Getting the weight loss ball rolling...

I’m primarily just looking for validation and advice on what I’m doing to lose weight. I want to know that I’m going about it the right way.

I’m a big guy and I used to lead a very sedentary lifestyle. I work on computers (programming) every day and play video games and watch tv at night. I didn’t exercise at all. I made the decision to lose weight about a week and a half ago after shocking myself with my scale number (nearly 290 lbs, with clothes and shoes on though, about 270-275 without). I went from doing no exercise at all and not watching my food intake, to working out every day and measuring out my meals. I’ve been doing that for about a week and haven’t seen any sign that I’m actually making any progress. I’m trying to lose about 90 lbs (270→180).

I estimate that my former calorie intake was probably closer to 3000-3500 calories per day. After inputting all the numbers the site is telling me I should be eating like 2500-2800 calories per day (on low fat diet goal). I have been trying to eat just enough to where I am satisfied at the end of a meal ( much less than I used to eat). Right now that’s putting my calories around 1700-2000. Because of this I actually lowered the calorie goal the site set for me to 1500-1900. I really don’t see the need to eat more. I have gotten in the groove of staying under 2000 per day and I am satisfied with what I eat.

For exercise I started with running in place in my living room in the middle of last week. I started by doing about 5 minutes of light jogging, but I have worked that up to about 10-15 minutes of jogging (about 1-1.5 miles). Along with that I tried to do 10-20 situps and 10-20 pushups. I started this in the middle of last week (Wednesday), and only missed working out on Saturday.

On Monday I started the weight loss workout program. I got all of the exercises done on Monday, but yesterday I had to skip the crunches, because I just can’t do them. They are just too hard on my back at this point. I am replacing them with regular situps (which I can’t find on the site anywhere).

On my off days I’m getting in at least a mile of jogging in place.

Do I just need to stick with it (not saying I won’t, just need to hear it) to push myself over the edge or do I need to do a bit more before I’ll be able to start losing weight.

This is the first time in my life I’m really working hard to lose the weight. The first time I’ve really tracked what I’m eating. I’ve worked out in the past, but never really stuck with it or tracked myself so closely.

When I started all this I figured just getting in a good workout every day would be enough to start the pounds coming off. It’s just a little frustrating at this point. Anyone see any room for improvement in my diet or workout to get that ball rolling?

Ok after finding this topic:
http://dailyburn.com/forums/fitness_and_exercis…

I can see some things I can possibly improve on.

First, ease off on the weight measurements. Right now I’m doing it every other day. That’s probably where most of my frustration comes from. I’m taking personal progress images (not posting them until I do see progress) on Saturday so I think I’ll do my weight measurement then instead.

Second, there was a mention of actually stalling weight loss due to not eating enough. That seems counter-intuitive to me. But perhaps their is some logic in that. Note: I have a multi-vitamin in the morning while getting ready for work to try to make sure I get the stuff I need. I’m also trying to keep my protein higher by eating beef jerky and peanuts as snacks. Do I just need to eat a bit more of those snacks to boost my protein and calories? Seems weird to me to boost my calories when I’m trying to lose weight, but as I said…this is the first time I’ve really tracked this stuff, so I’m no expert. Eating to feel satisfied is a dramatic change from what I used to do…maybe that’s not enough though.

You may want to look at what you are eating also.

Beef jerky and peanuts (if salted) are high in sodium and too much of that may slow your progress.

Try unsalted nuts (and go for almonds or other hearty versions) and go easy on the jerky.

Instead of eating more of those items as your snacks, try yogurt and fruit. I eat my yogurt with a spoonful of grapenuts for some extra fiber and an extra crunch.. Canned pineapple is also a staple for me at work.

Eating more fruit wont raise your calorie intake as much as eating more peanuts and jerky plus you’ll be getting better nutrients and because you can eat more, you can stay more satisfied.

Sodium…yeah that’s probably part of my problem. The peanuts are salted. Also the foods I eat are usually higher in sodium. to sum it up…I do like my salt. I put salt on most meals.

Doing a little research I discovered this article (as well as other’s):
http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/water.htm
(specifically numbers 2 and 4)

While I’m not to the point of just “hiding my abs”, not being able to get rid of that water weight is probably not helping me see the progress (no matter how small it is).

As for fruits…One of my favorite little snacks are grapes…however those are high in carbs…and I don’t really want to shoot those through the roof either…as I’m already regularly meeting my carb goals. I’ll do a bit more research to find a snack (fruit or healthier nuts) I can replace the jerky and peanuts with.

