Help please! I'm a beginner at all of this..
KayPoel93
Posts: 6 Member
Hello, I am an extreme beginner at eating healthy and losing weight, I've tried multiple times over the years but nothing seemed to work for me and I gave up easily. I'm sticking to it this time.. two weeks now of logging meals and finding hethy alternatives, I still snack late at night but that is a current battle. I'm getting frustrated because I have not been losing ANY weight. Not even 1 pound! I walk 10,000 steps at least 5 days a week. I will incorporate more exercise as I lose weight, but I'm to uncomfortable at my size. I don't know what to do and I wish I had a mentor through all of this. I am 232 lbs and 5'9". I gain weight evenly everywhere so my problem fat deposits are, well, everywhere. My goal is to lose 80 pounds by summer 2021 and be physically active at that point. Is there anyone out there who is willing to give me some tips to help improve myself? Thank you! P.S. sorry if this isn't the proper spot to ask this, I'm very desperate for help...
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Replies
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Hi. What is your daily calorie allotment?
Do you use a food scale?3 -
get a food scale so you can measure everything by the gram. Log every piece of food and drink you consume, including those late night snacks. Keep calories at a deficit . eat enough fiber and drink enough water. 90% of the battle is diet. Also, stay away from FAD DIETS. and yes, exercise is a plus! Welcome and good luck. You can do this but it will take time and patience and meticulous food logging.7
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You don’t mention anything about how many calories you eat or how you’re tracking your food.
Weight loss is 100% about consistently eating fewer calories than your body burns. You can ensure that you’re in a calorie deficit by weighing and logging all your food.
Exercise alone will not cause you to lose weight. Eating “healthy” alone will not cause you to lose weight. Cutting out snacking alone will not cause you to lose weight. The only way those things are relevant to weight loss is if they help you stay in a calorie deficit.11 -
One day at a time. Set goals you can keep each day. Walking by itself is good and it sounds like you are doing well with that! Good job! The evening snacking needs to be your priority it sounds like...so when you do your food diary be honest and put that amount that you think you will be eating in there and adjust your other meals to account for the calories if you can..best of luck to you!3
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Check out these helpful posts for tips and advice:
https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/1080242/a-guide-to-get-you-started-on-your-path-to-sexypants/p1
https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10636388/free-customized-personal-weight-loss-eating-plan-not-spam-or-mlm/p1
https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10012907/logging-accuracy-consistency-and-youre-probably-eating-more-than-you-think/p1
And especially:
https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10634517/you-dont-use-a-food-scale/p1
[ETA: If you like to snack at night, there's nothing wrong with that - just make sure that you account for it in your daily calories, and log it in advance if you need to.]4 -
This article might help you:
https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/20-reasons-you-are-not-losing-weight
I think might be sugar/carbs intake or eating too many calories.
You should try Keto diet is low carb, no sugar diet, it really works.
Make sure log everything even the snacks with right weight/amount, that way you will know is you are over your calories.
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PrincessaGetsFit wrote: »This article might help you:
https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/20-reasons-you-are-not-losing-weight
I think might be sugar/carbs intake or eating too many calories.
You should try Keto diet is low carb, no sugar diet, it really works.
Make sure log everything even the snacks with right weight/amount, that way you will know is you are over your calories.
The only thing you need is a calorie deficit and time. Low carb and keto are only a good idea if they make losing weight easier.
That article has some valid points but it also has things in it that exceed the scope of the title or are not required.7 -
Hello, I am an extreme beginner at eating healthy and losing weight, I've tried multiple times over the years but nothing seemed to work for me and I gave up easily. I'm sticking to it this time.. two weeks now of logging meals and finding hethy alternatives, I still snack late at night but that is a current battle. I'm getting frustrated because I have not been losing ANY weight. Not even 1 pound! I walk 10,000 steps at least 5 days a week. I will incorporate more exercise as I lose weight, but I'm to uncomfortable at my size. I don't know what to do and I wish I had a mentor through all of this. I am 232 lbs and 5'9". I gain weight evenly everywhere so my problem fat deposits are, well, everywhere. My goal is to lose 80 pounds by summer 2021 and be physically active at that point. Is there anyone out there who is willing to give me some tips to help improve myself? Thank you! P.S. sorry if this isn't the proper spot to ask this, I'm very desperate for help...
