first post, really need some help.

L

Lewbee

New member
Ok, so let me start by saying that i am a 25 year old male and i weigh 160.

I am not really that fat but i decided to try and loose some weight because i have a bit of a belly and i have gone from a jean size 34 to being just too big to fit in a size 36 also i have a big butt.

so first thing is first i calculated my calorie intake for what i eat each day normally.

for breakfast i have a bowl of ready brek made with water 108cal

i then have a tuna sandwich which is 340cal or baked beans with two scrambled eggs which comes to 350

then my last meal is normally chicken (200cal) with a load of vegetables (peas, carrots etc) and either a potato (no topping) or pasta with light Philadelphia sauce (not sure how much calories are in the vegetables or potato/pasta.
i only drink water
all this is correct as i have been weighing my food and looking at the packets and have had other people look over it for me too

obviously this isnt enough calories for me and i had no idea that it was this low but i feel full after eating each meal.

i then have people telling me that i should cut down on my carbs as they are in all my meals and swap them with something else but i dont know what to swap for and i fear that i will be taking in even less calories than before.

am i not loosing weight because i am eating so little calories?

could someone be kind enough to help me make a dieting plan that will work for me so i can loose the weight around my waist as this is really getting me down and making me worry.

thanks :)
 
Welcome.

You need to provide more information.

Height and weight
And since it matters to you, your measurements for chest, waist, butt and thigh. This will mean more to the guys than to me but I just want to get a sense of how big your stomach is.

You need to provide your height because your weight otherwise means nothing on its own.

Your diet looks generally fine to me. Don't listen to all that low carb stuff its not going to change your waist measurement. However you could eat more vegetables and fruit and you do need to eat some dairy for your bone health.

Its not obvious whether or not this is enough calories as we don't know how big you are really. And i am not going to try to work it all out.

So how to fix your stomach. There are limits to what you can do but i would suggest that exercise is the main course of action here. If you are within your healthy weight range you won't have a big stomach. At the top of the range it might be a bit big but not very big. At the lower end, you should be very lean all over. It might not be a trim as you'd like but that's about body shape and genetics. So diet can't really fix it too much.

I don't know what read brek is. Why don't you put milk on it? Are you scared of milk? Or are you lactose intolerant? Eat natural yoghurt if you are lactose intolerant.

You are already eating a lot of protein.
 
sorry my hight is 5'9. my weight is 160

my waist is 36 inches (you measure this around you belly button right?)
my thigh is 23 inches
my butt is 39 and a half inches

ready brek is just oat porridge i dont know why i dont have milk with it. i have just always had water. i dont have a problem with milk
 
Hi Lewbee,

I've just run your figures through a BMI calculator and according to it you have a healthy BMI. (23.63- anything between 18.5 and 24.9 is good). You may want to look at waist to hip measurements to work out whether your waist measurement is a problem (not having your hip measurement I can't do that for you- as far as I know you measure waist halfway between the end of your rib cage and the start of your pelvic bone, which is about where your belly button is. Hips measure at the widest part of your pelvic bone)

I'd suggest you need less to lose weight and more to change body composition if you're worried about fat. Given you have a normal BMI I'd probably speak to a doctor about weight loss in your case because you don't want to lose too much. But in any case, if you're calorie counting you need to measure things more accurately (pasta can be quite a high calorie hit, and everything counts in terms of calories)- if you don't have a way of knowing the calories in certain foods I'd recommend a calorie program such as fitday (recommended by a lot of people around here) or cron-o-meter (the one I use)- both are free.

If you eat too little then you'll slow your metabolism and mess up your health in the long run. While you have a reasonably healthy looking diet, I'd guess you're eating nowhere near enough. I'd recommend you calculate your BMR (run "bmr calculator" through a search engine and you'll find something that will give you a good idea) and then calculate your maintenance calorie allowance (I did this using the Harris Benedict Equation, although there are other ways of doing this), and, if you really want to lose weight (I urge you to get medical advice on this as you don't really need to), then reduce that number by 500 a day for a pound lost a week, or 1000 a day for 2 pounds a week (it's an estimate so your mileage may vary). You need to be eating at least 1800 calories a day, or 1000 under your daily calorie allowance, whichever number is greater. If you're seriously not hungry and eating not enough calories, you need to incorporate some higher calorie (but still nutritious) foods into your diet.

But seriously, it sounds like what you want to do is build muscle. I can't advise specifically, except that in some gyms they can help you with a program to achieve your goals.

I'd recommend starting a weight loss diary with your food and exercise intake and see if someone with more knowledge on exercise comes in and gives you some advice on how to build up that muscle (perhaps incorporated with losing some fat). The weight loss section is here: Weight Loss Diary - Weight Loss Forum Feel free to check out my diary (linked in my signature below the weight loss ticker) for an idea how I'm going about it.
 
my hip 36-37

i dont really want to loose a lot of weight. the main thing i would like to do is just get down to a size 36 jean size(36 wont do up and 38 are too big) and just get a smaller butt as i think thats maybe a factor in not making my jeans fit.

using the Harris Benedict Equation it get 2,145
i think i maybe eating around 1000 calories a day. if i start eating a bit more will i put on weight first instead of lose it? is it because i am eating a lot less that i am not losing the weight. or am i still losing it but just slower.

also should i be thinking about reducing carbs or just concentrate on the calories?
 
