Finally starting to lose weight! Need tips

Hey guys.

1st post here. Just joined the site! Well im 133kgs (293 pounds) And im down from 137.

Ive been doing half hour of workout at the gym every weekday, Doing 15mins on the treadmill and 15mins on the cross trainer, Burning roughly 300-400calories each sesh.

Now im TRYING to eat healthy. Im drinking 4-6L water a day. But the eating is hard...My family love to eat carbs and stuff (potato/rice/pasta ect ect) And im getting HARDCORE food cravings.

How can I stop this? It would be due to stopping smoking, its my 3rd week. The 1st week was bad. I was craving food really bad.

Any tips would be great :) Thanks!

First, making lifestyle changes that stick takes time. Give yourself a pat on the back for all you have accomplished so far and then... Work on one goal at a time, journal about that goal until it is no longer a "behavior" that you have to consciously think about  but a "habit" and then move on to the next thing. Studies show it takes about 28 days to make a behavior a habit...

With regard to your diet, the best advise I can give you is to make an effort to include an adequate amount of protein at all meals and snacks and get your carbs from whole, unprocessed plant products (ie: fruits, veges, grains, and legumes) . Think "volumetrics"... (ie: eating adequate volume/weight of foods that are relatively low calorie, which promotes satiety both physiologically and psychologically).

I like to brush my teeth or use listerine when I get serious cravings.  It really helps!

Try drinking warm liquids to calm cravings, if I drink a cup of hot tea it makes my "hunger" sensation go right away! Congratulations on quitting smoking. I did that 6 months ago and fell off the wagon big time, I still crave one from time to time but sugar free gum also helps with that one, only watch out for that stuff because it can upset your tummy.

Stopping smoking won't help hardcore food cravings, from what I hear.   Just make sure they really are 'cravings' (irrational desire) and not plain old 'hunger' (rational need).  Someone who is 133kgs and taking regular exercise needs quite a lot of energy to maintain and therefore still quite a respectable amount in order to lose.   Potatoes, rice and pasta can all fit in a healthy diet if you balance them out with other foods....  So make sure your intake targets are reasonable, get as good a balance as you can manage and eat regularly to keep your blood-sugars stable.

Well done so far and good luck

  Hey brendanbucknall,

Its good for you to join. LIke you im a big guy (started at 300 , now im down to 275) The thing that i have learned is to do your best in watching on what you eat and do your best in the work outs. I know its hard with family. What i have done is two things.. First i try to save my calories for when i eat with my family, so for breakfast and lunch i will eat light and have snacks throughout the day, like fruits or veggies or even popcorn (just be carfull on some of them as some will contain alot of salt) and then for dinner i just try to take smaller portions.. Dont do half right away but work into it..say instead of two scoops of rice do 1 1/2.

Second.. talk with your mom and mention that you are doing this.. So that when they do the shopping you could join them of give suggestions on what to get. I know in my family my mom does most of the cooking but ive started getting her to buy more whole grains and unprocessed foods. From time to time i have also gone in there and cooked dinner so i control on what goes into the food.

Hope this helps.