New to the dieting scene

RJColwell

I am new to this diet stage and I have no idea where to start. I would love advice and im wanting to take baby steps. I want to lose 24lbs by Oct 2013 and have set my goal to 1lbs a week. Please let me know what has worked for you guys ) and I would love to have more friends to help encourage me )

brittaney0625

Just starting as well! Good luck!

tehzephyrsong

Track everything that goes into your mouth. Be super-obsessive about it for the first week or two and it'll become second-nature. Don't worry too much about meeting your calorie goal for the first week or so; what you should be doing now is focusing just on forming the habit of logging your food, as well as seeing how much you currently eat--it's probably more than you think. Be honest with yourself. If you have a smartphone, I highly recommend getting the mobile app; otherwise, invest in a small notebook and pen to keep in your purse/back pocket so you can keep track of everything you eat (remember to write down the amount!) and then enter it whenever you next have access to a computer.

Don't think of it as "dieting." That word has connotations of being a temporary condition, or a means to an end. Considering yourself to be "on a diet" will lead to yo-yo'ing; once you get to your goal, you're no longer "on a diet," so you go back to eating the way you used to and the weight comes back. Sustainable weight loss comes from making permanent changes to your lifestyle--eating healthful foods in reasonable amounts, combined with regular exercise. I'm not telling you that you have eaten your last Big Mac, and it's nothing but celery sticks from here on out; I'm just telling you that that Big Mac is 600 of your daily calories in a single sandwich, which could be as much as 50% of your allotment depending on your settings, and it's up to you whether you can fit that into your calorie budget today or not.

The rest of this post goes into a bit of technical detail as to what exactly you're doing when you follow the plan MFP gives you, to eat X calories per day.

Getting your diet under control is the more difficult part of weight loss, but it is also the more important part. Exercise is good, everyone could stand to move a bit more, but you can't out-exercise a bad diet. See, your body burns a certain number of calories every day just to keep your organs functioning. The bare-minimum number of calories you need to stay alive is called your basal metabolic rate (BMR); this is the number of calories you would burn if you laid perfectly still in bed all day long. Most people don't do that, so we have another number, called the total daily energy expenditure (TDEE). This is the number of calories you burn in the course of a normal day - standing up, walking around, getting dressed, eating and digesting food, reading, etc.

There are 3,500 calories in a pound of fat, so to lose one pound per week, your body needs to burn that many calories' worth of stored fat (as opposed to that many calories' worth of food that you eat) every week. 3500 divided by 7 days comes out to a deficit 500 calories per day that your body needs, that you are not giving it in the form of food, which forces your body to draw that energy from your stored fat. Calculate your TDEE and subtract 500, then eat that many calories every day, and you will lose weight. This is what MFP does for you - taking variables such as sex, age, height, weight, and activity level into account, MFP estimates your TDEE and subtracts the appropriate number of calories based on the goals you set (e.g., "Lose 1 pound per week" = TDEE - 500; "Lose 1.5 lbs per week" = TDEE - 750; etc). You eat at a deficit, so strictly speaking you don't *have* to exercise. If you do, then you "earn" the calories you burned exercising back. Some people don't eat their exercise calories back, but it won't hurt you if you do. Hell, some days the only reason I drag myself to the gym is so I can eat more later, lol.

The bottom line here is that if you eat fewer calories than your body burns, you'll lose weight. Exercising so your body burns even more calories helps you lose the weight a little faster, as long as you don't overcompensate by then eating more than you burned off in the gym. There's no big secret. Eating after 7 PM won't magically turn that food into fat. Eating or skipping breakfast won't do anything to your metabolism. Eating certain foods (to some extent) will also not have similar magical effects. Every diet plan comes down to calorie restriction; Jenny Craig and Nutrisystem, for instance, just send you pre-portioned meals. If all you do is eat their food according to the schedule they set (e.g., one breakfast, one lunch, one dinner and one dessert every day with no other outside food), you'll lose weight, because you're restricting your calorie intake. There's nothing magical about their food. Weight Watchers' "points" system is the same way; they dress it up with fancy math, branded snacks, and Jennifer Hudson, but that's pretty much all you're doing.

kotarah

Increase fruit and veggie intake! I replaced a lot of my desserts with raw vegan recipes. Mostly from the website loving-it-raw.com. Even if you don't like veganism, those deserts are amazing! They are SO healthy for you. I also began making a smoothie every morning, loading it with nutrition. It's a great thing for on the go and gives you lots of energy through the day!

