Desperate

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VictoriaaMaee
VictoriaaMaee Posts: 3
in Introduce Yourself
I have always been the fat kid in school and now I am 20 and I was sick with it. I've tried Paleo for a month and only lost 3 pounds... I swear I have tried everything and I don't know what to do. All I want is to lose about 40 pounds by June. I need help desperately! And motivation!

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  • suzannecgoldberg
    suzannecgoldberg Posts: 1 Member
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    If you log what you eat and stay within the guidelines provided, you will most definately lose the weight. It seems really tedious at first but once you get in the groove it becomes habit and can become a little obsessive:-) I love to eat. I eat healthy foods but I do have a weakness for sweets. Even eating healthy foods, if you go over your calorie budget you will gain weight/not lose. What saves me is getting in the exercise so I can have a couple hundred extra calories of food. This is the only way I have been able to lose weight and the blessing is that if I get off track I know I can go back to logging and lose the weight. Once you get the foods that you regularly eat input, it is easy and quick to log them. Believe me, I was always very resistant to log my food. The very thought was such a chore. One day I just decided I had to give it a try and I lost 15 pounds in 4 months. I didn't have a lot to lose so the 15 made a huge difference and it will go faster if you have a lot to lose. I was overweight in high school so I know a little about how you feel. Give this a try and really stick with it. If you fall off for a couple of days just jump back on.
  • VictoriaaMaee
    VictoriaaMaee Posts: 3
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    Thank you so much! My goal is to only eat 1200 calories a day and burn 500 calories doing cardio a day! I really hope this works! I'm extremely dedicated
  • futuremanda
    futuremanda Posts: 816 Member
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    1200 calories per day with 500 calories burned extra per day will net you 700 calories. I doubt you'll have enough energy to keep up your workouts let alone your general wellbeing.

    Tell MFP you want to lose 1 or 2 lbs per week. It will tell you how much to eat per day. Eat that. Log your workouts, and eat back 50-75% of those calories that MFP will add on to your day. And you will lose, on average, what you told MFP you wanted to lose. (Weight loss isn't linear, so some weeks may have none, and then extra later, for example.)
  • lou2you2
    lou2you2 Posts: 22 Member
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    You have a great goal but if your burning 500 calories those calories should be eaten back. Your body functions on 1200 calories a day if you go below that it starts to starve itself which will then make you gain. My story is I allot 1200 good calories a day if I exercise I take in 1500-1600 calories so it makes up what I lost. I lost 60 lbs doing this. After having two babies and was able to maintain now I'm back to finish my goal! Good luck!
  • kindrabbit
    kindrabbit Posts: 837 Member
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    Victoria,
    I agree that you should enter your height, weight, sex etc into MFP and follow their recommendation on how many calories to eat. It's so easy to think 'I want to loose alot quickly so I'll eat fewer clories' but it isn't always the best thing to do. The lower your calorie intake the tougher you will find it and the harder it will be to stick to. Give yourself a chance to succeed.

    I am on 1440 a day and I do what futuremanda has suggested. I eat 100% of my recommended calorie intake and 50% of what I 'earn' from exercise. That way I am fuelling my body but still in a defecit.

    I also recommend taking the time to meet up with a personnal trainer to get a good workout programme with a good mix of cardio and strength training. Lifting some weight and building some muscle is a great way to burn fat (at it keeps burning after you've finished working out!)

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