Starting Out? Start with a Good Plan!

rankinsect · April 2016

A lot of new folks start at MFP or other sites, and quickly find themselves confused by all the data. There are calories, there are macronutrients (carbs, fat, and protein), there are micronutrients (vitamins and minerals), there is sodium, etc., and it's hard to really know what to do with all of that data.

Here are some tips and tricks on how to sort things out and come up with a plan that will lead you to success.

1. Assess yourself and your goals.

The first thing to do is take stock of yourself. What are your current health and fitness problems? What are your health and fitness goals? Do you have any known vitamin or mineral deficiencies, are you diabetic, etc? Do you have any self-imposed, religious, medical, or ethical dietary restrictions? All of these will inform your choices.

When I started off, my problems were morbid obesity, mild hypertension, and low physical fitness. My goals were weight loss and improved fitness. My ideal body type wasn't thin, but muscular. It's very important to know where you're starting from and where you're going.

2. Pick areas of focus.

You should pick no more than three things you want to focus on, and you should pick those most important to your individual circumstances and goals. Some of this is going to be research on your part to learn the reasons behind why things are important, and make decisions about what is important to you. Don't try to focus on everything - you can't. Focusing on everything really means focusing on nothing.

For example, sodium and potassium can be important for heart health - in about 10% of the population (salt-sensitive hypertensives). If you don't have hypertension, or if you have hypertension that is not affected by sodium or potassium levels, it doesn't matter to you. Low sodium won't help you, high sodium won't hurt you. If you have a vitamin deficiency or dietary restrictions likely to lead to vitamin deficiencies (e.g. vegans and B12), addressing that deficiency is very likely to be important to you, but if not, you're probably fine with a varied diet and, if you're really concerned, a multivitamin as an insurance policy. If you're diabetic, you need to pay attention to carbs, but if not, you probably needn't.

For me, my three areas of focus were and are:
a) Calories - this is the most important thing for weight loss.
b) Exercise - for physical fitness. Since I care about both musculature and heart health/overall fitness, I split the exercise between strength and cardio.
c) Protein - for helping to preserve lean body mass.

3. Create a reasonable plan.

What is "reasonable" depends a lot on you. Choose only changes that you will sustain for a lifetime. This isn't something you do for a time and stop, this is the rest of your life, so be careful not to over-commit. I picked a calorie goal that would give me a reasonable but sustainable level of weight loss appropriate for my body size (no more than 1% body weight per week). I picked a decent but easily sustainable exercise goal (50 minutes, 3 days per week). I set some protein goals, but don't really hold myself to consistently hitting them, just a nice-to-have. Beyond that I care about absolutely nothing. I don't care about sodium, or sugar, or carbs, or fat, or anything else at all. Once I hit my important areas of focus, I let everything else fall where it may.

You're not aiming for a perfect plan. You're aiming for something that is "good enough". It's not about doing a few weeks or months of perfection, it's about doing years and decades of adequacy.

I find that planning my meals a day in advance greatly helps with compliance - I can see how my calories and protein shake out and make changes on the fly. I could throw in a protein bar or shake if I needed to boost my numbers by a lot.