Need help starting

nairod12

I need help starting on a new healthy lifestyle. Planning meals, prepping meals, planning exercising(no gym) I want to lose weight, but not deprive myself from foods I love. Im 20 years old about 5'3 and I've ate myself to 180 pounds. I basically just snack on junk a lot and buy a lot of fast food. I have lost weight before, I went down to about 150, size 6 pants....but honestly I did that buy not eating enough...barely eating nothing, this lasted about 6 months and I packed the weighr back on twice as much! So, any advice. Anyone want to help me get started!

Gladly appreciated

(I'm on my phone if the typing is off anywhere)

kikkipoo

I'm always happy to help. I do it for me and I do it for a gaggle of friends. Sending you an add

MikePXstream

Best thing to do is have a plan, track everything you eat, schdule time for yourself to exercise, and have support to keep you on track. I have helped myself to get on track and stay there, as well as many others. I will send you a friend request, and I can share some more tips with you.

Timon0201

i'm 5'3 and was 172/173 at my highest, so i've been there! since you've lost weight before, i'm sure you know the basics. Just start by having a calorie goal in place (MFP helps with that) and start some type of exercise plan, 4/5 days a week. jogging on the street is always free!

it helps to have a piece of paper with your weekly goal, and every day you eat within your calories and hit the exercise, you can mark it off. it's a great psychological tool to help keep on track.

best of luck!

taunto

hi nairod12 and welcome.

The most important advice I have for you is persistence. You will fall. While you should try your hardest not to, don't let it hold you down. You might binge one time, two time, a 1,000 times. In the beginning I had big problem of binging and while I still do sometimes, consistently logging my calories have taught me not to starve myself. The result is fewer binges. Just keep track of everything as religiously as possible. Be honest to yourself and allow time for it to work. This is a quick fix, we have all tried them and they don't work. You are in it for the long haul.

In the beginning you will feel hungry. I suggest most people who join in the beginning to allow only 1 lbs a week loss maximum. Then gradually move up. Try to avoid foods that are your weakness. We all have some. There is no shame in making substitutes for them or to plain avoid them and enjoy them as few times as possible.

Thats all the advice dump I can do right now, I wish you good luck.

PS. Do some hard workouts that makes you sweat. The reason for that is that our body releases chemicals that decreases our cravings. I don't remember the name of the chemical nor do I have any research for it, I just read it long time ago and found it to be true personally.

Patttience

I weighed about the same as you when i started but i'm a little taller. I also didn't use exercise to lose weight this year.

If you have a habit of eating stuff, you may find a cold turkey switch will work best if you are anything like me. Basically losing weight and keeping it off ultimately does require a radical change of eating habits, though you don't have to change everything all at once.

I personally find it easier to change it all at once but you can cope with not doing that, well that's fine.

Whatever you do, make some rules you can live with. For instance don't eat any treaty type things until you've even your daily requirement of vegetables and protein. You may find if you do that, you won't need to eat any junk.

to determine your calorie load, find a TDEE calculator and then reduce your calories only by as much as you need to to lose weight. Don't cut calories severely.

Personally my way of losing weight is to improve my diet by maximising whole foods and minimising processed and junk foods, avoid the things that trigger bad eating (for me its refined and added sugars and sweeteners), avoid getting hungry. Food logging is important but not calorie counting.

I had to learn a few things along the way this year - e.g. eat more protein and less carbs foods. I knew i vegies were key. Everyone must eat more fresh vegetables. they are bulking, nutritious and high in fibre. All these things help with weightloss.

Fat is not bad. Don't go low fat. better to cut carbs than go low fat even though fat has more calories than carbs. I won't explain now. You can learn all about that yourself.

stephinator92

I'm friending you!

SueInAz

My advice is babysteps. Most people who have realized that they need to shed extra pounds come here with a "complete lift makeover" mentality mostly, I think, because they aren't sure what they need to do. I can tell you that you do not need to spend 3 hours at the gym and starve yourself on "rabbit food" and cottage cheese to lose weight.

My beginning advice is usually to get MFP set with all of your goals and then start logging everything you're eating and drinking. Just that. Be sure to accurately weigh (preferable) or measure your food and overestimate calories rather than underestimating them when you enter them into MFP. Be honest with yourself about what you are eating. Don't worry about being under or over or anything else; just get into the habit of logging everything you put into your mouth including vitamins and gum because it all adds up. You need to spend some time learning about the calorie content of the foods you're eating because, trust me, some things will really surprise you. Weighing and measuring your foods will ensure an accurate calorie account but also acquaint you with what portion sizes for those foods look like. 4 ounces of chicken is a lot smaller than you'd think and 200 calories of peanut butter is, too.

After a few days to a week of logging everything, take a good look at what you've been eating and see where you can make some easy changes to reduce your intake to the calorie goal that MFP sets for you. The high calorie/low nutrition foods will be obvious and you'll get the most "bang for your buck" by cutting them out of your diet or at least reducing the frequency or portion sizes of them. That candy bar and Coca Cola snack at 2pm can be over 500 calories and by trading that for a Diet Coke, Crystal Light or a glass of water and an apple you'll save yourself about 3000 calories which is nearly a pound a week. Just a hypothetical situation, of course, but a good example.

Trust MFP and the goals it sets for you. Don't try to be too aggressive with that goal, either. The more you learn about how to eat in a way that you are not hungry but can still lose weight, the more likely you are to keep that weight off once you reach your goal.

kimekakes28

i'm 5'2 (on a good day) and at my heaviest, I weight 196. i'm currently stay between 140 -145. What helped me was logging in the food. Once I saw how much I was eating and how much of it was wasted calories, it kicked started me into eating better. I started out slow by cutting back on junk (sodas, candy, cookies, cake, snack foods) I found that I actually like fruits, veggies and water. With the exercising, walking it what got me going. I walked, do some strength training (push ups, squats, jumping jacks, lunges). It's a processes and my weight didn't "go away" over night. It took about ten months but I've maintained it for almost two years. So in short, you will be as successful in your healthy life style as you choose to be.

TuffChixRule

My personal trick to not eating as much is to drink about 16 ounces of water, which is about one water bottle, before eating a meal. It fills you up and you want to eat less. I've been doing that for about two weeks now and I've noticed that some days I don't even come close to my calorie allowance for the day, and I am not depriving myself nor am I starving.