Newbie needing weight loss advice and help with food

[Chazzie]

My story:

Suffered a terrible accident. Broke my ankle and leg in many place shattered my ankle. Have back and shoulder issues. By the good graces of god I am able to walk after a year. So I am so greatful but would like my old body back. I was bed ridden and packed on 41 plus pounds. I am learning to live with the pain but would like to walk my way back to a better healthier body. I can't go to the gym and use weights at all. I can ride the bike at pt a little and do very restricted things.

Here is what I need help with. What else can/should I be eatting to lose weight? What amount of calories do I need to consume per week? Am I pushing it trying to lose 3 pounds per week?

Breakfast 1/2 cup of oatmeal with berries

snack sweet potatoe

lunch chicken breast no skin green veggies

snack 6 nuts or popcorn (very little) Life is too short not to enjoy some food :0)

dinner chicken breast veggies

snack fruit

lots of water  

What should I be walking and how many times per week?

Thank you in advance for your advice and help. Life is very short may you all enjoy it!

[penguin0905 · Accepted solution]

Hey so I've put my input in bold next to your questions... 

What else can/should I be eatting to lose weight? snacking is a great thing. hit up pinterest for healthy snacks

What amount of calories do I need to consume per week? Medically, it's recommended to not consume any less than 1200 calories per day. Oddly enough, if you snack, you're more likely to lose weight. How many calories are you consuming?

Am I pushing it trying to lose 3 pounds per week? absolutely, especially with your restrictions to being able to work out. a healthy, sustainable loss is 1.5 - 2 lbs/ week. This of course varies with how much you weigh and how much you want/need to lose. People who are extremely overweight can easily shed 5-7 lbs in a week, but as they grow smaller/weigh less, the weight loss tapers off and will get back into the 1.5-2lbs/week range. 

Breakfast 1/2 cup of oatmeal with berries Good 🙂

snack sweet potatoe are you eating this plain? and is it sweet potato chips/baked sweet potato?

lunch chicken breast no skin green veggies turn it into a salad! there are lots of "fix-ins" you can put with it, dressing of lemon juice.

snack 6 nuts or popcorn (very little) Life is too short not to enjoy some food :0) popcorn and nuts are not bad for you. air-popped popcorn is actually great in terms of whole grain/fiber to keep you full and is totally okay to snack on. I have a smart-pop bag every day for an afternoon snack to get me through and it's only 100 cal. Depending on the nuts, you can eat more than that. Almonds are a great snack and I know you can have more than 6. 

dinner chicken breast veggies make sure you are avoiding starchy veggies (peas/corn/potatoes)

snack fruit be careful with fruit too. It's full of natural sugars and can easily hold more sugar/calories than you expect. 

lots of water  awesome! 

What should I be walking and how many times per week? do what you can. if you have limited mobility, be aware of what you can and cannot do. Listen to your body. Set goals for yourself. For the first week, walk 2-3 times per week for 30 mins, 2nd, up it to 45 mins and add an extra day. It's all about what you are able to do. 

In reality, if you try to do too much, you may wind up burning yourself out. I know I have been horrible in sticking to programs to lose weight and get healthier, but I find that if I don't deny myself things I want (in moderation) and I don't put too much pressure on myself, things seem to go a lot better. Know your limits and what it takes for you to succeed. 🙂

[emili]

The first thing you need to do is use an online calculator to figure out your BMR. Once you have that number you need to figure out what deficit you will be comfy with. Most people start at 500. So BMR-500=calories you can eat in one day. No more than whatever that number is. How you fill those calories is really up to you. You should have a good mix of vitamins, nutrients, healthy carbs, protein and fats. You also should get a food scale so you can measure and weigh your food precisely to ensure you are not going over. Log everything and enjoy the weigh ins.

To figure out a healthy mix- there are several sources on line- just pick a reliable source. Choose veggies and fruit that give you the biggest nutritional bang for the lowest calorie intake. usually green is your best friend. kale, spinach, broccoli, brussel sprouts, green pepper, etc.

[Dominique]

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@emili wrote:

So BMR-500=calories you can eat in one day.

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Wouldn’t that be TDEE - 500? BMR is what you burn merely breathing to stay alive. TDEE is BMR + what you burn with your other actvities during the day. If you have entered your personal data (age, gender, height, weight) in Fitbit, your Fitbit will tell you a (pretty accurate) estimate of your TDEE. It won’t tell you your BMR explicitely, so it can indeed be interesting to use an online calculator (for instance, this one) in order to know it.

[Chazzie]

Thank you SOOOO much for the replies. I am eating far less then I should be. I was loging my food but not paying it much attention. I just stared a week ago so I will adjust that. I found my BMI is 30 and needs to be in the 25 range. My current weight is 191 and looking to land around 150. I am 5"7.

I am listening to my body and walking what I can. That varies from 25,000 steps to 10,000 steps a day. Now I am not walking perfectly. Yet I am getting it done! :0)

I am really not hungry from walking. I know if I don't eat more that will be trouble. No starvation mode for me. Thank you so much to everyone who replied.

A cheat day is ok too...can't let it be a cheat week.

The greens are awesome ty. I never thought of them!

PS if you love coffee their is a product called Walden Farms. They have 0 everything in their products. I love the chocolate on my strawberries and french vanilla creamer in my coffee.

[bcalvanese]

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@Chazzie wrote:

My story:

Suffered a terrible accident. Broke my ankle and leg in many place shattered my ankle. Have back and shoulder issues. By the good graces of god I am able to walk after a year. So I am so greatful but would like my old body back. I was bed ridden and packed on 41 plus pounds. I am learning to live with the pain but would like to walk my way back to a better healthier body. I can't go to the gym and use weights at all. I can ride the bike at pt a little and do very restricted things.

Here is what I need help with. What else can/should I be eatting to lose weight? What amount of calories do I need to consume per week? Am I pushing it trying to lose 3 pounds per week?

Breakfast 1/2 cup of oatmeal with berries

snack sweet potatoe

lunch chicken breast no skin green veggies

snack 6 nuts or popcorn (very little) Life is too short not to enjoy some food :0)

dinner chicken breast veggies

snack fruit

lots of water  

What should I be walking and how many times per week?

Thank you in advance for your advice and help. Life is very short may you all enjoy it!

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If you are only 41 lbs. overweight you should probably set yur goal to lose 1 lb. per week (500 less calories per day).

You can ask your doctor about walking for exercise based on your injuries. If he thinks it would be too much you can ask him about pool activities that would take most of the load off your joints, and maybe even working your way to shallowere water to get to the point where you can do it with your full weight.

I lost 55 lbs. in the last year by power walking every day, and eat more than I used to because I burn so many calories power walking.

Hope this helps.

[Paviroo]

I realize this one's already considered solved, but wanted to add that when you track your food on your FitBit dashboard, you can enter your current weight and your target weight and whether you want to work really hard at losing weight or do it more gradually.

The system can then give you a targeted daily calorie range based on your personal activity history as tracked by your FitBit.  I can see how some days mine gives me more calories to eat and other days not as many.  But if I track all the food I intend to eat for the day and I go over my target, I know immediately (because it tells me) that I need to be more active before the end of the day.

It's a great feature and really helps me stay on track.  🙂

[Inga]

Good for you using the fitbit logging features. I never needed to use fitday or anything else Just use the fitbit app and you are all set!

[SamAndy]

That feature quit working with the July fitbit update.  I really miss it