19 Year old female looking to loose weight and go down 2 sizes.. Complete n00b

A

Air_Max_1

New member
Brief summary
Hey - First post.

So yeah i'm looking to loose some weight, go down 2 jeans sizes. Hopefully wanna be done by August 2011 if thats realistic?

I don't look immediately fatish according to people (I feel it though) - I know I am as my sizes are not desirable, especially for a woman. I don't have that much of a stomach suprisingly, only abit of one.

I don't weigh myself so don't know how much I weigh, not too sure (when I was younger 14/15 I was a 27/28" waist), but I will be weighing myself very shortly aswell as taking measurements to keep tabs on what i'm doing.

Stats (Will update)
I'm 5ft 7/8ish, currently a womens size 14, jeans size mens 32" (Was a size 36" waist before but lost some weight in the summer from cycling and healthy..ish eating), can be a 34" waist in other trousers. I want to get down to a 30" or possibly a 28", 30" is more realistic for now.

Exercise
My job is a replen role within a fairly large clothing store which means when i'm working i'm always running up and down the stairs with clothes etc (fairly active job), I walk home from work (roughly a 40 minute walk at a steady pace) - this is 3 times a week and I don't do any other sports currently.

Diet and food
- Diet wise its quite bad: I'm a sucker to Subway.

Drinks: Pepsi Max 500ml x 2, orange squash (Tesco standard no added sugar one) a little bit mixed with water in a 1.5L water bottle x2/3 (Its not fresh orange juice
Food:
- Breakfast/Lunch (I only usually have one or the other): Half sub (plain bread) with double cheese and nothing else (no sauce, veg, meat - picky eater), 2 cookies.
- Dinner (Sometimes another plain sub and 2 cookies again/ nacho's.

- Other snacks through the day: Polo's, chewing gum, random chocolate bar (when working).

I'm a picky eater, I don't like meat that much (beef and chicken are fine from time to time), no pork/fish.

I don't mind vegetables but they don't fill me up much and don't like foods such as olives, nuts, seeds, brown bread etc - The stuff that I should be eating.


Plan (Now this is what I need some advice on)

- Clearly I can't go on like this, I look alright in clothes, but I know I could look and feel way better.

Diet
- I have trouble with this as you can see, and I should not rely on Subway to get me through, sadly it was convienent as its 2 mins away from my house and its like 5 mins away from my workplace.

I could do with some idea's of what to replace eating Subway with?? I don't have to eat stacks of food, it just has to kinda feel substantial.

Pasta? Rice? Mash? I'm so clueless?

Also a friend also recommended protein shakes to aide my weight loss?? How does this work and would it be suitable for me? As I don't want to put on more weight than I already have.

Exercise
- I enjoy cycling and was considering integrating this with the plan

- I want to get into running, where I work, I get discount off running gear and sportswear and was going to invest in some running equipment and do the Couch 2 5k plan

- I have EA Sports Active 2 at home for the PS3 - I feel its abit gimmicky now (I lost weight with the 1st one over summer but I aint motivated with this one as much) so was considering joining up with a gym (again I get discount off Virgin Active gyms due to where I work) and going to some classes such as Punch, Spin Class and body pump/combat.

I hear that weight/resistance training should be done if you want to loose weight??

Final words
- So as you can see I'm truly lost as to what to do, I have a slight plan but just could do with help on shaping it up, was also wondering if the exercise part sounded like too much/too little.

Also the food/diet thing is major too as I realised that Subway is not doing me any good.

Sorry for the long post and idiot message but I really do wanna get myself sorted. :)

Also sorry if its in the wrong forum. :p
 
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So, my first suggestion would be that to ditch the cookies. ;) 2 cookies = 400 calories, the half Sub you're eating with just cheese is probably 200-300 calories. So most of your calories are coming from the two small cookies.

