Newbie hoping to change eating habits

IfWishesWereHorses84
IfWishesWereHorses84 Posts: 8
in Introduce Yourself
Hi everyone

I'm new here. I'm hoping to FINALLY lose weight for good. All other options include joining slimming clubs and involve spending money I don't have, so I'm hoping to meet other MFP people for mutual support along our fitness journey!

I'm a recent convert to exercise (I love Zumba, boxercise, yoga and walking) but have pulled the tendons in my foot from slipping on wet ground last Friday, so I'm now being told to rest, which means limited activity and no exercise. So any tips on not putting on weight during this recovery period would be welcome!

Hope to chat to you soon!

Replies

  • rlmassman84
    rlmassman84 Posts: 91 Member
    I ran into this a few years ago when I damaged one of my ankles. It took me about three months before I could back to even light exercise. I found that the best thing I could do was to be extremely diligent about tracking what I was eating. It also gave me the opportunity to try out a lot of new healthy recipes since I had some time on my hands.
  • JoanaMHill
    JoanaMHill Posts: 265 Member
    As others will tell you, there are plenty of people who can lose weight just eating at a deficit. The body naturally burns a certain amount of calories (around 1900, give or take) and eating less than that means it will start going into its 'reserves.' Exercise simply helps you because it burns calories so you don't necessarily have to eat at a deficit, and of course builds muscle and helps tone your body. However you can eat more than that and not immediately gain weight even without exercise and you may want to if you're healing from an injury.
  • happysherri
    happysherri Posts: 1,360 Member
    I don't belong to a gym, because I don't feel like paying $ to get fit. I do DVDs at home, play volleyball and when there's no snow I run. I am almost at maintenance weight, but need an extra push to lose the last 15 lbs - MFP helped.
  • scottkjar
    scottkjar Posts: 346 Member
    Step 1: Log everything.
    The only way to change your eating habits is to document your eating habits, so you can figure out what needs to change.

    Step 2: Make some simple changes.
    Once you are logging, you will see some things that have more calories, or too much fat, or otherwise mess up your eating habits. You don't need to make drastic changes on the first day, but you do need to make one or two little ones and get you on your way.
  • IfWishesWereHorses84
    IfWishesWereHorses84 Posts: 8
    Thank you all so much for the advice. I'm going to take it all on board and use MFP to log everything I eat and see if I can see any bad eating habits emerge.

    Thanks everyone!

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