Similar to what Amy said but since your weight is ideal for your height have you thought about an exercise programme instead of a diet programme, that way you can target specific areas, your waist and bottom, the exercise will also help with weight loss without you reducing your calories.
 
Forget carbs. That, in all honesty, is a fad thing so far as I can tell. Weight loss is calories in/ calories out. Eat nutritiously (enough serves of fruits/ vegetables, a portion of lean meat a day, minimally processed starches, that sort of thing) and the rest should follow.

If you're eating 1000 calories a day (I don't think so somehow, given you're not counting vegetables or pasta, but you're definitely not eating enough) you're going to be making yourself very ill. You may have damaged your metabolism and I'd recommend medical advice. (Yes, once you start eating properly again you might put on weight, but that's better than potential health consequences of being malnourished) Muscle, which it sounds like what you want, also weighs more than fat, so you may end up weighing more than you do now in any case. Surely it's about health and physique, not the Earth's gravitational pull on us? (That's what weight is- I read somewhere else here "if we had to live in space, do you think everyone would stop dieting as we all now weigh nothing? Of course not")

Also consider that you might just genetically have a big butt. I'm sorry, no one likes to hear that, but for some people it's just the truth. For me, I have enormous :puke: :ack2: :eek: thighs. Have done since I was a little kid. I've been my ideal weight, and they're still enormous (just less enormous than they currently are), and I need bigger jeans as a consequence. For me at least, there's no healthy way to make that change (amputation? starvation? I suddenly like my thunder thighs a whole lot more with those options being the only alternatives). That's another thing I would consider asking a doctor (I would seriously stress that you should see a doctor as you may have inflicted damage on yourself due to eating so little).
 
i have always been rally thin and a size 32-34 jeans and my butt wasnt big at all but i had a bad accedent and after about a year of not being able to do much i have put on all the weight

should i gradually up my calories to a higher amount or should i just do it straight away.
i took the persons advice to put milk on ready brek instead of water.
so much nicer.

also as i am quite unfit is it ok to just start at walking for my exercise?
 
Thing is, though, you're not fat. You're slap bang in the middle of "healthy" for your height.

With food, do what you feel comfortable with. The sooner you get up to a healthy amount of food the better, but it's counterproductive if eating a normal amount from the start will just make you sick.

And with exercise, yes, start with walking. Walk as quickly as you can without becoming short of breath (the aim is to get your heart rate up), ideally at least for 20 minutes to half an hour. Anything is better than nothing, but getting your heartrate up is good for your fitness.

Unfortunately there's no such thing as "spot fixing" for exercise, so there's no exercise I or anyone could give you to specifically make your butt smaller. But if you've had a size you're happy with before, then exercise and getting your body back into better shape (not necessarily lighter or smaller, as you're already a healthy weight) might help redress that.
 
You are not overweight. You don't have a big butt or big thighs. You just want to go down a jean size and its because of your waist right? That's basically what you've said.

Yes go straight up to eating a suitable amount of calories. Staying at 1000 makes no sense. Just eat healthily.

Start doing some exercise. You are 25 so do whatever you want. It shouldn't take much time to build up your fitness at all. Walk fast if you don't want to run. But maybe you should take up some sort of sport activity. Get involved with others. When you are young, providing you've got enough money, these things are easy to do. And they are worth it.

Stop worrying so much about your stomach.

I always measure my waist at the narrowest point. My backside at the widest point.

Just keep fit and keep eating normally as in not overeating. And you won't have anything to worry about. Ever. If you see the inches or scales creeping up, just take note of what you might be doing wrong and stop it.
 
yes, i am finding it hard to eat more calories as what i eat now fills me up and if i eat more i feel really full and sick but hopefully i will get there after a few days.

for my main meals i eat a lot of chicken/fish with vegetables and then with either a potato or sweet potato or pasta.

is there anything i could swap the pasta/potato with that is healthy to eat and maybe lower in carbs? or maybe point me to somewhere that has a list of healthy meals or healthy foods i should be eating so i can either copy their meals or if its a list of healthy foods, make my own meals from the list

thanks for all the help so far guys i really appreciate it
 
Why do you care about low carb? Get your nutrition in (and in most diets that includes eating more carbs than anything else), then worry about calories (or see this post for the kind of thing you should be eating: http://weight-loss.fitness.com/nutrition/13065-easiest-nutrition-guidelines-ever.html ) Pasta and potatoes aren't bad for you at all (depending how you cook them, how much you have, and how it fits with the rest of your diet- don't add butter/ oil/ other fats and watch your serving size)

Also, don't go on other people's meal plans. You need to do what works for you- your individual nutritional requirements, your preferences, your schedule (what kind of foods can or can't you have at work/ school/ etc?) Sure, borrow some ideas (read the weight loss diaries that list food eaten- mine, for example- try some of the things), but don't stick to it like stone. If you hate it, it won't last and won't do you any good. Most people here are trying to eat to lose weight, and you really shouldn't be losing much weight at all, so also keep in mind you'll probably need to eat more than them (you definitely need to eat more than me). (seriously, if you haven't done it already, go back to my first post here and follow the instructions to calculate your calorie needs with a BMR calculator- and I'd pretty much stick to my maintenance if I were you, rather than reduce to try to lose weight)

But I'll say what I and others have said before- your main issue is exercise. You probably need to get into strength training, I'm finding that's making a big difference to my overall shape. Work on changing your body composition, not losing weight.
 
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