I need to lose a lot of weight, but I need some help as to where to begin.

whosshe

AliceDark wrote: »

mangofish44 wrote: »

Losing weight, at first at least, is more about diet than exercise. I've had a foot issue and had to temper off running and am down nearly 20lbs.

The key is food. Try to eat clean and avoid processed crap and your taste buds will change. Drop down to 1,400 cal and you will see immediate weight loss

The bolded is TERRIBLE advice. Very few people (mostly, people who are small, short and relatively sedentary) need to be on such a low calorie intake. There's no reason for someone who is morbidly obese to drop to 1400 calories unless directed by a doctor; the OP should be able to lose just fine on a far higher intake.

I started at 230lbs am now 195lbs. When I decided it was time to lose weight I had to go big (so to speak) or go home. I dropped to 600 calories a day (I know I know) for about 3 weeks. I could only function on 600 because I was not working, I would literally sit on my couch for 12 hours a day, walking maybe 300 steps a day. Once I started my job that is VERY physically demanding (housekeeping wooo) I was more aware of how much carbs, protein, fat, etc I needed to function during the day. Now I rarely go over 1200 calories. I've lost 35lbs in 2 months. I feel awesome, I don't feel tired, I don't feel dizzy, and I'm seeing results. I am NOT saying do exactly what I did because in hind sight 600 calories a day is crazy. BUT what it did was make me more aware of how too much of this or too much of that made my body feel. I can tell now if I eat a bit too much salt, or too many carbs and it really helps me make good decisions because I don't want to feel like crap anymore.

Start with counting your calories. That's all you need to do for now. Don't pay for a gym membership if you're never going to go. I paid for 3 years and I went maybe twice.

ALSO, this is just what worked for me. You can do all the research you want, I did way too much research for YEARS before actually doing something about my weight, but in the end your weightloss journey is yours and everyone does it differently.

ALSO, MFP gives me a daily calorie intake of 1310.

stanmann571

eliciaobrien1 wrote: »

AliceDark wrote: »

mangofish44 wrote: »

Losing weight, at first at least, is more about diet than exercise. I've had a foot issue and had to temper off running and am down nearly 20lbs.

The key is food. Try to eat clean and avoid processed crap and your taste buds will change. Drop down to 1,400 cal and you will see immediate weight loss

The bolded is TERRIBLE advice. Very few people (mostly, people who are small, short and relatively sedentary) need to be on such a low calorie intake. There's no reason for someone who is morbidly obese to drop to 1400 calories unless directed by a doctor; the OP should be able to lose just fine on a far higher intake.

I started at 230lbs am now 195lbs. When I decided it was time to lose weight I had to go big (so to speak) or go home. I dropped to 600 calories a day (I know I know) for about 3 weeks. I could only function on 600 because I was not working, I would literally sit on my couch for 12 hours a day, walking maybe 300 steps a day. Once I started my job that is VERY physically demanding (housekeeping wooo) I was more aware of how much carbs, protein, fat, etc I needed to function during the day. Now I rarely go over 1200 calories. I've lost 35lbs in 2 months. I feel awesome, I don't feel tired, I don't feel dizzy, and I'm seeing results. I am NOT saying do exactly what I did because in hind sight 600 calories a day is crazy. BUT what it did was make me more aware of how too much of this or too much of that made my body feel. I can tell now if I eat a bit too much salt, or too many carbs and it really helps me make good decisions because I don't want to feel like crap anymore.

That's close to dangerously fast.

You are losing muscle.

Start with counting your calories. That's all you need to do for now. Don't pay for a gym membership if you're never going to go. I paid for 3 years and I went maybe twice.

ALSO, this is just what worked for me. You can do all the research you want, I did way too much research for YEARS before actually doing something about my weight, but in the end your weightloss journey is yours and everyone does it differently.

ALSO, MFP gives me a daily calorie intake of 1310.

And that's before you do any activity.

try2again

eliciaobrien1 wrote: »

AliceDark wrote: »

mangofish44 wrote: »

Losing weight, at first at least, is more about diet than exercise. I've had a foot issue and had to temper off running and am down nearly 20lbs.

The key is food. Try to eat clean and avoid processed crap and your taste buds will change. Drop down to 1,400 cal and you will see immediate weight loss

The bolded is TERRIBLE advice. Very few people (mostly, people who are small, short and relatively sedentary) need to be on such a low calorie intake. There's no reason for someone who is morbidly obese to drop to 1400 calories unless directed by a doctor; the OP should be able to lose just fine on a far higher intake.

