Need help meal planning to loosing weight
Options
19Native_Girl91
Posts: 1 Member
I'm 305lb women in my late 20's. I need to loosing weight for my health but I don't know how much to eat and what to eat. I'm used to eating anything and everything. I need major advice
3
Replies
-
Start by logging EVERYTHING you are currently eating. Weigh everything and don't cheat yourself. Look at how many calories you are eating and how many you should be eating (MFP will tell you that if you enter you stats and goals). Then start to look at ways to either eliminate some things that push you over or just eat less of them. Do this for a couple weeks until you start hitting your goals.
There's no one true way to eat. You need to find what works for you.
Good luck.11 -
Based on your stats and fitness goals, MyFitnessPal assigned you a certain amount of daily calories along with amounts of carbs, protein, fats.
Buy a kitchen scale so that you can measure your food to put in the diary.3 -
I agree that starting off by looking at what you’re eating and how much of what you’re eating is a really good idea. Once you’ve done that you can measure by mass or volume. The reason I say volume is OK is because when you have a lot to lose you don’t have to be as strict about being in a deficit is long as you start to see a trend going downward. If you don’t see the numbers going down then you will likely have to measure by mass. I personally measure by volume and I am 86 pounds overweight but that’s been working for me so far. My plan is once that stops working, I’ll buy a kitchen scale.
As for what to eat and how much, I like to scan barcodes of everything that I eat so that I can see the vitamins and macros. MFP calculates the “normal” macro % (caloric breakdown) but you can change that based on personal needs if your doctor or nutritionist says otherwise. Looking at the calories and other needs, I plan my next meal every day, and I don’t plan days ahead. I won’t speak to planning days ahead but you might find it’s similar as long as you consider calories.
I like to stick to staples like potatoes, and I eat bread every few days, but I also have frozen vegetables for stir fries almost daily, and frozen fruit for my smoothies. Of course I eat other things as well but those are my most common foods.
Have enough variety that you’re getting enough vitamins from your food and that you’re not getting bored of it, but enough consistent foods that you don’t have to overthink it and you can more easily plan. I don’t cut out foods, I reduce them.
For me personally, I find that just a few days or up to a couple weeks forms a habit (30 days forms a habit technically) so you might find yourself eating healthier foods more easily and in healthier quantities by then.
I hope this helps; these are my findings so far.
2 -
I have lost 38 lbs. since the beginning of May. I don't like to cook for just myself, usually, so I ate out A LOT. I am doing my own Jenny Craig using Healthy Choice and Lean Cuisine. My kids were like, "Oh, that stuff is not good for you!" My reply was, "Well, it's better than McDonald's or pizza!" Special K and Jimmy Dean Delights have a breakfast muffin (egg, sausage, cheese) that is low in calories. I started with that for breakfast but have switched to 1 cup of Fiber One cereal (the flake kind) + 1 cup 1% organic milk to get my fiber in. It's VERY filling! Lunch is a Lean Cuisine sandwich. Snack: Boost Glucose Control vanilla or especially chocolate! (22g protein, 2.5g fat, 1g sugar, 120 cal. Sometimes I will make a smoothie using the vanilla, but oh so good alone! (also had trouble getting all of my protein in. this helped) Dinner is usually a Healthy Choice meal + a very LARGE salad to fill me up. (Oh, I cut up my veggies and put them in a plastic container, so at dinner time... everything is ready to throw a large salad together. This helped A LOT! Keeps a week.) Bolthouse yogurt dressing (from Kroger or Publix-by the veggies, not the dressings) is fantastic, tastes divine, and very, very low in calories and fat. Log EVERYTHING in My Fitness Pal. I will eat poorly once a month (started at twice a month), just so I get that head craving in, but still log everything. I am just doing a day at a time. It's a life change, not a short haul. If I only lose a pound in one week, that okay! I'm still a LOT healthier than I was. The best of luck to you! Just keep at it. One day at a time.0
-
I remember how eye opening it was when I started logging and saw the number of calories I was taking in each day.
I learned so much just by filling out the food diary. Then explore the community.
