Starting it all, help!

D

Dizz

New member
I'm currently 17 years old, and weigh 85 kg which is about 187lbs. I'm obese, plain and simple and I want to do something about it so..

I started to exercise about 3 days ago, and since then have done 45 minutes of exercise on a stationary bike.
I put in moderate effort, on the third day I couldn't do much past 40 minutes (I could push myself to go to 45 but I didn't want to stress my legs out, maybe this is was because the night before I exercised at about half 11 till half 12(at night), and my body is still recoperating as I exercised at half 11 the next day(in the morning)).

I know that exercising everyday is better, but is 5 days fine? Or would it be better to lose weight by exercising every day for 45 minutes. I read that exercising everyday can strain your muscles if you do the same exercise (in my case a stationary bike which works the legs, so ligaments etc? :s)

I calculated that I would burn off 350-450 calories by exercising on my stationary bike for 45 minutes, so what I don't understand is If I eat 1500ish calories a day, how would just burning off 400 make me lose weight, wouldn't I need to lose more than 1500 a day? Can anyone explain this to me? Can anyone give me an insight of how much I would need to exercise to lose weight?

Lastly, about the diet part, this is a typical day from now on, is it healthy enough? I'm obiviously going to cut off from chocolates etc,

Breakfast:
-Cornflakes or Crunchynut & Semi-Skimmed milk

Lunch:
-Baked potato with grated cheese & half a tin of sweetcorn
OR
Brown pasta with plain dulmio sauce

Snacks:
-1 Banana
-1 Apple
-Grapes
-Mango
Won't eat all snacks..only if im hungry.

Dinner:
-Dry chicken roasted in the oven covered(2 fillets worth, says 1 fillet is 197 calories, so 2 is about 400).

Desert:
Strawberry Muller yoghurt (97 calories)

Is that healthy? What improvements could you make, can you reccomend anything healthier? I hate all seafood, nuts, mainly all the good things for me haha :(
 
You are getting a ton of carbs, but where is your protein? A protein rich diet will reduce the time it takes for muscles to recover between work outs?
 
Hi there,

I would definitely add more vegetables to the diet, as they contain lost of healthy nutrients and make you feel fuller without many calories. Sweetcorn is a very starchy vegetable, it is not a bad choice but there are better choices. Aside from that, seems fine to me, I think there is enough protein from the chicken for a normal lifestyle. One more thing: eat the snacks, they are very healthy and don't contain many calories, plus the fibers will make you feel full. Again, bananas, grapes and mangos aren't the best choice (most other fruit contains less calories per serving), but there are definitely worse choices.

In terms of calories, your body uses calories to get through the day. Even when sitting in the couch, you are using some. As a general rule you need a minimum of 1200 calories plus what you use in your exercises, so in your case if you use 400 calories in exercise you would need to eat at least 1600 calories that day. If you eat too little, your body will go into starvation mode, which will make you feel weak and sluggish, plus you won't lose as much as your body is trying to conserve energy where it can.
The 1200 calories is just a rule of thumb, by the way. You can read more about it on the forum in many threads, also how to calculate your personal miminum.
 
Congrats on starting a new lifestyle! :hurray:

Five days of exercise is great! If you haven't exercised in a while just be careful, don't over work yourself and get injured.

Your calorie intake will depend on your height and weight as well. But you are at an age where your body will require a lot of calories. The only other time in your life when your metabolism is more active is when you're a baby.

I would suggest you try using the healthy plate method. Half of your plate should be non-starchy vegetables (spinach, broccoli, salad, etc), 1/4 of the plate should be a protein (if meat, go for 3-4 oz), 1/4 of the plate a starch (like a slice of bread or 1/2 cup of corn, etc). Then add a small fruit and a lite yogurt. I know it seems like a lot, but the only thing that is really a large portion is the vegetables and these are low in calories and high in nutrients. You'll be eating a balanced diet, feel full and won't feel like you're dieting.

