Diet

F

sandrafolks0019 wrote: »

What do I need to take to reduce my calories

What do you need to take? Less food than you burn. It is as uncomplicated as that.

Yep - less food. As said above, enter your info to MFP and eat the number of calories stated, plus any exercise calories. Weigh everything you eat and measure all liquids. Eventually you may be able to guestimate, but many(if not most) people who try that find they're underestimating how much they're eating.

Don't set too aggressive a rate of weight loss unless you need to lose more than 40lbs (and from your description of 'chubby' I'm guessing you actually don't need to lose a lot, so 0.5 or 1lb a week may be most suitable).

Don't aim to eat less calories than given as MFP builds in a deficit based on what you enter.

Read the advice from the more experienced people on these forums too. They're the ones who have made thousands of comments and you'll potentially learn a lot of good advice.

Whilst you're getting to grips with things, you can start by eating whatever you were eating before but in smaller quantities. I've lost 17kg doing that. My mound of rice became a couple of spoonfuls, my large pile of roast potatoes became one or two pieces, if someone is serving cake (as will be happening later today), I'll have a thin slice. But, as much as possible, I pre-log what I think I'm going to eat that day so I can see how many calories I have available to play with.

From a long term perspective, it's better to lose slowly and learn what portion sizes and foods are suitable for your height, weight and activity level. Trying to lose quickly is more likely to result in you giving up because it's "too hard". Also, if you lose the weight and just go back to eating as you were before, you'll just put it all back on.