For snacks I keep a tub of unsalted cashews on-hand with a 1/4 cup measuring spoon in it. I take a serving and have it with some non-fat cottage cheese. The cottage cheese is high in sodium. You can get sodium-free cottage cheese I think, but rumor has it you need to dress it up. There are people on here (chaddukes I think?) that eat it and have ways of making it palatable for them.

I also much on whole mushrooms with a little nonfat ranch dressing. On Sundays we cook up a big batch of boneless chicken breasts on the grill, so those are always on-hand if I want some protein mixed in.

And I don’t stay away from the fruit – I just keep it in moderation. Two or three pieces a day (apple, banana, orange).

Lowfat or nonfat yogurt is also a good option. Same for cheese if you don’t mind dairy.

Lastly, we usually have a bag or two of edamame in the freezer. A cup of them runs around 100 calories. Salt is optional.

There’s not much you can do about foods prepared with salt except replace or delete them from your diet. However, if you like to add salt, you might want to try NoSalt, which is made with potassium and adds no sodium. Unless you load it on, you can’t really taste the difference. I haven’t tried it with sodium-free cottage cheese yet.

Eat more would be my first piece of advice. 1500-1900 calories is just too low for you at this point. Your body may think it is starving and try to hold onto fat instead of burning it. I also agree with reducing sodium. At this point, though, the water retention is probably not the main issue.
You have made a great start. I am not familiar with the workout you are doing, but weight training should be part of your exercise plan. Keep increasing your cardio as you can. Stay away from overly processed foods and measure/log everything. You will start to see a change if you keep it up. You wlll make yourself crazy weighing in constantly. Try to only weigh in once per week, about the same time each week. Also test your body fat % to see how your overall body composition is changing. Take progress photos. Sometimes we can see things in a photo we don’t see in a mirror. Just keep at it!
Pamela

www.ThrivePersonalFitness.com

Thanks for the tips. I’ll try to up the calories by eating more fruits. I’m not a fan of cottage cheese…and no-fat or low sodium would no doubt only make it taste worse. So I’m not going there.

Thanks for the tip on NoSalt IrishEyes…I’m probably going to give that a try since I use salt on nearly everything I cook. You’d think all the salt I eat would affect my blood pressure, but you’d be wrong. Both my dad and I have never had issues with large amounts of salt (he is worse than me)…and only recently has his blood pressure been rising (to the point where he has to take pills, doc said it was probably mostly stress from work). Mine has remained lower than normal despite my diet.

In regards to cheese, what kind of cheeses would be the best for my situation? I like cheese, but pretty much the only type I eat is Velveeta (mostly cooked into recipes). I switched to the 2% milk version, but I’m sure that’s still worse than other cheeses.

Here’s the training plan I’m on:
http://dailyburn.com/training_plans/384403-Weig…

The workouts are mostly bodyweight exercises, except for Monday which is my upper body day where I use dumbells (or at least now I will, had to improvise a dumbell for the first workout day). Most of the exercises are hard to do for me, and a couple are too difficult (crunches kill my lower back (applies to both versions on the wednesday workout) and push-ups I can’t do more than 10 or so). For the ones that are too difficult I have been substituting alternatives I find on here that I can do.

I woudl say start by eating real foods Thor, when i look in your foodlog I see lots of snackfood, junkfood (yes subway 6 inc melt are junkfood) I think you are also way off in calculating what you eat. Again the 6 inch subway would probably be more than 380 Kcal. And when you eat it you are not drinking calories? No coke of juice or something like that?
Problem is most of the time that people over estimate their calorieburn and severely underestimate their calorieintake :) for example a cup is a cup and not a cup with a mountain on top of it :)
You will win the war with good nutrion. Excerise is important but the results come from good food and good eating habits.

Velveeta isn’t real cheese, it’s a “prepared cheese product”, whatever that is. Plain old cheese of whatever type you find appealing would probably be a better choice. There are plenty of low-fat options; most of them are higher in sodium than the regular cheese of the same type, so you have to go with your priorities (salt vs. fat / calories) so you have to check the labels, and of course you have to like the taste. For me, nibbling 1/2 of an ounce of a really good cheese is surprisingly satisfying when only the real thing will do. I’ve found a l.f. Monterey Jack that is just fine, and only slightly higher in sodium. I can’t stomach non-fat cheese – yuck!

wedzir: I do know how to measure properly in a cup…no mountains here.

