Trying to loose 40lbs need tips + support

I'm 5'5 and 34. Looking to lose about the same. Want to be weight loss buddies?

Definitely use food scales and log everything. Even powders for spices carry calories.

I'm down 47ish since October/November. You're in the right place, you can do this! One thing I didn't do that I'm recommending to you - weigh yourself today to get your starting weight and take some nice "before" pictures. I wish I had done it but it's too late now! Here are some of the things I did do that may or may not be helpful to you:

1. Start small - I was having multiple fast food meals per day and a nondiet soda every time I had a drink. I started by cutting down to only drinking sodas during meals and water every other time. I cut down fast food meals to only one a day, then started only having a soda during my fast food meal, then only sipping the soda during the meal and not finishing it, etc. Small changes can have a huge effect.
2. Skip excessive weigh-ins early on. (Different people have success with different things, so maybe frequent weigh-ins at the beginning will help you, but for me, I recommend against it. A lot of people get discouraged when they work their tail off and don't see a change in the scale. For me, I didn't weigh myself at all for the first month I was making changes. When I finally checked the scale I was down 10 lbs! That positive surprise gave me the encouragement to keep going and make even more changes to my life.)
3. Small changes can work better than drastic ones. I didn't give up my favorite foods (burritos) but I started eating slightly smaller portions and changed some ingredients (greek yogurt instead of sour cream, lower calorie tortillas, fat free cheese, etc.)
4. Sometimes abstaining is better than moderation - for things I couldn't replace, I just cut them out. With chips, I'm not great at portion control. It was easier for me to just have zero chips than a small amount. I don't really miss them because I use those calories for dessert.
5. Experimentation is your friend. Try new foods, new recipes, and different eating styles (lots of little meals, a few big ones, etc.) to find what works for you.
6. Remind yourself that every bit helps. Every low calorie swap you make is getting you closer to your goal. Everytime you get moving instead of sitting on the couch helps. You can start by walking your dog or exercise youtube videos and build up to more later - you don't have to start with marathon training or a marine bootcamp. As long as you're not using exercise as an excuse to eat more, every little bit helps. (And I'm not trying to be snarky about that, just saying that you have to be honest with yourself about the calories you're burning vs the calories you're eating. Don't have a second piece of cake just because you took the stairs instead of the elevator, etc.)

Other than those tips, I definitely recommend reading the stickies and other message boards. I didn't mention it, but weight loss is 100% math - if you're eating fewer calories than you're burning, you'll lose weight. If not, you'll gain or maintain. It really is that simple.

fat2fit302015 wrote: »

Definitely use food scales and log everything. Even powders for spices carry calories.

Absolutely weigh and track your meals but you don't necessarily have to go super crazy with it. A tablespoon of spice/herbs will add something like 20 calories to a recipe and normal serving sizes of that recipe will contain a fraction of the total (if a recipe uses one tablespoon of spice and makes 6 servings, each serving will contain ~3 calories of spice).

Unless you tend to eat dishes that contain truly truly massive amounts of spices per serving, you'll be fine if you don't count spices in the calorie total. Better to spend the time making sure you accurately portion the serving size for any recipe you do make.