lost and frustrated...motivation needed! And a few questions...

Well I just started here...I'd like to lose 14 pounds (150 currently - to bring me to 136 - what the site recommended..) but I'm having some trouble believing I can do this...

I've been sticking to 1250 calories a day, sometimes a bit less...It's just that...If I'm about 130 calories under, I don't know what to eat that will allow me to not go over 1250. Will going under make me lose weight slower?

Also, even though I stick to 1250 calories, what I eat isn't always healthy. Like...today I had 2 cookies >______< ..I worked them into the calorie thing, but it makes a difference, right?

I can only go walking on the weekends, so I end up playing DDR as a source of exercise, but it gets soooo tiring!! I find myself taking a break every few songs! But if I do anything easier, I feel I won't be burning any calories! I also don't know how accurate the built in calorie counter is, so I don't know how many calories I'm -really- losing. =( Was it like this for you guys when you started?

Welcome Seira!!

Well first of all...women should not eat less than 1200 cals in a day (1500 for men) fruits and veggies make great snacks to get in those extra cals you need in the day. Exercize is also the best thing you can do when trying to lose weight..especially cardio  work outs. Make sure that when you exercise you eat back the calories you work off because you need at least 1200 calories in a day.

I hope I could help answer some of your questions. Good luck and stay strong ;-)

You need to eat AT MINIMUM.... 1200 Calories + what you burn exercising.

If this is 250 calories playing ddr... then you eat 1200 +250=1450 that day... AT MINIMUM.

I'm pretty sure the calorie counter is fairly accurate... but it's better to eat an extra hundred calories than eat a hundred too few and end up stalling out on the weightloss.

Dont' stress over this.  You nearly got a handle on it.   And hey if you can fit a cookie into your calories feel free.   I eat only whole grain wheat bread which is 1/2 the calories (50 calories a slice) and more filling than white bread.   Doing that... I can afford to eat 2 lite beef hot dogs with cheese and bbq sauce (hey I know what I like) instead of just 1 on a regular 100+ calorie bun.

How you get the calories is going to be easier if a lot of what you eat is good healthy stuff.   But your body needs fats and other stuff too... so don't fret over 2 cookies or a handful of chips or whatever.  If you can fit them in... then it's cool.

Hi Seira,

First off relax!  You're doing fine and its not as difficult as it sounds :) I'm in the same weight bracket as you (started at 153 and want to get down 135) and I've lost 7 so far!

As far as pushing over that 1250 mark, I keep little prpackaged snacks in my house or at my desk that are all around 1-150 calories in case a need a little something else at the end of the day.  some examples: campbell's soup at hand, string cheese, easy mac packets, granola bars, Dole canned pineapple, Skinny cow ice cream sandiwches.

All of these things are low cal if you stick to one serving and work great to balance out your daily cal goal if you are coming up short.

I love DDR and its good excersize!  just keep with it.  Things will slowly come together.  I did feel a little overwhelmed at first, but 7 lbs down, I am SO psyched and proud.  You can do it.  Take a deep breath!

Everyone, thanks so much for your replies! Just hearing about it motivates me =)

 I've been going about this wrong the last few days. I haven't been eating what I've been burning off...Thanks for clearing that up guys! I really didn't know I was supposed to do that. According to the game calorie counter I burned ~400 calories today...So I should eat 1600-1700...If my body burns 2100 naturally, then I'll have lost 400-500 calories today? Is that correct?

immadoit- Thanks, you too! =)

nightc1 - I see! That helps a lot, I'll definetly keep it in mind, thanks!

shannonbuell - Thanks for the ideas. I hope I'll have the same success as you! Keep at it too!

danceswithforks - thanks heheh, understood! 

"According to the game calorie counter I burned ~400 calories today...So I should eat 1600-1700...If my body burns 2100 naturally, then I'll have lost 400-500 calories today? Is that correct?"

NO!

If you burned 400 at DDR and you naturally burn 2100 then you burned 2500 for the day.

You ate atleast 1600... so 2500-1600 gives you a deficit of 900.

A pound of fat is lost after you cut 3500 calories (spread over a week this would be 500 calories a day).   Right now you are on target to lose 2 pounds in about 8 to 9 days.


The beauty of this eat 1200 + what you burn exercising is even when you don't exercise you eat 1200... so your expendature was 2100.   Â So 2100 -1200=900 deficit.

So no matter what you do your deficit is pretty stabil and you'll continue to lose the weight even when you take days off from exercise :)

Ahhh, I understand now! I was a bit confused..heh. Thank you so much for all of your help =) I was nervous to post at first, but I'm really glad I did.

Thanks again everyone =)

Yeah first time posting can be a bit hard... glad you took the plunge.  This site has one of the nicest forums I've ever been on for any subject.   And I have over 200K posts on IGN.com's forums so I'm no noob to posting on the net.

I have a question.  According to the tools on this site, you burn 1800 cal a day being sedentary and 2100 a day as being lightly active.  My question is, does your exercise account for you being lightly active??  If so, do not add your DDR (or whatever exercise you do) on top of your 2100 burned because it has already been accounted for.  I suggest you put yourself at sedentary and then add on your exercise, otherwise you run the risk of overestimating your calories burned.  Understand?

night - Definetly agreed =) Everyone seems super nice, I'm loving it here.

erinumd - That is something I considered, but didn't give much deep thought to...thanks for pointing that out for me, I appreciate it! I'll have to make some adjustments, I think. Thanks again!

I have a few suggestions to help you improve the quality of your diet. 

Plan ahead.  Have all the food you are going to eat, already planned and logged before you eat it.  You'll avoid unpleasant surprises at the end of the day.

Plan according to food group.  For instance, if you want to have 3 servings of dairy product in a day, log all 3 first.   5 servings of vegetables - log them!

Do some reading about nutrition.  A great website to start with is

The World's Healthiest Foods - let it be your guide.

Hey There,

Here are a few things that have helped me drop a few pounds already

Avoid high fat and fried foods, (these are killers to a diet)

Avoid eating allot of red meat

Avoid pop even diet pop is not good for you

Drink allot of water

Exercise, heck even walking 30 minutes a day helps

Avoid high sweet foods that contain allot of sugar in them

When eating out at a resteraunt, don't order an appetizer or dessert, just order your main meal, this will help cut down costs and your waistline!

Try to avoid buffet style resteraunts, I know I have a tendecy to overindulge when there is allot of food around.

Hopefully they are some helpful tips to get you started to your goal weight, I know they have helped me out allot.  Good luck to you sweetie!

One thing that has really helped me is to work my BUTT off all week by eating right and exercising... then I give myself a little bonus one day a week. Nothing crazy... but I love red meat, so I'll have a cheeseburger or a small steak. I'm not talking eat fast food for 3 meals one day, but just give yourself something that you really enjoy. Trust me, your body will thank you!

Also, like everyone else says... WATER WATER WATER. I love unsweetened iced tea, and I pretty much drink 8 glasses of that instead of water, which is perfectly fine. Some people might get on me about caffeine, but whatever :-)

If you're within 50 calories... eat some raw veggies and low-fat dip!! That will get you close and give you an extra boost of what you need

Best of luck!