Hi everyone!

One of the things I have been trying to do and not been super successful with is losing weight.

Not going to beat around the bush, so I'll just get to it.

I am 34.5 years old, I am 6 3, male....and I weight 397 lbs.

I have put an app to track my steps on my phone, along with a food diary.

According to some things I have read online, my ideal weight should be somewhere between 200-225 lbs. So that's my goal.

I want to try and accomplish three tasks everyday:
1. I want to walk 10,000 steps
2. I want to eat around 2,000 calories (huge restriction for me)
3. I want to drink 3 liters of water (I have a 3 liter jug I want to fill everyday.)

I went out and bought some healthy things or as healthy as I could do, so I think my basic day is going to look like this:

Breakfast:
Two Boost Calorie Smart shakes
Three Clementines
One banana
One cup of 1% lowfat milk

Lunch:
28 grams of whole almonds
two cups (containers, 113g) activia vanilla yogurt
one cup orange juice

Dinner:
Lean Pocket
Cafe Steamer

That totals 2,015 calories.

Dinner I usually bring to my overnight job so I need something I can just toss in the microwave. It's the healthiest stuff I could find. It might not be optimal but any change I make is probably good to start with.


As for my exercise, I am going to start off by walking 10,000 steps. I also am doing a bankroll challenge for poker so I thought every time I moved up a level I would add more running (or whatever I can do that isn't walking) to my 10,000 steps.

So I would start with walking for 10,000 steps and then when I move up to the next buy-in I would do 1:1 non-walking/walking then the next would be 2:1 non-walking/walking, etc.

I do have some small milestones and rewards in place.

When I get to 350, I am going to buy a nice treadmill. Right now I have plenty of space to walk/jog in my basement. I don't do well in the heat and I don't think anyone want to see a nearly 400 pound guy attempting to run in their neighborhood. So for now it's just me, my basement and my pandora playlist.

When I get to 300, I'm going to get myself a top of the line fitbit (whatever model that may be at that time).

Finally at 250, I want to join a gym and possibly work with a coach of some kind to lose the last of the weight and maybe do some strength training? I don't know, long way off and haven't put a lot of thought into it.

I'll try to update when I can. I think it would be repetitive to journal the same foods over and over so maybe every couple of days I'll post my walking distance and times and any huge weight loss.

Good luck to everyone who is looking to find the best version of themselves.

First of all good luck!

Looking at what you have written, I would do some tweaks to make it easier to stay in restricted range.

I would completely leave out all juices and all sweetened yoghurt. Like never eat it. Not because it is bad. You definitely can lose weight on eating 2000 calories per day of anything. But sugar makes it harder.

You could take the same amount of plain yoghurt, cut three apples in that put almonds on top and have water/ unsweetened tea/ coffee with it. = more food +smaller insulin spike.

Or even better: small steak or chicken breast + unlimited amount of broccoli or any other green veg.


What are lean pockets? I assume some ready made meal. If yes then it definitely can be optimized.

Cafe steamer? Coffee? Or some kind of coffee cookie?

Yes, ditch the juice and learn to cook.

10,000 steps seems like a lot. How many do you average now?

All good suggestions and next time I go shopping I will take all of that under advisement!

Yes, Lean Pockets are frozen sandwiches of sorts that can be microwaved. They are healthier (in theory) than the original Hot Pockets. I work overnights so I need to have something I can grab and go. I have thought about meal prepping and it might be something I do in the future.

Thanks for the reply!

Yeah I think next trip to the store I will scratch the OJ, I liked having it for the vitamin C and potassium, but I can get that in other ways. I can cook, I just usually don't have a lot of time with my job and other commitments. It is something I would like to get back into.

10,000 steps will be a challenge for sure. According to my phone I average 5,088 steps per day for this year.

My plan is to walk wherever I can before I get home from work in the morning so I won't have to do as much when I get home. Then walk up to 10,000 steps total, anything I do after that during the night or whatever is bonus. I don't plan on keeping my phone on me at all times so there will be some steps I miss out on and that's okay.

Thanks for the reply!

Gl OP!

I'd suggest logging every day, as it helps with accountability, and, at least at first, also helps us help you avoid mistakes like drinking orange juice because it's "healthy".

