[happychick06]

I am new to this and also new to even talking about my weight struggles. Most of my friends are skinny so they don't understand. If you've ever been shopping with someone who wears a size 2 than you'll understand.

I am a workaholic from morning til night and never have time for steady exercise. i walk once or twice a week and have started using weight equipment in the morning before I go to work. I eat very little so why can't I lose any weight? I am allergic to fruit so I can't follow most diets exactly. I need motivation but mostly I need a kick start. I think if I saw any results I wouldn't get frustrated but this has been for 6 years now and Nothing. I am 34 and weigh 190 at 5'5".

Any ideas, advice, help? Please?

[Glory87]

Allergic to all fruit? Weird!

You say you eat very little, have you kept an accurate and detailed food journal on something like Fitday to really see what you're eating? Two possibilities:

1. A lot of people under estimate or don't have a good understanding of portion sizes. Lots of little things can add up.
2. You truly are eating too little which can also be detrimental for weight loss (sounds counter intuitive, I know). Figuring out I had to convince my body it wasn't starving so I could lose weight successfully was a huge paradigm shift for me with dramatically successful results. I went from 20 years of yo yo dieting and failure to successful weight loss and maintenance.

Keep a food journal for 2 weeks. Record what you eat, when you eat and why you eat (hungry, bored, sad, stressed). Find a decent calorie calculator online to get an estimate of how many calories a person of your height/weight/gender/age/activity level needs to maintain and then make small adjustments. For example, if you need 2200 calories to maintain, try to eat 1700 calories a day. That would be a 500 calorie a day deficit. Do that for 7 days and that's a deficit of 3500 calories - enough to lose 1 lb.

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/cal...ulator/NU00598 (this is just an estimate)

I'm a busy person too. I just had to make time to grocery shop, pack lunches and exercise. The time commitment is worth it.

[Heather]

Well, you just have to start. Glory's advice is excellent.

As for exercise, like the food, it adds up. As you work on finding ways to get sustained exercise in, just find other ways to move. Park further from the store, take that trip up the stairs instead of yelling up, visit a coworker's desk rather than calling/emailing...

Sometimes the thought of making large changes at once is overwhelming. I've had to do this with baby steps, and it helped.

[LLV]

I didn't think I ate much either. Until I started keeping track of everything I put into my mouth. I was shocked at how many calories I was eating, more than my body needed to burn. Right now I only need about 1200-1300 calories a day. I was eating waaaaaaay more than that before and I didn't even realize it.

Many of us here are not on diets. We simply made permanent changes that we can live with for life. You gotta watch that calorie intake because, like Glory said, it adds up quick. Humans are masters at underestimating everything.

[MariaOfColumbia]

You are about where I was 3 months ago, HappyChick. I got a calorie counter computer program and log every bite I eat every day, as well as everything that can remotely be called exercise. As long as I'm eating less than I'm burning, I continue to use those stored up calories. Sometimes I plateau and stick at the same weight for a week or so, but I keep to the plan and eventually it starts dropping again. It's a math thing... my body can slow down for a while trying to compensate, but eventually it has to start dropping again, if I'm burning more than I'm eating.

All it takes is Utter Determination and not let anything stop you or distract you from your eating goals.

[Ariannas]

I am exactly where you are right now! I was following a plan since January I lost 8 pounds and then it all stopped, I haven't lost anything in 2 months, it's very frustrating. All of the advice here is very good and very encouraging for me, I'm glad I read this post.

I started counting my calories in Fitday and I am amazed at how many calories I eat in a day. I have lost my focus however and can't seem to get back on track with any plan...I am trying to that focus back, that's the main reason I read this post.