Need to lose weight

nic11c

Hi guys!
This is the first time I've been into the community page of MFP. I'm going to start using this religiously going forward.
Basically I played football at quite a high level for years, but retired at the grand old age of 29 last year. When I played (and trained about 5 times per week) I could eat whatever I wanted & my weight was around 10st 7. Now after having a few months chilling & not having much of a training plan, my muscle has gone & im roughly 11st 11lbs. Not good

Any advice/tips to get me started again would be appreciated!

Thanks! Nic.

bertygriffith

Eat less calories than you burn

Afura

In each of the different area of the forums there is a "Helpful posts" sticky, read the articles! All the good info.
My tips would be -

1. Don't have unrealistic goals, weight loss isn't always fast, and it definitely isn't always linear.
2. Calculate your calorie deficit either through MFP (which using the NEAT method) or a TDEE calculator (which auto-adds in your calories from exercise, which MFP does not do)
3. If you use MFP to calculate calories, eat back at least 50% of your calories. Since MFP already gives you the deficit to lose as you have set, exercise is digging that hole bigger and that's not necessarily a good thing. (50% is because machines, MFP and some exercise bands are inaccurate in burn calculation).
4. You don't have to cut out foods, just eat at a calorie deficit. I lose and I eat ice cream, bread, cheese, etc.
5. Don't give up, there will be times when it's frustrating not to see a loss, or a loss you expected, but it happens.
6. Do your own information and read - There is both a lot of good and bad information in the forums (sans those Helpful Posts, they go there because they're on point), so do some research, learn the good and bad.
7. Never trust the entries, always double check when you can - They are user entered and can be old, for a different country, or just plain wrong.

HaleCry

Hey!! Welcome to MFP. I'm sure you know most of this anyway but my main advice would be:
First, stick with the program, it really does work.
Second, don't aim to lose too fast! Everyone likes the idea of losing 2lbs per week but for people with not much to lose, it isn't recommended. No more 1% of your body weight per week is what's recommended I think... so only people over 200lbs should aim for 2lbs a week. If you have too big of a deficit you're more likely to binge and therefore go off track.
Third, weight and log EVERYTHING! A food scale is a necessity, you're much more likely to lose weight using one.
Lastly, don't beat yourself up if you have a bad day or a bad week, just start fresh the next day!

Feel free to add me, and good luck on your journey