I have dropped sodas completely. I drink water or water with a crystal lite equivalent (generic brand from target, I prefer their flavors, and it doesn’t add any calories). The only juice I have is the OJ in the morning. I realize that some people don’t consider adding something like crystal lite to water as not being water, but IMO it is water, so I’m tracking it as water. It is chemically identical to water, just with flavoring added in. It does not change the molecules of water by mixing it in.

You did point out one thing I forgot about when I added the Sub the second day (was the second half of a footlong I bought the first day, fully intending for it to be 2 lunches). I forgot the other half of the baked lays. I was in a rush that day and didn’t have anything prepared for lunch…so I made a quick stop and got the sub and chips…normally I would have gotten their combo deal.

Do you consider anything at Subway to not be junkfood? I think it is by far the one of the healthier lunches I used to eat before I started this (McD’s and Burger King were also regular lunch spots before, haven’t gone to either in a couple of weeks), so I’d like to think I can continue. I just need to modify what I get there. Yes I realize the melt isn’t the best choice.

thor, measuring in a cup won’t cut it for most foods, like cereals, flour, peanut butter, etc. Try a digital kitchen scale. I guarantee that when you weigh your measured cup, it won’t be close to the weight given as a portion size in your packaging (ie, when they say 15 g of peanut butter, or 1 tbsp). When both a weight and volume is given, the calories are based on the WEIGHT.

For Subway, if you are going to eat there a better choice would be whole chicken breast on whole wheat. Avoid Deli meats, as again they are loaded with sodium and are mostly fat and by-products.

Yeah I have been measuring my grapes by weight. I didn’t realize that they list the weight of the serving on the container (only paid attention to the nutrition stats when I added it on here). Only been measuring my cereal by cup…now that I see it has a weight I’ll start using that instead.

Thor what i meant was that it is far better to prepare your own food with healthy ingredients then stopping over in what I see as another Mac or Burger King.
Main thing is that you made a choice to do something to watch what you eat and start moving. Now you can start adjusting and more important learning how to make the right choices toward a more healthy livestyle

Understood. I’m working on it. Money is a bit tight right now (had some unexpected expenses) so I’m going to have to continue primarily with what I started, until I can afford to make a change. I want to get in the habit of planning my meals ahead of time (a week or more). Just takes some resources up front to do that, which I don’t have right now.

Thank you all for the advice, and feel free to continue, I need all the help I can get.

Thor, buying the food and making a sandwich at home will save you WAY more money then going to subway and eating there. Plus you can weigh the meat, limit the mayo and fattening extras to track better. If you like to keep everything fresh pack it in separate containers (you can buy 3-5 for $2 at the grocery store) and then make it at lunchtime when you are at work.

Also remember, the change will be slow at first. It’s good to take small steps (like you are already doing) as going to the extreme might discourage you from continuing. You are doing great!

Still having quite a bit of trouble meeting my Calorie goals. In going to healthier foods (and smaller portions) my calorie intake has dropped significantly. It is difficult for me to break 2000 calories let alone 2500. I would seriously have to step up the amount I eat in order to meet that calorie goal. I don’t feel like I’m starving so I’m still wondering if that calorie goal is accurate for me.

Got a little money to get some good fruits last night, orange, bananas, and (more) grapes as well as some canned pineapple. Also switching my cereal (needed to buy some anyway) to Cheerios in the morning to cut back on sodium. I’m still working on getting regular meals figured out, money is still tight, so I gotta rely on what I have to get by until payday.

Money is tight? Some good ideas for a budget:
Oats (buy in bulk not the little packets)
Sweet potatoes
Eggs (use the whole thing or just the whites)
Peanut Butter
Frozen vegetables
Frozen chicken breasts
Any grain (brown rice, quinoa, etc) in bulk
Dried beans
You can do lots of things with these ingredients: morning oatmeal, stir frys, omeletts, sandwiches, or wraps.
Pamela

www.ThrivePersonalFitness.com

Yeah that’s the kind of stuff I need to learn how to make. Breakfast isn’t so much an issue (I can make omeletts, scrabled eggs in addition to what I currently eat)…I have that covered I think. It’s more lunch and dinner I’m having trouble with. Thanks for the suggestions.

GRRR I had a long post typed out to ya and then the computer crashed on me.

Your diet is defintely lacking. You aren’t really meeting any of the goals daily burn has set for you which might be one problem.

Your fiddling with your calorie intake and believe me I’ve been in your shoes too and someone said to me " don’t fiddle with your calories, they’ve been assigned to you like that for a reason. You obviously aren’t sure about calories your body needs in the first place hence why you are trying to lose weight". When I first saw that I was like OUCH harsh but I sat down to think about it and they were totally right. Like others said are you being 100% true in what you are eating, doing or even how you setup your program. A bite here and a bite there will sabatoge all your hardwork if you don’t track it.

Yes, you defintely need to cut back on the sodium. You are probably holding on to a lot of extra water weight from all the salt you eat and again you aren’t following the guidelines given to you when you go over that Sodium amount.

Protein? SERIOUSLY lacking. I know you said money is tight but do you own a crockpot They are relatively inexpensive and so worth it. I make turkey chili has 32 grams of protein in it per one cup serving!!! Lasts me an entire week or more. I just throw it in the crockpot it cooks during the day I don’t hafta worry about it and then its ready for dinner or whenever I want it.

Veggies?? Those are really lacking too. They provide you with natural fiber you need to keep your body regular. Fruit juice is a waste of calories you are better off doing actual fruit which also gives you fiber and not all the sugars put into fruit juices. Nicer weather is starting why not consider planting a small garden and growing your own veggies super cheap!

Check out transformation.com I enjoy that site and follow the Eating for Life guidelines its made a huge difference in my weightloss. I too was lacking in most everything and eating mostly carbs.

Let me put my money troubles this way. I had to choose between eating healthy (versus making the best with what I have), being able to drive to work (too far to run there), and being able to pay rent. The last two got the majority of the money that I was able to scrounge up (read: pawning stuff) for the rest of the month. When I say money is tight, I mean tighter than usual…much tighter than usual. I basically can’t spend anything more the rest of the month if I want to be able to afford my rent.

I measure out everything. What is in my nutrition log is what I have eaten, nothing more, nothing less. I may have started rough and skipped a couple items here and there in the beginning, but I am dedicated to it now.

The only juice I drink is the Orange juice in the morning. With was little money I was able to put towards food recently I did buy a bit of fruit: bag of navel oranges, 1 bunch of bananas, 1 carton of green grapes, and a case of canned pineapple (nothing added)…as well as some other vital non-food items.

Yes I own a crockpot, but still need to learn how to use it to eat in a healthy manner. The only recipes I have for it are from before I started all this, so I have to find some new ones.

As for a garden…I’d need to buy pots or something…can’t dig up the ground next to my patio. That is an excellent idea to get veggies cheap though.

Thanks for the site, I’ll check it out.

hello, I think I may have made the same mistake. I adjusted the total calories DB assigned me as well. I only need to lose about 10 to 15 lbs. I lost the forst 15 on metabolic weight system but cant afford to stay on it. Figured I’d try this instead. Any advise after looking at my meals and stats would be appreciated. I’ve just started this week. Thanks

I forgot to include a little info. I am doing one of the work out programs but am litmited due to breakign my back 4 years ago and having metal fusing my spine. I was size 8 prior to that and use to run 3 miles 3 times a week. Since my wreck I got up to size 12 but am now down to size 10. Low carb seems to work best for me but I’ll have ot leave those raisins off my lunch salad that I love so much! Darn! I guess I really need to know if I set my numbers wrong.

Debbie, the original numbers were probably good for you. You will hurt yourself in the long run by eating too little. And don’t forget that it if you started working out, is possible to lose body fat but remain the same weight because of the increased muscle. So here’s what I recommend:

1. redo the nutritional tool (Nutrition → Update Goals). Make sure you are honest about your activity level – don’t overstate. Then follow what Daily Burn recommends. It’s is accurate for most people.

2. Take your current measurements (waist, hips, bust) and your weight. Write them down, here or elsewhere.

3. Eat within the ranges given for two weeks. Make sure you get enough protein, and eat mostly whole foods (no processed food if you can help it).

4. At the end of the two weeks, compare your new measurements and weight to the starting one.
-If your weight dropped by more than 2 lbs per week, you need to increase your calorie intake by 500 calories per day. Re-evaluate after 2 weeks.
-If your weight increased or stayed the same, and your measurements didn’t go down, you are eating too much. Drop by 500 calories per day. Re-evaluate after 2 weeks.
-If your weight increased or stayed the same, but your measurements went down, chalk it up to increased muscle. Eat at the same goals for 2 more weeks, then re-evaluate.

I’d like to point out that I did at one time decrease my target calorie range, but I have since reset it back to the range recommended by DB. That was in my first week here at the site, I’ve been trying to meet the calorie goals recommended by DB since. Just in case that was unclear to anyone.