Help! Your best weightloss/healthy lifestyle change advice!

taylorannff
taylorannff Posts: 12 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I need advice on losing weight, exercise, healthy lifestyle!

Let me know how you do it!

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Replies

  • taylorannff
    taylorannff Posts: 12 Member
    I love spark, I have had that before!
  • betuel75
    betuel75 Posts: 776 Member
    If you like to eat big portions and throughout the day. Find foods that are highest in quantity for the calories. Then you will be full and able to snack a lot without going over your calories goal and most of the time this will be healthy foods as well.
  • Cheri1218
    Cheri1218 Posts: 268 Member
    Weigh and measure your food. Even when counting calories, we eat way more per serving than we realize.
  • taylorannff
    taylorannff Posts: 12 Member
    How about exercise?
  • jgnatca
    jgnatca Posts: 14,464 Member
    Exercise is for health. Newbies often get this confused, wondering when they fail to lose weight, if they need to be exercising more? If you restrict calories, you will lose weight. When you exercise, you increase your fitness, energy, cardio-vascular health, mobility, flexibility, strength. You get a small (small!) credit for the extra calories burned.

    When I started exercising seriously after losing significant weight, my losses stalled! This is not uncommon. I don't want you to confuse the two.
  • SueInAz
    SueInAz Posts: 6,592 Member
    taylorannff wrote: »
    How about exercise?

    Exercise isn't necessary to lose weight. Eat less for weight loss, exercise for fitness.

    My best advice is to take baby steps. Don't try to change your entire life overnight or you'll likely end up frustrated and overwhelmed. Start out by simply logging everything you eat. Every single thing. Logging everything makes it easier to see where you can make simple changes that have a big impact. For greater accuracy with calorie counts, weigh solid foods using a kitchen scale and measure liquids that can't be weighed.

    The measuring tape is a better tool than the bathroom scale for judging your progress. In addition to "Before" pictures, measure your chest, waist, hips, thighs and any other body part you want to track and start recording them in MFP now. When the scale isn't moving your body might still be shrinking especially if you're lifting weights.

    Get yourself into the mindset that you're making a lifestyle change and its not something that you will eventually finish. Keep in mind that weight loss is not linear and you will lose pounds faster at the beginning than at the end.
  • taylorannff
    taylorannff Posts: 12 Member
    But eating healthy and not exercising would stall losing weight?
  • jgnatca
    jgnatca Posts: 14,464 Member
    Eating healthy and eating at a deficit are two different things. What are you talking about?
  • WeddedBliss1992
    WeddedBliss1992 Posts: 414 Member
    taylorannff wrote: »
    But eating healthy and not exercising would stall losing weight?

    i personally don't think exercise is 100% necessary, but it helps. just don't overestimate how much you burn when you exercise. for example, if you run 1/2 mile, don't say that you burned 1000 calories and then proceed to overeat afterward. be honest about your exercise and your calories in.

  • Kalikel
    Kalikel Posts: 9,603 Member
    Make choices, see how they work out, adjust as necessary.

    And BE PATIENT. :)
  • jgnatca
    jgnatca Posts: 14,464 Member
    edited June 2015
    Healthy:
    granola2.jpg

    Not low cal. I just logged the recipe and for 1/2 cup not including milk, it's 356 calories a serving.
  • SueInAz
    SueInAz Posts: 6,592 Member
    taylorannff wrote: »
    But eating healthy and not exercising would stall losing weight?

    You can gain weight eating "healthy" whatever that means to you. 2000 calories of carrots and plain chicken breast is the same to your body, energywise, as 2000 calories of Twinkies and Big Macs. For weight loss, all that matters is that you're eating less calories than your body burns each day.
  • WeddedBliss1992
    WeddedBliss1992 Posts: 414 Member
    OMG that cereal looks amazingly delicious!!!! pour on some heavy whipping cream, and i'm all over it!
  • taylorannff
    taylorannff Posts: 12 Member
    I am at 1,000. Cal. a day is that bad? or good?
  • WeddedBliss1992
    WeddedBliss1992 Posts: 414 Member
    taylorannff wrote: »
    I am at 1,000. Cal. a day is that bad? or good?

    that is too few calories. you need to be eating more.
  • jgnatca
    jgnatca Posts: 14,464 Member
    Log your stats in to MFP to set a goal for yourself. I suggest a target of a pound a week, no more. Your target will not be less than 1,200 calories a day.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,865 Member
    taylorannff wrote: »
    How about exercise?

    you should start wrapping your head around the idea of fitness for the sake of fitness, not just weight loss or weight management.