Since you have 80 pounds to lose you are welcome to come by Larger Losers which is a group for people who are or have started with 75 or more pounds to lose. It is also for people who have lost that much or more to come by and share insights for people who are still losing.
Here is the link:
https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/group/133315-larger-losers
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That seems high. Are you really tall? NHS recommendations are 2000 calories per day for women.
One of the top reasons people here don't lose at first is that they fail to weigh what they're eating. It's a good investment.1 -
glovepuppet wrote: »
That seems high. Are you really tall? NHS recommendations are 2000 calories per day for women.
One of the top reasons people here don't lose at first is that they fail to weigh what they're eating. It's a good investment.
10k steps puts her in a pretty active category. Without knowing for sure it should create about a 750 calorie deficit over the course of 7 days for 1.5 pound of loss per week. Without a food scale, of course, it would be hard to verify her actual calories.
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glovepuppet wrote: »
That seems high. Are you really tall? NHS recommendations are 2000 calories per day for women.
One of the top reasons people here don't lose at first is that they fail to weigh what they're eating. It's a good investment.
10k steps puts her in a pretty active category. Without knowing for sure it should create about a 750 calorie deficit over the course of 7 days for 1.5 pound of loss per week. Without a food scale, of course, it would be hard to verify her actual calories.
With 10k steps, isn't the average burn nearer 500cals?
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glovepuppet wrote: »glovepuppet wrote: »
That seems high. Are you really tall? NHS recommendations are 2000 calories per day for women.
One of the top reasons people here don't lose at first is that they fail to weigh what they're eating. It's a good investment.
10k steps puts her in a pretty active category. Without knowing for sure it should create about a 750 calorie deficit over the course of 7 days for 1.5 pound of loss per week. Without a food scale, of course, it would be hard to verify her actual calories.
With 10k steps, isn't the average burn nearer 500cals?
I am not 100 percent certain being still new to steps myself. I know people around here often say that puts you in a fairly active category so I ran the TDEE based on that. Either way it would create a deficit since her sedentary TDEE is about 2100. Either more calories are being eaten or the weight loss is being masked by TOM or another water weight fluctuation.0 -
I'm fairly new so I remember what it was like (started May 2018), but I've also learned quite a bit. So, here's what helped me:
- Make sure your activity/lifestyle setting is accurate. I picked sedentary because I have an office job.
- Be truthful about your entries. Everything you don't put down is still going into your body. Late night snacking is the worst. I've eaten way too much just before going to bed and didn't enter it right way, then went ahead and fixed it later or the next day. Remember, this tool only works if you're honest, even if you blow your calorie budget in a big way. I've been over by 500 calories and more on some days. It's painful to enter it, but it has to be done.
- Related to the above, get a scale for every place you eat (home, work, car). Get measuring cups too. You may well be eating more than you think. I was.
- Be accurate about exercise. Double check the calories shown in MFP as well as on exercise machines with other sources to make sure they're correct. For example, the elliptical machine I use shows a lot more calories burned than is reasonable, so I use the MFP entry for the time I'm exercising.
- Your first month or so is to establish a baseline and get used to using MFP. Don't worry about losing weight right way. Just get used to the app.
- Watch the entries in the database. They're not always correct. I do a quick math check to see if the calories and macros add up (carbs plus proteins x 4, fat x 9). I also use a spreadsheet to check my daily entries. When I first started, I had some badly wrong entries. My spreadsheet automatically uses 3 calories/gram of carbs since US/FDA nutrition labels don't subtract out non-digestible fiber.
- Watch the macronutrients. It's not helping if your diet has a super high percentage of carbohydrates, or is otherwise unbalanced. Sugar is a big one. It took several months of adjusting to reduce that. Even then, it's not unusual to completely blow the daily sugar goal - it doesn't take much since so many foods have so much sugar.