I agree with CB that going straight to 10k steps might be a bit ambitious; that said, calorie restriction + walking is the exact right way to go about things. As you figure things out, I'd guess that a diet more in the 2500 calorie per day range, with higher protein, will lead to higher compliance without really noticeably affecting the speed of weight loss for the first hundred pounds or so.

As others have said, preparing your own food is orders of magnitude better than Lean Pockets. I can provide some simple recipes that are easy to make in bulk if you'd like.

Good Luck!

Any specific reason you chose 2,000 calories/day? What do you believe to be your daily expenditure of calories (w/ 10,000 steps) right now?

Definitely need to learn to cook. Also you won't handle 2k calories for very long; rather than thinking about counting calories yet, just think about learning to make smarter choices, which starts by learning kitchen skills. There is not even 1 meal with unprocessed meat or fish in your daily sample diet. That's a problem.

This would legit be the highlight of my day!

I like your self rewards but I'm going to advise you to roll them forward;

*If you hit your walking goal for two weeks, get the treadmill (at 2 weeks, you got yourself a habit).
*At 350, get the fitbit (chances are you'll be feeling better and starting to kick things up a notch between here and 300--it'll be nice to monitor it).
*300 is a fine time to start adding some lifting (just ignore beginner "bulking" advice).

Anyway good luck with everything. What sort of history do you have with exercise--like what sports or activities have you enjoyed in the past?

Gl You. Just repeating what others are saying really but I'd be so hungry on that diet you've outlined! I think it would be really hard to stick to. If you cooked on your day off you could have much more filling meals to look forward to or even just buy a rotisserie chicken and dump the skin and you've got some good lean protein you can have with salad or veg.

What do you like to eat? Are you willing to cook? Just eating truckloads of vegetables with a lean protein is going to fill you up for quite low calories.

Thank you everyone for the replies!

I noticed a bunch of similar messages so I am just going to generally reply here. Please don't feel like I slighted you, I read them all.

So, I'm getting the sense we need to nix the OJ. So when that's gone it's gone for good. I'm not going to throw out a bunch of stuff, but I will retweak my grocery list next time I go shopping.

I can cook, I promise! I'm not Gordon Ramsay but if all I had was some meat and a skillet, I could eat just fine. I have always been opposed to meal prepping, it was something about making chicken on a Sunday and eating it on a Friday. I don't know, it didn't appeal to me. However a lot of people seem to be going that way these days so I will try that out. I work six days a week so maybe Saturday could be a cooking day and just cook and brown up a bunch of different things (chicken, ground beef, whatever).


Thank you for the advice, I will definitely keep fine tuning this process!

So day 1:
I work overnights just in case the following sounds confusing

So the original plan was to go home, relax for a few minutes and then get the walking in. I was actually pretty tired so I went to bed for a while. We had a major thunderstorm that woke me up in the afternoon. I couldn't fall back asleep so I decided to get the walking out of the way at that point. I walked until the steps app read 10,000 steps and consumed about 2 liters of water in the process.

I take the bus to and from work and while I wait I am walking up and the down the little sidewalk. I skipped taking the 2nd bus home and walked from there to the house (I wanna say about 3/4ths of a mile). I had my backpack which contains my laptop that has a good weight to it, all the cords and accessories and my 3 liter water jug filled up.

I think that adds a little more to what I am doing if I have some weight added to my walks.

I got up for work and did some more walking between waiting for the bus and now I am at work.

Total walking according to the steps app: 11,563 steps 5.6 miles 2 hours 9 minutes.

I'm not worried about time at all but it said it so I wrote it down.

As far as food goes I am at exactly 2,000 calories for the day.

My Fitness App says:

Calories: 2,000 out of 2,530
Exercise: 606 calories burned
1,136 calories under the daily goal

Nutrition looks like: Total - Goal
Protein: 101 -156
Carbs: 239 - 392
Fiber: 20 -38
Sugar: 96 - 118
Fat: 76 -104
Sat. Fat: 25 -35
Poly Fat 9 - 0
Mono Fat: 16 - 0
Trans Fat: 0 - 0
Cholesterol: 125 - 300
Sodium: 2,310 - 2,300
Potassium: 1,565 - 3,500
Vit A: 53 - 100
Vit C: 369 - 100
Calcium: 194 - 100
Iron: 102 - 100


Not sure how important Macros are, but these numbers looked okay

Carb: 47% - 50%
Fat: 33% - 30%
Protein 20% - 20%

Lastly, the most important number

Tonights weigh-in 396.2 so I am down .8 pounds today.

