on 2/22 I started dieting. I'm 6'3" 290 lbs and realized I didn't want to stay fat my whole life. I'm 23 years old and realize fitness is important.
I've been eating <1300 calories/day since. Every other day I jog between 1-2 miles and do around 50 situps/25 push ups. I'm starting off small.
2/29 I was 277 lbs (I realize the first week is mainly water weight.
Today I'm still 277 lbs.
How bad have I screwed my metabolism by eating so few calories? This website says I should be eating 2800 calories/day to lose 2lbs/week. I find that crazy... I know I used to eat well over that but now that I'm calorie counting and eating healthy I just don't even have an apetite to eat more then what I am. I could probably eat 1500-2000, but 2800 doesn't even seem like weight loss.
Any help is appreciated, I figure using this board as sort of a support group and way to vent how I'm feeling could help in the long run.
One thing I don't understand is how can this website account for builds?
I have the frame of a football player and when I told my coworkers I was @ 277 (after the first week) some of them called me a liar and said no way I was that heavy. I really don't look as big as I am because the weight sits on my frame proportionatly. I used to play Basketball 3 days a week.
Hey, deadlysight. I am in the same kind of boat you are in. I am a pretty big guy (6', 267) with a large frame (do the "fingers around the wrist test" if you don't know your frame size - no touch=large, just touch=medium, overlap = small). I want to lose weight the healthy way, so I did a LOT of reading and research on caloric needs before I started. I get a number around 3600 to maintain my weight, and like 2600 to lose 2 pounds a week. WHAT??? Well, I am currently eating about 2200 cals a day, and walking at a pretty brisk pace for 30 mins daily. I have done something similar before, and lost about 30 pounds (from my all time high of 285 - so as you can see, I fell off the bandwagon a bit). Here is my advice to you, for what it's worth:
1.) Don't try to do the deal with < 1300 calories. At your size, that is more detrimental to your weight loss goals than helpful. Your body will assume starvation, and slow your metabolism WAY down.
2.) Eat small throughout the day. My typical day is breakfast after being up around 30 mins, then a sugar free low/nonfat yogurt about 2 hours later, another one in an hour, another one in an hour, and by then it's lunch. I go for about 600 cals at lunch. 2 hours after lunch, I have a protein shake which makes me feel satisfied until dinner. I have a healthy dinner about 3-4 hours before I go to bed, then wake up and repeat. I get to 2200 cals with that kind of eating, and I never feel hungry all day.
Start trying to follow a similar pattern, but find something that works for you. Maybe you have fruit instead of yogurt, or you have a tuna sandwich instead of the protein shake. Once you figure it out, STICK TO IT!!! Have a little variety, but studies have shown that people who are "pattern eaters" lose more weight than folks with LOTS of variety. Oh, and if you have the chance - read a copy of "You: On A Diet". I am not advocating the diet program (though it is REALLY good, just hard for me to stick to), but the information in there about how your body works, processes what you put in it, etc is REALLY good knowledge to have for your weight loss journey. Stick with it, and let us know how it goes. If you need someone to bounce things off of, I will be here for the long haul!!
TheJester1977
Well I can give you my pattern atm, because I do eat the same pattern daily atm. I'll put times because I don't work a normal shift.
5:45pm Wake up: Take 2x Green Tea pill + 2x Multivitamin. (I don't know if the Green Tea pills help my metabolism and don't care because I do feel less hungry when I take them)
Shower
6:15pm South Beach diets High Protein Ceral Bar (140 calories)
8:00pm Start Work. I'm a blackjack dealer in Las Vegas. I work for 1 hour then get a 20 minute break. At the start of the night I will either go immediatly on break, or work 20/40/60 minutes before my first break. I'll assume I work the first hour however
9:00pm Yoplait Light Yogurt (100 Calories)
10:20pm No snack
11:40pm Lunch - Homemade wrap & Sugar free Jello (<300 calories)
1:00am No snack
2:20am Nutri Grain bar or can of Del Monte Lite Fruit Coctail (140 calories either way)
3:40am Leave Work
4:15am Dinner- Homemade wrap (<300 calories)
5:00am Every other day workout
6:30-7:00am: Yoplait Lite Yogurt (100 calories)
That's 1080 calories. I just don't see how I'm going to double that+...
