Diet advice needed!

**justawara** · 08-17-2011, 05:29 AM

Howdy!

I am 5'10" 27 years young and 305lbs. I have been gaining weight for last couple of years due to my job as tech support person which required me to sit front of the computer literally 18 hours a day. Normally ate before going to sleep and basically I would drink soda instead of water.

Dieting is/was very hard to do in my house as literally everything is fried or cooked in oil. Long story short...I started reading the forums about six months ago in hopes of trying out something "strong" in order to lose weight.

In the process I worked out diet might be my best option before trying anything. I loved the keto diet threads. Seemed simple and something I could or least I thought I could do. Here is what I have been able to do in the last two months.

Two months ago joined the gym along with my brother at 330lbs[Edit: my weight not his]. He has been a huge support. I can't seem to run bit too much for body. So M-F I spent about 30 minutes on the elliptical which was bit boring.

Someone suggested I play hand ball as I did in my school years. So we started doing that five days a week for least an hour.

The only thing I have been eating is grilled chicken/fish when I wake up and when I get back home in the morning. No more soda or any sugar basically trying to avoid everything else that cooks in my house.

I eat plenty of chicken/fish at both times basically until I feel full along with some green veggies. I drink lots of water and if ever I am hungry when I am at work or out...I grab some yogurt or fruits. Normally I end up with serving or two of fruits every day.

I have lost 25lbs in last two months. Looking at myself in the mirror...hardly seems any different however I am now able to sleep...I had/have a massive snoring problem which seems to have reduce by least 50% and I no longer wake up during my sleep.

I really want to continue my progress. Is playing hand ball for least a good hour running back and forth a good replacement for elliptical?

Also what I can do to improve my diet a bit? Ideally I would follow the many diet plans available however I need ideas from people who understand sometime it is tough to just do all that...however few little things here or there might help...so all advice is welcome!

My first post..bit long. Anyway thank you for taking the time to read it.

**RaginCajun** · 08-17-2011, 07:27 AM

justawara, you have just make the best decision of your life!!! congrats on the weight loss so far, and now, your life will forever be changed! first things first, write up a sample diet of what you eat daily with times. once you have that list, go thru it and break it down into calories/proteins/fats/carbs, this will help you gauge on how much you were eating of each macronutrient and how we can help you. there is some great articles in a thread that windex created, i suggest you read those as will i. this stuff is not easy but once you make it your lifestyle, you will be forever thankful. for starters, try getting up early and do some fasted cardio for about 20 minutes. when i say fasted, i mean drink some water and head out of the door for 20-30 minutes. a slow jog or in your case just start walking every morning for 20-30 minutes and watch the weight drop off! hand ball is great cardio so if you are enjoying that, keep it up. you have made a great move by posting and now it is up to you to make the best of it. there is plenty of motivation here to keep you going!!!!! cheers!

**army_cobra** · 08-17-2011, 11:04 AM

Agree with what was said above. Drop the soda for sure and drink water. There are alot of good guys on here that will be able to help you out. If you can try to do cardio for a hour. I know its hard just cause it so boring but there will be better results.

**SlimmerMe** · 08-17-2011, 11:05 AM

Welcome JW....yes already a nickname since this is your NEW HOME!

You have come to the right place. Baby steps wins this race. And logging in every single day will help too to stay on top of it.

Please list out a sample of what you eat and when you eat it. I know it sounds scary but this way the members can review what you are eating and help tweak and make suggestions. I bet there are some foods you are eating which might be good for you so let's concentrate on those. Finding foods you LIKE is the key to this working.

And as OOCajun suggested: fasted cardio would be a great way to get the BF down. Just get outta bed and go out the door for a fast walk 10-15 minutes one way and turn around and come back.

When are you eating your first meal of the day after you get up?

Kudos to your weight loss. How did you do that? curious....

We will follow your progress! WELCOME!

**gbrice75** · 08-17-2011, 11:30 AM

Originally Posted by SlimmerMe

fasted cardio would be a great way to get the BF down. Just get outta bed and go out the door for a fast walk 10-15 minutes one way and turn around and come back.

BCAA/EAA supplement prior.

**justawara** · 08-17-2011, 01:17 PM

Thank you guys for the feedback. I work the nights so I wake up at about 4 p.m get ready and be out of the door by 5 p.m. Before leaving my house I eat grilled chicken/or fish or sometimes take it along so I can have some while at work too which is not very often.

I usually have 2 pcs of tilapia which are 5-7 oz each grilled/oven baked. If I am having chicken it is either usually small cubes of boneless chicken breast/thighs mix in Indian spices put on the large GF electric grill.

The above step is repeated at roughly 3 a.m with addition of maybe adding some green beans etc. when I get back home. Since I go to the gym at roughly 4 a.m and play hand ball for least an hour...my goal has been to burn the carbs from the meal which I just had...and let me body burn the fat.

* In the last week or two my friend suggested I grab a serving of yogurt which has plenty of protein etc or try eating a serving of fruits as I shouldn't simply have two meals. So I have started doing that.

I am going to try to find out roughly what amount of chicken goes on the grill etc for my next post so I can maybe provide more reliable info.