The WHOLE idea is to replace the previous food you were eating. If you like chocolate, try dark. I've read so many articles on the benefits of dark chocolate! I use to laugh at my boyfriend for saying that he could get me to like it, but now I have milk chocolate and am disgusted. Dark chocolate works wonders, and actually helps you to lose weight.

If you want someone to support you, of course feel free to add me.

Anthony110101111110001101

Track everything that goes into your mouth. Be super-obsessive about it for the first week or two and it'll become second-nature. Don't worry too much about meeting your calorie goal for the first week or so; what you should be doing now is focusing just on forming the habit of logging your food, as well as seeing how much you currently eat--it's probably more than you think. Be honest with yourself. If you have a smartphone, I highly recommend getting the mobile app; otherwise, invest in a small notebook and pen to keep in your purse/back pocket so you can keep track of everything you eat (remember to write down the amount!) and then enter it whenever you next have access to a computer.

Don't think of it as "dieting." That word has connotations of being a temporary condition, or a means to an end. Considering yourself to be "on a diet" will lead to yo-yo'ing; once you get to your goal, you're no longer "on a diet," so you go back to eating the way you used to and the weight comes back. Sustainable weight loss comes from making permanent changes to your lifestyle--eating healthful foods in reasonable amounts, combined with regular exercise. I'm not telling you that you have eaten your last Big Mac, and it's nothing but celery sticks from here on out; I'm just telling you that that Big Mac is 600 of your daily calories in a single sandwich, which could be as much as 50% of your allotment depending on your settings, and it's up to you whether you can fit that into your calorie budget today or not.

The rest of this post goes into a bit of technical detail as to what exactly you're doing when you follow the plan MFP gives you, to eat X calories per day.

Getting your diet under control is the more difficult part of weight loss, but it is also the more important part. Exercise is good, everyone could stand to move a bit more, but you can't out-exercise a bad diet. See, your body burns a certain number of calories every day just to keep your organs functioning. The bare-minimum number of calories you need to stay alive is called your basal metabolic rate (BMR); this is the number of calories you would burn if you laid perfectly still in bed all day long. Most people don't do that, so we have another number, called the total daily energy expenditure (TDEE). This is the number of calories you burn in the course of a normal day - standing up, walking around, getting dressed, eating and digesting food, reading, etc.

There are 3,500 calories in a pound of fat, so to lose one pound per week, your body needs to burn that many calories' worth of stored fat (as opposed to that many calories' worth of food that you eat) every week. 3500 divided by 7 days comes out to a deficit 500 calories per day that your body needs, that you are not giving it in the form of food, which forces your body to draw that energy from your stored fat. Calculate your TDEE and subtract 500, then eat that many calories every day, and you will lose weight. This is what MFP does for you - taking variables such as sex, age, height, weight, and activity level into account, MFP estimates your TDEE and subtracts the appropriate number of calories based on the goals you set (e.g., "Lose 1 pound per week" = TDEE - 500; "Lose 1.5 lbs per week" = TDEE - 750; etc). You eat at a deficit, so strictly speaking you don't *have* to exercise. If you do, then you "earn" the calories you burned exercising back. Some people don't eat their exercise calories back, but it won't hurt you if you do. Hell, some days the only reason I drag myself to the gym is so I can eat more later, lol.

The bottom line here is that if you eat fewer calories than your body burns, you'll lose weight. Exercising so your body burns even more calories helps you lose the weight a little faster, as long as you don't overcompensate by then eating more than you burned off in the gym. There's no big secret. Eating after 7 PM won't magically turn that food into fat. Eating or skipping breakfast won't do anything to your metabolism. Eating certain foods (to some extent) will also not have similar magical effects. Every diet plan comes down to calorie restriction; Jenny Craig and Nutrisystem, for instance, just send you pre-portioned meals. If all you do is eat their food according to the schedule they set (e.g., one breakfast, one lunch, one dinner and one dessert every day with no other outside food), you'll lose weight, because you're restricting your calorie intake. There's nothing magical about their food. Weight Watchers' "points" system is the same way; they dress it up with fancy math, branded snacks, and Jennifer Hudson, but that's pretty much all you're doing.

well written

Anthony110101111110001101

good luck with your goals, feel free to add me