new here

summersolstice1

Hello I only recently registered. I'm struggling with almost every aspect of trying to lose weight:

Breakfasts struggles:
I recently started having granola (for breakfast) and though about doing it for one other meal, but have recently realized it's full of sugar. I find it hard to have sugar free cereal without added sweeteners (and then there's the controversy about how artificial sweeteners are worse and other research that contradicts and I don't know what to believe any more) so cereal is out, I live on my own so if I buy a full loaf of bread, I end throwing most of it away (it goes off quickly) and I can't find small loafs of 50:50 bread or best of both, so toast is out.

main meals

a lot of stuff I eat is processed because my cooking knowledge isn't very good and like I said above I live alone, also my life is so busy I find it hard to find the time to home cook, also it requires a lot of tools (culinary tools) that I don't have many and I don't know what I need (I've also been doing a lot of spending recently so I want to curb my spending). when I buy fresh fruit and veg it goes off to quick so I end up throwing most of it away and I don't know what sorts of tinned and frozen stuff to get.

snacks

this is my main problem I have a sweet tooth so savoury stuff won't satisfy me and unfortunately the natural alternatives that are recommended (fruit and nuts) just won't satisfy me either, it seems like its only chocolate that does that, so I thought if I could eat enough that fills me up during main meals (see above comment) I might be able to curb my snacking

desserts

recently I've been having fruit and cream for every dessert but that means I eating a lot of cream and that can't be healthy and I'm struggling to find alternatives that work its the same (or similar dilemma as the main meals)

fitness

my life is so busy and I'm so overwhelmed (I'm dealing with stress boredom and loneliness (I have no physical friends and btw I tend to bond better with women) that its got me depressed so I have little motivation to exercise and very little time.

I also am still new to my fitness pal and don't know how to use it or where to start

Helloidentitycrisis

Okay first make sure your profile is all set up correctly! Your height, weight, goals and if you have less than 25lb to lose I suggest 0.5lb/week; less than 50lb, try 0.5 or 1lb a week; more than 50lb 2lbs if you want... You can always change this if you want once you've got the hang of everything.

• Invest £5-10 on a food scale if you don't have one. Trust me it's going to be well worth it!

• Weigh food before you cook it - that means dry rice, raw veg, etc! And log everything you eat in your diary!

• Try eating simple foods if you cant cook: Microwave your potatoes for 4 minutes, check if cooked, then repeat (usually takes 8-12 mins for a med baked potato in my microwave), boil them, or bake in the oven! Add some tuna or baked beans and tada! Or have a tin of tomatoes with a sprinkle of salt and pepper as a soup!

• Buy just 1-2 veg at a time if it goes bad, try not to choose the same thing as you bought last time (unless you have a personal favourite I guess) and remember that most veg can be eaten raw: Carrots, celery, beetroot, tomatoes, mushrooms...

• Bread can be frozen, but I strongly suggest you ditch the BOB for a whole-wheat or seeded loaf! Either defrost each slice the night before for bread or toast straight from the freezer (because it's sliced each piece should easily enough be pulled away from the rest of the loaf)!

• Soup is just chopping and boiling veggies up, which can be done in bulk using the Recipe section of mfp (click FOOD, then look for it in the secondary toolbar) and you can log each bowl you have with just a click of the recipe!

• Exercise is a stress reliever so make time to do some. Walk around the block. Do 10 jumping jacks. Do some yoga or HIIT videos from youtube!

• When you log exercise into your diary, the calories burned will be added to your daily eating allowance ( if you have an allowance of 1300 and burn 100 calories, your allowance will change to 1400 for that day). It is widely accepted as a rule that you should only eat half of these calories because MFP tends to exaggerate how much you will have burned. An easy way to know for sure you are only eating half your exercise calories is to only log half (walk 60 minutes, log 30).

• Another option is to exercise and not eat the calories you burned, this can boost your deficit and result in a bigger loss.

Any questions?

bradleyedel87

I'm new to, u can add me