New Here & Need to Lose 100 + lbs!

You are just starting so don't get discouraged. It sounds like you are on a sensible path. Everyone has to change things up as they go along. At first, it's just important to get your logging down. Read the sticky posts that are chock full of useful information to start. Don't worry about carbs, if you're eating vegetables. Carbs are energy, especially if you are exercising. They are not bad for you, you just don't want to exaggerate. Follow the amount of carbs MFP gives you or your nutritionist's suggestions.

It's just important to stay within your daily calorie goal for now. Good luck. You'll be fine.

Angela,
Your nutritionist's advice strikes me as being right on. Keeping up on your protein intake serves two purposes:
1. It keeps you from feeling hungry. If you get 25-35 grams of protein with each meal, there is a good chance you won't be hungry all day.
2. It helps maintain your muscle mass. You want to lose fat, not muscle. You are operating at a calorie deficit, but you don't want to operate at much of a protein deficit. As your muscles break down, as they do constantly for all of is, your body tries to repair them, especially if you are exercising. Your body needs amino acids from the proteins in food to repair your muscles. If you don't eat enough protein, you will lose muscle mass. Losing muscle mass is losing weight but it is not a good way to lose weight. For one, muscle requires more calories to maintain on a per unit mass basis, as compared to fat. In other words, you burn more calories maintaining (keeping alive) a pound of your own muscle than you burn maintaining a pound of your own fat. The other thing is that as important as it is to lose weight, the real goal is to improve fitness. Weight loss is but one component to fitness improvement. You want to keep up your strength as well.

I interpret the vegetable eating advice as having to do with getting enough fiber in your diet without getting too many calories. Keeping up with your fiber serves two purposes as well.
1. It helps keep you from feeling hungry. On a per calorie basis, fiber takes up a lot of room in your digestive system, thus helping you feel full.
2. It is good for the digestion, as long as you imbibe plenty of water (including the water in foods and water-based beverages). Good digestion is part of overall fitness and good health.

The advice your nutritionist gave you on limiting carbohydrates also serves more than one purpose.
1. Eating foods that are quite high in carbohydrates due to added sugar, such as cookies, candy, cake, ice cream, pie, and cheesecake, makes you crave foods that are quite high in carbohydrates, such as cookies, candy, cake, ice cream, pie, and cheesecake. Unfortunately, if you replace these with similar foods made with artificial sweeteners instead of sugar, the cravings are just a great if not greater.
High-starch foods such as potato chips trigger cravings too; you probably heard the ad line, "You can't eat just one."
2. If you are getting enough protein and fiber, while still eating appropriate amounts of healthy fats, overdoing it on the carbs will put you over your calorie limit.
3. When my cholesterol started creeping up on me, my doctor told me to cut down on carbohydrates. I did, and the (bad) cholesterol level went down. Most humans do not store the cholesterol they eat, rather, they make their own cholesterol from carbohydrates.

So now for the advice.

1. Use the MyfitnessPal guided setup to establish your daily goals. Enter your current weight and height as well as your goal weight. Select "sedentary" as your lifestyle, even if you are a postal carrier; this will help keep you on the safe side. Choose calories for tracking your energy and select "lose 1 pound per week." Set the workouts at about what you think you will actually keep up with. You should work up to at least 5 workouts a week and 30 minutes per workout.

2. Change what MyFitnesPal displays in the "Totals, Your Daily Goals, Remaining" table near the bottom of the page so that it displays info on Carbs, Proteins, Fats, Saturated Fats, and Fiber.

3. On a daily basis, aim to exceed by at least a little, the "Your Daily Goals" protein amount. Try to meet or exceed the "Your Daily Goals" fiber amount. Try to keep your daily carbohydrate total below the "Your Daily Goals" amount. Try to keep your total calories below the "Your Daily Goals" amount. Don't worry too much about the fats, a little above or a little below "Your Daily Goals" amount in the fats columns is fine, but be aware that each gram of fat contributes about 9 calories to your diet while each gram of protein or carbohydrates contributes about 4 grams to your diet. So if you are exceeding your total calories goal, a peek at the fat numbers might help you figure out why that is.

