I call "the five finger plan".

Go for health first, and weight loss second.

And, really, musicchickie, I hope you can find a way to healthy weight loss. Let us know how it goes, ok?

Sweetie there is a support group on here just for teens and maybe some of those people will give you some great advise also. Don't leave us and don't give up stay with it you are young and someday it will click. But check out the teen site to.