Hello everyone, my name is Logan, and I have joined this message board in hopes of support and to answer some lingering questions I have regarding my weight loss tribulations. I have dieted quite a few times in the past, with success, but have always managed to put most of it back on. I will begin with a little background information on myself.

I am almost 26 years old, 6ft 1in and currently weigh 261 lbs. I am beginning my second week of my diet/lifestyle change and have lost 7lbs thus far (has always been easy the first couple weeks). My initial goal is 200 lbs, and we will see where it can go from there. For being a “bigger” guy, I am in pretty decent physical shape. I can walk miles at a time without getting tired and mix in jogging too with not much problems. I play sports quite often (but now is the off-season) and enjoy being physically active. My eating habits in the past and the inconsistency in physical activities has been my downfall. High cholesterol runs in my family, and I was borderline high-risk the last time I checked, so I have to keep that in mind. We are also expecting our first child in a few months, so that is my new motivation to start changing the way I eat and exercise for the rest of my life, so I can pass on the good health and food values to my young one(s). Now I will write a little bit about what I am currently doing to get back into shape / eat better.

I am currently shooting for an 1800 calorie diet (after researching and taking a few of those quizzes, etc). I believe my body is in the process of learning to accept less food again, as I am only eating until I am no longer hungry (but not full). I have been out walking 30-40 mins every evening for the last week (2+ miles each time). I would like to start up some circuit training workouts soon too, but always seem to burn myself out on that too quickly. Here is an example of what a current day’s food intake looks like (I have been writing in a food journal this entire past week):

7am Breakfast: Slim-Fast Optima shake (have drank these for many years, very accustomed to them)
10am Snack: 100 calorie packaged snack (crackers, chips, etc)
12pm Lunch: Big dinner plate sized salad (iceberg / spinach leaf mix, little cheese, light ranch, carrots, eggs, few bacon bits and croutons, and a piece of ham or turkey deli meat on top), half-cup cottage cheese, banana or apple, and some celery
3pm Snack:100 calorie packaged snack again
6 pm Dinner: Roasted chicken, frozen corn, and some form of potato
9 pm Snack: One more small 100-130 calorie snack food
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Water: I probably drink a gallon of water per day
Busy food: I chew a lot of Wrigley's ‘5’ gum and drink water when I am bored or start to feel hunger pangs
Sleep: Usually 7 hours, I am never tired and do not / can’t take naps
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As you can tell, I come from a carb/bread happy home. Is this bad per se? I have been within my 1800 calorie range the whole week. I know I don’t eat a wide array of vegetables (I wish I did) but there are only a few I can tolerate to eat.

Now for a couple questions:

If I shoot to eat 1800 calories per day but also burn off 300-400 calories from walking/jogging, do I have to eat those calories back to get to 1800 calories again? That has always confused me, but I want to make sure I do this right!

I take 3 multivitamins a day (Opti-mens by Optimum Nutrition) and 3 fish oil pills a day (I have been taking 2 of each for over a year, just now bumped to 3 per the label instructions). Is this all OK to take, and should there be anything else I should add?

As you see on my food intake, I eat every few hours as I start to feel a little bit of hunger arise (carbs). Are the little snack packs a bad thing? Should I not eat those snacks? I just don’t want to be starving in between meals, and feel that is a good way to tie me over a couple more hours.

Do I start doing circuit training workouts now too, with my walking/jogging, or get adjusted to this phase first and then transition into circuit training ?

Thank you for taking the time to read this, and I am ready to hear and accept any tips, criticism, etc. that you can offer me to make this my last bout with weight loss EVER!

-Logan

Hey Logan, sounds like you have a great plan!! I see you drink slim fast for breakfast...I do that as well, I love having slim fast for breakfast! It is easy and I can just grab as I walk out the door to work.

If you are aiming for 1800 calories a day, then that is the amount you should eat and you do not need to account for the calories that you burn from exercise.

I am not sure what the "snack packs" are but for my in between meal snacks I usually eat fruit or yogurt.

Best of luck on your journey!

-Adam

Thanks Adam!

The "snack packs" I eat are pre-packaged items such as Ritz Toasted crackers, Wheat Thins, Chips Ahoy thin crisps, etc. Just little snacks that are exactly 100 calories, and don't rely on me eating straight out of box to make sure I eat ONLY 100 cals

Ok, I know what the snack packs are, my girlfriend eats those too!

We definately have similar stories and I am looking forward to working with you as we try to reach our goals. I like your menu plan, you have well balanced meals planned out. For dinner I eat a lot of grilled chicken and fish. I think I am going to try to start making some salads for some meals too. Any good tips on that?

