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help needed on where to start



 
 
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  #1  
Old April 20th, 2004, 12:01 AM
Diane Nelson
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default help needed on where to start

Please give advice on how I can start to lose weight. I need some good
advice. I've read some, but would like to hear some good stuff. I have no
will to stick to anything. I never exercise. I get out of breath very
easily. I weigh 340lbs. I'm 5'6" and I can barely get around.

I wanted to have weight loss surgery, but I have mental illness and I can't
find a doctor that feels I am stable enough.

I want to lose this weight. I moved in with my fiance' one year ago and he
is really fit. I want to do things with him, but I am stuck to the couch
because just getting up to use bathroom sends my heart racing.

I'm in need of some help. I have tried to exercise to tapes, but I can't
even stand there very long let alone do what they are doing.

At 340lbs I am very much in need of a boost. I was thinking if I joined your
group here it would be a good start.

I usually only eat once a day around 7 0r 8 at night. I have a big serving.
I starve most days until I eat my one meal a day.

I take medication that I have been told lowers my metabolism by 30%. I have
gained all this weight since I began taking the medication back in 1996.

Any advice would be appreciated. I feel lost to help myself. I feel like
it's useless. I had a dream that I would have the surgery and for months I
was planning on being thin again. So when the surgeon told me he would not
do surgery I got really sad. I was looking forward to an easy way out. That
is if there is one. I had given up on losing weight the natural way. Now it
seems that is my only way out.

I want to be healthy and active again. I am trying to quit smoking too.
Tomorrow will be my first day without smoking. That is another story.

I don't have much money to buy good food. I have a very low budget for food.
Is there a cheap way to eat good? If so what kind of things could I buy that
would be cheap?

Please help. I am desperate.

Thanks

Dianne


  #2  
Old April 20th, 2004, 04:48 AM
Kasey
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default help needed on where to start

Greetings, Dianne:

Welcome to the group.

I get out of breath very easily. I weigh 340lbs. I'm 5'6" and I can

barely get around.

Less than seven months ago, I was in a nearly identical situation. I'm
5'8" and I weighed 365 pounds. I could not walk more than a city block
without getting short of breath. I had to sit on my bed to catch my
breath whenever I brought a load of laundry up from the basement.

Since October, I've lost 90 pounds and am walking more than a mile. I
went to an office building today and walked easily up two flights of
stairs to my appointment.

I usually only eat once a day around 7 0r 8 at night. I have a big

serving. I starve most days until I eat my one meal a day.

Big mistake. Starving most days is not helping your health or your
metabolism. You should eat three meals a day; some people recommend
five or six small meals daily.

You would do well to consult with your primary care provider, then
with a nutritionist. She can develop a way of eating that takes into
consideration your medical issues, your lifestyle and your budget.

I don't have much money to buy good food. I have a very low budget

for food. Is there a cheap way to eat good? If so what kind of things
could I buy that would be cheap?

I know other people have not found this to be the case, but my current
WOE is saving me $80 a month. Once I gave up the daily box of Dove ice
cream bars, thrice weekly meals at Burger King, two pastries with my
afternoon coffee at Starbucks, various snacks such as cashews and
cookies, and cut my portions in half, I had money to burn.

You don't say where you live (if in the U.S., what part of the
country, or in the UK or another country) so it's hard to give
specific advice about what good foods are cheap. I'm also not sure
what you consider to be cheap. Perhaps if you list what you eat now
and how much you are able to spend, members of the group can suggest
good foods that are less expensive than what you are currently buying.

Any advice would be appreciated.


Many people here, including me, swear by fitday.com. It helps to some
people to know how many calories they are consuming, and how much to
cut back.

If you use fitday.com for a week, then come back and post what you've
eaten, people here will be able to help you find inexpensive,
healthful food and offer guidance as to how to lose weight.

As always, YMMV.

Kasey
365/275/???
  #3  
Old April 20th, 2004, 10:08 AM
Lictor
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default help needed on where to start

First, welcome here

"Diane Nelson" wrote in message
...
I've read some, but would like to hear some good stuff. I have no
will to stick to anything. I never exercise.


