First day tomorrow. Any advice???

gemmalunn9204

Hi first day on plan tomorrow. I have tried lots of different diets but can't justify spending the pennies at the min. Got a new job to do for to get use to a new routine. Has anyone been successful without loads of exercise? I am going to start adding some in but just want to concentrate on getting the diet sorted first. Thanks

sllm1

Sure, you can add in exercise a little at a time. Staying within your calorie goal and faithfully logging (and weighing) your food is what will get you where you want to go.

sohifirefly

You can do it and yes, you can lose weight without exercise. Just eat less calories than you burn. Here's a calculator to help you figure out how much you burn daily without exercise. When you add exercise you will burn more calories. Good luck!

gemmalunn9204

Thank you. I am happy with it coming off slowly but I want to be able to maintain healthy living . So really want to get my diet in check.

Francl27

I lost my first 10 pounds or so without exercise... I wanted to get the diet down first before adding exercise that would make me hungrier. Then I figured out that I could eat more with exercise, so I slowly started adding some.

My advice - be as accurate as possible with your logging (love my food scale), pick a reasonable goal (none of that 1200 calorie stuff for me), focus on the low calorie/filling foods that you like, eat plenty of veggies, protein, fat, and fiber, and try to save carby things for when you REALLY crave them.

cerise_noir

Don't cut out foods that you enjoy. Weight loss is about calories. It's perfectly okay to include your favourite treats as long as they fit within your calories.

Use a food scale.

CincyNeid

1) Be honest with yourself & the app. It will do you no good to cheat the system.
2) Understand that there are days you'll go over on your calories, and that's okay. Everyone of us do it. Just get back up, dust yourself off and remember tomorrow is a new day to get back inline...
3) Don't get to worked up over the little things. Take one step at a time. Get your diet in check. Then start start adding little things to boost your activity. Rome wasn't built overnight....

kristysaurus

Weigh your food and accurately log! You don't need to exercise to lose weight - just eat less than you burn (calories in < calories out). Good luck!

alyssa0061

Up to this point I've lost over 100 pounds doing nothing more than walking my dog for exercise. I definitely think you're in the right mindset wanting to get your diet straight first. Focus on that, add the exercise when you can.

Trish1c

This site actually makes things pretty easy. It's based on the idea that if you eat less, you will lose weight, even without exercise.

Follow the directions in the stickie on the getting started thread but don't stress about it. Watch your portions. Drink the water. It will help you feel full. Many times when you think you feel hungry you are really thirsty

Do try to move more. Every little bit helps. Take a walk after dinner. Take the stairs not the elevator. I do leg lifts while brushing my teeth in the morning.

Spliner1969

If used right MFP can be used not only to diet but to transition into a maintenance routine for life that will keep you from re-gaining the weight. Try not to be too hard on yourself at first, and set yourself at a reasonable weight loss goal (1-2lb/week). Figure how much weight you want to lose in pounds and give yourself that many weeks to accomplish it. That way you can meet your goals and will likely hit your ultimate goal before that time is up.

SueSueDio

Don't think of it as a "diet" - that implies an end date when you'll go back to "eating normally", and "eating normally" is what brought you here in the first place... Take time to learn proper portion sizes, which foods are calorie-dense and which you can eat more freely, and what kind of "eating style" works best for you - you might need to experiment a bit, but try different things and work out what best helps you to feel full and happy.

You don't say how much you have to lose, but it's good that you're prepared for it to take time. Exercise is great for health and fitness but not strictly necessary for weight loss - I'm lazy and have intermittent back issues so I do very little, but just by watching my calories I've lost 36lbs in 33 weeks so I'm happy with that rate.

It can certainly be done without killing yourself at the gym or depriving yourself of all the foods you love, but everyone is different and what works for one won't necessarily be so for another. Take a look at some of the sticky threads around the forums, there's a lot of good advice there! This is a great one to start with:

http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/1080242/a-guide-to-get-you-started-on-your-path-to-sexypants/p1

Good luck on your journey!

NancyCaz61

You've gotten GREAT advice here! Commit to it and you will succeed! And come to the boards for lots of motivation

CasperNaegle

It is 90% kitchen, exercise is great to do body recomp or build some muscle, but if your primary goal is to lose weight it's all calorie deficit.

nowine4me

My advice....1) use the MFP tool exactly as designed and set to lose 1 pound per week. Don't worry about anything else until you have some experience with it under your belt. 2) pack your meals for the week -- including breakfast, lunch and snacks-- on Sunday and don't eat anything you didn't bring 3) if you can walk 30 mins or so during lunch, get started right away before other habits set in

STEVE142142

Welcome to the site. To give you my background January 1st my weight was 288 currant weight is 208.

