cornycow

Hello ladies I am new here!
23 year old girl from England with 4 stones and 10 pounds to lose (66 pounds). I know how I got to this weight (my current BMI is 31 - obese) and it was by eating rubbish/huge portions/drinking lots of beers! I am ashamed of myself that I let myself get to this size. I am a UK size 18/20 and have a 39 inch waist. I am determined to lose weight and to change my lifestyle. I also want to get fit so that I can walk up a few hills e.g. Ben Nevis!
Does anyone have any advice for me i.e. what to eat and how much to eat? I think I am going to try to stick to 1200 calories per day and see what happens. Today for breakfast I had a banana chopped over special K cereal, with a dash of semi-skimmed milk. (about 300 cals??) I ate that at 8am but began to get hunger pains at about 10am. I'm now starving hungry and dying to eat something! I find it hard inbetween meals as my stomach rumbles like crazy. I drink water but that makes it worse!
I LOVE sweet things like cakes/chocolate/doughnuts and I will find it VERY HARD to resist these!! any tips for how to avoid them?! I just keep thinking of that mantra: "nothing tastes as good as thin feels" . I am obsessed with food and think about it constantly! How do I distract myself?
I am at home at the moment after minor surgery. I'll be housebound for one month :-(
any advice anyone has would be greatly appreciated! thank you xx

Kumochi

Hi You are wise to get fit now and enjoy the benefits for years. More protein in your diet helps fight the hunger pains. I'd also guess that 1200 calories is too little for you at this time. Put your figures in and see what fitday says you need to maintain your weight. Then give yourself about a year to lose the 66 pounds and see what calorie defecit it says you need. That will give you an idea of how many calories you can eat and still lose at a good pace.

I find exercise does not increase my appetitie and speeds up the weight loss. Can you exercise over the next month? Is walking allowed? It's a great exercise to start with. There are many things you can do for extra activity. It also helps keep you busy and your mind off food.

You can have your sweets on occasion. Give yourself treat days if you can manage them. I don't plan them. The most important thing is to get back into a healthy lifestyle as quickly as possible. One day's lapse should be forgotten and back on plan. Don't use it as an excuse to quit. And you will lapse at times -- we all do. Just don't quit.

Use all the resources here and look at this as a lifestyle change - not a diet.

That's my 2 cents worth. Wish I'd followed it when I was 23. Mary

wolfbane20

1. 1

First thing is to make sure you eat small amount every 2-3 hours. Have your three meals and at least 2 snacks.
When you have a meal make sure it has a protein, healthful high carb (rice, oats, etc. no more than .5 cup, and a low carb like salad, berries, green beans. For snack eat what you want but make sure it is no more than 100-200 calories.

The most important thing is make sure you log EVERYTHING that goes in your mouth. Pay attention to the pie chart you should have 50% protein, 30% carbs, and 20% fat. Yes 20% fat believe it or not the right type of fat can help your lose weigh, it makes food taste better and keeps you satisfied longer.

Another way to eat a meal would be to have a portion of protein, skip the high carb and have 2 portions of a low carb. You can eat more food that way and still save calories and carbs.

Will email you two days worth of meal plan I used if you like.

Rubystars

There's no reason you should avoid eating between meals if you're hungry as long as you choose the right foods for your snacks. Can you eat cucumbers with a little salt and pepper? Eat an entire head of iceberg lettuce (or half of one) either way it won't add very many calories. Have a plateful of cut up strawberries sweetened with a pack of saccharine. Steam some yellow squash or zucchini (I think in the UK they call it marrow) and use just a little bit of low cal butter spray (like two sprays).

RunbikeSki

I agree with Mary,
1200 is probably too low for you at this time. Plus trying to do everything all at once is a recipe for failure.

Here's a suggestion: For a week or 2 eat as you would normally. Enter everything... I mean everything, good, bad, and indifferent into FitDay. If you can I would even suggest using the Moods and Journal tabs to log what was going on in your life at the time. Then use all of the tools available to look at the calorie balances, the nutrients, etc to analyze what and why you are over eating.

Then select 1 thing to change, just 1. Is it too much ice cream? or too much time at the pub? or is it too much snacking in front of the telly? Start with 1 thing for a week then add another after a while.

Me? I found that I was a lot more lonely than I ever suspected. I am married, I have lots of friends, but I am also a pretty high powered research professional with a need for a lot of time to reflect (my DH is quite similar). But I found out that all of these things were causing me to isolate myself too much and I was overeating in reaction to being alone too much. Now that is something I can change, so I did, with nice results.

So my dear Ms. cornycow. Take hold of your life. I totally admire your desision to do so - I was well along in years before I did .

And we are here for you... good, bad, and indifferent.