Welcome Bronx.
Here is a task for you: Count your calories consumed for 1 week. You can eat what you normally eat or start watching what you eat; doesn't matter. Buy a litle food scale ($10 Walmart) and weigh your food or use measuring cups. Write it all down. Look at the nutrition on the label. If you eat out, look up the values on the internet. It's a lot of work and quite a lot of math. You can also use a free website like fitday.com to make it MUCH easier.
I've done this little weeklong "exercise" twice, and it is the most effective thing I've ever done.
- It helps you to see what true portion sizes are (wait until you see how small one portion of cereal really is).
- It tells you how many calories you are consuming (often hundreds or thousands more than we think per day, you only think you are putting 1 tablespoon of peanut butter or mayonnaise on that sandwich or eating just a few chips).
Armed with this data, you can make better choices. It is much easier to give up sodas knowing how many hundreds of extra calories they add each day. It is easier to control portions knowing how many calories they really contain.
Then you figure out how many calories you need per day. I don't know your age, sex, weight, body fat or goals, so I can't guess this. Certainly measuring your calories and then decreasing them is a start.
Remember walking a 15 minute mile (4 MPH) burns about 100 calories for a 160 lb person. Assume you are near that. 1 mile = 100 calories. 1 coke = 150 calories = 22 minutes of brisk walking....
Example: Cut 250 calories from food and exercise 250 calories (38-45 minutes walking) is 500 calories net reduction per day, which is 1 lb lost per week.
Good luck.
