seriously complicated world of weight loss
londonboyben
Posts: 314 Member
ok, so i am new to weight loss and exercise etc, up until now i just got on with life and although i knew i was overweight i just accepted it,
but i recently decided to go for it and get myself looking as good as i can
so for the last 3 weeks i have been reading loads of stuff and watching fitness video's on youtube, and now reading posts on here and i have to say its really complicated and i feel like i stepped in a puddle but have fallen down a hidden hole!
TDEE, eating 2000+ calories, eat back what you burn off, good carbs vs bad carbs, BMR, water water water, good fats bad fats, 48 hour recovery, plateau's, eating something bad takes x amount of hours to burn off, minimal calorie deficits, starvation mode
diets that work for one person but not another,
i honestly expected it to be a lot simpler than what it is, as in eat as little as possible without starving yourself and cut out the junk food and sugary stuff,
i would not know where to start to get myself a weeks worth of variety in a food plan (being a fussy eater restricts a lot)
and i also find that making up 2000 calories a day is actually a lot more food than i thought,
seriously need to sit and spend a lot of time creating a weekly 2000 calorie a day food plan without having the same stuff over and over,
on the plus side lifting weights is actually easier than i expected, reps and sets works for me rather than what i assumed would be continuously smashing out as many reps per exercise as possible
just really overwhelmed with the nutrition and diets, so easy to put the weight on but ridiculously complicated to get it off
but i recently decided to go for it and get myself looking as good as i can
so for the last 3 weeks i have been reading loads of stuff and watching fitness video's on youtube, and now reading posts on here and i have to say its really complicated and i feel like i stepped in a puddle but have fallen down a hidden hole!
TDEE, eating 2000+ calories, eat back what you burn off, good carbs vs bad carbs, BMR, water water water, good fats bad fats, 48 hour recovery, plateau's, eating something bad takes x amount of hours to burn off, minimal calorie deficits, starvation mode
diets that work for one person but not another,
i honestly expected it to be a lot simpler than what it is, as in eat as little as possible without starving yourself and cut out the junk food and sugary stuff,
i would not know where to start to get myself a weeks worth of variety in a food plan (being a fussy eater restricts a lot)
and i also find that making up 2000 calories a day is actually a lot more food than i thought,
seriously need to sit and spend a lot of time creating a weekly 2000 calorie a day food plan without having the same stuff over and over,
on the plus side lifting weights is actually easier than i expected, reps and sets works for me rather than what i assumed would be continuously smashing out as many reps per exercise as possible
just really overwhelmed with the nutrition and diets, so easy to put the weight on but ridiculously complicated to get it off
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Replies
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hi there and first of all: most important thing is: You got it started and you did well for 3 weeks so far and have no intention to stop. imho: thats all you really gotta know!
I cling to the good old KISS-Formula
K - keep
I - it
S - simple (and)
S - stupid
In the beginning I really just wrote down in a little black book what I did eat every day and kept an eye on that it was just healthy and not too much. Cutting out sweets and fastfoot and not too many carbs... ususal stuff, when u wanna lose weight. On the other page I wrote down what exercises I did. That was it and I lost abot 10-12 kg with that strategy.
Then I got MFP and things got even more easy for me. Plus: I got a calorie goal to watch over.
And this is what I still do. Nothing more, nothing less. As long as I don't eat more calories than shown in my mfp I am happy! (I even don't get mad when my sugar or protein intake rises into red numbers, I will do that when I don't lose any more weight!)
This simple strategy made me lose more than 27 kg so far and I still going on.
So why change a running system by wasting too much time, thoughts efforts on it? I will take care about a problem, when it occurs. Until then I will enjoy my new life.
just my 2 cents... have a great sunday y'all :flowerforyou:0 -
Weightloss is so simple, that to make money, people had to over-complicate it.
When in fact, it's so simple that it can summed up in the following sentence...
Burn more than consume by eating a little less and being more active.
Done.0 -
Weightloss is so simple, that to make money, people had to over-complicate it.
When in fact, it's so simple that it can summed up in the following sentence...
Burn more than consume by eating a little less and being more active.
Done.
