Just getting started

kpurcell627

I started a clean diet 30 days ago I lost about 5 lbs and for the last 2 weeks been trying to stick to a 1200 calorie a day diet I'm 5'4 weight 168 and don't exercise. Can anyone give me some tips or advice, I'm determined to get this weight off so any advice would help.. Please

ForeverSunshine09

As long as you stick to your cal goal you will lose. I started at 170 and now at 141. No need to do clean eating just eat less of what you already do and maybe a few more fruits and veggies.

vivmom2014

For weight loss, the calories matter. Not the diet.

Exercise is not needed for weight loss. It will earn you more calories, though, and does a body good.

jenathp

Exercise does matter for weight loss, here is why. Muscle burns more calories than fat. When you don't exercise and you cut calories your body does slow down your BMR by about 20% which means that you would need to eat even less calories to sustain a loss. (You will start to lose and then slow down) Exercising keeps your BMR up and you increase your muscle which burns more calories. Do you have a fitbit or apple watch? If not, invest in one. If you've never exercised then start with walking, it's easy, and low impact.

Ryan70286

1200 calories is really low try getting at least 1600 calories. And try to do some physical activities at least 150 mins every week. Every grain or morsels you put in your mouth log it and each week look back and review what you ate and see where you could improve. Just be patience you didn't put the weight on in 1 day or 1 week or 1 month it took months of not being self aware of what you were putting in your mouth.

strong_curves

Get a food scale, weigh/measure every thing you eat and drink.
Be consistent
Be patient
Have realistic expectations

kpurcell627

Thank you I am definitely going to start just wasn't sure where to begin

jenathp wrote: »

Exercise does matter for weight loss, here is why. Muscle burns more calories than fat. When you don't exercise and you cut calories your body does slow down your BMR by about 20% which means that you would need to eat even less calories to sustain a loss. (You will start to lose and then slow down) Exercising keeps your BMR up and you increase your muscle which burns more calories. Do you have a fitbit or apple watch? If not, invest in one. If you've never exercised then start with walking, it's easy, and low impact.

strong_curves

jenathp wrote: »

Exercise does matter for weight loss, here is why. Muscle burns more calories than fat. When you don't exercise and you cut calories your body does slow down your BMR by about 20% which means that you would need to eat even less calories to sustain a loss. (You will start to lose and then slow down) Exercising keeps your BMR up and you increase your muscle which burns more calories. Do you have a fitbit or apple watch? If not, invest in one. If you've never exercised then start with walking, it's easy, and low impact.

Lots of people have lost weight without exercising.

kpurcell627

I'm going to start walking also does anyone have a clean eating meal plan around 1200 to 1600 calories a day?

strong_curves

kpurcell627 wrote: »

I'm going to start walking also does anyone have a clean eating meal plan around 1200 to 1600 calories a day?

Walking is a good start. Not sure what you mean by "eating clean". You can eat whatever you want as long as you're in a deficit.

jenathp

strong_curves wrote: »

jenathp wrote: »

Exercise does matter for weight loss, here is why. Muscle burns more calories than fat. When you don't exercise and you cut calories your body does slow down your BMR by about 20% which means that you would need to eat even less calories to sustain a loss. (You will start to lose and then slow down) Exercising keeps your BMR up and you increase your muscle which burns more calories. Do you have a fitbit or apple watch? If not, invest in one. If you've never exercised then start with walking, it's easy, and low impact.

Lots of people have lost weight without exercising.

Yes - but it's HARDER to lose the weight without exercising. If she CAN she SHOULD because it will help. That's my point. I didn't say you can't lose weight ... I said your BMR drops by 20% when you go on calorie deficit and that exercise prevents that drop in BMR.

daniwilford

jenathp wrote: »

Muscle burns more calories than fat. When you don't exercise and you cut calories your body does slow down your BMR by about 20% which means that you would need to eat even less calories to sustain a loss. Exercising keeps your BMR up and you increase your muscle which burns more calories.

Do you have a source for that 20% decrease when not exercising? While maintaining muscle mass does burn more calories than maintaining fatty tissue, it is incredibly difficult to increase muscle mass while eating in a calorie deficit. I am all for exercise. I love it, strength training is especially helpful in maintaining lean body mass. However to lose weight you just need a calorie deficit. Strength training ,coupled with adequate protein intake, insures that a higher percentage of that weight loss will be fat loss.