You don't *need* exercise to lose weight, but it does help, especially with
maintaining the lost weight. However, exercise will be easier and easier as
you lose weight. But, as you have noticed, given your current weight, pretty
much everything *is* exercise. So, you don't need to do any kind of
physicial feat to call it exercise. Just walking around your block three
times a week would be exercise. Since gravity is working against you, why
not try to remove gravity? Water is a great help there, I'm not even
thinking swimming, but stuff like aquaerobics. I know that swimming pools
are not really comfortable at your weight level, but you usually have
classes for obese people, so you wouldn't have to face slim people looking
at you. Even body therapy (massages for instance, either from a
professionnal or your fiance) is an option to begin with - just feeling more
comfortable in your body makes it less of a dead weight and more active.
As for the will, it's a very relative thing... Do you really think all these
slim people are that full of willpower? I stopped smoking a while ago, and
people were wondering where I had gotten all that willpower, but the truth
is that I didn't have to use any. Actually, if your diet works on sheer
willpower, it's bound to fail sooner or later. Willpower alone only goes so
far. You have to find a diet that fits you well enough that you can keep it
for *life*, and this means it should be easy enough on you that after a
while, it will become the natural thing to do for you.
So, yes, you will need some *will* to decide what you want for yourself and
to actually try to accomplish it. But the "diet" itself shouldn't use much
willpower.

I get out of breath very
easily. I weigh 340lbs. I'm 5'6" and I can barely get around.


You will have to be very careful with protein intake, this looks like you
don't have that much lean mass you can afford to burn with an unbalanced
diet. You should also try to find a *good* doctor to help you, because
losing this amount of weight is a real stress for your body, you have to be
careful about going not too fast and not starving yourself.

I wanted to have weight loss surgery, but I have mental illness and I

can't
find a doctor that feels I am stable enough.


I don't know the exact nature of your mental illness, but if you find a
doctor who does the surgery despite the illness, he won't be very honest.
Mental conditions (especially eating disorders of course) are
contraindications to surgery. What kind of surgery were you thinking about?
I would be very cautious about these (stomach, intestine surgery), because
they don't work miracles as many people seem to think :
- the surgery itself can fail, leading to complications or even death - and
obese people are more likely to get these than the rest.
- the surgery can hurt your health, by preventing you to eat enough
(especially proteins, meat is usually not well tolerated).
- the lost weight can remain very modest, for some people it's less than
20lbs. The surgery itself won't make you slim, it will just make you
slightly less obese.
- you will need to do a *diet* on top of the surgery. It's perfectly
possible to keep gaining weight after such a surgery (it's harder with
bypass, but pretty easy with gastric volume reduction) - just eat ice cream
all day long in small servings.
That's why, at least here (in France), surgery must meet several strict
conditions :
- BMI 40
- *and* weight related life threatening complication (diabete, heart
diseases...)
- *and* failed attempt at regular diet that has been tried for at least a
year
- *and* psychotherapy (both to try to lose weight and to assess you for
surgery).

Since you will *have* to diet after the surgery, why not try it now? Same
with dealing with your psychological troubles?

I want to lose this weight. I moved in with my fiance' one year ago and he
is really fit. I want to do things with him, but I am stuck to the couch
because just getting up to use bathroom sends my heart racing.


That's the usual deadloop... You're too heavy to move, so you move less. And
moving less causes you to lose lean mass (muscles), which makes it even
harder to move. And both the lost muscles (lowered metabolism) and lack of
physical activity make you heavier.
Somehow, you will have to break it somewhere. But I don't think that's the
right place to ask about that right now, because if your heart really feels
like this and if this is really from the physical stress (and not anxiety
related), you *need* to consult a doctor before you try to do any kind of
exercise.

I'm in need of some help. I have tried to exercise to tapes, but I can't
even stand there very long let alone do what they are doing.


Don't! The last thing you should do is trying to do high intensity stuff! At
best, you will only discourage yourself, and at worst, you will hurt
yourself! Besides, some of these tapes are high intensity (big no-no at your
current weight, you would ruin your joints!), most are not designed for
obese people (some movements should just not be done with 300+lbs on the
joints)... With the way your heart behaves, and your lack of exercise, you
either need to have a professionnal looking after you or to do it very
slowly.
The only exercise I would advice to do on your own (after seeing an heart
doctor) is walking - at your own pace and short distances at first. Anyway,
with your weight, walking is going to burn more than those slim people are
burning doing high intensity stuff - just picture them walking around with a
200lbs backpack! Swimming or *light* aquaerobics would be other options.
Just stay away from anything high-impact, high intensity or unmonitored. You
don't need these right now, and they will hurt you.

I usually only eat once a day around 7 0r 8 at night. I have a big

serving.
I starve most days until I eat my one meal a day.


And then, you tell us you have no willpower?! How many slim people do you
think try to *starve* themselves? How many actually try to do aerobic tapes
wearing a heavy backpack?
You really have to *stop* doing that. Don't you see the relationships
between the starving in the day and all these night meals? The later are the
consequences of the frustration of the first... I bet your ideal goal would
be to have this single large serving, and nothing else. But things just do
not work that way. The frustration only paves the way for the excesses. What
you are doing is a great recipe to develop boulimia, not to lose weight. If
you reduce the frustration, you will also reduce the excesses. Besides, a
single big serving a day is not very healthy, it's a huge stress on the body
(digestion, blood sugar...).
Many overweight people have a manicheist way of thinking, they think in
binary mode : either you're starving yourself, or you're trying to make your
stomach burst. Losing weight is also learning to walk the way of moderation,
to discover that there is a middle ground. It's not about trying to starve
yourself, it's about eating *enough*.

