Help!

flesheaterr

I honestly don't even know where or how to start when it comes to dieting and exercise, especially with little income. I need to get put on the fast track to success!

CorneliusPhoton

If your goal is weight loss, start by plugging your stats into myfitnesspal and get a daily calorie goal.

bobbi29

Don't really need a large income to lose weight. First decided what your goal is. MFP takes your goals and give you estimated calorie you should be taking in. Then start easy; you know if you eat hamburgers and fries you gain weight if you eat clean food-chicken veg, fruit and grain. has less calories (key is to track your food) for exercise you don't need a gym. There is youtube or put on a pair of tennis and go outside walk, run. Just take one step at a time.

tiffanylacourse

bobbi29 wrote: »

Don't really need a large income to lose weight. First decided what your goal is. MFP takes your goals and give you estimated calorie you should be taking in. Then start easy; you know if you eat hamburgers and fries you gain weight if you eat clean food-chicken veg, fruit and grain. has less calories (key is to track your food) for exercise you don't need a gym. There is youtube or put on a pair of tennis and go outside walk, run. Just take one step at a time.

No. You don't have to stop eating hamburgers and fries. You can lose weight eating hamburgers, fries, ice cream, etc. You just have to eat less. Log every bite, lick, taste, and sip into myfitnesspal and stay at/under your calorie goal. It is LITERALLY that easy.

SezxyStef

bobbi29 wrote: »

Don't really need a large income to lose weight. First decided what your goal is. MFP takes your goals and give you estimated calorie you should be taking in. Then start easy; you know if you eat hamburgers and fries you gain weight if you eat clean food-chicken veg, fruit and grain. has less calories (key is to track your food) for exercise you don't need a gym. There is youtube or put on a pair of tennis and go outside walk, run. Just take one step at a time.

so much wrong here...smh

OP lets start with you don't need to exercise to lose weight...you can eat whatever you want and as long as you are in a deficit you will lose weight.

With MFP you enter your stats and weekly weight loss goal (don't be aggressive)
If you have 75+ lbs to lose 2 lbs/week is ideal
If you have 40-75 lbs to lose 1.5 lbs/week is ideal
If you have 25-40 lbs to lose 1 lbs/week is ideal
If you have 15 -25 lbs to lose 0.5 to 1.0 lbs/week is ideal
If you have less than 15 lbs to lose 0.5 lbs/week is ideal

get a food scale and log accurately and consistently and you will lose weight...regardless of what you eat...

check my diary if you want...I eat wings, burgers, fries, gravy, pizza...I drink etc and I am healthy.

As for exercise if you want go for it...

check out fitnessblender.com for free workouts or Youtube...or go for a walk etc.

bobbi29

tiffanylacourse wrote: »

bobbi29 wrote: »

Don't really need a large income to lose weight. First decided what your goal is. MFP takes your goals and give you estimated calorie you should be taking in. Then start easy; you know if you eat hamburgers and fries you gain weight if you eat clean food-chicken veg, fruit and grain. has less calories (key is to track your food) for exercise you don't need a gym. There is youtube or put on a pair of tennis and go outside walk, run. Just take one step at a time.

No. You don't have to stop eating hamburgers and fries. You can lose weight eating hamburgers, fries, ice cream, etc. You just have to eat less. Log every bite, lick, taste, and sip into myfitnesspal and stay at/under your calorie goal. It is LITERALLY that easy.

Really, I know that its just an example on how to start.

CaladriaNapea

Congrats on deciding to start your weight loss journey! Thankfully, it is a fairly simple and cheap process because your body is doing most of the work.

1. MFP is definitely a great option, as it's free, and really does help, because . . .
2. Weight loss is dependent on expending more calories than you use. This is why weight loss is economical: it is completely dependent on you eating less food than your body needs for energy. Make sure you assess your weight loss goals in MFP, and eat within your calorie count.
3. Okay, so eating less calories is fairly simple. One of the things that helps with this, however, is eating healthier. By eating less sugar (on average, I'm not saying never have a brownie ever again, because brownies are awesome . . .) and eating more veggies, fiber, protein, and other good stuff, your body gets more of the nutrients you need while using less of the filler calories (from say white bread, those awesome brownies, regular soda, etc.) that don't actually give you needed nutrients.
4. Track your calories carefully. If you can afford it, definitely get a kitchen scale. This one from Amazon is just 14 bucks. Whatever scale you get, make sure it can measure in grams, as these are smaller units of measurement than ounces and thus more accurate. Why I recommend weighing food over just using measuring cups is that it is way more accurate (FYI, this is why bakers tend to weigh ingredients instead of measure them). I would heartily recommend weighing all your solid food and measuring liquids.
5. Exercise is not actually critical to weight loss, thus I would not recommend spending your money on a fancy gym membership. Exercise is good, it increases your metabolism temporarily (especially with cardio) and increases your metabolism long term (especially with muscle-building), but because the foundation of calorie deficits is food, then it is not necessary. If you do want to exercise there are plenty of cheap/free things you can do: running, hiking, biking (if you already have a bike), Youtube yoga workouts, Youtube body weight workouts, etc. If you really do want to hit up the gym, then places like Planet Fitness are pretty cheap, or if you live in an apartment complex, see if they have a small gym area.
6. I would really recommend participating in the MFP community or finding IRL friends to support you. Weight loss is a journey. It tends to go slowly, and it really helps to have people cheering you on and who you can share with in order to grow and maintain motivation during that time.
7. On the note of money: NEVER spend money on "miracle" weight loss products. Weight loss is a simple equation of calories in, calories out--there are definitely mitigating circumstances and things that can make that process easier, but no "cleanse", "diet,", "special treatment," or "new discovery" is going to make this anything but a long hard journey.
8. On that aspect of the journey: this is a journey that never ends. Once you reach your goal (yay!) you need to maintain the changes you made. According to research, people who maintain weight loss still watch what they eat, exercise at least once a day (exercise is more important for maintaining weight loss than it is for the actual weight loss process itself), and continue to weigh themselves. The changes that you are making now are going to be pretty permanent: eventually you will be able to eat more calories, but whatever you decide to do for your weight loss journey, make sure that you are willing to commit to it for the long-haul lifestyle, not just as a temporary diet.
9. Here is a list of most helpful threads in the Getting Started Forum (highly recommend these!), here is a list of most helpful threads in the General Diet and Weightloss Forum (I recommend these too ), and here is a list of absolutely fantastic threads across the entire MFP forum. Read these threads, Google stuff, make yourself informed, and with that information go out and conquer those pounds--they have another thing coming!

Dogmom1978

OP you don't need a large budget to lose weight and exercise. Also, it depends on your specific goal to what you will do. Do you want to increase your overall health or just lose weight? Build muscle or just be "skinny"? Eat at a deficit for weight loss, including measuring your food on a food scale (they aren't expensive), and exercising could just be walking around the neighborhood.

Seffell

You only need a digital food scale. Then weigh your food (regardless of the price of the food) and log it in myfitespal diary. Stay at the limit of calories it gives you and you will lose
That's everything about losing weight.

JenniferNoll

If money is an issue, talk to the meat manager and produce manager at your local grocery stores. I was able to find out when they mark down their meat and produce for rapid sale. I'm able to get my meat and vegetables for about 25% of what I would normally pay. I do have to shop about twice a week to use the produce before it goes bad, but it's not a problem for me.

Big lots is a great place to buy things like Kashi products, which I like because they fill me up and they are cheap there. I love, love, love granola bars for snacks, and they sell them pretty cheap too. Lots of gourmet type items like condiments, pickles, etc. if you like that kind of thing.

Dieting is not expensive unless you make it that way.