300+ wanting to lose weight! but...where to start?

[Itsmyf8]

Hey All

So I have been a member of this site for a while but never really went anywhere. Well I completely plan on changing that!

I have been searching through the forums and trying to figure out where to start but to be completely honest I have NO clue what to do. Of course I know that I need to come up with a good meal plan and get my butt to the gym, but when it comes to healthy eating I have some questions.

So I will start off by giving you a bit of information about me and my lifestyle and hopefully I can get some kind of clear idea of what I should be doing. So I'm 22 years old and just over 300 lbs, I have a desk job working 8 hours a day. I have no serious health problems that I'm aware of, I have an inactive thyroid and low iron which I have medication for to regulate it. I don't really have any thing else to say that is relevant so I guess I will get to the questions.

Eating habits:

How many Cals should I be taking in on a daily bases?
Should I be cutting carbs from my diet? If not, how much a day? and does it matter what time of the day?
Other then skinless, boneless chicken breast what other meats should I be eating?
What kind of fruits should I be eating that are not high in sugar?

I can't really think of any other questions, maybe the only other thing is what kind of meal plan I should be sticking with.

As for working out I plan on working out 5 days a week, I have been slowly building myself up to this over the last few weeks. What I'm doing right now is walking most night, I will walk few 3 min then run for 30-60 sec. but other then that I'm lost

How often should I be working out?
Should I be doing weight training also?
What type of work out routine would you suggest?

Anyways, I know this is long and I'm sorry, I just really want to make this change but I really need help to get on the right track. Thanks so much in advance for the tips, tricks and answers.

-Amanda

[hieronymous]

Hey Amanda! Good luck with your journey. This site and the Internet in general have gobs of information that will answer your questions. The stickies at the top of the training and nutrition section will answer a lot of your questions and the supersite has lots of informative articles. The Exercise subforum and Fat Loss subforum are also good.

If you prefer not to do the research on your own you may want to hire a nutritionist and/or PT to help you.

[Locavore]

The good news is that at your weight and as a beginner, you can get great results by making small changes!

I do agree that the stickies are a great place to start and there's lots of great information there. I also think, though, that you can probably "wing it" for a while and get away without counting calories, if you follow a basic healthy eating plan.

Have you seen the bb.com video trainer? http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/12_w...ainer_main.htm I've been doing this program for 9 weeks now. I'm not a true beginner, but this is the program I chose to come back after a rough pregnancy. I think it's a great place to start. You'll get good instruction and progressive workouts. Plus, there's a good basic diet plan to follow. I think you need to get a solid grasp of healthy eating before you worry too much about cutting carbs or fruit or anything else. Go for whole foods (shop the outsides of the grocery store)-- they're less calorie dense (more volume, fewer calories). I hope you'll check out the program-- I think it's a good one for you.

Good luck to you! Set small goals along the way and work diligently to meet them. Think of your journey in 12-week blocks. It'll probably take about 7 blocks to get to a healthy weight for you, but you'll never get there if you don't take the first step! You can do this! I hope you'll keep us updated.

[fitmom43]

Like the ladies said prior to me there are a lot of great forums in here that will help you. Since we do not know all the details of your diet and exercise life, no one can really help you. But here are some links to get started.

http://forum.bodybuilding.com/forumdisplay.php?f=16

http://forum.bodybuilding.com/forumdisplay.php?f=9

http://forum.bodybuilding.com/forumdisplay.php?f=311

Plus once you find out what your calories and macros should be a great site that is easy to use to track your daily intake is fitday.com. It's very user friendly IMO.

If you would like to hire a fantastic nutritionist/Online trainer Kimm4 or Athena are IMO some of the best ladies on here! I know there are quite a few of them, but I have had fantastic results with both and recommend them highly!

Once you look over everything and still have questions, don't be afraid to ask them Good Luck on your Journey!!!!

[yiddishemama]

Hey glad to see you posting. I was 320. Now down to 260. Long way to go still, but working on it. Do check out all the links that the others have posted. If you want to talk or have any other questions please feel free to PM me.

