I need to lose a lot of weight, but I need some help as to where to begin.
chovland527
Posts: 5 Member
I have been overweight all of my life, and more recently obese, morbidly in fact. Is there any tips anyone can give me as to where I can start. I have a gym membership, but unfortunately I rarely have the time, because I am working 15 hours a day 5 days a week. Any help would be appreciated.
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Replies
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Start by logging your food and making sure you're consistently in a calorie deficit. Exercise is great for your health, but it isn't necessary for weight loss.14
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That's tough with your work hours. I find eat, sleep and exercise all to be key components. Two days a week could you dedicate some to time sleep and the gym. Do you get breaks to walk around the block? Lunch to walk? Little things like parking further away help. Pm me.2
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Welcome to MFP! The good news is that weight loss primarily comes down to diet, not exercise, so it's okay if you don't have the room in your schedule to establish a regular gym practice yet. I would highly recommend starting just by logging my food and eating to the goal that MFP gives you. That's all that's required to start losing weight.
If you don't have time for regular gym sessions, could you just start by walking? Incorporating some additional activity into your regular day can make a huge impact but with minimal investment. It doesn't even have to be a lot; 10-15 minutes, 1-2x a day, is enough to start with.
I'd also highly recommend checking out some of the threads here: http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10300319/most-helpful-posts-general-diet-and-weight-loss-help-must-reads#latest They have a ton of really good information.9 -
exercise is all well and good but for starters I would focus on calorie intake. I call it simple math, if you can create a calorie deficit, you must lose weight. That is where simple ends and hard work / discipline begin. It's not easy like a pill, or sexy, or quick but if consistent it does work.
Edit: Until I started logging I had no idea how badly I was overeating. That was truly my ah ha moment.4 -
Start small. It takes time to learn how to log accurately, but there's a ton of great advice around here on how to get your accuracy up - numero uno is probably buying a digital scale and getting used to weighing everything. I'd also recommend a book called "Smart People Don't Diet" by Charlotte Markey. I personally disagree with her dislike of counting calories longer-term, but the rest of the advice is straightforward, science-based and I found it very encouraging. If you have been gaining weight for a while, maybe make your first goal to figure out your maintenance calories, and then start cutting down from there one week or month at a time. I really, really believe that slow and steady is the way to go. You'll lose faster initially if you jump right on the 1200 calorie bandwagon, but that's a hard adjustment and it's an easy bandwagon to fall off of. Good luck!1
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The best place to begin is logging your food. This makes you aware of the calories you are eating. Use the tools in MFP to set a calorie goal for weight loss. I was morbidly obese when I began. Even though it's perfectly fine for morbidly obese folks to set their calories to lose 2 pounds a week, I personally choose a pound a week because I felt it would help me change habits slowly and hopefully in a more sustainable way. For exercise you can start by adding in steps-park at the back of the parking lot, use the stairs instead of the elevator, etc. Bodyweight exercises can be done anywhere. Hope that helps! You can add me as a friend if you like.2
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Welcome! I would really encourage you not to over complicate things. Set up your MFP profile with a weight loss goal of 1-2 lbs/week and your normal activity level not including exercise and start logging what you eat. I wouldn't try to overhaul your diet and start eliminating a bunch of things or trying to only eat healthy foods. You should have a pretty generous calorie allowance to start with, and you just need to focus on learning to log & meeting your goal. As you see results, and you will pretty quickly, you will likely become more motivated & can start looking for small changes you can make to better meet your goals. Take your time, and don't make any changes that will make you miserable! You can do this
Do spend some time educating yourself about the process with the threads linked above ^^5 -
Losing weight, at first at least, is more about diet than exercise. I've had a foot issue and had to temper off running and am down nearly 20lbs.
The key is food. Try to eat clean and avoid processed crap and your taste buds will change. Drop down to 1,400 cal and you will see immediate weight loss8 -
mangofish44 wrote: »Losing weight, at first at least, is more about diet than exercise. I've had a foot issue and had to temper off running and am down nearly 20lbs.
The key is food. Try to eat clean and avoid processed crap and your taste buds will change. Drop down to 1,400 cal and you will see immediate weight loss
It isn't necessary to eat "clean" or avoid processed foods. And 1400 is lower than the minimum, so he should follow what MFP says.7 -
The bolded is TERRIBLE advice. Very few people (mostly, people who are small, short and relatively sedentary) need to be on such a low calorie intake. There's no reason for someone who is morbidly obese to drop to 1400 calories unless directed by a doctor; the OP should be able to lose just fine on a far higher intake.mangofish44 wrote: »Losing weight, at first at least, is more about diet than exercise. I've had a foot issue and had to temper off running and am down nearly 20lbs.
