NEED HELP please open

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tomoko89
tomoko89 Posts: 3 Member
in Introduce Yourself
so i just came across this site and i look like all of the before photos .... how did you all start? im having trouble just looking where to start please can you give me advice im all alone at this and feel lost and embarrassed for even asking but if i dont i wont know where to start CAN ANYONE HELP ME ???????????? i have no friends no family and i just need a little push to start then im good for life i feel as though i might......give up without this last resort the internet for courage

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  • zoeysasha37
    zoeysasha37 Posts: 7,089 Member
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    To start , I went and got a food scale ($12 walmart )
    Then I learned how to weigh my foods and log them here accurately. This took time to learn but it helped a lot.
    Then I knew exactly how much I was consuming. Mfp will give you a number of calories to eat based upon your stats. As long as your weighing your foods accurate, you will be fine. Just remember, for weight loss all that's needed is a calorie deficit. Eat less then you burn and you'll lose weight. It's cico.
    So don't be embarrassed, we all start somewhere. We all needed help at some point
  • Sarahgrace0228
    Sarahgrace0228 Posts: 63 Member
    edited September 2015
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    Mfp is a great place to start! So your already making progress.Hopefully the small changes give you more encouragement to make bigger changes. Feel free to friend me if you like.
  • PinkPixiexox
    PinkPixiexox Posts: 4,142 Member
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    Don't compare yourself to other people - rule number 1 :)
    You are unique and wonderful in your own way and the weight you are does not define you. Having said that, it's great you want to make changes to your lifestyle in order to feel better about yourself and lead a healthier life. Log all your details in to MFP and it'll calculate how much you should be eating. Start there and see how you get on with food logging and calorie counting. After a while, you may feel confident enough to introduce exercise. Bit by bit, you'll build your self esteem and you'll feel stronger in yourself. It won't be instant so don't expect overnight results - but stick to MFP and we'll help you.

    Best of luck.
  • Eldow1977
    Eldow1977 Posts: 48 Member
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    Feel your pain, haven't had the courage to put a photo up yet. 180lb to loose. Add me if you wish
  • tomoko89
    tomoko89 Posts: 3 Member
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    Thank you all so much so much good advice i feel like i can do this and i dont know how to really work the site yet so bear with me on adding and replys i shall try. To everyone that replied you are all so important reading every one of those gave me confidence to move foward and for that i thank you <3
  • kevinanderson520562
    kevinanderson520562 Posts: 31 Member
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    I have a picture of me at close to my worst, and a picture of me at close to my best. I am about right in the middle right now but am calorie counting again and moving in the right direction again.
  • I_am_MANGUS
    I_am_MANGUS Posts: 11 Member
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    For me I'd say step one is dont worry about where you want to be. Worry about getting away from where your at
  • dianan135
    dianan135 Posts: 2 Member
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    How do you add friends on this
  • MacBananna
    MacBananna Posts: 1 Member
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    Starting with mfp is the best way to go just so that you know how much your consuming and how much of it that you didnt need. I used to eat and eat and not think about it until i realized that i was unhappy with the way i looked and most important, unhappy with the way i felt. Soon when you stick to mfp, you'll begin to FEEL better about yourself and that will be so much motivation because you only feel better the longer you stick to it and you gain confidence and lose weight and fat at the same time!
    I'm not sure if you're into exercise but what I do every morning is this video and it does not only tone your butt but your thighs, calves and your stomach, especially love handles.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2vSJM8Qo6-0

    Good luck!
  • kevinanderson520562
    kevinanderson520562 Posts: 31 Member
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    dianan135 wrote: »
    How do you add friends on this

    click on their name. On the next page click "add as friend"

  • zacksnana
    zacksnana Posts: 3,230 Member
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    I_am_MANGUS wrote: »
    For me I'd say step one is dont worry about where you want to be. Worry about getting away from where your at

    Wow. Love this. And I'm stealing it!!!
  • rugratz2015
    rugratz2015 Posts: 593 Member
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    Hi! You have already taken the hardest step and started - by recognizing you need help and asking for it, that took a lot of courage, internet or not - the rest gets easier - get yourself a digital scale and start weighing and measuring all of your food and sticking to your daily calorie goal. Sorry you're feeling so down, we all need help and motivation, feel free to add me, I find I'm more determined because I'm inspired by my mfp friends and want to be as successful as them :smile:
  • ashliedelgado
    ashliedelgado Posts: 814 Member
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    The first thing I always suggest I learned from a dietitian I used to work with. Before the first visit, she had all her clients log everything they ate for 2 weeks without making any changes. Then, they came in with their logs and she sat down and analyzed with them. Found small changes and ways to cut calories. So start there. Honestly log. Don't cheat because its only you you cheat in the end. Then, find one small change the first week. The next week, add another small change. Week three, start moving more. Small steps. Get the snowball rolling and the momentum going. Going balls to the walls all in is just a recipe for crashing. Small, sustainable life changes. Thats the secret to long term success.
  • dubird
    dubird Posts: 1,849 Member
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    Long post is long, sorry! The TL;DR summery Losing weight means burning more calories than you consume. If you take the time to weigh and log everything correctly and adjust to whatever your daily calorie goal is, you're fine. This method is slower, but healthier in the long run and you find it easier to keep weight off and stop the yo-yo dieting. But read on if you want the full advice I try to dispense. I'm not good at advice, but that doesn't stop me from trying! XD