I'm going to go with the usual behavioural advice :
- Don't focus on eating healthy stuff right now. You don't need to go into
binary thinking and do all the opposite of what you're doing to lose weight,
you just need to change some habits. Eating healthy stuff won't make you
lose weight (though it will make you healthier - but just losing weight will
also do that, one step at a time), eating *less* will.
- Stop considering magical solutions. The plain and simple truth is that
losing weight is a very simple thing : if you eat less energy than you use,
you will lose weight. Now, the trick is to find a way to eat less that does
not make you feel like you're starving yourself.
- Stop trying to starve yourself during the day. Do several smaller meals
instead of one big one. It's better to do six meals a day than a single one
anyway. Don't eat if you're not hungry. Stop eating when you don't feel
hungry anymore (or when you think you have had enough calories if you really
can't feel satiety).
- Do real meals : sitting down, using a plate and fork... Try to chew and
taste the food, your meal should last at least 15 minutes. Even if you're
going to eat ice cream, make it a meal.
- If you have some compulsion to eat your whole plate, just serve yourself a
small plate. If you want more, get up and go in the kitchen to refill your
small plate.
- Most meal do not need to be complete. I mean, you don't need to have a
start, a main course, cheese, salad, dessert for all your meal. A meal can
be a single main course. Just don't try to use that as an excuse to try to
starve yourself
- It's ok to be a little hungry before a meal, actually, you should not eat
if you don't feel that (if you don't know what normal hungry is, just skip
breakfast but eat lunch at noon : that's normal hungry). But it's not ok to
delay the meal until you are revenous - that's a great way to lose control
and over-eat.
- Watch how "normal" slim people eat (I mean, real slim people, not the ones
who are on perpetual diet). If your fiance is a normal eater (and not a
dieter), just watch him. Or invite friends at home, watch people in
restaurants... There's a lot to learn from observation. Do they seem to
starve themselves? Do they try to eat as much as they can during the meal,
like they're going to starve until the next one? Do they always finish
whatever is served to them? Do they avoid some kind of food because it's
"fattening"? Do they try to eat as much "non-fattening" food in order to
avoid being tempted by "fattening" food?
- Try to write down everything you it. Make a diary. Write down your
feelings. That could be something like :
Date&Hour/Where&With Who/Food/Quantity/Feelings (emotions, hunger,
satiety...).
After a while, read old parts of it, try to spot where things went out of
control and why.
- Get rid of the problematic food (the one you binge on at night) in your
house. And I don't mean you should make an orgy out of it until the stock is
gone or that you should force feed your fiance with it or try to give it out
to friends! I mean throw it away, into the garbage can. Now, I don't mean
you should never eat that kind of food again, I just mean it's not wise to
have buckets of it at home - that's what you do, right? If you want to have
some of that food, just go buy the smaller package you can find and eat it
slowly (meal style, not standing next to the fridge!). Try to make that a
pleasant experience, taste the food fully, without feeling guilt about it.
If you're not hungry anymore, throw away the leftovers instead of forcing
yourself to finish the package - yes, garbage can again. If in a few days,
you feel like having some again, you can always repeat the whole process.
The food doesn't disappear when you stop having it in the fridge, you don't
need to stock on it, that's the job of the store. Besides, walking to that
store is giving you some exercise
- Food is not fattening. Really. You can eat French fries, cakes, chocolate,
ice cream and all, and still lose weight. And you can eat healthy food and
stay fat. I promise, I'm still eating French fries from time to time, cakes
a couple of times a week, chocolate daily, and I'm losing weight. What is
fattening is to eat *too much* food. If I ate five cakes a way, I would gain
weight - that's what I have done for years. If I eat a couple of cakes a
week, I lose weight. No miracle there, as I said above, it's all about
*moderation*, not about seeing things in black and white.

I guess (I hope!) you're seeing psychiatrist because of your mental
condition. If so, tell him about your desire to lose weight and ask for
support, that's his job. If he doesn't feel up to it, or if he thinks that
should be handled by someone else, ask for the name of a intelligent
psychiatrist specialized in eating disorders. Because you do have an eating
disorder, nightly binge eating is one. I think you might get a lot more help
from a psychiatrist (or any kind of psychotherapist specialized in eating
disorders) than from a dietician (they usually ignore completely the
psychological issues, and many try to change all your habits at once, this
just doesn't work well).

