Nutrition is overwhelming, where do I start?

Hi Meg, welcome!

There's definitely a lot of different ways you could go about improving your nutrition. I'd encourage you to start basic and after you master that, consider adding on different things people use. The basic steps are to learn to count calories and focus on expending more calories through movement and exercise than you take in through food. There are 3,500 calories in a pound, so for every pound you want to lose, you need to burn 3,500 more calories than you eat during that period of time.

I found when I was starting that a digital food scale was super useful. You can easily count and track a serving size of goldfish crackers, for example, but it's harder to estimate how many ounces or grams of mashed potatoes or porkchop you're eating. My scale helped me be accurate with the food diary, which is super important to get that calorie deficit you need.

I also really like my fitbit watch - having some sort of movement tracker gives you a better idea of how many calories per day you expend. My fitbit tells me, for example, that I routinely expend 3000 calories a day with my normal routine, but on active days, I'm burning 4000 calories. That helps me adjust how much I should eat to lose weight.

The first thing to really focus in on, in my opinion, is the measuring calories and counting food and exercise accurately. After that, people will talk about macros, carbs, keto, intermittent fasting, all sorts of different techniques. Those may or may not work for you, but they can't work unless you've got the calorie vs. expended energy balance flowing the right way.

I will add that for me, the way I managed to get my cravings for snacks (one of my biggest issues) under control was to enact a bit of intermittent fasting. I only eat from 10am - 6pm. It's harder to over-eat if you're limiting yourself to a window of time, and there's some evidence that it might help with metabolism and longevity, but who knows. After a couple weeks of it, my body just adjusted and I don't feel hungry when I'm fasting. I also minimize breakfast (2 boiled eggs and a fruit), and try to keep my lunch to something raw (vegetables & fruit) so that I have the freedom to eat more at dinner. That works for me personally. I'm busy at work during the day anyway, and at home I want to sit down with my family and eat a somewhat normal meal. I will often still skip the bread, but that's because I'd prefer to drink my carbs with dinner :-)

And, to finish that thought.....what are your goals? Seems like you want to loose weight? Do you train? Meaning, to you lift weights? Are you active? What type of foods do you like? Do you have any medical conditions (not asking for an answer......just pointing out that you need to take that into account IF there is something there)?

The key to success - for most people, anyway - is to do something that you can sustain. If you want to loose weight and someone tells you that you have to eat chicken, sweet potato and drink lemon water but you can't stand chicken, don't really like the texture of sweet potato and prefer to drink lemon aide then the likelihood of you being successful is really not all that great! You are setting yourself up for failure.

Calories are king. If you want to loose weight, then you need to ensure that caloric output exceeds caloric input. But a smaller margin is better than a bigger margin. Depending on your stats, there are certain 'rules' (and I use that word very loosely here) to follow.....just keeping in mind that this is a long term thing and that the human body needs a certain amount of energy (read: calories) to do all of the things that it just does.....

Does that help you?

Need2Exerc1se wrote: »

I think Michael Pollan said it best: "Eat food, not too much, mostly plants."

This is a good guide I think: https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/healthy-eating-plate/

Most people know what a good nutritious meal is. If you mostly eat good nutritious meals and leave a little room for maybe-not-so-nutritious treats without overeating, you'll be golden.

I will second all of this.

OP, I'd just make it simple to start. Watch calories, log, look at your logs and see where you can make some healthy changes to maybe add more vegetables or cut back on some less nutritious foods (not cut out, but back on), or where you might be eating in an unplanned way or way where you don't appreciate the calories enough for them to be worth it.

Some people find all the numbers you can track with MFP helpful and motivating, and some find them overwhelming. I found it easiest to focus on calories and protein and -- separately -- to make sure I was eating lots of vegetables and mostly nutrient dense foods but to save some room within my calories for those foods I really love and want to include in my diet (occasional ice cream, cheese, restaurants out once a week were my biggies). So many people have this idea of what "diet" food is or too narrow an idea of what eating healthy is, and really that's a shame, it's not that hard!

