Please help me fix myself

D

digicam

New member
I'll start with the basic info.
(this is really hard for me to go through when i think about it, so please don't be too brutal)

-Stats (age, height, weight, Body fat %)
27 years old, 5'6.5, 282 lbs, 45.19%
-Diet (in detail meal to meal, overall daily caloric intake, ratios)
Breakfast: (9am) usually nothing, if i do eat it's mc donalds (sausage muffin, hash brown, coke)

Lunch: (12-2pm) terrible. (Mc donalds again) 2-3 double cheeseburgers, small-medium fries, medium coke,3 oatmeal cookies

3-5pm snack: 1-3 times a week i'll have some snack, most times consisting of a pack of cookies (8) coming in at about 800 calories and 64 grams of fat

dinner: usually nothing, once or twice a week i'll do the "home made steak and rice" thing.

-Exercise routine in detail (cardio/weight training)
about 3 times a week i'll walk for about a half an hour to an hour

-Clear reason and question for the post
I know i'm doing a lot of things wrong, i understand that... I'm not a stupid person. Yet somehow food, and my desires always get the better of me. I want to stop this before i get too old to "bounce back" like i used to in high school. I want to lose weight and look like a normal human being again. Thing is, as many times as i've tried to do this myself i keep failing for one reason or another. As much as it frustrates and hurts me to say it, i really need help.

The thing is, I don't even know where to start. There was a time where i could actually jog 5 miles and easily complete the fitness test they give in school. Now i don't even know if i could register on that test. I need a direction... a plan to put me on the right path and keep me there until I finally reach my goal. Food, exercise, the works! hell you tell me to do it and i'll do whatever i can! Please, i'm pouring my heart out here... i don't know what else to do.

-Current and overall goal
I guess my current goal would be to get down to 200 lbs. and my overall goal would be to get all the way down to 165-170 lbs... fit and trim.

-How long you have been doing what you are doing in diet and routine
right now i'm not doing anything. I tried that atkins diet but after i lost about 15 lbs the weight loss just stopped and i gave up after another month.

-If you have any medical problems or injuries we should be aware of
I take prilosec for acid reflux, and i might have sleep apnea (i've been told i snore very loud)

I went and took a couple of photos of myself so you guys could get an idea of what my body type is like.. I don't know if it'll help, but i really want to try and give you guys all the clues you might need to figure out what i need.






I know it's time consuming to do what i ask, and i probably don't even deserve the help after i've screwed up my body so bad... but I would really appreciate it if you all could take the time to help me out. Thanks in advance for everything.
 
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I feel for you, and its hard to overcome our cravings and desires every single minute all the time so I can see how we have our screw ups. But you've basically structured your whole life to set you up for failure. Save the McD's for an as rare as possible slip-up, but you should have an alternative for everyday that's pre-planned.

If you must eat breakfast at McD's, I'd stick with the ham egg McMuffin (300 cals). I wouldn't bother with any other meal there and even the egg Mcm has a very high amount of fat.

Obviously the coke needs to be substituted, that's hundreds of empty waisted calories and its a nasty way to start off your day (and will just get those cravings going for the rest of the day). Dont think I love water or anything, or watering down my juice to practically no juice, or drinking tea with low fat milk most of the time, but you've got to find a normal/everyday alternative that has very little calories or you really have no hope of losing the weight.

For lunch, how about a salad with grilled chicken, with a sprinkling of vinigrette dressing or a sandwich? Any of that would be better than McD's fries and burgers! That should be saved for limited occasions when you can't stop yourself, but you need to find something else to eat on a regular basis.
 
Blancita i appreciate the response, and i thank you for your candor. Just to clear things up though, I just want to make one thing clear. I'm not "chained" to mc donalds or fast food or whatever, it's one of those things where i realize it's a bad thing, but time or just plain laziness makes it seem like "a good idea at the time".

I like the ideas for meals, but one thing puzzled me... why water down your juice? isn't fruit juice supposed to be good for you?
 
Fruit is obviously good for you, it's just that some of us don't like to 'waste' much of our daily calorie allottment on a drink, we'd rather use it on food. LOL!

Do you cook for yourself at all? I never used to, not really. Once I started though, I loved it. And it's so easy to do things in big batches and freeze the extras for convenient meals. Chili and spaghetti are awesome for that, as are rice and chicken.

What you need to do is figure out your maintenance level (approximately). I've been told it's your weight x 15. Take 500 calories per day off of that and bingo, you're down a lb a week. Add exercise into that, and more comes off. You do need to start counting the calories in some way though, and in the beginning it's a good idea to weigh/measure your food, just to see what you really are eating. It's hard to track when you're guessing. It is totally a pain in the butt, but trust me, it works.