Good luck!1 -
Find out what your TDEE (total daily energy expenditure). There’s calculators online. The one that takes your body fat% into account seems to be the most accurate. Then multiply that number by .20 or .25 to find out how much your calorie deficit you should have. Eat only that much calories per day to lose the weight. Eat enough protein (around 1g/ body weight) and perform resistance training to maintain as much lean body mass as possible during the diet. Fat should be around 15 to 20% (you need fat for hormone and cell regulations). The remaining calories should be from carbs (which majority should be from veggies). This worked for me. Of course everyone is different so you might have special cases that can affect this process for you, so maybe get your doctor involved. I suggest watching some videos about fat metabolism or other topics like that to give you more idea of the weight loss process. Another advice, those fad diets work because it tends to put you on a caloric deficit one way or another. It’s about energy balance. Ok, sorry for the long reply. Good luck on your journey.1
-
flyflipboy wrote: »Find out what your TDEE (total daily energy expenditure). There’s calculators online. The one that takes your body fat% into account seems to be the most accurate. Then multiply that number by .20 or .25 to find out how much your calorie deficit you should have. Eat only that much calories per day to lose the weight. Eat enough protein (around 1g/ body weight) and perform resistance training to maintain as much lean body mass as possible during the diet. Fat should be around 15 to 20% (you need fat for hormone and cell regulations). The remaining calories should be from carbs (which majority should be from veggies). This worked for me. Of course everyone is different so you might have special cases that can affect this process for you, so maybe get your doctor involved. I suggest watching some videos about fat metabolism or other topics like that to give you more idea of the weight loss process. Another advice, those fad diets work because it tends to put you on a caloric deficit one way or another. It’s about energy balance. Ok, sorry for the long reply. Good luck on your journey.
Why over complicate things? Why not just use MFP as it is designed? That's the kind of BS that sells magazines. It really is not that hard.7 -
19Native_Girl91 wrote: »I'm 305lb women in my late 20's. I need to loosing weight for my health but I don't know how much to eat and what to eat. I'm used to eating anything and everything. I need major advice
I plan out my meals on the weekend and prep breakfast, lunch and snacks for Mon - Thurs on a Sunday afternoon. Feel free to add me and look at my diary if you're interested.
Breakfast is usually a frittata or overnight oats.
Lunch is usually chicken breast, rice / quinoa / sweet potato, broccoli and / or kale and some type of dressing or topping.
Easy to do but you have to be OK with eating the same thing for four days straight ( I cook dinner every night though).2 -
I found a great resource on YouTube, C&C TV. She's known as CDHardy2016 on here. She was really on point and real. Made it super simple.1
-
Losing weight is VERY simple, if you have patience. It's not easy, but very simple.
Most important rule to losing weight is:
No matter WHAT you eat, if you're UNDER your maintenance calories, you are losing weight.
Keto, Paleo, Dukan, Pescataria, Vegetarian, Carnivorous, Vegan. It does NOT matter. If you're losing weight, you're under your calories.
Now that that's out of the way, WHAT you eat is important for health and specific goal, but at this point, at 305, the most important thing i can tell you is to eat single ingredient food.
That means no break, cake, donuts, pre-made dinners or any processed food in general.
A Steak is meat, a hotdog is *kitten*.
After a week or two eating natural, single ingredient food, any gastrointestinal issues should be gone and it's time to start looking at how many calories you need to maintain your weight and cut them by 300-500.
An example of my day:
Breakfast - 1 Banana + 1 cup of berries (Any) OR 1 other fruit (Usually apples or pears)
Lunch - A HUGE salad with plenty of Lettuce, Spinach, Watercress, Arugula + 6 cherry tomatoes, plenty of shredded carrots and cabbage (Red and green) + 2 table spoons of dressing (Ranch is my favorite)
Dinner - Rice, Beans and a stir fry with Mushrooms, Broccoli tenderstem, onions, kalamata and manzanilla olives, leeks and any other vegetable i can find.
and i usually have space in my calorie count for a yoghurt with fresh fruit.
16 -
There's no reason for you to limit your foods so drastically right off the bat. That's what would make a person give up.
Your way of eating has to be sustainable.3 -
Why?
Because Frosted Flakes, Donuts and a Double Whopper is how people get to be 305 lbs.