If you go more than 4-5 hours in between meals, have a snack. Combining a carbohydrate with a protein is a great way to tide you over. But it should be something small like 1/4 cup cottage cheese and 1 small fruit or 6 crackers and 1 oz of tuna.

Good luck!
 
Thank you all for the replies, how would
2 toast, 2 eggs & half can of baked beans be? (Lunch), and of course the chicken at night, is that enough protein?

I will look into getting more fruits & vegetable, and the idea of adding more putting my plate with more veg is so good, I don't know why I didn't think of it earlier, how are cucumbers, are they healthy? (It's a start).
 
Hi Dizz, With your question on protein, Try having a little in each meal throughout the day, 45g is the recommended daily amount for adults.

I don't know about your country, but in Britain we have portion and nutrition advice on the packets, find out what you should be having each serving and add that to your lunch and dinner, your breakfast cereals and milk will have some protein in them anyway.
 
Hey Dizz,
Stick to 1 egg, or for lower calories, lower cholesterol and lower fat, try a couple of egg whites instead. Beans are a protein and also a starchy vegetable (carbohydrate), 1/3 cup is a serving for baked beans. You might want to try 2 egg whites, 1/3-2/3 cup of beans, some veggies (like spinach and/or salsa) and a fruit. Add a fat free milk if you still have room.

In the states we recommend 0.8g of protein per kg of body weight.You can check food labels for the amounts provided in your food. Generally speaking, 1 oz of meat will equal 7g of protein. (2 egg whites = 1 oz; 1 whole egg = 1 oz).

And just like Martyn said, getting a little bit here and there with your meals and snacks is best.

Cucumbers are healthy - all vegetables are going to provide vitamins, minerals, antioxidants and phytonutrients! You're on the right track!
 
I live in England, egg whites? So when i'm making the eggs, take out the orange yolk bit? I absoultely hate spinach, any other suitable vegetables that can be eaten with eggs?
 
Yes, you can remove the orange part. Try your best to crack the egg in the middle and hold it over the pan, with a back and forth motion, transfer the yolk in between the 2 shell halves, this will make the white leak out onto your pan and keep the yolk in the shell. I hope that makes sense.
Ok, no spinach, got it. You can really have any vegetable with it - sauteed onions, garlic and broccoli or tomatoes with a pinch of reduced fat cheese would be tasty. But if you prefer no veggies with breakfast, that's ok too.
 
In general I would not stress exercise as the best way of losing weight, it does help that's for sure but exercise doesn't translate too well in to calories lost, you need to do a lot of cardio to lose even a small bit of weight. Excercise is great for staying healthy and keeping fit but these are separate from weight loss, you can lose a lot of weight purely through diet alone, in fact way more than exercise.


Quite heavy exercise that is causing muscle growth such as weights, tension training or intense cardio need to be done with a days rest in between. Muscle grows by the small fibres in the muscle tearing then growing back bigger than they were before and you need some down time to allow that to happen before stressing again. Once you've built back some muscle and you find you can hit your target exercise window (say 1 hour or whatever) you'll find you'll need less time to recouperate.


You'll want a decent amount of protein your diet while exercising to help build your body up a bit.


To work out the daily calories what you need to do is calculate what is called your daily maintenance calories, this is the amount of calories you need to eat each day to maintain your current weight, luckily there's calculators that can do that for you, use google and you'll find loads, put in your height/weight/age etc and you'll get a number back. Basically you need a deficit of about 3500 calories to burn off 1lb of fat, if you want to lose 1lb per week you need about 3500/7 = 500 calorie deficit per day, 2lbs a week would need 1000 deficit per day and so on.


So for example if your maintneance comes out at 2000 calories and you eat 1500 per day that's a deficit of 2000-1500 = 500 calories, if you worked out and spent another 500 calories on exercise that's a total deficit of 2000-500-500 = 1000 calories.


Try not to go below 1500 calories intake per day (1200 for females) as you'll start to trigger your bodies starvation response which just makes weightloss harder.


Best of luck!
 
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