So today I decided to change my life.

I woke up this morning only to look at myself in the mirror, realizing what I've become. Over the past 3 years, I've been gaining non-stop weight and not doing anything about it. I got a job at McDonalds and all the free food really destroyed me. 

So I took a year off high school after I graduated, did nothing and got fat. Now I am a 20 year old looking back at my life and regretting a lot of things. I weigh 234 pounds now and I've tried to lose weight before. I had a diet and joined a gym and I dropped to 212 pounds, but my weight went all the way up. 

My point is, as of right now I have no gym to go to till September. I want to go on a 1500 Calorie diet, and I want to walk/jog/run 30 minutes everyday to start off. My goal is to be under 210 by September when I join the gym again. My ultimate goal is to be around 170-180 pounds. I play basketball as a hobby and I am working hard to condition myself for next year. 

Just wondering, are my goals realistic? And is a 1500 calorie diet + 30 mins cardio everyday the way to go?

It sounds pretty good to me.  I'm in the same boat, gym-wise, so I'm doing cardio and body-weight exercises.  The important thing to consider when cutting calories is that you still need to give yourself fuel to live.  1500 calories sounds to me like it should be okay, but if you want to check, you can go to this website.  You should aim to eat at least your BMR every day. 

Losing 24 pounds in 8 weeks is very ambitious, and might not be the healthiest rate to lose.  That gives you an average of 3 lbs a week.  The calculator on that website will tell you how many calories to eat, how many to burn, and how fast you should expect to lose weight.  I would not aim for more than 2 lbs a week, or down to about 218 at the start of September.

Good luck, hope this helped!

Can't tell from your post, but are you male or female?   And how tall are you? 

If you are male, then even at 20 you may still be growing some (my husband's chest and shoulders didn't quit broadening until he was ~23). 

1500 calories might not be enough for you (male or female) and it also depends on how active you are the rest of the time.  The 30 minutes a day of cardio is good, but your activity level depends on a lot more. 

If you are working fast food that generally means you are burning quite a few calories being on your feet and moving around. It's a lot different than a desk job.

Try putting your info in here.  It can give you a good estimate of what you should be eating calorie wise. 

Edit -- Looks like posseof1 beat me to the link...  lol

I'm a male and I'm 5 feet 10 inches tall. My activity level includes me being on my feet most of the day, and on days I have off I relax. Thanks for the link. It says I should have a 2080 calorie diet. I personally feel like that's too many calories for one day, but I will listen to it.

I am completely eliminating all fatty foods and junk food from my diet, and I'm drinking nothing but water. 

I'm in a similar boat.  Except my day was about 3 and a half weeks ago.  I've got on the scale one day, and I was at 249 lbs!  I'm 17yo, male, 6' tall.  I was like holy crap I'm about to be 250 lbs, I can't let that happen.  So I started eating about 1400 calories a day and exercising for about an hour every day (but that's including about 20 minutes of breaks in between exercises.  I have bad knees (which really sucks because I'm only 17) so I ride my bike, do a stair stepper, and do a health rider instead of running but that's what works for me.  In that 3.5 weeks so far I've lost about 20 lbs (I'm at 229.8 lbs this morning) and have upped my exercise to about an hour and a half of cardio every day and 3 days a week I do about 20 minutes of weight training.  I'm leaving for Cal Poly SLO in 2 months and 7 days (September 13th) and I want to be at 200 lbs or below, so that's gonna be about 10 weeks to lose 30 lbs, so 3 lbs per week.  I think that's achievable, and so is you getting down to 210 by September, we can do it!  My ultimate goal is to be 167 lbs with about 10% body fat.

Just remember this is a change of lifestyle, so make sure you can stick long term to your decisions.  And don't try to do it all overnight -- you will just get frustrated. 

I think 2000-2100 sounds like a good level for you to start at.  Try it for a couple of weeks and see how it goes. 

Also, there are no "bad" foods.  Watch your portions and don't be afraid to treat yourself ocassionally.  You body actually needs some fats... for healthy skin, and hari along with other bodily functions. 

