New to this

fightgirl611

Hey everyone I am new here and need to lose 40 pounds.

Any ideas will be helpful

Tammy

briscogun

Hi Tammy! Welcome to MFP!

The tools here work if you use them correctly. First, use the goal setting to determine your rate of desired loss per week and your level of daily activity. So put in your starting weight, goal weight (you can change this as you go along if needed), your weekly goal for rate of loss, and your activity level. I work a desk job so I am "not very active". If you are up and about all day long you can choose a different level, but if you do then make sure you are NOT counting your daily steps as an additional "exercise" to add more calories to your daily allotment. MFP is doing that already if you chose a higher activity level.

Next, get a digital food scale and some measuring spoons! If you don't weigh it or measure it, don't put it in your mouth! Don't estimate, guesstimate, eyeball, or otherwise try to figure out what you are eating or drinking without weighing it or measuring it. Don't just use the database to pick an entry that looks good. The entries here are crowdsourced and are wildly off. Even if it has a green checkmark that doesn't mean it's been certified, verified or anything else. In the beginning you will be doing a lot of data entry, making your own recipes, entering your own foods, but as the weeks and months go by, you will have your entries there at your disposal and you will be eating a lot of the same things over and over so it gets a LOT easier. But in the beginning it is a lot of prep work and data entry and measuring. But it is the only way this works.

Most people who fail with MFP and CICO (calories in calories out) don't weigh and measure, they just log random items that look good and get frustrated when they don't lose anything in 2 weeks and give up.

You do NOT have to exercise to lose weight, you need to eat less than your body burns to lose weight. Eat less to lose weight, exercise for health benefits. Some folks like to exercise so they can earn back some calories and eat more, some like to create an additional calorie deficit so they will lose faster, some just want to be active. Be careful about eating back the calories from exercise. Most estimators are very inaccurate (unless you are wearing a chest strap heart monitor) and people will end up eating back more than they "earned", so a lot of people will only eat back a percentage (say half) of what they burn.

You don't need to worry about macros (protein, fat, carbs percentage) in the beginning. Just focus on the total calories for now and you can play with those later. Some people find they do better if they eat more protein, more carbs, yadda yadda yadda, but in the beginning don't overcomplicate things. Just get your logging down tight and accurate.

There are some very smart and helpful people here who will be more than willing to look at your diary and help you get where you want to go. Don't ever be afraid to ask for assistance!

Good luck!