How Fast can you lose calories/fat?

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skywalker0829
skywalker0829 Posts: 39
in Fitness and Exercise
Hey all. I'm honestly new to the working out and eating right deal. I just started a week ago, and then Monday found MFP and started logging in my food and exercise. For the most part, my work outs only consisted of walking 3.7 miles in one hour, and raking my yard between 30-90 minutes.

I've been researching, and would like some feedback. Could I continue on walking for almost 4 miles everyday, which most of is uphill, or do I need to add something that is less time consuming? I really need to lose 75 pounds, and I know I'm at a good start.

I also do not have a gym membership, because I can't afford one. I've been out of work since January of this year due to medical problems, which resulted in myself being diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis. I've just now gotten serious about losing weight for the most part. I want to do that before trying to gain muscle.

It seems it is easier for me to walk than doing any other exercise. I just want to get the most out of it though.

I don't want to mess this up - I really want to lose this weight. I'm 5 foot 11 inches tall, and last Monday I weighed 271 pounds at the doctors office. Two days later my scale says 255, then yesterday 265. So not sure if it is my scale acting up or what.

My ideal weight is 190 pounds. The last time I weighed that was in March 2008.

Replies

  • Ian_Stuart
    Ian_Stuart Posts: 252 Member
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    You have the benefit of being new to working out, so you should see rapid progress at first, tapering off to more frustrating progress as you near your goal weight. My advice would be to look up some bodyweight workouts or just start with doing as many pushups, situps and bodyweight squats as you can. Your goal should be to continue eating under your calorie target and build some muscle mass. Muscle mass is good because it increases your metabolism even while you are not exercising, so you burn more calories while sleeping, sitting, etc... If you can find something heavy to lift, that would be even better. It doesn't have to be a professional weight set. I've seen people get by with a duffle bag full of stuff, or a bag of dog food. Really just be creative.
    Walking is a good first step, and great to continue if you have the time, but try to mix in some stuff that builds strength as well.

    Diet advice, this is hard when money is tight, but try to eat fewer processed meals and definitely switch the large Mr. Pibb to diet. That is several hundred calories you don't need to add and almost completely negates any walking you might have done that day. Keep it as "clean" as possible. Shop around the outside edge of the grocery store, veggies, meats, eggs, fish, dairy. Mostly the stuff in the aisles is manufactured food stuff, though there are exceptions.
  • skywalker0829
    skywalker0829 Posts: 39
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    Thanks for the advice!

    I have questions though:

    Are Lean Cuisines and Healthy Choice dinners ok to eat for a meal, and how many should you eat in one day? I have ate some this week, and I've always been under my calorie goal, but the sodium content is high.

    I'm not an expert cooker, which is why I look at all the labels of the pre-made food such as the dinners, and I also get Granola bars which are low in calories and such, organic cashews, Fiber One 90 cal brownies. Is this a good start as well?

    How much sodium should I really get each day? Is MFP a good estimate at being right for me?
  • narwhalpr
    narwhalpr Posts: 65 Member
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    Hey, congrats on starting your fitness journey! Many ups and down will come, but every new day is an opportunity to improve and make it better! I agree with Stuartian, you can start lifting and doing cardio at the same time... I encourage you to look more information on weight training and in general educate yourself! Fitness can fun and to be able to make it fun, you need to personalize it to your own taste (the same goes with nutrition)... don't follow what the common idea of losing weight and "diets" that it's out there.

    In term of Lean Cuisine and Healthy Choices, which I think you are referring to the frozen dinners, they can be loaded with high amounts of sodium. Sodium cause water retention, so you will be gaining water weight often than not. If you are a person that depends on weighting yourself often times, then that can be frustrating, yet is a temporarily weight gain. I hope this makes sense. I met a person thru MFP that lost weight eating Lean Cuisine and mentioned she didn't mind what people said about processed food and what not. I can see the convenience of eating those, yet the quality of the food that you cook (and is as clean as possible) is worth the time. Those are my 2 cents.

    I saw you added more info... in terms of sodium.... MFP levels are ok/decent. I think you should worry most if you or your family have high blood pressure tendencies. Here's a website with more information on sodium intake:

    http://www.cdc.gov/features/dssodium/
  • SoLongAndThanksForAllTheFish
    SoLongAndThanksForAllTheFish Posts: 831 Member
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    Something is up with your scale, you definitely wont go up and down that much weight that fast. You are similar to my height and weight starting out, strength training really helps most for me and walking or hiking is my primary aerobic exercise. Just adding in some bodyweight exercises above can help a lot, but I would work out with weights ASAP, you can easily lose weight and gain strength at the same time starting out.

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