clueless!

rcoull75

I am 41 yo male, 15st, goal weight under 12st.

First time trying to lose weight!

Started last Saturday after a Friday doctors appointment!

Have actually zero clue about all this. Never weighed food, never dieted, no idea what foods are good or bad, no idea what a carb is!

For the past week I have changed as much as I can about my regular diet.

Over eating chocolate and snacks is out. Sweets are out. McDonalds breakfasts are out! (Used to be twice a week!). Dinner portion sizes are down.

I used to drink loads of diet coke and the odd full fat fanta, but have replaced all these with water only, and now drinking around 1.5L each day.

Walking 35 minutes to / from work, so twice a day.

I want to make this work and want to know what to eat and how to eat, but clueless about calories and carbs.

Any advice welcome!!

Also - weighed myself on old analog scales but didnt like the lack of accuracy in those, so bought myself new digital scales - and was 4 lbs lighter on the digital scales?! How do I know which is better and more accurate?! My wife says the analog ones are better, but I want an easy read out of st and lbs!

daniip_la

No foods are good or bad. Eat the things you like, just count their calories and fit them into your goal. Put your stats into MyFitnessPal, give it your desired rate of loss, eat the number of calories it tells you to.

If you want McDonalds for breakfast, eat it. You may have to have a smaller lunch/dinner to stay under your calorie goal.

Nothing is wrong with drinking Diet Coke.

Either body weight scale will suffice, just choose one and stick with using it.

rcoull75

I have an MFP daily calorie goal from selecting a desired loss of 2lb / week.

Is it just a matter of hitting close to that goal each day?

It seems fairly easy to count calories from packets - breakfast cereals, sweets, mcdonalds even lists their calories!

Not sure how to do it for a proper home cooked meal, though?

Chef_Barbell

rcoull75 wrote: »

I have an MFP daily calorie goal from selecting a desired loss of 2lb / week.

Is it just a matter of hitting close to that goal each day?

It seems fairly easy to count calories from packets - breakfast cereals, sweets, mcdonalds even lists their calories!

Not sure how to do it for a proper home cooked meal, though?

2 lbs a week is an aggressive loss. Lots of people sustain better with a 1 lb to 1.5 lb a week loss. Also, there is a recipe builder on the website where you enter the ingredients of your home cooked dish.

Charlot4444

Packets still need to be weighed for accuracy (they can be up to 20% off I believe)

At first it will all be overwhelming. There are stickies at the tip with lots of great information.

There's one to help you with accurate logging practices. (How to find the right entries)

Once you log for a bit.. I promise you it does get easier.

Nothing wrong with diet coke. I have drank diet mountain dew and lost 60+ lbs. However, if water is working for you, do that.

Weight loss is not linear... It will drive you bonkers some days but just keep doing what you know to do.

Whichever scale you use use it and only it. I also use digital and it's close to doctors numbers so good enough for me.

A lot of people regret not lifting weights sooner so you may want to start reading some threads about that too. (Doesn't hurt to read up anyway).

You've got this.. and there are many... Many brilliant people here who help us all with their knowledge. I can't thank them enough. Read read read!

kathakraz

Follow your calorie goal. Don't be too aggressive with that goal. Be honest with yourself about what you're eating and log everything. Don't beat yourself up for any "slip-ups," especially if you've made a lot of changes all at once. They're bound to happen, just keep logging and move on. Spend some time reading these forums. There is a lot of great information and advice to be had.