Advice on what to do?

Jaymac1

Hi all,

I am a regular poster but i want to remain anonymous.

I am 26 years old and am currently 22 stone. although at 22 stone i am a human blimp i do have a large frame and have a large amount of muscle but obviously it is covered with a wad of fat.

I want to change my lifestyle and drop some weight but i dont know where to start with exercise and diet.

Over the past week i have simply cut out all the bad food i eat and started to walk 3 miles each night. In the last week i am down 7 pounds, which is great but for doughballs like me it easy to loose a stone at the start.

I also have had a couple of operations on my knee's and hip after an accident so it kills me when i jump on an excercise bike or anything like that.

I am asking for advice and i know i should be going to a dietican but i just cant afford it and was wondering can any offer any help to me such as

1.am i better off walking or swimming to loose weight?
2.What should i be eating for breakfast etc?
3.and if there is anything else you can offer.
4. should i be lifting weights ?


I know i am asking for a lot but i also know how helpful Boards.ie is to people

Thanks in advance

Glinda

Hi Jaymac,

My advice mightn't be very practical, but I hope you find it some help anyway

Firstly, I think you should be feeling really really good about the fact that you have finally, after a very long time, decided to do something lovely for yourself.

I know when I struggled with my weight (had quite a serious problem), I always felt like I was being 'nice' to myself when I was eating badly, and being somehow 'tough' on myself when I was eating well. Then one day I woke up and realised that my whole mental setup was completely back to front.

There is nothing nice about putting your body under so much pressure that your knees start to go, your heart pants at every sign of exertion, your foot arches start collapsing or your blood sugar is all over the place. If someone else did something to you that had those consequences (and ruined your good looks into the bargain) you would consider them a mortal enemy, you certainly wouldn't think of them as a friend.

I used to think friendly, affectionate thoughts about junk food. When I would diet, I missed it terribly and felt I was depriving myself and it was all so unfair somehow. I spent any time dieting locked in a mental cage of spitting fury and grim determination. Then I started to analyse where my ideas about different foods had come from, and whether they made any sense. That made me look at food a different way.

Give it half a chance in terms of good diet and your body will repay you a thousand times over with less pain, longer lasting joints, nicer clothes, better skin, more stamina, more energy and to top it all, you'll be better looking.

Better still, your body is so fantastic that if you treat it well (in food terms) about eighty percent of the time, it can handle all kinds of crap the rest of the time!

You've taken a really positive step. Stay focussed and remember, the crap you used to eat is not your friend, in fact it is trying to kill you.

Sorry if this is all a bit touchy-feely and not at all practical.

It really helped me, so I thought I'd share it here.

Best wishes,
Glinda.

Brian?

You don't need to see a dietician to make positive changes. Take 1 simple step at a time.

The first step is to figure out how many calories you need to eat in a day to maintain your current weight. Knock 500 off this and you have your new goal. Eat that number of calories and you will lose weight. Simple but not easy.

Simply work that out using this:

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=50956807&postcount=12


At 22 stone you're drop weight quickly once you do this. All the info you need is contained in the stickies, they're a great resource.

Excercise will help, but the majority of your weight loss will be down to diet.

Brian?

Glinda wrote: »

Hi Jaymac,

My advice mightn't be very practical, but I hope you find it some help anyway

Firstly, I think you should be feeling really really good about the fact that you have finally, after a very long time, decided to do something lovely for yourself.

I know when I struggled with my weight (had quite a serious problem), I always felt like I was being 'nice' to myself when I was eating badly, and being somehow 'tough' on myself when I was eating well. Then one day I woke up and realised that my whole mental setup was completely back to front.

There is nothing nice about putting your body under so much pressure that your knees start to go, your heart pants at every sign of exertion, your foot arches start collapsing or your blood sugar is all over the place. If someone else did something to you that had those consequences (and ruined your good looks into the bargain) you would consider them a mortal enemy, you certainly wouldn't think of them as a friend.