Well, deadlysight, on the one hand I can understand your situation. On the other, I can clearly see how you could double your calorie intake (or at least add 900). Let me give you what I had during a 2282 calorie day recently:
4:00AM Wake Up: Get moving around, check email, etc
4:30AM Breakfast: 1 Cup Kellogg's Raisin Bran, 1 Cup Silk Light Vanilla, 1 Cup Tropicana OJ (380 cals)
Shower, etc... then 1 hour commute to work
8:00AM Snack: 1 serving of Dannon Light 'n Fit Carb Control Strawberry 'n Cream yogurt (60 Cals)
9:00AM Snack: 1 serving of Weight Watchers Thick & Fruity Strawberry yogurt (52 Cals)
10:00AM Snack: 1 serving Dannon Light 'n Fit Nonfat Vanilla yogurt (60 Cals)
11:30AM Lunch: 1/2 Cheese Quesadilla, 1 medium banana, 1 medium apple, 40 grapes, 1 serving sugar free strawberry Jell-o (640 Cals)
12:00PM Exercise: 30 minute brisk walk in the area around my office
1:30PM Snack: 2 Cups Silk Light Vanilla, 2 scoops Body Fortress whey protein (made into shake, 379 Cals)
6:00PM Dinner: 2 Cups Gemelli pasta, 2 Cups Ragu Robusto Thick 'n Hearty Parmesan & Romano sauce, 1 link Al Fresco Sweet Italian Chicken Sausage (710 Cals)
10:00PM Bed
All that together was 2282 calories. I was never hungry all day, still had great tasting food, and best of all - CC rated my day's diet as a "B+" overall!!!
My opinion on your diet as you listed is that your meals are WAY too small for someone of your size. I like to eat enough breakfast to last me for a few hours (which is why I choose raisin bran - FIBER!!!). Then, a snack every hour until lunch, a pretty hearty lunch, a protein shake (try this if you never have - will definitely curb the "I need to raid the snack machine for something sweet" cravings), then a pretty hearty dinner to last me until breakfast. Obviously, I will have to change some of this as my weight lessens so that I still have a calorie deficit, but you get the idea. That is my 2 cents, anyways. Let me know if you want to know more, or at minimum, how it goes for you! Cheers!!
TheJester1977
Woah, I can easily eat more than that in a day, loosing weight, and I weigh half of what you do!
You really need to add more - I'd suggest nuts as snacks, can't go wrong really! And you could always add some wholemeal bread; have a sandwich sometimes instead of a wrap - its a bit more substantial.
Wow, you really are undereating. You definitely need to add more calories.
When you're not eating like you are now, it will be difficult at first to eat more. The easiest way to do this is by adding calorie dense foods. For example, a cup of walnuts throughout the day is nothing. Yet those alone would add over 700 calories a day to your diet.
Your breakfast is really lacking. Add a fruit smoothie with blueberries, bananas, flaxseed, nuts.
Add a banana in your day. A yogurt here or there.
Make a sandwich with whole grain bread rather than a wrap. 2 slices of multi-grain bread is 120 calories. With only two tablespoons of butter, you will more than double that.
Basically you need to adjust your choices and make a few changes so you're not eating a lot more, but are getting more calories for the buck!
Okay, I'm probably the opposite build as you (5'4", currently 168, aerobics 3x/wk, stretches 2x/week, and a girl :-) )
But I have found that I have to eat MORE to lose weight. In college I tried to lose weight by eating very little. I saw a nutritionist and she said, looking at what I recorded that I ate in a week, that I wasn't eating enough (both for calories and for nutrients.)
Now I eat only (okay mostly) healthful food - fresh fruit, fresh & cooked vegetables, brown rice/cornmeal polenta/whole wheat pasta/kashi cereal, seafood/lentils/chicken, and almonds/walnuts.
The only pre-packaged food I eat is cereal. No power bars, frozen dinners, etc. If you think about it, those things are not recognizably "food."
