Hi, my name is Stephen as you can tell by my user name. I am 23 years old 6'3 and weigh around 235 right now. I am hoping to become more active and to start exercising, as I have not done so since high school. I have started a new job where I sit at my desk for the majority of the day, and I have noticed a slow but stead increase in my weight since then. I am also bad about drinking soft drinks and not watching what I eat. I am a very picky eater, and this seems to be a problem when trying to diet. When I was young around 2, I was put on a diet with no seasoning because I had a problem with my stomach. This in turn caused me to not like vegetables anymore. I have gotten better, but the only vegetables that I will eat are salad, baked potato, and sometimes onions and peppers. I have begun to walk on a trendmill at home to get myself more active, and once I adjust I plan to gradually increase the time I spend on it. Right now I am walking for about 15 minutes, and going about 3/4 of a mile I plan to increase this weekly. I would love some input on calorie intake as I think I'm taking in to few, at around 1300. Anyway any advice would be appreciated.

Hi Stephanie,
Welcome to the WLF!

It's great you took this first (and hardest!) step

There are two great resources, Free Diet Plans at SparkPeople and FitDay - Free Weight Loss and Diet Journal At either of those sites, you can track calories, nutrition & fitness. A 1300 calorie day seems a good starting point, but as your exercise increases, so should your calories.

As for sneaking vegies in - I make salads a lot - and one of the tricks is I take broccoli & carrots and grind them in the food processor until they are tiny bits. Then, I sprinkle them on stuff - salads, in hamburgers etc., so my family is getting more vegies then they think they are without ever noticing For salads, I've always used romaine lettuce, but now, I add some spinach leaves in as well - it doesn't effect the overall flavor or crunch but it adds a lot of nutrients.

Personally, I tend to stay away from potatoes - but instead I'll roast a sweet potato or yam instead. Color beats white in the nutritional world

Good luck, and consider creating a journal over in the diary section so that we can get to know you and follow along as you reach your goals

Thanks for the response, right now I seem to be good on the calories but I'm probably not eating the right kind of stuff. Today I had a lean pocket and a couple of other portioned stuff. Maybe not the best but I did stay in my calorie range.