I take medication that I have been told lowers my metabolism by 30%. I

have
gained all this weight since I began taking the medication back in 1996.


What kind of medication if I may ask? Some medication, especially for mental
illnesses, do a lot more than lowering your metabolism. Some can really mess
up the food intake regulation mechanism (hunger, satiety), which is a lot
worse.
This is not helping, but you can't blame everything on it. Lack of exercise
and starving yourself during the day has lowered your metabolism by a lot
more than 30%! Besides, the natural way to adjust to a lowered metabolism is
just to eat less (unless your metabolism is really low, like bellow 1200
calories), that's what a bunch of self-regulated slim people do by instinct.
The lowered metabolism will hinder weight loss, but it's not a race anyway,
and even with a modest weight loss exercising will become an option again
(and this can really boost your metabolism). It also made gaining weight
easier.

Any advice would be appreciated. I feel lost to help myself. I feel like

it's useless.

I think that's the real problem. I hope I'm not sounding harsh, I really do
not intend to, but here is what you are saying :
- I gained weight because of a medication
- I have no will, I can't lose weight by myself
- I was denied the miracle solution that would have worked. That solution
was surgery. I would have given my body in the care of the surgeon, and he
would have made it go slim for me.
- I can't help myself, I need someone to make me go slim.

The only person who can decide that you will lose weight is yourself. Not
even your fiance can decide that for you. And for that, you will need some
will. You will even need some level of egocentricity - I guess that like a
many obese people, you do care a lot for others. That's a great quality, but
this should also extend to yourself. To lose weight, you will also need to
accept yourself, it's not a battle against yourself and your body, it's a
battle *along* with them. This means you will have to partly accept your
current body, and not just that ideal slim body off in the distance. If you
can manage that, you will be able to enjoy every single pound lost - because
you will like your body in all its intermediate states, instead of only
looking at the final picture, and you will also accept more easily the
setbacks and plateau we all experience.
You managed to gain all that weight on your own, with only a little help
from the medication. Why should you not be able to walk the path in reverse?
Only one person in the world can decide how much food you eat at a given
meal, and that's yourself. And to be able to tell when enough is enough, you
do have to listen to yourself. No dietician can tell you when you're not
hungry anymore...

I had a dream that I would have the surgery and for months I
was planning on being thin again. So when the surgeon told me he would not
do surgery I got really sad. I was looking forward to an easy way out.

That
is if there is one.


There is an easy way out, actually, it's so easy that many people do not try
it or even think about it. Eat Less, Move Your Body More. It's free, you
don't need a dietician for that, no guru doctor... Surgery comes with its
own problems, it's not a miracle solution. I feel something really wrong
with the act of mutilating your body in order to achieve weight loss. I know
that for some people, it's a last chance solution, but surgery is the thing
that feels sad for me.

I had given up on losing weight the natural way. Now it seems that is my

only way out.

What do you call the natural way? What did you try?
Trying to starve yourself during the day and bingeing the whole night is not
the natural way. Just look at real (non-dieting) slim people. Or have a look
at (the few remaining) slim kids. That's what maintaining (or losing) weight
the natural way should be. Usually, dieting people do all the opposite...

I want to be healthy and active again. I am trying to quit smoking too.
Tomorrow will be my first day without smoking. That is another story.


One thing at a time Trying to lose weight *and* to stop smoking at the
same time is a lot of things at once.
According to most doctors, the tobacco is hurting you more than the extra
fat. Without the cigarette, you heart should be doing a lot better, so
walking might actually become an option again. I also noticed that my tastes
for different foods shifted when I stopped smoking. Eating fat and sweet
things is pretty typical among smokers. Smoking destroys your sense of
smell, so you don't get much in the way of aromas from food. As a result,
many smokers seek food with pleasant textures (soft tender stuff) and strong
tastes (salt, sugar). This means stuff like French fries, ice cream... They
also stay away from vegies, because they find them tasteless (they trully
are if your sense of smell is lacking). The sense of smell is the thing I
recovered the fastest when I stopped smoking, along with my breath. I hadn't
eaten vegies or fruits for years, but now I actually enjoy them. Not because
they're healthy, but because they actually taste good!
If you stop smoking, you will also have to accept that you *might* gain some
weight. It's not guaranteed, some people do not gain a single pound when
they stop. Actually, it's more of a risk for slim people than for very fat
ones - tobacco is useful to stay underweight, so quitting it hurts
underweight people more. Even if you gain some weight, it should not be more
than a few pounds. At least, from a strictly biological point of view.
Psychology can make you compensate the lack of cigarette with food, but
that's where your psy can be a great help.

