what are some good diet tips- what am I doing wrong

No matter how I try, it just seems that I am not dropping the lbs. What am I doing wrong? Am I eating too much? Am I not eating enough. I am 28 years old. I started cc on February 8th, 2008 and I have only lost 8 tiny lbs. I have my activity level set to light even though I work in a fast food restaurant, and I walk all day long. I do crunches and leg lifts for about 30 minutes a day. I am 5ft. 5 in. tall. The eat meter says that I only burn around 2500 calories daily, and that I can eat around 2150 calories. I usually try to eat around 1800-1900 calories daily. I am trying to understand. Do  I add my activity to the burn meter's total, or is it already calculated. Please help me to get the lbs. off. Thank you in advance....

how much do you weigh? and also 8lbs is pretty good!

well I started on feb 18 th  weighing 230 lbs. Now I currently weigh 221 lbs.

Wait, did you start Feb 8 or 28?

If the 8th, then in 7 weeks you have lost 8 pounds - over 1 lb/week loss.

If the 28th, then in only 4 weeks you have lost 8 pounds - almost 2 lb/week loss!

Both are great, but you shouldn't be losing any faster than that. If you started the 28th, and have been losing 2 lb/week, that means that you have about a 1000 deficit per day, and so you are probably either overcounting your calories (so really less than 1800) or underestimating your daily burn (burning more than 2500). What activity level are you set to?

Well actually I started on cc on Feb 18th. Now I must admit, sometimes I do overestimate my calorie intake just for the simple reason that I am not for certain of the calorie intake so I would rather overestimate than to underestimate. I never log in my activities because I don't know for certain if they are even enough to count or not. I only excercise for about one hour and I am not for sure if it is already calculated or not.

I have my activity set at moderate, I work 2 jobs, one full time as a card dealer, one part time in a Quizno's sub shop. I have 2 kids 8 and 6. I only log my exercise. My burn meter says I burn 2550 cal. without my exercise. I eat 1700-1750 cal. a day. I am very diligent at what goes in my mouth. I have lost 8 lbs. since I joined cc on 3-20-08.

I joined cc because I had lost 160 lbs. in 2 years and the last 30 has not been moving. I started tracking my calories and the weight has been dropping off. If you have a small amount of weight to loose you need to be aware of every morsal that goes in your mouth. For 2 years I just estimated what I was eating and it worked. But now I am so close to my goal that I need to watch every calorie.

Because I don't spend my day infront of the computer, I have a seperate food log I hand write what I eat, the calories are either on the package or I know them from cc. I am measuring everything too, I am not trusting my eye. Then the fallowing day I input them on my log at cc. I do quickly record any exercise that I do the same day on cc so I can see how many cals. I'll burn for the day.

Hope this helps! 

if you eat this amount i would say the weight loss is appropriate, totally

Original Post by amethystgirl:

Wait, did you start Feb 8 or 28?

If the 8th, then in 7 weeks you have lost 8 pounds - over 1 lb/week loss.

If the 28th, then in only 4 weeks you have lost 8 pounds - almost 2 lb/week loss!

Both are great, but you shouldn't be losing any faster than that.

 I could not agree more. Losing 1-2 pounds per week is the healthy way to lose weight. You are much less likely to experience the dreaded plateau, and you are not going to harm your metabolism. Congratulations, and keep up the good work!

Original Post by riecee:

No matter how I try, it just seems that I am not dropping the lbs. What am I doing wrong? Am I eating too much? Am I not eating enough. I am 28 years old. I started cc on February 8th, 2008 and I have only lost 8 tiny lbs. I have my activity level set to light even though I work in a fast food restaurant, and I walk all day long. I do crunches and leg lifts for about 30 minutes a day. I am 5ft. 5 in. tall. The eat meter says that I only burn around 2500 calories daily, and that I can eat around 2150 calories. I usually try to eat around 1800-1900 calories daily. I am trying to understand. Do  I add my activity to the burn meter's total, or is it already calculated. Please help me to get the lbs. off. Thank you in advance....

8 lbs. in one month is very good, that is 96 lbs in one year.  If you don't get out of the 'I want to be thin right now, Dammit!' mindset, you are setting yourself up for failure.  Lose that bad habit now, and revel in the fact that you had such a successful first month, you have set the bar high for yourself.  But don't become discouraged if you have an occasional gain.  Use the green line on your weight chart, it is more representative of your true weight.  You are better off eating the 2150 calories and using physical activity to increase the deficit.  The less you eat, the slower you burn, as your metabolism slows to conserve for the decreased energy input.  The more you eat and compensate with increased activity, the faster you burn, as you body leaves starvation mode and becomes less efficient.

I started February 1st and have lost 20 lbs. I added a lot more fruit and vegetables to my diet with a small piece of meat. I also eat jasmine or brown rice, but limit my serving size.  I spend about 35 minutes at the gym or going for a walk while my son is at baseball practice 3-4 times a week.  The first 3 weeks of keeping track I lost only 3 lbs total and then the following week had a big lost. I still only usually lose around 1-2 lbs. a week now. Just stick with it - You are making changes that in the long run are better for you and it does take time.