New to my journey, care to share some advice ?

MayaTheGoose

Hey, I'm Maya ! I've just started my fitness journey and I could use some help. I struggle with an eating disorder that I've struggled with for years, and depression PLUS quarantine didn't help at all. I'm really trying hard to lose weight, but I find myself with zero motivation. Of course I still exercise and diet everyday(for these 3 days), but it's already getting difficult to keep going. I've cut out all refined grains, sugars, carbs, sodas/juices, oils, etc, and I'm eating fruits/veggies/seafood/water only. Food was my only comfort for a while, but since 3 days ago I've been practicing portion control, scheduled eating times, and diet friendly foods. It's difficult shifting like this, so if you have any tips or advice I'd love to hear it. Also if you'd like to be friends- I'd love to !!!

Indialove901

Don’t overwhelm yourself and don’t be too hard on yourself. It sounds like you’re off to a good start. My piece of advice would be to walk. That has helped me physically and mentally. Just take 30 minutes and walk. Before I started exercising, I did intermittent fasting and that helped tremendously also. You got this! Just take it one step at a time.

Lietchi

MayaTheGoose wrote: »

Hey, I'm Maya ! I've just started my fitness journey and I could use some help. I struggle with an eating disorder that I've struggled with for years, and depression PLUS quarantine didn't help at all. I'm really trying hard to lose weight, but I find myself with zero motivation. Of course I still exercise and diet everyday(for these 3 days), but it's already getting difficult to keep going. I've cut out all refined grains, sugars, carbs, sodas/juices, oils, etc, and I'm eating fruits/veggies/seafood/water only. Food was my only comfort for a while, but since 3 days ago I've been practicing portion control, scheduled eating times, and diet friendly foods. It's difficult shifting like this, so if you have any tips or advice I'd love to hear it. Also if you'd like to be friends- I'd love to !!!

When I read stuff like this, it sets off alarm bells in my head.

For two reasons:

- can you imagine eating like this long-term? The goal is to lose weight and keep it off. If you make temporary changes to your diet and then 'go back to normal' afterwards, you'll just gain the weight back. And drastically overhauling your diet like this also makes it more likely you'll fall off the wagon. Instead of your drastic approach, try tweaking your diet gradually, creating new habits gradually that will serve you well when you reach your goal weight and want to maintain. Make losing weight as easy and painless as possible: don't eliminate all the foods you love and are used to overnight, don't aim for quick weight loss (losing more slowly gives you a higher calorie allowance - less hunger). Also, no need to be 'perfect' all the time: you can consume refined carbs, oils, sugar,... as long as it's in moderation and within your calorie allowance.

- fats are not the devil, your body needs them, especially healthy fats. Avocado, olive oil, nuts,... They can also help you feel satiated. Moderation, not elimination.

88olds

The more rules you make for yourself the harder a plan is to stick with. If we see ourselves repeatedly going off our plan it erodes our confidence. Be careful of the red lines you draw.

We lose weight eating in a calorie deficit. But weight loss has two parts. There’s eating in a calorie deficit and living with it. The tendency is to go all in on the deficit and try to beat ourselves into living with it. Generally doesn’t work.

Have you tried calorie counting? Calorie counting supported by a food diary works. But it’s an entire set of things to do- calculate a moderate calorie deficit, plan a menu, use a food scale to crunch the numbers, and problem solve when things don’t work out. It takes time to learn the process and get it up and running but it really does work.

snowflake954

What they said^^^^^^. Don't do drastic changes--it creates a diet and binge cycle. Get your daily calorie goal and stay within it. Be consistent, but if you go over for one day, just restart the next day. There are no "bad" foods, however there are calorie dense foods. Weigh and measure them carefully. Good luck.

MargaretYakoda

There are no bad foods. Only ill-advised portion sizes.

goal06082021

Listen to Lietchi, they know what they're talking about.

Unless your ED is made worse by doing so, try logging your food honestly for the next week or two. Nevermind about your calorie budget - if it helps, set it to some wild number you could never possibly hit like 50k, since MFP won't let you set it to 0 - and nevermind about all of those (unnecessarily restrictive) rules. Eat how you normally do, just take notes while you do it. See how much you ACTUALLY eat in a day - it's probably not what you think, humans as a species are just really bad at judging this kind of thing by eye.

Next, go through the guided setup here, set it to lose 1lb per week. Base your activity level on how much you move OUTSIDE of purposeful exercise, log your purposeful exercise and eat those calories back. The temptation will be there to set it to lose 2lb per week - don't. It's not sustainable for the majority of people. 1% of your bodyweight per week is the maximum you should aim for, and that's a LIMIT, not a goal.

Once you have a couple of weeks of good data about how you ACTUALLY eat, see how far off it actually is from where you need to be to lose 1lb per week, and look for ways to cut back to get to the number MFP gives you. Less cream in your coffee? Less mayo on your sandwich? Water with meals instead of soda or alcohol? Fruit instead of candy for a snack? Don't make any pronouncements now, wait until you have your data and pick ONE small change to make. Do that until it's easy, then pick another small change. Rinse, repeat, eventually you've changed your whole lifestyle for the better, and all without blowing it up and rebuilding it from scratch and making yourself miserable in the process.

zebasschick

when i first lost weight, i weighed 242 (i'm 5' 3"). i simply changed from full fat foods - like full fat ice cream or cheese - to the light versions, and i lost over 40 pounds. some taste good, some don't, but a little experimenting helps find the tasty options. and a double chocolate chunk quest bar has protein, tastes like a brownie and is 180 calories. i also love dannon light & fit yogurts - 80 calories, cherry, vanilla and toasted marshmallow are my favorites.

totally agree that finding out more by logging your current eating without changing it will give you a baseline and you can go from there. i'm a comfort eater, so instead of putting the pressure on myself, i found lower calorie things to comfort eat.

good luck!

btw, as far as working out, i found good old walking helped me get healthier and burned a few extra calories, too.