Stop it with all that common sense stuff, how the heck is Dr. Oz gonna keep making money? Seriously, this is spot on. I believe one of the reasons people give up is because they over complicate it. Pay attention to what you eat, get a little exercise. It works and I can prove it, look at my ticker.0 -
It's not complicated .......
You make the healthiest choices at each meal ..... purge the junk ..... drink some water ..... and move more each day ......
The weight will come off :happy:0 -
DP0
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I too find sorting through all the info on the web so confusing. This time last year I read the belly fat book and removed soda, white bread, rice, potato and pasta out and in 4 months I lost 40 pounds and have kept it off. The Holidays hit and I was able to maintain the weight and went and had bllod work done to see if I was having Thyroid issues and it turns out all my cholesteral numbers are very high and my doctor suggested the Medertrainin diet and strength training using the heaviest weight that allows me to do 8 sets of reps of all the different exercises per muscle and left it at that. So now I have to search web and you tube for a list of good strength training exercises for all the muscles for all the parts of the body.0
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A really easy way to begin it is to track everything exactly the way that you eat it now and see where you are at....then cut out a "bad" food group one by one while adding in activity. Then you cut out another food group and add in more activity definitely with weights until you are eating mostly healthy under your calories with TDEE -20%.
You will get there and one way does not work for everyone so just change it up and see what works best for you, but changing everything all at once is very hard so take it easy. Best of luck to you and it is not as hard as it seems.0 -
Honestly, it's really not that complicated. Take a week or 2 to find out how many calories you burn in a day - in other words, approximately how many calories you consume to neither gain nor lose weight in those 2 weeks. That's your TDEE. Subtract 20% from your TDEE. That's your new daily calorie goal. Exercise hard - EAT BACK your exercise calories. If you find it's REALLY not working over the course of 2 to 3 weeks, reevaluate your TDEE. Don't expect quick weight loss. Quick weight loss is not good for the body.0
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I don't even bother with all that...TDEE, BMR, macros, micros, whatever. Who has time to wade through all that? I log everything I eat so I know what my calorie intake is, I don't restrict myself ( nor do I eat a half a cake or a bag of candy, for example), the site keeps track of my calories ( set at 1700), and the exercise, mostly gardening and farm work. I do some lifting, beginner level, and a fair amount of elliptical cardio. That's it, and I'm losing weight and feeling good.0
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I am the simpleton. I will tell you that almost every diet out there will work if you follow it exactly. Commit to it and don't cheat. That is the hard part. Many of them will not teach you how to maintain once you lose the weight. That's the other hard part.
Now I will tell you what is working for me; may or may not work for you...
I don't count every calorie. I used some calculators to figure out about what I burn a day, subtracted about a third and then broke that down into chunks for the times I will eat most days. There will likely be some people following up on my post saying my numbers are too low and I need to worry about percent this or that. Anyway, I cut out daytime snacks. I don't always eat breakfast and when I do, I usually limit it to 200 calories. A piece of fruit and a boiled egg maybe, but usually I just have the fruit or a protein shake or nothing. For lunch, I am usually around 300. Salad with a pouch of wild caught salmon and hot sauce maybe; sometimes a shake (I use whey powder so I can make them different amounts easily). Dinner is whatever we are having at home and this ranges widely but is usually 400 - 800. I may have a piece of fruit later or some almonds. Under 300 after dinner. That makes my worst days about 1600 and days when I skip breakfast and dinner is light 900 (this will trigger the screaming replies). I run at least 3 times a week, between 3 and 6 miles mostly with an occasional longer one because I want to do a half marathon in Nov. If you decide to run, look into C25K.
I think that is fairly simple. I know it has been working; I am down almost 50# in a little under 6 months. There is a caveat - this is not my long term solution. I will have to learn to eat healthy, make good choices and stay in shape once I get to my goal. I tried the "learn to eat right first and let your weight slowly adjust" method and it just doesn't work for me. I was at my target weight for decades, so I have something to base my hope that I can adjust on.0 -
Weightloss is so simple, that to make money, people had to over-complicate it.
When in fact, it's so simple that it can summed up in the following sentence...