I started at 230lbs am now 195lbs. When I decided it was time to lose weight I had to go big (so to speak) or go home. I dropped to 600 calories a day (I know I know) for about 3 weeks. I could only function on 600 because I was not working, I would literally sit on my couch for 12 hours a day, walking maybe 300 steps a day. Once I started my job that is VERY physically demanding (housekeeping wooo) I was more aware of how much carbs, protein, fat, etc I needed to function during the day. Now I rarely go over 1200 calories. I've lost 35lbs in 2 months. I feel awesome, I don't feel tired, I don't feel dizzy, and I'm seeing results. I am NOT saying do exactly what I did because in hind sight 600 calories a day is crazy. BUT what it did was make me more aware of how too much of this or too much of that made my body feel. I can tell now if I eat a bit too much salt, or too many carbs and it really helps me make good decisions because I don't want to feel like crap anymore.

Start with counting your calories. That's all you need to do for now. Don't pay for a gym membership if you're never going to go. I paid for 3 years and I went maybe twice.

ALSO, this is just what worked for me. You can do all the research you want, I did way too much research for YEARS before actually doing something about my weight, but in the end your weightloss journey is yours and everyone does it differently.

ALSO, MFP gives me a daily calorie intake of 1310.

Just to make clear for the benefit of OP or lurkers: the fact that this poster has lost 4+ lbs a week means she has had a calorie deficit of 2000 calories a day. The average woman's maintenance calories are about that. So 2000-2000=0. The body has a limit to the amount of body fat that can be burned in a week- roughly 2 lbs, more if a person is extremely obese. The rest of that weight has to come from somewhere, which is your lean muscle mass. Losing lean muscle mass is BAD. It is extremely difficult to rebuild once it's lost, and don't forget that your heart is a muscle also.

This poster's current weight loss goal is still a bit aggressive (judging from her calorie allowance), even assuming she was eating it all. And apparently she is not eating back her exercise calories or changed her activity level to accommodate her new active job. She is still basically starving herself. Doesn't matter if she feels great... the negative effects are still happening. Here is a great post about why MFP gives us the numbers it does and why it's unwise to shortchange them:

http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10569458/why-eating-too-little-calories-is-a-bad-idea/p1

Alpha1Godess

I would suggest to simply log your calories first. This way you can see exactly what and how much you are consuming. It was definitely a wake-up call for me and has allowed me to remain accountable. Best of luck to you.

amusedmonkey

The most important thing now is to not overcomplicate things. Just log what you eat, don't restrict too much (1400 calories is too low) and the rest will come on its own gradually. If you make it reasonably easy for yourself, at some point you will get this urge to try things out and discover what works better for you. You will form a mental list of all the foods that fill you up and all the foods that are just not worth the calories. You may get curious about certain approaches, macros, food scheduling...etc. You will find subtle ways to move more even without purposely exercising (I'm the designated trashperson and grocery buyer in the house). Sometimes you will encounter specific or general issues and will come to the forums for help, and leave the thread with a few ideas to try.

This will all come in time if you make it easy enough on yourself to survive the initial reduction in calories, so please don't burn yourself out doing too much too soon trying to change everything at once.

firef1y72

20 months ago I was super morbidly obese at 5'2" weighing in at 290lb, today I'm edging ever closer to "normal" at 154lb. My first piece of advice would be to take each day at a time, you will have good days and bad days, but don't let a bad day derail you.
My next advice is to take little steps, start by simply logging your food, to give yourself a baseline. Then plug your details in here and choose a sensible rate of loss, I started at 1lb/week it gave me a lot of Calories to eat (even more after exercise) and I actually found myself losing around 2.5lb/week for the first few months. Whatever you do don't try and eat a stupidly low number of Calories, apart from when I was ill I don't think there's been a day when I've eaten less than 1800 Calories and more often than not I eat >2000. Don't restrict food groups, if you ban something altogether then it's more likely you'll binge on it. Don't follow any faddy diet simply eat less than you burn.

Once you're ready to add in activity, again take it one step at a time. I started by buying a Fitbit and simply wearing it for a week to discover where my baseline was (<3000 steps a day). I then set the target steps up adding 100 steps a day until I was walking 10000 and then 20000+steps a day.

By doing this I've transformed myself from the fat mum who could barely walk without crutches to the Mum who will be running her 2nd half marathon in 2 weeks.

MegaMooseEsq

Edit: lol, I totally forgot that I already posted in this thread.