Need help

Don't cut out carbs completely. They are needed for life and a very low carb diet i difficult to stick with. Just try to switch out processed carbs (white bread,etc) for whole grains.

Just track on MFP, take it's advice, and keep researching!

Hi April,

Eat a lot of vegetables - OK, yep, good for health.
Trying not to eat any carbs - This is not necessary for weight loss. You can eat protein, fat and carbs in pretty much whatever ratio you like and still lose weight as long as you control the calories.

On eating & calories I would say:

• Plug your stats (do husband separately) into MFP and set a moderate loss target (for someone with a history of many diets 1lb per week is probably better, will give you more cals than 2lb)
• Weigh/measure all your food and log it accurately.
• don't ban yourself from any food that you really like - rather, work that food into your eating plan. If you like a glass of wine at the weekend account for it, most people find they can incorporate a little bit of what they like into their eating.

Exercise is not required for weight loss (although is advised for good health) but many people find that it helps in losing and keeping the weight off.

What I would say is that, for someone who already does little to no exercise, the best exercise is something that you enjoy and are likely to stick at. I'm sure you've considered some of the obvious ones like swimming, the gym, and cycling but I'll throw out some more that you might not have considered:

• Dancing/dance classes
• Walking/dog walking/hill walking
• golf/bowling
• Yoga
• Learning a martial art
• ice skating
• Rock climbing

Also, remember that generally staying active (walking to the local shop for example) helps.

Everyone's covered the whole "don't skip out on carbs" bit, so let me focus on the other half of this: Exercise.

What's your reason for wanting to exercise? Are you eating too much? If you're following the weight loss advice of MFP, then you should have a daily calorie goal that's going to drop you 1-2lbs per week - without exercise. Adding exercise is only going to add how many calories you can have per day - it will *not* allow you to drop pounds faster than that, as that's the generally recognized safe level of weight loss.

Let me also point out that, depending on your weight, exercise may be the worst thing for you to do right now. For example, I peaked out at 398lbs and have been losing weight over time - but even at my current weight (about 75lbs lighter) walking any distance is painful and hard on my feet, ankles, knees and hips. Not to mention my back.

If however, you want to exercise to have more calories available and your condition isn't as bad as mine, I'd recommend the following exercises (because they're fun):

Swimming (Awesome, non-impact strength/aerobic combination exercise!)
Walking (I'd recommend nature trails or areas that won't bring you near an ice cream parlor or restaurant)
Sex (Well, it *is* exercise, it's fun and most people don't try to find excuses for *not* having sex)
Dancing (It's a fun thing to learn, it's a calorie burner - depending on the dance - and it's useful to know!)

Hope this helps!

@StealthHealth great advice! Especially the part of don't ban any foods. This has to be what keeps me capable of doing this! As soon as you say you can't have something you want it but if you tell yourself you can have it you don't seem to want it as bad!