First Time Execiser

You are going to see a difference with just those changes. Diet is going to be key, just eating smaller portions will help, you might not want to drop to 1500 calories right away. My only worry is that you are going to be hungry and give up, that is what so many of my friends have done. Make sure that you are logging accurately, keeping accurate track of what I eat every day has helped me realize just how much I was eating and how unhealthy it was. I have become super aware of my diet and you will too. I am always looking at labels. Your exercise plan sounds like a good start as well, as it gets easier add more time. You should see results.

You'll definitly lose weight like that, but my concern is that you're doing everything at once and it might be too much. I have no idea what your current diet is like, but to dramatically cut down calories, allow no snacks/junk and begin exercising all in a day is going to be hard to stick to long term. Weight loss is all about calories in vs calories burned. If you just want to lose weight- watch what you eat. It's that simple. Eat less than what you burn and you'll lose weight. Exercising is great for many reasons, so maybe begin slowly. Workout 2x a week for 30 minutes. As you get comfortable, increase the time or the number of days.

Definitely consider calculating your TDEE and eating 20% less than that. Weigh everything with a food scale and know exactly how many calories you are eating each day. Also, there is a big following for something called IIFYM (if it fits your macros). It's all about allowing yourself to indulge in whatever you like as long as it fits into your calories/carbs/fat/protein for the day. It's a little less restrictive and can help make transitioning into less calories easier. You'll soon realize that sometimes it isn't worth it to eat certain foods because they take up too many calories and don't leave you feeling full for long, but at least you always have the option. Just some things to consider Feel free to PM me if you have any questions

I wrote once that the biggest predictor of how long someone would stick to MFP was the way in which they went about their first few weeks. Of course these are just observations based on my reality so I wouldn't expect them to be accurate for every single person who has been able to stick with MFP for over a year but I’d be willing to be that they will be accurate for a good percentage. For someone with a lot of weight to lose and no medical 'issues' I would be amazed if it didn't work.

You said you don't know how to start.... I would suggest the following:

Week 1:
Do NOT make any changes to your life just yet, Just LOG everything you eat. This accomplishes two very important things. First, it gets you used to the database without having the added stress of exercise and life changes and second it gives you a baseline from which to start your cutting instead of relying on the inaccurate method of the MFP plan which gives virtually everyone the SAME starting point. It makes no sense what so ever to treat every person the same regardless of their fitness level, age, weight, height and other circumstances. If you have this baseline you have a perfect starting point and then you can actually SEE that you are in fact going to be eating less than what you were eating to maintain your current weight. Most people have no idea how much they actually eat on a daily basis. We tend to underestimate our calories and overestimate any activity we do. At 5’6 and 220lbs I was eating easily 2800 calories per day (this was with very little exercise if any) - we're probably close.

Find your BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate) – this is the MINIMUM number of calories that someone of your height, weight, age and activity level would require just to lay in a coma all day. There are a million links on the internet where you can go to do this and at least 3 or 4 different methods. I’m not going to go into the specifics of each one because I am just not that geeky. Regardless.. Get at least 3 different numbers and then find the average of them (that will be close enough for most people). Yours is probably close to 2000 (depending on your height)

Calculate a good starting base number of calories that you will eat starting next week based on your BMR and the average calories you were normally eating this week. The ‘cut’ you take will depend on how much weight you have to lose in the first place. A very large person will be able to cut more than a person who is just trying to lose a couple of pounds. This is without a doubt THE biggest mistake I see being made by many new people and makes a big difference in how motivated you will remain and how easily you start dropping weight. Trying to cut out everything from your diet and stop eating anything ‘unhealthy’ will only serve to frustrate you, as well as making you tired and hungry. This is where I see you heading with your plan.

Buy a food scale – you can get one for about 10$. Try to get one that is as accurate as possible so that you can easily portion foods. Using ‘cups’ is grossly inaccurate and will eventually lead to issues because no one measures a ‘cup’ the same way – some go right to the top, for some it’s level, and for others its just under the rim. It’s EASY to go over your calories by hundreds just because you do not weigh. There’s a great you tube video on the differences between weighing and measuring food here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JVjWPclrWVY

Week 2+:

If you do not have a good relationship with food to begin with then this is when you will have to work on that as well. If you use food as a reward you will need to find other things to reward yourself with. If you eat when you are stressed or lonely or mad or whatever you will have to find other ways to cope. This is what the community is for. There are thousands of other people on MFP that have probably been where you are. Look to them for help to repair your relationship with food because until that is resolved losing weight is going to be nearly impossible.

