MFP Newbie, but already drained

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souvenance3
souvenance3 Posts: 8 Member
in Introduce Yourself
This is my first time trying MFP, but definitely not my first time trying to lose weight. I've considered myself skinny-fat for the past two or three years; my arms, legs, and face look relatively thin, but my gut is bulging, all of my fat seems to wrap around my belly and my waist is the widest part of me (buying pants is the worst :( ). Last November I got fed up with it, ate 950 calories a day for two and a half weeks until crashing and binging for months; I've gained about 20 pounds since then. I've had a few other flirts with dieting, but, wanting to lose weight fast, I always cut my calories to around the 900-1000 calorie level which my motivation could only sustain for a week or so. I've always ended up binging and gaining even more weight.

So here I am now, ready to do this right and lose weight in a more realistic way. My immediate goal is just to lose the 20 pounds I've put on this year, but I would really like to get back to -25 or so, where I was at the end of last summer when I felt healthy and much less self-conscious. The problem is that my motivation is already worn pretty thin, I'm just coming off a two day binge after my most recent starvation attempt and am already pretty sick of thinking about counting calories. I've never really done any exercising before, but as long as I'm going to do this the slow, healthy way, I'd also love to hear any ideas people have about getting into that in a realistic way. Thoughts/advice/motivation?

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  • hill8570
    hill8570 Posts: 1,466 Member
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    Worry about exercise in a week or so. For now, get used to logging your food -- an accurate food log is important.

    I'd recommend not even worrying about dieting for a few days -- just log everything you're eating so you have a good idea where you're starting from, and you can step down from there a few hundred calories at a time so you don't get all light headed and cranky.

    Hit a site like http://iifym.com/tdee-calculator/ and figure out your BMR (and your TDEE, if you'd like). The BMR is a reasonable lower limit on how low you should eventually set your calories.

    In a week or so, then we can talk exercise. Or you can just go for a walk in the evenings if it fits your schedule -- spring is springing.
  • mjudd1990
    mjudd1990 Posts: 222 Member
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    Eat and stop starving yourself. Starving yourself just slows your metabolism down and is counter-productive. You'll lose a small amount of weight doing it initially but as you've experienced, the losses stall and aren't sustainable. The second thing I'd recommend (assuming you are already doing some sort of cardiovascular exercise) is start doing some sort of resistance training whether it be weight lifting, p90x, etc. Building muscle will increase the amount of calories your body burns and allow you to eat more and lose weight faster and more easily. Also start going on instagram or wherever and finding healthy recipes. If you think healthy food doesn't taste good then you just haven't found the right items or recipes.
  • Noogynoogs
    Noogynoogs Posts: 1,028 Member
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    I will add you for support/friendship :smile:
  • mesicali_chica
    mesicali_chica Posts: 71 Member
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    Hi there! My 2 sence for whatever it is worth is to grab some friends/pals on this site and get to work chica! we can do it together... "logging" your food really does work, for me it adds a bit of accountability I never experianced before and adding a bit of excercise however small leaves a feeling of accomplishment everyday. Even if it is just walking around on your lunch break from school or work. Add me as a pal we can work on this together. :) Hope to see you soon!

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