Beginner in need of tips

Aleeshawilliams22

diannethegeek wrote: »

Aleeshawilliams22 wrote: »

diannethegeek wrote: »

Aleeshawilliams22 wrote: »

Clean meals are better than McDonald's right? Lol so they kind of make a difference

Well, yes and no. Cooking at home allows you to control the calories more easily and control the ingredients. It's also a useful life skill. But "clean" is kind of a nebulous term and it doesn't necessarily mean healthier or lower calorie. It can be healthier. But the overall context of your diet, hitting your calorie goals, hitting your macro and micro goals, is more important than any one particular food item (short of avoiding something for medical reasons, obviously). You could fit McDonald's into a healthy diet and still lose weight if you wanted to. A lot of us choose to work treats and things not considered "clean" into our diets. It just takes a little planning.

my only problem with eating mcdonalds, is that I can't stop. I'm going from a eating out and drinking a lot of pop, to water and so called "clean" eating. I just want to get through a month or so before I can treat myself. Is that ok?

Of course it's okay! I'm so so sorry if I gave the impression that you must or have to eat McDonald's as part of your diet. I thought I'd structured my thoughts so carefully and clearly I didn't! It's your diet. You get to structure it however you want. I just wanted to touch on the idea that clean always means better. Since there are about 85 definitions of clean eating, it's never 100% the case that clean is better. That's why context is so important!

I'll show myself out of this thread now since I'm not being helpful :flowerforyou:

I didn't mean to come off mean either!! Thank you for all the advice

HostageCat

Hell, 1st I just want to say do not throw in the towel because of one or two days of bad eating or even a month. I fall of the wagon for a month around half way though my weight lost and I almost gave up, glad I didn't.
Healthy foods are not always low cal and not all low cal foods are healthy.
I would recommend taking a omega-3 dietary supplement to help out you skin a little bit. My trainer started me on Adcocare's OmegaPlex around the end of my weight loss and I wished I started taking it sooner, Catalyst from Adcocare is also something you might want to look at, it will help preserve muscle.
I also work late hours and whenever i cook something I try to make left overs to bring to work but I do keep Lean Cuisines on hand when I don't have any left overs or for days I don't have time cook or when i'm just too lazy to fix anything.

eeejer

this may be a helpful starting point http://blog.myfitnesspal.com/the-beginners-guide-to-myfitnesspal/

streamgirl

The most helpful things for me when I started:
1. Make the decision to not do anything you can't see yourself doing for the long term. For example, I have chosen to not do any "cleanse", etc. since I'm not going to eat that way forever. That way I'm training myself for a new lifestyle, not chasing the loss of a few pounds here and there.
2. Buy smaller plates. We switched from fiestaware dinner plates to the luncheon plates. It is a small thing but makes a big difference in how much we eat.
3. Fill your plate with half veggies. For me, it was cool that by adding something, I wound up eating less.
4. Find out what is the best "bang for the buck" for you. For me, I'd much rather have a plate full of an omelette with two eggs, spinach, tomatoes, and feta for the same calories as a donut. It just goes farther with me and makes me feel better. These things also tend to correlate to "healthy eating" or the whole McDonald's vs. clean eating discussion, but for me it just boils down to where you want to spend your calories.
5. Leave room for treats--if you want a piece of chocolate, glass of wine, donut, whatever, work it in to your calories. If you can just have one that is!
6. Realize that if you don't weigh everything (I don't, some do) you will underestimate your food and overestimate your workouts. Personally I compensate by setting my calories lower because I find that it works out in the end. But realize that the math on this is pretty simple. Calories In - Calories Out = Weight loss or gain. Give yourself permission to experiment with that formula. If your weight loss isn't what you want, there is no big mystery going on unless you have an underlying health issue. You just need to adjust calories in or calories out. Find out how that works for you.
Good luck!

tnsmilneyes

What is the 16:8?