First don't look at this as a diet. diets suck you're miserable you're giving up stuff that you enjoy and you'll eventually fail because you cant continue. You have to look at this as a lifestyle change by approaching it as a lifestyle change you will succeed part of the process is to educate yourself the community is a great place for that and what you need to do is to approach this as I didn't gain a little weight overnight so you're not going to lose it all in one shot.

Yes you can lose weight without exercise in fact you don't have to exercise to lose weight. The exercise has additional benefits to me which are mental physical and spiritual. I would recommend doing exercises. start off easy if you're not comfortable and build up as you get better.

As far as how you eat it's just a simple matter of eating less calories than your body burns. The main term here is cico, calorie in calorie out. As far as what you can eat you can eat whatever you want as long as it fits into your calorie goals as established by the website. I still enjoy the occasional Wendy's hamburger beer on the beach or slices of pizza. If I had to give up stuff like that I could never succeed.

Good luck in your journey

Koldnomore

Focus first on WEIGHING and logging everything. Don't guess, don't estimate. Get a food scale if you don't have one and use it. When you can log your food accurately the rest is not hard. Not being accurate will mess you up more than anything else.

Don't throw exercise into the mix until you have your food tracking sorted out - just adds an extra complication. I lost 60 lbs before I did anything apart from walking occasionally. Don't let anyone tell you that you have to start exercising and giving up ANY food group - you do not. You don't need 'special' food, supplements, vitamins..etc..

Eat less, move more, track everything. Good luck!

Aaron_K123

My advice? Don't overcomplicate it. Just eat the same type of foods you like to eat but less of them (maybe up the amount of protein to help with satiation) and then just up your activity level by a little bit.

Trying to eat way to little while being overly restrictive with what you allow yourself to eat coupled with trying to go from barely active to working out 6 days a week is likely just going to make you obssessed and burn out and quit.

Think of it like adopting a new way of living that will over time allow you to be the weight you want to be, as such you should do things you'd be willing to continue to do the rest of your life...not plan on something super intense you only want to do short term.

brb_2013

I'm and on again off again member, and today is also my first day back on plan. Honestly I chose now because I also changed jobs recently and found that this is a much better fit for me in schedule and duties (and compensation). Reducing stress in one big area is giving me the energy I need to devote to my key to success: planning.

I have my entire week planned out, I shop just once for the week and prepped everything in about an hour on Sunday. Last weekend that hour was spent sitting around so it was well worth my time to be prepared. I packed snacks and lunches, weighed out each portion, and now I have to do zero planning or thinking when it comes to my work food. That's my first piece of advice, do the leg work on your day off to ease your mornings up. I know the calories in my day up until Dinner for the whole week, but I also took it one step further and have prelogged my estimates for the dinners I have planned for this week. It's all in my diary which I believe is open.

My next piece of advice is to not get caught up in the "shoulds" for now. For right now focus on making changes you can handle, whatever that may be for you and become a professional at it. For me right now my focus is on logging accurately- as long as I am logging I am on track. I may be exercising as I feel able and willing but I'm only basing my success off logging because I want to build that habit again. It was the key part of my success when I lost 100lbs in the past and I know I can do it again if I focus on this foundation of logging as accurately as possible FOR ALL THE FOOD.

Even when you give in and pick up tacos on your way home, log them as best you can and learn to deal with the feelings of being accountable to yourself. It's enough of a first step for most of us who struggle with our weight.

SueSueDio

brb_2013 wrote: »

Even when you give in and pick up tacos on your way home, log them as best you can and learn to deal with the feelings of being accountable to yourself. It's enough of a first step for most of us who struggle with our weight.

This is an excellent point. Don't beat yourself up or feel like you've ruined everything if you slip up - we're all human, and all (or I bet most) of us have done that at times. Log it and get back on the wagon at your next meal. Don't think "I've blown it for today, I'll just eat all the snacks in the house and start over tomorrow..."

Start again right away, don't let one slip turn into a week or a month of poor decisions. It's okay to eat more now and again, so long as you don't let it get out of hand. And if you have special occasions coming up, just account for them and eat up to your maintenance calories for a couple of days or so, or eat lightly during the day so you can enjoy dinner out, or whatever works best for you. Life is going to carry on happening around us whether or not we're trying to lose weight, so we need to figure out ways of dealing with it!