Overweight male in need of advice

vbsarea
vbsarea Posts: 2
in Health and Weight Loss
I am 51 years old, 280 pounds, 5'7 and think I am at least 100 pounds overweight. I have a low to med work job with a 3 year old. General good health

Started May 1 with watching diet and little exercise.
Diet
*Minimal to no carbs (white)
*cup of eggs w/ turkey sausage, mushrooms, hot sauce early morning 8:30 am
*cup of eggs w/ turkey sausage, mushrooms, hot sauce ABOUT 11:00 am
*about 12:30-1:30 varies I have celery, protein (pork or beef) some pork rinds, nuts
*6-7 pm I have salad or peas and black beans, protein
*8 pm occasional a desert, jello, or smart choice desert
*8 glasses of cold water
Calculated about 1200-1800 calories daily
Exercise
*I have worked up to TWO 20 minute treadmill routines burning 125 calories EACH. M-F
*Sat-Sun, trying to stay moving in yard.

PROBLEM:
First week I lost 10 pounds (water weight I am sure)
2nd week 1 pound
3rd week 1 pound
I would think as huge as I am I would lose more than this?
Also, I can weigh am, take kids to school and weigh again and I am a pound heavier. How is that possible when I have done nothing?

Thanks for any help

BTW I will never go back to my old lifestyle now no matter what!

Replies

  • unbalanced1
    unbalanced1 Posts: 12 Member
    FYI-I started at 244 lbs in November. I'm 5'11". I'm at 191 lbs right now.
    As far as weighing in, I only really do 1 "official" weigh in a week. If you go daily or hourly, it will freak you out. As far as your diet, if you are weighing and tracking, it looks ok (pork rinds? lol). I would stick with it and tweak on it. Keep pushing yourself on the treadmill and consider doing some interval training weekly on it-Warm up, 1 minute intense (like you might not make it to the end of the minute), 3 minutes medium/light, repeat and then cool down. Interval training will help step up your game. I personally do alot of kale, beets, rinsed saurkraut and brussel sprouts.
    Good luck!
  • golferd
    golferd Posts: 400 Member
    You averaged 3 lbs per week in your first month. Keep doing it for couple more weeks. Our diets are similar.
  • DanaDark
    DanaDark Posts: 2,187 Member
    Diary isn't open.

    Do you measure your foods via weight? Measuring by volume or slice or piece etc does not work at all. I was consuming between 250 and 500 extra calories a day without knowing it until I got a food scale (like $9 on amazon).

    What are your numbers? TDEE (without exercise) and BMR? Give us some details.

    Overall, you're still losing. Keep it up. It gets easier and easier as you go because you get more used to it. You'll also find you have more energy as the weight comes off because, well, you're carrying less all the time! :-D
  • elbaldwin0525
    elbaldwin0525 Posts: 159 Member
    Takes three weeks to start a habit so I say continue doing what youre doing. any tips i can provide would be to drink WAY more water, cut down on high sodium foods, and start lifting so you actually look healthy when you lose the 100lbs.
  • Transformer711
    Transformer711 Posts: 55
    Your weight fluctuates over the course of the day due to factors which are out of our control. For example, if you weigh yourself on an empty stomach, take your kids to school, eat something, then weight yourself again you may find you have gained.

    Don't sweat it, though. Your weight will even out over the week which is why many suggest it's better to weight yourself once a week, or even step away from scale and go by how your clothes feel and inches lost. Keep it up, though!
  • Lleldiranne
    Lleldiranne Posts: 5,516 Member
    Check out this link. There's a lot of useful information there.

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1175494-a-guide-to-get-you-started-on-your-path-to-sexypants?hl=sexypants

    It should give you some answers to your questions. HTH :flowerforyou:
  • RHSheetz
    RHSheetz Posts: 268 Member
    When you say a Cup of Eggs, do you mean Whole Eggs, or Egg Substitutes? Try spacing out your eating more evenly throughout the day. Also I would look at taking out the "processed" foods like Pork Rines. But it is a good start, keep going and see what happens. You should open your food sheet if you want us to review and comment.
  • _lyndseybrooke_
    _lyndseybrooke_ Posts: 2,561 Member
    First of all, you're eating 1000 calories below what you should be eating. At your height, weight, and activity level, you should be able to eat about 2500 calories per day and lose 1 lb/week. 1200 calories? No sir! Men need AT LEAST 1600-1800 calories minimum.

    Your TDEE is over 3000. Eat more!
  • healthygreek
    healthygreek Posts: 2,137 Member
    Just weigh yourself:
    In the morning.
    In the nude.
    After you pee.
    Before you eat or drink.

    This is your base weight.

    ETA-Weigh all your food except liquids-measure those in cups/table/teaspoons.
    1200 calories a day is too low for you!
  • simkinsver
    simkinsver Posts: 9 Member
    I was in a similar state as you- On January 1, I was 6ft and 296lbs- now (May 23) I'm 253lbs and still working on it, with an office desk job (but no kids). Your results and mine may vary over time- BMR does matter, and I'm a fair bit younger than you.


    you're doing pretty good, but as people mentioned here, it's not easy measuring calorie intake by size of food (rather than weight and amount).

