I have no idea what I'm doing.

Hello Friend,

I saw your topic that you didn't know what you were doing. I wanted to reach out to you because I know that feeling. I've been there! I use to not know anything. What did it for me is when my husband had a heart attack at age 29! Then they said his Kidneys were not filtering right and that he was a pre-diabetic. This was all very bad and I needed to make a change. When I was pregnant the same time my husband had his heart attack I also had gestational diabetes. I was over weight. I ate the same amount of food as everyone else or so I thought. It didn't seem like I was engorging my self.... Well what I did is for a couple of weeks I did research online on how to eat for a diabetic and someone with high blood pressure... as I did research I learned that sugar plays a huge role in our bodies. I learned that there is something called the Glycemic Idex and if you eat things that are rated 50 and below your doing good .. Anything over 50 spikes your sugar and tells your body to store all carbs as fat! OMG!! Really??? So the list you can find on line. Just type in GI list in the google search. I hope this helps. The key for me was swapping out my bad carbs for good carbs. Brown rice , Whole GRAIN bread, Sweet potatoes and it has to be a permanent change. You will like it and if you don't your taste buds will change over time. The weight will drop I promise! But it has to be consistent. Once in a while having a piece of pizza or something else bad is fine as long as 90 % of the time you eat right! fruits and vegies are always low in calories and fruit is like candy from God seriously!!! At least that's the way I choose to think of it. Exercise is also important. And building muscle speeds up your metabolism. Good luck!

One thing that really helped me is the concept of "mini-meals", where you eat 5-6 smaller meals throughout the day instead of the traditional 3 larger meals.

When I'm hungry, I have ZERO willpower. If I'm hungry and I have a bag of chips, I may find the bottom of the bag also. By eating all day long, I'm never hungry and have no problem resisting temptation.

After calculating my BMR and TDEE, I chose to eat slightly over my BMR and not eat back my exercise calories. In the midst of my losing, my BMR was around 1800, so I ate under 2,000 calories a day. 2000 divided by 6 is 333 calories per "mini-meal". So I'd shoot for around 300 calories per mini meal. To put that into perspective, that's an Egg McMuffin or Subway 6" Turkey sandwich. It's a decent amount of food, and you're eating it every 2-3 hours throughout the day.

I still eat dinner with my family, so I simply "double up" dinner. So I eat 4 small meals of roughly 300 calories and then 1 larger meal of about 700 - which brings me in at 1900, right in the middle of the range I want to be (1800-2000). This worked great for me. I'm close to my goal weight now, so I'm eating a bit more (2300) but exercising more too.

In addition to bringing hunger under control, mini-meals also supposedly help boost your metabolism and help keep your blood sugar more stable.

I also agree with the "good carbs" comment. Try to eat protein and a whole grain carb at each meal - then you'll be perfectly fueled for energy. No more "afternoon slump" which is caused from a sugar crash from eating bad carbs at lunch.

Hope that helps!

So most of us are here because without something like this we are clueless...

I use this site to log my food and make decisions about future food I plan to eat. I read a bunch about diet and I work as a RN. Putting knowledge into practice has really been tough but this website has helped me a lot.

Once you start using the site you realize how many calories are in everything... I am eating a LOT less meat and way more veggies. The other killer on my previous diet was cheese. I still eat it but I either uses sliced cheese - the caloires are on the pack or I cut super thin slices and enjoy the taste each bite. I enjoy weighing less more than bigger pieces of cheese.

Be honest when you journal food. I give myself days off - and they are still much better than before. I want to lose 30 lbs in 6 months...doesn't have to be done in a week otherwise I will quit...

Look for recipies online like low calorie mayo and try one a week... you can't change everything at once and trying to do too much is overwhelming...

Pick the dieting ideas that seem easiest to you ... you are the most likely to stick to those...

One thing that works for me is to eat WAY less in the lunch timeframe so I can have those calories as a snack later... you will read that it matters what time you eat but your body doesn't have a clock... it's the total that you eat minus the calories that you burn... you have to figure out what works for you...

Good luck... I am off to the gym...

There are lots of good suggestions here and there are many diets and workouts out there for you to try. Although losing weight and changing your diet seems a daunting tast, it can also be fun. It's all in how you look at it and how you do it. If you can, incorporate activities you've always wanted to try, or sports you find fun. If you enjoy dancing, take a dance class, kickboxing ect. It's important to know how much free time you have available to workout, when etc. The more you are able to plan your workouts and meals, the easier it will be to stay on track. Changing habits is challenging, everyday, and every meal is an opportunity to make healthy choices. Getting healthy is trial by error for all of us so pace yourself, commit to a couple of small changes and build from there if you can. I wish you well