Best advice for first week

Zipp237
Zipp237 Posts: 255 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
What is your best advice on how to get through the first week of a diet? Or the first day?

Replies

  • mlinci
    mlinci Posts: 402 Member
    Plan what you are going to eat. Have the right kinds of foods at home. Chose a realistic, sustainable and healthy calorie goal.

    Start when you are mentally ready to start - I have been painfully aware I need to lose weight for ages, but somehow a week ago I knew I was ready to start.

    Increase your knowledge of healthy eating, healthy meal sizes etc.

    Celebrate small victories. Be patient.

    I've just completed my fist week, and so far have stuck to my goals exactly :)
  • Kalikel
    Kalikel Posts: 9,603 Member
    Have a plan. Follow it.

    The first week, you're the hungriest and it's all new (whatever you've chosen to do differently) and hard. When you have those "I want cheeseburgers and donuts!" (and/or whatever else), wipe that thought from your mind and replace it with, "I want too be thin and healthy!"

    Just don't quit.

    Focus on successes, not on all the ways to fail.

    It's the hardest of all the weeks, in my opinion. So, remember that it will get easier, too. :)
  • malibu927
    malibu927 Posts: 17,562 Member
    Log, log, log
  • yesimpson
    yesimpson Posts: 1,372 Member
    Change one thing at a time.
    Log honestly and use a food scale.
    Don't expect the weight to be off in a matter of days. It takes time.
  • rankinsect
    rankinsect Posts: 2,238 Member
    Agree on plan in advance - don't go into mealtime without knowing what you're having!

    Don't be too ambitious - it's better to stick to a slower weight loss than fail at a rapid one.

    Don't make too drastic of changes all at once - a diet is not the best time to suddenly become vegan, or throw out every food you liked. If you want to make other dietary changes, do one first and then the other (at least 3 weeks later).

    You probably will feel pretty crummy on the first couple of days. Day 3 for me is when it really feels brutal - lots of hunger, little energy, etc. This passes, and you will feel a lot better if you stick to it. Don't expect that's what you have to deal with every day, because it's not.

    Understand that you will sometimes fail to meet your goals for the day, and don't allow that to mentally derail you. Get back into the swing of things the next day, and don't punish yourself.

    Above all, keep in mind that the diet is just practice for the maintenance. You are doing this to build habits to be successful at keeping the weight off.
  • Virkati
    Virkati Posts: 679 Member
    yesimpson wrote: »
    Change one thing at a time.
    Log honestly and use a food scale.
    Don't expect the weight to be off in a matter of days. It takes time.

    ^^^This.
    Also learning how to be your own best friend. Do not allow the negative, berating, shaming voice in your head to have any time or space in your life. Shut it down the second it starts.
  • lorrpb
    lorrpb Posts: 11,464 Member
    Log everything. Don't set any expectations about weight loss or appearance. Welcome the journey and enjoy seeing what happens. Decide whether you are doing a short term diet or making permanent changes to your habits that you can sustain long term. Good luck.
  • youdontknowwhatyousaw
    youdontknowwhatyousaw Posts: 221 Member
    Love yourself as you are right now.
  • cityruss
    cityruss Posts: 2,493 Member
    Create a calorie deficit.

    Repeat.
  • Liftng4Lis
    Liftng4Lis Posts: 15,151 Member
    Get a food scale and prelog your days.
  • Ninkyou
    Ninkyou Posts: 6,666 Member
    Liftng4Lis wrote: »
    Get a food scale and prelog your days.

    This.

    Also, don't cut out the foods you love. Work them into your day. It's about moderation, not deprivation.

    Make sure you have a moderate calorie goal (as in, not overly aggressive) that is sustainable.
  • middlehaitch
    middlehaitch Posts: 8,487 Member
    Buy a scale.

    Weigh and log what you eat now.
    This will show you how many calories you are eating now, and you can look at where and what foods can change.
    It is a great reference as you work toward your goal.

    If the calorie difference between what you are eating now, and what your goal on MFP will be a large one?
    If it is, lower to your MFP goal gradually over a few weeks. This will make the adjustment less stressful. Log it all.

    Don't worry about what you are eating, just eat to your goal, you can start adjusting what you eat further down the road. There are no bad foods, some are just more nutritious than others.

    Don't worry about exercise yet. If you want to incorporate it, add it once you are comfortable logging.

    MFP's data base over estimates calorie burn so eat back 50-75%. Enough to keep your deficit at your loss goal.

    You don't have to exercise to lose weight, but a bit of cardio and resistance work will improve your health, and your body composition.

    Cheers, h.
  • daniwilford
    daniwilford Posts: 1,030 Member
    yesimpson wrote: »
    Change one thing at a time.
    Log honestly and use a food scale.
    Don't expect the weight to be off in a matter of days. It takes time.

    If you honestly log everything. You have a successful week, no matter what food is on the scale, no matter how much it weighs and most importantly no matter how much you weigh. Even if you gain weight this week but you logged accurately you had a successful week.
  • cannedgoo
    cannedgoo Posts: 72 Member
    Being in the right mindset to start is the biggest. Now that you've got that confidence boost to begin your week, enter everything you eat. Plan your meals and figure out how you can eat the foods you love and still stick to your goal. Power through and be persistent. Everything takes time, but once you've got a habit you're less likely to count the days and more likely to see long term successes
  • RodaRose
    RodaRose Posts: 9,562 Member
    Take a lot of pictures and measurements so you can see your progress.
  • vespiquenn
    vespiquenn Posts: 1,455 Member
    Chances are, your first week is going to be fueled by an unwavering motivation of something new in addition to a "swoosh" of loss in water weight. It's after this that people stop losing motivation because the scale doesn't move as quickly as the first week or the honeymoon phase of weightloss is gone.

    Throughout your first week and the few following it, remind yourself that this isn't necessarily for the weightloss. It's for the health. So as those bad cravings come up, you have an idea why you're reaching for less or not at all in regards to food.

    Most of all, patience. The first month overall is the most difficult in my opinion, so just stick to it, and it will become second nature.
  • dramaqueen45
    dramaqueen45 Posts: 1,009 Member
    First and foremost- get rid of the word "diet". This is a new way of eating and the only thing that will eventually change is how many calories you eat after you have reached your goal.

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