Help with diet and exercise

mario_91

mario_91

New member
Right... well i was just visiting this forum as a guest and was really shocked at some of the before and after stories i have seen on here!

Anyway...

I am VERY overweight and want to use the most effective approach for losing weight through exercise and diet without pushing the unhealthy limit.

About 7 months ago was the last time i visited the gym and at that point i had managed to lose 28 lbs.

What im getting at is that i know i can exercise effectivly as i enjoy the challenge of weight loss whilst pointing myself in a healthier direction.

My only problem is that im always hearing different things on how to do it, and as i said i want the most effective way...ill give u a couple examples.

First off, my doctor said that i should lower my calorie intake to 1500 and exercise atleast 3-5 times a week.

Then i had the guy that was working at my gym telling me that i will have to consume whatever my my BMR works out as.

Now my BMR says i need roughly 4359 calories a day, (yes, quite alot lol)...but now how would i go about consuming all those calories and then having a deficit while burning calories at the gym.
Wouldnt that mean i'd have to kill myself at the gym? lol

Do i have to stick to all those calories or can i consume a lower amount?

At the end of the day its not a problem of not doing nothing about my weight because i am motivated to go do whatever, its just not knowing what exactly to do.

So i would be grateful if someone could basically point out what and what NOT to do and to point me in the right direction....

Sorry for the long read :)
 
A lot of people try to make it really complicated ... but really weight loss can be simple. (Mind you, it's simple in concept - making it work for you can be difficult. I don't want to say that it's just easy-peasy because if it were, everyone would be thin!) Also my experience is that most family doctors/general practitioners don't really know a lot about losing weight. It's a sad fact, but it's true. Most of them can't give you any guidelines other than "lower your calories and exercise" but very few of them will give specifics based on each individual. It's the sad state of our medical system.

Here's the real basics of it: You need to burn more calories than you eat. And 80% of your weight loss effort is going to go into what you eat. You can exercise until you're blue in the face, but if you're eating too much food then you're not going to lose weight. On the other hand, if you eat too little food, you'll also stall out your weight loss because your metabolism will slow down. Slow and steady is the best way to do it.

So it's about balance.

If you've calculated your BMR at 4359, then you could drop that by about 20% to get around 3500 calories. If you were to eat 3500 calories and then exercise 3-4 times a week, you'll lose weight, but you won't be starving yourself.

AS your weight goes down, you'll want to recalculate that periodically of course. The lower your weight, the lower your BMR will be.

That's it at it's most basic. There are other details that you'll need to fill in - what kind of food you eat is important - you don't want to eat just junk or diet food. You need to get healthy carbs, lean proteins, veggies, fruits, and healthy fats.

But the basics of it is calories in vs. calories out. :)
 
thank you, that has given me more of an understanding. The other thing is that say i was to consume 3500 calories, when i go to the gym what will be a good enough amount of calories to burn, and how can it be enough because if u have to burn more than u consume i wont be burning more than 24500 calories which is the weekly calorie total at 3500 unless im totally killing myself at the gym.
 
I think you're overthinking this. :)

Very simply:
You need 4359 calories to maintain your current weight, right?
Eat 3500 calories and that's LESS than you need, so you'll lose weight.
Workout in addition to eating less, and you'll lose more weight.

I wouldn't worry about how many calories you burn exercising. Consider whatever calories you burn when you exercise to be a bonus and don't think about them. Think about exercising in terms of being healthy and keeping you from losing muscle, rather than in terms of killing yourself to burn calories.
 
WOW, now that you put it like that it seems alot easier, now the only problem is what the hell do i eat to amount to 3500 in a day healthy-food wise?

and sorry for all the questions but you seem to know what your on about so i want to find out as much as i can :)

once again thank you....lol
 
now the only problem is what the hell do i eat to amount to 3500 in a day healthy-food wise?
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Hah. Yeah, that's a good one isn't it. :) But I'm happy to help.

What kinds of things do you normally eat? Do you cook? Maybe tell me what you eat for meals and snacks on an average day and I can offer some advice.