OP I started out just doing a minimum amount of walking. Maybe 2000 additional steps a day and worked up. It helps to control my appetite and allows me to eat more and still lose. I wished I had started out with the strength training too. I do about 3 hours of strength training a week now. I can see more muscle definition underneath the fat I still have left to lose.

kpurcell627

Thank you !

kpurcell627

What I meant by eating clean is I stopped all processed foods, and no sugar, I'm trying to eat as close to natural foods as I can, veggies, fruit, nothing in a box lol. I was just wondering if anyone had any good meal plans for this type of eating

juggernaut1974

jenathp wrote: »

strong_curves wrote: »

jenathp wrote: »

Exercise does matter for weight loss, here is why. Muscle burns more calories than fat. When you don't exercise and you cut calories your body does slow down your BMR by about 20% which means that you would need to eat even less calories to sustain a loss. (You will start to lose and then slow down) Exercising keeps your BMR up and you increase your muscle which burns more calories. Do you have a fitbit or apple watch? If not, invest in one. If you've never exercised then start with walking, it's easy, and low impact.

Lots of people have lost weight without exercising.

Yes - but it's HARDER to lose the weight without exercising. If she CAN she SHOULD because it will help. That's my point. I didn't say you can't lose weight ... I said your BMR drops by 20% when you go on calorie deficit and that exercise prevents that drop in BMR.

I agree I'd love to see a source for that claim.

strong_curves

jenathp wrote: »

strong_curves wrote: »

jenathp wrote: »

Exercise does matter for weight loss, here is why. Muscle burns more calories than fat. When you don't exercise and you cut calories your body does slow down your BMR by about 20% which means that you would need to eat even less calories to sustain a loss. (You will start to lose and then slow down) Exercising keeps your BMR up and you increase your muscle which burns more calories. Do you have a fitbit or apple watch? If not, invest in one. If you've never exercised then start with walking, it's easy, and low impact.

Lots of people have lost weight without exercising.

Yes - but it's HARDER to lose the weight without exercising. If she CAN she SHOULD because it will help. That's my point. I didn't say you can't lose weight ... I said your BMR drops by 20% when you go on calorie deficit and that exercise prevents that drop in BMR.

That's a new one.

Anyway, OP you should read this master post
https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10260499/i-like-old-posts-and-i-cannot-lie/p1

and it can help you get started on your weight loss journey. You don't have to eat "clean" or exercise to lose weight unless you want to. It's actually better to educate yourself when it comes to weight loss since there's a lot of bro-science/woo out there.

kpurcell627

Ok thank you

AnvilHead

juggernaut1974 wrote: »

jenathp wrote: »

strong_curves wrote: »

jenathp wrote: »

Exercise does matter for weight loss, here is why. Muscle burns more calories than fat. When you don't exercise and you cut calories your body does slow down your BMR by about 20% which means that you would need to eat even less calories to sustain a loss. (You will start to lose and then slow down) Exercising keeps your BMR up and you increase your muscle which burns more calories. Do you have a fitbit or apple watch? If not, invest in one. If you've never exercised then start with walking, it's easy, and low impact.

Lots of people have lost weight without exercising.

Yes - but it's HARDER to lose the weight without exercising. If she CAN she SHOULD because it will help. That's my point. I didn't say you can't lose weight ... I said your BMR drops by 20% when you go on calorie deficit and that exercise prevents that drop in BMR.

I agree I'd love to see a source for that claim.

I'd love to see a source for that claim as well, because a 20% drop in BMR is far beyond any figure I've seen for adaptive thermogenesis.

As far as muscle burning more calories than fat - a pound of fat burns about 2 calories/day; a pound of muscle burns about 6 calories per day. Given a 4 calorie per day difference between fat and muscle, you'd have to pack on a lot of muscle to have it make any significant difference in calorie burn. Adding 25 lbs. of muscle (which is never, never, ever, ever going to happen in a caloric deficit) would yield a difference of 100 calories per day.


As far as the OP, caloric deficit is all that matters for weight loss. Whether you do that solely by diet or increase the deficit by exercise, it's all that matters. Exercise has many other health benefits that make it worthwhile though.

kpurcell627

I definitely want to start exercising for health reasons, I gained weight over the past 3 years from stress, and quitting smoking and I have hypothyroidism so that's why I also want to start eating a clean diet I've been doing it for 30 days now and I've seen a big difference, no more heart burn or gastro pains !! Now that I got all the sugar and processed foods out of my system I want to focus on weight loss and strengthening my body.

kshama2001

kpurcell627 wrote: »

What I meant by eating clean is I stopped all processed foods, and no sugar, I'm trying to eat as close to natural foods as I can, veggies, fruit, nothing in a box lol. I was just wondering if anyone had any good meal plans for this type of eating

I don't know that there are any clean eating advocates here on the main forums, but you could check out http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/group/133-clean-eating-group and http://www.cleaneatingmag.com

(BTW, I no longer say "processed foods" as that inevitably devolves into a semantics debate but instead say "Ultra processed foods as defined here http://189.28.128.100/dab/docs/portaldab/publicacoes/guia_alimentar_populacao_ingles.pdf )

kpurcell627

Oo

kpurcell627

Oops ok!!