New to Fitness Pal

sharimoss4

Hi! I am new here. I am 52 yes old and have ALOT of weight to lose and a long way to go to being healthy. I could used lots of friends and support! I am having a hard time getting started I would appreciate any and all advice.

AnnPT77

Hi, and welcome!

What's the issue with getting started?

One option is simply to start logging what you eat now - good, bad or indifferent - for a while. For me, logging what I ate quickly highlighted foods that were costing a lot of calories, but that weren't proportionally important to me for tastiness, satiation, convenience, nutrition, or other important things. Those foods were pretty easy to reduce (frequency or portion size), and sometimes even skip.

In a way, calorie counting is like financial budgeting: I'd like to have the palatial log cabin mansion in the mountainous woods, but I can't afford it, y'know? Similarly, I might like to have a different large deep-dish pizza all to myself every day of every week (exaggerating a tiny bit!), but I can't afford that either.

Just like my limited savings account fortunately doesn't mean I have to live under a bush in the cold, cold Winter here, my limited calorie account doesn't mean I can't have pizza ever again, either. It's about balancing resources - looking for a tolerably pleasant overall way of eating that lets me achieve a healthy weight and stay there.

I have to admit, I underestimated how much quality of life improvement I'd get from reaching and staying at a healthy weight; and I overestimated how difficult it would be to do it if I used some common sense. I could kick myself for not doing it decades sooner, now that I know those things, rather than staying overweight/obese for all those years.

I started here at 59, lost weight back in 2015, now 67 and maintaining a healthy weight for the last 7+ years. I'm a hedonistic, undisciplined aging hippie type, not some paragon of motivation and willpower, so I figure if I can do this, other people can.

Wishing you success: The results are worth it. The only way to fail is to give up trying different tactics until you find the right ones for you.

Best wishes!

E.T.A. P.S.: This post is a good on-ramp to using MFP:

http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/1080242/a-guide-to-get-you-started-on-your-path-to-sexypants/p1

Don't let the joke-y clickbait title put you off, it's solid, sensible information.

mlconstant5

Hi Sharimoss,
I’m new to MFP so I don’t have any groups to suggest joining but I sent you a friend request to be in your corner for support!
-Mel