General tips when starting

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101810191020
101810191020 Posts: 51 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
These are some simple things I did that helped me when I started losing weight. I lost 15 lbs in about 10 weeks just by doing this. Nothing too crazy.

1. 5 small meals a day
2. At least half a gallon of water a day
3. No refined sugar
4. No refined salt
5. Would only drink water, milk (2%) or coffee
6. Minimize processed foods
7. At least 2 servings of fruit per day
8. At least 3 servings of vegetables per day
9. Multivitamin
10. Sleep as much as possible
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Replies

  • 101810191020
    101810191020 Posts: 51 Member
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    toxikon wrote: »
    Here are some of mine to add to the list.

    - Moderation is key: enjoy treats, junk food, fast food in moderation, while fitting them into your calorie goal.
    - Find foods that satiate you. Personally, I find that high-protein & high-fibre meals are great for controlling hunger.
    - Don't drink your calories often. Stick with mainly water, tea, coffee and low-calorie beverages.
    - Use a damn food scale. Just do it.
    - Play with meal timing and frequency to find what works for you. Some people find success grazing on 5+ meals a day, others do better with 1-3 meals a day. Some like to skip breakfast, others don't. Experiment.

    I couldn’t agree more with what you say, especially drinking your calories and using a scale. As of now I’m splitting my calories in 7 meals and it has given me good results.
  • 101810191020
    101810191020 Posts: 51 Member
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    tinkerbellang83 wrote: »
    Same as above, glad that worked for you but a lot of it is totally unnecessary for weight loss.

    Tips for just starting are:
    • make a sustainable plan
    • be honest and accurate in your logging - food scale is the most accurate way to be accurate
    • stick to your calorie allowance over the week
    • be patient

    I was retaining a lot of water and the changes I made helped me because I was “too” fat. I was 191 lbs and went down to 176lbs. Needless to say I counted calories and macros (40/40/20 to start)
  • janejellyroll
    janejellyroll Posts: 25,763 Member
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    101810191020 wrote: »
    musicfan68 wrote: »
    Glad that worked for you. I just reduced my calories to a reasonable deficit and started being more active. Lost over 50 lbs over a year. Oh, and I naturally do intermittent fasting. If I ate 5 x a day I would be hungry all the time and end up eating too much.

    ETA: What is refined salt? Never heard of it before.

    Table salt. When table salt is refined it loses some minerals.

    Given that these minerals can be found in other foods and most of us aren't consuming salt in quantities large enough to meet our needs for these minerals anyway, I'm unsure why this matters. In any event, it's more of a nutritional tip than a tip related to weight loss. Your rate of loss would be the same if you were using regular table salt.
  • musicfan68
    musicfan68 Posts: 1,126 Member
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    The differences in types of salt are marginal, and I don't want to risk getting goiter, so I'll stick to table salt.
  • 101810191020
    101810191020 Posts: 51 Member
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    janejellyroll wrote: »
    101810191020 wrote: »
    musicfan68 wrote: »
    Glad that worked for you. I just reduced my calories to a reasonable deficit and started being more active. Lost over 50 lbs over a year. Oh, and I naturally do intermittent fasting. If I ate 5 x a day I would be hungry all the time and end up eating too much.

    ETA: What is refined salt? Never heard of it before.

    Table salt. When table salt is refined it loses some minerals.

    Given that these minerals can be found in other foods and most of us aren't consuming salt in quantities large enough to meet our needs for these minerals anyway, I'm unsure why this matters. In any event, it's more of a nutritional tip than a tip related to weight loss. Your rate of loss would be the same if you were using regular table salt.

    For whatever reason sea salt helped me keep my blood pressure lower (normal, there is history of heart related problems in my family). I understand the differences are minimal but I will go with what keeps my heart healthy. I am not trying to lose weight anymore. I am 5’10” and walk around a lean 182lbs. My goals are to stay as muscular as possible while being healthy.
  • janejellyroll
    janejellyroll Posts: 25,763 Member
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    101810191020 wrote: »
    janejellyroll wrote: »
    101810191020 wrote: »
    musicfan68 wrote: »
    Glad that worked for you. I just reduced my calories to a reasonable deficit and started being more active. Lost over 50 lbs over a year. Oh, and I naturally do intermittent fasting. If I ate 5 x a day I would be hungry all the time and end up eating too much.

    ETA: What is refined salt? Never heard of it before.

    Table salt. When table salt is refined it loses some minerals.

    Given that these minerals can be found in other foods and most of us aren't consuming salt in quantities large enough to meet our needs for these minerals anyway, I'm unsure why this matters. In any event, it's more of a nutritional tip than a tip related to weight loss. Your rate of loss would be the same if you were using regular table salt.

    For whatever reason sea salt helped me keep my blood pressure lower (normal, there is history of heart related problems in my family). I understand the differences are minimal but I will go with what keeps my heart healthy. I am not trying to lose weight anymore. I am 5’10” and walk around a lean 182lbs. My goals are to stay as muscular as possible while being healthy.

