need direction

SayWhatAshley

Hi there! I am brand new to this website, and very excited about it.
I really dont think I grasp how exactly to eat. How many calories should I betaking in each day? How much should I work out?
I am 226 right now 5'6", at the biggest I have ever been, I am very discouraged. My goal is to be 140-145

I just dont know where to Start!!!
Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks in advance,
Ashley

Jenene88

Feel free to add me. I'll help you with anything you have questions about. It would be a lot better to help someone if they could see what you are doing

xraychick77

first you need to find your T.E.E. (total energy expenditure), there is a formula for that called the harris benedict formula. you can google it and insert your numbers. from there you reduce calories to lose however many lbs a week. the accepted number is 3500 calories per lb of fat. meaning in theory, to lose 1 lb a week you'd need to reduce your calorie intake from your TEE by 500 a day.

its good to start there, as if you reduce too much you wont give yourself any wiggle room and you risk losing muscle mass. which you dont want when losing weight. you should be concentrating on losing body fat, not weight. just log everything and be honest about it. dont over estimate any calories burned, dont underestimate any eaten. personally i dont even log any exercise. i dont workout to burn calories, i workout to be healthy. i may burn 100-200 calories a day working out. i have no problem losing weight.

besides cardio, make sure you add heavy lifting into your routine. believe me, i learned this the hard way. i lost weight, but lost muscle mass because all i did was cardio. and i became skinny fat..no matter how much weight i lost i was still flabby.

SayWhatAshley

first you need to find your T.E.E. (total energy expenditure), there is a formula for that called the harris benedict formula. you can google it and insert your numbers. from there you reduce calories to lose however many lbs a week. the accepted number is 3500 calories per lb of fat. meaning in theory, to lose 1 lb a week you'd need to reduce your calorie intake from your TEE by 500 a day.

its good to start there, as if you reduce too much you wont give yourself any wiggle room and you risk losing muscle mass. which you dont want when losing weight. you should be concentrating on losing body fat, not weight. just log everything and be honest about it. dont over estimate any calories burned, dont underestimate any eaten. personally i dont even log any exercise. i dont workout to burn calories, i workout to be healthy. i may burn 100-200 calories a day working out. i have no problem losing weight.

besides cardio, make sure you add heavy lifting into your routine. believe me, i learned this the hard way. i lost weight, but lost muscle mass because all i did was cardio. and i became skinny fat..no matter how much weight i lost i was still flabby.

SayWhatAshley

Thankyou for your information! I will look it up!

hope516

I am new at this too so I don't as much great advice as that above, however...I will say that it helped me (mentally) to set smaller goals than to look at the big picture of how much total weight i have to lose. My goal when I started was to lose a total of a hundred pounds. You can imagine how daunting this is each week to only see a 2 pound (sometimes less) and stil have an upward of 90 or more pounds to lose. So I started breaking down my goal into 10 pounds increments. I now have a goal of 10 pounds a month (which is a little more feasible for someone like me who has SO MUCH to lose) and the task doesn't seem so daunting. Today will be day 24 since I set that goal and I have already lost 2 pounds into my Feb goal. So try that. Set small goals. Also find some very knowledgeable, supportive freinds on here. It makes a big difference. But most of all put in the effort and be honest. I am sure you will meet your goal if you work at it...Good Luck :flowerforyou: