Newbie Here --- Lots of Questions!
 

Hi there,

I came here from Sparkpeople. I lost 70 pounds using Sparkpeople in the past, but have gained it all back. Instead of doing everything the same old way, I thought I'd start fresh on a brand new site.

I weight a lot (in the 300's) and have a long way to go....but first, I have to know how to use FitDay! :)

Here are a few questions I have. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

1.) Where does it tell you how much exercise you are supposed to get a week?
2.) Are the calories given with or without exercise?
3.) For those of you that have been here for awhile, for someone that is a compulsive eater, should I start properly eating right or working out more (or do they go hand in hand)?

I would love to learn everything possible! Thank you!:)

Welcome!

I think the easiest way to start is the first step: fill out your profile. This is where you give information about yourself and tell what your activity level is already. Fitday doesn't tell you how much exercise you should get in a week.

You use the food log to track the foods you eat each day. The calories are just the calories for the foods, no exercise taken into account. You use the profile to set your baseline level of fitness. Sedentary, for example, if you have a job where you work sitting down.

After you get used to tracking your foods, you can see how much you are eating every day.

It's been a while since I set up my profile. Specify fitday 2.0 in your profile - fitday classic is there for people who like the previous version (I do, but both versions have their good points.)

You can log activity every day. Today, I did moderate effort housework for around 2 hours so I logged that. If you track your activity and your food, it's very motivating to see that when you move more and eat less, you do lose weight!

When you weigh yourself, you can log your weight for the day.

These things give data for the reports. If you're very good about tracking activity, you notice what is helping your weight loss the most.

3.) For those of you that have been here for awhile, for someone that is a compulsive eater, should I start properly eating right or working out more (or do they go hand in hand)?

If I were you I would start by talking with a professional. Compulsive eating is a head thing, not a body thing. The second thing I would do is do ONE thing. Say, (if your doctor says it is okay) drink 8 cups of water every day. Celebrate some success with that before you go on to the next thing, like next walk for 30 minutes (or what ever your doctor says is safe) and work up to that and celebrate success with that. Then go for eating only the daily recommended amount of say, breads and grains. This may be harder than the first two goals, but you know you can do it because you were successful with the first two goals...see how it works. You and your doctor can decide the goals, but this is a way that works for many people. Logging your food and exercise is good too because it leaves you less time to eat and makes you slow down to realize what you are actually putting into yourself and how you are exercising. Remember we are here for you no matter how long it takes, so no need to be in a rush. Be healthy be well.
Again, first I would try to get some professional help for the compulsive eating.

welcome