Hi! Newcomer in need of some advice

Ironna Heart

New member
Hello! I'm starting a diet and have made a plan, but I know almost nothing about... well, anything. So I could really use some help and advice from someone who knows about dieting.
I'm 5'7, 24 year old female weighing 200 lbs. Not morbidly obese, but still pretty obese, and I need to lose weight. My goal is 130 lbs, and it's the weight I'd like to keep once I reach it. I made a diet plan for the next five weeks:

WEEK 1
Breakfast: Coffee, banana, apple
Lunch: Glass of water, 2 boiled eggs, apple
Dinner: Ginger tea, apple

WEEK 2
Breakfast: Coffee, 2 boiled eggs
Lunch: Glass of water, cream soup (tomato/brocolli/carrot/mushroom/asparagus/pumpkin)
Dinner: Ginger tea, apple

WEEK 3
Breakfast: Coffee, 2 boiled eggs, apple
Lunch: Glass of water, salad (lettuce, tomato, cucumber, corn, carrot, fresh cheese)
Dinner: Ginger tea, apple, banana

WEEK 4
Breakfast: Coffee, banana, apple
Lunch: Glass of water, 2 boiled eggs, apple
Dinner: Ginger tea, apple

WEEK 5
Breakfast: Coffee, 2 boiled eggs, apple
Lunch: Glass of water, vegetable soup
Dinner: Ginger tea, fresh cheese

I decided to put in cheat days for every seven days. Nothing major, I plan to eat normally on those days, like meat, pasta or bread. I have also figured a daily exercise for myself.

After every meal, I'll do one minute plank. In the evening, before sleep, I'll do one hour exercise in series of 10 squats, 10 lunges, 10 situps, 10 caudal fins, 10 push-ups, and 10 jumping jacks, then after hour is over, I'll be doing 10 minutes of stretching. On sunny days, I'll go to university with a bycicle instead of public transit. The distance from my home to my university is around 10.5 miles, so that would be 21 miles a day, and on weekends, I'll be doing yoga. I also have a dog, which I walk three times a day between 15 and 30 minutes, depending on how much time I have.

Is this an okay regime? Is it healthy? Should I make changes? What should I do after the five weeks? As I said, I want to lose weight in healthy manner, but more importantly, I want to change my lifestyle. It doesn't matter how long it takes me, I'm not in a hurry. Thank you very much!

EDIT to add: I plan to drink around 2 litres of water every day, not just that one glass.
 
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Hello! I expect there'll be good advice from people who know more of the science, but as a fellow-struggler in the same sort of zone (I've been well over 200 lbs, and am currently trying to get down under 190) I'd have to say that this sounds like an awfully demanding diet to me! :eek:
Great about drinking lots of water, but go a bit easy on yourself in the food line, too? Why not lots of really yummy fruit, as snacks as well as meals? Why not poached eggs sometimes, with a grilled tomato (or those beautiful little cherry tomatoes, and lavish scatterings of coriander, with lettuce on the side) instead of just boiled all the time? And so on - life, including food, is for enjoying.
Plus, I know that for me, when I try to diet too hard, I tend to suddenly break out and defiantly eat half a packet of biscuits or something.

On another tack - lucky you! to have a dog. A wonderful walking companion, and all-round source of daily happiness.
 
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Hi Ironna,

Congratulations on making the decision to begin your weight loss journey.

Looking through your meal plan, you seem to be massively limiting yourself on your calories. The most important things with any diet is that it is both sustainable and enjoyable. I fear that what you have suggested above is neither and whilst you may see results in the short term, how long you can reasonably stick to this diet needs to be considered.

Based on your height, weight and age I would estimate that your total daily calorie expenditure would be somewhere in the region of 2,000 calories per day. I would therefore recommend looking to put together a diet in the region of 1,600 - 1,700 calories per day. This deficit will be ample to start the weight loss process, especially considering the exercise you mention that you plan to do.

My recommendation to anyone beginning a new diet would be for the initial two weeks to keep the carbs low to allow your body to get used to using your stored fat for energy as opposed to the glycogen in your muscles which comes from carbohydrates. These first two weeks will be tough but you will certainly see good results if you can stick to it, slowly adding back in starchy carb sources after this 14 days such as sweet potato, brown rice, wholegrain pasta etc. Remember, keep your diet high in protein. Lots of studies suggest that protein impacts satiety, essentially leaving you feeling fuller for longer. Also, don't avoid fats! Healthy fats are very important with any weight loss and or healthy diet, especially given their role in allowing your body to absorb the nutrients from all the fruit and vegetables you will be eating!