I don't have much money to buy good food. I have a very low budget for

food.
Is there a cheap way to eat good? If so what kind of things could I buy

that
would be cheap?


Yes, there is a cheap way. Buy whatever you usually buy, but in lesser
quantities Yes, even if you throw away some food as I wrote above. If
instead of eating a bucket of ice cream a night, you eat one a week, that's
a lot of saved money!
Again, you don't need any kind of special food to lose weight. You don't
need special pills, many don't work or are harmfull (especially for the
heart). You don't need overpriced diet food - it just doesn't work (studies
have shown people just eat more of them). You don't even need veggies -
they're for being healthy, not for losing weight.
The only thing you might need is to cook a little, though that's not an
obligation either. But cooking can also be less expensive than buying
pre-made food.
You don't need money to exercise, at your current weight, walking in the
best exercise you can do. And you only need a pair of good shoes for that.
Swimming is also a very good exercise, and swimming pools are not that
expensive.
Since I started losing weight, I actually cut my food budget by at least
30%.


  #4  
Old April 20th, 2004, 01:15 PM
Beverly
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default help needed on where to start

You've already received some excellent info so I'll just say "Welcome to
the group".
I hope to see you posting often and let us know of your progress.

Beverly


"Diane Nelson" wrote in message
...
Please give advice on how I can start to lose weight. I need some good
advice. I've read some, but would like to hear some good stuff. I have no
will to stick to anything. I never exercise. I get out of breath very
easily. I weigh 340lbs. I'm 5'6" and I can barely get around.

I wanted to have weight loss surgery, but I have mental illness and I

can't
find a doctor that feels I am stable enough.

I want to lose this weight. I moved in with my fiance' one year ago and

he
is really fit. I want to do things with him, but I am stuck to the couch
because just getting up to use bathroom sends my heart racing.

I'm in need of some help. I have tried to exercise to tapes, but I can't
even stand there very long let alone do what they are doing.

At 340lbs I am very much in need of a boost. I was thinking if I joined

your
group here it would be a good start.

I usually only eat once a day around 7 0r 8 at night. I have a big

serving.
I starve most days until I eat my one meal a day.

I take medication that I have been told lowers my metabolism by 30%. I

have
gained all this weight since I began taking the medication back in 1996.

Any advice would be appreciated. I feel lost to help myself. I feel like
it's useless. I had a dream that I would have the surgery and for months

I
was planning on being thin again. So when the surgeon told me he would

not
do surgery I got really sad. I was looking forward to an easy way out.

That
is if there is one. I had given up on losing weight the natural way. Now

it
seems that is my only way out.

I want to be healthy and active again. I am trying to quit smoking too.
Tomorrow will be my first day without smoking. That is another story.

I don't have much money to buy good food. I have a very low budget for

food.
Is there a cheap way to eat good? If so what kind of things could I buy

that
would be cheap?

Please help. I am desperate.

Thanks

Dianne




  #5  
Old April 20th, 2004, 01:42 PM
Patricia Heil
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default help needed on where to start

Well, you have to start by getting off the couch
and walking across the room at least five times
a day until your heart stops racing. I mean, how
do you get to work in the morning?

You also need to get to a doctor and get your
heart checked out. Make sure he takes blood
and tests for hyperthyroid condition-- too high
a rate. I don't know if it makes your heart race,
but it does affect the heart.

Keep a food diary and start learning to eat right.

I disagree with Lictor, the only way you can burn
the calories you have to take in for good nutrition,
is to exercise. It is also the only way to prevent
adult onset diabetes and it prevents and treats a
number of other health problems. No drugs can
prevent these conditions, and treating them can
cost $6000 a year according to some pricing I
did. So exercising and eating right are the cheapest
way to be healthy.



"Diane Nelson" wrote in message
...
Please give advice on how I can start to lose weight. I need some good
advice. I've read some, but would like to hear some good stuff. I have no
will to stick to anything. I never exercise. I get out of breath very
easily. I weigh 340lbs. I'm 5'6" and I can barely get around.

I wanted to have weight loss surgery, but I have mental illness and I

can't
find a doctor that feels I am stable enough.

I want to lose this weight. I moved in with my fiance' one year ago and he
is really fit. I want to do things with him, but I am stuck to the couch
because just getting up to use bathroom sends my heart racing.

I'm in need of some help. I have tried to exercise to tapes, but I can't
even stand there very long let alone do what they are doing.

At 340lbs I am very much in need of a boost. I was thinking if I joined

your
group here it would be a good start.

I usually only eat once a day around 7 0r 8 at night. I have a big

serving.
I starve most days until I eat my one meal a day.

