I really need help
frappa13
Posts: 4
So when I was in high school, I was always a little bigger than normal. It wasn't anything serious though. I'm in my senior year of college now and I can officially say this is a problem and i'm going to have major issues if I don't stop eating so unhealthy and it could be as serious as dying very young.
I've always tried the calorie counting but I've always had this "i'll just splurge a little here because I didn't eat much here" attitude. I really need some help and this was one of the places I thought I could go.
I've gone from slightly overweight to heavily obese in the span of 4 years and I really need a plan or maybe someone to help. Maybe that's too much to ask though...
Anyways thanks guys for taking the time to read.
Johnathan
I've always tried the calorie counting but I've always had this "i'll just splurge a little here because I didn't eat much here" attitude. I really need some help and this was one of the places I thought I could go.
I've gone from slightly overweight to heavily obese in the span of 4 years and I really need a plan or maybe someone to help. Maybe that's too much to ask though...
Anyways thanks guys for taking the time to read.
Johnathan
0
Replies
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So when I was in high school, I was always a little bigger than normal. It wasn't anything serious though. I'm in my senior year of college now and I can officially say this is a problem and i'm going to have major issues if I don't stop eating so unhealthy and it could be as serious as dying very young.
I've always tried the calorie counting but I've always had this "i'll just splurge a little here because I didn't eat much here" attitude. I really need some help and this was one of the places I thought I could go.
I've gone from slightly overweight to heavily obese in the span of 4 years and I really need a plan or maybe someone to help. Maybe that's too much to ask though...
Anyways thanks guys for taking the time to read.
Johnathan
Controlling your weight is about willpower and the establishment of good habits in my opinion. The way you are going to get a handle on your health is to basically practice willpower and practice good habits and work at that until you get good at it.
Honestly calorie counting is a way to both establish good habits for eating AND exercise your willpower. If you have a tough time of it that just means you have work to do.
That might not be the answer you are looking for but there it is.0 -
It might help to plan out all your food for the day/week ahead of time. Every meal and every snack so you aren't tempted to splurge. You'll know when your calories are coming.0
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Log everything you eat & drink accurately & honestly. Weigh your food.
Eat "healthy" (whatever that means to you) 80% of the time. Fit yummy, portion-controlled treats into your calorie goal. Deprivation can lead to bingeing.
Take "before" photos & measurements, and read this: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1080242-a-guide-to-get-you-started-on-your-path-to-sexypants0 -
set goals and be reasonable about them.
like don't expect that you'll wake up tomorrow morning and you'll have 100% healthy diet. doesn't happen over night.
first i would advice you to take a look at your whole diet and see where you can start.
how do you eat? do you eat 3 times a day out? may be your first goal could be cutting it to 2/day and cook your own meal or eat at home (if your mom cooks) at least once a day. (i really don't know you this is just really general). try it for a week or two then go to eating out once and eating home twice.
what foods do you snack on? why don't you try replacing them with healthier options? instead of snacking with chips and cookies, get an apple and some nuts. or some other fruit, something that you can get some nutrition out of and not empty calories.
make your environment work for you. if you know you love something so much that you overeat with it (lets say chips), then don't keep chips in the house. out of sight out of mind right?
my nutrition professor would always say, focus on the physical activity first and the rest will follow. like if you walk every morning for 3 miles then you might feel guilty about eating a muffin afterwards. that never worked for me but nevertheless i am sharing it with you
most importantly, allow yourself to be a beginner. don't expect that you'll wake up tomorrow morning and you'll lose 100 lbs. have patience.i know its hard but try adopting "ill try it for 2-3 weeks and if it doesn't work, then ill think about it".
by the way if you like reading try reading "mindless eating", its a great book and theres plenty of advice in it how you can actually decrease your food intake without depriving yourself from food. just eat mindfully 0 -
So when I was in high school, I was always a little bigger than normal. It wasn't anything serious though. I'm in my senior year of college now and I can officially say this is a problem and i'm going to have major issues if I don't stop eating so unhealthy and it could be as serious as dying very young.
I've always tried the calorie counting but I've always had this "i'll just splurge a little here because I didn't eat much here" attitude. I really need some help and this was one of the places I thought I could go.
