Some Things I've Learned So Far

So I've been working on my health for a while, but it wasn't until last month did I start getting more serious about it. When I decided to change, I was at least 350 pounds (I don't know the exact weight, I was too scared to jump on the scale). I'm going with 350 since that was what I weighed at my heaviest on a doctor's visit. It wasn't until I started to lose some more weight did I check myself at home. The heaviest my bathroom scale read was 335, and I currently am about 313 as of this morning. Note, I was 350 about 2 years ago. I was stuck at 320 for the longest time, and have just recently been getting more serious with weight loss. I haven't lost a ton and still have a lot to go, but I feel like I've gained a ton of knowledge ever since I started getting more serious about weight loss.

​

So, what I've learned is nothing new, and I'm sure most of it has been said on here before but I thought I'd give my two cents. Some of this might not work for others like it has for me; the main thing you need to do is figure out what strategies work for you and stick to them.

​

1. Diet is key, exercise is for fitness and fun.

You can't outrun a pizza. No matter how hard you try, you will not burn enough calories to work off a large pepperoni pizza in a single workout. To give perspective, a large pizza is about 2,000+ calories. Depending on your height, weight, etc., you'd have to run roughly a marathon to do this. I don't know you personally, but I can imagine if you're on here, like me, then you're not running a marathon in your free time on a Sunday afternoon. Fix your diet before ever trying to add exercise (but if you're already active then keep it that way!).

​

1. Food scale > bathroom scale

Weighing your food out and knowing exactly what's in it is more important than weighing yourself. Both are important and you should definitely buy a bathroom scale, but a kitchen scale will trump a bathroom scale every time. There's a guy on youtube called Obese to Beast and he showed how his weight can fluctuate a ton in one day. His difference in weight from morning to afternoon was as much as 11 pounds. Worry more about weekly and monthly progress and not daily progress.

​

1. COUNT YOUR CALORIES EXACTLY

This is probably the most important thing you could ever do for weight loss. This is what caused me to be static at 320 for so long. I was using MyFitnessPal (MFP), but I wasn't using it correctly. I would make a meal thinking I had the right calories (or close to), when in reality I was eating about double what I thought. This is why a food scale is so important. This leads me into part four.

​

1. Calculate solid foods by weight, not volume.

When I started getting more serious, I started weighing my solid foods. This made a huge difference in what I was eating. For example, rice. A serving of rice is 1/4 cup for 150 calories. I decided to weigh what I thought was a quarter cup. It was supposed to be 45 grams, but ended up being 60! And I was using a measuring cup too, so I thought it was correct the whole time. That's a 50 calorie increase. It doesn't sound like much, but multiply that over an entire week and you're looking at easily a few hundred if not 2,000+ calories more than you need in a week.

​

1. I look at vegetables as fillers, not something you HAVE to eat "because they're healthy."

I used to always think that you only ate vegetables to be healthy. I've now learned that vegetables help make a meal TWICE as big as it could be and not even add very many calories. I like adding them wherever they can fit now because they help make my meals absolutely massive in comparison to their caloric content. For example, last night I was craving eggs and rice so I added 1 1/2 servings of spinach to my eggs in the pan and let them wilt down and kind of made a spinach omelette. They not only gave me more to eat, but also had a good texture too. I also added mixed veggies to the rice. If you don't like the taste of some vegetables (or any at all), mixing them into foods you do like can help get them down. Again, not just for the nutrients, which are important, but also for the fact that they fill you up for practically no calories at all.

​

1. Meal Prep

I was interested in meal prep for a while, but never got into it until recently. It seems like a lot of work, but only takes about 2 hours to make a weeks worth of lunches. I usually do 8-10oz of baked chicken, rice, and mixed veggies. It comes out to be about 650 calories for my lunch and keeps me full until I get home for my next meal. It makes it so much easier during the week to just wake up and throw a tupperware container into a bag and going to work instead of scrambling to make something the night before or grabbing something to go fast food. Here is a link to the video where I found the recipe for the baked chicken I make. Skip ahead to about 4:45 if you want to just see the recipe. It tastes great!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xdf8rczmSdU&t=311s

​

1. Don't be afraid to season your food

You don't need to eat plain boiled or baked chicken. Seasoning adds nothing but some salt and gives you a great tasting meal. You can also change up the seasoning and make it taste a bunch of different ways. Italian seasoning, southwestern, Asian, etc. Chicken doesn't always have to taste the same.

That's about all I can think of right now. If I can think of anything else I'll come back and add it to the list. If you have anything you'd like to add, I'd like to hear it!

submitted by /u/Dirte_Joe
[link] [comments]

from loseit - Lose the Fat http://bit.ly/2HiJtWN