Thank you for all your support so far!

More protein, less sugar. 160 g protein is a reasonable target (personally I'd go higher - say 200 g - because satiety, but whatever); under 50 g sugar, but preferably under 25 g (most/all from whole fruit) is better. More carbs from starchy vegetables. Pretty sure you can afford to throw half a jug of Sunny D down the drain.

If you're skeeved out by eating food you prepared a week ago, either cook twice a week (simple stuff the second day) or freeze some of what you make on prep day and defrost as needed.

Just upload a screenshot of your daily food log to imgur and post it here.

Nice job on the walking; don't be afraid to dial down the duration a bit if you start to get sore. This is a long journey. Slow and steady.

And don't log calories burned by exercise. Set a target number of calories and stick to it; whatever you burn while moving is a bonus.

I'd definitely up the protein but really as long as you're hitting your calories you should be good. It's just that protein makes you feel fuller, less muscle loss etc but it's probably best to not get too caught up in stuff at this point. I agree with you btw regarding eating the same meal all week. I usually batch cook and freeze it for later consumption maybe adding an extra like veg or salad if necessary. I definitely couldn't eat the same dinner everyday for the week I don't think it hurts to have some store bought frozen meals as backups either. You don't want to give yourself excuses to get takeaway etc.

Bah Monte lol my pony is slow.

+1 to Monte and Rexx: less sugar more protein. I would also try to curb salt ( sodium ) under 2000. It is not bad to explore a little more what food tastes on its own and it will make you lose some water.

Good luck! I'm starting not THAT far ahead of you in weight, similar height, but 10 years older. Will be following along.

Woo hoo! Starting is hard and you've already done that. You've got a cheerleader in me.

+1 to what everyone else said. No juice or drinking your calories, reduce sugar and up the protein. I think your plan is a decent start and you can tweak as needed.

You can do this!

Good luck OP. You are already getting excellent advice in this thread. The only thing I would add is that losing weight is mostly done by eating less and not so much by exercising more. Exercising is a bonus. You especially shouldn't count your exercise calories you can have "on top" as that seems like establishing a bad habit. Eat according to Montecore's advice and the pounds should start flying (I know, easier said than done).

Concerning the cooking there are a few links in the FAQ. I would also add to Holliday's suggestion to add weighlifting earlier and you could also think about doing bodyweight exercises. Obviously you won't be able to do a pull-ups in the near future, but squats and maybe even push-ups could be an option once you have established good eating habits.

I would also recommend getting this book:
https://www.amazon.com/Body-Fat-Solu...dp/1583333738/

You can find all the information in there in threads on this forum and most likely in the links in the FAQ, but for me it helps to have all of it in one place and there doesn't seem to be anything completely wrong with it (of course people will always bicker about details).

Day 2:

So I mentioned before that I am doing a bankroll challenge and I thought it would be fun to increase my exercise routine as I moved up in levels.

I figured it would be a week maybe more before I cashed in a freeroll on ACR....

Yeah I cashed in two last night lol.

So the deal was I would move up to one part walking, one part "non-walking" jogging, running, faster walking, whatever I could handle.

I had 2,500 steps already when I got home, so the plan was when I woke up to walk/run the last 7,500. I got to about 7,500 steps and my foot cramped up. I could walk fine but any type of running or hard pressure hurt enough to make me walk the last 2,500 steps.

It's hard to tell which steps are running and which are walking, my app doesn't get that specifice. If I had to guess I would say I did 1 mile of "not walking" and 4 miles of walking. Also kept up with walking around the bus stop.

So todays exercise numbers:

11,751 steps 6.3 miles 2 hours 15 minutes 1,587 kcal burned.

So my fitness pal app says I burned 617 calories. The steps says 1,600 kcals. I'm basing my progress off the lowest number so I don't screw myself up.

I drank 3 liters of water as well.

