where to start

ladygoodman

Hi All,

I am 5ft 6, 18.5 stone, female - I have been ignoring this problem for a long time, with attempts to get healthy here and there.

I eat out a lot and when at home make bad choices, portions too big, lots of carbs, using lots of oil, secret eating, binge eating. I love healthy food but seemingly have an addiction to unhealthy food. Some days I do great, nothing processed lots of veg but then next thing I'm impulse buying food.

Currently unemployed, which isn't helping mental health wise, but I have all the time in the world to get healthy.

Where do I start?

Thanks

bladespin

Track your calories and be honest about it, weigh your food for accurate data, don't do anything crazy yet, no starving etc, just find out where you are then pare it back bit by bit.

rhubarbcustard

Best of Luck to you. This area full of great advice and Fully Agree, get comfortable with Myfitnesspal App to begin with, get used to recording every meal.
Look up Creating Calorie deficits within this thread, some great advise on BMR and Creating Calorie Deficits of 3500 calories a week will lose you 1lb a week.
Cooking double Recipies and freezing off portions is another thing I've found great, currys, chillis, things like that. great for evenings when you know you will be too tired or caught for time to go cooking and would normally have a takeaway.
Couch to 5k is another brilliant thing to do, (Free App C25K) do 3 times a week, The mental health benefits of excercise are very well publicised.

jaykhunter

Welcome! If you're completely lost I'd recommend joining a weight loss group. They're fantastic for moral support and answering practical questions, like "what types of frying pan do I need?" (The answer is small, big and griddle, lol) I'm 35, started at 300lbs just over a year ago, after 15 years of being fat, 195 now. It's absolutely possible!

Bottom line is for losing weight, you'll have to burn more calories than you consume. For an example I put your stats (assuming you're my age) and calculated your TDEE (how many cals u burn every day): 2,264. Eat less than that and you'll lose weight. This means in theory you could have McDonald's every day and lose weight! But your skin, energy, bowel habits etc would be horrendous lol. (You can calculate it here: https://tdeecalculator.net ). As a generality, 3,500 calories = 1 pound of fat, so if you were 500 calories under your TDEE every day, each week you'd lose 1 lb.


There's been tremendous advances in low calorie food. The aim will be to create a menu of meals that you can rely on, and go on autopilot. The more you cook/prep at home, the more success you'll see you've already targetted areas for improvement, buuuut.. .

**Here's my Top 10 low-cal substitutions to get ya started!**


- Frylight (1 cal spray) instead of cooking oil, now frying is healthy!


- Quark, my fav whipped cream substitute! use with fruit and alpen light bar or small meringue for a lovely dessert. choc shot is brilliant chocolate syruo too.


- Cut back on carbs as much as poss (devastating as I loooove bread) bagel slims are 130 cals. Cereals should be 40g or less. literally weigh it on a food scale!


- Swap out some rice and pasta for more vegetables. literally a third to half your plate - they've got almost no calories and are loaded with vitamins!


- Stock pots to everything - especially vegetables to make them taste richer. did you know a lot if foods come unflavoured because you're supposed to flavour them yourself? i didnt


- cheese: laughing cow (purple) triangles 20 cals, use it on toast, instead of butter


- 0% Natural yogurt (add fruit & tsp of Agave honey) My favourite at the mo is liberté greek yogurt.


- Pan Boxty (in some irish butcher's) <- this is fab to curb your carb lust! it's potato flour and salt.


- Heinz no added sugar/salt ketchup, lighter than light mayo


- PB Fit (powdered peanut butter) online or some Holland & Barrett's


You also don't need to exercise, but it is great for the head. It burns depressingly few calories and you've to be careful not to eat back the calories! Weight loss is 80% food, so give that 80% your 100%!



Overall, don't think of it as a diet, think of it as a health overhaul. You need to change your relationship with food to succeed. Kick some butt this week and keep us updated!