Need Guidance

[Taishiro]

I'm 19 years old and weigh 397 pounds. I'm extremely obese and I want a change in life. I don't want just a diet and I don't want some basic work-out plan if I'm being honest I want to change my entire life. I want to learn what I need to eat I want to learn what vitamins my body needs and I want to be able to go to the gym and know how to properly train my body for years to come. Weight has always been a struggle for me and I'm prepared to do anything to become a better me. Right now I'm lost and any help or tips would be greatly appreciated. Even something small would mean the most to me.

[faithbrah]

first off you need to make big, lasting changes to your diet. while losing weight isn't about eating the right foods, it helps when you're eating healthy and filling foods

you can start counting your calories with something like MyFitnessPal. if you want to start light, you should be able to just eat healthy and still lose weight without counting calories at this point

[EiFit91]

I'm 19 years old and weigh 397 pounds. I'm extremely obese and I want a change in life. I don't want just a diet and I don't want some basic work-out plan if I'm being honest I want to change my entire life. I want to learn what I need to eat I want to learn what vitamins my body needs and I want to be able to go to the gym and know how to properly train my body for years to come. Weight has always been a struggle for me and I'm prepared to do anything to become a better me. Right now I'm lost and any help or tips would be greatly appreciated. Even something small would mean the most to me.

Start by eliminating alcohol, sugary drinks (soda, juice), snacks and various other sources of food that are not very filling. Start to eat as much fish, eggs, lean meat and veggies as possible. Drink a lot of water. Buy a food scale and learn the basics of calorie tracking (read the stickies in this forum and the nutrition forum). In time you can start being more "flexible" again in your diet, but you need to practice good habits for a while.

Things like pasta, pizza and rice often contain a lot of calories and it can be shocking when you first understand how much you really have been eating. It can also be "freeing" as you will understand how easy it actually is to drop a lot of weight. Start restricting your portions here in some way. Ideally you would want to measure how many calories are in a "normal" serving for you and then start taking in half of that in all your future portions. Just swapping pasta for more meat and veggies in your pasta servings or swapping rice for more veggies and salmon will cut a lot of calories from each meal.

The best is to start tracking calories right away but at your weight you will be able to lose weight quickly for a long time without tracking as long as you stick to the above.

[Taishiro]

first off you need to make big, lasting changes to your diet. while losing weight isn't about eating the right foods, it helps when you're eating healthy and filling foods

you can start counting your calories with something like MyFitnessPal. if you want to start light, you should be able to just eat healthy and still lose weight without counting calories at this point

Thank you for the help and I really appreciate it this. I'm tired of living this way and something like this really helps.

[Taishiro]

Start by eliminating alcohol, sugary drinks (soda, juice), snacks and various other sources of food that are not very filling. Start to eat as much fish, eggs, lean meat and veggies as possible. Drink a lot of water. Buy a food scale and learn the basics of calorie tracking (read the stickies in this forum and the nutrition forum). In time you can start being more "flexible" again in your diet, but you need to practice good habits for a while.

Things like pasta, pizza and rice often contain a lot of calories and it can be shocking when you first understand how much you really have been eating. It can also be "freeing" as you will understand how easy it actually is to drop a lot of weight. Start restricting your portions here in some way. Ideally you would want to measure how many calories are in a "normal" serving for you and then start taking in half of that in all your future portions. Just swapping pasta for more meat and veggies in your pasta servings or swapping rice for more veggies and salmon will cut a lot of calories from each meal.

The best is to start tracking calories right away but at your weight you will be able to lose weight quickly for a long time without tracking as long as you stick to the above.

Hey thanks for taking your time out to type all this down. I've been watching YouTube videos on this subject to help me as well and I truly appreciate this. Also do you recommend any type of workouts? I already do light cardio when I can but some people have told me to lift weights as well? Would that benefit me in any way or should I just focus on cardio?

[faithbrah]

Hey thanks for taking your time out to type all this down. I've been watching YouTube videos on this subject to help me as well and I truly appreciate this. Also do you recommend any type of workouts? I already do light cardio when I can but some people have told me to lift weights as well? Would that benefit me in any way or should I just focus on cardio?

yes, you should do any type of resistance training you can to retain as much muscle as possible. at your weight though, you may not be able to do some of the exercises normally - do what you can

fierce 5 novice is a good program imo

[Luclin999]

Start lifting weights, eat a lot less and understand that as heavy as you are the process will probably take 3+ years before you end up in what would be considered a "healthy" weight range.

[metroins]

I lost roughly 80lbs in 5 months; I began by substituting soda/lemonade for water and doing shadowboxing (punching the air) in my bedroom. After I lost 20lbs the first month it became a lot easier to adjust the rest of my lifestyle.

There have been a few people over 400lbs on this forum that have gotten to a healthy weight (200lbs and under).

They primarily began by walking in their homes, or around their homes, for 30 minutes and lowering the amount they eat. One guy was unable to leave his house because he did not fit through the door. He just walked back and forth down his trailer and cutting out just one of his snacks per day. I recommend writing down what you eat in a journal (or in the Losing Fat Logs subforum). After a few days you will notice a pattern and can change just one of the habits.

Here was his progress a few years ago (This is not me):