I feel so trapped. I have been "dieting" for years now, and i have been gaining weight, and its driving me crazy. I dont know what to do. I want so bad to loose all my extra fat, but nothing seems to work. I have tried all kinds of diets, and i stick to them, and i dont lose any weight, and i give up. These past couple of dayz have been give up dayz, btw. I want so badly to succeed.

If anybody has any astonding tricks or advice that would be great. If not, thanks for listening to me rant. Please pray for me.

Don't give up! All the tricks in the world won't help you unless you keep your spirits up and keep trying.

First of all, if you can honestly tell yourself that you've stuck to your diet and it's not working for you then I'd go to your doctor and get checked out, just to rule out any medical issues that could be keeping you from losing (thyroid, celiac's, etc.).

If those things are ok then I would focus on a mixture of diet AND exercise. Make sure you're getting enough food to fuel your workouts (a lot of people go really gung ho on their diet the first week and then get too hungry and burn out. It's better to start with a level that you can live with for the long term.)

You say you've tried a bunch of diets in the past... which ones have you tried? How about exercise? Are you trying to use them in combination? How long have you been doing them?

I promise you there's something out there that will work for you. Hang in there

Just saw your ticker and wanted to add that the less you have to lose, the longer it usually takes. I should know, I've been working on the same 20 lbs for 2 years now

Hi,

I think a lot of us here have been dieting most of our lives, and I for one attribute how high the weight got to dieting!

Everytime I failed at this diet or the other the pounds came back and brought some friend with them. It wasn't until I realized that the changes I made were going to have to be for the rest of my life that it finally clicked. I couldn't go on a "diet", change my habits for a while then expect to go back to what I was doing. This had to be forever, so whatever I was going to do had to be something I could stick with, slow, yes, but more healthy.

It applies if you have 20 or 200 pounds to lose. What ever you were doing before put the weight on. You can never go back to that and expect the weight to stay off. Take small steps but make them part of a permanent life plan. It doesn't have to be perfect but does have to be most of the time. One day will not blow a good eating plan, 3 days in a row or a week probably will.

Some of those little steps that I see a lot on here are increasing the water intake, eating more fresh veggies, switching to skim milk, cutting out the soda, having a meatless meal a couple times a week, making a calorie limit of 2000 or whatever a day, adding just 10 minutes of exercise a day, take the stairs instead of the elevator...those kinds of things, just one at a time until they become habit.

Greetings! Take heart! You'll see that there are plenty of folks who have been in the same boat.

I'm one who does not believe I'm overweight because I dieted. Both my parents were also overweight later in life, so I think I've got genetics to deal with. Also, when I did diet to lose weight, I went right back to my old habits of eating once I decided the diet was over. Well, guess what happened.

A weight loss program isn't something that most of us do for two weeks and then we're done. That will work for someone who wants to lose a few pounds, but I'm way beyond a few.

Also, maintenance is just a critical part! Once the weight is lost, there has to be a plan in place, or the weight will come back. That's why lots of us think of it as a lifestyle change rather than a "diet."

You might want to try tracking your foods and your activities using a computer program like FitDay. It takes care of most of the calorie counting for you. Once I started entering every single thing I ate, I found that I was eating more than I thought. And also, I hadn't been aware of just how many calories some foods contain!

Good luck! Stay willing!
Jay

You've received some really good advice here. I just wanted to add a hug.

I'll second the notion that it can't be a "diet" if you want it to last. It makes it too easy to abandon when it doesn't give you instant gratification. Eat well and exercise for all the benefits, not just the weight loss, and you'll slowly but surely get where you want to be.

I've been working out pretty hard and eating well for 4 weeks now and I haven't lost more than a pound or two. But I feel a huge difference in my legs - they're actually getting really muscular, my stamina has increased tenfold, and my waist is smaller by an inch or two. I can touch the floor when I bend over now, whereas before I had a good 4-5 inches between my fingertips and the ground. I'm celebrating all the little victories, building my fat-burning factory and continuing to move forward, realizing that my journey down this road is going to be slow. I'll get there eventually if I keep going. You will too.

As always, there is so much good advice and positive reinforcement here. My recommendations to you would be to take a step back and look at the big picture. Are you writing everything down? It can be a drag once in a while I know, but it really does work. A bite here and a bite there really add up, and unless you write it down, you never really think about it. Also previously mentioned is that this can't be a "diet", it has to be a lifestyle. That's not to say that you can never have that favorite food item again, just that you need to learn to have it in moderation. Stick with it, you can do this! As long as the scales are moving in consistantly downward trend, you're on the path to success!

This is so true. Start using fitday.com, and you will see what we mean. When I think about the things I used to eat, and the amounts of them, it really blows my mind! I know I must have consumed 3,000 calories a day before I changed everything. Now, I aim for 1500.

When I started this lifestyle change, I made up my mind that this was not a diet. It is a forever change. I would eat a modified versions of the same foods I have been eating all along, eat more lean skinless chicken, maybe a little less pork and beef, which are more fatty meats, and eat veggies or fruit with every meal, instead of a heaping mound of rice or potatoes. i used reduced fat butter and cheese. I drink only 2% milk instead of whole milk (I cannot handle 1% and skim, tastes like water to me), and I drastically cut down on the amounts of milk I drink each day (I used to drink 1/2 gallon of milk a day by myself. I never knew how much calories, fat and carbs were in one glass of milk - OMG) Also, I decided to allow myself treats now and then, maybe once a week. It actually helps keep me on track and makes me feel not deprived of the things I want. I look forward to my treats. I use them as a reward....

To me it sounds like you might need a break from dieting itself. Have you thought about nondieting or intuitive eating? Essentially, those approaches advocate that you simply eat whatever you want when you are hungry. Your body will learn how to regulate itself--and will settle at its "best" weight (which may not be as thin as you would like to be). I've been doing it for a couple of years and I really enjoy trusting myself to eat what I want when I want! At first I was afraid that I would only eat too much, eat "bad" foods, etc., but that has not happened. I haven't ended up really skinny or anything, but I am very happy with my body & my eating, which to me is a miralce as I was a compulsive eater/binger/purger/dieter for 20 years. One book I read that was very helpful is Overcoming Overeating. You can also do Google searches on these topics--and there is an intuitive eating thread on 3fatchicks.com.

Best wishes,
Mackinac19

I can't say enough good about FitDay.com .... because OMG... you think you can "eyeball" about how much you're eating.... trust me... You can't! - Enter EVERYTHING you eat into FitDay & you will soon know the meaning of how many calories you're consuming in that ONE little bitty 8oz glass of Orange Juice (110 calories!!!) vs. that ONE nice-sized Orange (65 calories!) I always thought I was eating around 1200-1300 calories per day, but after I started with FitDay & added it all up, INCLUDING what I drank, I discovered I was eating closer to 2200 calories per day! - and MOST of it carbs, even tho I was ON a "low-carb" diet!!!! Silly me!

And I completely maintain that *I* cannot seem to lose an ounce if I cannot exercise for whatever reason... but I know people who have lost 40-50-60 pounds by diet alone... but *I* have never been able to do that. Seems my body MUST have exercise to lose the weight... dunno why! But maybe you're that way too.

One thing I DO KNOW - not all people can lose weight on any one diet. That's why you have to KEEP TRYING... find the diet that is meant FOR YOU. I promise... it's out there, somewhere!