HELP ME! I AM DESPERATE! 😳ðŸ˜
summerrnicoleex
Posts: 1 Member
I'm desperate and don't know where to begin.. Please somebody help me. I am 5'11 and I weigh 540 NEED to loose weight it's causing more pain on my back and legs. I do have a severe back injury so excersize is very limited to none because I'm in pain all the time. What's some things I can do to loose weight? What kinda food can I eat? What can I drink?
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Replies
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Use mfp to help calculate your calories. Set your weight loss goal and your activity. Log and weigh everything you eat. Losing weight is all about being in a calorie deficit.
Working with your doctor and a registered dietian, might also be helpful.6 -
I second harper. Just get your daily calorie goal and a digital food scale. Start weighing and measuring everything you eat and drink. You do not need to exercise to lose weight--you just need a calorie deficit. Exercise can lift your mood and general wellbeing. For things that you can do you'll need to ask your doctor. Also, I'd advise you to take your measurements and keep a weekly journal. This will show you a different type of progress as you go along. When weight loss stalls (and it will eventually) you can pull out your tape measure and see how far you've come. Also read the success threads on MFP. Those can lift you up when you're down. They are all just normal people, if they can do it, you can too.3
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summerrnicoleex wrote: »I'm desperate and don't know where to begin.. Please somebody help me. I am 5'11 and I weigh 540 NEED to loose weight it's causing more pain on my back and legs. I do have a severe back injury so excersize is very limited to none because I'm in pain all the time. What's some things I can do to loose weight? What kinda food can I eat? What can I drink?
Lets break down your post a bit at a time:
I'm desperate and don't know where to begin
Have you set up your account in MFP yet using the guided set up? Entering your stats, choosing an activity level and a rate of loss? This is where you should begin.
I do have a severe back injury so excersize is very limited to none because I'm in pain all the time
The good news is you don't need to exercise to lose weight. You simply need a calorie deficit, you can create this without exercise by eating to your calorie goal.
What's some things I can do to loose weight?
As you can't currently do much in the way of exercise, all you can do and all you need to do is eat less.
What kinda food can I eat? What can I drink?
There's nothing you can't eat or drink to lose weight, unless you have an allergy/intolerance/something that triggers poor eating habits.
My suggestion would be once you have your account set up, get yourself a digital food scale and spend 3 days accurately logging everything that you eat, if you were to eat as normal.
Once you have those 3 days completed in your diary, look through it and see where there are things that you can change, reduce or cut out to get down to your calorie goal, some examples could be:- Swapping from full fat products to lower fat products such as Whole Milk to Semi-Skimmed
- Eating smaller portions of high calorie/low nutrition items and bigger portions of lower calorie/high nutrition items for example if your normal dinner would be Steak with the rest of the plate filled with fries, swap out half the fries for some salad or vegetables.
- Cutting down on things you eat or drink that are "empty calories" for example if you drink a lot of sugary soda, creamy coffee drinks, etc these can take up a lot of your calorie allowance without contributing a whole lot to your nutrition consider switching to diet soda, water, tea, lower calorie alternatives.
Weight loss doesn't have to be a miserable experience where you live on rabbit food, you can lose weight eating the foods you enjoy in moderate portions. Once you have settled into a couple of months of logging your food and eating to your calorie goal, you can if you want delve a little further into your nutrition, but for now I'd just focus on getting into the habit of logging and meeting your goals.
You have a lot of weight to lose and it's going to take quite some time for it to come off, so prepare yourself for a long haul. There will however be a lot of non-scale victories along the way - imagine your back pain being reduced, being able to do more physical activity and your clothes being too big for you. Make a list of reasons why you want to lose the weight and read them regularly.
Lastly read the sticked posts (Most Helpful) at the top of this board and the General Health board, there are a lot of great tips on getting started with calorie counting and diet here here23 -
You've some good advice here. I agree with everything. Please try to take things one day at a time. Even if once the suggested 3 days of normal intake are established you find you do not immediately come within at your "MFP suggested calorific level" every day but you are below the average of your previously "normal intake" this will be beneficial as a progression.
Try not to look at your ultimate goal all the time. See your achievements on daily, weekly, monthly levels, as you find clothes fit less shugly for example not only as scales show losses. You can do this, there will be progress to a more healthy you. You will not be where you are today in 6 weeks, 12 weeks from now.
Some research into the elderly saw postural and calorific benefits if the person, sat up rather than slumped, stood up at regular intervals, then moving as upright as possible, as in going to the bathroom. Simple changes like this do use more calories and will start to get the muscles used to working better. You will progress.
Another thing, please don't over do things all at once trying to be physical even when you can. Since we have had our restrictions, UK, I've been out in our garden daily, not taking rest days so many jobs to do. I thought I'd been active enough to take it! My downfall came the night before last when I had a series of extreem cramps in my upper legs. I ignored more minor events. More fluids immedidately, keeping/getting warm and then rest gave me a very good night last night. The last thing we need is not taking rest days when you are able to do more than you can now.
All the best and take great care of yourself.3 -
Awareness of what you eat is going to help you a lot. So measuring everything and checking how many calories it generates will show you what stuff to minimize and what you can eat in big amounts. A well dressed pizza for instance can get easy up to more than 1500 calories. That is almost the amount for a full day of what you can have.