To lose weight all you need to do is stay in a calorie deficit (eat less than you burn through metabolism, daily activity, and exercise), which is why you will log all your calories consumed by weighing/measuring everything...guessing doesn't work well at all. To figure out what that "magic" number of calories is for your size/age, enter your statistics into MFP, choose your typical activity level (be conservative....you will add in exercise daily), number of pounds per week to lose...average is 1 lb. (500 calorie deficit per day). Let MFP calculate your daily calories and try to stay at or below that number. If you exercise you can add those calories back through your exercise diary and eat about half of those (be careful because it is easy to overestimate exercise calories and I understand that MFP is not that accurate with their database). Leave the macro settings (carbs/fats/protein) at the defaults to start (you can modify later if you feel you need to). Start choosing foods that you like and are a mixture of the 5 food groups...meat/poultry/fish for protein & fat; vegetables for low carbs/low calorie; fruits for fairly low carbs/low calorie; whole grains for carbs & fiber; some potato/roots OK; dairy for fats & protein; beans good for carb & protein & fiber; nuts & seeds for fat, protein, fiber. I try to make sure I get 2-3 or more at each meal and if one meal is high in say carbs the next I'll make sure to eat extra protein. Do some %RDA searches for more info on food groups. If you eat balanced meals then the micronutrients (vitamins & minerals) should take care of themselves, but keep an eye on the reports especially in the beginning. General rules of nutrition in most diets are to try to lower your added sugar intake, watch sodium (salt) levels, eat less white starch like flour (whole grains are better), eat less processed foods, less take-out, more whole foods. Be sure you get plenty of protein, but don't worry too much about carbs and fats until you decide on what balance is good for you. Remember foods higher in fats (like fried foods) are higher in calories so concentrate on eating good fats like in fish, avocados, & nuts (good fats vrs. bad fats is a topic of its own). Good luck.

Start with what matters most -- calories. Be sure to get enough! But not too many, obviously. Practice your logging to become reasonably accurate. Not everyone does this, but the data can be very useful as you fine tune.

Then, don't change anything, but start making observations about macronutrients -- fats, carbohydrates & protein. Notice what makes you feel full, gives you energy, and you truly enjoy eating for a given calorie goal. Eat more of those things. Eat less of what seems to give you less bang for the calorie. Eventually, you will discover the macro balance that works best for you.

After that, you can start experimenting with things that matter less, like micronutrients, meal timing, etc, but those things are minor tweaks.

Don't try to tackle it all at once. Treat it like an science experiment where you have to isolate a few variables at a time, make careful observations, and give it enough time to yield meaningful results. And get enough sleep. Believe it or not, sleep makes a huge difference to the hormones controlling hunger, satiety and the urge to eat. Good luck!

Eat less calories than your body burns to lose weight.
I am eating all of the foods I love, just in smaller portion sizes,

I focus mainly on protein and iron and let the rest fall where it falls. For me, most days, that means right about where I should be on carbs (sometimes somewhat over) and somewhere between 60-75% of fat.

For the most part, I eat healthy-ish. I've cut back on high calorie treats and indulgences, but I haven't cut them out. I eat some processed foods, but I also cook from scratch. I limit homemade desserts to 200 calories per serving, but don't go beyond that. (Example: this week, I made strawberry sorbet. It's strawberries, lemon juice, sugar and water. I don't go looking to reduce the sugar content or switch it out for Splenda or honey-maple syrup-molasses-insert alternate sweetener du jour. All that concerns me is that the sorbet comes in at around 115-120 calories to the serving and doesn't taste 'dietetic'.)

I kind of operate on the principle that the healthy ingredients in my sandwiches and wraps don't dissolve if I use white bread to hold them together. And at another meal, I'll have whole grains instead. It all balances.

kbmnurse wrote: »

See a nutritionist some health plans have them available.

A registered dietitian would be a better option than a nutritionist