I take medication that I have been told lowers my metabolism by 30%. I

have
gained all this weight since I began taking the medication back in 1996.

Any advice would be appreciated. I feel lost to help myself. I feel like
it's useless. I had a dream that I would have the surgery and for months I
was planning on being thin again. So when the surgeon told me he would not
do surgery I got really sad. I was looking forward to an easy way out.

That
is if there is one. I had given up on losing weight the natural way. Now

it
seems that is my only way out.

I want to be healthy and active again. I am trying to quit smoking too.
Tomorrow will be my first day without smoking. That is another story.

I don't have much money to buy good food. I have a very low budget for

food.
Is there a cheap way to eat good? If so what kind of things could I buy

that
would be cheap?

Please help. I am desperate.

Thanks

Dianne




  #6  
Old April 20th, 2004, 02:22 PM
Lictor
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default help needed on where to start

"Patricia Heil" wrote in message
...
You also need to get to a doctor and get your
heart checked out. Make sure he takes blood
and tests for hyperthyroid condition-- too high
a rate. I don't know if it makes your heart race,
but it does affect the heart.


Totally agreed there. You also want to have the big three checked (glucose,
cholesterol, triglycerides). Potassium level (can cause fast heartbeats)
might be interresting to know as well as stuff like iron and calcium.
Creatinine dosage, along with uric acid and urea, to see how the kidneys
have handled the load so far. And a few others your doctor will probably
think about Blood tests are rather inexpensive (at least, they are here,
got three full sheets of dosages, that's around 15 tests, for under $50),
and they can help spot a lot of problems long before they become a serious
issue.

I disagree with Lictor, the only way you can burn
the calories you have to take in for good nutrition,
is to exercise.


If you don't eat the calories in the first place, you don't have to burn
them And she shouldn't have to starve herself in order to lose weight. I
bet her nightly meals weight a *lot* of calories. Her metabolism is probably
not as low as she thinks it is. I don't think she would have to go under the
1200 calories mark to actually lose weight, and it's possible to get decent
quality nutrition above that mark (with eventually a good multivitamin). Her
stores for everything storeable are probably as high as possible from all
she ate, so I doubt that she's facing some major malnutrition problem in the
next months.
I didn't say exercise was bad. It's a good way to stabilize the weight
(because of upped metabolism), and it's also a good way to keep a decent
portion size while dieting (again, mainly metabolism). Unless you spend
hours doing high intensity stuff, the amount of calories that will get burnt
is pretty low anyway. In her current condition, long duration high intensity
stuff is not really an option. So, loss of weight will have to happen by
eating less. Once some weight is lost, doing medium duration low intensity
exercise (like walking) will become a real option again. Again, there are
perfectly slim people who sit on their butts all day long. They just don't
eat much.
She's already trying to lose weight *and* to stop smoking. That's already
quite a chunk to deal with. Doing both will actually improve her health a
lot. Eating healthy stuff and heavy exercising can wait for a later time
IMHO.

It is also the only way to prevent adult onset diabetes and it prevents

and treats a number of other health problems.

And smoking is the highest co-factor in diabete complications and in heart
problems issue (along with cancer and a lot of other things). In both these
cases, quitting the ASAP cigarette is the first thing to do. She's already
doing that, and it will make exercising (and eating healthy stuff) a lot
easier.
Losing weight is also a good way to prevent both diabete and heart
conditions. Body fat has a direct link with insulin resistance. That is, if
you have some in the first place. Some obese will just never get diabete,
just like around 20% of the type 2 are slim. That's why Diane needs to see a
doctor and have a complete blood checkup. Exercise does help with diabete,
but I would still rate it under weight loss. Eating healthy does help with
health (cancer, heart...), but I would rate this the lowest.

If I were to sort out priorities, I would go :
1- Stop smoking.
2- Lose some weight, no matter what she eats
3- Exercise
4- Eat healthy

1 is an absolute priority. It compounds with most obesity related problems
and it comes with health problems on its own. It will give immediate relief
to her heart. It will also make things like exercising easier. 2-4 all give
progressive benefits, but 1 gives instant benefits. The first day you quit
smoking, you already start to get real benefits (lowered heart rate, higher
oxygen content in the blood, higher stamina, better sense of smell).
2 has a huge impact on health. Also, it is gratifying, lost weight is
visible. It comes with benefits beyond health. Besides, that's what Diane
wants to do the most
3-4 could be reversed in order, they're pretty much equivalent in impact. 3
helps with weight loss, especially long term, but you don't *need* it. 4
doesn't help with weight loss IMHO 4 helps with overall health. Unless Diane
does a blood checkup and has a condition that needs immediate care (these
are rare, even cholesterol kills slowly), this one can be integrated in her
diet little by little.