The key is food. Try to eat clean and avoid processed crap and your taste buds will change. Drop down to 1,400 cal and you will see immediate weight loss
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I was a sedentary obese woman and i lost on 2K/day in the early days. Settle down with the 1400 lol5
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It took me three years and the help of a professional team to drop out of morbid obesity.
A lot of people confuse critical with urgent. It is critical that you take steps to improve your health but it is not urgent.
You will see significant health improvements after losing your first ten pounds. Make that your first target.
Even more improvement is seen when you lose ten percent of your weight.
Get a few small successes like these under your belt and you will have the confidence to make more lifestyle changes.
I lost my first thirty pounds on diet alone. I thought I was lightly active but looking back I was completely sedentary.
I was quite body-blind and I missed opportunities all around me to get more active. Like taking the stairs to my apartment or getting off the bus a block early. I saw my biggest successes when I got active, but it sure was a lot easier when I got the first thirty pounds off.
For exercise motivation I signed up for charity walks and runs. I used my gym membership to join group classes to learn about stretches, warming up properly, and good form.13 -
Gotta agree with jgnatca. Missed opportunities are all around. I set my fit bit to alarm at the bottom of every hour. I walk around my building twice every hour, as I do I go down a flight, up a flight, around then down, up. Basically looking at my office building as a treadmill/stairclimber combo machine. Takes only 10 minutes and I carry a clipboard and some papers. I plan to add pushups at the start of each flight of stairs. Really, my main goal as I'm rounding 40 years in age is to stave off future mobility issues. I gave up on being sexy as my motivation. I just don't want to be in a mobility scooter at 50.3
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mrsnattybulking wrote: »I was a sedentary obese woman and i lost on 2K/day in the early days. Settle down with the 1400 lol
Same, and I've been losing on 1900-2300 for the last several months now. Yes, you'll see fast results with 1400, but you'll probably be miserable and statistically are highly unlikely to stick with it. That's not to be a bummer or anything, just to point out that rushing is really not the way to go here.3 -
That said, I do think there's something to be said for trying to cut back on highly processed foods specifically, and people do seem a little quick to jump straight to "it's just calories" when this is suggested. Yes, calories are calories, but generally speaking, these contain lots of salt and sugar, which do cause many people to overeat because our bodies think salt and sugar is amazingly bonkers delicious and we're not great at knowing when to stop when we're eating amazing bonkers delicious things. The example I read on a blog somewhere (probably body for wife) was mangoes vs. something like a TGIF Vanilla Bean Cheesecake - mangoes are really tasty, have maybe 200 calories, and you probably aren't going to want to eat more than one of them in a sitting. The Vanilla Bean Cheesecake is 920 calories and my mouth is watering just thinking about it. Toss me a couple of 200 calorie cocktails to wash that baby down, and I bet I could manage it. And I don't even like sweets that much!1
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MegaMooseEsq wrote: »That said, I do think there's something to be said for trying to cut back on highly processed foods specifically, and people do seem a little quick to jump straight to "it's just calories" when this is suggested. Yes, calories are calories, but generally speaking, these contain lots of salt and sugar, which do cause many people to overeat because our bodies think salt and sugar is amazingly bonkers delicious and we're not great at knowing when to stop when we're eating amazing bonkers delicious things. The example I read on a blog somewhere (probably body for wife) was mangoes vs. something like a TGIF Vanilla Bean Cheesecake - mangoes are really tasty, have maybe 200 calories, and you probably aren't going to want to eat more than one of them in a sitting. The Vanilla Bean Cheesecake is 920 calories and my mouth is watering just thinking about it. Toss me a couple of 200 calorie cocktails to wash that baby down, and I bet I could manage it. And I don't even like sweets that much!
We're just quick to jump to that because, when a person is just starting out, particularly if they are very obese, the process can seem very overwhelming & stressful. Trying to change too many things right off the bat can be discouraging. Live to fight another day.
I feel like, in the beginning, part of the process is just becoming *aware* of what's in the food we're eating, which is accomplished by consistently logging and finding out what choices we're making that make it difficult to achieve our goals. As a person learns, gets more comfortable with the process, & encouraged by a little progress, they are then in a better position to make changes.6 -
We're just quick to jump to that because, when a person is just starting out, particularly if they are very obese, the process can seem very overwhelming & stressful. Trying to change too many things right off the bat can be discouraging. Live to fight another day.
I am absolutely 100% in favor of slow and steady and keeping things simple at first. I just think that "try and eat less processed food" is sometimes treated in the same category of woo as "never eat gluten." Even early on in a very stressful process, I think people are capable of starting to make changes away from highly processed foods that are extremely easy to overeat.1 -
Hey, no editing while I'm replying! I'm 100% with you on your second point, by the way. As you'll see in my comment higher on the thread, I think it's a great idea for people to start off with just learning logging without feeling pressure to cut calories, and to gradually move from there. I spent six months in the "just logging" stage myself and, for me, it's made the reducing stage almost embarrassingly doable. 1
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MegaMooseEsq wrote: »We're just quick to jump to that because, when a person is just starting out, particularly if they are very obese, the process can seem very overwhelming & stressful. Trying to change too many things right off the bat can be discouraging. Live to fight another day.
