I have been going to the gym coming about 3 years consistently. If you are having a hard time trying to lose weight I feel like I have a good grasp on how to approach losing weight. I won't say I have the best credentials considering I completed a "successful cut" one time throughout those entire 3 years where I managed to lose 23.6lbs in 70 days but I'm having a good flow for this summer.
First thing is to determine your total daily energy expenditure(tdee). Its a fancy way of saying how much calories your body may spend in a day. Tdee calculators are all over the internet and I wont say they are particularly accurate but its a good starting point for what we are about to do next.
Obviously to lose weight, and in this case our main goal is to lose fat, is to be in a caloric deficit. In most tdee calculators it can give you a caloric goal that should cause you to lose weight.
We want to take this number and eat at this deficit for two weeks. The main goal of this is to watch how your weight changes over this period. To determine if this deficit is working we need to be weighing in daily.
Weighing yourself daily will help make sure that you are losing weight in the grand scheme of things and can help you make adjustments to your caloric deficit depending on how your weight has fluctuated.
You need to be tracking your calories. I find that keeping track of your calories not only keeps you mindful of what you are eating but can also open your eyes to how much you may you be eating.
If you are tracking your calories and eating within your caloric deficit. You should see some sort of change in your weight. If you notice that you aren't losing weight after a week, that is where you would either, decrease your calories by at least 100 or do more cardio.
Lastly I would recommend increasing your daily step count. Most modern mobile phones provide a way to track your steps and I would take a look at that. If you aren't walking more than 5,000 steps daily you need to walk more. I would recommend to try and aim for 8,000 steps and ultimately trying to reach 10,000 steps.
These are just arbitrary numbers but for your long term health, just try and walk more daily and it will benefit you in more ways than one.
Staying hydrated is a given. Dont skip this please.
If you havent started weight training, I would recommend starting. It will help build and maintain muscle throughout this process.
Understanding your tdee, tracking your calories, and walking more are the bare minimum when it comes to trying to lose weight. Dont start off too harsh in your deficit and in trying to walk more. You will most likely burn out and the main goal is to stay consistent.
What I stated above is something probably ai could have written better but ai lacks real experience like myself hehe. The things that I'm about to go over now are more tips that helped me lose weight.
Your environment matters immensely. If you have a bunch of random snacks like chips, candy, cereal, etc. Basically anything that is easy to grab and eat is setting you up for failure. I would refrain from purchasing anything of that nature because it is so easy to binge eat these items and it will leave you feeling worse in the end.
Please begin cooking for yourself. It a great skill to have, I won't even say I'm great cook myself either. Cooking your own meals will leave you more satiated then any fast food place ever will and you will also save money. Use cooking spray that is 0 calories.
If I had to recommend some sort of foods to cook or buy, it would be as simple as sorting them into protein, fats, and carbs.
For proteins I would buy just any sort of your favorite lean meat. Examples include:
Salt and pepper is really all you need but any other spices that aren't calorically dense are fine as well.
Eggs are a great protein and fat source and would always prefer it over egg whites. Don't miss out on your fats as they are vital to your hormonal health.
As for your carb intake:
Oats, potatoes,and sweet potatoes are a god send. You can put potatoes into a microwave for 5 minutes, salt and pepper on top, and then some low calorie sauce and it taste amazing. Protein powder helps too, I like to put it in my oats.
Don't forget your veggies, frozen vegetables are your best bet as it saves time.
Low calories sauces and zero calorie sodas come in clutch. My favorite is sugar free baby rays and coke zero. Here is some of my favorite food items that make my food taste better:
The more diet soda you drink you should up your water intake and be careful drinking lots of diet sodas as they are actually pretty high in caffeine depending on the drink.
Refrain from liquid calories. The goal when trying to lose weight is to not be hungry.
Cutting out foods that you may enjoy entirely out of your diet will probably lead to you binge eating. Its best to try and squeeze some of your favorite foods into your meal plan. For me, I like to eat a bagel and some cream cheese everyday. Keeps me sane. You can even slide in cereal or snacks but its very risky to have these items just even near you and its probably best to cook something that you enjoy eating.
If trying to eat out with friends and family is sort of an issue. I recommend looking at the menu before hand and try to choose something that is macro friendly.Also, try not to come starving. This will make it harder for you to stick to your diet.
Weighing your food is majorly important and goes hand in hand with tracking your calories. Weighing your food will accurately let you know how much calories you are actually consuming. When it comes to when you should weigh your food, just go ahead and search it up. Most meats lose weight after being cooked so its best to weigh it after you cook the meat. Anything that probably wont lose or gain weight after you prepare it is fine to weigh as is.
Don't get discouraged at the scale. Your body weight fluctuates daily and you should rather look at your weight over an entire week for a more realistic view of your body weight change.
I find it best to just get on the scale and once the scale tracks your body weight get off and forget about it. I recommend getting a scale that connects to your phone and that automatically records your body weight. Unless you decide to record your weight on paper that is also fine but we want to make this process as easy as possible. The more friction you have in trying to lose weight the more likely you are to just quit as its just to much work.
Not sponsored but MacroFactor is what helped me significantly when I lost 23lbs. Its an investment that I thought was a small sacrifice in the grand scheme of losing weight. It provides an easy way to track your calories and the app gives adjustments to your deficit based on your weight over time. Those are just a few of the features that it provides. Take a look if it sounds interesting.
I really thought this would be shorter and its my first post so bear with me. If I had to condense everything:
Remember that you are loved and thanks for reading.