Where do I start?!

One of the very best things I could do for myself when I got started was work with a trainer.

Meal-prepping has also been a great help for me. I get a large sense of satisfaction in making a weeks worth of healthy meals!

Weight loss is about taking in fewer calories than your body "spends."

The good news is smaller portions of your current food choices = fewer calories. The bad news is perhaps those smaller portions won't be satisfying and you may be miserable or fall off the wagon. One way to combat this is to eat "mostly" regular foods, but tweak your choices here and there. Examples - diet soda in exchange for regular soda - adding veggies to calorie dense dishes (such as mac'n cheese)......add cauliflower, reduce calories for the same serving size. Find these tweaks by measuring & logging your regular diet. This is a great learning experience. This knowledge will also help you maintain your new weight.

You don't have to exercise for weight loss. Exercise because you want to be a healthy person. Exercise and activity makes your body "spend" more calories so you don't have to cut as much.

RachelWithoutAPaddle wrote: »

One of the very best things I could do for myself when I got started was work with a trainer.

Meal-prepping has also been a great help for me. I get a large sense of satisfaction in making a weeks worth of healthy meals!

This^^^ Get a trainer. Try to find someone online as they will be cheaper and will provide workout and meal plans. I did this when I first started as I was just like you, too much information and I had no idea what to do with it all. Goodluck!

I ate the same way you do and had zero motivation to try any exercises or put any effort into a diet. I started slow. First week cutting all fast food, the second week cutting all added sugar from food. I still had been drinking sodas everyday but on the third week I had completely cut off sodas and switched to mostly water with no calorie flavor enhancer. This week I am starting to do a few exercises, only a few simple ones first and will do more and longer after I get into a routine. Just take it slow and find a groove that works for you. I hope you are able to get started!! Keep us updated on your progress.

You have been given some very sound advice.

I have been an MFP user for two years with a massive 145 pounds to lose.
I felt overwhelmed. What I did what realise from day that this was a MARATHON NOT A SPRINT!.
By making a lot of small changes over a lifetime I would achieve my goals.
This is a lifetime journey. You will learn as you go along.

I have found personally, that meal planning and prepping has helped me achieve many of my goals. I still have 50 pounds to go, but I will get there. It just takes time.

You just keep learning, growing and pushing.
Good luck

For me bags of salad and low fat dressing (I like caesar and balsamic) and bags of microwave veg to pad out my meals. I just have more or less the same food I had before but smaller portions and pad out the plate with low cal veggies. So if I have spaghetti bolognese I just have half a portion and a salad, if I have a curry I'll have less rice and have it on a big bag of spinach and mint yoghurt, if I have a meat starch and veg I'll have less of the starch like potatoes and have loads of low cal veg with gravy.

I make swede and carrot mash instead of white potato mash and add a bit of low fat marge instead of butter, also I've swapped out burgers and sausages for Linda McCartney vegetarian sausages and vegetarian pulled pork burgers even though I'm not veggie (I'm from the UK so don't know different country brand availability) they taste really good especially considering the calories saved, and have quite high protein (which is an important macro for feeling fuller longer)

I have options low cal hot chocolate for when I need a chocolate fix, and ice lollies in the freezer if I need a sweet dessert.

I personally have been aiming for 1400-1500 cals a day, it's a good enough deficit for me without feeling deprived or hangry

Ssumner2001 wrote: »

What sorts of things are you eating now? Once you've logged them, and you know what you're putting into your body, you can start to think about how to tweak that (as said above).

So yesterday I had instant grits for breakfast, two hot dogs and a package of Raman noodles for lunch and some kind of cheese "pizza" thing for dinner. I drank one large soda and about a cup of Lipton green tea.

That pretty much sums up what I eat. I work in a convenience store in the evenings so whatever I can find there is usually what I eat. I do pay very close attention to what I eat there but it's usually hot dogs.

I do know how to cook, when I had my family I cooked regularly every day and always healthy food, I wanted my kids to eat healthy. Grilled or baked chicken, lots of fish, and beef and pork roasts. I'm single and by myself now so it's much easier to just do whatever or even not eat at all.

I wasn't as heavy back then as I am now but even back then I found it hard to lose weight. I find that I feel hungry a lot. Even not long after I eat a meal I feel like I want to eat something again. Maybe I'm not eating enough protein to get full?

So please bear in mind that I'm not an expert, just another working mum, but here are my observations:

- a quick online comparison of instant grits with oatmeal told me that per 100 g you've got almost 350 kcal in the grits versus about 70 kcal in the oatmeal. So right there you're taking in more energy and probably not getting as much out of it. For lunch you had two hot dogs and a package of Raman noodles, which in and of themselves aren't necessarily horrible, but there's going to be a lot of sodium (as well as other stuff I can't even spell), and again not a huge bang for your nutritional buck. Ditto on the pizza thing, only adding in a bunch of sugars as well.
- You've got almost no veggies. Vegetables are a brilliant way of filling up without loading on calories.
- It sounds like you are probably eating as quickly as you possibly can, which is an easy trap to fall into. Try to think about how your day is structured, and figure out if you can allow at least 15 minutes, once your food is ready, to actually eat it. When you're concentrating on the texture of the food in your mouth, the flavour on your tongue, you will probably not want to stick with the convenience food.
- Do you enjoy cooking? If you do, think about the food you made when you were feeding many mouths, and what might be able to be frozen in single-serving portions. If you don't, then start looking at how your grocery store can help you out.
- I'd be willing to bet that a good bit of why you're still hungry after you've eaten is because you're not feeding your body what it needs. You're filling it up, but with what? It's sort of like throwing sand at a pinwheel: yeah, sure, it might make things happen, but it's not what the pinwheel needs to really GO.
- Finally, my challenge to you is to try bringing food to your convenience store job for a week. Take notes. See what you need to do to prepare for that week, what you can stand eating after having been behind the counter, right next to the baked goods (if it's anything like the convenience store near where I live...) and what you'd do different. Then build out from there. It sounds like time is probably your scarcest resource, but you can do this. It takes plotting and planning, but it can be done.
- (ETA) RE: 'I find that I feel hungry a lot.' You may be dehydrated. Our bodies sometimes make us think they're hungry when actually they're thirsty. Be sure you're drinking water (while other things will hydrate you, they may also be adding other stuff you don't want) before you eat, especially if you've fairly recently eaten a meal. Also bear in mind that it can take 20 minutes (or more!) for our bodies to realise that they're not hungry after being fed (sounds like my son...), so have that water and check back in with yourself 20 minutes later.

I really hope this helps. Feel free to friend me if you'd like more suggestions or just a cheerleader. I've been in the 'living on my own, working 3 jobs' place, it's not easy. You can do this. You've totally got this. In little steps, but you'll get there.