Need weight loss tips

Welcome! The best advice - stay in your calorie goal that MFP calculated for you. Log every single thing down to the last bite and get some exercise, even if it's walking. Do this and you will lose! It's that's simple!

First of all, congratulations for making the decision to start! Now, the next thing I recommend you do is decide what you want to become not what you are going to do. Deciding what you want to become will give you a vision of the person you want to be and will carry you through the times when you feel like cheating or quitting.

Next, find a meal plan that you can stick to for the rest of your life. Add some exercise, mix it up a bit, and you have a recipe for success. I love the meal plans found on a website called "Beyond Diet". These have worked for me in a big (no pun intended) way.

While saying that you have to exercise and eat within your goal caloric intake sounds easy, it isn't. Not by a long shot. I find that you have to fight for everything. I have to sit down and think, "do I really want to eat this?" for almost everything. For exercise, you just have to find the time and motivation, if you have someone supporting you, all the better, but remember you are the person doing this, and, ultimately, this weight loss has to be for yourself. Don't let people bring you down (even me).

I am embarking on the journey again after losing a 100 lbs through just dieting (ironically, one of my doctors' response was "It's not enough. Do it again."). I gained a little back, but it wasn't too much. I just steadily lost it a little at a time. I have tried going full bore a few times, per my personality, but burned out after a couple of months. So I have made a conscious decision to just go at a slow, even pace.

All this being said, best advice: Do it for yourself. Go at a slow, steady pace. Make time for it. Your motivation has to come from you. Remember to ask yourself, "Is this beneficial?"

Best of luck, truly.

I just read this on another board, and while it is about drifting away from a diet, the response holds true to the situation for your situation, too.

"For now, don't obsess so much on routine, just log what you eat, even if it is CRAP, even if you are just guessing on portions at the end of the day, just get it in. You are not always going to be gung ho about tracking this stuff, believe me, and it isn't always going to fit perfectly with your routine or lack thereof. So just do the best you can today. Don't worry about tomorrow and don't stress about what you didn't do right yesterday. Just track today. You will feel better about it all if you do, trust me."

The key part of this is don't obsess or stress about yesterday or tomorrow, deal with today. As cliche as it is, one day at a time, seems to work for many people.

Welcome! The best advice - stay in your calorie goal that MFP calculated for you. Log every single thing down to the last bite and get some exercise, even if it's walking. Do this and you will lose! It's that's simple!

Yup...that's it! .I would only add to make MFP your home page and Log IN and Log IT (your food) everyday. Most of my MFP friends who are logging in everyday are losing weight. Those who are logging in sporadically aren't getting the same results.

Welcome! Weight loss math is simple... more calories going out than coming in and you will lose weight. The hard part is actually doing that simple formula. Nutrition and cardio will get you results but you have to be careful not to lose lean muscle at the same time. Cardio is easy... just start walking. Get your heart rate up and that's really all there is to it. To keep your lean muscle you have to do some form of strength training. However you don't need a gym membership to do strength training. Be creative. Use Google. For example, need some weights? 2 gallon milk jugs filled with water are 8lbs each. You can use them as dumbbells. Put a long brom handle through the jug handles and you've got a make-shift barbell. I know it sounds ghetto, but hey... gym gear ain't cheap. Even simple resistance bands will allow you to do several exercises just using your own body. Again you aren't training for Ms. Universe, just trying to tell your body, "Hey, I'm using that muscle so find something else to burn for fuel... like that love handle!"

DRINK WATER! 8 cups a day minimum!

EAT CLEAN! Make your own meals! Avoid processed packaged foods, especially lunch/deli meats... loaded with sodium which will make you retain water weight.

LOG EVERYTHING! MFP is amazing for this. Go through the settings and set things up for your particular day. Do it before you start logging or you'll have to go back and change any previous logs to match any new settings. Log your food, water, exercises, even any supplements that have calories or macronutrients like carbs, fat, & protein. Fish oil capsules have calories and fat so be sure to log them to get a truly accurate record. Stay within the boundaries MFP sets for you for your goal.

DO NOT WEIGH YOURSELF EVERY DAY! You will set yourself up for failure. Once a week is fine, pick a weigh-in day. Consider getting some form of body fat % analyzer. The scale will lie to you LOL. If you see your body fat percentage going down then you are losing fat which is what you want. The scale just tells you what you weigh, muscle, water, fat, bone, everything. That's only part of the picture. Go by your clothes as well. If they get looser and looser, but your weigh-in stays the same you are still losing fat! Be encouraged!

Take a picture at day 1 and once a month. As time passes you will see the differences and you will be motivated to continue.

Set a goal. Commit to it. Lose your ego. Do the work. Surround yourself with encouraging people.