I used to think friendly, affectionate thoughts about junk food. When I would diet, I missed it terribly and felt I was depriving myself and it was all so unfair somehow. I spent any time dieting locked in a mental cage of spitting fury and grim determination. Then I started to analyse where my ideas about different foods had come from, and whether they made any sense. That made me look at food a different way.

Give it half a chance in terms of good diet and your body will repay you a thousand times over with less pain, longer lasting joints, nicer clothes, better skin, more stamina, more energy and to top it all, you'll be better looking.

Better still, your body is so fantastic that if you treat it well (in food terms) about eighty percent of the time, it can handle all kinds of crap the rest of the time!

You've taken a really positive step. Stay focussed and remember, the crap you used to eat is not your friend, in fact it is trying to kill you.

Sorry if this is all a bit touchy-feely and not at all practical.

It really helped me, so I thought I'd share it here.

Best wishes,
Glinda.

Very good post. Nought wrong with being touchy feely every now and again.

Jaymac1

Glinda wrote: »

Hi Jaymac,

My advice mightn't be very practical, but I hope you find it some help anyway

Firstly, I think you should be feeling really really good about the fact that you have finally, after a very long time, decided to do something lovely for yourself.

I know when I struggled with my weight (had quite a serious problem), I always felt like I was being 'nice' to myself when I was eating badly, and being somehow 'tough' on myself when I was eating well. Then one day I woke up and realised that my whole mental setup was completely back to front.

There is nothing nice about putting your body under so much pressure that your knees start to go, your heart pants at every sign of exertion, your foot arches start collapsing or your blood sugar is all over the place. If someone else did something to you that had those consequences (and ruined your good looks into the bargain) you would consider them a mortal enemy, you certainly wouldn't think of them as a friend.

I used to think friendly, affectionate thoughts about junk food. When I would diet, I missed it terribly and felt I was depriving myself and it was all so unfair somehow. I spent any time dieting locked in a mental cage of spitting fury and grim determination. Then I started to analyse where my ideas about different foods had come from, and whether they made any sense. That made me look at food a different way.

Give it half a chance in terms of good diet and your body will repay you a thousand times over with less pain, longer lasting joints, nicer clothes, better skin, more stamina, more energy and to top it all, you'll be better looking.

Better still, your body is so fantastic that if you treat it well (in food terms) about eighty percent of the time, it can handle all kinds of crap the rest of the time!

You've taken a really positive step. Stay focussed and remember, the crap you used to eat is not your friend, in fact it is trying to kill you.

Sorry if this is all a bit touchy-feely and not at all practical.

It really helped me, so I thought I'd share it here.

Best wishes,
Glinda.

Hi Glinda, Thank you for your post it meant a lot, Yes its taken me a while due to the fact that i was having so much fun eating junk food, but its time for a lifestyle change not a diet because i need to do this forever. again thanks for your post.

briankeating wrote: »

You don't need to see a dietician to make positive changes. Take 1 simple step at a time.

The first step is to figure out how many calories you need to eat in a day to maintain your current weight. Knock 500 off this and you have your new goal. Eat that number of calories and you will lose weight. Simple but not easy.

Simply work that out using this:

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=50956807&postcount=12


At 22 stone you're drop weight quickly once you do this. All the info you need is contained in the stickies, they're a great resource.

Excercise will help, but the majority of your weight loss will be down to diet.

Thanks for your post also, ill work out the calorie thing now and see what i have to do.

My biggest concern is that i have never eaten healthy so i have no clue what i should be eating or what type of excercise. And i dont know if i should be taking this protien shaks that people tell me about or are they a con.

Tigger

you need to count every calorie

i've been on a bulk (muscle and fat on purpose) for three years
i went from 11.5 stone to 18
i've gone back to 16.5 stone in 5 weeks through counting calories and eating right

you can too