I'm overwhelmed. Please help!

julydecmay

I am overwhelmed with information from the internet, my doctor, my family, etc. I have a significant amount of weight to lose (150bs) and believe that focusing on a healthier diet, cutting out a lot of junk and sugar, and adding regular exercise will help all of the ailments I am dealing with (hashimoto's, hives, elevated blood pressure, extreme brain fog, fatigue, tinnitus). It seems obvious that my body feels like crap because I am so overweight and consume junk and plenty of sugar. I realize this. My thyroid meds are optimal, but my doctor is a huge believer in cutting out major foods for health (eggs, dairy, gluten, grains). He personally eats a mostly raw diet for whatever reason. I want to lose weight but I also really want to feel good. Those around me feel like certain foods are making me feel bad (carbs? grains? dairy? food sensitivities?) I did the AIP diet for 2 weeks to see if I am sensitive to certain foods before I lost my mind and caved. It's so overwhelming. Any insight or input would be so appreciated!

Diatonic12

I just have to ask, is this a chiropractor telling you restrict all of these food groups. He's eating a raw diet.

I used to belong to a dieting club that restricted all of those same food groups and it ended up in a big flop. A total failure. That food protocol was conducted with clean eating and food restrictions. None of it was sustainable or manageable for the rest of my lifetime. It was mostly imaginary ideas about food and I was following along like sheeple often do. Inwardly, I knew that none of made any sense for me. Not on day one and all through the months and months I was dropping it like it was hot.

Rebound weight gain with friends was the side effect of living on so few foods. I had to start all over again. There are so many threads you need to read at the beginning of every section on the forum. The forum stickies are a must. Start there.

Pace yourself.

There's no need to overwhelm your head. A dietitian is a good resource along with doing your own research, too. Those who do retain the most. Now that you're here, stick around. I think you may find some of the groups really helpful. Connection matters when you're just starting out of the chute.

ReenieHJ

Pick healthy foods you like, count your calories, walk a little, voila.....it really doesn't have to be that restrictive. Decrease calories, increase movement. Enter your stats and goals into MFP to get some guidance in how many calories. And don't look for a quick fix. I spent most of my life doing that.
Then if you're still having some major symptoms, talk with a dr. about it. But usually, unless you've got some major food sensitivities, there is no need to abolish everything your dr. is against. Sure, there are people who have definite food allergies but wouldn't that require testing rather than avoiding all those food groups mentioned?
I do know when I was living mainly on high fat high sugar carbs, I had terrible brain fog and reduced energy levels. But those 2 things had nothing to do with dairy, meat, gluten, etc. It was because I was living on mostly unhealthy and very little healthy foods, drinking tons of diet soda.
Good luck!!!

kingscrown

I began a huge thinking year in 2011. I was over whelmed trying to get healthy and I was the highest weight I’d ever been.

I decided to keep it simple. To do the opposite of what I’d always done.

I started exercising. I hired a trainer to make sure I was actually exercising correctly.

I decided to give it one year. Prove to my doctor that it didn’t work for me. Damn it! It worked. Exercising alone my weight slowly came down.

I told my trainer I didn’t want to go in a diet. She gently made suggestions on how to just eat a tad healthier. They worked and were doable.

So pick ONE thing. Work on it till you’re ready for something new.

A gymnast doesn’t start doing backflips.

HeidiCooksSupper

There's no scientific evidence that raw food or very restrictive diets work or are even good for you. Most doctors tend to know very little about nutrition because there just wasn't time in their curriculum. You sound like you have your head on straight and have come to the right place.

What you need to do to lose weight is consume fewer calories than you use. That's the whole story on weight loss. Getting and staying healthy is somewhat more complex. You need a healthy, well-balanced diet and to do some exercise.

Use a good, scientifically accurate source to get information about what eating healthy comprises. My favorite is Harvard School of Public Health's "Nutrition Source." https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/ Start with their "healthy eating plate." Then use something like MFP's calorie calculator or another TDEE (total daily energy expenditure) calculator to establish a target calorie amount for each day and start logging everything that goes in your mouth.

To increase your chances of being successful, get a digital kitchen scale -- available in big box stores for less than $20. Weigh your peanut butter when you put it on bread, weigh the jam, weigh everything and you will be able to accurately record how many calories you eat each day.

And, to help you be successful when you start out, don't set yourself up for failure by trying to be to cut your calories too aggressively at first. Somewhere between 1/2 and 1 1/2 pounds a week is probably plenty fast to start. You are not "going on a diet," you are adjusting how much you eat so you will weigh less. As you log, you will probably automatically start cutting out "empty calories" like sweetened sodas, etc., because you won't want to use up too much of your daily allotment with things that ultimately aren't terribly satisfying.

Honestly, that's really all there is to it.

Raegold

Omg ok, honestly... my biggest tip would be to NOT do anything extreme right now because it's not sustainable and it's too much on your plate. Focus on just 1-2 things for right now. Think of it this way- nothing will get better at all if you try extreme diets and can't maintain them.