4. Shoot for about 1/3 of your daily protein amount at breakfast, 1/3 at lunch, and 1/3 at supper. (Feel free to count the snack between breakfast and lunch as part of your breakfast, and the snack between lunch and supper as part of your lunch in monitoring your per-meal protein intake.) Likewise for your per-meal fiber intake.

5. Dring 1-2 cups of water before each meal. This will help you avoid hunger and help with digestion.

6. Eat almost all of your protein in the form of meat, fish, or poultry. (Mix it up but don't eat fish more than twice a week because of the mercury.) I like to boil 5 pieces of red meat in a half a gallon of water in one pot while boiling about 5 pieces of poultry in another half-gallon of water in another, about once per week. I add onion, carrots, celery, garlic and seasonings (and bell peppers if I have them) to each pot. After removing the cooked meat and poultry, I put each pot of broth through the blender before refrigerating it. Some folks use protein powder instead, but I think the chewing process is part of what makes it so that I am almost never hungry.

7. Don't let our culture lock you into a specific kind of breakfast. There is no reason to feel you can only select from things like eggs, bacon, sausage, cereal, pancakes, and waffles. Bacon and sausage are highly prepared food items. You are better off with plain beef, pork, lamb, chicken, or turkey. I recommend a 3-5 ounce chunk of meat and a natural source of fiber.

8. To get your fiber numbers up there without having to eat tons of vegetables, eat a quarter cup of cooked beans each day. I'm not talking about string beans, green beans, or wax beans, (which are good for you to eat as well) but beans like navy beans, lima beans, kidney beans, etc. (I cook up a cup of Bob's Red Mill soup mix about once per week. For breakfast, in addition to the meat/poultry mentioned above, I heat up a cup to 2 cups of the broth/soup mentioned above and then cool it down by adding a quarter cup of cooked beans to it before eating it.) You might want to consume some Beano along with the beans to ameliorate the side effect of the beans.

9. Cook up a bag of frozen vegetables (mixed vegetables, green beans, cauliflower, broccoli, spinach, kale and the like; stay away from potatoes and plain corn) and keep them in the refrigerator for snacking and for lunch. Cook up another bag as soon as you run out. (I just dump the bag in a big glass bowl, put a ceramic dinner plate on top, pop it in the microwave and press the "frozen foods" button. Season as desired but don't butter. If you eat a cup of vegetables as part of your lunch and each of two snacks, you'll get your 5 servings a day in easily. Fresh vegetables, or salads (with just balsamic vinegar), and occasionally fruit can be substituted for the frozen vegetables. Occasional canned tomatoes, beets, and sour kraut work too but I wouldn't recommend canned vegetables that you can buy in frozen form.

10. Keep some hard-boiled eggs, milk (non-fat if you like it) and cottage cheese, in the refrigerator for those occasions (make them infrequent) when you run out of meat/poultry and you don't feel like cooking up some fish. They also come in handy on days when you notice you haven't eaten enough protein. An apple, or some fiber gummies (eaten according to directions) come in handy when you are falling short of your fiber intake goal.

11. Assuming your supper is a normal balanced meal without desert, keep eating what you usually eat (except to avoid heavy starches like potatoes, white rice and bread) for supper but keep the amount down enough to meet your calorie goals.

12. Log everything you eat as accurately as practical in MyFitnessPal. The MyFitnessPal tools make it easy to do this. Use a food scale when practical and use a measuring cup when that is more practical. If you have to estimate, and you err, err on the high side. Make sure you have everything you have eaten before supper, logged before supper, to guide you on how much you can eat for supper without exceeding your calorie goals.

13. Make your food diary viewable by your MyFitnessPal friends. Even if no one looks at it, just knowing that it is out there will help motivate you to meet your daily goals.

14. Don't eat after supper. As long as you maintain your calorie deficit, this might not make any difference in losing weight, but remember, you are in this for improving your fitness/health; weight loss is just a part of it. This will help you sleep better and avoid heartburn and acid reflux.

