Hello Everyone!

Sugarboo22
Sugarboo22 Posts: 3 Member
in Introduce Yourself

I am so excited to get started! I am scanning through the app to learn everything. Anyone have any tips, advice, etc? I am looking to lose roughly 40-50 pounds.

Answers

  • Nova
    Nova Posts: 10,251 MFP Staff
    Hello and welcome to the community!!

    There are some great threads created by our members, stickied to the top of each category that may be helpful. Just look for "Most Helpful Posts - whatever the category name is”.

    For example:
    You can also ask your questions in any category that interests you, read posts or questions made by other members, join a group, or add some friends.

    Here are some frequently asked questions that may also be helpful: FAQ's
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 33,773 Member
    Hello, and welcome!

    My advice is always going to be to choose sustainable weight loss over fast weight loss. What does that mean? To me, it means using the weight loss process to find relatively easy (at least tolerable/practical) new routine eating and activity habits that you can keep up long term to not just reach a healthy weight, but stay there (ideally permanently) almost on autopilot when other parts of life get challenging (because eventually, they will).

    To lose weight, all you need is to get your calorie intake from food a manageable bit lower than the calories you burn. Since you burn calories just being alive (even flat on your back in bed), plus more calories on the job or doing daily life chores, then potentially even more if you do some intentional exercise . . . that can be achievable, IME.

    Extreme, restrictive eating rules aren't necessary, nor trendy named diets, nor punitively intense unpleasant exercise.

    Speaking of exercise: That's also optional for weight loss, too. On the weight loss front, it lets us eat a bit more (so get better nutrition) while losing at the same sensible rate. But I'd always encourage doing some exercise (cardio and strength) because it's good for a body. There are dozens of ways of moving more, either formal exercise or daily life stuff. It doesn't have to be gym stuff or exercise machines, unless you enjoy that.

    Pick something you find fun, and do it in a way that creates just a manageable challenge. That's the sweet spot. Exercising to exhaustion is counter-productive for either weight loss or fitness improvement. As you get fitter (from the challenge part), what you're doing will feel easier. That's the point to increase duration, frequency, intensity to keep some challenge in the picture, or change type of exercise to challenge yourself differently, if you prefer.

    Coincidentally, you're about where I was when I started losing weight in 2015: I had about 50 pounds to lose. It took just a bit under a year, and I've been at a healthy weight (and active) since.

    I'm cheering for you to succeed: The quality of life improvement is huge, IME - very much worth the effort it takes to get there.

    Best wishes!

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