I've gone from slightly overweight to heavily obese in the span of 4 years and I really need a plan or maybe someone to help. Maybe that's too much to ask though...
Anyways thanks guys for taking the time to read.
Johnathan
You have to really want to change, more than you want the food, basically.
Slow and steady is the best way to do this. Start by just logging your food honestly for a week, to find out just how much you are eating.
That can be a real eye opener. Get a food scale, and start weighing your food. That is a must, certainly to begin with anyway, to get an idea of what is what. An apple can vary, for example, from 50 calories, right up to 110. Set your goal to lose 1-1.5Ibs a week, set yourself to whatever activity level you think you might be, add in your exercise calories (if you intend on exercising... I recommend you do) and eat back at least half of those.
Change things little by little. Makes it more manageable. Do not try and eliminate every bit of junk in your diet...just moderate it and balance it out with healthy choices. Add some supportive people here to cheer you on and help you along the way. Check out the Success stories section to see how others have achieved their goals. And above all... this needs to be a lifestyle overhaul, not a diet. Diets tend to fail. Lifestyle changes tend to last as you learn new and healthy habits. Also... maybe look into what lays behind your overeating habits... emotional? Psychological? Get to the bottom of that, and you are certainly further ahead.
And do not give up. You will have crap days, and you will have good days. But life goes on.0 -
Wow thanks for the responses guys, i'm hoping that knowing I have a problem now will really help. I will do all of the suggestions you guys made
Thanks so much and I will try to keep you guys posted!0 -
It's all basic science. Calories in, calories out. Well, since I said the word "science," I guess I should get specific and say "kilocalories" instead, but you know what I mean.
Be 100% honest with your logging of intake, and stick with it. You don't have to get all wacky about exercise, what with the lifting weights and rowing and kung-fu and all, just start taking some walks. Walks can be pleasant. If your neighborhood is not conducive to pleasant walks, put in some earbuds and listen to something you enjoy. As you do more of that sort of thing, you'll feel better, and the feeling better is part of the point. Start small. Don't push. Take it easy. The concepts of losing weight and feeling better aren't big walls to push against, they're easy things to do. All it takes is honesty. You want to weigh less and feel better? Move about as much as you're comfortable with, and log your intake so that you can see where you're making mistakes.
This is a biggie: if you blow it and have a 5000kcal day for whatever reason, don't get down about it. It happens to all of us. Get back on the damned horse and ride. Keep at it and you'll win.0 -
Jonathon, do you have a plan? You need a plan and you need to follow it. If you don't have a plan, that is your first step. If you need help developing a plan, ask, many here can help you.0
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Jonathon, do you have a plan? You need a plan and you need to follow it. If you don't have a plan, that is your first step. If you need help developing a plan, ask, many here can help you.
Hope is not a strategy and a goal is not a plan
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I guess my first step is to eliminate all soda and sugary drinks. Nothing but water from here on out.
I'll also begin to log my normal calories this week just to see how it is at the moment.
I'll being to make cuts after one week.
Idk if this is solid or not.0 -
It is a very solid plan! Go, Jonathon!!!0
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Here is another good resource to read: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1235566-so-you-re-new-here
ETA: Your plan is a good start but you don't need to give up everything at once. Especially caffeine, maybe drink some unsweetened tea or use some no calorie sweeteners so you don't get the caffeine or lack of headache. That alone will make you want to go back to your old habits. Or switch to diet soda and limit yourself to one or two cans a day.0 -
I guess my first step is to eliminate all soda and sugary drinks. Nothing but water from here on out.
I'll also begin to log my normal calories this week just to see how it is at the moment.
I'll being to make cuts after one week.
Idk if this is solid or not.
Johnathon, couple of things. First you need to do some basic calculations. You need to figure your TDEE (total dietary energy expenditure) that is the number of calories you would burn on average on a given day. There are calculators online for that. That will give you a number. You want to eat less than that. Next , log your food and drink, all of it. Buy a food scale and weigh everything solid. Measure all your liquids in cups or spoons. Be very accurate with your logging. Don't worry about cutting out particular things just yet. You will quickly learn how to get the most bang for your buck calorie wise. Pick a calorie goal per day based off your TDEE, hit it and be diligent. Be consistent for about two weeks and reevaluate. Gaining weight? Eat less. Weight staying the same? Eat less. Weight going down? Good! Give each change about two weeks to see. Good luck.0 -
I guess my first step is to eliminate all soda and sugary drinks. Nothing but water from here on out.