Do NOT start exercising yet! It will just mess up the routine. First get your diet under control and then worry about other things. You CAN and WILL lose weight without any exercise at all just by reducing your food consumption. Remember, diet is for weight loss – exercise is for health! They are NOT the same.

This week, concentrate on eating your calories. Look through your previous week and identify your ‘trouble spots’ and trigger foods. Try to find alternatives to those high calorie foods. If you are a snacker make sure that instead of grabbing the whole box/bag/container of something that you portion out 1 serving and put the item away. This is where your food scale comes in handy.

Start trying to cut back on your pre-packaged food choices and restaurant meals (if you eat out). If you buy lunch at work start bringing lunch from home – anyone can make a sandwich so there are no excuses for not knowing how to cook. Truly if you can’t cook you need to learn. Buy some beginner cook books, attend a class, talk to your parents/siblings/roomates/friends. It will be one of the best things you do for yourself and your children/family/spouse/whatever! Record all your recipes in MFP so you have an accurate count of your meals.

Don’t be tempted to skimp on your calories. Remember you are eating less than you were before thus you have no choice but to lose weight. You will be more likely to keep up the changes if you are not feeling deprived or stressed out about food. The first couple of weeks will be hard – don’t make it harder!

If you go over don’t panic! It takes a while to get used to eating less, just keep on going. Keep recording everything and over the next few weeks start identifying those foods that you maybe don’t need to have around your house for a while. I absolutely do not advocate getting rid of EVERYTHING because that causes binges but for some people there are foods that just can’t be had in moderation. If you are one of those people then a cold turkey plan might work for you for a little while. Eventually you can start adding back those foods once you learn to control yourself.

You will know when you are ready to move on when you have your diet under control for the most part. When you are comfortable weighing your food and when you can be within 100 calories of your goal every day. By this point you likely will have lost at least 10 pounds (possibly more) and you are starting to feel a little better about yourself. I would hope also that the ‘problems’ that cause you to over-eat are being worked on also.

Now.. You can start doing more If you wish to start an exercise routine this is a good time to do it but the thing to remember about exercise is that it is not meant to help you lose weight, only to look/feel better while you lose weight. Every calorie that you burn while exercising is a calorie that your body does not have to use for functioning – this means that you have to put most of those calories back or you risk slowing down/stopping your great progress. How do you know how many calories you used up? Well you can start with the Exercise database on MFP. It tends to overestimate though so you should normally only eat back about half (to start) of what you burn.

Now you can feel free to ignore my post at your leisure if you don’t think it applies to you. It may not, you may have some medical issues that prevent you from losing weight like most people. Or possibly you have had surgery and are on a medically supervised diet. Or maybe you just don’t believe me… I won’t be offended. But this is what has worked for me and many other people who have been around here for a while and lost a lot of weight. Best of luck on your journey!

Yeah 1500 might be a little low to start out with. I eat more than that, I'm set at Sedentary and weigh less than you. Please don't start out trying to get a 2lb a week weight loss, it's just a recipe for disaster.

Don't food restrict too much and definitely don't forget that you can eat anything as long as you make sure you have the calories for it. Thinking you can only eat healthy foods was pretty much why dieting used to fail for me, now that I'm out of that mindset, it's gotten easy.

And the gazelle has a weight limit of 250 so just be careful, if it seems to wobbly try out some easy dvds instead like Leslie Sansone, there's plenty of samples of walking workouts on Youtube.

Just a suggestion: Skip the gazelle completely and walk 45 minutes at a good pace.

Good article why:

http://scoobysworkshop.com/choosing-good-cardio-equipment/

I started out where you're at, I was 282 and did NO exercise. I started out at 1900 calories and thought I was going to die, it was such a small amount of food compared to what I normally ate. Give 1500 a shot for a day or two to feel out if it's right for you. If you're starving all day, then bump it up to 1700 until you find a number that works for you. The walking it a great idea. I still walk everyday. I run a few days a week too, but walking is my main exercise. You can totally do this! Good luck!!