    Ok, everyone has their own method and their own way of making this work. The one thing we all have in common is that we're working on burning more calories than we consume. That's the bottom line.

    If it will help get you started, what I did was log for a couple of weeks, but ate like I normally did. Get a digital scale and be as accurate as you possibly can. Log EVERYTHING you eat, even if it's just a couple bites of something. Yes, it takes a while and yes, sometimes you will just have to make a best estimate. But doing this for a couple of weeks lets you know where you're starting from and helps you identify patterns. Maybe you do good during the day but tend to snack heavy at night. Maybe you end up snacking a lot while at work. I don't know, and a lot of times, you won't either because it's become habit. So logging while eating like normal will help you identify patterns and habits you can change. And don't panic when you see how much you're eating! It WILL shock you, most of us started this and realized we were eating a LOT more than we thought!

    Once you've gotten your baseline, then make changes. It's perfectly ok to start slow. For me, I started with swapping out soda for unsweet tea with equal. I like unsweet tea with equal, and doing so shaved 200-300 calories out of my days I ate out. Once I got used to that, I changed something else. I also sat down and decided how I wanted to divide up my daily calories. For me, I like to keep most of them for evening to eat dinner with my husband. So my breakfast and lunch meals have to fall within a certain amount. That might not work for you, you'll have to divide them up however works best for you. This is slower than you may like! But you're not just losing weight, you're changing your eating habits and relearning what a proper portion of food is, and that skill means that once you're at your target range, you can stay there.

    It's also ok to NOT start exercise if you're not already exercising. Exercise is good for a lot of things, but is not needed for weight loss. I didn't lose weight exercising. Thing is, like I said above, losing weight is simply burning more calories than you consume. You can do that by consuming less calories, burning more calories, or a combination of the two. I chose the first one because I''ve got asthma, so starting an exercise routine was what caused me to fail before because I would just jump right in, have trouble breathing, and eventually give up. I've since started walking, slowly, and I'm building on that to try and get better control of my asthma, but my weight is controlled just by what I eat, not how much I burn on walks.

    You don't need to cut out any specific foods. There are no evil foods, and unless your doctor tells you not to eat something, you can eat it. You'll just have to adjust to eating less of those foods, but working in a cookie because you really REALLY want one is perfectly fine. You can do that if you want. You can eat normal foods, you don't have to buy special foods, you don't have to buy supplements or diet aids, and please PLEASE don't try cleanses or detoxes! Those do nothing positive and can be harmful.
  • plyadnov
    plyadnov Posts: 16 Member
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    You've already taken the big step by reaching out. I see too many "new years resolution" people disappear from the gym after wandering around for months not knowing what to do and being too stubborn to ask for help.

    Although having a food scale is the best way to ensure you are not over or underestimating your portions, it may not be the most practical thing to do. Personally I'm too lazy to weigh everything. I know what 8oz of meat looks like, medium apple, etc. Even estimating will get the ball rolling. First step is to begin seeing what you put into your body. Which foods add value and which are just empty calories. I tend to overeat less and shove less junk into me when I'm tracking what I eat. Like ashliefisch said, first track everything you eat...then start making changes.

    Simple things to remember: vegetables tend to have low calories, but large volume...so you feel full without consuming 500calories from rice or something like that. You'll discover these things when you begin fine tuning your diet.

    Second thing you can do is meet with a personal trainer (if money allows). Good trainer will not only get you on a workout routine, but also provide nutritional guidance. You don't have to stick with them for years...just long enough to develop workout routines and get your diet dialed in.

    Third thing...scale is a nice way to track your progress, but find other methods too. Way too many people drop that water weight in the first 2 weeks (yay I lost 10lbs posts) and then nothing after...they give up. How do you look in the mirror? Do your pants fit better? Are some shirts starting to be loose on you? Use these queues to track your progress...scale will be up and down day to day and week to week.

    Good luck!
  • likewhoa712
    likewhoa712 Posts: 95 Member
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    IIFYM

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