Hello! Quadriplegic looking for some advice on losing weight

doningerc7

My name is Craig. I'm 43 and have been in a wheelchair for 5 years. I have been working out for about a year but I cannot seem to lose weight. My exercise consists of strength training. I have a lot of difficulty doing cardio but I working hard to improve that. I need lose about 100 pounds. I'm looking for any advice I can get about diet.
Thanks

blankiefinder

Weight loss is primarily about calories.

Buy a food scale, weigh and log everything.

Exercise if you want, and if you do, only eat back 50% of your calories (if you are losing faster than expected after logging for a few weeks, then up the % you eat back). Lift weights and hit your protein goal to help maintain muscle mass while losing.

Cheat meals that take you over maintenance will sabotage your efforts. Log the cheat meals too (falls under the 'log everything' rule).

Eat anything you want in moderation, keeping in mind that your diet will be easier to stick with if you chose foods that make it easier to stay under your calories without feeling hungry.

Also it would be a good idea to read some of the best forum posts such as:
Calorie Counting 101
Logging Accuracy, Consistency, & You're Probably Eating More Than You Think

lynn_glenmont

I'm not sure that the MFP calculation for goal calories will work for you as a quadriplegic (i.e., it probably makes assumptions based on general population that don't apply). But you can use it (or some other calculator) to pick a "start" or "test" number for daily goal calories.

If you've been logging fairly accurately already, or if you're someone whose diet doesn't vary a lot anyway, and you have been maintaining the same weight for a while, I would use that as my starting point for maintenance calories rather than using a calculator, and then subtract 500 to 1000 calories (since you have 100 pounds to lose) to get a goal number.

Once you have a starting goal number, just log EVERYTHING you consume, using a scale for solid foods and measuring liquids by volume or weight, as you prefer, so that you can find out empirically what you are burning each day. Make sure you check the MFP database entries you're using -- either compare the data for that entry to the package label if you have or the USDA nutrient database (http://ndb.nal.usda.gov/ndb/foods) for fresh produce, meat, fish, generic dairy (i.e., it will work fine for something like whole or skim milk or plain yogurt, not so good for flavored yogurts that will vary from brand to brand. If you can't check the entries against package labels or the USDA database, look for entries that have lots of user confirmations or that don't have asterisks (that means they were created by MFP rather than by users).

Once you've got a few weeks of data on the calories you're consuming, estimates on exercise burns during that period (or ignore those, if your weekly exercise is pretty consistent, and just go for a TDEE [exercise-included calorie burn]), and any weight gain or loss during that period, you can calculate your daily calorie needs yourself.

Add up all the calories you consumed (that's the fuel you gave your body to work with); add 3500 calories for each pound you lost (that's the fuel your body took out of "storage" --fat, glycogen, muscles, etc.). That total is all the energy your body used during the time period you're looking at. (If you gained weight, you'll need to subtract 3500 calories for each pound gained, which represents fuel you fed your body that it didn't need, so it stored it.) If you want to account for your exercise burns separately from your daily activity burns (which might be better if your exercise varies a lot from week to week), you'll need to subtract total exercise calories expended during the "test period." Now divide the result by the number of days in the test period. The result is the average number of calories your body used during the test period (including calories from exercise if you didn't subtract the exercise calories before doing the division step).


I hope that makes sense. It's like trying to figure out the mileage your car is getting. When you buy it, it's nice to know what the government sticker on the window says you're supposed to get, but you won't know for sure unless you track miles driven and the gasoline you put in the tank.

Best of luck.

zoeysasha37

Hi craig! Welcome!
Weight loss is going to come down to calories. Calories in ~calories out. So as long as you eat at a deficit, you'll lose weight. Start off by getting a food scale so you can weigh everything you consume and then log those on here. That way you can be as accurate as possible.
I think your strength training is awesome and so important! Keep up the strength training for sure !!