Hello!

janelle_k_thomas

Hi folks, I’m fairly new to this community and wanted to introduce myself. I would greatly appreciate any advice, as I don’t seem to be making any progress on my own. I have a desk job and drive three hours a day for work. I do try to walk as much as possible in our small office, but I know I need to move more. I also have an obnoxiously picky eater of a husband (20 years married now). We don’t have any children (dog parents) and at one point about 15 years ago I just got sick of making two different dishes all the time.

At any rate, any tips or advice is greatly appreciated. Waving hello from Michigan!

evileyefirefly

janelle_k_thomas wrote: »

Hi folks, I’m fairly new to this community and wanted to introduce myself. I would greatly appreciate any advice, as I don’t seem to be making any progress on my own. I have a desk job and drive three hours a day for work. I do try to walk as much as possible in our small office, but I know I need to move more. I also have an obnoxiously picky eater of a husband (20 years married now). We don’t have any children (dog parents) and at one point about 15 years ago I just got sick of making two different dishes all the time.

At any rate, any tips or advice is greatly appreciated. Waving hello from Michigan!

I'm somewhat in the same boat. I have a roughly 3hr commute time each day, and have a desk job. First thing I would do if you don't already have it is look into a standing desk. Just overall better than sitting all day, not really that impactful on calorie burn but with 3hr in a vehicle it just feels better. I also try and workout at least 3 times a week for 1-2hr. With my schedule (Have a GF and 3 kids at home) it can be challenging, but just going will help. Lastly try to stay on target and log your food. There are discussions on doing it as you eat (I do this) or setting your day out and pre-logging. Whatever works better for you. Whatever you end up making just adjust your portion sizes to keep you in your calorie range. When we have high calorie foods I usually supplement with a salad and/or veggies. (I have a recipe for air-fried broccoli/cauliflower that is awesome)

This is what has worked for me, I'm down 24 of my 70 I'm looking to lose. Hope this helps.

janelle_k_thomas

Ty!! Nice to “meet” you! 😀

evileyefirefly

janelle_k_thomas wrote: »

Ty!! Nice to “meet” you! 😀

Nice to meet you as well. I also have found that if I get more protein at work/during the day I won't eat as much and tend to do much better at night. I load up with the Core Power protein shakes (42g protein, 230cal) and absolutely love the Barebells brand protein bars (all are 200cal or less and 16-20g protein) That and I drink water as soon as I feel hungry and make sure I'm just not thirsty. I will drink around 64-128oz of water a day depending on if I workout or not.

Joe_P2

I also have 50+lbs to lose. I started on September 14th at 250lbs and am now 231.3lbs as of October 15th. Although I have no medical experience/advice to give you I can give you what I did to lose the weight at the rate in which I did (nearly 0.5lb per day). I want to emphasize these are what worked FOR ME.

TLDR: The higher your BMI the faster you will lose weight when eating in a caloric deficit. The higher your caloric deficit the quicker you will lose weight. Make sure you are eating enough PROTEIN, about 1 gram per kilogram of weight.

First, there is a variety of factors when it comes to the RATE of weight loss. If you have a BMI>28 you can lose weight at a rapid pace because your body has a lot of excess weight that it really doesn't have a purpose of holding onto. A rule of thumb is that the more weight you lose, the harder the next pound is to lose. (at least for me)

Second, the secret ingredient to weight loss is quite easy. Eat less calories than your body consumes on a daily basis. The number of calories you burn if you were to sit on your couch for 24hours and do nothing is known as your Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR). This can be calculated on any website using your height and weight (in kg). For me my BMR is 2,117 calories per day. In order for me to begin losing weight I need to eat less than those 2,117 calories. What I did to lose weight was an extreme (maybe too extreme) caloric deficit of about 1250-1500 calories daily. So, if I eat 1,500 calories per day, I'll be in a 617-calorie deficit. The research says you need a total of 2500-4000 calorie of total deficit to lost 1lb of body fat. Over the course of a week my total deficit is 4300+ meaning I lose about 1-1.5lbs of fat per week. For someone just starting their journey and don't want to be hungry a majority of the time, I'd recommend a 300-400 calorie deficit. So, if your BMR is 1800 try eating 1500. Don't let the scale determine your mood for the day, your body can fluctuate nearly 5+lbs throughout the day through loss and gaining of fluids, food digesting, and masses in the intestines (feces). I'd recommend weighing yourself every morning at the same time and look at the trend of your weight week by week and not day by day.

Third, try intermittent fasting! If you are unfamiliar with the term intermittent fasting, it is basically time-restricted eating, or only eating for a certain period of the day. Common fasting techniques are. 16-8 (16 hours of fasting (only water/black coffee), with 8 hours of eating), 20-4, 12-12. For me I do a 16-8. I'm in college so my eating habits are going to very different from a working age individual. I start my fast (stop eating) at Midnight and I don't eat anything until 4pm the next day. Now this fast is easy for me, but it may not be good for everyone. For someone working 9-5, I'd recommend 11am-7pm eating window, and a 7pm-11am fast. (or a 9am-5pm) You might have to sacrifice breakfast (my favorite) but at least you can have that morning coffee (can use zero-calorie sweetener if wanted)

Lastly, make sure you are getting enough PROTEIN in on a daily basis. This will ensure that the weight you do begin losing is not MUSCLE and mainly FAT! You should eat anywhere between 0.8-1.2 grams of protein per Kg of body weight. I eat roughly 100-120g of protein daily. Of the 18ish pounds I've lost nearly 95+% of it was fat. (I recommend buying lean turkey, chicken breast, or a very lean cut of beef 90-10+, 80/20 is okay but I wouldn't eat it daily.)

I'd love to help out more in any way I can. I can provide some reliable sources of information and not just some college student on a blog. Let me know if you have any more questions and good luck on your journey!


This is what I did to lose

janelle_k_thomas

Ty everyone!!

Jared62170

Hello @janelle_k_thomas welcome here,

Maybe I have a solution about meal preparation. With my wife, we need to bring food at work everyday, and as we do not eat the same way (she have some food restrictions due to allergies). I understand the issue with cooking several dishes simultaneously.

As we have active and busy schedule, I managed to organise myself to cook only 4 times a week. I prepare huge quantities of one meal, I separate it on smaller portions, keep one or 2 for the week and freeze the remaining in individual portions.

With this, after few preparations I have a bunch of differents meals ready to be reheated. I know what I put on the meal (Not too much salt, no food preservatives, etc...). It's compatible with MFP, I weight every elements and then divide it by number of portions. It easier to stay within kcal per day as the postion is ready. It request only to invest on individual containers which can go to freezer and oven/microwave.

With this technique, I have plenty of different meals, I save time, it's still flexible (somtimes I don't have time to cook, but with the stock I can skip a complete week of cooking). Saving time = more time for exercices

Hope this can help

(Excuse my English, I'm French )