First try here.

travelling_lots

Hi everyone,
Just joined and trying for the first time.
I’m lightly active and I’m worried I won’t make a dent in my goals.

Any tips on how to start and keep at it?

Thanks

kommodevaran

You can lose weight without exercise. Set up your account, log your food intake, hit your calorie target. Keep it simple and enjoyable.

travelling_lots

Thank you!
Will give it my best shot.

VUA21

Hi, so far I've lost about 180lbs. I'm 41, 5'7", and a mom.

To start: get a digital food scale. Start learning how to weigh everything and logging it into your diary. That's actually one of the hardest things to get down, I've been doing this for 3 years and still mess up on occasion.

Step 2: Set your goal to maintenance. I've seen 1000 people set 2lbs/week goals and quit because they are "starving". As long as you eat less than your maintenance, you will lose weight. So for a bit, just try to eat less than your maintenance calories. Doesn't have to be a lot under, just under. When you get comfortable with that, then adjust your goals to 1/2lb per week. As you get comfortable eating there, adjust to 1lb/week. Repeat until you find that you are either no longer comfortable with the lowered calories or are at the 2lb/week max.

Things I've learned:
1. There are NO BAD foods!!! Unless you are allergic to, have an intolerance of, or other medical condition, there are no bad foods. The human body needs fat, sugar, carbs, salt and a myraid of other things in order to function. Now, this doesn't mean that a diet of nothing but Skittles is okay - that would lead to malnutrition, just like a diet of nothing but kale. You don't have to give up any foods you love. Just try to eat less high calorie/low nutrition stuff, and more low calorie/high nutrition stuff.
2. To lose weight, eat at a calorie deficit. That's it, that's all it takes. This is a related to #1, but goes a little further. This means having a cheeseburger is perfectly fine. It also means that you don't have to exercise. While everyone should incorporate daily exercise (a 30 min walk is daily exercise) for overall health, it isn't required to lose weight.
3. Be patient. Weight loss takes time, a lot of time. Yes, I lost 180lbs, but it took me nearly 2 years to lose my initial 170lbs. I took a year off to do a body recomp and give my skin some time to catch up. Fat shrinks faster than skin, so yes, there is a possibility of having loose skin. But, I am much happier with my loose belly flap than I was when I was morbidly obese.
4. Water retention. Weight loss isn't linear. I've had plateaus that lasted four weeks, then all of a sudden dropped 8lbs in a day. Now, I didn't not lose fat for 4 weeks, then lost 8lbs of fat in 1 day. I lost 2lbs/week, but retained water so the scale didn't show it.
5. There's no magic. There are no magic foods, pills, drinks or anything else that will miraculously make you lose or gain weight.
6. Bad days. Bad days or even weeks (just got back from a month long holiday in London - kinda had a very fun, but food wise bad month) happen. They happen to everyone, it's called "being human". So when you have a bad day, congratulations on being human, there are 8.5 Billion of us. Remember, 1 day of eating great at a deficit isn't going to make you lose all the weight, 1 day at eating over your calories isn't going to ruin all your progress.
7. DON'T QUIT!!! This is it. No matter how slow your progress is, it is still progress. I've seen countless people quit because of slow progress without realizing that slow progress is still progress. There's a quote that I've adopted: "I never lose. I either win, or I learn". I never fail at my goals, I either succeed or I learn.

You can do this! I'm pretty lazy, hate "health" food (kale is gross, quinoa looks exactly like what put in my bird feeder), yet managed to lose the weight. All because I refused to give up.

travelling_lots

Hi Vua21,

Wow!

Thank you so much for your reply.

Fantastic, informative and extremely supportive. Im scared to gain more till my back recovers.

Going to print it and put it on my fridge.

So far I have step 1- digital scale.

Thank you again

travelling_lots

VUA21 wrote: »

Hi, so far I've lost about 180lbs. I'm 41, 5'7", and a mom.

To start: get a digital food scale. Start learning how to weigh everything and logging it into your diary. That's actually one of the hardest things to get down, I've been doing this for 3 years and still mess up on occasion.

Step 2: Set your goal to maintenance. I've seen 1000 people set 2lbs/week goals and quit because they are "starving". As long as you eat less than your maintenance, you will lose weight. So for a bit, just try to eat less than your maintenance calories. Doesn't have to be a lot under, just under. When you get comfortable with that, then adjust your goals to 1/2lb per week. As you get comfortable eating there, adjust to 1lb/week. Repeat until you find that you are either no longer comfortable with the lowered calories or are at the 2lb/week max.

Things I've learned:
1. There are NO BAD foods!!! Unless you are allergic to, have an intolerance of, or other medical condition, there are no bad foods. The human body needs fat, sugar, carbs, salt and a myraid of other things in order to function. Now, this doesn't mean that a diet of nothing but Skittles is okay - that would lead to malnutrition, just like a diet of nothing but kale. You don't have to give up any foods you love. Just try to eat less high calorie/low nutrition stuff, and more low calorie/high nutrition stuff.
2. To lose weight, eat at a calorie deficit. That's it, that's all it takes. This is a related to #1, but goes a little further. This means having a cheeseburger is perfectly fine. It also means that you don't have to exercise. While everyone should incorporate daily exercise (a 30 min walk is daily exercise) for overall health, it isn't required to lose weight.
3. Be patient. Weight loss takes time, a lot of time. Yes, I lost 180lbs, but it took me nearly 2 years to lose my initial 170lbs. I took a year off to do a body recomp and give my skin some time to catch up. Fat shrinks faster than skin, so yes, there is a possibility of having loose skin. But, I am much happier with my loose belly flap than I was when I was morbidly obese.
4. Water retention. Weight loss isn't linear. I've had plateaus that lasted four weeks, then all of a sudden dropped 8lbs in a day. Now, I didn't not lose fat for 4 weeks, then lost 8lbs of fat in 1 day. I lost 2lbs/week, but retained water so the scale didn't show it.
5. There's no magic. There are no magic foods, pills, drinks or anything else that will miraculously make you lose or gain weight.
6. Bad days. Bad days or even weeks (just got back from a month long holiday in London - kinda had a very fun, but food wise bad month) happen. They happen to everyone, it's called "being human". So when you have a bad day, congratulations on being human, there are 8.5 Billion of us. Remember, 1 day of eating great at a deficit isn't going to make you lose all the weight, 1 day at eating over your calories isn't going to ruin all your progress.
7. DON'T QUIT!!! This is it. No matter how slow your progress is, it is still progress. I've seen countless people quit because of slow progress without realizing that slow progress is still progress. There's a quote that I've adopted: "I never lose. I either win, or I learn". I never fail at my goals, I either succeed or I learn.

You can do this! I'm pretty lazy, hate "health" food (kale is gross, quinoa looks exactly like what put in my bird feeder), yet managed to lose the weight. All because I refused to give up.

Congratulations on your success!