Tired of being a fatty

So, pretty typical 20 year old american male. Im fat, and im fed with it. And this post is mostly about me getting advice on how to loose weight by making better decisions on a daily basis. I've made the decision that from this point forward I am making an Active effort to live a healthier and skinnier life. And I need a lot of help becouse all I know about eating healthier is that I would rather just eat a Grande Bacon and Chili burrito from the local taco stand more than anything, reguardless of my health.

I guess I should say a couple things about myself. I'm 6 foot 1, @ 240 lbs. My goal is to get down to 190lbs. I have high blood pressure, partly due to family history (bunch of my family is fat) and becouse I have an extremely horrible diet (which is one of the things I could really use y'alls help on). I, like many others, have tried to loose weight in the past but never made make much progress because I never was really committed, i was just wasting my own time.

Anyways, I guess I should see if this is a good start for loosing weight. No more fast food, period. (By the way, I don't cook. I hate it, and always make a mess of it (Which needs to change) I eat fast food once or more a day. I need to learn how to cook. Aside from making a sandwitch, cereal, or some chicken product I can take out of the resealable feezer lock bag that will probably end up giving me colon cancer. I don't really drink coke's or eat alot of sweets. But i do drink ALOT of gatoraid (hell, most days all I drink IS gatoraid, sad) and I also enjoy fried chicken, pork fried rice, and pretty much everything on every doller menu. Apart from the occasional subway footlong that I ask them to put a little extra mayonaise based chipotle sauce on thats what I have lived off on for the last two years.

Of course im cutting out gatoraid, (completly at first, may allow "cool blue" on occasion if I earn it ) and drinking water (from a bottle) 90% of the time with 1 glass of milk a day.But I need something to eat. Whats something thats not extremely unhealthy to eat thats easy to make and easier on the bank? Remember, I have always fucked up cooking in the past, so the easier the better. Side note, we are poor , so our oven is out of commission however our toaster oven and top stove works fine. By the way, I can eat the same thing over and over again for a while before I get sick of it if I like it. If I could five or 6 things I can make on a regular basis though I will be stoaked. Pretty much anthing is better than taco bell and churchs chicken strips and biscuits.

Also, are vitamins worth taking? If so, what should I be taking? I don't think those 4 year old flinstones gummies in the medicine cabinet is doing the trick.

Excersize? Whats that. And what are some good ways to get started doing it. (coming from an IT profesional who sits in a roll-ee chair 45 hours a week and comes home and smokes weed a lot of the time.


thanks for all the help.
I haven't gotten laid in like 2 years and im pretty sure its becouse my boobs are usually bigger than the girls im talking too boobs. Or that I have no personality

When you're stuck between what tastes better and what's better for you, try to remember that regardless of what you eat, you're gonna be full when you're finished. It's a tough decision sometimes, but know that you'll feel a lot better about yourself if you choose the healthier choice. Drink plenty of water...keep a water bottle handy at all times. As for exercise, start off with walks. Gradually you can begin taking longer walks and eventually jog. Anything that involves activity will work, but walking is easy and you can do it anywhere. Good luck! Once you get on the right track you'll be fit in no time!

Buy instant oatmeal, it fits all your requirements as all you really have to do is boil water, throw some brown sugar or whatever on and your good. And it's cheap and nutritious.

Also you say your horrible at cooking, but just try to work up to it. Fry some eggs, thats the easiest thing to cook in the world. Don't try and prepare a 4-course feast right away, just learn the basics.

And I recommend swimming or cycling for exercise, avoid running when overweight as it will stress your joints, particularly your knees. Walking a few miles is also fine, just avoid running.

Also a rule I try to follow is, be sure to eat some kind of vegetable every day. I can sometimes find myself just making a burger and fries and really forgetting my greens.

Good luck man you've already made progress just by resolving to make a change.

Sorry for the Slow reply, thanks for the tips. Oatmill is an awesome idea, thanks, im going to buy some today. Hmm, I do have pain in my knees and back when I try to run at times, maybe I can find a good deal on a craiglist.

and Abby, thanks for the encouragement and so far today I have drank 3 bottles of water, lets see how this goes.