I hope this helps.

Jack
 
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Hey Ironna, welcome to the forum! I love that you've got a plan in place... that can be really helpful for getting towards your goals. You have a decent amount of exercise planned with some variation, which is great! I do have to agree with aiminglow and Jack that I think you'll find your caloric intake to be much too low if you follow your plan as above. Generally, the more restrictive a diet is, the less likely it is to be healthy and sustainable. I'm guessing you'll hit a wall pretty quickly, energy-wise.

Jack has some really good points on a healthier approach to your overall diet... I will never condone demonizing a food group (carbs, for example), however, that being said, looking at what your carb intake is like and maybe trying to pick some healthier options can be a really good strategy. Carbs are easy to overindulge in, that's for sure! Hello, potato chips!

If you're having trouble figuring out how to balance out your meals, here is a handy image to help with portions:

Canada Food Guide Plate.png

Sorry, I need to find a smaller version of that image!

Also, many members on the forum find logging their daily food & exercise helpful for staying on track and from getting motivation from other members. Have you checked out the diary section yet?
 
Everyone, thank you so much! I didn't think it would be too litte. I'm already on the diet, and try to round up calorie intake to 1000 calories a day (so it ends up being more than just one apple or banana per meal). I've read it's a good number to go by. I mainly want to keep to fruits and veggies because normally I eat too much unhealthy food and almost no greens.

I'll start the journal. hopefully it's no problem to write every day?

Thank you very much for your advice.
 
Hi there,

Congratulations on putting yourself out there and taking the first step.

I’ve said this a few times here but I’m really not a fan of strict plans. Of course you need a “plan” because after all failing to plan in planning to fail BUT if you set a restrictive plan (like the one above in my opinion) you immediately take the fun and spontaneity out of life and therefor it is unsustainable.

My advice is start small. Change your breakfast habits; start with a bowl of porridge and a banana then once that is cemented change your lunch habits; maybe sushi or a sandwich or a curry or something like that then once that’s habit change your dinner habits and so on.

Don’t forget to leave yourself opportunity to reward yourself for good work. I allow myself DARK chocolate as a reward. I’ve always got a family block of the stuff in the house. Sometimes it lasts a month, sometimes a couple of days but it doesn’t matter.

You’re starting on a long journey. It’s important to enjoy yourself at least until you get to the half way mark (point of no return). Otherwise you’ll simply turn around and go back. None of us want that!

Also regarding exercise don’t get sucked into expensive PT plans or resistance training videos/tutorials. Never underestimate the power of walking. Walk a little every night and be focussed on building your distance over time. Once you become stronger you will naturally start looking for harder exercises.

Good luck!
 
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Truffle Monster has posted some great advice! I agree that being able to allow for spontaneity in your diet is really important. You don't want it to get to the point that your diet affects quality time with other people. In the long run, you want to learn strategies to be able to balance out making healthy choices, but also allow for things that you crave or just enjoy. I find that the more someone restricts themselves from having certain things, the more they want them!

As for the 1000 calories per day, that seems pretty low to me. I would recommend trying to include each "food group" into every meal so that you can increase your intake a bit and also ensure that you get the proper nutrients each day. I like Truffle Monster's suggestion of oatmeal and a banana for breakfast, and maybe add a small amount of protein? Even some yogurt or an egg... whatever works for you.
 
I think with this plan your body will go into starvation mode and you will end up gaining/ plateauing. You need to add proteins, and some good fats (avocado, pb, etc). You gotta make sure you’re getting nutrients and substance your body needs!
 
Hello! I'm starting a diet and have made a plan, but I know almost nothing about... well, anything. So I could really use some help and advice from someone who knows about dieting.
....
your first sentence sounded like me 10 months ago, so i stopped reading there.

here are two guys who might change your mind about knowing nothing.

Dr. Robert Lustig - Sugar -- the elephant in the kitchen
Dr. Jason Fung - Therapeutic Fasting - Solving the Two-Compartment Problem
 
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