As far as food goes, I heard a lot of people talk about protein and getting more of it. So before I left work I took 3 slices of the leftover pork roast. I work at a shelter and there are plenty of leftovers from dinner usually.

Calorie Goal: 2,530
Food: 2,450
Exercise: 617
697 calories under goal

I won't run down everything since most of the numbers are the same but

protein went from 101 to 170 (goal is 157)
fat went from 76 to 94 (goal is 105)
sat fat went from 25 to 36 (goal is 35)
Potassium went up from 1,565 to 3,089 (goal is 3500)


I think those are the major changes.

Last but not least the weigh-in:

Starting Weight: 397.0
Current Weight: 394.6
Total Loss: 2.4

Thank you everyone for your support and your advice. True story: You have been more supportive than the two friends I told about this project.

So really, thank you for welcoming in a stranger.

Why do you think that your friends havent been supportive?

You have to be really careful with your exercise to not hurt yourself at your weight.

I would leave out all the running until under 250 lbs. I would add some swhiming pool exercises. I mean.... I understand that you probably don't want .... But from exercising stand point moving yourself in water is one of the best exercises at your weight.

Leftovers from shelter dinners is a pretty good option. I can imagine that there is some veg there. I would leave out any sauces but veg and meat is cool.

Way too long of a story lol.

Cliffnotes version they are busy with a lot of things and they have seen me attempt this way too many times and give up.

OP,

To reiterate:

-Just walking is fine; running doesn't burn appreciably more calories than walking, and even if it did, it's not worth the additional risk of injury.

-Screenshot of tracking app. Are you weighing your food?

-Stop logging calories burned by exercise; it's not relevant to your goal (setting a calorie goal and sticking to it).

Congrats on the weight loss!

+1 to this. As I'm trying, I'm very cognizant of taking it easy with high impact exercises on my joints. One of the easiest ways for guys our size to give up is to go too hard too early, feel a knee or ankle start hurting, think "better give it a couple of days to rest" and then quit altogether.

My focus has mainly been on using an elliptical (less direct impact on joints) and walking.

Day 3:

Kind of an off day for me.

I woke up this afternoon with a pretty bad wave of depression. Long story and really beyond the scope of the thread, but it did play into my choices today. I wasn't super motivated to do much so I skipped walking today. My legs were a little stiff, and I was still tired so I slept for another couple of hours before work.

I picked up a snack today before work trying to find something with protein. After listening to what everyone has said I am changing my priorities to counting calories and then after that seeking protein.

I bought something that didn't have a nutrition thing on it but it looked decent. It's a Prosciutto wrapped around a mozzarella stick. I scanned it into my fitness pal:

2 sticks
240 calories
16g fat
24g protien
1,580 sodium (ouch)

It wasn't the worst decision I could make, but certainly not the best either. Live and learn, won't be getting that again.

A few people have mentioned not logging the calories from walking, so I won't. I might even take out the step counter in my phone. We will see. Eventually I want to be able to run and workout but everything in it's time.

One thing I thought about doing when the weather breaks (currently summer in Pittsburgh, USA) is buying a basketball. I used to play a lot but that was 20 years ago on a middle school team. I thought maybe to get to the 10,000 steps I could go just dribble and shoot at a park or something first thing in the morning. It would be nice to do that once in a while.

Today also marks 72 hours of being soda free. I had a Mountain Dew as part of my "last meal" Sunday night before I wrote my first post on here. I still get tired at work, but I am surviving.

So food for today...

I ran out of bananas so I took an extra mandarin orange to work (from 3 to 4). Other than that, pretty much staying the course with what I bought until next Friday when I go shopping and will take all of your suggestions with me.

Food numbers:
2,180 out of 2,530 calories
125 out of 135g of protein
271 out of 338 carbs
25 out of 38 fiber
74 out of 90 fat
195 out of 300 cholesterol
3,795 out of 2,300 sodium (ouch again)

Those are the main ones anyways.

Despite not walking, despite not having the best food day....

I still lost weight.

Starting Weight: 397.0
Current Weight: 393.6
Total Loss: 3.4 pounds.

I was happy to see a loss in weight, I needed something to pick me up today.

I will try to answer some of the posts, I do read them. I just get busy with other things and forget to reply to them.

Thank you all for the valuable feedback.