Idk how I'm going to do this

Xymheia wrote: »

Hey, welcome. Thumb injuries suck, I hope it gets better soon.

Please don't feel ashamed of your weight, everyone has a unique starting point in their journey to lifelong fitness and health. What I've found that really works well to lose weight is making changes to your eating routine combined with cardio training and weight training. Don't go overboard though. Let me help you:

1) Start with drinking water and sugar free tea instead of soft drinks and fruit juice. A daily cup of coffee is fine, but try not to take more than 2 per day and if you're used to drinking them with milk and sugar try to reduce the amounts you're using.

2) Eat 5 "meals" a day, don't feel intimidated though: this simply means breakfast, lunch, dinner and 2 snacks. Try to eat a little bit of protein, carbohydrates and fat with every meal. The snacks (choose healthy ones like carrots with hummus, Greek yogurt, a piece of fruit or a small hand of nuts) help prevent cravings in between meals. If you're pressed for time in the morning perhaps you can try breakfast smoothies or overnight oats. Also, you can prepare meals in advance and freeze them for later use.

3) Make sure that the foods you choose are sugar free and fresh and avoid condiments and other processed foods. Ease into it, if you're used to eating take-out or instant foods, take your time to learn how to cook and prepare meals with fresh fruits, vegetables, meat/chicken/tofu/lentils and healthy carbohydrates (carbs). Healthy carbs are (but not limited to) brown rice, quinoa, couscous, bulgur, whole grain wheat, oats, sweet potato and potato. Carbs are also found in fruits and vegetables. Don't bother with crazy diets, a balanced diet works best. It's about your daily energy intake compared to your energy use anyway. Make sure that you get all the nutrients your body needs, many women get too little iron because it's hard to eat 15 mg a day even if you're not a vegetarian. If you're concerned about any nutrient, get your blood tested at a doctor's office. Also be careful with vitamin supplements, they sometimes have overdoses of nutrients you don't need extra of and some are contaminated with heavy metals.

4) Calculate your total daily expenditure (TDEE) and subtract 15 percent of that. This is how many calories you should be eating to lose weight at a healthy rate (1 kg per month is healthy). Weight yourself once a week and write it down to keep track of how you're doing. Don't worry about it though, slow and steady wins the race. Use your TDEE to help plan your meals and snacks. If calculating your TDEE and meal planning seems to much right now, start with learning portion sizes and eyeballing quantities: a portion of meat is 100 g (at dinner), carbs 50 g dry weight of rice/pasta/couscous (at dinner), fruit: 1 banana, 1 apple or 2 kiwi's, and fat 5 g (approximately a spoon) which is 45 kcal. Use a food scale whenever possible, especially for the carbs, rather than cups and spoons. In addition, tracking what and how much you eat is very effective because many people underestimate their intake.

5) Find a sport or type of exercise that you enjoy doing. If you can and feel like it, also add 2-3 bodyweight workouts or weight training sessions per week (train both lower and upper body, pushing and pulling in either case). It's best to do this with someone who can teach you proper movement, such as a personal trainer. Rowing, swimming, cycling, indoor climbing, etc. are all great cardio exercises. Aim for (eventually) one hour of activity per day, and keep at least one day off between your strength sessions and two if you're very sore, you can do light cardio or walking on these 'off' days. NB: one hour of activity per day might also mean that you'll need to eat a tiny bit more. Be aware of your body, if your periods become irregular or cease altogether or you find yourself fatigued/irritable, etc, reduce your activity level slightly and eat a bit more, if your periods remain irregular, get it checked.

6) When you've reached your target weight which should not be below a BMI of 19, recalculate your TDEE and slowly increase the number of calories you eat until you're at your new TDEE. A method that is commonly used is adding 50-100 kcal per day for a week, and repeat until you're at your TDEE.

All the best.