[freebirdmac]

Hey All

So I have been a member of this site for a while but never really went anywhere. Well I completely plan on changing that!

I have been searching through the forums and trying to figure out where to start but to be completely honest I have NO clue what to do. Of course I know that I need to come up with a good meal plan and get my butt to the gym, but when it comes to healthy eating I have some questions.

So I will start off by giving you a bit of information about me and my lifestyle and hopefully I can get some kind of clear idea of what I should be doing. So I'm 22 years old and just over 300 lbs, I have a desk job working 8 hours a day. I have no serious health problems that I'm aware of, I have an inactive thyroid and low iron which I have medication for to regulate it. I don't really have any thing else to say that is relevant so I guess I will get to the questions.

Eating habits:

How many Cals should I be taking in on a daily bases?
Should I be cutting carbs from my diet? If not, how much a day? and does it matter what time of the day?
Other then skinless, boneless chicken breast what other meats should I be eating?
What kind of fruits should I be eating that are not high in sugar?

I can't really think of any other questions, maybe the only other thing is what kind of meal plan I should be sticking with.

As for working out I plan on working out 5 days a week, I have been slowly building myself up to this over the last few weeks. What I'm doing right now is walking most night, I will walk few 3 min then run for 30-60 sec. but other then that I'm lost

How often should I be working out?
Should I be doing weight training also?
What type of work out routine would you suggest?

Anyways, I know this is long and I'm sorry, I just really want to make this change but I really need help to get on the right track. Thanks so much in advance for the tips, tricks and answers.

-Amanda

Congrats on making this decision!

For diet, start around 2100 calories a day. This is a 1000 cal deficit which you should be able to handle. I'd shoot for around 160g protein and a minimum of 45g good fats. The rest of your cals can be all carbs or a mix of carbs and fats. As for what you should eat I'd use this list http://www.whfoods.com/foodstoc.php.

Exercise? Yes you should lift! This will burn more cals in and out of that gym than cardio and help protect you from muscle loss. Pick a good starter routine that has you lifting 3-4x week.

Walking is a great add on that you can do any day. I'd still take 1 day completely off.

If you want even more motivation, consider entering this http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/tran...100kstart-main

Good luck!

[mamimami]

Hey girl I am just going to answer you on what I think is the best have not read the other answers so Sorry if I am repeating stuff.

First of all I would recommend you not to try to fix everything at once. Get that gym routine in order first and then you can start focusing on you eating habits.

If you are 300 + I would not reccomend running a whole lot because you can do a lot of damage to your joints I would rather that you do the stair stepper or the ski machine in you gym if you go to one !!!

AND weight training is a must!!! you will not get your desired results if you do not weight train plus endless hours of cardio will only lead to to give up !

Weight train 3-4 times a week so each muscle group is worked at least once
do that everyother day and on the days in between do cardio for around 45 minutes on an empty stomach in the morning and do abs work out after that. The plank and tha captains chair are great ab work out where I think the crunch is outdated and does no good

Lift heavy as heavy as you can ! because us girls can't get that huge unless steroids are in play so don't be affraid of those weights !!! Also on you lifting days do cardio in the end of your work out for around 15-20 minutes and another important thing you should not be lifting for more then 45 minutes because over training is just as bad as undertraining

Another thing don't pay attention to the scale do measurements and go by them because muscle weighs more than fat and takes less space so measure don't weigh to begin with okay ???

As far as diet goes keep a food journal for about week where you write everything down and then add up the cal and see what you are eating if you then minus about 200 cal from that you should start loosing weight and then minus another 200 hunderd from that when you stop loosing weight !

NEVER eat after around 8 o clock so try eating dinner at that time and if you get really hungry just go to sleep, also eat every 2 hours small meals just until you stop beeing hungry not until you are full. THis is a slow process so be patient and don't give up !!

