Any tips for me?? Help me help myself!!

1980kf

I am starting my life change tomorrow 3/20... I cant live like this anymore

robertmusser

I just started exercising and planning my meals better last week after a few years hiatus. Feel free to add me to your friends list and we can encourage each other.

annacole94

Set realistic goals (set the loss to 1 lb/week rather than 2/lb a week if that makes it easier to succeed).
Log. Everything. Even if it's not "good".
Exercise a little. Walking counts and is a great place to start. I just use my phone as a pedometer - nothing expensive required.

s54729

Two things that help me...

1. I bought 3 Tervis Tumblers (24oz) and fill them with water first thing - that gives me a minimum of 9 glasses of water a day (plus anything i drink outside of the house). It doesn't have to be Tervis, but a clear glass so you can see how much is left - as visual reminder.
2. I set smaller weight loss goals. My first goal was to lose 5 lbs, then 10 more, then pick a specific weight (250, 225, something). Then the next 25 lb increment after that. I always know what my ultimate goal is, but this makes me feel good that i have reached A goal and gives me the confidence that i can do the next one. Trying to lose +100 can feel daunting... but trying to lose 10-25 feels do-able. It's kind of like starting an exercise program, you don't start at the heaviest weight and most reps, you start small and before you know it...

Blubberbuster1

Best advise I can give you is;
Stick with something that is sustainable.
You don't need to starve your self to lose weight.
My most important factor for me is realising there's no such thing as restarting, every time you put something in your mouth is a new start.
What I'm getting at is, that if one day/on meal you did not do too well, just keep on continuing with your new healthy lifestyle. Don't eat something bad on Thursday and continue to eat bad Friday, Saturday, Sunday and claim to restart Monday.

6502programmer

Start small. Make small changes, make them habit, and build on the successes. It's way easier to keep at it if you make incremental changes a habit versus huge changes at the start.

Buy a food scale. I cannot stress this enough. They're less than $15 at Amazon. I have one at home and in my desk. Whether you're just starting out or have been at it for a while, a food scale will help you be more accurate in your logging.

tinkerbellang83

Tip number one - don't wait till tomorrow! Tomorrow never comes.

If this is the first time you're trying MFP, a good start is eating as you would normally for a couple of days and logging everything (and I mean everything) this can give you a better of understanding of where you are going wrong in terms of eating too much. From there you can tweak your eating habits in small ways to reduce your intake to the recommendation that MFP has given you.

Take it slow and steady, don't expect the weight to disappear overnight.

Don't try and change everything at once, concentrate on calories first, you can worry about macros and micros when you've got that under control.

ACCURATE CALORIES IN - Get some food scales, like everyone has stated above, it's the only way to accurately log your food intake, it's very easy to underestimate your intake when guessing portion sizes.

ACCURATE CALORIES OUT - Take any exercise burns from the MFP database with a pinch of salt, they are often inaccurate. MFP is designed for you to eat back calories burned through exercise, but 50% is a good place to start until you're a few weeks in and can see what rate you're actually losing at. It's not necessary to exercise to lose weight, it can just be done by eating less, however if you want to improve your quality of life and try to hang on to some muscle, a good balance of some cardio and strength training is a good idea. You don't need a gym membership either.

AverageJoeFit

My advice is set your long term goals, but also set a bunch of little short term goals no matter how small.

Never under estimate the positivity you get from completing even the smallest goal. If you have enough small goals you might find your big goals are not nearly as far away as they once were.

LearningToFly13

You can do whatever you want to. You are own biggest support and obstacle. Choose.