New to diet

Also fitness (exercise) and nutrition are very important to overall health, but in terms of weight loss, they are complementary goals, not necessary ones. The only thing you need to lose weight is to eat fewer calories. If focusing on exercise and macro balance is distracting you from getting into a caloric deficit, it’s entirely fine to put those goal aside from the time being.

2011rocket3touring wrote: »

Don't use the term "diet" as it implies "temporary". Your objective is to change habits that will lead to fat loss.

By definition, diet means the way you eat.


OP, set up your style of eating and your workout plans to your ultimate goals. We often pick aggressive goals thinking it's the best approach to our actual goals and that rarely works. For example, if your goal is a lean body with abs, than aiming for a moderate deficit, adequate protein and a good progressive overload resistance program is key.

I found it extremely helpful to make baby steps, rather than jumping straight into a large calorie deficit. Because each step was small enough to be manageable, I never felt frustrated by the changes in my nutrition and exercise. For example, I moved from drinking whole milk to drinking 2% milk, then 1% milk, and now I stick to skim milk. Note that I did not make the change because whole milk is bad (it's not), but for the purpose of meeting my daily caloric and macro goals (I prefer to get my fat from bacon, because bacon is awesome). I made a lot of other changes as well (e.g., cutting down on alcohol), but because I made these changes over a couple of months, each change felt fairly easy. Similarly, I started working out only once or twice per week to get my body accustomed to exercise, and slowly increased frequency and intensity. Now I'm doing 2-a-day workouts. My initial weight loss was much slower than it could have been, but these changes have been much easier to maintain. I'm now losing a pound per week and still feeling good.

Use the forums and the search facility. So helpful. The advice that helped me most: dieting is a skill set you have to acquire, and dieting is about creating a personalised eating plan. I keep making small adjustments based on what I learn. I added fast food occasionally based on tips: taco bell chicken fresco tacos with a WW beans and rice microwave meal. Delicious and I don't feel deprived. Shrimp burgers at 50 calories saved me from a late night binge - based on a recommendation. More protein in morning stops evereating later on so I now have 2 eggs in the morning and it works. Someone suggested having a plan in place to stop a bad meal choice or two from completely derailing you. Great advice! At the end of the day it's about eating food I like. Some advice I'm pondering now: think about what your life will be like eating at maintenance... It can't be unsustainable and hard.