    Also, if you think of a "cup of eggs"- this can have *drastically* differing calorie values. To put things into perspective- a single large egg can be as much as 92 calories! in order to fill a 125ml cup with *just* eggs to the top you'd need around 6 of them- an instant 552 calories before you even begin to add additives like your other meats and even the margerine/butter you fry it in! Also other things like salads, etc can contain additives (like the dressing you use) which add instant calories that don't help either. Food intake should be more smoothly spread throughout the day, and processed snack foods should be avoided. *normal* protein should be kept up with- but vegetables focused on, too. certain vegetables that contain high amounts of fibre (such as celery) are excellent tools to fill up on that are less than 25% of the calories you'd get from ingesting meat products.

    Lastly, on the subject of exercise- I don't have much in the way of equipment, but I have found *brisk* walking an excellent way of exercising.. how many calories you burn from extended periods of walking (25-45 mins each) depends on your body weight- but when I was around your weight a fast-paced walk at 5km/hr+ for two 30-minute sessions burned around 700 calories a day (according to my pedometer app).

    Hope these suggestions work! Don't give up- either way- you're still shedding pounds!
  • STrooper
    STrooper Posts: 659 Member
    It should be a long, slow weight loss. It may be faster at the beginning if you really press a bit but, in the end, it will serve you better if its about 1 pound per week. Its a project and more importantly its a lifetime/lifelong project once you get the hang of it.

    It may take you a while before everything clicks. It took me 2+ years to go from 252 to 232 while rolling down and then back up in weight. Year 3, starting in April 2010, it finally went from losing 1 pound per month to one pound per week. By July 2010, I reached 200. By the end of 2010 I was at 190. I was not big on logging my foods.

    In 2011, my weight pretty much stayed at 190. Got as low as 183 but couldn't hold it there. I had a good exercise routine based upon step count.

    Got serious about logging and actually weighing food instead of approximating. Also dedicated to logging EVERYTHING. Did a 10% step-change increase in my exercise (went from 20,000 steps per day average to 22,000). Weight dropped to BMI "normal" in September 2012, hit my target weight of 175 the week of Thanksgiving 2012.

    Switched my status to "maintenance" and continued to lose weight for the next 7 months.

    Began running again after 26 years (April 2013) and ran my first 10K in years (no training, my 11 miles per day walking prepared me well for a nice slow 10K run). Felt so good and realized that there were other muscles to develop that I started adding running back to my routine.

    In May I thought, with the encouragement of coworkers, that I could train for a full marathon in the fall but bail out to a half if the training didn't go all that well. The training had a few hiccups but the plan I followed got me prepared enough that as a first-timer, I felt pretty good about the whole deal.

    I ran my first marathon in November 2013 in 5 hours, 10 minutes at the age of 60 and didn't end up being part of the furniture for the rest of the day. I did experience an injury during the race, but the training went well.

    It was a week more than 6 years since the picture that someone took that had me really realize "that's not me!" had me take my first steps to recovering the self-image that I had of myself.

    I'm no speed demon running (though I am capable of winning my age division in the shorter 5k and 10K races). But 82 pounds later, I am where I want to be.

    One other thing, as others have noted, if your calorie intake is anywhere near approximately accurate to what you've estimated, it is too low. Your body will fight you for the weight loss if your intake is too low. My MFP calorie goal, set at 170 pounds, sedentary with 3 workouts a week AND a 0.5 pound per week weight loss goal (to take up any "slop" in estimating for my maintenance weight) STARTS at 1990 calories per day before I begin any cardio exercise whether that is running or walking (on my rest days). Mine started much higher when I was heavier and has gradually decreased as the weight came off.
  • vbsarea
    vbsarea Posts: 2
    Thanks for all the useful comments. I will work on opening my diary/food sheet up for future post.

    my eggs are egg substitute
    I do NOT weigh my food

    Thanks again
  • JG762
    JG762 Posts: 571 Member
    I am 51 years old, 280 pounds, 5'7 and think I am at least 100 pounds overweight. I have a low to med work job with a 3 year old. General good health

    Started May 1 with watching diet and little exercise.
    Diet
    *Minimal to no carbs (white)
    *cup of eggs w/ turkey sausage, mushrooms, hot sauce early morning 8:30 am
    *cup of eggs w/ turkey sausage, mushrooms, hot sauce ABOUT 11:00 am
    *about 12:30-1:30 varies I have celery, protein (pork or beef) some pork rinds, nuts
    *6-7 pm I have salad or peas and black beans, protein
    *8 pm occasional a desert, jello, or smart choice desert
    *8 glasses of cold water
    Calculated about 1200-1800 calories daily
    Exercise
    *I have worked up to TWO 20 minute treadmill routines burning 125 calories EACH. M-F
    *Sat-Sun, trying to stay moving in yard.

    PROBLEM:
    First week I lost 10 pounds (water weight I am sure)
    2nd week 1 pound
    3rd week 1 pound
    I would think as huge as I am I would lose more than this?
    Also, I can weigh am, take kids to school and weigh again and I am a pound heavier. How is that possible when I have done nothing?

    Thanks for any help

    BTW I will never go back to my old lifestyle now no matter what!

    Take a look at my diary, I'm 51 and started out at 326 and I'm at 260 this morning, 151 days in.
    You're estimating your calories and I'm sure your estimates are off, use the food diary on this site and measure/weigh everything.

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