An Overwhelming Amount of Info

arrianariley
arrianariley Posts: 6 Member
in Introduce Yourself
Hey Everybody!

My name is Arriana, but everybody calls me Oreo (long story). Anyway, I am 313lbs, 5'6 and extremely heavy chested like an J Cup and I'm finally tired of it all. If the world were perfect this is what I would do and I want to know if it sounds reasonable to see any real results.

1. Figure out how to get into a caloric deficit (My first mind is just saying go 24hours without consuming anything and then everything after that would automatically be consumed in a deficit)
I have no problem eating the same thing everyday and doing just that I lost 9lbs already with coffee and 2 creams 1 sugar and a clean protein chocolate peanut butter bar at work for breakfast, garden salad, a bean burrito and a celsius-peach vibe drink at lunch and 2 baked chicken thighs and salad with 2 tblsp of ranch and a claussen pickle spear for dinner with diet coke. (Which is why I like to track my food in this app)

2. I joined my local planet fitness that is 1 mile away and I hate the treadmill and just cardio in general so I would use the 1 mile walk it takes to get there as my cardio which my brain sees as feasible because I have to get there and the reward is riding the train back home after the work out...but anyway, then when I get there start lifting.

3. Since I know nothing about lifting I planned on doing (for example if it was my lower body day) 4 to 5 machines that are dedicated to the area of my body I want to work on for 3 sets of 12 or 4 sets of 10 until I get comfortable and then master this progressive uploading? overloading? loading? thing :|

Then get as close as I can to 156oz of water a day (right now Im crushing 50 hehe*)
and
ummmm yeah thats about it

Now this is the plan! andddd I started but this is a plan totally crafted by me considering:
1. I don't have the funds to buy ANY gadgets literally not a food scale, not an apple watch because I pay for college classes as I attend them and its expensive so I don't have the ability to get the numbers I see a lot of you have and I was just wondering if any of you had any advice or thought my plan would be good?

Thanks for reading! && Nice to meet you all

Replies

  • mooosy
    mooosy Posts: 4 Member
    Hi Arriana,

    Thanks for sharing your story with us!

    Regarding getting into a calorie deficit - no, you don't need to starve for 24hrs to do this. You also don't need to eat the same thing every day (unless you want to). I would keep it really simple, track what you are eating on MFP, weigh yourself once a week (not every day). If after a couple of weeks you stop losing weight, reduce your calorie goal a little. To give you flexibility, as long as your calories average out okay over the week, that will be fine. Aim for as much protein as you can get, and include fruits and veggies. Carry a waterbottle everywhere.

    I hate cardio too, and although it IS good for you, you don't need to do it to lose weight. If you would like to start with weights/machines I agree with your approach, however many days you want to work out, lets say 3, you do a leg day, an arm/chest day, and a back/core day. Keep it simple. If you decide you want to start with free weights, check out stronglifts 5x5, there are detailed explanations of all the main composite lifts and lots of tips.

    To track calories a scale would be handy, however you can always just use your brain, if the pack has 4 chicken thighs and it weighs 400g, then they are 100g. See if you can get a cheap one second hand or in a charity/discount store, it will help.

    Do yourself a favour and take photos and measurements now, and redo them every couple of weeks or once a month - it will keep you motivated and give you something to look back on. Good luck!
  • chris_in_cal
    chris_in_cal Posts: 2,504 Member
    arrianariley wrote: »
    Now this is the plan! andddd I started

    Come back to this thread every day for 100 days straight, follow up every day, bring up whatever daily issues and struggles you've faced. Dozens of people will be here to guide and support you.

    The magic of MFP comes after consistency and showing up regularly. I hope to see you around.
  • Corina1143
    Corina1143 Posts: 3,487 Member
    Dont get so hung up on the details that you lose sight of the big picture.

    Move more, eat less.
  • lynn_glenmont
    lynn_glenmont Posts: 10,072 Member
    The good news if you're willing to eat the same thing every day, you can more easily get by without a food scale. Yes, there will be variations between the size of one chicken thigh and another, but it's a lot less variation than people who are just eyeballing a half doze or more different new foods every day. Also, starting at 313 lbs, you have a lot of room for error. Just guessing at the calories of the various items you list, I'm thinking it's in the neighborhood of 1600 kcal, which should have the weight dropping off of you. If you find after a month or so that you're still loosing more than 3 lbs a week, you should probably add some more food.

    I think to start with the 1 mile walk could do for your cardio. I'd even worry that if you haven't been doing anything that it might be too much of an increase from zero -- if that's the case, if you have access to a car or a bike or a scooter, or if the train you mention has stops between you and the gym, you might consider using transport to get you half the way there at first. Eventually, when 1 mile is easy, you could start doing some of the trip back by foot as well.

    I'm not a fan of weight machines, myself, but my impression is that Planet Health doesn't feature a lot of free weights, and even if they do, if you don't know what you're doing, you're probably safer with the machines. You can injure yourself even with a machine, but at least you won't drop the weights on your foot or get pinned under them.
  • arrianariley
    arrianariley Posts: 6 Member
    edited August 2023
    mooosy wrote: »
    Do yourself a favour and take photos and measurements now, and redo them every couple of weeks or once a month - it will keep you motivated and give you something to look back on. Good luck!

    Mooosy,
    Thank you so much for your response ! I will absolutely check out a goodwill I hadn't even thought of all the ones that are probably sitting in there waiting for me to find them lol

    Yes once a week sounds more realistic anyway because i'm learning from everyone else that the results
    are slow lol!

    I really appreciate the time you took and I hope to stay consistent, and yeah my sister told me "we have enjoyed and delighted in literally all of our favorite foods a million times so why not give it a break just to change *hit up!?" and ever since then I have had like no problem eating the same thing every day and then I felt like well if I'm doing the eating thing better why not incorporate the fitness!? lol

    Also the math tip no idea why that didn't dawn on me to do because...duh lol so thanks for that also!

  • arrianariley
    arrianariley Posts: 6 Member
    chris_in_cal wrote: »
    arrianariley wrote: »
    Now this is the plan! andddd I started

    Come back to this thread every day for 100 days straight, follow up every day, bring up whatever daily issues and struggles you've faced. Dozens of people will be here to guide and support you.

    The magic of MFP comes after consistency and showing up regularly. I hope to see you around.


    Thank you!! I hope to stick around lol

  • arrianariley
    arrianariley Posts: 6 Member
    lynn_glenmont wrote: »
    I'm not a fan of weight machines, myself, but my impression is that Planet Health doesn't feature a lot of free weights, and even if they do, if you don't know what you're doing, you're probably safer with the machines. You can injure yourself even with a machine, but at least you won't drop the weights on your foot or get pinned under them.

    Lol Exactly, and the way my clumsy is set up its bound to happen! so Ill watch some videos and see where im feeling confident! :) thank you so much for responding to me! I really appreciate it.

  • arrianariley
    arrianariley Posts: 6 Member
    Corina1143 wrote: »
    Dont get so hung up on the details that you lose sight of the big picture.

    Move more, eat less.

    #check. More Active Less Snacky lol :)

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