No Time - Need Advice

hayleymykhal

Hi there. I'm new and need a little motivation/support: I'm a full-time college student (that's doing part-time interning for my Education major) and a part-time retail worker. I'm constantly away from home, either in a classroom or at work - the only time I'm at home is at night to sleep and some on the weekend when I finally have time to relax and decompress. I work in a large, orange chain hardware store where I work in the paint department, lifting heavy (25-50+lbs buckets/bags/boxes) products, going up and down stairs, and generally walking all around the store. I average anywhere between 7-10k steps in 4-5 hours during my night shifts and while I'm teaching at my internship, I'm normally on my feet walking around the room.

My problem is that I'm finding it hard to keep motivated to lose weight. I'm 21 years old, about 5'9", and weigh approximately 200-210lbs. I would, realistically, like to lose around 20-25lbs to be able to fit comfortably into some of the old clothes I've been too stubborn to get rid of. I've just started meal prepping so I have a healthier lunch than fast food or pre-packaged/processed food.

I do have a break on the days I exclusively take courses/lectures until October, and there is a gym on my campus that I'm interested in going back to it, but I don't know what exactly to do.

So, my question is to you guys: what's some advice you can give a student with literally no time to even themselves?

kommodevaran

Losing weight should take less time, because you'll be eating less. You don't have to eat anything in particular, just fewer calories, but consistently. And you don't have to exercise.

DamienAngelica

You can lose weight without going to a gym. It sounds like you've taken the first step by starting to meal prep. Next, determine what your calorie deficit should be, and then buy a food scale, measure everything, and log it.

sijomial

Eating less takes up less time than eating more.
If you are too busy it should be easy to skip some snacks......

janejellyroll

Get a calorie goal from MFP, log accurately to consistently hit that goal.

You can do that while eating anything, so if you want to continue to meal prep you can do that. Or if you want to sometimes have fast food or packaged food, that will work as well.

If you have time to go to the gym, feel free (exercise is great for fitness!). But if you're consistently hitting a calorie deficit, you can lose weight without additional exercise.

cmriverside

Keep logging your food every day.

Walk further than you need to for classes. So, park further away or get off the bus two stops early. As far as what to do in the gym - I'd say do what you will continue to do on a regular basis, and find a person who can help you if you don't know how to do things.

quiksylver296

Calories are all that matter for weight loss. Eat the number of calories this site assigned you each day. A food scale is your friend for this. Pack your meals, don't eat on the fly. You have to plan, in order to succeed.

MegaMooseEsq

It sounds like you're getting plenty of movement in during the day - I agree with the posts above that you should focus on creating a *reasonable* calorie deficit and not stress out about the gym right now. You can do it!

aeloine

kommodevaran wrote: »

Losing weight should take less time, because you'll be eating less. You don't have to eat anything in particular, just fewer calories, but consistently. And you don't have to exercise.

^ Ditto. 95% of my weightloss came from getting my eating in check. I meal prep salads on the weekends and keep a bottle of non perishable dressing at my desk. Try pre packing carrots, pretzels, etc., too. You don't have to exercise. Focus on healthy food choices and work out when you can. College is hard. No need to add MORE stress.

gabriellejayde

I work in an office 1.5-2 hour drive from my home and have a house, a husband, 3 dogs, 2 cats, chickens and a horse (and 2 grown kids)... so I have almost no time to work out. I either:
Don't workout at all or
go for a walk at lunchtime
take the stairs whenever I can and park far away from wherever I'm going.

That's it. Other than that, I watch what I eat. 55lbs down.

SundropEclipse

Invest in a slow cooker. I've been meaning to break mine out since returning to work, since you can throw veggies and meat in and let it all cook while you sleep. It makes it a bit more difficult to accurately track calorie intake, but it's great for healthy eats when you won't have time to make something for a couple days.

Another option is premixed and canned foods. I make a lot of salads for Hubby and myself, and seasoned stewed tomatoes has become a staple, as well as canned beans (kidney and black are our favorites) & corn. We switch up our protein sources with a sausage, chicken strips and breast, canned tuna, and looking at adding some of the precooked beef strips once in a while. Keep in mind though you don't want rely on boxed or canned foor all the time as the sodium content can get pretty high, but for busy work days they've been effective choices for keeping me under my calorie limit.

Maxxitt

Echoing the above - the lifting at your job and the walking you are already doing is sufficient exercise for health purposes. Meal prepping for a healthier lunch is a great step. Food is fuel.

