I need help and advice for eating right! please help!

I am pretty much in the same boat so i am going to be following the advice here too all the best to you!

You actually DON'T need to eat 5 small meals per day. That is a pervasive myth about weight loss that's been circulated by undereducated, though well-intentioned, people. The only thing that matters for losing weight is to burn more calories than you eat.

It's really very simple. If you log all your food that you eat throughout the day in MFP, and tell it the weight you would like to be and how fast you would like to get there (within reason), it will give you a calorie intake goal, and you eat that number. Then on top of that, you log the exercise you do, which raises the number so you can eat a little more (since you burned a little more).

What you eat also matters very little to weight loss. Obviously what you eat matters for health, but you'll find it's not all kale and chia seeds either. You can lose weight on your regular food choices provided you eat less of them than you burn.

What are your stats? Height, we have your weight obviously, and age?

Bizzarrini wrote: »

I can only tell you what has worked for me. 1500 calories average most days. To do this you have to make time to weigh most things and log EVERYTHING, every mouthful - it is very illuminating how quickly it all adds up - you can run out of calories pretty fast. Eat as many natural, whole foods as you can afford - we are super skint too (I'm a single mum with two boys to feed). Avoid junk/fast foods at all costs. Nutritionally they are completely worthless and as such your body screams out for more food soon after as what you ate didn't deliver what your body was expecting from the bulk of food. Don't waste money on diet foods or shakes. Eat slowly, eat less, move a little more. I personally think it's crazy to 'exercise your butt off' as you will be desperately hungry which will in turn cost you more money to fuel yourself. Exercise a little, but in ways that you can do regularly - eg get off the bus one stop earlier or cycle to work when the weather is fine. Go for gentle, very slow jogs whilst listening to your favourite music. Check out some body resistance exercises on youtube for free strength training - or even yoga videos. Enjoy the movement - don't make it a punishment. Most of all love and respect yourself - when you do this and truly consider what your body needs it will all become clearer. Best of luck on your daily journey to a healthier you. xx

No to the bolded.

1. "Natural" is an industry term that means very little. There is no legal qualification and thus many things are labeled as natural when they aren't really. Further, natural whole foods are an excellent choice for HEALTH, but eating them or not eating them has nothing to do with weight loss at all.

2. ALL food, including Mcdonald's, has nutritional value in the context of the diet. All things we eat are made of protein, carbs, fiber, what have you. You cannot claim that one food or another is good or bad without referring to it in the context of one person's particular diet on a particular day, that's not how it works.

3. Diet foods and shakes are both beneficial, though not necessary for weight loss. Diet foods tend to be less calorically dense, allowing the user to increase their volume of intake and feeling of fullness without going over their calorie goal. Protein shakes, in particular, are an excellent method of boosting protein intake in a world where meat is expensive both monetarily and calorically.

here re some of my personally tips that works well on me
- log in every meals u eat everyday so u will have an general idea of what your eating habit is and how to improve
- its not all about calories control but also fat and sugar.
- no soda, no soft drink ( i only drink water. tea and milk)
- no snack such as cookie cake candy or ice cream. if u re really hungry, eat fruits as snack
- try to avoid food with high calories such as burger. pizza . fries.
- dont eat anything 5 hrs before u go to bed ( i brush my teeth right after dinner so i wont eat anything after that)
- take a break once a week as a reward for follow all the plan u make ( if u follow) so it wont be that painful
- i like eat cooked vegetable.they tasted much better than salad ( btw . if u decided eat salad. put lesssauce cus the salad sauce have high calories)

i feel like it s more important to have a healthy eating habit than simply reduce the amount u eat. once u have a healthy eating habit, weight lose come with it

ameliemilyw wrote: »

here re some of my personally tips that works well on me
- log in every meals u eat everyday so u will have an general idea of what your eating habit is and how to improve
- its not all about calories control but also fat and sugar.
- no soda, no soft drink ( i only drink water. tea and milk)
- no snack such as cookie cake candy or ice cream. if u re really hungry, eat fruits as snack
- try to avoid food with high calories such as burger. pizza . fries.
- dont eat anything 5 hrs before u go to bed ( i brush my teeth right after dinner so i wont eat anything after that)
- take a break once a week as a reward for follow all the plan u make ( if u follow) so it wont be that painful
- i like eat cooked vegetable.they tasted much better than salad ( btw . if u decided eat salad. put lesssauce cus the salad sauce have high calories)

i feel like it s more important to have a healthy eating habit than simply reduce the amount u eat. once u have a healthy eating habit, weight lose come with it

No to the bolded (no to all of it, really, but especially the bolded). It is entirely possible for someone to gain weight eating nutrient-dense food if they are eating more calories than they burn.

I started at 297 and (two years later) am at 165. Here's what worked for me:

- I methodically threw out every piece of "diet advice" that I saw on TV. All of it.
- I spent $12 and bought a digital food scale from Amazon.
- Before I changed anything, I spent about two weeks getting into the habit of weighing and tracking all my food and drinks. Realized I was averaging about 4000 calories a day (more if I was in a bad mood) So mystery solved, that's how I got big.
- I plugged my real stats in to MFP and set it to lose half a pound a week. When I hit the calories for the day, I'd do my best to do anything that didn't involve eating more.
- Once that got easy and I had lost a few pounds, I upped it to lose a pound a week, then 1.5, then 2lbs.
- When I saw how much free time I had from not grazing all day, I started to exercise. I think I had already lost about 30 lbs at that point. Realized I love lifting weights and kinda like running if the weather plays along. I didn't track any of that here.
- Updated my calorie limit about every ten pounds.
- Wash rinse repeat.

I never gave up any food on purpose. Some things I just don't want anymore, I don't see the point in spending calories on certain things I used to eat a lot of but that came with time. I still have cookies or ice cream almost every day but learned to have reasonable amounts of them. Cheat days aren't a thing because if I want to eat something, I make it fit my numbers. Sometimes I eat five small meals in a day, sometimes it's two big ones. Doesn't make a difference, it's all about the total numbers at the end of the day