The idea behind protein shakes is that in general, protein is more satiating than fat or carbs. I.e. you feel less hungry eating 400 calories of protein than 400 calories of fat or carbs. Of course, this would be replacing your subway cheese sandwich and cookies with a protein shake, not adding it to what you already eat. Getting sufficient protein also helps you to lose fat rather than muscle when you lose weight.

Obviously you're eating more calories than you're burning - and since you're fairly active, part of the problem is probably eating really calorie dense foods - like the cookies, that don't leave you very full, don't have a lot of nutrients, but pack on a lot of calories.

One thing to do would be to track what you're eating exactly, and see how much food you're eating. You can also see if you're getting sufficient protein, fiber, and nutrients. I like Fitday for this, LiveStrong is another site that lets you track what you eat.

In terms of what you eat... it seems like you're eating a lot of high carb, highly processed foods. Mostly bread & cheese, chips & cheese, cookies... It seems like you're not getting much protein, and you're not eating a lot of filling foods. Oatmeal with some protein powder would be a better breakfast than a cheese sandwich or a cookie. Make yourself a steak now and again. Greek yogurt is good, hard boiled eggs are good... trying to find veggies you like is also good. I don't know that you particularly need rice or pasta, especially if you don't like the 'brown' variants that have more fiber.

Finally, the bit about weight training is that along with sufficient protein, it's the other thing that helps your body lose fat instead of muscle. A full body workout twice a week is usually enough. A body pump class borders on cardio rather than strength training, but it's close enough that it should work for your purposes. It may even be overkill, but if you do join a gym you can try out different machines and programs.

And to paraphrase something I read once - doing a mediocre program, but going at it full bore will still get you better results than doing the perfect program, but only doing it halfassed.

So don't worry as much about the perfect solution as on working on something long enough that you can make tweaks and see what makes things better and what doesn't.

Hope that helped!
 
I agree, cut out the high carb processed foods.
Cookies, bread & nacho's contain a lot of carbs and cals, which are both undesirable if you want to lose weight.
Try drinking more water, and less pepsi max and diluted orange juice.
Actually, if you want to drink orange juice, get it fresh cause there won't be any crappy additives and preservatives.
Orange is quite high in fruit sugars and carbs though, especially juice.
Try eating more protein and veggies, I know you're picky but I'm sure there's plenty protein rich foods you might like.
Do you like eating eggs?
Those are a great protein source.
 
Artemisia said:
Try drinking more water, and less pepsi max and diluted orange juice.
Actually, if you want to drink orange juice, get it fresh cause there won't be
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Hey - Thanks for the reply - Just wanna say its not orange juice as in the carton type its orange squash (no added sugar - Tesco standard), drinking plain water just doesn't seem to do it for me, which is why I add a little bit of this squash in. Will this still be the case of having to change to just pure water? :)

Sadly I don't like eggs :( I dunno why I'm so picky.
 
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Jeanette401 said:
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Thankyou for the reply - It was very informative.

Looks like its time to ditch the Subway, those cookies! Cant believe how many calories are in them. :O

Another question so i'm presuming I should leave the protein shake out then? Or could I have it for say breakfast/lunch (one or the other)? then have a decent portion sized meal for dinner?

Thanks for the response. :)
 
Also...

Is the gym membership worth it?

Cos I can do weights there and classes? But do classes really do anything for the body? Say twice a week?

Or should I go and buy a load of free weights?

So clueless and thanks for the really helpful responses so far. :)
 
Hehe. Yeah, the first time I actually looked up the calories in the Subway cookies it was O.O - I thought I was just tacking a small snack on!