Any more tips? and maybe I should use this thread to keep track of my progress

I usually eat 1 large meal around 6-7 pm with a few snack meals like an egg white wrap, Ceasar Salad, or bananas. I walk EVERYDAY 40 minute walk, medium walking pace. I feel guilty if I don't get my walk in each day. Do the walk for a few months and you'll drop fat, and hopefully get the walking bug. Atleast try to burn more calories than consumed. If you add light weights(10-20 LBS dumbbells) or a 10-15 minute bike ride results happen even quicker. GooD LucK

**Edit** Add some protien, feed those working muscles.

I've lost quite a bit of weight by walking 2+ miles a day, drinking alot of water and eating tuna.

Also, water fasting. I plan on starting one next week, I'm eating alot of fruit this week to prepare myself

If you are truly committed to making minor yet meaningful changes in your life you are in for a very rewarding journey. Here are some of the things that helped me.

Start reading the nutritional info on everything you buy. Frozen pizza and fried chicken are good examples of what a bad nutrition looks like. Stay away from saturated fat.

Start converting from whites to whole wheat. Bread, pasta, rice, tortillas, breakfast cereal...

Start your day with a whole grain high fiber cereal with blueberries on top. General Mills has some really good ones. Oatmeal is another good choice. DO NOT skip breakfast. Your system needs food and water in order to wake up.

Eat chicken and fish over red meat. I love red meat so don't hate.

Learn how to cook some basic stuff. Start watching the Food Network and just pay attention to what is going on. Check out Everyday Italian. Ouch.

This is not a diet. This is a healthy lifestyle of making informed decisions about what goes into our bodies. This is not a race. Over the course of 2 years I went from 278 to 198 with 6 pack abs. I'm 6'4'' and 48. A young guy like you should have no problem with this.

Best of luck,
Jimmy

Thanks for all of the tips and encouragement. I think Im going to do what above poster said and make sure I get a hearty breakfast. I definatly need to work on that.

Im lookng at buying a mountain bike off of craigslist this weekend so I can start riding on a regular basis.

And yeah Jimmy, I am definatlly going tostart pay more attention to what I eat and how much of it. I like that idea,

This is not a diet. This is a healthy lifestyle of making informed decisions about what goes into our bodies.

I am going to keep that in mind. I need this to be a life thing, not a temporary thing.


Now, about this water fasting. Is there any precautions In which I would need to take? Im assuming I just stop eating and just drinking alot of water? Or is there more to it

thanks alot guys!

Diet will be the biggest thing you can change by far. Learning to cook will have a majorly positive impact upon your ability to eat well, since you can control everything that goes into it.

Eat real food, not fake food. If you don't make it you won't know what is in it.

Thanks for all of the tips and encouragement. I think Im going to do what above poster said and make sure I get a hearty breakfast. I definatly need to work on that.

Im lookng at buying a mountain bike off of craigslist this weekend so I can start riding on a regular basis.

And yeah Jimmy, I am definatlly going tostart pay more attention to what I eat and how much of it. I like that idea, I am going to keep that in mind. I need this to be a life thing, not a temporary thing.

Now, about this water fasting. Is there any precautions In which I would need to take? Im assuming I just stop eating and just drinking alot of water? Or is there more to it

thanks alot guys!

For the water fast, you'll have to eat alot less. What you do eat needs to be healthy, like fruits and vegetables. Once your body is used to eating less, grab some vitamins from the store, and then just start drinking water. You can't eat anything, just straight water.

Supposedly after 2 days your stomach just shuts down, so you don't feel hungry. Theres a whole lot more info on the internet, just google or youtube water fasting.

I plan on starting one next week. I've never done one, so I'm still educating myself. I probably made a mistake or two in the above statements, if you are interested just do some research yourself lol.

Also, there are great benefits to a water fast besides weight loss. Alot of people that water fast don't even have fat to lose, they just want to keep their body clean

Yeah after I made my last post I did a little researching and decided im starting my a 4 day only water fast. Started 11 minutes ago, Luckily the last 5 days I have not really been eating as much as normal and have been getting my body ready for drastic changes in my eating habits. Aproximatly 12 hours ago I had a PB and J sandwitch on wheat bread with about 6 fl oz's of 2% milk.
Yeah thats something that has always interested me. As long as I can remember, I have had bad eating habits. So im sure doing this mini - fast well maybe help get rid of some trash in my colon (lol) and get my body ready to start a regular excerisize and a healthier diet

Weight Lift, Only eat at home so you can control the calories, NO excess sugars(chocolate, ice cream, etc...) or fats(burger, fries, etc...), Have a friend "compete" with you to see who can lose the most weight. Good Luck!