As a help, here's what *I* normally eat ... which is about 1700 calories a day.
  • Breakfast: yogurt and blueberries (I eat the same thing for breakfast every day - in the winter I have oats instead of yogurt)
  • Snack: apple and cheddar cheese ~or~ handful of almonds
  • Lunch: usually leftovers from dinner; something like pasta and veggies or soup with lots of veggies. Every now and then I splurge with a deli sandwich.
  • Snack: can of v8 and a boiled egg
  • Post-workout: on days I lift weights, I drink a protein drink (I just mix a scoop of protein powder with water)
  • Dinner: now that it's summer I grill every night. I always have some kind of grilled meat (burger, shrimp, fish, chicken, whatever) and a bunch of veggies - potatoes, squash, onions, peppers, tomatoes, etc. I just baste them with olive oil and grill them. Sometimes I make cole slaw, sometimes I make a big green salad, sometimes a fruit salad.

That's pretty much it for me. I try to make sure that I'm eating 40% carbs, 35% protein and 25% healthy fats.
 
well back to my old habits there was nothing i really ate specifically, just pure JUNK.

A lot of fast food for sure!

but now i know for sure i eat healthy, but what i eat is no way near to 3500 calories and to be honest i cant think of enough healthy foods to reach 3500, do u reckon i should double the servings i would normally have or would that not work reason being i would have to stick to (i.e 40% carbs, 35% protein and 25% healthy fats), and maybe doubling the servings would exceed those percentages?
 
I would recommend signing up with a site like the dailyplate.com or fitday.com or one of those to help you track your meals and your nutrients. I like the daily plate because there's a cute little pie chart in the upper right hand corner that lets me see what my macros are. :)

But yeah, doubling servings of healthy foods is a good way to raise your calories for sure. For example, if you took my meal plan you might tweak it this way:

Have 2 servings of yogurt in the morning with blueberries. (that's another 100 calories)
Or have another yogurt with your apple snack mid-morning. (another 100 calories)
Have a 2nd afternoon snack of some peanut butter spread on a slice of whole grain toast or a whole grain english muffin (that'll add about 250 calories)
Add a chicken breast to your lunch so maybe you'd have pasta with tomato sauce and veggies and a grilled chicken breast (that's another 120 calories)
If you have a sandwich for lunch, add 1/2 a sliced avocado (healthy fats and about 80 calories)
Drizzle some olive oil over your salad or veggies at lunch (90 or so calories and a good healthy fat)
Post workout - throw your scoop of protein powder into some orange juice (nice shot of post workout carbs and that's another 160 calories)
Double up on whatever protein you have for dinner - if you normally eat 4 oz of chicken, eat 6 or 8, if you normally eat 8 grilled shrimp, eat 20. (that's another 120 calories)
Add in a late night snack or healthy dessert - sliced veggies over lowfat frozen yogurt (200 calories), or a skinny cow ice cream sandwich (130 calories) or if you crave salty things, a bowl of airpopped popcorn with a little salt (150 calories).

It's easy to add healthy calories to your meals. It just requires a little planning. :)
 
hmm ive basically gone and created some daily meal plans for myself, suppose the only way to see if they work is to stick to them for a couple weeks and go gym like normal and weigh myself after and see if there is any differance in my weight lol.

trial and error i suppose :)

thanks for the help!!!
 
well, I was the same as u before, let me share my experience with u. I experience a comfortable, fast and healthy way,P90X, the DVD I want to thanks.

It gave me a detailed help, guided me and helped me, what's most important, gave me the hope.

I saw it from
bought it and followed the direction everyday.

It is absolutely amazing! I lost 20 pounds in one month!

Now,I recommend it to people like me, just try it and change your life!
 
mario_91 said:
well back to my old habits there was nothing i really ate specifically, just pure JUNK.
Click to expand...

starting is always the hardest part, but just the fact that your on the forum and reading up on nutrition and working out is what matters. it's baby steps really, and once your armed with all the knowledge can begin....and always remember the most important thing is to keep trying no matter how many slip ups you may have, never give up.

i started at 350+ and now hanging around 315ish, it's hard work and i have a looong way to go but i'm really proud of what i've accomplished so far and it helps me want to keep going. take things one day at a time and it should be okay.

i'd recommend starting a forum diary incase you haven't got one already, it's great for receiving encouragement and vice versa. sometimes for me just reading other peoples diaries and seeing how hard they're working can make all the difference to my day and make me want to do the same....it's a good support system.

k, welcome to the forum and all the best on your journey xoxo :grouphug:
 
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