That's a lot of things to do at once. Diane seems to be someone unsure of
herself and of her "willpower". Trying to do too much at once spells
failure. Trying only to do a couple well and getting positive feedback (and
losing weight and quitting smoking both give quasi-instant feedback) seems
more doable to me. Once enough self confidence is built, both exercise and
an healthy diet can fit in a piece at a time.


  #7  
Old April 20th, 2004, 04:08 PM
janice
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default help needed on where to start

On Tue, 20 Apr 2004 11:08:27 +0200, "Lictor"
wrote:

You don't *need* exercise to lose weight, but it does help, especially with
maintaining the lost weight.


How refreshing to hear someone say this! I could list a dozen or more
reasons why exercise is important and wonderful, but for people to
imply that you can't lose weight without it, especially if you are
very heavy, runs quite contrary to my experience. This is especially
true for people who overeat significantly - the effect that exercise
can have in the face of hundreds of excess calories is bound to be
minimal.

janice (who walks several miles a day for other reasons than weight
loss)

  #8  
Old April 20th, 2004, 06:40 PM
jmk
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Posts: n/a
Default help needed on where to start

On 4/20/2004 8:15 AM, Beverly wrote:
You've already received some excellent info so I'll just say "Welcome to
the group".
I hope to see you posting often and let us know of your progress.

Beverly


I second what Beverly said. Welcome!

--
jmk in NC
  #9  
Old April 20th, 2004, 06:51 PM
Michelle Guy
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default help needed on where to start

The first step has been made, you have admitted that you need to lose
weight. No quick solution is going to help, small changes first then
increase. Go to your doctor find out if there is any medical issues
that would make a weight loss program unadvisable. Start by making
yourself small acheivable goals. The first would be to find out how
much you eat and drink normally. Keep a journal for a week. The next
goal would be to maybe add a morning snack if you can't face
breakfast, something healthy some carbs some protein. May be a piece
of fruit and a yogurt, start with something light and build up.
Another goal could be to increase drinking water and cutting back on
sodas coffee etc. As to exercise, maybe a chair aerobic video,
something you can do sitting down until you can manage more. Maybe
just a gentle walk, start with 5 min and then add 2 minutes a week.
The main message is start slowly and build up. Good luck and keep us
inform

Michelle
Ozzie in Switzerland

WW WI 69.8 / 59.8 / 61kg 134 lbsed


On Mon, 19 Apr 2004 18:01:49 -0500, "Diane Nelson"
wrote:

Please give advice on how I can start to lose weight. I need some good
advice. I've read some, but would like to hear some good stuff. I have no
will to stick to anything. I never exercise. I get out of breath very
easily. I weigh 340lbs. I'm 5'6" and I can barely get around.

I wanted to have weight loss surgery, but I have mental illness and I can't
find a doctor that feels I am stable enough.

I want to lose this weight. I moved in with my fiance' one year ago and he
is really fit. I want to do things with him, but I am stuck to the couch
because just getting up to use bathroom sends my heart racing.

I'm in need of some help. I have tried to exercise to tapes, but I can't
even stand there very long let alone do what they are doing.

At 340lbs I am very much in need of a boost. I was thinking if I joined your
group here it would be a good start.

I usually only eat once a day around 7 0r 8 at night. I have a big serving.
I starve most days until I eat my one meal a day.

I take medication that I have been told lowers my metabolism by 30%. I have
gained all this weight since I began taking the medication back in 1996.

Any advice would be appreciated. I feel lost to help myself. I feel like
it's useless. I had a dream that I would have the surgery and for months I
was planning on being thin again. So when the surgeon told me he would not
do surgery I got really sad. I was looking forward to an easy way out. That
is if there is one. I had given up on losing weight the natural way. Now it
seems that is my only way out.

I want to be healthy and active again. I am trying to quit smoking too.
Tomorrow will be my first day without smoking. That is another story.

I don't have much money to buy good food. I have a very low budget for food.
Is there a cheap way to eat good? If so what kind of things could I buy that
would be cheap?

Please help. I am desperate.

Thanks

Dianne


  #10  
Old April 21st, 2004, 12:24 AM
Diane Nelson
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Posts: n/a
Default help needed on where to start

Thanks so much people for your advice. This is some great stuff. I'm glad I
can come in here and read it a few times this week. Thanks so much.

As far as some answers. I have had a good physical and even blood work on my
heart. The doctor feels I can do some walking by started really slow. He has
advised me to exercise everyday. Even if that means going downstairs and
washing clothes.

I am schizophrenic. I take risperdal and serequel. I have been stable on
medication for four years. I see a psychiatrist every few months.

