Don't know where to start! HELP!

JD0710

Hi.

My weight has been so up and down the last few years and I'm now the heaviest I've ever been that I need to do something.
But I don't know where to start!!

I'm 5ft 1 and weigh in at 182 pounds.

I love to swim and so for the last two weeks I have been swimming three times a week for 40 minutes. I also plan to start riding my exercise bike, running and/or doing some weight training. My problem areas are my mid section and my back!!

Can anyone give any advice? How many calories should I be focusing on per day? (App says 1200 but is this too high?) also should I put my exercise into the app or just do it and stick to the calories without registering the exercise (advice by friend).

Any advice, help or information would be amazing. I'm finally at a point where enough is enough and I am so determined to get started.

Thanks

Jod.

ArmyofAdrian

Stick with the 1200 calories and the swimming 3x per week. Do that for four weeks. If you stick to that and haven't lost 5 lbs at least then add more exercise. 1200 cal is challenging enough to maintain. Adherence to your calories is the most important piece right now. Just focus on getting that part right for now.

ArmyofAdrian

No running though I don't want to see you hurt your knee and get off track.

50extra

Make sure you eat the 1200 calories at an absolute minimum. Don't fall into the trap of telling yourself if 1200 is good then 1100 must be better. At that rate of eating the weight is literally going to fall off of you. If you find that it doesn't go back to how you are logging your food. Measuring cups and a food scale is the only way to be accurate.

I would 100% log your exercise into MFP. It allows you see how much you have been working out which I feel is important. You are allowed to eat back some of your exercise calories but I definitely wouldn't eat back all of them, my personal rule is I can eat back 50% of the calories MFP gives me for workouts. It is fairly well known that MFP overestimates calorie burn, I have looked at the calories that it gives me for running, walking, and riding the bike and MFP is at least 2x higher than my heart rate monitor gives me. If I am using my heart rate monitor for calorie burn then I feel perfectly comfortable on days that I am hungry and eat back all of my exercise calories. Just because you log them doesn't mean you have to eat them either. Your body will tell you when its time to eat.

You also asked for suggestions, drink tons of water. Thirst has a sneaky way of disguising itself as hunger.

One point that many people will disagree with me on is how often to weigh yourself. I weigh myself each morning, naked and after I have gone to the bathroom (if I remember). This is the most consistent way to do it. Where I get a little weird is I like to weigh myself before and after a cardio workout to make sure I didn't dehydrate myself too much, if I am a couple lbs lighter after a workout I force myself to drink more water, and I also like to step on the scale before I hop into bed because its fun to see how much weight I drop while sleeping. There are many people that end up addicted to weighing themselves and can't stand to do this. Many other people can't take the daily fluctuations in water weight and prefer to only weigh themselves once a week on the same day at the same time of the day. I find daily weighing eliminates any confusion as to why the scale isn't dropping. If I gain a lb a day for two days I can then look at what I ate and modify my diet.

Set realistic goals. A realistic goal is not "I want to lose 100 lbs in the next 4 months" nor is it realistic to say that you want to lose 100lbs in a year. I find setting small achievable goals like 6 pounds in a month work better. I try to set some longer term ones but will modify them as I go.

I could rant and rave about this stuff all day but these are just my opinions, if there is something specific you have a question about just ask. A complete transformation isn't going to happen overnight. Be strict but also realize that sometimes you are going to stumble a bit.

emdeesea

If you need a simple guidance plan there's several online calculators you can use for free and they will figure out the calorie intake you need to lose like a half pound a week (more if you're heavier).

This is the one I've used for the last 3 years, and I've lost just about 60 pounds with it. http://scoobysworkshop.com/accurate-calorie-calculator/

Figure out how many calories you need per day, then come back here and log them. (and get and use a food scale; it will make all the difference in the world, trust me on that one.)