It's up to you on the protein shake - either replace a meal, or ditch it. Also, watch the nutrition/ingredients on the shake if you're getting premixed. They can some times add a lot of crap to them! It's a good way to get your protein if you're not a big fan of meat and don't want to load up on beans, sprouts and higher protein veggies. I make protein shakes, I get unflavored protein powder and add in a dash of vanilla extract, some splenda, and some frozen cherries and blend. :D

As for the gym, I do belong to a gym and I like it. Of course, I don't really have room for free weights and a rack etc in my house, plus getting a full set of weights can be expensive - even if you look for deals on Craigslist :D I don't do the classes myself, but it's more personal preference. I think you could get quite a bit out of the classes if you're going twice a week, but also even from doing machines like leg press, row, chest press and lat pulldowns twice a week.
 
Oh, and honestly I wouldn't sweat the flavored drink over water too much. I mostly drink iced tea (unsweetened) myself and there are plenty of people who've managed to lose weight drinking plenty of diet sodas etc. :)
 
Jeanette401 said:
Oh, and honestly I wouldn't sweat the flavored drink over water too much. I mostly drink iced tea (unsweetened) myself and there are plenty of people who've managed to lose weight drinking plenty of diet sodas etc. :)
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Thankyou for both responses. :) +repped

Ok so final questions for now, I think I may just go for the protein shake as i'm not too big into my meat/high protein veg, your idea's pretty good, so i'm presuming I get the shake online and if so any specific ones your recommending?

Something like this?

Or a non diet specific one.

When I get paid at the end of the month, I'm gonna join up to Virgin Active and get on board with the classes, so for now its just going to be preparation and whatnot.

Thanks so much for your time and help so far. :)
 
I normally get mine from trueprotein.com, but EAS and syntrax are not bad brands. I like trueprotein because its easy to get unflavored and just the protein.

I looked at what you linked and it's also got guarana and caffeine, in addition to the protein powder so I'd probably be a little leery of it. Looking at the site you had I'd probably go for and then look at their flavoring systems to add flavor on your own if you wanted.

That was just what worked best for me though, I tend to find most of the pre-mixed flavors too sweet and tasting a bit off. Although MuscleMilk Cookies & Cream I love...
 
Air_Max_1 said:
Hey - Thanks for the reply - Just wanna say its not orange juice as in the carton type its orange squash (no added sugar - Tesco standard), drinking plain water just doesn't seem to do it for me, which is why I add a little bit of this squash in. Will this still be the case of having to change to just pure water? :)

Sadly I don't like eggs :( I dunno why I'm so picky.
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Ahh that's better than the bad orange juice yes.
I guess that if you do half and half (1 half of water, other half of oj) it should be fine.

Too bad you dislike eggs :(

Perhaps, it's worthwhile to make an appointment with a dietician?
Maybe they can set up a meal plan with foods you do like.
Not sure NHS covers it (my insurance does, but I live in the Netherlands), but if it does that would be really great.
I'm actually going to see one myself cause I'm having such a hard time with low carb, it's just not for me.

Do you have sufficient space for doing aerobics at home?
All you need is a dvd player :)
I love the UK sports dvd's actually (I'm Dutch) and order from amazon all the time.
I found that Rosemary Conley's dvd's were very enjoyable and in one year, I lost 35 kilo's doing that + a low cal diet.
This costed me only a few £ pounds :)
Not the same as a gym, but a whole lot cheaper.
I heard that sometimes NHS also covers going to the gym, might be worth checking out as well.

Good luck with you weightloss journey!
 
My bf and I have lost 8 and 6 pounds thus far in 3 weeks and while on vacation on this wonderful program we found called body by vi. If you are looking for something that will make you feel better get healthier and change your body while enjoying a delicious shake please email me- and please take a look at my page. I promote this to change lives, but it takes you to decide to make that first step I wish you much success no matter what course you take, But I hope you come join us in the 90 day challenge to change all our lives and bodies


Take Care Sandy

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100003046168431
sandy3157@hotmail.com
 
The best shakes I have ever had are from Visalus they taste great alone but I add frozen fruit bananas and they are soooo good and you DO NOT get hungry we replace only breakfast and are losing weight- email me or check out my site http://sandylm.myvi.net/ for more details


Take Care Sandy
 
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