Luckily where I work, there is a big salad bar available with lots of options...but that is part of my downfall, I unfortunately keep my salads very basic, as I do not have a fond taste for veggies like tomatoes, cucumbers, etc...

But, I feel it is better than grabbing whatever else is for lunch (like todays grilled cheese and tomato soup or beef raviolis)! But hey, it's free

I may not be eating the most nutrient enriched salad ever, but it satisfies my hunger and is probably around 200-300 calories in total.

I have issues with the veggies, too. My salads are usually pretty bare of "good stuff" - lettuce...then on to the "bad stuff" - the cheese, croutons, sunflower seeds, ranch...sigh. I'm working on incorporating more fruits and veggies into my diet - hope you can, too.

Yep, definitely my downfall. I have been lessening the amount of dressing to one ladle scoop of ranch (90 cals according to the nutrition paper on the salad bar). Today I had the big salad, 1/2 cup cottage cheese, some pickle spears and baby carrots. If I eat it slow enough, it is enough food to keep me going for a few hours until my snack time

Hey, good work so far... I'm a little younger than you (20) but our situations sound just about the same. Even when I was 300 pounds I was still able to be active: hiking, lots of walking, mountain biking, etc., so when I started losing weight a lot of it came down to how poor my diet was... obviously my exercising became a lot more intense and regular to keep up with my weight loss, but it made a nice foundation for me.

If you're looking to start running, which I would definitely recommend, just make sure you start small and be smart about it. I started with an elliptical, worked up to an hour of that with full tension, then started alternating runs on pavement and on a treadmill until I felt comfortable enough to go only on pavement. I'd start out running .5 miles twice in a row with some walking in between just to give you an idea of how I started. I'd take it really slow too.

Like I said, good work , this is just the beginning, so make sure you stick with it. We all have crappy days, just remember one bad day doesn't break your diet.

Thanks conkel for the reply, looking forward to getting to where you are at activity wise!

Today was a good day, pretty much the same food idea as last week:

B(breakfast): Slimfast
L(lunch): Big salad, cottage cheese, carrots, and pickles
D(dinner): Campbell's Harvest Select Broccoli and Potato, slice of ww bread
S(snacks): Couple 100 calorie packs
E(exercise): Raining outside, but going to research some circuit training program for me to start on
W(water):6 bottles throughout the day, one glass for dinner

I know I still eat quite a bit of processed food (higher in carbs and sodium) but I hope to slowly transition away from those, once my body adjusts to not eating "as much" as before.

Speaking of exercise, anyone have a good program I can use, that will utilize my knockoff Bow-Flex machine? Let me know, thanks!

Hey Logan,

Good luck. Hopefully you can make this work now. I was probably close to your wieght when I was 26 (I'm 35 now), had my first son at 26 and was pretty active back then, playing sports and all. Marriage and kids seemed to take over all my time and I just got in worse and worse shape. I wish I'd been serious about it 10 years ago. Keep up the good work.

Thanks for the kind words Bert

I didn't get the chance to exercise last night, kinda bummed me out, but found a website that seemed to have a decent circuit training / cardio workout using my Bow-flex look a like. I am also going to see, schedule wise, if I can get into the weight room at work, after work, to do some lifting / cardio workouts.

Hope to lay out a workout plan though today..anyone's suggestions are welcomed!

Hey Logan,

Good job on the eating healthy! I have never used a Bow Flex before, so I don't really know any workouts for it. As far as my workout, my weight lifting is pretty straight forward, I do a wide range of exercises at the gym. I really focus on my cardio...my workouts always include the stairclimber and running, either on a treadmill or outside (which I prefer).

Congrats on your healthy eating and hopefully you are able to get in a good workout today!

-Adam

Thanks Adam, so far so good!

I am going to shoot for working out in the weight room here at work, where I would have access to free weights, treadmills, ellipticals, etc..and also be able to run on the indoor track (11 laps is a mile on this track, I believe). I would benefit the most from this, so may be looking at a workout geared towards this setup 75%+ of the time. We shall see!

Happpy Veteran's Day!!

That is awesome that your work has a gym right there! I would love that. I at least joined a gym that is downtown and right by where I work, so that has been a big help in keeping me motivated to hit up the gym right after work.

Yeah, it is nice. I work at a school, so I have access to some stuff. Just checked it out and they added some new equipment. I will work on a routine and should be able to start up (schedule wise) next week and will just continue walking/jogging etc in the mean time.