And 1 cup of Rice and 1 cup of beans has triple the volume and half the calories of a big mac.
and perhaps this is the most important part, an organism that has been subject to highly processed, high sugar, low nutritional value and low fiber will most likely have a difficult time dealing with the High Fiber content of Natural food. The Bacteria and the intestinal flora need to adapt/shift and that means, in some cases, that there will be constant trips to the bathroom, some gas and cravings. Lots of sugar cravings.
Add that to high intensity exercise, which the body is also not used to and it will be more difficult to keep a person motivated.
13 -
What would you suggest a sustainable?
Eat like a healthy person would do, that has your gender, height and goal weight and does the amount of sports you do. If you do this, you will end up as this person, over time. This is a good, positive mental model too.
(Dependent on how overweight you are that might not be possible and you have to eat more in the beginning, or you need to cut more to achieve faster weight loss, but your goal is to modify your diet, until you eat like this.)
What I would suggest is not logging at the beginning, but to raise the quality of your diet first, while easting as much as you want still. Replace low quality foods, with high quality options and create simple meals out of them. Focus on simple meals, complicated cooking with many ingredients is cool, but hard to do every day.
Start with one meal and make it high quality, if that works out nice, add the next meal, until every meals is high quality. Focus on quality when logging, write down a + for high quality and a - for low quality. It is perfectly ok to eat low quality too, just make sure to eat much more high quality. A cookie is ok, your fried offers you one, or one comes with a coffee? Eat it, low quality food is not forbidden, it just should not be your main source of calories and nutrition. It is important that there is not forbidden food.
This alone should make you lose weight and increase health, if not count calories for a while, you maybe eating to much of the good foods, that's possible.
High Quality Foods:- Vegetables
- Fruit
- Nuts, Seeds and Healthy Oils
- Whole Grains
- Dairy
- Unprocessed Meat and Seafood
Low Quality:- Refined Grains
- Sweets
- Processed Meat
- Fried Foods
- Low-Quality Beverages
P.S.: Losing weight with low quality food is possible, but it will be hard to maintain weight later, because you have to learn to keep your weight without relying on counting calories. The only calorie counter you should need is a scale, I would suggest to weight yourself every day and modify your eating from what is happening there over time.
6 -
Why?
Because Frosted Flakes, Donuts and a Double Whopper is how people get to be 305 lbs.
And 1 cup of Rice and 1 cup of beans has triple the volume and half the calories of a big mac.
and perhaps this is the most important part, an organism that has been subject to highly processed, high sugar, low nutritional value and low fiber will most likely have a difficult time dealing with the High Fiber content of Natural food. The Bacteria and the intestinal flora need to adapt/shift and that means, in some cases, that there will be constant trips to the bathroom, some gas and cravings. Lots of sugar cravings.
Add that to high intensity exercise, which the body is also not used to and it will be more difficult to keep a person motivated.
I have never been close to 305 pounds and I eat everything you say I shouldn't (and more)*. Now if I had to change my diet to crap I did not like to lose weight it wouldn't be long until I quit completely. Look at the statistics (not some made up BS). Look at the diet industry.
Please show me the evidence of all these issues you describe (not some nonsense blog or someone trying to sell me something). References to science please.
*Frosted Flakes and Double Whoppers suck *kitten*. Replace that with other representative 'junk' in my case.1 -
I completely understand why people fail at losing weight. Everyone wants to make it so frickin' complicated. It is hard to change your habits. Do it slowly over time. Don't change from whoppers and donuts to rice and beans overnight. Don't stop eating donuts just because the current boogieman is sugar. Make changes slowly. Make changes you can live with.6
-
I have never been close to 305 pounds and I eat everything you say I shouldn't (and more)*.
That's exactly my point. You have no idea.
Food, for many people who are severely obese, is a vice, an addiction.
And I bet you will never, ever find a nutritionist/dietitian that will take an obese person + all the metabolic issues that come with it and tell them it's ok to keep eating the very things that are making them sick.
No one here says that you can't have those things ever again, but if you're a person trying to make a choice to lose weight and live a healthier life, the only place to start is the kitchen.
Quick example:
BIG MAC - 563 calories
Large Fries - 510 calories (And lets be honest here, who orders small fries?)
