Long Term Problems

Rather than cutting things out entirely, limit them so that you stay within the calorie goals MFP gave you. Caloric deficit is for weight loss, exercise is for fitness.

You're the best one to decide what to limit/eliminate from your diet. If the calories from bread aren't worth it to you but the calories from cheese are, that's an entirely valid choice.

To get back into exercise, I recommend youtube videos. (Jessica Smith is my favorite, but there's a ton.) You should also start trying to build muscle with strength training, too. Can you do pushups, sit ups, exercises with hand weights?

And good luck! You got this.

Welcome!

Start by using the tools here to track everything you eat. Get yourself a food scale and measure/weigh out portions.

Don't worry too much about goals right now. The big thing is just to understand where the calories you're taking in are coming from. Then you can make better choices.

You can eat anything you want ... just not too much, and not all on the same day

Most people like you make the mistake of thinking that its more about exercise than anything else. Its not!. Its mostly about diet and ultimately how much you eat. What you eat matters in a number of ways. Obviously the most important factor is whether or not the food you eat is nutritious and filling your basic dietary needs. If you do not have an understanding about basic nutrition, then i urge you to learn.

But from the point of view of losing weight, what you eat matters a great deal too. Healthy food makes it easier to lose weight because a) it is more satisfying, b) keeps your systems operating optimally which helps with metabolism, mood and hormone regulation. All these things and no doubt more make it easier for you to lose weight.

Let me spell it out a bit further. When you eat good healthy food, hunger is less an issue than when you eat unhealthy food. This is why what you eat is so important for losing weight.

With that said, you don't have to cut out bread, but it is important to reduce the amount of carbs you eat if you want to keep your appetite under control. Most specifically eat, keep refined carbs to an absolute minimum. And you can certainly cut them out almost completely for a period of time. Ie until you are down into the healthy weight range area.

And if you are going to cut out foods that you normally eat, then you have to replace them with something. First is protein. You can find out from the net how much protein you should eat. And you can find out how to source the foods that will make it easier.

Second, you do not have to cut out fat or even go low fat but try to ensure that most of the fats you eat are more healthy ones. You can research that. For my money and given what i like to eat the best ones are olive oil, and the fat in dairy food. Even though the latter is saturated fat, it is not added fat and unless overeating dairy, then the fat in dairy will do you no harm but you will enjoy your food more because fat makes food taste better.
Third and most important you must eat more fruit and vegetables. A significant amount more.

Given your starting point, you can enjoy vegetables cooked in any way except deep-fried. Just make sure you eating a lot of vegetables. Why? Because they nutritious, bulking, low calorie and have a tendency to help you stay away from unhealthy processed foods.

Eat more fruit. From looking at people's diaries, i swear I am coming to the conclusions that americans don't like fruit. Fruit is fantastic. Its the best snack food. Eat as much as you want.

One key point i want to stress for you is not to cut your calories severely. Its a lot easier to lose weight by cutting your calories moderately and being patient. I can almost promise you, if you do it this way and by eating better quality food, you will have more success sooner.

You do not need to do any extra exercise, you just need to fix your diet.

One final point. I would emphasise that people need to learn to be aware of their moods and stress levels. Negative moods and stress have a tangible impact on appetite and the sort of foods you reach for. Take good care of your mood. Get help from a councillor when you are having difficulties. Get you mood back to normal asap in order to stay on the wagon.

If you need to treat yourself, i suggest no more than once a month. Its what i've done this year though i base my rule on choices i made but in the end i've had treats about once a month and in such low risk situations that i've cured myself of my sugar addiction and binges.

If you are not willing to change the way you eat for the long term, you will not be successful.

You don't need to cut out anything, you need to eat at a caloric deficit.

zarckon wrote: »

Welcome!

Start by using the tools here to track everything you eat. Get yourself a food scale and measure/weigh out portions.

Don't worry too much about goals right now. The big thing is just to understand where the calories you're taking in are coming from. Then you can make better choices.

You can eat anything you want ... just not too much, and not all on the same day

^^^this first! then what AJ_G said.

If you have an understanding of where your calories are coming from in your current diet (including bread if you like it) and then you calculate the amount of calories you should be having to lose weight (TDEE less 15-20%), you can decide where you can modify your current diet to suit.

You don't need to cut anything out but you may decide to reduce the quantity of certain high calorie items and replace them with lower calorie options such as fruit or veg. For example, you could have less meat and spread on your sandwich and more salad, or perhaps an open sandwich with less bread, less meat and starchy veg on your dinner plate and replace with non starchy lower cal veges. It's hard to be specific without knowing what you like to eat but hopefully it makes sense.

Once you have figured out where you could make different choices to suit your calorie goals, have a look at the macronutrient split. I aim for 40/30/30 carbs/protein/fat, or you may prefer 50/20/30 or something similar.

Try to eat a wide variety of foods to ensure you get your micronutrients and phytochemicals and to keep your gut flora happy.

My top tip - Don't expect the pounds that you gained over 2 years to disappear in a few days, it is a slow process you won't lose 15 lbs over night. BUT losing 15lbs (when you are overweight) feels awesome and it is worth the effort.

Kalikel wrote: »

Go see the doctor. Find out if something is wrong with you (and "I feel fine!" is not a good reason to skip check ups.) You can get a good daily calorie goal and goal weight, get cleared for exercise and find out what kind of foods you should and shouldn't be eating.

Lol. Certainly see the doctor to have a health check and clearance for exercise, but most GPs have very basic nutrition training, and from my experience, can give some terrible advice (eg. fad diets).

TimothyFish wrote: »

Exercise alone won't do it, because most people assume that since they are exercising that they can get by with eating whatever they want.

In addition, most people aren't burning as many calories they think and/or aren't capable of the intense, lengthy exercise that would burn massive amounts of calories. Calorie reduction is critical, giving truth to the expression that "Abs are made in the kitchen."