That doesn't mean you should eat a stick of butter everyday, but don't go overboard with the "low-fat" thing either.  A healthy balance is what is needed. 

EDIT:  Also, if you lose too fast, you will be losing lean body mass (muscle) and not so much fat.  A slower loss will allow you to keep some of the muscle, while losing the fat.. isn't that the *real* goal? 

Doobie,

The reason guys lose faster than gals is they have higher muscle mass percentage.  So exercise will help increase your muscle mass while decreasing your fat.  As the writer said above, losing too fast will lose muscle mass as well as fat.

Then (God forbid) if you gain weight back, more of it will be fat and thus the horrid cycle begins.

Take your weight off sensibly 1-2 lbs a week.  You are in this for the long haul.  You have heard some of this before, I am sure....You didn't get overweight in a day and you won't get fit in a day.

Remember to take a multivitamin and drink water as well as exercise (depending on your fitness level right now...perhaps 30 minutes a day 5 days a week).

If you aren't losing 1-2 pounds a week on 2000 calories a day, then decrease it to 1800.  I think you may be surprised how fast those calories will add up.

Use the food log here and record EVERY MOUTHFUL OF FOOD.  Those few bites of chips, that cup of coffee with coffeemate, that stick of gum, one bite of birthday cake at a friend's party, etc. 

Two nights ago I woke with a craving and  ate first a can of tomato soup, one slice of garlic toast with one slice of cheese....still was craving.  So I added 32 fritos and 2 ounces of cream cheese dip.  All that added up to about 1000 calories.

Lastly, if you mess up, start again the next mouthful.  Be honest with yourself and log in that food.  Nothing is gained by cheating on yourself.  But don't beat yourself up...just start again.

Original Post by doobiemcgruff:

I'm a male and I'm 5 feet 10 inches tall. My activity level includes me being on my feet most of the day, and on days I have off I relax. Thanks for the link. It says I should have a 2080 calorie diet. I personally feel like that's too many calories for one day, but I will listen to it.

 

I am completely eliminating all fatty foods and junk food from my diet, and I'm drinking nothing but water.

Haha... It can seem high, if your used to reading about super-restrictive diets, but it is a little easier to follow if you remember that your BMR is the minimum number of calories your body needs JUST TO KEEP FUNCTIONING.  Your RMR (I believe) is the number of calories your body uses to support your activity level.  Ideally, you want to be eating somewhere between these two, but NEVER below your BMR.  Your brain might not know how many calories you need, but your body sure does, and if you habitually consume less than that your body will hang on to every calorie you consume to make sure it can keep running.

If the CC system says you should be on a 2000 calorie diet, that's probably already a 500 to 1000 calorie per day deficit.  Dropping that down another 500 calories AND exercise on top of that may be too much.  If I was in your situation, I'd start by cutting back to a clean (i.e. no junk food, no pop, etc) 2000 calorie diet and the exercise, and see how that goes.  I would probably target a 1000 calorie per day deficit total.

I've also heard that doing strength training while trying to lose weight can help with not losing muscle mass while losing fat.  You might want to consider that as well.  In fact, some people would suggest (in the Fitness forum) doing 3 days of strength training rather than cardio.

One thing I'd suggest is taking some before pictures right away, as well as measurements (shoulders, chest, waist, hips, butt, thigh, calves, biceps, forearm, neck).  Even getting your body fat % analyzed before you lose a bunch of weight.  Use that for motivation later to see how far you've come.

You CAN do it!  I dropped from 207 in March to 175 in middle of June (3.5 months).  I did similar to what you're planning... Eating clean healthy food, and adding exercise.  I used swimming as my cardio (I used to swim competitively), and didn't add strength training till later in my changes.  In May I added cycling, and in June, running. 

Clint

congrats on your decision!  WooHoo!  :D  now, you need to decide what kind of lifestyle changes to make.  don't make any changes that you can't live with.  you can do this!

good luck