I am absolutely 100% in favor of slow and steady and keeping things simple at first. I just think that "try and eat less processed food" is sometimes treated in the same category of woo as "never eat gluten." Even early on in a very stressful process, I think people are capable of starting to make changes away from highly processed foods that are extremely easy to overeat.
And they probably will do that somewhat naturally as they try to meet their calorie goals and gain awareness. Everyone has that first, "there's HOW many calories in that?" moment, where they suddenly realize they can live without something, or need to have much less of it, and mentally I think it works out better to arrive at the conclusion themselves. 3 -
MegaMooseEsq wrote: »Hey, no editing while I'm replying! I'm 100% with you on your second point, by the way. As you'll see in my comment higher on the thread, I think it's a great idea for people to start off with just learning logging without feeling pressure to cut calories, and to gradually move from there. I spent six months in the "just logging" stage myself and, for me, it's made the reducing stage almost embarrassingly doable.
I'm never happy with first drafts!
Yes, we're definitely on the same page
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MegaMooseEsq wrote: »I spent six months in the "just logging" stage myself and, for me, it's made the reducing stage almost embarrassingly doable.
And BTW, you must be a *very* patient person! I can't imagine logging calories for 6 months without jumping into restricting, but it's a good recommendation for people to figure out where they are at first. Congratulations on your success! 2 -
Here's how I started and am keeping it up -- I basically need to cut my weight in half, so morbidly obese, too.
1. Get a twenty-buck digital kitchen scale from a big box store, amazon or whatever.
2. Get some measuring spoons, although these are less vital than the kitchen scale, they're handy.
Next
3. Determine your daily calorie goal. I use the calculator at https://tdeecalculator.net/ but there are others that work, too. Since to lose a pound a week, one needs to consume 3500 calories fewer than one burns, I eat my TDEE (total daily energy expenditure) minus 500 each day.
Then, to make it work, you MUST
3. Weigh (occasionally measure) everything you put in your mouth.
4. Keep track of the calories you consume -- using the MFP diary, some other online tool, spreadsheet, whatever.
You can eat whatever you want but over time you will become fussier about what you eat to use up your daily calorie allowance. For health, you may decide to try to follow some dietary guidelines like Harvard School of Public Health's Healthy Eating Plate but you don't have to for weight loss.
All that's needed for weight loss is consuming less than you burn. For health, maintain a "healthy diet" as defined by whatever criteria you find most convincing.1 -
The very first thing I did was start tracking religiously. I didn't even try to reduce calories, but it's eye-opening to start learning how many calories your common foods might be. I dropped 5lbs right away just because I realized I didn't really need or want some of the things I was mindlessly eating.
I very much advocate for the slower loss. This needs to become how you live now, not just a diet so you can go back to eating "normally."2 -
mangofish44 wrote: »Losing weight, at first at least, is more about diet than exercise. I've had a foot issue and had to temper off running and am down nearly 20lbs.
The key is food. Try to eat clean and avoid processed crap and your taste buds will change. Drop down to 1,400 cal and you will see immediate weight loss
It isn't necessary to eat "clean" or avoid processed foods. And 1400 is lower than the minimum, so he should follow what MFP says.
If you disagree on the calories, that's fine. But couldn't disagree with you more on eating clean. I've found I eat less when eating non processed foods and have had far better energy than I have had in a long time. You can also eat larger portions of non-processed foods as they are typical less caloric dense. It's also nice to know what's in your food.5 -
I very much advocate for the slower loss. This needs to become how you live now, not just a diet so you can go back to eating "normally."
This is often the attitude that gets people into a yo-yo cycle- hurry up & get the weight off so I can go back to eating my normal way. But there has to be a new normal, and that takes time to get comfortable with.3 -
The bolded is TERRIBLE advice. Very few people (mostly, people who are small, short and relatively sedentary) need to be on such a low calorie intake. There's no reason for someone who is morbidly obese to drop to 1400 calories unless directed by a doctor; the OP should be able to lose just fine on a far higher intake.mangofish44 wrote: »Losing weight, at first at least, is more about diet than exercise. I've had a foot issue and had to temper off running and am down nearly 20lbs.
The key is food. Try to eat clean and avoid processed crap and your taste buds will change. Drop down to 1,400 cal and you will see immediate weight loss
They say a lot of overweight people take advice of being super low calorie to start loss and end up sick and binging. Our bodies have to slow down or else it says we are starving. Look up what mfp says is safe for 1 to 2 lb loss and go off of that, which will probably be 1700-1900.