Burn more than consume by eating a little less and being more active.
Done.
^ This.
It gets complicated when people try and make it something different. Everyone wants it to happen overnight as if somehow simply committing to the process is enough to see the change within a few weeks. Imagine weight loss as simply a weight normalization process... small steps that bring you slowly and gently into a more healthy body.0 -
Tough love:
If' you're saying it's complicated, then chances are you aren't ready to do it. Honestly, it sounds like you don't want to.
A.C.E. Certified Personal/Group FitnessTrainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition0 -
thanks all
was just really amazed at all the different out of scope stuff that seems to be flying about,
calories in vs calories out seems to be the core of it all which obviously in itself is pretty simple, but as a beginner i guess i was just soaking up too much info and thinking all the other stuff was required so as not to slow down progress or hold it back,
not expecting miracles and in 2 weeks be where i want to be, but do expect steady progress for my efforts,
and i definitely am ready to do it, apart from one blip of a night out at the weekend i have been committed to working out with weights for 30-40 mins every other day, have cut out all junk food for the last 3 weeks, and have not passed my calorie limit since i been checking (although have come under by quite a lot)
was just shocked at the depth of it all0 -
Tough love:
If' you're saying it's complicated, then chances are you aren't ready to do it. Honestly, it sounds like you don't want to.
A.C.E. Certified Personal/Group FitnessTrainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
Disagreed. It's complicated. And I've been doing it for 5 months and lost 40 lbs. So I don't think I'm not 'ready for it'.
I always thought that the key was eating healthy and exercising... but it's just not. If you eat really healthy, you probably won't eat enough, so your metabolism will slow down... etc etc.
It's anything but simple. If it was easy, people wouldn't screw up their metabolism, put on all the weight back etc..0 -
Check out this fun but spot on link
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/635529-corn-used-my-man-parts-as-a-speedbag?hl=speedbag+man+parts0 -
thanks for the links both, really good
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Bolded part does not make logical sense. Eating healthy includes eating enough. If you aren't eating enough, by definition you are not eating healthy.
Disagreed. It's complicated. And I've been doing it for 5 months and lost 40 lbs. So I don't think I'm not 'ready for it'.
I always thought that the key was eating healthy and exercising... but it's just not. If you eat really healthy, you probably won't eat enough, so your metabolism will slow down... etc etc.
It's anything but simple. If it was easy, people wouldn't screw up their metabolism, put on all the weight back etc..0 -
Another tidbit...
As counter-intuitive as this sounds, I think people complicate it by trying to make it easy. It is not easy to do; it takes a lot of effort.It is hard. Agree to do this hard thing, get past that and then decide if you want to try to learn all about the complicated world of weight loss or just make some simple adjustments and do the hard work to improve things.0 -
I should have said healthy foods then. Like lean meat, lots of veggies and fruit... all of which have not enough calories to even reach 1200 if your diet consists of them.0
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You need to rethink your definition of "healthy." Olive oil is healthy. Butter is healthy. Full-fat dairy is healthy. Nuts are healthy. Avocados are healthy. Grains are healthy, unless you have a sensitivity to them. A healthy diet can also include treats once nutrient requirements are met. There's a whole world of food beyond veggies, fruit, and lean meats.I should have said healthy foods then. Like lean meat, lots of veggies and fruit... all of which have not enough calories to even reach 1200 if your diet consists of them.0 -
Honestly, it's really not that complicated. Take a week or 2 to find out how many calories you burn in a day - in other words, approximately how many calories you consume to neither gain nor lose weight in those 2 weeks. That's your TDEE. Subtract 20% from your TDEE. That's your new daily calorie goal. Exercise hard - EAT BACK your exercise calories. If you find it's REALLY not working over the course of 2 to 3 weeks, reevaluate your TDEE. Don't expect quick weight loss. Quick weight loss is not good for the body.
^^^^^^^This is so right on!0 -
Weightloss is so simple, that to make money, people had to over-complicate it.
When in fact, it's so simple that it can summed up in the following sentence...
Burn more than consume by eating a little less and being more active.
Done.
