498lbs needs motivation

Hi Billy and welcome. You have come to the right place; we all know that the struggle is real. Just take one day at a time and don't get discouraged. Good luck; I know you can do this.

Billy, take a "Before" picture right now and keep it. You'll use that to motivate your *kitten*.

The first thing I would say is to focus exclusively on your calorie intake for now. I and many many others here have lost significant amounts of weight with absolutely zero 'working out' or exercise so it definitely can be done.

In my case, at my heaviest exercising was completely counterproductive. It left me miserable and discouraged as I wasn't able to do anything effectively which made sticking to my eating plan all the more difficult. Also working out generally left me so hungry that I'd end up eating back twice the calories I'd just burned leading to at best, no weight loss and at worst weight gain.

The most important thing you can do is to begin to eat in a calorie deficit any way you can. A calorie deficit has to be your one and only priority right now. So I advise to throw away any rules beyond the one rule 'More often than not eat fewer calories than you burn'. That's it, forget everything else and stick to that one rule.

To get started you need to keep it as simple as possible so here's the 3 things you need to do:
1. Get your calorie target. Put all your details into MFP and you will be given a calorie budget that will include the appropriate calorie deficit.
2. Start to accurately track your food. Get a food scale and weigh everything you eat. No guessing or estimating, we humans generally suck at this. No cups or teaspoons, they're better than guessing but still pretty inaccurate. A scale will cost you about $10 and will be your best friend. Weigh your food, log it in your diary and do your best to stick to your calorie target as often as possible.
3. Eat food you love. Not food you Think you should eat, or food you kinda like. Food you love which is more than likely the same food you're eating now. The difference is you're now gong to weigh that food and make sure you're eating it in a calorie deficit. Forget 'healthy', forget 'clean', forget all that. Just eat whatever foods you enjoy even if they're "junk" so long as you stick to your calorie deficit most of the time.

You need to come to the MFP Larger Losers group:

https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/group/133315-larger-losers

It is for anyone who is starting or originally started with 75 or more pounds to lose. It is also for people who want to lose weight in a sensible and sustainable fashion.

The advice you will get in the main forums is mostly great. I used it to help navigate my own way through a tremendous amount of weight loss so far. The stickies are must reads because you need to educate yourself on the true mechanics of weight loss.

The group will give you the additional benefit of a smaller setting with some really great people who have a good understanding of carrying a lot of extra weight. It will also help me keep tabs on you because I want to see you change your life as I have been doing. When I started standing for any period of time was excruciating. I was in such bad shape my activity was sub sedentary. That was well over 200 pounds ago.

Danp wrote: »

To get started you need to keep it as simple as possible so here's the 3 things you need to do:
1. Get your calorie target. Put all your details into MFP and you will be given a calorie budget that will include the appropriate calorie deficit.
2. Start to accurately track your food. Get a food scale and weigh everything you eat. No guessing or estimating, we humans generally suck at this. No cups or teaspoons, they're better than guessing but still pretty inaccurate. A scale will cost you about $10 and will be your best friend. Weigh your food, log it in your diary and do your best to stick to your calorie target as often as possible.
3. Eat food you love. Not food you Think you should eat, or food you kinda like. Food you love which is more than likely the same food you're eating now. The difference is you're now gong to weigh that food and make sure you're eating it in a calorie deficit. Forget 'healthy', forget 'clean', forget all that. Just eat whatever foods you enjoy even if they're "junk" so long as you stick to your calorie deficit most of the time.

I second this.
Also, logging can be confusing at first, but it’s important. And it gets easier. Log as well as you can the first few days, just keep working at it. Don’t get discouraged.
Eat what you like, but with open eyes and an open mind. I like chocolate cake. A lot. I also like steak with a baked potato. A lot. About the same amount of calories, but steak and a potato keep me full longer, so I eat it more often than cake. I hate artichokes. They don’t have many calories. I don’t care. I’m not eating them! Ever! I thought I didn’t like yogurt, but I got some ideas here, and it turns out I do.
If you don’t want to exercise, don’t. If you do want to, start very slow. Walk to your bedroom and back for no reason. If it’s more than you’re used to, it’s exercise. Next week, walk to your bedroom and back twice for no reason. You just increased your exercise. Keep it up.

Joining MFP is the first and BEST step I have done. Started on 170 kg (375 pounds) - they did all the necessary calculations for me and over time I found my ideal macros percentages. To start with exercise was not that important, but I love water aerobics - takes most of my weight away and feels great. I prepare myself a simple meal plan for the next day and take it day by day, meal by meal. Just trust MFP and there is amazing support from so many members. (556 days gone, 42 kg - 90 pounds gone so far.) "If I wouldn't have done something about my health all those days ago - I would be even heavier by now."

Dear Billy,

Yes, the time is now. Your life is at risk and you must act. I hope you don't need to go alone, but can enlist some help: a dietitian at least. I also recommend getting support from a psychologist. A life change of this type is very hard and you need all the help you can get!

Best of luck!

Welcome Billy.
There is a great community here. For someone such as myself that used to weigh 425lbs I would suggest solely just focusing on your calorie intake for now. Get into a habit of logging everything you eat daily. ( the good and the bad) Staying under your calorie limit is goal but if you go over don't beat yourself up. Just try again tomorrow.

I would also suggest purchasing a digital food scale there is some low as $10-14.99 on Amazon. Those will do just fine. And weigh everything my friend.

Then sit back and just watch the pounds fall off until you feel ready enough to incorporate exercise

That’s probably not enough calories....the Larger Loser group has a lot of motivation and great topics to help you