Ok, so this will be long but hopefully make sense... This is just some things I learned along the way and will explain a bit after why I believe in this method. It's called the Commonsense Plan and its real easy to start.
Body Weight x 10 = Total Needed Caloric Intake (TCI)
Divide TCI by 5 = Meal Caloric Cap (limit)
THAT ^^^ will give you an idea of where to start but there are a few "rules" to how you manage that as well. Ah, now some may already see where this is going but others are sitting there goofy eyed... that was my left and here comes the right...
The key to "managing" your TCI is to adjust the limits (MCC) based on caloric need.
Basically you want to put more calories in at the times you need them most.
So if you have busy mornings and afternoons, you want to put most of your TCI into those times and keep dinner light since you wont be as active.
Tiger claaaw!
TCI is based on caloric quality. Caloric Quality (CQ) varies based on source of calorie and QC determines Caloric Life (CL). High CL source can lead to caloric "stacking" by overlapping daily TCI based on metabolic rate. Stacked calories?
Basically, the CQ is determined by where it comes from, so if the majority of the calories in what you eat come from fats, sugars, etc. those have a high CL, meaning they last longer.
It also means they release their "energy" slower! < THAT is your enemy, because since the release is slow but the body demand is high, it will ask for more i.e. CRAVINGZ!
These "cravings" are what cause you to eat more, however since you are stacking those calories on top of other "unused" calories, you stack 'em, body doesn't need all of them so it stores them. Do you know how? Say it with me now... FAT!
Dizzy yet? Hang on let me break this down in gearhead analogies.

Seriously and I will use my weight from 7 months ago (remember that)...
350 lbs x 10 = 3500 total daily calories NEEDED hey big motors need more fuel, right?
3500 / 5 (number of meals per day) = 700 calories per meal (I will explain this in a sec)
So this brings up CQ or quality of the calorie. Fats and other complex/heavy carbs burn longer and slower, like heavy wood on a fire. Unfortunately the rate usually falls well below your metabolic rate and acts more like sludge in the fuel tank and burns like it too!
I dont know about you, but ever notice how you can scarf some Micky D's and end up with that hungry feeling like 30 minutes later? Usually kinda tired and sluggish too? What about the next trip to the "john"... things not coming out quite right?
Yeah think what gets left behind inside and that last one aint so disgusting. That's another thing I tell ya about in a sec.
So you feed your body crap sludgy fuel, it aint running right and shits literally getting gummed up inside, this FURTHER slows things down and your body takes ALL that excess and stores it as reserve fuel aka FAT (which we know burns slower... remember that).
So we switch fuels to better quality, proteins, lighter carbs, healthier fats, etc. Body works more efficiently, running better, we lose weight, right? Wrong.

In order to make the body use some of it's reserve fuel (FAT) we either have to make it burn more or give it less. The first is easy, just floor that bitch and burn through your TCI and into the reserve tanks baby! Basically just start to be more active then usual, walk a few miles daily, try to get your heart beating good and solid for 30 minutes or more a day.
OR....
Give it less fuel in the main tank and it will be forced to use the reserves (within reason).
So for my old TCI of 3500, means I need to take in only 3000 and my body will burn up 500 a day! Wrong... remember fat burns slower... so that's not a guarantee. Here;s the down side to that same problem, yes a problem within a problem
Because it burns slower and the body needs that 500 fast, the body thinks it's not getting enough and voila! Low Fuel light comes on, er I mean cravings lol and if you have the munchies it's worse lol.
Oh and one more teensy problem on that problems problem...
If you starve yourself, the body will react by trying to store whatever fuel it can instead of use it. Which is why people that "fast", often feel tired, lethargic, headaches, grumpy, etc. Their bodies are storing the fuel instead of using it. Now it will use the reserves after a bit because it has to, but this is not a good way since once it gets more fuel, it will look to replace the reserve first, one of the reasons you crave big meals after and usually it's heavy carb stuff you crave... not like a salad or anything lol. Your body is basically trying to carbo-load itself.

