My Weight Loss Start
 

I'll introduce myself. My name is Brandon and i'm 22 from Ohio. I have been overweight for most of my life. i went to doctors who diagnosed me with an under-active thyroid. My parents/family members encouraged me to lose weight but never gave me the kick in the butt that I actually needed. I decided since I am laid off now ( darn economy ), I figured I'd spend my time focusing on losing weight. I have to lose it sometime or I am going to have diabetes/health problems down the road. I first started my diet in February by going to the YMCA and eating a lot less, about half my portion sizes. I was losing weight at a fast rate, 1 -2 pounds every couple of days. I got to 280 and it just came to a halt. I didn't know what was wrong then I started looking up at BMR websites and realizing I was eating about 1200 calories, where my BMR said 2800. After I seen that, I started to get discouraged and slacked off on my diet. I'm still at 280 pounds though. I always go for walks with my dog at least once a day, about a mile, but other than that, I just usually lounge around the house. Today, I went for a 3 mile hike and it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. I eat somewhat healthy. No pop, fruits and veggies everyday. I'd say the worst habit I have is my mother always gets hamburger, which is like fat galore. I guess what I'm doing is introducing myself/seeing if any of you think I should do something different/have any suggestions for me to my diet wise. My goal for this 2 weeks is go for 3 mile walks everyday and eat 2500 a day, then see in 2 weeks and adjust accordingly. Thank you for taking the time to read this and thank you for your suggestions : D

:welcome: BRANDON ~ Congrats on the 20 lbs you already lost; that is a huge achievement. :carrot:

YES, you did go down a bit too low to start, and your body went into panic mode ... as in, "Yikes, he's starving ... I'd better slow things down here." About 2100-2400 calories would be fine, then cut down about 50 to 100 at a time as you see some movement. You should also measure yourself and note your clothing sizes as these will still go down even if the scale gets stuck now and then. These NSV's (non-scale victories) will give you encouragement along the way.

You will stall here and there; that is normal. This will happen all during the process, so you can zigzag your calories by having 2400 one day and 2100 the next and so on. That will help change things up a bit and fool your body too.

We have lots of other guys here and they post all over the place. I find writing down what I eat each day helps a lot too; it gives you something to refer to, so you can see where you can make some improvements along the way ... Keep coming back; that is very helpful for the long term! :D

Hello Brandon,

I just wanted to say hello, and welcome to 3FC. Deciding that you need to change your lifestyle in order to become healthier is the first step. You've come to a wonderful place. The people here are so supportive, it's wonderful. You're definitely off to a good start. As far as your diet goes, you could try eating more chicken. Convince your mom to buy less hamburger, and more chicken. Grilled chicken has less fat, calories, and a lot of protein. I think it would be a good addition to your diet. As far as exercising, the walking 3 miles is a good thing. I don't have a lot of advice as far as exercise goes. I'm in search of advice myself here. But I just wanted to say hello, and welcome. We're all here for a reason, and with each other's support we can do it!

If you ever need a friend, or a push, shoot me a message. I would like to help others trying to reach their goals, just as much as myself.

Good luck!

Stacey :)

Hi and welcome! :)

Since I found my target calories ( 2200 ) I started to eating towards that amount eating healthy things. I find it really hard to eat that amount since everything I eat have such lower calories. I think the main reason I average about 1700 a day is because I wake up at 11 and just wait to lunch to eat. Any suggestions?