ANd take photos and post on here it HELPS and if you dont want people to see you face just scribble over it !! BUT pictures are a must ! hope this helps

[ksanders14]

Amanda,

The first thing I would do is learn all you can about eating clean. Meaning learn all you can about lean proteins, complex carbs & good fat, I'm a firm believer that the more information you have the better off you will be. You should be eating 6 meals a day, do not go more than 3 hours without eating. With your 3 major meals (breakfast, lunch, dinner) you should have lean protein (chicken, tuna, turkey, meats like round, sirloin, chuck, loin & buy either choice or slect grade, eggs, cottage cheese), and a complex (good) carbohydrate with a vegetable / salad (for lunch/dinner). Your portion size should be the size of your fist & drink a lot of water.

As far as excersizing goes I would not be running but I would do some fast walking. Do this at least 3 times a day for no less then 10 min. If you've never worked out before go on youtube or have a trainer show you the proper way to work out. Once you're comfortable in the gym the best workout for someone wanting to lose fat & tone is a high intensity workout. Either buy or go onto Body For Life website (not the Body For Life for Women). The book & website has a lot of good information & a lot of people have had great success. I think this site is awesome but I don't like the structure of it for someone not that experienced in health & fitness.

Good luck!

[Chrissief]

Hi Amanda,

congratulations on making the choice to get fit and healthy! I know exactly where you're coming from because I used to be close to 300 pounds (276 to be precise) and it's really hard to change your life in such a drastic way.
There have already been some excellent suggestions made here, but here are my tips for sticking to it. As an ex-obese person, motivation was the hardest thing out of all!

1.) Tell everyone that you're changing your diet and exercise habits. Get them to support you and encourage you to stick to your goals. The hardest thing ever is going to a friend's house and having them buy pizzas, crisps and soft drinks.

2.) Monitor everything you do, use a calorie counter so that you don't exceed your cal limit.

3.) Read the awesome transformation stories on here and ask questions on the forums. You're never alone and don't be afraid to ask.

4.) Join a good gym!

5.) Clear out your pantry/fridge of anything that's bad for you! Fill it with good snacks, proteins, fruit and veggies

If you have any other questions then PM me

[crouton]

Hey, Amanda. Welcome. Keep reading and you will learn so much here. You may not understand it all right now, but keep reading and one day it will make sense. Just start small right now.

Start with baby steps. For diet:

Don't skip breakfast. Get up in enough time to eat breakfast. Focus on protein / complex carbs like eggs & oatmeal.

Pack a lunch for work. Do this the night before or cook some chicken or a big pot of chili on Saturday / Sunday for the week. Don't skip lunch.

Stop drinking soda or other flavored drinks. Replace it with water, using sugar-free mixins when you have to have some flavor.

Bring snacks to work as well. It can be something small like apples & peanut butter.

Read food labels and watch the serving sizes. Get a food scale, measuring cups and spoons. Start measuring everything.

Start tracking your food / calories using an online system like Sparkpeople, Fitday, Livestrong, etc. If you have an Iphone or Android based phone many of these are available as apps. I use the fatsecret app for my Android phone.

For exercise:

The walking is great! Keep active. Walk around your office at work during breaks / lunch if you can as well. It's a great way to break up your workday and not get bored.

Will you be joining a gym? If so, you will have treadmills, ellipticals and classes to choose from for your cardio. I love Zumba. It's a lot of fun. So if you join a gym find a fun class to take and learn to use the other equipment. You'll also have a lot of equipment in the weight room to choose from. When you join a gym you should get an orientation. Ask how to use all the machines, the dumbbells, everything. They will show you.

There are so many workout programs you can do. If you're not going to a gym right now, yes, you can weight train. You can buy a set of dumbbells and find simple routines in books, on BB.com, on exrx.net. As a beginner, you may want to do a full body weight workout 3x week and do your walking 2 or 3x week and take at least 1 full day off. It's totally up to you, but IMO a 3 day split easy to fit into a schedule and is a good start for a beginner. Just don't overdo it because you will be sore the next day.

Take at least 1 full day off and get a good night's rest every day. Rest is just as important as exercise.

Do what you can. You may not be able to do a certain exercise, like a push up or a bench dip. But you can find modifications of those exercises or do a completely different one that works the same muscle group. Just keep doing what you can and don't compare yourself to anyone else.

Welcome! I'm glad you're here!

[Chrissief]

^Oooh I love Zumba too! Sooo much fun