    I'm an avid cyclist and ride 60 - 80 miles per week and I also lift a few days per week and do a bit of hiking, some swimming, and I walk my dog most days...I have lost weight, maintained weight, and gained weight while doing all of these things...the difference between those three weight management goals wasn't the exercise, it was my energy (calorie) consumption.
  • _onebeauty
    _onebeauty Posts: 100 Member
    If I'm feeling weak...
    -I'll go into my closet & look @ all my clothes that are too tight.
    -Look at my pictures on my comp of when I was small
    -Make a motivation paper (google it for weightloss)

    That generally motivates me to FOCUS.
  • SueInAz
    SueInAz Posts: 6,592 Member
    taylorannff wrote: »
    I am at 1,000. Cal. a day is that bad? or good?

    Unless you are teeny, tiny or have been tested to have a very low metabolism, it's too little. Here's why: When you under-eat by too much, a lot of the weight you'll be losing will be from your lean muscle getting cannibalized because your body thinks you're starving. Muscle is easier to burn for energy than fat and when you lose weight too quickly that's where your body goes rather than fat stores. The end result is a slightly lower metabolism and a higher body fat percentage which will make it even easier for you to gain the weight back and harder to lose it the next time around.

    It's much better to lose a little more slowly, lift weights to retain more lean muscle and help ensure that most of what you're losing is fat. Not only will you feel better, you'll look better when you reach your goal weight.
  • WeddedBliss1992
    WeddedBliss1992 Posts: 414 Member
    i personally swapped-out unhealthy foods for more healthy options. such as instead of chee-tos, i now eat fruit. it has made a huge difference in how i feel. i haven't lost much yet, but i'm on my way and i feel good about myself in the meantime! :smile:
  • SuggaD
    SuggaD Posts: 1,369 Member
    Find an activity that you love and pursue it with gusto, lift weights, and eat healthy. That's what works for me.
  • taylorannff
    taylorannff Posts: 12 Member
    Protein bars, protein shakes, etc..

    Thoughts on those?!
  • taylorannff
    taylorannff Posts: 12 Member
    protein bars, protein shakes..etc??
    Thoughts...
  • WeddedBliss1992
    WeddedBliss1992 Posts: 414 Member
    there is nothing wrong with protein bars & shakes as supplements but try not to exchange those for whole foods on a routine basis.
  • taylorannff
    taylorannff Posts: 12 Member
    they just seem to be high in calories, sugar, etc.
  • SueInAz
    SueInAz Posts: 6,592 Member
    taylorannff wrote: »
    Protein bars, protein shakes, etc..

    Thoughts on those?!
    Not needed for weight loss but they have their time and place.

    I eat protein bars for breakfast most days because I'm lazy and don't like to eat before 9am. I eat a protein bar at my desk at work. I'll sometimes have a protein shake after a run because it's freaking hot here right now and food doesn't always sound good after a long run. Otherwise, if you're getting enough protein from food you don't need a shake to get more.
  • WeddedBliss1992
    WeddedBliss1992 Posts: 414 Member
    taylorannff wrote: »
    they just seem to be high in calories, sugar, etc.

    you can find some that are not. read labels and become educated. my husband loves to have a protein bar after he works-out. he has found some that are 20+ grams of protein with as little as 2 or 3g of sugar. they are quick and easy to stick in his gym bag. sometimes, that is the best he can do.
  • jgnatca
    jgnatca Posts: 14,464 Member
    I blame media. @taylorannff , this is the image you've got, isn't it?

    healthy-fitness-girl-drinking-protein-shake-workout-stadium-portrait-53567841.jpg

    All good stuff, but it's not directly related to weight loss.

    Weight loss is more like this:

    d59-518599.jpg
  • EmmaFitzwilliam
    EmmaFitzwilliam Posts: 482 Member
    Elevate the experience.
    Don't make choices that are a miserable second-best.
    When you have the "good stuff", take time for it. Experience it, savor it. Make it count.
    Find the humor in the process.
  • SueInAz
    SueInAz Posts: 6,592 Member
    edited June 2015
    WeddedBliss1992 wrote: »
    taylorannff wrote: »
    they just seem to be high in calories, sugar, etc.

    you can find some that are not. read labels and become educated. my husband loves to have a protein bar after he works-out. he has found some that are 20+ grams of protein with as little as 2 or 3g of sugar. they are quick and easy to stick in his gym bag. sometimes, that is the best he can do.

    Agreed, they all aren't. I'm picky. I want high protein and low sugar.

    My favorite bar for breakfast is an Atkins Peanut Butter Granola. 210 calories, 15 grams of protein and 1 gram of sugar and it doesn't have that chemical taste many of them do.

    Search around for protein shakes if you want to use them. I'm using a Cytosport product that is 140 calories for 27 grams of protein and only a couple of grams of sugar. I bought it at Costco after doing a lot of research to find one that fit my needs.

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