Thank you

**RaginCajun** · 08-17-2011, 01:27 PM

food choices are good for now but get a time log and macro's (pro/fat/carb) for each thing that you put into your mouth. look at other peoples threads and see how they have things listed in chronological order and with numbers/meals next to it. yogurt does have protein in it but look at all the sugar it has also. also, you want to mainly eat chicken breasts and not so much the dark meat, it has more fat in it and some different enzymes in it. some people i know can only eat the white meat and not the dark meat because of food allergies. now that we have you head spinning, take some time to write out everything you eat (everything that goes into your pie hole, even drinks/condiments) in one day and then we can go from there.

**SlimmerMe** · 08-17-2011, 02:15 PM

TIP: It is easier to read what you eat written out in list format including the time of day along with it. And for now if you do not have your macros, go ahead and post up your food list and time to get more input. So much here revolves around EASE!

And it appears you are not eating enough. How many calories were you on a day when you lost the weight? Eating at least 3-4 meals a day is really suggested for someone who needs to shed BF.

And the yogurt? Not really a protein source like OOCajun said never the less when trying to eat better? can help some IMO. Try to find either plain FAGE or plain CHOBANI both of which are Greek yogurts. And then you can sweeten with some splenda and maybe add some raspberries or blueberries. I do this for a treat to keep me SANE!

Are you saying that your last meal is at 4PM?

This process takes a lot of patience when starting out. Once you got your food choices lined up it gets a lot better!

**SexySweetheart** · 08-17-2011, 02:41 PM

WELCOME and CONGRATS on dropping the pounds!

staying dedicated and logging what you eat will def help you, and the pro's can give you feed back so that you can tweak or daily intake

**justawara** · 02-08-2012, 06:05 AM

Update: Things didn't quite work out. After going to the gym for about two months and eating only grilled things. I simply got too busy with work and having to move around. Very disappointed with myself. So this Sunday is going to be my last day at work. I am basically leaving work and everything else with only one goal in my mind which is to fix myself up. I will be moving away from NYC to Atlanta to live with a friend who is crazy about work outs and fitness.

Many of you might not agree however the plan as of right now is for me to go on a green juice fast plus working out couple of times day...light work outs. I will do this for 60 days. If I go through this...then I will spend another 30 days...normal healthy diet with more heavier load of work outs.

I am wondering if I should log about my juice fast here :x

**--->>405<<---** · 02-08-2012, 07:59 AM

thats great ur gonna prioritize ur health over everything else..good job

that being said the 60 day green juice fast/diet sounds like a bad plan to me.. all ur gonna consume is gonna be "green juice"? if yes then even if u do stick to it ur prob gonna be miserable.. u can effectively and efficiently lose fat without starving urself and u can do it while eating real food.. i dont see the advantage of a juice fast.. we were created to eat and drink...

1.will it give u the proper variety of protein types as well as enuff protein?

2.what kind of carbs are in it?

3.why do u think this is the best approach?

**justawara** · 02-09-2012, 07:06 AM

It isn't easy leaving everything behind but I have thought about this for sometime now. I believe if I don't do anything now I will never be able to in the future either. I am ready to do the required hard work and if that means I have to simply drink veggie juice for 60 days so be it.

Like I said many of you might not like the idea however I think it might just work fine. It was inspired by the movie fat sick and nearly dead. Not taking two months off but the juice fast. In the movie however the guy did the same thing as I am doing however he didn't really work out much.

I am planning on working out as well couple of times a day doing very light cardio and weight training until I can eat again and do the heavier bits.

I will be leaving NYC in about 7 days. I think I will do a proper log here once I get started just for the hell of it. I think it will help.

**--->>405<<---** · 02-09-2012, 07:18 AM

Originally Posted by justawara

It isn't easy leaving everything behind but I have thought about this for sometime now. I believe if I don't do anything now I will never be able to in the future either. I am ready to do the required hard work and if that means I have to simply drink veggie juice for 60 days so be it.

Like I said many of you might not like the idea however I think it might just work fine. It was inspired by the movie fat sick and nearly dead. Not taking two months off but the juice fast. In the movie however the guy did the same thing as I am doing however he didn't really work out much.

I am planning on working out as well couple of times a day doing very light cardio and weight training until I can eat again and do the heavier bits.

I will be leaving NYC in about 7 days. I think I will do a proper log here once I get started just for the hell of it. I think it will help.

my point exactly is that it DOESNT mean u have to drink vegetable juice only..thats just wat ur choosing to do and i think its a bad idea...

good luck...

**justawara** · 03-13-2012, 01:08 AM

I thought I provide an update. I did go on the fast which I was going to do for 60 days however due to some family issues I had to cut down the fast to 27 days. I have lost about 40lbs in this one month. I can imagine some of that is due to not enough solid food in my system however I have been drinking more then enough water and juice so it shouldn't be much of water weight.

I will continue to eat some salads and drink juice to see how far down I can take this before doing anything else.

**--->>405<<---** · 03-13-2012, 05:49 AM

Good job on the 40lbs.. I dont understand why u dont want to start a solid diet now??????? Why Eat salad and drink juice when u can have a good diet consisting of actual food? Doesnt make sense to me.. Who knows wat that diet is gonna do to ur metabolism? Salad and juice isnt many cals... Just doesnt sound good..