I need to lose at 50 Pounds
 

Hello, my name is Hanan, and I'm Egyptian and new here, I need to lose 50pound, I've started on 9th March 2011, and I'm just counting my calories by writing them down and weighing them, I've been good eversince I started, till yesterday, we went out and ate fish, I asked for salmon, but the problem that my husband asked for fried Smelt so I ate 4 (they are small anyway), and I ate also geen salad, and two tsp off a special salad (that uses eggplant with the sesame liquid). My question is, if I'm outside how could I measure waht I eat? and what are the best tips to follow???, by the way I need also some tips on teh daily servings of each food group to lose weight, can any one help please?!!

I'm new and Need your help in guiding me to be the NEW ME
 

Hi, my name is Hanan, and I'm new here. I joined on 9th of this month with a lot of hope to lose weight. I started at 98.6kgm (I'm from Egypt and we use kgm instead of pounds), today I weighed my self to find that I reached 97.8. My goal weight is to rech 73kgm. After weighing my self today, I felt that I'm not losing enough kgms, I go to the gym every day eversince I started to write down every thing I eat, I walk on the treadmill for 30 minutes, doing the eliptical for another 30 minutes, and do some strengthening. I feel I should have gone down more!!

I don't follow a specific diet, I just write down everything I eat and trying not to increase my calories intake.

Could any one PLEASE help me and give me any guidance on what else to do, or maybe I'm doing fine....PLEASE

I think you're doing well, really. Losses don't have to be BIG to be GOOD. In fact, your best strategy is to lose slowly and steadily. You may be adding muscle weight, as well, which is a good thing. You don't say how much you're eating, or what kinds of foods you're eating, but in general it's a good idea to base your diet on vegetables, decrease fat and sweets, and get protein from legumes as well as fish, skinless chicken, and lean meats. Keeping a food journal is good. Are you using the FitDay food journal for this? See if you can achieve a good balance of carbohydrates, fats and protein. And drink water!! Welcome to the forums!

Welcome to FitDay and the forums.

I don't know that anyone can tell you "exactly" what to eat, but some guidelines I follow are:

No junk food.
Lots of lean protein.
No (few) simple carbs.
Lots of fruit and veggies.
A gallon/4 liters of water a day.

I keep my calories to 1500-1600 a day, on average.

I like to keep my calorie mix to a weekly average of 40 carbs/30 fat/30 protein.

Hope this helps!

Regards,
Michael

PS If you are looking for an actual structured "diet", The Zone and South Beach would be my personal choices. Of course, there are a plethora of others and they all have their pros and cons.

Hi Hanan,
You are doing good, almost one kg, lost in less than a week is good.
It is hard to tell though because you don't mention your calorie intake, the weight you lose is determined by your calorie deficit. Have you figured out how much your calorie deficit has to be according to your weight goal?
But I also have to agree that slow and steady is the best way, one kilo a week is reasonable, of course if you want to lose faster it can be done.
Keep at it!

Thanks a lot for your replies, its always good to know that you are not a lone :).

Now I'm trying to keep my calories intake by maximum 1500. But I alreay messed up on one dinner (we went out, and I couldn't figure how much was the calorie intake), and this is another problem, as we go out at least once a week to have out our lunch and dinner (both), so I don't know what to do, as when at home I weigh everything, but when I'm out its kind of difficult!!so what to do?, and sometimes I would like to have like one Kitkat or Mars bar, are all of those chocolates totally prohibited?

Sorry if some questions looks silly, but I feel that I'm like a little child that standing out of no where and doesn't know what to do. The help of you all is GREATLY appreciated.

I forgot to say, as a reply to Ratsmouth, I eat more vegetables and fruits (either fresh or dried like prunes and apricot, but after weighing them), and I used to cook the vegetables (I usually eat a mixture) with 2 tbs olive oil, and when I found that this oil is high in calories, I started today to take only 1tbs, I eat (not on a daily basis) one quarter of chicken or a can of Tuna, I'm I on the right track?

First off, do not get overwhelmed by all of the different structured diets that you come across. As you ease into this new lifestyle, simply keep your calorie intake below what you expend. Use FitDay to track both. Your body will change - muscle will build - fat will shed and you will lose weight.

As you get in tune with your body, food, exercise, etc., start to explore different strategies/diets/exercise plans that you find reasonable and achievable. Always keep in your mind that this is a change in your lifestyle that leads to your goal. It will take time, as it should. Don't get discouraged.

Just my two cents (or nonsense)....

Well my two cents regarding eating out: you can try to eyeball it and figure out what is in your food, like what it was prepared with. If you are weighing your food at home soon you will get used to knowing what 100 grams of chicken look like and that will give you a better idea about portions when you eat out. Try to make the best choices, for the most part avoid dressings that you know are filled with fat and try to make your best estimate when logging in the food. Also I find important to not drink my calories, so for eating out if you can stick to water or plain club soda I think it's the best.

About chocolate, I am not a believer in prohibition. If you want to have a bar of chocolate from time to time it is perfectly ok in my opinion. As long as you log it in and then make adjustments for the rest of your meals to stay within you calorie balance then it is fine. Also I find that if one day I go over my "allowed" calories, I still have the next days to average the excess calories out so it is not so terrible. Also my recommendation is go for the smaller size bars (fun size, mini size) that should satisfy your desire.

Do not be shy to ask! Most of us here are not experts but can tell you what has been working in our experience.

Hello! I'm new here, too. What you ate doesn't sound that horrible to me, except maybe for the fried fish coating. (Was the special food you described Baba Gannouj?) I guess you could break down foods by ingredient, and by quantity in your food journal... Good Luck with your goal :)