Trying to lose 40 lbs! Help!

romelove1
romelove1 Posts: 1 Member
edited November 24 in Health and Weight Loss
I’m 22 years old and I’ve gained weight. Not like a couple lbs, more like +40. I’ve struggled with being motivated to lose weight and even stick with it. I need help with a regimen. A good workout/meal plan.

Replies

  • cheryldumais
    cheryldumais Posts: 1,907 Member
    I spent my entire youth trying to find the magic diet plan. What I finally learned (at 59 years old) is there is no magic. The best diet plan is one you will stick to for life. Find food you like and can eat regularly under the calories you need to maintain your weight and find some form of exercise you like to do. Eating food that is healthy is good and you will likely find you fall in to that naturally because as time goes by you learn those foods are lower in calories and when you are hungry they taste good too. Allow yourself some treats here and there just make sure you don't eat more calories than the level you need to lose weight and remember eventually you will get a few more calories when you get to maintenance. You will never go back to eating the way you did before you lost weight so find something you can live with.
  • JillianRumrill
    JillianRumrill Posts: 335 Member
    1. DRINK LOTS OF WATER- start off slow of course, let your body get used to the extra hydration so you're not running to the bathroom every 5 minutes. Good rule of thumb: "Don't drink your calories"
    2. LOG EVERYTHING- I like to pre-plan my day, but follow what suits you best. When I say log everything, I mean EVERYTHING. Butter, ketchup, oil the food was cooked in...etc.
    3. DON'T EAT BACK ALL OF YOUR EXERCISE CALORIES- if you're feeling hungry, you can "eat back" those calories you burn off from exercise, but be aware that they may be overestimated, so only eat back half at most. I also like to think this way: Overestimate how much calories you've eaten, Underestimate how many calories you've burned off.

    You can do it, MFP works! I've lost 25lbs so far and it was much easier than I thought it would be once I fell into my groove. Now I can't imagine my life any differently!!
  • MegaMooseEsq
    MegaMooseEsq Posts: 3,118 Member
    edited January 2018
    I lost 40 pounds between January and December of last year (30 or so to go!). It's absolutely totally completely possible. Here's what I did:

    1) Tracked everything I was eating before I started trying to lose weight.
    2) Looked at what I was eating and identified areas where I could cut back without much pain.
    3) Experimented with different foods, meal timing, etc in order to stay in a deficit without going bonkers.
    4) Gave myself permission to eat at or even OVER maintenance from time to time. I actually took the entire back half of December off and it was pretty nice. I maybe gained a couple of pounds.
    5) Congratulated myself for working hard and making progress even if I didn't meet my goals.

    Here's what I did not do:

    1) Cut any food or food group out of my diet entirely.
    2) Give up when I had a bad day/week/month, or when I gained random amounts of water weight overnight.
    3) Rely on exercise for my deficit (I did start exercising more in August, but I'd lost more than half of the weight by then, plus I eat back most of the extra calories I burn).
    4) Followed anyone else's plan.
    5) Stick to 1200 calories a day.
  • JJYoyo
    JJYoyo Posts: 14 Member
    This might help you; it worked for me fwiw. Don't focus on weight -- instead, pick a harder goal, one with less emotional baggage, and stick to that without exceptions. Example: limit yourself to a diabetic's maximum carbohydrate intake per day (for a typical guy, maybe 200 grams of carbs a day; for a typical woman, maybe 180 grams -- this is not medical advice, just a hypothetical example). You can check out total carbohydrates on any nutrition label and you can look up total carbs in the MyFitnessPal database or Nutrition Self or the like). Then make that carb limit your absolute ceiling, everyday. You will find that you are under your calorie goals, especially if you also limit your fats to daily recommended limits. Throw in exercise and you'll lose weight -- a controlled but reliable weight loss.
    I was diagnosed with Type II diabetes and just had to limit my carbohydrate intake. I treated 180 grams (a moderately tough limit) as my absolute ceiling on carbs and 80 g of total fat as a limit too. Exercised for an average daily calorie burn of about 350 kcal a day. Lost 25 lbs in 6 months. You'll feel low level hunger during the day at first -- nothing horrible, just a vague sense of when the hell is the next meal. Also, cutting my carbs back made me a bit loopy at times but also mellow. Takes a couple of months to get used to it. Now everything tastes sweet: broccoli tastes sweet, carrots taste like sugar candy, and actual sugar tastes like vodka. Now every mouthful is like a taste explosion, and not out of hunger, but out of a change in the sense of taste.
  • Falklang
    Falklang Posts: 220 Member
    JillianRumrill wrote: »
    1. DRINK LOTS OF WATER- start off slow of course, let your body get used to the extra hydration so you're not running to the bathroom every 5 minutes. Good rule of thumb: "Don't drink your calories"
    2. LOG EVERYTHING- I like to pre-plan my day, but follow what suits you best. When I say log everything, I mean EVERYTHING. Butter, ketchup, oil the food was cooked in...etc.
    3. DON'T EAT BACK ALL OF YOUR EXERCISE CALORIES- if you're feeling hungry, you can "eat back" those calories you burn off from exercise, but be aware that they may be overestimated, so only eat back half at most. I also like to think this way: Overestimate how much calories you've eaten, Underestimate how many calories you've burned off.

    You can do it, MFP works! I've lost 25lbs so far and it was much easier than I thought it would be once I fell into my groove. Now I can't imagine my life any differently!!

    Fantastic advice there! On my current journey I've learned not to be too hard on myself and to not be too strict, as long as im sticking within my calories. :)
  • whosshe
    whosshe Posts: 597 Member
    I definitely struggle with motivation and sticking to things too. Before I started losing weight I would make so many "meal plans" and workout plans, I would get overwhelmed and not even start them.

    The thing that worked for me was just starting. Buying a food scale and eating the same things just making sure I'm under my calorie goal. And that's it. Get your eating in check and then start adding in exercise.

    I would always start off doing way too much so focusing on calories first helped me see that "yes I can do this!" and then the scale dropping was motivation enough to keep going.

    You got this! If you're not a regimented person don't create a regimen.
  • callsitlikeiseeit
    callsitlikeiseeit Posts: 8,626 Member
    all of everything everyone has said ..

    ive lost 100 over (primarily) the past 3 years (within the last year only losing 10, as I wasnt actively trying)

    i eat normal food. i work out (sometimes on a nice regular schedule and sometimes.... not so much). I log everything i eat. I only log half my workout (when i bother to log it at all) so if you see i worked out for 30 minutes, it was really an hours. its just easier for me that way and that way i know i can eat back all those calories if i want or need to.

    or if i need a couple of beers ;)
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