Once a week I eat pretty much what I want (usually at a bit fancy restaurant - still a balanced meal, but a pretty and zesty meal, with a nice drink and really nice dessert.)
I don't have a "salt" tooth (chips, pizza, fries or greasy foods, etc.) but I have an insane sweet tooth. 2 fruits/day with yogurt (I get low fat but sugar - I won't eat the fake stuff) helps a LOT.
If I eat this kind of food, I get to eat myself silly, and I feel really great. Sometimes, sure, I have to actively ignore the fast food signs, or what a co-worker brings in for treats, etc.)
If I don't eat enough, even with my exercise, I don't lose weight. I think one's body hangs on to the energy (i.e., lowers metabolism) if you don't eat enough.
I think it's all about bringing all the elements together (eat good, work the body, lower the stress, laugh everyday) that creates health.
I don't know if any of this helps, but I thought I'd throw that out there.
Good luck with you~
At 6'3", you'd still be a big guy even if you were thin... your body NEEDS a certain amount of fuel to keep it going, and if you cut down too much it's just going to go into a tailspin (which apparantly it already has!) and you won't lose any weight... I'm surprised you're not feeling STARVING every single minute of the day eating that little food. It's not even enough for someone half your size. If you want to lose weight, you're really going to have to address your food and try to find ways to get high-quality nutrition, and a lot more of it.
For starters, a 'breakfast bar' isn't a good nutritional buy, no matter what they call it - they're packed with sugar and fat. A cereal bar is meant to be emergency food - what you eat after a workout, or when you're stuck at the office and can't get your lunch for another few hours etc... they're good for a quick pick-me-up and an energy boost, but they're relatively low in nutrition.
A good super-quick breakfast would be a serve of Fiber One cereal (your choice of variety, they have a few choices) with a cup of milk, a piece of fresh fruit/a cup of berries, and since you're a guy and have lots of calories to spare, a large glass of orange juice. If you don't have time to sit down or you don't want to eat cereal , you can make a big fruit smoothie and drink that. Or you could make an scrambled eggs inside two minutes and get something warm into you - two eggs, one high-fiber wrap, one slice of ham and/or a bit of cheese... Breakfast is the meal that sets you up for the day (or night) and you shouldn't skimp it just to save calories.
Are you eating the wraps because you think they're low in calories, for convenience, or because you're not a cook/don't have time to cook? It's generally not a good idea to eat the same thing for more than one meal of the day - you cover your nutritional bases better with a variety (and if you're not bored with your food, you're more likely to stick to your healthy lifestyle...)
At 6'3", you'd still be a big guy even if you were thin... your body NEEDS a certain amount of fuel to keep it going, and if you cut down too much it's just going to go into a tailspin (which apparantly it already has!) and you won't lose any weight... I'm surprised you're not feeling STARVING every single minute of the day eating that little food. It's not even enough for someone half your size. If you want to lose weight, you're really going to have to address your food and try to find ways to get high-quality nutrition, and a lot more of it.
For starters, a 'breakfast bar' isn't a good nutritional buy, no matter what they call it - they're packed with sugar and fat. A cereal bar is meant to be emergency food - what you eat after a workout, or when you're stuck at the office and can't get your lunch for another few hours etc... they're good for a quick pick-me-up and an energy boost, but they're relatively low in nutrition.
A good super-quick breakfast would be a serve of Fiber One cereal (your choice of variety, they have a few choices) with a cup of milk, a piece of fresh fruit/a cup of berries, and since you're a guy and have lots of calories to spare, a large glass of orange juice. If you don't have time to sit down or you don't want to eat cereal , you can make a big fruit smoothie and drink that. Or you could make an scrambled eggs inside two minutes and get something warm into you - two eggs, one high-fiber wrap, one slice of ham and/or a bit of cheese... Breakfast is the meal that sets you up for the day (or night) and you shouldn't skimp it just to save calories.
Are you eating the wraps because you think they're low in calories, for convenience, or because you're not a cook/don't have time to cook? It's generally not a good idea to eat the same thing for more than one meal of the day - you cover your nutritional bases better with a variety (and if you're not bored with your food, you're more likely to stick to your healthy lifestyle...)