15. Exercise. From what I have read, there is no correlation between weight loss and exercising, but again, the goal is to improve fitness, not just lose weight. Also, from what I have read, there is a correlation between maintaining your goal weight and exercise. Once you get your weight down to 175 lbs, you are going to want to keep it there, not let it go right back up to your current weight. Begin with the end in mind. Work yourself up to the amount of exercise you think you will be able to maintain for a lifetime. Start off slowly, but start right away. Starting off slowly will not only help avoid hurting yourself but will also allow you the satisfaction that comes with doing a little bit more each week. Suppose you are only comfortable walking from your front door to your back door. Do that every day for a week. Then the next week, do the round trip every day. Perhaps the week after that you'll be able to walk half a block down the street and back. Start small and build gradually. I remember doing this after back surgery. It works. Log your exercise in MyFitnessPal; it is satisfying, and it allows for eating a few more calories while still losing weight.

16. As @davert123 recommended, don't neglect the social support aspect. You can help other people and other people can help you. The very fact that you posted here suggests you will be good at this.

17. For the most part, avoid foods with added sugar. They tend to make you crave foods with added sugar. As far as will power for weight loss is concerned, you'll have to use will power to avoid foods with added sugar for about a week. After that, I think you'll find that the cravings are gone and you won't need to exercise much will power to maintain a steady weight loss.

18. Weigh in once per week (at the same time of day, e.g. when you first wake up in the morning, each week) and log your weight in the MyFitnessPall Check-In page. Each time you weigh in, if your weight has changed, go back to the guided setup, enter your new weight, and make it recalculate your recommended calories--those recommendations change as you lose weight.

19. Evaluate your progress every couple of months and make adjustments accordingly.

20. I think all of this is in accord with the recommendations of your nutritionist, but, if there are contradictions, go with what your nutritionist recommends. Be aware that I'm just another MyFitnessPal user and my recommendations are what works for me; everybody is different; what works for one person might not be the best way to go for another person.

You may wish to try this with cut up broccoli, cauliflower, or Brussel sprouts (halved): spray oil on a baking sheet, place veggies on sheet, spray oil on veggies, and then, sprinkle with a spice mix (I use Kroger’s no-salt onion and herb mix). Roast at 400F until tender for ~10 min, depending on size. Very few calories. I wish you the best.

Thanks for your kind words. The important thing is to focus on what works for you. People will say you have to exercise a certain amount or until you sweat etc. which is all wrong if it doesn't work for you. I haven't done any exercise till I sweated but I have been diligent in doing water exercise 3 times a week. I have also tried to sit a little less each day and stay busy. Some will say you shouldn't use any artificial sweeteners, I use a lot and also use products made with them, they cause absolutely no cravings for me but if they do for you then avoid them. Others will say you shouldn't eat after a certain time of day, again it's wrong if it doesn't work for you. I have eaten a serving of Dannon fit and Light Greek yogurt every night as I'm laying in bed reading before I go to sleep since March 2021, sometimes I'll have extra calories and even eat something else, lol. I look for the lowest calorie product available in whatever I'm looking for so I can have more. For example, La Banderita Carb Counter tortilla shells are 45 cals w/5grams of protein and 11 grams of fiber and 15 carbs for the medium size. The Egglife plain wraps have 25 cals 5protein no fiber but also no carbs so I tend to use what ever works best for my meal plan that day.

mustang5212 wrote: »

Thanks for your kind words. The important thing is to focus on what works for you. People will say you have to exercise a certain amount or until you sweat etc. which is all wrong if it doesn't work for you. I haven't done any exercise till I sweated but I have been diligent in doing water exercise 3 times a week. I have also tried to sit a little less each day and stay busy. Some will say you shouldn't use any artificial sweeteners, I use a lot and also use products made with them, they cause absolutely no cravings for me but if they do for you then avoid them. Others will say you shouldn't eat after a certain time of day, again it's wrong if it doesn't work for you. I have eaten a serving of Dannon fit and Light Greek yogurt every night as I'm laying in bed reading before I go to sleep since March 2021, sometimes I'll have extra calories and even eat something else, lol. I look for the lowest calorie product available in whatever I'm looking for so I can have more. For example, La Banderita Carb Counter tortilla shells are 45 cals w/5grams of protein and 11 grams of fiber and 15 carbs for the medium size. The Egglife plain wraps have 25 cals 5protein no fiber but also no carbs so I tend to use what ever works best for my meal plan that day.