And definitely switch the pop to water. I lost my first 10 lbs just doing that. I had a small (700 ml) bottle in the fridge that I sipped on throughout the day at the start, when I still needed some. It felt like I was drinking it all day, but only ended up being a cup or two.
 
Where to start is just starting somewhere - and Im in agreement iwth the lovely ladies above... your drinking habits are an easy place to make a change,

Calories are calories - doesn't matter if they come from a double cheese burger and fries or from 2 gallons of V8 juice -it's still calories... and you want to monitor your calories... I prefer not to waste m y daily calories on juices, water works for me... or water with a squeeze of lemon juice...

I'm not even sure that diet sodas are a great way to go - water is just so much healthier for you...

There's a bunch of threads in the recipes section on quick breakfasts - that you can grab and go on your way out the door -no time is no excuse... make the time.. this is the rest of your life and if you want to change it - you can find 2 minutes to grab a healthier breakfast than nothig or mcdonalds...

preplan your meals as much as possible... and keep track of what you're eating...
 
Hi

I am a big lady - and I am on my most successful diet ever.

I find the dietary advice at the following link very inspirational.



It shows how Charlie Walduck lost 420 pounds in two years. This was covered by an English daytime television program and the diet was produced by the doctor on the show.

I have lost 100 pounds this year by basically following much of the advice. I look at the photos of Charlie before and after and think - if he can do it so can I.

As others have suggested - you would be wise to steer away from fast food. If you eat the kind of food that the doctor suggests in the link - I am sure that you will be able to eat enough food that would satisfy a big appetite. None of us got big by thinking that a lettuce leaf was really filling!!!

The best two things that I got this year were some accurate bathroom scales (I weigh myself every day because I know that I can put on a vast amount of weight in a week) and a pedometer.

I used to do absolutely no exercise. I find that the pedometer challenges me to walk ever greater distances. Taking up walking has been the major secret of my success this time around.

Good luck

Best wishes
Margaret
 
This helped me alot. What I did because I love eating out. I went on the web and found out the calories of foods at certain places, now I have a list of places I can eat at and what I can eat from these places. Subway is pretty good for that they have a big variety of stuff that isn't horrible, wendy's salads are pretty yummy but I don't use the croutons or dressing, I use my own dressing and no croutons (I used to pile on croutons). I find it is much easier to plan the next day's meal the night before that way I am not sitting in front of the fridge wanting to eat all the crap that is still in my house because my BF likes that stuff.
 
I find your post interesting.

For starters, I feel for ya. It's tough when you feel completely out of control. Let me as you a question:

You know how bad the stuff is that you're eating. You know how much the stuff contradicts your goals? Why are you continually eating it?

I'm not asking this to be a dick. I'd seriously like to know your take on it.

I agree with most of the posts above. Instead of overwhelming yourself with a million and one things you need to change, take one thing at a time. Something very small would be to ditch the sodas of course. But I'd like to see you start with something a bit bigger. If you are going to continually eat out, ditch the crappy, greasy stuff and shoot for subway or the like.

I look forward to hearing from you.
 
Digicam, I started almost where you are at. Just follow the advice on here, set a small goal for yourself, maybe 5 lbs, reach it and set another goal. Others can give you much better advice, but stick to it, and maybe keep a motivational picture (perhaps a high school photo) in your wallet. Look at it every time you have the craving for McDonalds, and head towards Subway or bring a lunch with you.

Just believe in yourself and you can change anything. Come here for support, it really does help.
 
Take it one step at a time. I think that you are in the right frame of mind, you do need to do something about your eating habits.

A lot of people think that skipping breakfast is the way to go when they are "dieting" but it just sets you up for failure later. It puts the thought in your mind - well I didn't have anything for breakfast so I can really eat good for lunch - or dinner or whatever it is.

You should break your meals down a little more too. A good way to start is to have breakfast an egg or two and some toast would be a good start.

Then figure in some sort of healthy snack - I mean it's all about what you are going to stick too - and it should be nutritious.

Lunch - a nice big salad would help to fill in that need to be "full" with some protein and a good carb - like an apple or something like that. Even if you get the salad from McD's it's not so bad if you don't use all the dressing they give you - leave off the croutons and any other "extras".

Another snack could be figured in if you need it between lunch and dinner too. A protein bard is good for tiding you over.

Dinner - sensible - steak and rice sounds good. But what are your portions? And add a veggie.

My husband likes salads because it makes his plate fuller and he feels like he's eaten a lot like he did in the past.