Feel free to friend me if you like.

Moderation.
Movement of any type.
Learning to cook all over again.
Learning the word NO when going for or offered seconds.
Finding and controlling "trigger" foods.
Get rid of the junk food and replace with healthier foods.

It's not a diet but a lifestyle change. Eat out less often. Stay away from fast food places as much as possible. It's not an race. The weight did not show up overnight and sure is not going to dissapear that way either.

Slow and Steady is a good thing. It took me over two years to get to wear I wanted to be. Been in maintence almost a year now.

There is so much more I could say but I'm sure you don't feel like reading a novel.

All my best and good for you on starting.

MFP is a tool. It is still up to each of us to do our part to lose weight.

Losing weight in the beginning is easy. I've found that each pound is harder to lose. I learned that strength training helps to lose weight. Each lb of muscle you build uses on average 50 calories a day at rest just to exist. If you build 10 lbs x 50 calories x 7 days = 3500 calories burned (equals a lb of fat). You don't have to become a body builder. You don't have to totally deprive yourself of treat foods; those you do that will probably quit.

Think of this not as a diet but as a life style change. I use MFP to monitor my food which helps me to control portions. My goal is to end each day with fats, carbs, sugars, and cholesterol left over. I don't starve myself because the body wants to hold onto the fat. You can have a calorie deficit and still not lose weight. I have had a 7000+ calorie deficit for the week and gained weight. I plateau over and over, change up routines/calories eaten and breakout of the plateau, which is a frustrating experience each time.

Do cardio to help your heart. Strength train to help your heart and lose fat. Below is info that I posted to someone else earlier today. As you learn, do what works for you.

My goal is to eat near or above my basic calorie need and achieve my calorie deficit with exercise. You don't have to become a body builder. You might consider investing in yourself by purchasing some time with a personal trainer. At the gym, I see many people who will not use a personal trainer doing weight training incorrectly - terrible form, too light weights, lack of knowledge on how to do sets, different progressions, etc. I made a friend who asked me to look at what he was doing. He did the same weight lifting routine every day - 1 set of 10 reps; he was not letting his muscles have recovery time. He wasn't building any muscle but damaging what he had.

Make sure you get the amount of protein you need. If you eat enough meat to get the protein, you may be getting too much cholesterol. If you focus on beans to get the protein you will probably eat too many carbs. I have to watch my carbs and blood sugar. I looked at many protein powders but found they had cholesterol. I finally found a protein powder without cholesterol, but it is only available at Sam's Club. The protein powder is Naturade and made for people over 50 with extra antioxidants and vitamins. I now can get in enough protein without having the extra cholesterol. I also work in several eggs a week because that is the best protein you can buy!

If you don't want to invest in a personal trainer, consider buying the Women's Health Big Book of Exercises, lots of pictures and diagrams to help you. You can also go to the website and get emails with videos of how to do exercises or just search the website for exercise videos. I have the the Men's Health Big Book of Exercises for me and the Women's version for my wife who hated to exercise because she would sweat. Now she is into exercise and has lost over 30 lbs and building some muscle.

How do you know if you are building muscle? We use a body fat loss monitor each week. If you multiply the body fat % times your weight what is left over is everything else (organs, bones, muscle). If you increase the weight of what is left over it is probably an increase in muscle. Strength training can also help increase bone density.

What is a good weight for you to lift? Start with light weights. Try 10 repetitions, if it was easy the weight was too light. Most people like to do 3 sets of 10 repetitions. Currently I'm doing progression sets of 8 reps, 6 reps, 4 reps, 2 reps and increase the weight at least 5 lbs on each set. If you were doing the bench press starting at 40 lbs, a progression set would be

8 reps at 40 6 reps at 45 4 reps at 50 2 reps at 55

At the next session of bench press, I try to increase 5 lbs on each set. You can do progressions in reverse starting with the heaviest weight.

The best weight exercises are Total Body which involve dumb bells or barbells. I recommend that a person start learning on the machines for safety reasons. An example would be bicep curls with a 5 lb dumb bell in each hand. You stand (forces your core to work to stabilize your balance) focus on correct form and you get a better workout than the bicep machine which does the balancing.

Always give your muscles a minimum of 48 hours of recovery time. I'm doing 3 workouts which cover the entire body over 3 days, a day of no heavy lifting, and then repeat. My muscles get a 4 day rest because what I do on Monday doesn't get repeated until Friday. You can repeat what you do on Monday on Wednesday if you want, but I'm trying to have fewer injuries and plateaus. I have had to back up and lift lighter weight when I admitted to myself that my form was bad.

There is so much more to all of this than just counting calories.

Best of luck in achieving your goals. Keep at and you will get there.