Hi, my name is Depakote, and I'm really ****ing fat. More specifically, I weigh 237 lbs and I'm nearly 5'11", so my goal weight is right in the 165-ish ballpark. That means I've got about 72 lbs to lose, give or take.

I gained this weight slowly over the last 3-4 years due to a combination of factors, but the two biggest ones were quitting smoking and taking meds that make it easy to gain weight and tough to lose it (see my SN). After I gained the initial ~30 lbs from those things, I just stopped caring about my appearance and started eating whatever I wanted. And now here we are.

So the plan is to have 2 meal replacement/protein shakes per day, 1 regular meal, and reasonable light snacks as needed in between. Oh, yeah, and I want to eliminate added sugar and white flour altogether because I've found that I can't seem to eat these foods in reasonable quantities. I either never pick them up or I end up eating the entire box/carton/loaf/batch/whatever, so I think it's +EV for me to just not bother with these foods since they have no nutritional value whatsoever. I was able to cut out all sugar and flour for 6 months once before, and I lost a lot of weight and felt great during that time so ideally I'd like to get back to where I was then.

As far as working out goes, right now I'm in such bad shape that it's a major victory if I can get through 30 minutes of cardio. I'm going to try to get to the gym 3x per week, and when it starts getting easier I'll step up the intensity of my workouts (if not the frequency as well). In my former life I played roller derby, and I'd really love to be able to get into good enough shape that I can join a local team.

All questions and suggestions are welcomed.

ETA: I just realized this post would make a whole lot more sense if I bothered to mention that I'm female. And 29. That is all.

Good work in starting the log, it's the first step and being accountable in public will help you loads.

Have you worked out what your calorific defecit should be? That's the main thing you should be concentrating on.

Btw, admitting you're female and starting a ************ log are the two red flags for attracting clueless idiots from all over 2p2, so get ready for walls of misguided broscience.

Welcome and congratulations on making the first step of posting here. I agree with Ron that its important to work out how many calories you need to consume each day. I have come to believe logging food and sticking to a number of calories which puts you in deficit is the most important thing of all.

Its interesting to think about thinks like white flour, sugar and so on but really the main thing is to set up the calorie deficit. I recommend myfitnesspal as a good tool to record calories. There are a few of us on there doing the same.

Good luck

I'm aiming for ~1600-1700 calories each day. I figured out that I've been eating close to (holy ****) 3200-3400 daily when I just eat whatever I feel like... is this too drastic a reduction? I hope not...

It looks about right, maybe a touch low. Have you used a calorie calculator to work out what your maintenance level is?

(There's one that's always recommended on here for being the most accurate, I'll see if I can find it)

Edit: Also, as RedHot says thinking about flour/sugar etc is great but in itself does nothing, it is only a way of helping with your compliance to the calorie defecit. If avoiding those foods helps you keep to the defecit then great, just don't go replacing the calories with other foods.

Edit 2: Here it is: http://www.1percentedge.com/ifcalc/ Putting in your details from OP and classing you as sedentary, your daily maintenance is 2280, or at 'lightly active' it's 2612. Your target of 1600-1700 looks fine based on that.

I would classify myself as "lightly active" (I stand and walk a lot at work), and I signed up for myfitnesspal. I love it already. It says that to lose 2 lbs per week, I need a 7,000 calorie weekly deficit which means that I should eat about 1600 per day.

Day 1

Breakfast:
Meal replacement shake with OJ (335)

Snack:
4 dried apricots (62)

Lunch:
Meal replacement shake with OJ (335)

Dinner:
Homemade chicken tenders (~450)
Spring mix salad with 1 tbsp ranch dressing (90)
Onions grilled in oil (136)
2 potato & cheddar pierogies (147)

Total: 1555

Now let's hope I can keep this up.

Welcome and good luck bro.

Congrats on starting. Really hope you stick with it and don't get disheartened by the inevitable bumps along the way.

Thanks for the encouragement and words of wisdom, everyone.

Day 2

Breakfast: meal replacement shake with OJ (335)

Snack: 1 banana (120)

Lunch: meal replacement shake with Starbucks chai (390)

Dinner: Sushi buffet! 2 rolls, a few crab rangoons, and some fried rice with general tsao's chicken. Ballparking this one at (850).

Exercise: 30 minutes light jogging on the treadmill for an approximate 330 calorie burn.

Total calories consumed: 1695

Given that I got my ass to the gym and passed up a prime opportunity to go on a mega-binge at the buffet, I'm calling today a win.