Then, try some exercise - you definitely are not going to be able to do the 5 mile run at first. But any little bit helps, and once you get past that first hurdle, then you can add more to it. Like when I first started on the treadmill I could barely keep on for 10 min., but I kept adding a min. here and there each time I got on and now I can go for as long as I want. My hurdle now is making sure I get in the right type of exercise - you know like make sure I'm exerting myself (otherwise known around here as HIIT.) And eating clean - cause I tend to stray a lot in this dept.

And this board is as good as any that I've come across for advice.

You can do it. Just take it one step at a time.

Good luck!
 
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And also remember that losing at least some weight is VERY easy. Once you make the changes you'll get used to them and start finding your old habits simply mind blowing. It appears from your post that you consume vast amounts of calories. Cutting that down by 20% may leave slightly hungry at first, but you'll adapt quickly. What's best is that the bigger you are, the faster you lose in the beginning. In no time you'll see yourself 40 pounds lighter!

If it was so hard you wouldn't find so many of us lazy-ass, sit-on-the-computer-all-day types doing it with ease.

You can do it too. You already realize eating 3 double burgers is not as awesome as your body might trick you into thinking when you're hungry. It's simply not worth it.
 
Hi digicam.

I'd like to first of all thank you for your initial post. Honesty helps out so much in these types of situations.

I'm willing to help (like on a daily basis) if you want to do this. We could definitely have you down to 182 lbs by July 4th. The reason why is you have the type of post that says: "I'm sick of this, im ready to change."

100 lbs by July would mean over the next 36 weeks youd have to average 2.75 a week. It is completely doable given your eating habits (which are optimal for losing weight believe it or not...men lose weight easier than women and you seem to have a healthy appetite.)

That being said, you will need to schedule your life and be strict. There are not a lot of treats involved. It will take you a few weeks to get into the proper mindset and mental willpower to get over some of the hurdles.

The advantage is that youll be in a position where you will make phenomenal gains in a short time.

What you need is an exercise plan and a diet plan that fits YOUR schedule that you can keep up with.

If you want to do it, PM me, and we can go onto msn or something (or email) and sort out the details.

Michael (just so you know, I'm a former personal trainer...but feel free to browse over my previous posts to get an idea of what I do)
 
Wow, I can't believe how nice you all are being about this. To be honest, i half expected to get mocked and shot down. I really don't have the words to describe how good it feels to have someone out there who actually wants to help! you all took the time to write to me, so i'll do my best to answer all your questions.

Dariqueen: You hit one thing on the head for me as ONE of the reasons i gained so much weight. I hardly ever cook for myself anymore... but your idea about cooking up large batches of stuff then freezing it seems almost ideal. separate it into meals then just unfreeze as needed, I think I'm going to take some time this weekend to cook up some chicken or something.

I started avoiding soda today, trying to drink more water but it's hard to keep track with it with work and everything. What do you think of those water things.. like the crystal light ones. good? bad?


Maleficent: that makes sense, I didn't realize how much a few calories means when you're trying to cut down... then again i never really thought of juice as having calories. I just figured it was "healthy" and that was that.

As far as breakfast this morning, I just stopped and grabbed a couple of slices of bread with like a teaspoon of cream cheese. I felt kind of sick at first (I don't really eat when i wake up usually) but i actually felt a bit better later than I usually do. A little more awake i guess.


Omega:wow omega, 100 lbs? that's amazing! I can only hope I'm as successful as you are. I haven't had a chance to read that piece by dr steel, but I've printed it out and plan on reading it ASAP!

Kgirl: I can feel for you , having stuff you'd rather eat in the house when you really want to stop eating the junk. Thats one of the hurdles that I'll have to jump over as well in order to be successful with things. I'm really going to try to avoid fast food altogether, that way the temptation isn't there.

Steve: It's a weird thing, knowing that the food you're eating is bad for you yet still craving it and eating it with gusto. I can't even count how many times I've eaten something that i find so delicious while I'm enjoying it, only to feel like crap afterwards for having eaten something so bad for me. I guess it's a comfortable thing...whenever i feel like crap or something goes wrong I'm headed to grab some fast food, or some junk... and for a while i actually feel better. Of course, add to that all the tempting crap on tv, making their damn plastic food look so good.

TemetNosce: Looking at old pictures of myself is actually one of the reasons I decided to make a change... that and a girl yes there's always a girl.

SweatPea: I've never been a real "veggie" fan, I don't know if you had this problem.. but they're something I've never really liked. Of course i'm going to have to get over this too in order to reach my goals.. just another hurdle i guess.

Siromar: HAH! yeah, I'm an engineer so you hit it right on the head with the "lazy ass sit on the comp all day" comment. I wish i knew what about them (other than the taste) made me want them, not that it would make things any easier.