Small Coke - +/- 200 calories (And that's again, assuming small)
Total - +/- 1273 Calories
Or
1 cup of Rice - 160 Calories (White Rice - Sona Masoori - So that there's no cheating the calories)
1 cup of Black Beans - 227 Calories
2 Boiled Eggs - 136 Calories
1/2 can (130g) of sweet corn - 100 Calories
1 Banana - 105 Calories
150g of Greek Yoghurt (Fat Free) - 81 calories (Full Fat) - 100 Calories
1 Cup of Blue Berries - 86 Calories
Total - +/- 895 Calories
I know this is a futile exercise and you know what works for you, but i have 3 questions:
1 - Which meal is better for Health?
2 - How Many people do you know that could sit and eat all that in one meal?
3 - Which one is better for weight loss?
SO, to @19Native_Girl91, the original poster.
Read all of the replies and make a decision between changing your habits or keep doing what you do today and see if anything changes.
4 -
I have never been close to 305 pounds and I eat everything you say I shouldn't (and more)*.
That's exactly my point. You have no idea.
Food, for many people who are severely obese, is a vice, an addiction.
And I bet you will never, ever find a nutritionist/dietitian that will take an obese person + all the metabolic issues that come with it and tell them it's ok to keep eating the very things that are making them sick.
No one here says that you can't have those things ever again, but if you're a person trying to make a choice to lose weight and live a healthier life, the only place to start is the kitchen.
Quick example:
BIG MAC - 563 calories
Large Fries - 510 calories (And lets be honest here, who orders small fries?)
Small Coke - +/- 200 calories (And that's again, assuming small)
Total - +/- 1273 Calories
You just did EXACTLY what I suggested the OP do. Log what she eats today. If that is an actual meal (not saying the OP would eat this, just an example), then so be it. Log it and do the same for all other meals. Then you will know how much you eat and you can start making changes. Maybe drop the large fries to small and replace the coke with something else. See what I am saying here? Make small changes over time.
Or
1 cup of Rice - 160 Calories (White Rice - Sona Masoori - So that there's no cheating the calories)
1 cup of Black Beans - 227 Calories
2 Boiled Eggs - 136 Calories
1/2 can (130g) of sweet corn - 100 Calories
1 Banana - 105 Calories
150g of Greek Yoghurt (Fat Free) - 81 calories (Full Fat) - 100 Calories
1 Cup of Blue Berries - 86 Calories
Total - +/- 895 Calories
I know this is a futile exercise and you know what works for you, but i have 3 questions:
1 - Which meal is better for Health?
2 - How Many people do you know that could sit and eat all that in one meal?
3 - Which one is better for weight loss?
SO, to @19Native_Girl91, the original poster.
Read all of the replies and make a decision between changing your habits or keep doing what you do today and see if anything changes.
You meal looks great on paper but in reality there's nothing there I would eat on a daily basis, therefor I would fail. This is what happens to people. They read some strict way of eating and try to follow it. It happened to me several times (and no, I was not morbidly obese but I was obese).
Which meal is better? Neither. When you make things so black and white there's no room to find what works for you.
And, at what point did I ever say to not change your habits????
BTW - At 300 pounds the Big Mac meal would fit into a 2500 calorie diet and you could still lose weight. A Big Mac meal with small fries and diet drink would work even better.
Question for you? What is more important NOW? Losing the weight or worrying about nutrition?
FWIW - Nutrition IS important. Just don't try to do it all in one day.4 -
Also, still need references for the processed food claims you made before. Maybe I can learn something new.0
Categories
- All Categories
- 1.4M Health, Wellness and Goals
- 391.8K Introduce Yourself
- 43.5K Getting Started
- 259.8K Health and Weight Loss
- 175.6K Food and Nutrition
- 47.3K Recipes
- 232.3K Fitness and Exercise
- 396 Sleep, Mindfulness and Overall Wellness
- 6.4K Goal: Maintaining Weight
- 8.5K Goal: Gaining Weight and Body Building
- 152.8K Motivation and Support
- 7.8K Challenges
- 1.3K Debate Club
- 96.3K Chit-Chat
- 2.5K Fun and Games
- 3.3K MyFitnessPal Information
- 23 News and Announcements
- 967 Feature Suggestions and Ideas
- 2.3K MyFitnessPal Tech Support Questions