- Make sure you're getting enough fiber and water to keep regular.
- Don't give up when you slip. You'll probably backslide on occasion. Just get it together, vow to do better, remember the successes and keep plugging away.
How well did this work for me? After about a month or so, I was reliably losing a pound a week. I quickly got past my initial goal of going from 183 to 175, so I kept setting new goals. Eventually I decided to get below 160 so I'd have a healthy BMI for the first in a few decades. As I got below 170, I started increasing my calorie intake to gradually glide into my ideal weight and also finally eat more. I got below 160 in about 6 months, and have maintained around 158 for about 9 months. Good luck, and welcome to the community!5 -
Forgot to note that my calories from walking became considerably more accurate (and lower) when I put Pedometer++ on my phone and linked it to MFP. Walking doesn't burn as many calories as the exercise database entries indicate. Sedentary lifestyle assumes 5000 steps/day, so I don't start getting many walking exercise calories until I'm over 5000 steps.2
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Check out these helpful posts for tips and advice:
https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/1080242/a-guide-to-get-you-started-on-your-path-to-sexypants/p1
https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10636388/free-customized-personal-weight-loss-eating-plan-not-spam-or-mlm/p1
https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10012907/logging-accuracy-consistency-and-youre-probably-eating-more-than-you-think/p1
And especially:
https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10634517/you-dont-use-a-food-scale/p1
[ETA: If you like to snack at night, there's nothing wrong with that - just make sure that you account for it in your daily calories, and log it in advance if you need to.]
Quoted for emphasis. Welcome and good luck OP
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And other habit I found helpful. Most days I enter most if not all of my food in the morning before I eat it. That way, I know ahead of time if I have space for something else, am lacking some macros (and now micro nutrients), or if I need to cut back. It helps a lot to plan ahead. Whenever I go out to eat, I scope out the menu online and enter what I'm going to eat before ever getting to the restaurant. You don't want to be unpleasantly surprised to find you can, for example, easily eat 1500 calories in one sitting at an Indian buffet.5
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You don’t mention anything about how many calories you eat or how you’re tracking your food.
Weight loss is 100% about consistently eating fewer calories than your body burns. You can ensure that you’re in a calorie deficit by weighing and logging all your food.
Exercise alone will not cause you to lose weight. Eating “healthy” alone will not cause you to lose weight. Cutting out snacking alone will not cause you to lose weight. The only way those things are relevant to weight loss is if they help you stay in a calorie deficit.
All of this!
I started out years ago losing weight by the method of "eating healthier, eating less at each meal, exercising 10X more" and it worked....SLOWLY. It took me over 6 years to lose 45 lb doing that. I started over 300 lb.
I then tried the calorie counting here with religiously tracking every bite I ate. I lost 90 lb in a little over 1 year and got to where I want to be. I've now maintained for 6 years doing the same, although I've relaxed in my logging considerably as I've learned what works & doesn't work and have a better idea of calorie/macro content of my meals.
It really does work, if you don't mind logging everything...totally worth it.
PS another thing that made a huge difference for me was figuring out the best times to eat my meals and how many calories for each meal. I tend to eat only 10% of my calories at breakfast and then 40% at lunch and 50% at dinner, very rarely snack. In the past I was eating 20% at breakfast, 20% at lunch, 30% in various snacks through the day, and 30% at dinner. This is all kind of TMI I'm sure, as different things work for different people. But it has helped immensely with my feeling satisfied & energetic all day. When I was snacking more and eating smaller lunch & dinner, I felt vaguely hungry ALL the time and never satisfied.2 -
glovepuppet wrote: »
That seems high. Are you really tall? NHS recommendations are 2000 calories per day for women.
One of the top reasons people here don't lose at first is that they fail to weigh what they're eating. It's a good investment.
I'm 5' 9" average height. I am going to stick to just 2000. Thank you!0 -
seltzermint555 wrote: »You don’t mention anything about how many calories you eat or how you’re tracking your food.