If I were you, I'd choose simple to start- just log your calories, even what you normally eat, for a week. Plus maybe for that week specifically look on the MFP tracker at how much sugar you are eating every day. Then after a week, use that info to make a change for the next week. Your brain is on overload right now, so start slow and simple.

westrich20940

1. Don't listen to someone who follows a very highly restrictive diet (ie. cutting out any food group, etc.).

For most people, generally, this would not be an overall healthy diet. If there are health reasons for you to avoid certain foods, that's different but it doesn't sound like that's the case for you.

If you are feeling overwhelmed, my advice to you (as long as you don't have any dietary restrictions for ethical/health reasons) is to only focus on calories.

Figure out your Total Daily Energy Expenditure and BMR --- eat someone between those two (less than TDEE but more than BMR). Make sure your are measuring/weighing all of your food properly so you know you're tracking properly.

Calories in vs. calories out - simple equation that will work and doesn't include extraneous 'diet' advice from the peanut gallery.

sportygal1971

Try scaffolding. I used to drink 2L of soda a day. Now your doc might want you to drop everything but what I did was make 2-3 realistic changes.
Ex.
1st week only 1 soda a day
2ndweek 2-3 per week
3rd wk 1-2
You get the idea. Now 10 years later, I have a soda a couple times a year! And I never thought I would give it up.
I used to eat a large pizza every week. Now most pizza restaurants gross me out & I make my own w cauliflower crust.
Friend me if you want help. I went from obese to personal trainer and at almost 50, tragedies, injuries and menopause has messed me up, buy it still better health wise now and can get back.

ddavenport6962

This is all great advice, thats whats great about MFP app. I often read the comunity blogs and comments they are very helpful and quite inspiring
I think you are so overwhelmed by people giving you bad advice elsewhere and the idea of all those fad diets out there is a minefield and none of them work. Logging, weighing food and counting the calories is the best way to go and like others have said its the healthiest. You can have whatever you want as long as you count the calories, however, you will soon realise that the healthier the food the lower calories it yields therefore you are able to have more of that or some thing else extra to keep within you calorie allowance . Many of us have tried other ways of losing weight, but this realy is the easiest and best way. I use to drink 2 litres of fizzy drinks every day, 1 or 2 glasses of wine every evening more on weekends. Takeaway foods 2 or 3 times a week - the list goes on . Now i only drink water and 2 or 3 coffees a day , healthy option taleaway food once a week , smaller portions and i make a green salad to go with it . I dont miss any of it and feel so much better for it. Good luck 😊

cmriverside

^^What they all said.

Just start.

What I did was start by logging food. That's an eye opener in itself.

Second thing I did was plan and pay for a vacation - nine months away. That's how long it was going to take me to lose 70 pounds. I started looking at bathing suits and bought one in what I thought would be my goal size. That was a big carrot on a long stick, and it worked. I lost 60 pounds before the vacation. The bathing suit fit.

Along the way there was a lot to learn, and I spent time doing that. I figured out which foods I could eat that kept me full enough till my next meal. It was mostly intuitive: lean protein and lots of vegetables. I cut way back on grains in general but still had a couple servings a day. I cut back because they are high calorie and leave me hungry soon afterwards. That meant all prepared cereals and crackers, pretzels, corn chips were gone. I still don't buy those things very often, they aren't worth it to me. I do buy bread, rice, oatmeal, pasta, and corn tortillas.

I cut out fruit juice and soda pop because what a ridiculous waste of calories. I still don't drink that. Water, coffee and unsweetened or lightly sweetened iced tea and that's about it for drinks. Some foods call for a glass of milk, but it's Special. Like a peanut butter and jelly sandwich requires a glass of milk.

I came up with a bunch of meals that were 350-500 calories. I would pre-log until I understood how all my favorite foods fit into a good nutrition plan. I studied my FOOD diary and became knowledgeable about nutrition.

I started exercising. That's a whole other post, but just start walking around your neighborhood. It will change you.

Just start. It's overwhelming when you try to do too much, so start by logging all the food you eat today and study your FOOD diary tomorrow morning and do it all over again.

Most of all, be gentle to yourself. It took time to put it on, it will take time to take it off and no one does it perfectly. If/when you have a day of 2500 calories in cake and ice cream, log it and get back on track the very next day. Life happens.

cpnknight

This is my two penneth worth....
I too am in need of losing a considerable amount of weight. My starting point was 353 lbs! My ultimate goal weight is 196 lbs, now that is a huge amount to lose.
At the moment I have lost 36 lbs, still a very long way to go but "It's the journey that's never started as takes the longest" (as the gaffer used to say).
My big secret is this;
(1) I make small goals. A couple of pounds at a time. (My first goal was to lose 4lb to drop me below 350lbs)
(2) Nothing is off the menu. I log everything to as close as I can calorie wise, I try very, very hard to stay within calorie budget.
(3) I do small amounts of exercise when I can. (Even walking up and down the stairs at home helps. This I do not eat back!)
(4) If I go over on my calorie budget then I do not get upset by it. (Losing the amount of weight that we have to lose will take a long time. (You didn't become fat overnight, you wont become thin overnight either)
(5) Weigh and measure yourself at the start. Then only weigh yourself once a week. At the start of every month do another Weigh and measure. (It is nice to see the measurements start to drop. Also, if you do exercise and put on a bit of muscle then that can offset the fat loss. Measuring shows the progress better than the scales)

Just count the calories in and try to make sure that in the long run you are in a calorie deficit. If you do this then you will lose weight!