Sounds worse then it is. It's not that bad. Because of arthritis that has spread from my spine, most of my body is in constant pain and makes working out almost impossible. I was 350 lbs. 7 months ago at my last doc check up. I couldn't get more active but I could change other things and did the "Gve it less" way. I am now 298! 50 lbs in 7 months is not a lot, but it is considering I dont do much anymore besides work, come home, play some ps3, watch a movie, give the wife some nookie and smoke pot. I try to keep my TCI 1000 below what it could be. So now my TCI is 2980, which means I need to eat GOOD CLEAN calories of 2000 or less. Since I have busy days and lazy nights, most of those 2000 gets taken during the day, so for me now, it would be something like....
750 cal breakfast, 250 cal snack, 500 cal lunch, 100 cal snack, 400 cal dinner.
LOTS of water (helps make you feel full and keeps ya hydrated!). Yogurt and fiber will help get that sludge out and get the plumbing in order
Seriously my wife dropped 2 sizes in a week JUST from drinking my breakfast smoothie which I make with yogurt, Nopalina (look it up), bannana, strawberries, bit of apple cider vinegar, natural honey (to help mask the vinegar) and some ice. The rest of the day was her usual habits but she still lost inches from the Nopalina (which is a flax seed/fiber). Reported that you can have 20-40lbs easy of stuck on crap inside your intestines.

Keep it simple and you know what, dont give up the fast food or pizzas or beers, etc. Just use them as treats. Once a week or so, the wife and I grab take out and a movie.
The funny thing is your body "remembers" what food it got certain types of fuel from, so it will crave them, but as you slowly show it that other sources of good clean fuel can be had, it will actually start to crave those more and the junk less! Maybe once a week I crave some fast food, most of the time I feel thirsty or crave some yogurt with fruit and even salads! Don't do it all at once, change a little, make it a habit, then change some more, make it ahhh you get the idea.

Baby steps bro and good luck, maybe make a thread just for those of us that all are trying so we can track whos losing what, goals, etc. Good motivation type stuff. For me, it's yoga as soon as I get off bed rest. Core muscles are super important and if your back and joints are hurting it could be lack of spinal and joint support. Ok, the wife is holding my bong, gotta run, good luck!

Eat vegetables and move. Magic recipe, I swear.

just work hard.

no bullshit, i watched a good friend turn from FAT (im talkin about real fat) to healthy weight in ONE summer! 3 months tops. asked him how he did it and he said he just ran his ass off. people couldnt even recognize him.

p90x home fitness program is what im currently doing im 5'10" 226lbs
as long as you get active and moving and motivated you can eat what you want and as you see results eating better only helps you but aslong as you get active it will all fall into place.

p90x home fitness program is what im currently doing im 5'10" 226lbs
as long as you get active and moving and motivated you can eat what you want and as you see results eating better only helps you but aslong as you get active it will all fall into place.

I 100% agree P90X is awsome, very intense. More then I can do now. But eating donuts and fried chicken is not enough fuel to power through that. I do agree that as the weight comes off it helps motivate you to eat better but its a learning curve like I said, you have to teach your body that eating better is better fuel and then you will start to cut junk cravings. Youre right though, it will fall into place once you start.

p90x home fitness program is what im currently doing im 5'10" 226lbs
as long as you get active and moving and motivated you can eat what you want and as you see results eating better only helps you but aslong as you get active it will all fall into place.

I don't think this is true at all.

A very clean diet will give you MUCH better results. A good diet speeds up your metabolism, enhances cell function, and gives you a lot more energy to get motivated to work out.

Who likes getting up to exercise when you have chronic fatigue? If you eat right, you will have too much energy to just sit around and do nothing. You will want to get up and move.

Work out with a friend at least 3-5 days a week. Or lift weights,bench press. Eat fruit,drink lots of water. Walk often. Cut down on eating fast food. Eat three meals a day, like breakfest, lunch, dinner. Be in control of what u eat and just be active.

replace snacks with fruit.

dont eat late at night.

drink water all day.

dont stuff yourself when you eat. stop eating before you feel stuffed.

exercise.