Weight loss is 100% about consistently eating fewer calories than your body burns. You can ensure that you’re in a calorie deficit by weighing and logging all your food.
Exercise alone will not cause you to lose weight. Eating “healthy” alone will not cause you to lose weight. Cutting out snacking alone will not cause you to lose weight. The only way those things are relevant to weight loss is if they help you stay in a calorie deficit.
All of this!
I started out years ago losing weight by the method of "eating healthier, eating less at each meal, exercising 10X more" and it worked....SLOWLY. It took me over 6 years to lose 45 lb doing that. I started over 300 lb.
I then tried the calorie counting here with religiously tracking every bite I ate. I lost 90 lb in a little over 1 year and got to where I want to be. I've now maintained for 6 years doing the same, although I've relaxed in my logging considerably as I've learned what works & doesn't work and have a better idea of calorie/macro content of my meals.
It really does work, if you don't mind logging everything...totally worth it.
PS another thing that made a huge difference for me was figuring out the best times to eat my meals and how many calories for each meal. I tend to eat only 10% of my calories at breakfast and then 40% at lunch and 50% at dinner, very rarely snack. In the past I was eating 20% at breakfast, 20% at lunch, 30% in various snacks through the day, and 30% at dinner. This is all kind of TMI I'm sure, as different things work for different people. But it has helped immensely with my feeling satisfied & energetic all day. When I was snacking more and eating smaller lunch & dinner, I felt vaguely hungry ALL the time and never satisfied.
I am currently doing small meals and a lot of snacking throughout the day, still always feel hungry, I'll try bigger meals. Thank you for the insight!1 -
And other habit I found helpful. Most days I enter most if not all of my food in the morning before I eat it. That way, I know ahead of time if I have space for something else, am lacking some macros (and now micro nutrients), or if I need to cut back. It helps a lot to plan ahead. Whenever I go out to eat, I scope out the menu online and enter what I'm going to eat before ever getting to the restaurant. You don't want to be unpleasantly surprised to find you can, for example, easily eat 1500 calories in one sitting at an Indian buffet.
I love this idea, I did this yesterday for the first time and felt more accountable. And ate 400 calories less, MFP gave me a 2100 limit but I'm going to work on 2000.2 -
You don’t mention anything about how many calories you eat or how you’re tracking your food.
Weight loss is 100% about consistently eating fewer calories than your body burns. You can ensure that you’re in a calorie deficit by weighing and logging all your food.
Exercise alone will not cause you to lose weight. Eating “healthy” alone will not cause you to lose weight. Cutting out snacking alone will not cause you to lose weight. The only way those things are relevant to weight loss is if they help you stay in a calorie deficit.
I'm at 2100 but people are telling me that may be to high so I'm going to try 1900-2000 calories.0 -
You need a food scale. You must weigh and measure everything you eat so you know exactly how many calories you are actually eating. That is the most important thing. If you are not losing weight you are eating too many calories.
Some great advice in the previous posts here. If you take them on board you should start to see some progress.4 -
You don’t mention anything about how many calories you eat or how you’re tracking your food.
Weight loss is 100% about consistently eating fewer calories than your body burns. You can ensure that you’re in a calorie deficit by weighing and logging all your food.
Exercise alone will not cause you to lose weight. Eating “healthy” alone will not cause you to lose weight. Cutting out snacking alone will not cause you to lose weight. The only way those things are relevant to weight loss is if they help you stay in a calorie deficit.
I'm at 2100 but people are telling me that may be to high so I'm going to try 1900-2000 calories.
I'd suggest that you believe the number, and follow it for 4-6 weeks, before you adjust.
Losing weight too slowly is frustrating, but losing too fast can be a health risk (let alone hard to stick to!).
You're a tall woman, fairly active in daily life, with a good-ish amount of weight still to lose. I'm 5'5", weight mid-130s, age 63, sedentary outside of intentional exercise, and maintain (for almost 4 years now) on more than 2000 gross calories. While I admit I'm a good li'l ol' calorie-burner for mysterious reasons, I mention this because the idea that women need to eat punitively low calories to lose weight isn't necessarily true.