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mangofish44 wrote: »mangofish44 wrote: »Losing weight, at first at least, is more about diet than exercise. I've had a foot issue and had to temper off running and am down nearly 20lbs.
The key is food. Try to eat clean and avoid processed crap and your taste buds will change. Drop down to 1,400 cal and you will see immediate weight loss
It isn't necessary to eat "clean" or avoid processed foods. And 1400 is lower than the minimum, so he should follow what MFP says.
If you disagree on the calories, that's fine. But couldn't disagree with you more on eating clean. I've found I eat less when eating non processed foods and have had far better energy than I have had in a long time. You can also eat larger portions of non-processed foods as they are typical less caloric dense. It's also nice to know what's in your food.
Some people think eating clean is no sugar, vegan, and gluten free and everything organic. That's a lot for people used to junk. I personally am not eating clean and I try to cook as much as I can but counting calories has caused me to lose weight.0 -
brentleyann1 wrote: »mangofish44 wrote: »mangofish44 wrote: »Losing weight, at first at least, is more about diet than exercise. I've had a foot issue and had to temper off running and am down nearly 20lbs.
The key is food. Try to eat clean and avoid processed crap and your taste buds will change. Drop down to 1,400 cal and you will see immediate weight loss
It isn't necessary to eat "clean" or avoid processed foods. And 1400 is lower than the minimum, so he should follow what MFP says.
If you disagree on the calories, that's fine. But couldn't disagree with you more on eating clean. I've found I eat less when eating non processed foods and have had far better energy than I have had in a long time. You can also eat larger portions of non-processed foods as they are typical less caloric dense. It's also nice to know what's in your food.
Some people think eating clean is no sugar, vegan, and gluten free and everything organic. That's a lot for people used to junk. I personally am not eating clean and I try to cook as much as I can but counting calories has caused me to lose weight.
Perhaps I'm not well versed in what eating clean means. I cook almost everyday, and do not eat vegan nor gluten free. I simply think of nonprocessed foods like cheetos, snickers, stouflers lasagna, etc
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mangofish44 wrote: »brentleyann1 wrote: »mangofish44 wrote: »mangofish44 wrote: »Losing weight, at first at least, is more about diet than exercise. I've had a foot issue and had to temper off running and am down nearly 20lbs.
The key is food. Try to eat clean and avoid processed crap and your taste buds will change. Drop down to 1,400 cal and you will see immediate weight loss
It isn't necessary to eat "clean" or avoid processed foods. And 1400 is lower than the minimum, so he should follow what MFP says.
If you disagree on the calories, that's fine. But couldn't disagree with you more on eating clean. I've found I eat less when eating non processed foods and have had far better energy than I have had in a long time. You can also eat larger portions of non-processed foods as they are typical less caloric dense. It's also nice to know what's in your food.
Some people think eating clean is no sugar, vegan, and gluten free and everything organic. That's a lot for people used to junk. I personally am not eating clean and I try to cook as much as I can but counting calories has caused me to lose weight.
Perhaps I'm not well versed in what eating clean means. I cook almost everyday, and do not eat vegan nor gluten free. I simply think of nonprocessed foods like cheetos, snickers, stouflers lasagna, etc
I think the point is that "clean eating" doesn't have a solid definition; it's difficult when people recommend "clean eating" to others because of the lack of specificity. It literally means something different to every person who practices it.0 -
mangofish44 wrote: »brentleyann1 wrote: »mangofish44 wrote: »mangofish44 wrote: »Losing weight, at first at least, is more about diet than exercise. I've had a foot issue and had to temper off running and am down nearly 20lbs.
The key is food. Try to eat clean and avoid processed crap and your taste buds will change. Drop down to 1,400 cal and you will see immediate weight loss
It isn't necessary to eat "clean" or avoid processed foods. And 1400 is lower than the minimum, so he should follow what MFP says.
If you disagree on the calories, that's fine. But couldn't disagree with you more on eating clean. I've found I eat less when eating non processed foods and have had far better energy than I have had in a long time. You can also eat larger portions of non-processed foods as they are typical less caloric dense. It's also nice to know what's in your food.
Some people think eating clean is no sugar, vegan, and gluten free and everything organic. That's a lot for people used to junk. I personally am not eating clean and I try to cook as much as I can but counting calories has caused me to lose weight.
Perhaps I'm not well versed in what eating clean means. I cook almost everyday, and do not eat vegan nor gluten free. I simply think of nonprocessed foods like cheetos, snickers, stouflers lasagna, etc
But now, I had 2 of those things yesterday (a few cheetos off my son's plate at lunch and a snack size Snickers almond bar), and I feel great, my health markers have all drastically improved from losing a bunch of weight, and I lost another lb this week. I don't like frozen lasagna, but I would have had that too, probably with a nice Greek salad full of veggies on the side. See where I'm going with this? 0
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