Newbie advice needed please!!!!

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fatjon73
fatjon73 Posts: 379 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Hello all

I’m new to all this calorie counting lark, but its time I changed my life and lost the extra lbs so for the last 8 weeks I have started on a (hopefully) controlled diet and exercise program.
All the advice I have seen tells you to lose it slowly by reducing calorie intake and to do regular exercise etc....

This is how I am trying to do it, I have bought a treadmill and a small multi gym and a sit up bar.
I have found MFP and for the last 2 weeks have been adding all my daily intake and exercise etc and so far I have found the site to be great at helping me track my calorie intake.

I would just like some advice from anyone who is on a similar path to me to make sure what I am doing is right as I don’t always believe the usual calculators you get all over the net!!!

I am currently 265lbs (19 stone to us English) and my goal is to get to 210lbs or 15 stone
My exercise consists of walking 1 mile at 4mph 2 or 3 times a week. Start off slow I think to build myself up, as I have not done much exercise for the last 15 years apart from Work (I work as a mechanical engineer, Semi physical job most days)
And I also do leg and arm weights on the multi gym 2 / 3 times a week. (More reps at low weight to start with to build up)
I am also doing 20 front and 10 each side sit ups using the bar every other day.
MFP tells me to eat 2080 calories a day (more when I exercise) and for the last 2 weeks I have been between 1800 and 2200 every day.

Some people tell me that I should lower my carb intake and Increase my protein, to lose weight faster, is it really good to eat more red meat but less bread or potatoes with it....

Also using the calorie counter it shows that drinking a can of diet coke is better than drinking a glass of fresh orange juice, surely this can’t be right....

I guess I have much to learn over the coming weeks / months but so far I’m feeling positive and I’m finding sticking to my eating fairly easy (although weekends in the hot sun with beer and BBQ might temp me to stray a little over the summer)
Is it really bad to one day a week have 2 or 300 calories more than your recommended, as I am telling myself that if I stick to my daily goals I will allow myself one day of beer and take away food etc but not eat way too much at the same time....

Many thanks for any help or advice to anyone that gives it, good luck to anyone starting out, I hope I’m one of the success stories on here in the future also....

Cheers

Jon

Replies

  • mandymccoll
    mandymccoll Posts: 13
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    Welcome to MFP, you'll find lots of good advice (and varied) that can help you to lose weight and get fit.

    In relation to your question about increasing protein and reducing carbs, this is the route that I have taken, I get most of my protein intake from chicken, turkey and fish and a small amount of it from red meat. The reason that some people try this approach is that your body doesn't hold on to protein, it takes it in, uses what it needs and then gets rid of the rest. With carbs, your body stores what it doesn't use and unless you have a very active lifestyle, you probably don't use everything that you consume. There is a setting on your food diary that allows you to see the %age of your daily intake that is protein, fat and carbs, I try to have about 45% protein, 30% fat (the good type, like from avocado and cashewnuts (not roasted or salted)), and 25% carbs - it's almost impossible to completely remove carbs from your diet as some veg has a decent card content. Having siad that, this isn't for everyone.

    I will usually have a "cheat" meal once a week (usually at the weekend) as something to look forward to, I don't take the entire day off, but that is a personal choice.

    As a slightly seperate thought, you mentioned MFP is more favourable to diet coke than fresh orange juice, are you basing this on calorie content? I try to avoid drinking fizzy drinks, even though they are low in calories and sugar They reduce the sugar content by substituting it with something else (Aspartame). The majority of my fluid in take is from water.

    I hope that some of the information above is helpful, good luck with your weight lose.

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