Looks good - as long as your dinner estimate is accurate. I am avoiding eating out for the most part because I don't know how they cook things. I don't know, maybe sushi is safe enough - its not like they can put lots of hidden fats into the cooking of it......

I feel pretty good about my sushi estimates, but you're right that I could very well be way off and not really have any way of knowing which is a little scary.

Day 3

Breakfast: meal replacement shake with OJ (335)

Lunch: meal replacement shake with a slightly smaller starbucks chai (350)

Snack: fiber one bar (90)

Dinner: 2 lobster pot stickers, steamed (200)
roast chicken salad with corn, pine nuts, dried cranberries, croutons, a little bit of goat cheese (that I didn't finish) and champagne vinaigrette (~700)

Total: 1675

Another winner in the books

Good to see you hitting your calorie target again.

Today I looked at the label on the meal replacement shake powder that I've been using and discovered that I've been overcounting the calories in it on myfitnesspal. The powder itself only has 90 calories, not 170, so all those shake/OJ combos are 255 instead of 335.

I overslept by a lot today, so this only ended up being a 2 meal day.

Day 4

Breakfast:
meal replacement shake with OJ (255)

Snack:
banana (120)

Lunch/dinner:
Grilled chicken over salad with roasted corn and a whole avocado, and some roasted butternut squash on the side (745 total)

Snack:
fiber one bar (90)

Total: 1210

Looking great so far. How does it feel, and how sustainable do you think this new routine is?

Nice work Depakote. I'm on mfp also, MrM27

To be perfectly honest, I don't feel so great most of the time. I'm used to being able to use food as a drug and ease any negative emotions with a few doughnut holes or the like, and not being able to do that is kind of a shock to the system, but I'll get used to it. At least, I hope I'll get used to it. As long as I can manage to do that, I think it'll be fairly sustainable for me since my physical hunger has been fairly manageable up to this point.

added

Day 5

Breakfast:
banana (120)
meal replacement shake in starbucks chai (390)

Lunch:
chick-fil-a chargrilled chicken sandwich club (400)
medium waffle fries (390)

Dinner:
meal replacement shake with OJ (255)

Snack:
Fiber one bar (90)

Total calories consumed: 1645

Exercise: 30 minutes on the treadmill

Looks good mate.

What is the meal replacement shake? Is that like a weight watchers shake?

Forgot to add, I'm using MFP aswell... "Richie1982"

It's an herbalife thing, it doesn't taste so bad.

So I got a scale and weighed myself this morning. Turns out I'm 248. I guess I had gained some weight since I was last weighted at the doctor's office a couple months ago. We'll use that as my starting weight.

ETA: and I added you on mfp

Day 6

Breakfast:
meal replacement shake with OJ (255)
fiber one bar (90)

Lunch:
mandarin chicken salad from Saladworks with 2tbsp sesame dressing (408)

Dinner:
7oz ribeye steak, fat trimmed (469)
.75 cup canned corn (100)

Dessert:
fiber one brownie (90)

Total: 1412

You should make your mfp diary public

Ok, done.

Also I just ate another fiber one bar, so today will clock in at 1502.

Of course you are not going to feel great on this diet, it ****ing sucks.

You say the protein meal replacement is not that good, well of course not its some herbalife crap. Sure its low calorie but its also kind of low on everything else.

I think you would be better off adding more vegetables, fruit, and meat.


Waffle fries and OJ??? Oh my gosh, you have 1600 precious calories to work with and you spend them on that?? Yuck. Eat an orange instead, eat a sweet potato instead, and you'll have 300 extra calories just there alone that you could use on something nutritious and filling.

Yes you'll get results on your current diet, but it will also send you running straight to Dunkin Donuts in about two weeks. More nutritious and filling foods please. Lean meats, whole fruits, vegetables all are yummylicious and will give you a lifetime of health and most important of all are filling.

I think the new poster lifebalance has pics of nutritious yummy filling foods he is posting on his log. I think that's him, check it out to get some ideas.

Near starvation calorie counts itt. Why meal replacement?

I'd want to commit seppuku if I had to eat like this for long. More chicken. More fish. More vegetables. Eat a real chocolate bar once in a while instead of a fiber one brownie, I'm partial to Dagoba Xocolatl but whatever floats you.

Sorry my log offends you so much. I do the shakes because my friend and I are doing them together, and they actually give you near perfect nutrition (just not on their own, you need to heavily supplement with more protein and the like). You should look up the nutritional info sometime, I think you'd be surprised.

Yes, it's true that they only fill you up for like 90 minutes but if you have a lot of weight to lose, you're going to be ****ing hungry A LOT of the time so I figure I may as well get used to it.