Some Questions for the Experienced

First of all, welcome! This site is awesome. Okay..I wouldn't call a 30 minute walk 3 times a week enough for substantial weight loss. If you've got a lot to lose, it's a good place to start, but you'll definitely want to add more into your workout week. I think 5 or 6 days a week is better; you still get rest days. Bike riding is really good, and there are tons of good workout DVDs you could try. Next, high cal healthier food..what about peanut butter? Takes care of my craving for sweets and it's calorie dense. Finally, eating back your exercise calories means that if you burn 200 calories during your workout, you get to eat 200 extra calories. Good luck!!

Going for a walk is definitely exercise. I started with walking and playing Wii Fit, which isn't very intimidating either. But with both exercises, if I pushed myself I could tell it was making a difference. After awhile, I had more energy and wanted to try more and exercise more regularly. It did wonders for my mood!

You might want to think about getting a heart rate monitor to more accurately track your calories burnt. I've heard MFP overestimates. I don't have one myself, I always just take 10-15 minutes off my walks. I figure it's better to underestimate than overestimate.

Some higher calorie snack foods i enjoy are pita and hummus, various fruits (a medium banana is 105 cals, for example), nuts, peanut butter and bread, a cup of a good granola or fibre cereal with 1/2 cup of milk. Just make sure to pay attention to the portion/serving sizes.

Eating back your calories means just what the above poster said. I've been eating back my exercise calories the entire time I've been on MFP, and I've lost 24 lbs so far, so don't worry about it "cancelling out" the effects of your exercise. If you don't eat back at least most of your exercise calories, your body isn't really getting enough nutrition to keep it running at 100%.

I hope that helps a bit and good luck on your journey! Feel free to friend me if you'd like

I think the key is finding some type of exercise that you like to do, therefore will be more likely to stick to it. The more exercise, the more fit you will become. Every little bit helps.

Eating back exercise calories is how MFP is designed. I joined in March and for the first few weeks I was focused mainly on calories. After the first couple of weeks I started some exercise, and have increased the frequency and duration of my workouts.

Also keep in mind that muscles will burn more calories while you are resting. More muscle = more calories burned even while you sleep.

Good luck! Just find some type of exercise you like and stick with it. If you start getting bored with your routine (whether it is walking or whatever) then it might be time to add another type of exercise into your routine.

Oh and about eating the extra couple of hundred calories just to reach your goal number - sometimes I don't reach my goal number of calories, sometimes I am over my calories. As long as it averages out to your goal number for the week, I wouldn't stress out over it.

It's great that you are motivated and that will grow. It's also great that you know your vulnerabilities and what you need to work to strengthen, you can and you will!

Yes, to the avocados, all nut butters (PB, almond, sunflower, cashew...in small amounts), try a smoothie (protein powder with some skim or almond milk, and a piece of banana or some strawberries), fruit with yogurt, some cheese with fruit....real labels and check out other people's diaries for ideas too.

Some things you should plan to invest in if you don't have them:
good food scale (make sure you are accurate so you have real calories consumed)
measuring cups
Polar heart rate monitor (that will tell you accurately what you're burning with exercise, MFP database can be really off)

I would "friend" stroutman81 and SHBOSS1673...both are unbelievable trainers who are super educated on nutrition, physiology, etc. and have blogs that cover alot of these issues in-depth and so much more.... you need to figure out your numbers before you decide whether you need to eat your exercise calories back or not and know what you're burning w/ exercise and also depends on how much you need to lose, and....your experiment is are you losing at a healthy pace....

good luck!! and welcome!

1) Exercise:
Started with small goals and exceed them.
The woman next to me at work mocked me for my 10 min work outs.
(and she was of course doing 0 min work outs)

Getting away from my desk and getting dressed is actual the hard part.
I went to the gym saying I'd do at least 10 minutes, Once I was there I usually did at least 20.
I try to get 2x a week in, but 1x a week is better than 0x.

Bit by bit I'm going longer and adding more things to work out.
I'm to somewhere between 45-60 minutes now.

If you are doing stationary bike or elliptical you can plug in your weight and age and it will tell you what your target heart rate should be. I have a hard time slowing down enough to stay in my age appropriate zone and oddly enough I don't feel my heart pounding out of my chest.

The gym machines always have a lower caloric burn than MFP I usually go with the lower number.
When I was at the 1 lb/wk target I found as little as 100 exercise calories made a tremendous in my being satisfied.

Even if it doesn't seem like you are burning that many calories, you are toning up your muscles. Muscle increases your metabolism and burn calories all by themselves. So you get a two-fold benefit.

Peanuts, Avocado and Juice are my healthy choices for nutrient dense foods when I have calories to make up at the end of the day. (If I have calories left at the end of the day I don't feel guilty about having a sweet treat. But the thing is sugar increases my appetite. So I never eat all the calories I have left in sweets, because often I'll be looking for some real food 20 minutes later.)

MFP wants you to eat at least 1200 calories NET to get all of the nutrition you need to fuel your body and not lose muscle mass.

Say you used to eat 1900 calories to maintain your starting weight and you chose the lose 1 lb/wk options
MFP will subtract a 500 calorie deficit...
And your target will be 1400 calories...
And let's say you do 450 calories worth of exercise...

You can:
1) eat 1850 calories to NET 1400 calories (and keep on track on you 1 lb/wk loss)
2) eat 1650 calories to NET 1200 calories (possibly lose more than 1 lb/wk or have a cushion for unscheduled overage later)

There are big debates as whether or not to “eat back your exercise calories”
the theory being you body needs enough fuel to do the things you ask of it.
and if you NET less than 1200 calories a day on a regular basis will go into starvation mode and
1) you body will do everything it can to hang onto fuel including stock piling it as fat
2) you will lose muscle mass. Muscle mass increases your metabolism and helps you lose fat.

Many people assume the bigger the calorie deficit the quicker they will lose.
I think it everybody is different, but studies show that losing slower is healthier, and increases the odds of keeping it off.