Looking for help

Hello!

How is your daily routine? The basic idea to be healthy and also losing weight on the way is to eat well and just enough, and exercise if you can.

It is possible to lose on eating restrictions alone but that requires a lot of will power, especially if you are a sweets addict. I am one too! I have to constantly force myself not to eat the cake, or the cookie, or the cupcake etc. I portion out what I am eating a day in advance so I know exactly how much I can eat to reach my calorie goal (right now its set at 1300cals/day). If any food is too high in calories without filling me up, then I look for better alternatives. Once I've decided what to eat the next day, that's exactly what I eat and that's how I make sure I don't go over.

If I exercised that day, I can eat more since I spent more calories, so it's great motivation to get more exercise in. Also, when in doubt I always overestimate how much I'm eating and underestimate how much calories I burnt exercising, to make sure I'm not overeating.

One thing I found is that when I'm exercising and eating healthy, the cravings go away on its own. The more sugar you eat, the more hunger pains you get and the more craving for food that you get, so it's actually a bad cycle. I tend to eat more protein and less carb, which helps to reduce hunger pains. I also picked up cooking as a side hobby now so I stop eating out, and also I know exactly how many calories I'm eating since I made the food and has the recipe. Looking for yummy low calorie recipes to try out is really fun. Variety in what you're eating also helps to kick food cravings, if you eat the same food everyday, you will get more cravings. Make low calorie recipes for cake and cookies at home, so you can get a treat once in a while without loading on the calories. Restaurant food is WAY too high in calories. A home cooked meal is at most, 500cals for a generous portion. A meal at a restaurant is usually 1000cals and I don't even get to eat more food. I just eat a lot more sugar and fat and oil that's been added to the food.

Also getting a routine is good. Set aside time for exercising at specific times, and commit to it. Right now I have Muey Thai kickboxing every Tues and Thurs, and I'm committed and will go come hell or high waters. Mon,Wed,Fri I go to the gym at 9:30am to work out for an hour. Weekends I rest and eat maintenance portions (about 1800cals). Make up a routine for yourself that you are comfortable with and just stick with it. Find motivation if you need to, but stick with the routine/plan!

It's ok to eat sweet in moderation, as long as you are not eating too much of it and it's not making your calories go too high.

If you find that sticking to a 1200cal diet doesn't make your weight budge at all (after being constant for at least 2-3weeks), then most likely your metabolism has gotten too low. (There's also the chance that you are underestimating the calories you eat, but if you are sure you are counting them very strictly, then it's the metabolism). The only way to boost metabolism is by exercising, so if food restrictions no longer work, there's no getting around it. Eventually you'll have to hit the gym. You can start slow, 10 minutes of some sort of cardio each time and just gradually increase over time. Key is to commit to doing it almost everyday.

If you are strict about 1200cal a day and sticking to it, and metabolism is fine, you should be losing some weight constantly. Might be slow to show, but over a few weeks time there should be some change. Key to food control is no binge eating, since 1 day of eating 2000+cals is going to negate pretty much the whole week's worth of keeping it to 1200 and then you're back at the beginning.