Butler student who wants to lose weight

LePolynesien

Hi all,

I'm a 20 year old student at Butler University who wants to lose around 100 lbs, maybe up to 115. I keep trying to start losing weight but I don't know how to begin because I don't know which food to buy that I will continue eating. I keep falling off and I really want to be a normal weight.

My stats:
Height: 6'5"
CW: 297 lbs
GW: 195 lbs

I'm really happy that I found this group!

bradmcampb37

I'll start by saying I'm no expert. First place I think to start is good old thermodynamics. Find out how many calories you burn a day with the tools here...start small. Specify your goal is 0.5 lbs per week at first, then find out how to get to a pound per week based on the calorie deficit you would need. Track the calories you take in, and be as specific and honest as you can (without obsessing). Establish how close you are to the calorie goal per day. Track your extra calories burned from steps and exercise (this does not need to be three hours of effort, make this achievable in the long term). If you are a bit short, go for a walk in the evening.

My wife and I found that no eating after 8 PM was most helpful to us. Our habit we developed was wandering to the refrigerator while watching TV. Once we identified that by tracking our snacks....it was helpful. We needed at least three weeks of following this to the T (no exceptions for those three weeks) to develop new habits (pouring a glass of water, playing guitar instead of sitting in front of the TV...etc).

Other helpful things....fruits and vegetables are your friends and very filling (and low calorie in comparison to many things).

Find the low hanging fruit, I found I could easily cut 100 calories a day (700 calories per week!) by switching to black coffee.

I always equivocate what I eat to exercise....because it makes sense to me (it might not help you). ~3500 calories are stored in a pound of fat. I have to run a mile (and walk further...) to burn 120 calories. That ice cream of 4-500 calories isn't as important when I equate that in my mind with running a 5K race (almost).

Small forward steps....the journey of 1000 miles begins with the first one.

ness8484

Just by starting to track what I eat in a day made me realize how badly I was over eating and how I gained so much weight so quickly. After 4 weeks I'm down 8.8lbs. You can start with something simple as counting/tracking your calories and eating at a deficit. I also have a fitbit, which I changed my daily step count to start at 5,000 steps per day starting out, because I didn't want to do anything. A month later, I have more energy and up to 5500 steps per day, but I'm also VERY injury prone and taking baby steps is keeping me un-injured. This is NOT a sprint!