So my advice, measure measure and pinpoint the big calorie bom's and try to avoid them.1 -
Awareness of what you eat is going to help you a lot. So measuring everything and checking how many calories it generates will show you what stuff to minimize and what you can eat in big amounts. A well dressed pizza for instance can get easy up to more than 1500 calories. That is almost the amount for a full day of what you can have.
So my advice, measure measure and pinpoint the big calorie bom's and try to avoid them.
Most of your advice is sound except assuming that 1500 calories is a almost a full day for OP, that would likely be around half of OP's calorie goal at her current stats.
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summerrnicoleex wrote: »I'm desperate and don't know where to begin.. Please somebody help me. I am 5'11 and I weigh 540 NEED to loose weight it's causing more pain on my back and legs. I do have a severe back injury so excersize is very limited to none because I'm in pain all the time. What's some things I can do to loose weight? What kinda food can I eat? What can I drink?
I'll echo everyone else. Just start by tracking what you currently eat. Try to track it before you eat it. Sometimes, just seeing the calorie count entered into your diary is enough to change your mind about eating it.
This thread is great for beginners, if you want to give it a read...
https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/1080242/a-guide-to-get-you-started-on-your-path-to-sexypants/p14 -
I agree with majority of what is said above. You can do this but you
Need to take one day at a time, friends some of us do tbh at you have support each day, have an open diary so that we can guide you on
Choices day by day. You
Must enter all
Your food and drinks into the diary so that you can see what is good and what is not so good.
Put all your data into MFP so that you get a good idea of the calories allowance for the day and that will
Be your guide. I’m looking and wishing you success. Take care0 -
I started my weight loss and health journey by working with a nutritionist and found it to be helpful and not as intimidating as i thought it would be. I met with Lisa Prince (a nutritionist), of course i live in the area and could drop in and meet with her, though she does do remote services via phone, Zoom, Skype etc. Lisa has a great approach, in that we first setup MyFitnessPal as Breakfast, AM Snack, Lunch, PM Snack, Dinner and Evening Snack. Then Lisa had me enter everything i ate in those categories for two weeks. We weighed at the first session and took measurements. We looked at making small changes to my diet. Things that would be sustainable over time, a new healthier diet that i could live with, rather than a weight loss plan that could result in the weight coming back. Lisa mentioned she had clients who had tried weight loss plans like Keto, and some of them found it to be something they could not do ongoing and ended up gaining the weight back.
Over time we developed a safe, healthy diet that works for me and doesn't interfere with my blood thinners. Through all of this, Lisa recommended 150 minutes of exercise for me, the type that would get my heart rate up and put me in a fat burning mode. Not just constant pace cardio.
This is probably the first time in years, i am excited to have my annual physical, as i want to see the lab results and see if all my numbers are in the normal range.
I have worked with Lisa for a year now and still check in with her once per month. I am on a maintenance plan right now and am keeping my weight fairly constant, with small fluctuations up and down. I do want to lose another 15-20 and am in conversations with her about proceeding.
I have found most people on this forum, knowledgeable, kind and willing to help and very supportive.
There is also a lot of differences in opinion on MFP. My doctor recommended Lisa and I am thankful for it. I would highly recommend, speaking with your doctor, seeing if there is a nutritionist in your area he would feel comfortable referring you to and go from there.
[Edited by MFP Staff]1 -
There is no need to change everything at once! From where you are today, to where you CAN get to be, in a few years from today, there will be many steps, stages, and goals along the way!
You didn't get here in a day! I think we would all be pulling an "the emperor has no clothes" if we pretend that managing your weight is not going to be a significant part of your future self care.
But you know what? After many years of neglect, truly and effectively managing my weight has become an incredibly rewarding part of my self care! Explicitly: the rewards far outweigh the investment! <no pun>
So, for now, just start by getting a handle on logging what you eat before you eat it!
Coming from someone who uses a food scale several years into maintenance... a food scale is not YET necessary unless you WANT to start using one right away.
In fact, I don't think that aiming for anything less than 3K calories right now, before you even have an adequate idea on how to use MFP, would make much sense for you.
Once you've been doing this for a few weeks, and once you start getting some indication what your level of intake may be translating into in terms of weight level change, only then would I consider moving the goal post maybe a bit more... but only if doing so was sustainable!
For now, just log what you're eating... before you eat it. And ask yourself: "do I really need to eat this and in this quantity right now?" "Is this a good value for the Calories I am about to spend on it as compared to something else that I could eat for fewer calories and would provide a similar benefit?"
The goal is not to be miserable, or fight for every minute of the day. The goal is to make things as easy as possible... while respecting your caloric goals the vast majority of the time!
Doing so will get you where you need to go!
There is a larger loser forum group. It may be worth joining and saying hi to everyone there!3 -
There is a larger loser forum group. It may be worth joining and saying hi to everyone there!
Great idea! Here is the group. Lots of people who can understand your unique issues.
https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/group/133315-larger-losers3 -
there's some really good advice here so i'm not going to offer anything huge, but i have a small piece of advice that has really helped me so i figured i'd share it here too since i didn't see it yet!
IF you choose to weigh yourself every day (i do) make sure you do it at the same time every day in the same outfit/naked (i weigh right when i wake up) and record it in a journal or something. BUT! don't put too much into the individual days! it can be really discouraging to see that you've gained a pound in a day, but a lot of times that's because of what you ate yesterday or bloating or honestly for no good reason at all. Instead, average your weights for the day so you have a weekly average. It will be much easier to see your actual changes and it really helps mentally, because I've given up several times after a bad weigh-in good luck! 3
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