Can somebody give me some tips

Hi:

Welcome to MFP.
I suggest you read MFP Most helpful post, at the beginning of this message board
http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10300331/most-helpful-posts-getting-started-must-reads#latest
Buy yourself a food scale, weigh everything you eat and log it at MFP.
If you eat at a deficit (calories burned higher than calories ingested), your weight will decrease.
I started by logging all of my food at MFP and I realized I was not eating at a deficit, that was why my weight was increasing.
I started by replacing and/or decreasing the amount of food I was eating in order to achieve my goal of eating at a deficit.
One note, you have to manage your expectations, weight loss is not linear. Some weeks you may lose and others the scale will not move. I suggest you measure yourself ( waist, thighs, wrist) and keep measuring periodically. I have more Non Scale Victories when the body weight scale was not moving at all.
Try to eat more protein, healthy fats and complex carbs in your daily nutrition.
Good luck in your healthy journey

Keep everything as natural as possible. Try to eat 5-6 times a day if possible. Everything really depends on what your goal is, how often do you workout and how long? Stuff like that matters as well.

It is sooo simple!
Just set MyFirtnessPal goals to whatever weekly goal is healthy for you (as one of the above posters mentioned), then see what your daily caloric goal is. Weigh all the food you eat/drink with a kitchen scale and log it in the diary here. If you stay at or a around your caloric goal for the day you will lose weight like everyone else here. It does not matter what you eat for weight loss. It matters for general health and well-being, but not for weight loss. You can eat only chocolate and still lose weight but I wouldn't recommend it Good luck.

kathykatbits wrote: »

I got some great advice from a friend. She said call it what it is. It's a diet! I don't know when that became a dirty word but knowing that this is temporary to get me back to where I should be has made it more tolerable. I am willing to do the hard work and I know there's a light at the end of the tunnel. Once I get to a healthy weight then I will make my lifestyle change to stay there!

Or you'll go back to your old way of eating and regain everything you lost plus some.

Diet isn't a dirty word but it doesn't teach you how to eat once you are done losing weight. Losing weight is hard but maintaining after the loss is much harder, IMO.

If you take your normal way of eating and make sustainable changes in order to lose weight (with smaller portions and/or by substituting foods that you like with other lower-calorie foods that you also like), then all you'll need to do when you reach your goal is keep eating the same things but with a larger calorie budget.

Use the weight-loss time as practice rather than thinking that you only have to eat this way for X amount of time before you can relax and start eating the foods you like again. Eat the foods you like now, just in amounts that put you in a calorie deficit. Once you reach your goal, don't relax yourself right back to your old weight.

Yes it's true you can eat whatever and lose weight as long as it's a caloric deficit. Unfortunately when your maintenance calorie gets low and your deficit is even lower you often hit your calorie goal and are left hungry because you ate whatever and people cave. There are several approaches you can take, and no 1 right answer. I know a few people who have been successful with intermittent fasting, meaning they eat their calories in an 8 hour window, and don't eat for 16 hours, could be 10 and 14 for some depending on body composition. Some carb cycle, if you dont already know what that is then i would not worry about it. I wouldnt necessarily recommend fasting but I would say try to avoid eating within 4 hours or so of bed. Increase your protein and cut your carb and fat intake so your still in a deficit, may be something like 50% of your calories are protein, 30% carbs, and 20% fat. Carbs are your energy source so your still going to need some but the carbs you don t use for energy get stored in your body as fats more or less, and fats consumed are well, basically fat even though you still need some healthy fats. Protein intake will make you feel fuller, protect your muscle cells, and won't be stored. Also keep in mind that 1g of protein = 4calories, 1g carb=4 calories, and 1g fat=9 calories. Don't let people scare you and say the word diet is dirty or anything. Diet is nothing more than your eating regimen, wether your trying to maintain, lose, or gain weight. Also you can always throw in cardio to help burn calories. ALL cardio helps, but I suggest muscle building cardio over treadmill or biking if you have the option and time. Reason being is once your done walking your done burning calories at that rate, when your weight training with a high intensity (short rest periods keeping your heart rate high, I believe at 70 percent of your body weight is an easy number to shoot for for fat loss but you don't have to start that high) your body should continue to burn calories at a more efficient rate throughout the course of the day. If you have any questions or are curious about best sources of protein or carbs or anything don't hesitate to ask and goodluck in your journey.

kommodevaran wrote: »

You can lose up to 1% of your body weight per week if you do everything right.

So, set up MFP correctly and choose an appropriate goal:
If you have 75+ lbs to lose 2 lbs/week is ideal,
If you have 40-75 lbs to lose 1.5 lbs/week is ideal,
If you have 25-40 lbs to lose 1 lbs/week is ideal,
If you have 15-25 lbs to lose 0.5 to 1.0 lbs/week is ideal, and
If you have less than 15 lbs to lose 0.5 lbs/week is ideal.

You can eat anything and lose weight, as long as you stick to the calorie allowance every day. Exercise if you want to.

The best diet plan is one you can follow, and you are the most suited person to create it. You know your likes and dislikes, your schedule and your beliefs, your cooking skills and if you have allergies. A wide variety of food from all food groups is a good place to start.

This is perfect advice. It doesn't matter what you eat for weight loss, only how much. All these other people who will tell, you "eat only this, or don't eat that" or "I've lost weight because I ate these foods only" If they lost weight, it's not because of certain food, its because they had a calorie deficit.