QF(freakin')T.

Welcome! I just restarted this week. To get to my ideal weight, I would need to lose 150 lbs. For me, that weight would be nearly impossible for me to maintain. I picked a reasonable goal weight that would be easier to maintain. Once I maintain that weight for about a year, I will reassess my goals to see if I want to lose more.

With regard to carbs, I wouldn’t stress about fruit. I’m a Type 1 diabetic and I don’t stress about fruits and veggies, especially since I pair them with protein. For now, I am just trying to stay within my daily calorie requirements.

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Angela,

Regarding your original post, in particular the part about being discouraged about getting almost half your calories in the form of carbohydrates: I don't think this is a problem. Using the MyFitnessPal guided setup, I find that MyFitnessPal recommends 50% of my calories be from carbohydrates, 30% from fat, and 20% from protein. Getting almost half your calories in the form of carbohydrates means you are under, albeit slightly under, the MyFitnessPal recommendation. I think you are fine there.

In order to adhere to your nutritionist's recommendation on vegetables, I think the trick is to start your day with some vegetables as part of your breakfast (as you say you have already done occasionally with the vegetable scrambles). Your question is going to help me because I am going to try a couple of things that I have not been doing.

1. I'm going to try making an egg bake but putting the mixture in cupcake liners in a cupcake pan. To me, an egg bake is one of those no recipe recipes, but a starting point would be sauteing (in a little butter or ghee) a chopped onion, a half cup of sliced mushrooms, a chopped bell pepper, and a chopped zucchini and adding that and a half cup of Swiss cheese to 4 eggs lightly beaten with a quarter cup of milk and desired seasoning. (If you add some cut up ham you can do further work on the nutritionist's protein recommendation.) Pour it into cupcake liners in a cupcake pan (allowing some room for expansion) and bake at 400°F for about half an hour (actually, until you judge them to be done). Put a few in the refrigerator and freeze the rest. Warm them up in the microwave in the morning and you have an almost instant breakfast. As you use the ones in the refrigerator, replace them, in the refrigerator with ones from the freezer.

2. I occasionally, perhaps twice a week make a smoothie using about 10 ounces of non-fat milk, a banana, 5-6 medium strawberries and a half scoop of protein powder. I understand that green smoothies are quite popular in some circles. My plan is to try adding some fresh baby kale to what I make now--perhaps minus the strawberries, and, if I don't like that, perhaps I'll try some spinach in there instead. There are lots of green smoothie recipes available on the internet. I don't think the color is going to appeal to me, but I'll see if I can get past that.

My main point is that if getting enough vegetables into your diet is a challenge, just imagine how much easier it would be if you got a serving or so in before you were even fully awake.

My plan is to try these out and get back to you. In any event, thanks for making me think about it. You might be new here, but you are already helping others improve their fitness.

JaysFan82 - 132 pounds in slightly over 9 months? And still eating what you like? If so, I love reading that, and would love to know more about how you did it.

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Tried 2 new things, owing to this discussion. Put 85g of kale in my banana strawberry smoothie today. I like it better without the kale but this will be a part of my diet in the future because I like getting the serving of vegetables and it still tastes good enough. I also made a bean taco using a (soft shell) La Bandarita Carb Counter Street Taco, 30 g of refried beans, 10 g of shredded cheddar, and 1.5 tbsp of mild salsa. The soft taco shell is not the exact La Bandarita product recommended by @mustang5212, but I couldn't find that one and at 20 total calories with 5 g of fiber, it is similar (minus the protein), and I give credit to @mustang5212 for my having tried this one. It's not the most delicious soft taco shell in the world, but I like it enough to make it part of my diet. It seems like an easy way to bump up my fiber intake.

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