How do i start?

ArtCorvelay · April 2015

I've always been big but the past year I've put even more weight on. I've had short spells of exercising and lost a few pounds but I struggle desperately with comfort eating junk food. Also my father died at the end of last year so my motivation is zero and salty sugary foods have been my refuge.

I'm now over 25 stone and find things more difficult than ever, particularly stairs and any kind of prolonged walking. My fitness is very poor.

I must change the cycle of eating things I love for short term comfort into long term healthy eating and weight loss. I want to be healthy, wear the clothes i like and do the activities i want to do. I don't consider myself disabled, i can get out there and do this but it's going to be very tough.

barbiereynolds701 · April 2015

One foot in front of the other. Thats how you start. One good choice that leads to another. Youve got this!

jscot002 · April 2015

Change what you eat. Get rid of bad foods from kitchen. Move food around in fridge so eg carrots are first thing you see and unhealthy things are at the bottom at back. Put potatoe crisps and chocolate in cupboard outside the kitchen that is a hassle to walk to. Make your own lunch and go for a walk outside at lunch time. Don't look at what other people are eating. Make your own pot of veggie soup and when you get home from work eat a bowl. Half hour later think what you want for dinner. Eat before you go shopping, make list, skip the isles with chips, coke, cookies or walk past fast. Cook your own food so you can control the salt and sugar. I found myself watching cooking programmes, lots of cooking programmes and reading recipes on the net and thinking, yeah I can cook that.
Oh, and sleep is really important to loosing weight. When you feel tired you start snacking junk food which is bad.
Have treats, remember the chocolate half way down the house, to reward yourself.
Good luck.

magneticreikipaul · April 2015

even if you just walk for say 15 minutes you are 15 minutes ahead of everyone else sitting on their butt
eat real food drink lot's of water
just walk every day as a start

trinatrina1984 · April 2015

I would say set a reasonable deficit that you can stick to - MFP may give you 1200 cals a day if you say you want to lose 2 lbs per week but this would be very low for someone of your size - you can probably eat as much as 2500 - 3000 and still lose weight (I am saying this without looking at all your stats but you can check it on a BMR /TDEE calculator).

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/tools/bmr-calculator

I would also suggest not changing what you are eating too drastically - have smaller amounts of what you usually eat and make sure you weigh and measure it - then log it into the MFP database correctly.

Really you just need to start, small changes one day at a time. There are loads of good advice on the stickied pages. You can do it!

CockneyLady2014 · April 2015

Some sensible advice has already been posted. I agree start slowly with something that is achievable. You do need to find out what your basal metabolic rate is (how many calories your body uses just to survive) and MFP has formulas to help you do this. That is a starting point. You suggest, from your weight, that you are eating far more than that. Try to calculate how many calories you have been consuming. Example: BMR 2000 calories and you have been eating 3000 calories. Even reducing your intake by 500 calories a day, initially, you might even see a little weight loss. Combining that with less junk and more healthier choices is a good starting point. Once you are coping with this MFP will have calculated how many calories you need to lose 1 pound per week. That will be 500 calories less than you BMR. If you find this is too hard then reduce it by 250 calories. You might only be losing 1/2 pound a week but this type of slow loss is more sustainable in the long run.

This is eating for life not for a "diet".

Good luck and feel free to add me as a friend if you feel that you would like some support.

sstrack123 · April 2015

Start slow but be persistent and consistent even make that your motto. Add me if you want friend but I do like friends w/open diary

sofaking6 · April 2015

Have you done any kind of grief counseling? There are a lot of good ways to lose weight but at the end of the day, if you are eating your emotions then dealing with those emotions might need to be a part of your journey. I'm sorry for your loss, btw.

I agree about starting slowly. You probably fell off the wagon slowly, like a little nibble here, skipping your exercise there, and then it just snowballed...think of following the same pattern just going in the other direction.

One little non-nibble here, one little walk there...and you just might find it isn't so tough after all..

NJbabe · April 2015

Now this might sound a bit harsh, but I have to say it: If "your motivation is zero", there is very little (if any) chance that you'll succeed. You have to find things that motivate you in order to achieve your goal(s.)

A lot of things worth having/doing are tough to achieve. But the tougher it is to get there, the more rewarding the experience is.

So how do you start?

- Be honest about your current situation and set a goal.
- Try to stick to your new daily calorie intake.
- Buy a nice kitchen scale. Measure what you eat and count calories. After all, that's what MFP is about.
- Don't eat junk/fast food, deep fried foods, fattening foods.
- Eat sweets only in (serious) moderation.
- Cut out drinking soda if you do (yes, even diet ones.)
- Do you cook? Eliminate ordering takeout/eating out for some time if possible. Do some research and find healthy, low-calorie recipes that you can prepare yourself. The Internet is full of them. You can watch videos on YouTube or try the following websites: Cooking Light, My Recipes, Pinterest - "cooking light" tag. You might even buy a few books from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, etc.
- Don't go grocery shopping when you're hungry. Make a shopping list before you go to the grocery store and do your absolute best to stick to it. Refrain from buying things that aren't on your list.
- Include fresh vegetables and fruits as a part of your diet.
- Find a way to exercise... whether it's walking in your neighborhood, swimming, doing cardio, lifting weights at home or in a gym - do it. You might do 10-15 min. a day in the beginning. But that's 300-450 min. in a month!
-
Good luck!

getalife9353 · April 2015

There are lots of ways to start. My recommendations would be enter your current information and set a goal. At your current weight 2lb per week wouldn't be unreasonable, but there is no reason you couldn't start at 1lb per week. For the first week just enter what you are eating, see where your calories are coming from. After you have a few days to a week worth of meal data, analyze where your calories are coming from and decide how you want to proceed. You may want to attack certain types of food or eating habits. If you eat a lot of chips, or sodas (Coke, Pepsi, etc) you may want to limit them or if you do a lot of take out / Fast food you might choose to cook more yourself. Myself, I did both of those things, cut out potato chips and soda's and cut out takeout/Fast food for dinner. That is not to say I never have chips or soda or takeout food for dinner, but it is very occasionally now vs. being almost daily before. I may buy a single serving bag of chips, or a single Pepsi, it satisfies my desire, but also allows me reasonable control. I now prepare most of my dinners myself. I use a digital food scale to weight my food so I know how much I actually eating. I don't normally use liquids in my meal preparations, but if I do I use a measuring cup or measuring spoons to get accurate measurements of liquids. Log everything and make changes as you go. I am eating healthier now, enjoying my food and saving money. You will need to make changes based on what will work for you, I am just using myself as an example.
As for exercise, if nothing else start out walking for 20 minutes most days. If you can't do 20 minutes start at 10 and work up to 20. Don't worry about how far you go in that time period, just go. Once 20 minutes isn't a problem increase it to 30 minutes, then maybe concentrate on picking up the speed. Add some type of strength training to your program and just progress at a pace that is doable for you.

teagirlmedium · April 2015

You can start by setting your goal to maintenance and practicing logging regularly for a bit, then switching to a deficit when you get the logging thing down. Looking up new food recipes, nutritional information on food items, figure out when you want to reach your goal, and considering goal incentives are some things you could do that might help you.

Your profile says you already have decided on an amount to lose. You can start off slowly by picking a small deficit to help you get used to the diet change or you can jump right in with a larger deficit. You mentioned that you feel you can get out there and that you want to do activities. So I would suggest finding an activity you like that you think you can do right now and go with that as your exercises to start off with. If you have dogs I would suggest exercising with them. That can be done by taking them for walks, jogs, runs, playing around at the park, in the house or in the yard if you have one.

How do i start?

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