Well, a lot of people say: eat less, move more
But then you get the issue of people eating far too little.
So: eat more, move... morer. :bigsmile:
Edit: hrmph. I was trying to sound idiotic but apparently, "morer" is slang for more than more. So I just sound like I'm down with all the cool kids. :grumble:0 -
You need to rethink your definition of "healthy." Olive oil is healthy. Butter is healthy. Full-fat dairy is healthy. Nuts are healthy. Avocados are healthy. Grains are healthy, unless you have a sensitivity to them. A healthy diet can also include treats once nutrient requirements are met. There's a whole world of food beyond veggies, fruit, and lean meats.I should have said healthy foods then. Like lean meat, lots of veggies and fruit... all of which have not enough calories to even reach 1200 if your diet consists of them.
You're wasting your time on me. I know that... now. I didn't for a long time. And you still find a LOT of people here and everywhere who are convinced that healthy eating means salads, veggies, lean meats, and that's about it.0 -
It's not complicated. It really all just boils down to eating about 500 calories less than what you burn in a day to lose about a pound a week.Tough love:
If' you're saying it's complicated, then chances are you aren't ready to do it. Honestly, it sounds like you don't want to.
A.C.E. Certified Personal/Group FitnessTrainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
Disagreed. It's complicated. And I've been doing it for 5 months and lost 40 lbs. So I don't think I'm not 'ready for it'.
I always thought that the key was eating healthy and exercising... but it's just not. If you eat really healthy, you probably won't eat enough, so your metabolism will slow down... etc etc.
It's anything but simple. If it was easy, people wouldn't screw up their metabolism, put on all the weight back etc..
People go on these ventures of "super clean eating", "super exercise regimens" etc. to lose weight, when really all it boils down to it calorie deficit.
A.C.E. Certified Personal/Group FitnessTrainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition0 -
You need to rethink your definition of "healthy." Olive oil is healthy. Butter is healthy. Full-fat dairy is healthy. Nuts are healthy. Avocados are healthy. Grains are healthy, unless you have a sensitivity to them. A healthy diet can also include treats once nutrient requirements are met. There's a whole world of food beyond veggies, fruit, and lean meats.I should have said healthy foods then. Like lean meat, lots of veggies and fruit... all of which have not enough calories to even reach 1200 if your diet consists of them.
I do eat all the above and lose weight.0 -
It's not complicated. It really all just boils down to eating about 500 calories less than what you burn in a day to lose about a pound a week.
People go on these ventures of "super clean eating", "super exercise regimens" etc. to lose weight, when really all it boils down to it calorie deficit.
It really is that simple, assuming you're not eating foods you are unknowingly allergic to. Eat the foods you enjoy and have access to, try to acquire micronutrients through 1-2 servings of fruits and veggies a day, get enough fiber to make 2 or more BMs a day (srs).
Admittedly, some people (myself included) do better counting macros instead of calories to reach their goals. If I ate my supposed "maintenance" cals (@ 2800), I actually would be gaining weight slowly. The macros I've calculated for myself have me maintaining between 2400-2500. Not to throw more confusion into the mix, but there is no better calculator for your body than experience/trial/error.0 -
Honestly, it's really not that complicated. Take a week or 2 to find out how many calories you burn in a day - in other words, approximately how many calories you consume to neither gain nor lose weight in those 2 weeks. That's your TDEE. Subtract 20% from your TDEE. That's your new daily calorie goal. Exercise hard - EAT BACK your exercise calories. If you find it's REALLY not working over the course of 2 to 3 weeks, reevaluate your TDEE. Don't expect quick weight loss. Quick weight loss is not good for the body.
TDEE *includes* exercise.
MFP forums complicate and inform. This is the only place where BMR, TDEE, NEAT are tossed around. MFP is the only site I've heard of these things and most of the time, the definitions aren't clear enough for stupid people such as myself to understand. Now that I've gotten things straight in my head, I do TDEE - % and watch myself on my Fitbit.0 -
Eat and drink less calories than your body needs and you will lose weight. It is only as complicated as you want to make it.0
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Problem is it's not that easy to figure out how many calories your body needs!0
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