TatianaCamaro

Hey. I honestly disagree that you don't need gym. I think you should try to manage finding time at least for 3 workouts a week. Regarding the food, it's good that you are prepping lunch. But you can't eat only once per the whole day. To increase the metabolism you need to eat every 3 hours. So I would suggest taking snacks to work that don't need cooking (few raw almonds, banana, walnuts etc). These snacks are healthy and they are high in calories, so they will keep you full.
Best of luck in your journey!

76Crane76

I think finding a few good HIIT workouts might help...somewhere you could add a 10 or 15 minute workout...

deannalfisher

you don't need a gym - there are many workouts you can do at home - check out FitnessBlender on youtube for ideas

janejellyroll

TatianaCamaro wrote: »

Hey. I honestly disagree that you don't need gym. I think you should try to manage finding time at least for 3 workouts a week. Regarding the food, it's good that you are prepping lunch. But you can't eat only once per the whole day. To increase the metabolism you need to eat every 3 hours. So I would suggest taking snacks to work that don't need cooking (few raw almonds, banana, walnuts etc). These snacks are healthy and they are high in calories, so they will keep you full.
Best of luck in your journey!

Your metabolism is constantly working whether you eat every three hours or not. While some people may find it easier to maintain a deficit if they eat more frequently, eating more frequently won't do anything special for weight loss. And for some people (like people who feel more satisfied by larger, less frequent, meals) may even find it backfires as far as weight loss goes.

While the gym is great for many people, nobody *needs* it for weight loss. You can achieve a deficit without ever stepping foot in one and many people also find it possible to be active without one.

tgcakef

TatianaCamaro wrote: »

Hey. I honestly disagree that you don't need gym. I think you should try to manage finding time at least for 3 workouts a week. Regarding the food, it's good that you are prepping lunch. But you can't eat only once per the whole day. To increase the metabolism you need to eat every 3 hours. So I would suggest taking snacks to work that don't need cooking (few raw almonds, banana, walnuts etc). These snacks are healthy and they are high in calories, so they will keep you full.
Best of luck in your journey!

Exercise is great for health but not required for weight loss. In addition, the OP seems to be quite active as it is.

Eating one meal a day is fine - OMAD, IF, etc.

OP, as others have said, stick to your calorie goal. Meal prep is great. I like to prep snacks ahead of time - weigh them out, stick them in little zip lock bags, and pop them in my bag. If you cannot log all the time, log once a day but scribble down/type into your phone what you ate; I know talk-to-text "almonds" is easier for me than the MFP app or website. You could even log once every few days as long as you keep a consistent record, and know how much you're eating - meal prep, pre-weighing, etc. are your friends here.

If you have time, the gym might be good but it honestly won't give you a huge amount of calories to have a deficit with. Think of exercise for health, not for weight loss.

Muscleflex79

TatianaCamaro wrote: »

Hey. I honestly disagree that you don't need gym. I think you should try to manage finding time at least for 3 workouts a week. Regarding the food, it's good that you are prepping lunch. But you can't eat only once per the whole day. To increase the metabolism you need to eat every 3 hours. So I would suggest taking snacks to work that don't need cooking (few raw almonds, banana, walnuts etc). These snacks are healthy and they are high in calories, so they will keep you full.
Best of luck in your journey!

this is not correct (just like your other thread about only eating carbs early in the day is wrong). some people do eat one meal per day and do just fine - you don't need to eat every 3 hours to keep your metabolism going.

BSkinner9987

Track everything you eat and all exercise. Also meal prepping is a big tool! I'm in nursing school and it has helped me (and my poor husband) survive. Less stress about what to eat and you can control your portions so you aren't mindlessly eating. And there are lots of free online workout videos to do at home. Today I found Popsugar's Class Fitsugar. It has some great free online videos for whatever kind of exercise you like and whatever length you want. It's just finding your groove and sticking with it.

snickerscharlie

TatianaCamaro wrote: »

Hey. I honestly disagree that you don't need gym. I think you should try to manage finding time at least for 3 workouts a week. Regarding the food, it's good that you are prepping lunch. But you can't eat only once per the whole day. To increase the metabolism you need to eat every 3 hours. So I would suggest taking snacks to work that don't need cooking (few raw almonds, banana, walnuts etc). These snacks are healthy and they are high in calories, so they will keep you full.
Best of luck in your journey!

Nope. Meal timing or frequency has no measurable effect on metabolism one way or the other.