MFP's estimates are based on sound research, and are a good starting point. It's estimates are better-founded than what "people say". No other individual's calorie experience is relevant to you (including mine): Large-scale research, like what's behind MFP's estimates, is a better bet.
ETA: They're right about the food scale being super-useful, though. The thread below (despite its misleading/joke-y clickbait title) talks about tips for using a scale quickly and efficiently:
https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10498882/weighing-food-takes-too-long-and-is-obsessive
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glovepuppet wrote: »
That seems high. Are you really tall? NHS recommendations are 2000 calories per day for women.
One of the top reasons people here don't lose at first is that they fail to weigh what they're eating. It's a good investment.glovepuppet wrote: »glovepuppet wrote: »
That seems high. Are you really tall? NHS recommendations are 2000 calories per day for women.
One of the top reasons people here don't lose at first is that they fail to weigh what they're eating. It's a good investment.
10k steps puts her in a pretty active category. Without knowing for sure it should create about a 750 calorie deficit over the course of 7 days for 1.5 pound of loss per week. Without a food scale, of course, it would be hard to verify her actual calories.
With 10k steps, isn't the average burn nearer 500cals?
Both the calorie intake needs and the calories burned from walking will vary with the person's size.
If the NHS is quoting 2000 calories to maintain, they're talking about an "average" woman. The average woman is probably somewhere around 5'4"-5'6". OP is 5'9", and she's still somewhat heavier than average. Therefore, her calorie needs (for any given weight management goal) are likely to be higher than average.
And steps burn calories by moving one's body weight through space, which is work in the physics sense of "work". Since OP is tall and has weight to lose, her calorie burn for X number of steps will be greater than it would be for a shorter, lighter person.
Some of way to succeed at the weight management process is personalizing many aspects of the process, including the numbers.3 -
+1 for food scale. Before worrying about lowering your calories, it's much better to first make sure you're logging correctly. Measuring cups (or even worse eyeballing it) can be extremely inaccurate.
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I'm 5'8", I started my journey at 213 pounds, my caloric goal was 1200. Since the only exercise I think you're doing is walking to get those 10K steps, you're overeating. DO invest in a food scale, because believe me, you have no idea how much you're really eating until you start weighing it!!! Then just give it time, stick to the plan, and let us know how much you've lost.
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I've had the EatSmart Pro digital food scale for several years (19.95USD on Amazon). You need a scale so that you can learn portion sizes. Also, with something calorie dense (like nuts, for example), you can easily be off by enough calories to halt your weight loss by "guesstimating". I'll second the things other others have said, and add this: getting rid of the pounds is one thing, keeping them off is another. That's a behavioral issue. If you want to keep it off for the long haul, you need to change your relationship with food. For that, I recommend the cognitive behavioral approach in The Beck Diet Solution:
http://diet.beckinstitute.org/
Don't bother with the workbook, I don't find it helpful beyond what she writes in her original book. Dr. Judith Beck is the daughter of Dr. Aaron Beck - inventor of cognitive behavioral therapy which is the most widely used therapy technique today - because it works. It's not a diet, and will work with MFP or any other weight loss program you follow. There's also a Beck Diet Solution group on Facebook.0 -
poisonesse wrote: »I'm 5'8", I started my journey at 213 pounds, my caloric goal was 1200. Since the only exercise I think you're doing is walking to get those 10K steps, you're overeating. DO invest in a food scale, because believe me, you have no idea how much you're really eating until you start weighing it!!! Then just give it time, stick to the plan, and let us know how much you've lost.
That’s a strong statement that OP is overeating at 2000 calories - in fact I think at your height and weight, 1200 calories was likely undereating. Why go to the bare minimum of calories right off the bat, it gives you nowhere to go when you get closer to goal and weight loss starts to slow down.7 -
OP read the stickied most helpful posts (many linked here), get a food scale, log accurately, use reasonable estimates of your activity level, any purposeful exercise above and beyond should be logged and calories eaten back, and be patient.
This is the best advice I can offer.5
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XpHykP6e_Ukp
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