165 pounds, 5'6 and 20 years old.

chickennugger13

I never really thought of myself as fat until I had to get my body fat measured as part of a study at university and they told me I was 43% fat and could really benefit from losing weight.
I used to have my cute skinny jeans and my overly loose fat jeans, but now my fat jeans are skinny jeans to me. My downfall is my love of comfort food and the fact I never exercise, I just sit in front of my laptop all day as part of being at uni, and my part time job is all sitting down too.
My current plan is to try and stick to a 1200 calorie diet, go to the gym every weekday for an hour and swim once a week.
Do you think this will work?

SLLRunner

Welcome!

1200 calorie is the bare minimum of what you need to survive, even if you were laying on the couch all day staring aimlessly at the TV.

Think of the exercise you do--walking to get to classes, maybe going dancing with your friends, and maybe a bike ride once in a while. Even that takes more than 1200 calories.

Now, think of the exercise you plan on doing at the gym every day and swimming once a week. This all will definitely take more than that basic 1200 calories.

My advice is to log in all your food and exercise into MFP. That way, you will learn how much food it actually takes to fuel your body. For example, if you burn 300 calories on that walk, you must eat those calories back in order to fuel your body. I can never eat all my exercise calories back because I'm simply not hungry enough, but i do eat a fair about back.

Finally, I would suggest that you scratch the word "diet" from your vocabulary. What you are doing is learning new eating and exercise habits that will greatly enrich your life.

Koldnomore

You have virtually the same stats as I do - It has taken me 1 year to reach 160 lbs (from 220 ish) I am 20 years older than you and eat close to 2200 calories a day (NET 1500). I m losing roughly 1 lb / week which is quite sustainable and does not leave me feeling hungry or deprived. I don't go to the gym - just do a lot of walking.

Because you are so much younger than I am, your BMR will be higher. I would suggest to set your calories around 1500 and eat back at least 1/2 of any activity that you do end up doing. Food wise try to get lots of protein (more than MFP says) as much as you can - it will help you feel fuller longer. If you can hit 100 every day that's perfect for now.

Don't stress about the gym or swimming right away, just try and get used to the system and logging everything first Good Luck.

Shellanfit

definately

BigAl_2

I'm 22 and started off at 172. I follow the 1200 a day (some days are a little under, some are a little over) and exercise regularly without feeling like I'm starving myself etc. I guess it depends on what works for you. After one month I'm down to 155.

cadaverousbones

We are similar except I am a bit heavier than you. I am 5'6", 185 lbs, and 22 years old. Currently I have my calorie goals set at 1450 calories per day (plus eating back exercise calories) I plan to exercise 90 minutes a day, 5 days a week and have Friday and Saturday as rest days. Make sure that you do eat back your exercise calories if MFP is set to 1200 otherwise you will be starving and not getting proper nutrients! Add me if you want

shutupandlift13

170lbs, 5'8, 24 years old here... almost 30lbs lost, at least 10% body fat lost, sitting between 24-26% body fat right now... former cardio queen, arbitrary food restricter, recovering binge eater, current heavy lifter, half marathon runner, and foodie...

Eat more. Lift weights or do resistance training. Get adequate protein. Eat adequate fats. Stay at a small to moderate deficit and your chances of success and happiness go up exponentially.

While in a deficit you want to retain lean body mass (LBM) aka muscle, which makes us look fit, as much as possible. Getting adequate protein and lifting or doing resistance training help minimize the loss of lean body mass while eating less. Another way to lessen the loss of lean body mass is by losing less weight per week or having a less drastic calorie deficit. For your weight and height you really shouldn't be losing more than 1lb per week for two reasons: energy levels and LBM retention. Fat is essential for proper vitamin absorption as some vitamins are fat soluble only, not water soluble.

If I were you, I would:
- eat between 1600-2000 calories per day, try to get at least 100g protein, around 50g of fat, fill in carbs however you like
- accurately track everything you eat... this means buying a food scale (~$20) and weighing everything out
- pick up a beginning weightlifting program such as Starting Strength, Nia Shanks, New Rules of Lifting for Women, or Stronglifts 5x5 (Stronglifts 5x5 is online, completely free and there's a lot of good help on MFP for it too)
- Do cardio you enjoy and don't overdo it, if you don't like cardio, don't do it or keep it to short sessions, it's not necessary for progress with weight loss or body composition
- Don't eliminate foods that you enjoy just because some internet expert tells you they're "bad" for you, learn how to fit foods you enjoy into your calorie goals also while meeting macro (protein, carb, fat) goals, which usually becomes a great tool for learning moderation

geekyjock76

Before you cut calories, think everything through. Design a strategy that closely mirrors how you intend to eat and exercise when you reach your desired goal and want to maintain weight/body composition. Keeping it simple, absent of unnecessary and overtly restrictive choices, will greatly increase adherence and result in a much easier time transitioning to maintenance.

it may also be wise to establish how much you need to eat to maintain your weight after adding resistance training and whatever other exercise you wish to enjoy while weighing and logging all food intake for a month or two. Since added activity requires additional calories, you'll need to increase how much you eat slightly to see what maintains your weight during this period - this will be your adjusted TDEE based on your new activity level and will help guide you to a more accurate deficit as opposed to selecting an arbitrary number.

The deficit itself should be appropriate based on how much fat mass you have since that itself determines how much fat per day is oxidized. If you plan to lose, as an example, between 30 to 40 lbs, then eating approximately 400 to 500 calories less than TDEE is fine. However, based on the rule above, as you reduce fat mass, you need to also reduce the deficit. Thus, as you get a few pounds within your goal, you should be eating 200 to 300 calories below maintenance. This, of course, will help transition to maintenance since you aren't drastically increasing calories.