I'll also begin to log my normal calories this week just to see how it is at the moment.
I'll being to make cuts after one week.
Idk if this is solid or not.
That is a good first step. Heck, if you find cutting soda cold turkey is super hard for you even cutting your intake by 1/2 would make a difference or switching to diet soda.
Perhaps in addition to a small diet change make a small exercise change like committing to going for a walk every day or every other day. Can be a short walk or even a purpose-oriented walk (like walking to the store instead of driving).
The mistake many people seem to make is to get super amped up and excited about getting into shape and they try to do everything at once. Cold-turkey going from their previous diet to eating nothing but broccoli and turkeybreast and going on runs every day or doing an hour long exercise everyday. Thats a good way to burn yourself out, sour you to the whole prospect of getting fit and put you back into your old habits.
The trick is to make small changes one step at a time, each step shouldn't even seem that difficult. Stopping drinking soda is a good idea and a good example. Do that first, see if you can keep it up for a few weeks to a month then add some other goal and build on it slow. If you are trying to change a lifetime of bad habits its really best to take your time doing so and that way you end up sticking with it and forming some good habits.0 -
Thanks guys! The support i'm receiving right now is incredible and I hope I can somehow keep in contact with you guys through the weeks and months to go. (I'm not sure if you can add friends or something through this)
You guys are really awesome and thanks 0 -
Yeah you can friend invite people here.0
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You are to be commended for recognizing your weight problem and being willing to work on it while you are at a young age. Some of us on MFP are senior citizens. I wish I had gotten into healthy eating habits when I was your age. Go for it!0
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Here is another good resource to read: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1235566-so-you-re-new-here
ETA: Your plan is a good start but you don't need to give up everything at once. Especially caffeine, maybe drink some unsweetened tea or use some no calorie sweeteners so you don't get the caffeine or lack of headache. That alone will make you want to go back to your old habits. Or switch to diet soda and limit yourself to one or two cans a day.
I totally agree with this. I can't give up the foods I love or I will
End up caving and failing. I swapped regular soda for diet then diet soda to seltzer water. I swapped regular chips for baked and ice cream for frozen yogurt. Now sometimes I even have a Greek yogurt as a sweet snack.0 -
Things that got me on the right track:
-Logging EVERYTHING as accurately as possible. Lying to my food diary doesn't change the results, so why bother? In some cases I learned that a lot of food I love is NOT as bad as I thought! And knowing the numbers has actually made eating "bad" foods guilt-free because I can see that they fit into my calorie goal. So much less stress, and no beating myself up!
-Looking at my daily calories as "currency" to "spend". On an average non-cheat day, once they're gone they're gone, so that lead me to figuring out how to best distribute them throughout the day so that I was still happy and FULL.
-Which lead to my realization that my old idea of "cooking" (i.e. heating up frozen pizzas, fries, burgers, etc etc) made me run out of calories with stupidly small portions. The first few weeks I struggled to hit my goal because I hated to cook. Now I'm making all kinds of new and exciting meals and have pleeeenty of calories for the occasional treat left over.
-Sticking to your WEEKLY calorie goals, rather than strictly daily. If you eat under what is ALREADY a deficit a few days in a row, you can totally splurge one day and go over and still lose weight. It all evens out in the end.
-Googling "low calorie but filling meals". And then committing to making them, portioning them, and freezing them for later. Now, when I need a quick meal, my convenience food is something I made myself and had control over.
-Googling fast food meals under or around 500 calories, so I can still go out with my friends to places they like without feeling restricted. good luck! 0 -
Click on anyone's profile pic, then the green "add friend" button.Thanks guys! The support i'm receiving right now is incredible and I hope I can somehow keep in contact with you guys through the weeks and months to go. (I'm not sure if you can add friends or something through this)
You guys are really awesome and thanks0
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