ExercisePhysio: I don't know what to say, I mean.. It's like having a million dollars drop into your lap. Of course I'd be interested, and I'll do whatever i have to to make this happen. I'd pm you, but i haven't been a member long enough. I don't know if you can PM me or something... but yes as i said i am DEFINITELY interested!
Thank you everyone, thank you so much for the advice. man i really don't know how to thank you all sufficiently.
 
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In following what Steve said digicam if you are going to eat out you could also go to Arbys and get the Arbys Roast Beef sandwhich instead of Mcdonalds stuff and a small curly fry or regular fries meal from there.

Mcdonalds is pretty horrible no matter what you order from that place so yeah a change of restaurant might help ya totally.

At least its a start.

Small steps ya know.

Steve once said a very true thing that though we don't need junk food in our diets to live many of us need them for psychological reasons so its best not to drop the foods we love entirely but just have them in portion controlled amounts.

If you begin counting calories to lose weight and get a calorie limit you can live with thats a deficit you can work in certain Mcdonalds foods at times.

Mcdonalds, Arbys and probably other restaurants have nutritional information sheets online that shows the amount of fat and calories and sodium in each particular meal you could choose from.

Maybe you could look those up online once you get a plan set out and then you can determine what Mcdonalds foods or any restaurant foods you can work into your healthy portioned diet plan.

Best of luck to you in your personal journey man.
 
Maleficent: that makes sense, I didn't realize how much a few calories means when you're trying to cut down... then again i never really thought of juice as having calories. I just figured it was "healthy" and that was that.
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I got to my highest weight (383lbs) by eating "healthy" - I never ate fast food, never ate fried foods, rarely ate junk food... nope got there by eating "healthy" - calories - no matter where they come from - are still calories :)
 
I'd take EP up on his offer. If he's got the time to devote to helping you one on one..... he's a good guy. I'd certainly be interested in hearing about your successes too!
 
It would be hard to improve on the advice you got here! I just wanted to say I was floored by the honesty of your post. Some people when they first join up on this site are kind of in denial about 'how they got where they are now'. Some people think it just happened to them and the fact that you are taking responsibility and are ready to change is really refreshing. Good luck! My boyfriend lost his first 20 out of 55 pounds by doing nothing but subsituting his massive Coke intake for water and Coke Zero, and his daily McDonald's burgers for homemade sandwiches (his diet was actually very close to yours). I wish you the best and look forward to hearing about your progress.
 
Digi - I never had a problem with veggies - I was always raised you eat what's in front of you! And we had to eat veggies. ;)

But my hubby wasn't much of a veggie fan until he got to where he absolutely had to lose the weight. It will grow on you!

Good luck!
 
You have gotten so much good advice from the great people who've already posted... But I also just wanted to say that I am so impressed with your honesty. That is so much harder than most people realize - you have really looked at yourself and what you are doing each day accurately and very honestly and most people cannot do that without a little sugarcoat or anything.

I know that our situations are very different, but I had a major fast food problem before I started trying to lose weight. I lived on a street with my neighbors being McDonalds, Chic Filet, Arby's and Burger King (HORRIBLE!)... I spent so much money on fast food and gained so much weight. I lost my first ten pounds (before starting any exercise plan) just by cutting out or choosing better options that fast food.

You can do this. You are in a great place with lots of support.
 
Hey man, you and me are in the same boat. When I told myself enough was enough I had the same diet as you and I weighed about the same and I'm only an inch taller then you so... yeah.

It is possible!!! You can do it. Thing is, I hated water, but I went staight to it, I was going to go to juice then eventually to water, but I said too bad, water right away. Now I can't get enough of it. I love it. Same with veggies, I never really enjoyed them, but now, I can't see myself eating anything else. You develope a taste for things, just like you developed a taste for bad food.

I am now officially addicted to fitness. I used to be a slave to food but now, it's fitness. You will see, it grows on you.

Here is something that I used to tell myself when I wanted to quit. Because it will happen, you will try to convince yourself that you don't need to do some things (weather it's eating right or fitness related) I would tell myself this " Am I benefiting my goals by not doing this? Do I really want to be fit? Do I really want to be confident? Am I really fed up of being someone I'm not, and by doing this will I get one step closer to becoming the person I am? " Those questions always motivated me to doing the right thing. Write them down or make up your own few questions and every time you feel like cheating on your diet or not doing the excersise you needed to do that day, ask yourself those question. You will see that you wil want to do the right thing.

I wish you good luck and happy trails. I hope you can change your life in a possitve way. You remind me of me a few months ago so yeah. :)
 
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