    I understand there are a variety of reasons to make different choices, but you included it in your list and added "I lost 15 lbs in about 10 weeks just by doing this" so that's why I'm pointing out it's not related to weight loss.
  • Kim_S_G
    Kim_S_G Posts: 120 Member
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    101810191020 wrote: »
    tinkerbellang83 wrote: »
    Same as above, glad that worked for you but a lot of it is totally unnecessary for weight loss.

    Tips for just starting are:
    • make a sustainable plan
    • be honest and accurate in your logging - food scale is the most accurate way to be accurate
    • stick to your calorie allowance over the week
    • be patient

    I was retaining a lot of water and the changes I made helped me because I was “too” fat. I was 191 lbs and went down to 176lbs. Needless to say I counted calories and macros (40/40/20 to start)

    But that is the most important part and should be said. Otherwise, some people may read your post and think that calorie counting is irrelevant since nothing in your original post said anything about counting calories.
  • 101810191020
    101810191020 Posts: 51 Member
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    Kim_S_G wrote: »
    101810191020 wrote: »
    tinkerbellang83 wrote: »
    Same as above, glad that worked for you but a lot of it is totally unnecessary for weight loss.

    Tips for just starting are:
    • make a sustainable plan
    • be honest and accurate in your logging - food scale is the most accurate way to be accurate
    • stick to your calorie allowance over the week
    • be patient

    I was retaining a lot of water and the changes I made helped me because I was “too” fat. I was 191 lbs and went down to 176lbs. Needless to say I counted calories and macros (40/40/20 to start)

    But that is the most important part and should be said. Otherwise, some people may read your post and think that calorie counting is irrelevant since nothing in your original post said anything about counting calories.

    This is a calorie counting app.
  • 101810191020
    101810191020 Posts: 51 Member
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    geneticsteacher wrote: »
    This is what worked for me:

    1. Buy a food scale
    2. Don't eliminate any foods you like, but eat smaller portions to stay within your allotted calories.
    3. Start walking.

    To each their own. I bought a scale when I started. I eliminated foods I liked because I did not want to “spend” calories on those foods. My workouts increased to 60 mins 6x a week
  • Kim_S_G
    Kim_S_G Posts: 120 Member
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    101810191020 wrote: »
    Kim_S_G wrote: »
    101810191020 wrote: »
    tinkerbellang83 wrote: »
    Same as above, glad that worked for you but a lot of it is totally unnecessary for weight loss.

    Tips for just starting are:
    • make a sustainable plan
    • be honest and accurate in your logging - food scale is the most accurate way to be accurate
    • stick to your calorie allowance over the week
    • be patient

    I was retaining a lot of water and the changes I made helped me because I was “too” fat. I was 191 lbs and went down to 176lbs. Needless to say I counted calories and macros (40/40/20 to start)

    But that is the most important part and should be said. Otherwise, some people may read your post and think that calorie counting is irrelevant since nothing in your original post said anything about counting calories.

    This is a calorie counting app.

    There are many people who read/post on these boards who are here to learn and do not realize that a caloric deficit is essential to weight loss.
  • snemberton
    snemberton Posts: 175 Member
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    musicfan68 wrote: »
    The differences in types of salt are marginal, and I don't want to risk getting goiter, so I'll stick to table salt.
    I prefer sea salt for taste reasons. But everyone has different taste buds, so I don't think it matters in the grand scheme.
  • lynn_glenmont
    lynn_glenmont Posts: 9,984 Member
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    101810191020 wrote: »
    janejellyroll wrote: »
    101810191020 wrote: »
    musicfan68 wrote: »
    Glad that worked for you. I just reduced my calories to a reasonable deficit and started being more active. Lost over 50 lbs over a year. Oh, and I naturally do intermittent fasting. If I ate 5 x a day I would be hungry all the time and end up eating too much.

    ETA: What is refined salt? Never heard of it before.

    Table salt. When table salt is refined it loses some minerals.

    Given that these minerals can be found in other foods and most of us aren't consuming salt in quantities large enough to meet our needs for these minerals anyway, I'm unsure why this matters. In any event, it's more of a nutritional tip than a tip related to weight loss. Your rate of loss would be the same if you were using regular table salt.

    For whatever reason sea salt helped me keep my blood pressure lower (normal, there is history of heart related problems in my family). I understand the differences are minimal but I will go with what keeps my heart healthy. I am not trying to lose weight anymore. I am 5’10” and walk around a lean 182lbs. My goals are to stay as muscular as possible while being healthy.

    Although your OP did not explicitly say "I did this and lost weight. You should do this too," a lot of people, including lurkers and newbies, are likely to read it as a general recommendation. It's not a good idea to base recommendations to a broad population on your n=1 results, especially without revealing that you're actually talking about trying to deal with a medical condition specific to yourself. I think many of the responses you are getting are from people with lots of experience on these boards seeing posts from people who take posts such as yours as advice for the best, if not only, way to lose weight, and then are understandably confused when someone else posts their n=1 experience as the way to go, and both posts pretty much ignore the most important thing, which is to create an energy deficit.

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