Hello! I just joined 3 Fat Chicks on a diet. I've been looking at the website for a few weeks now, it is very motivational! I wasn't sure if I should join because I wouldn't consider myself very overweight, although I could definitely lose a few pounds. I finally decided to. Lately, my weight has really begun to get to me even though I'm not seriously overweight, all my friends at school are pretty thin and they eat terribly! I hate it, I've always been a health nut, I've always worked out (much more than they have) and I'm still the same size
it's really starting to frustrate me! Maybe I am just eating too many calories and have been trying to eat between 1200 and 1400 every day (I eat more but subtract calories expended from exercise).
I miss just being confident, it's the best feeling in the world, and I really want it back!
Any advice would be great!

Hi! Welcome!! I'm not 100% sure whats not working for you..but maybe you are eating too many calories. I eat 1400 a day and I exercise but I don't subtract what I burned and eat extra. If you just eat 1400 and burn the extra calories the weight will probably start to come off...I hope I made some sense! Good luck!

Hi & welcome!

You might want to consider starting a thread in the Support Forum here with a list of what you eat on a typical day, and how much you're exercising (and what kind of exercise it is). Then we'd have a better idea of how to possibly help. You might not be eating enough, you might be able to fit in better foods, etc. There are lots of reasons why the scale may not be reflecting your efforts. I wouldn't worry about comparing yourself to your friends - I know it can be frustrating, but everyone is different. Eating poorly may not always cause people to gain weight, but their insides will be much less happy than yours! I ate McDonald's as a huge part of my diet for a span of several months one year and it was the smallest I'd ever been, but WOW, I felt awful a lot of the time. Also, if you're still in school, how old are you? People's eating habits often catch up to them when they get a little older, so your friends may not be able to continue their poor choices forever and remain the same size.
Anyway - welcome, and good luck

I'm not sure where the support forum is..I'll just post my daily stuff here.
Usually for exercise it's running 30-60 min, or going to the gym and doing some spinning on the bikes for 40 min to an hour.
Breakfast:
usually bowl of cereal or oatmeal

Lunch:
usually salad with beans and other veggies and some sunflower seeds
fat free milk and a piece of fruit

dinner:
usually varies but something with meat and veggies and probably some whole grains.

snacks are fruits, granola bars, or something like chips and salsa.

I really don't think I eat poorly, so I'm not sure what the problem is, it's very irritating. I'm 19 years old. maybe it's just how I am and how my body wants to be, my mother always has the same problems, she's pretty small but always has some extra weight to lose. but I refuse to believe that I can't lose the weight, I don't want that to be an option.
I am in college and I'm taking a lot of exercise science and health classes (my major is physical therapy) and I always hear that really restricting calories will not make you lose weight..if I eat around 1400 calories or so an then run for an hour, my body is only running off of 800 calories for the whole day and I'm pretty sure that's not good for you.
Maybe I just need to be watching what I eat much closer, I know the process of weight loss is slow and long but I never see results and I'm always exercising.
ah!

Seeing as how you're not very big and you do lead a healthy lifestyle, you're probably only going to need to make some very small tweaky type changes.

Have you looked into weight lifting or lower carb or increased protein?

Well first of all welcome and it's great that you are taking control of things so early, you might not think it but you are still pretty small. The good part of that is that you are much closer to goal! The bad part of that is that you have to fight a lot harder for each pound than a lot of folks on here who have higher starting weights.

A couple of thoughts based on your previous post (take all of it with a grain of salt, you will get different opinions).

1. Agree with not comparing yourselves to others, its a very individual process and harder for some than others. Think about college, I'm sure you know some people (maybe you are one) that can barely study and easily pull off B's or higher. Then others can kill themselves studying and struggle to get C's/B's. People are just different, and we have to work with what we are given.

2. The concept of "eating back" exercise calories gets discussed on here a lot. I would suggest that you are half right and half wrong. *Most* people I've seen on here do not successfully lose weight when eating back their calories (i.e. my goal for the day is 1400 + 800 exercise = 2200 cals). I just haven't seen it work much. But you are also right that you have to tweak your calorie target based on how much exercise you do. For ladies your size who work out I might suggest that you look more to a target of 1500-1800 calories ignoring exercise and continue to exercise on top of that. Drop a little lower on days you don't exercise.

3. You should strongly consider adding some reasonable weight training to your exercise regime. A lot of ladies swear by it, and if you feel stuck this is a great thing to get unstuck. You are also likely somewhat overestimating your calorie burn in an hour which can effect things. If you overestimate by 200 (which you might well be doing) that is 1400 or ~half a pound a week.

4. I would suggest eating more protein than you describe in your previous post.

Overall you are doing some good things, keep it up!

Thank you so much for the advice. Maybe I will try the 1500-1800 calories with exercise on top. Ive started lifting small weights (just 3 pounders) just to get a little strength training in. I usually do longer sets so I hope it is working. I think everyone is right about how reaching the goal gets more difficult the closer you get to it. One thing that is really frustrating is that I gave up deserty things for Lent. I haven't had a cookie, brownie, cake, chocolate, anything since Lent started and I was hoping to see maybe some results by cutting those things out. So maybe it isn't what I eat that is really the problem. I have definitely been trying to get more protein in. My mom swears by the low carb diet, but whenever I try it I'm on it for two weeks and see absolutely nothing. I'm thinking more weight training might be the easier way to go. I also just bought a pair of Reebok Easytones, so Im hoping to get my lets in better shape too.
I really, really admire everyone who is a part of this website. I love reading their stories and seeing their pictures. It just makes me so happy that someone can accomplish something. It is really motivational, and I think something like these support forums is exactly what I need to stay on track.
Thank you everyone for the advice, it is MUCH appreciated. I'll keep you posted!

Don't discount low carbs just yet. I ditched it several times but this time ... I'm really liking it.