I don't eat too much sweets or junk food. I never have left over food in
fridge. I eat once a day because I am too lazy to cook more often. I usually
make meat and potatoes kind of meals. Very home cooking kind of meals.
Sometimes when there is left overs my fiance and I will make another meal
even later in the night. So we eat once around 6 7 8 pm and then again maybe
at 11 pm. Then we stay up until about 1 am.

I work from home for the government. So I just walk into my office and sit a
few hours a day and work.

My fiance has been getting everything I need throughout the day like coffee
or whatever I need. My fiance has been very flusterated with me because he
does things for me while I sit on the couch and do anything. I don't want to
leave the couch because it makes me out of breath or it aches to get around.

Basically he is fed up with taking care of me everyday. Lately I have
started doing my own stuff so I am getting more active. I guess that is a
start.

I never used to leave the house and my fiance did all the errands. Lately I
have been trying to do some shopping with him. It's extremely hard to walk
through entire store, but lately I have been doing it.

I decided a couple weeks ago to get the mail at the end of a 75 foot
driveway. I still haven't done that yet. I haven't done it because I don't
like to be seen this huge and they are working on the hwy out there. Lots of
men in front of my driveway working.

I live in the united states up North.

I have been to fit day, but I put in my eating for one day and then I have
not done it for months. I like the features.

I have no real schedule to sleep. I work all different hours never the same.
I work a weird shift to maximize how many hours I get.

I don't have much to spend on groceries each month. My fiance and I togther
spend about $120.00 tops on our groceries. We never eat out. I have school
loans in excess of 50,000 dollars and lots of other expenses. After bills we
usually only have about 120 to live off for the rest of the month. Just want
you to know why my food budget is so low. We get a couple boxes of food from
the food shelves each month to balance out what we need. The food shelf has
both fattening and healthy foods.

If I ever eat junk food it is a special trip to store for fiance. I have
never bought junk food with my groceries ever. I was raised that way. My
parents would always make a special trip for that junk. When I was young it
was usually some kind of junk food on a friday night or something. Now it is
maybe twice a month.

I'll have to start that diary and post it here for a few days along with at
fitday. Then you can see where I am going wrong. I am going to do as you
advised and eat some thing for breakfast and lunch. Make three meals. I will
start that tomorrow.

I love fruit but haven't been able to afford it lately. Sometimes the food
shelves give canned fruit and that goes over well with me.

Yeah I am in debt to the max. I didn't know I was going to become mentally
ill and it came on out of the blue. So I had many financial obligations that
built over a few years that I received disability and didn't work. I didn't
want to do bankruptcy. I believe in paying your debts off. So because I lost
my source of income for several years I got into great debt.

In September I have one bill that will be paid and will allow me to have
$200 more a month for food. So it's charity from food shelves and my budget
of money for food until then.

Tomorrow night I will post what I ate that day and do that for awhile. Would
like your comments at that time.

Thanks so much for the welcome here. I feel very happy to be a part of your
community. Will get back to you all tomorrow evening. Thanks so much for all
your advice.

Dianne
"Lictor" wrote in message
...
First, welcome here

"Diane Nelson" wrote in message
...
I've read some, but would like to hear some good stuff. I have no
will to stick to anything. I never exercise.


You don't *need* exercise to lose weight, but it does help, especially

with
maintaining the lost weight. However, exercise will be easier and easier

as
you lose weight. But, as you have noticed, given your current weight,

pretty
much everything *is* exercise. So, you don't need to do any kind of
physicial feat to call it exercise. Just walking around your block three
times a week would be exercise. Since gravity is working against you, why
not try to remove gravity? Water is a great help there, I'm not even
thinking swimming, but stuff like aquaerobics. I know that swimming pools
are not really comfortable at your weight level, but you usually have
classes for obese people, so you wouldn't have to face slim people looking
at you. Even body therapy (massages for instance, either from a
professionnal or your fiance) is an option to begin with - just feeling

more
comfortable in your body makes it less of a dead weight and more active.
As for the will, it's a very relative thing... Do you really think all

these
slim people are that full of willpower? I stopped smoking a while ago, and
people were wondering where I had gotten all that willpower, but the truth
is that I didn't have to use any. Actually, if your diet works on sheer
willpower, it's bound to fail sooner or later. Willpower alone only goes

so
far. You have to find a diet that fits you well enough that you can keep

it
for *life*, and this means it should be easy enough on you that after a
while, it will become the natural thing to do for you.
So, yes, you will need some *will* to decide what you want for yourself

and
to actually try to accomplish it. But the "diet" itself shouldn't use much
willpower.

I get out of breath very
easily. I weigh 340lbs. I'm 5'6" and I can barely get around.


You will have to be very careful with protein intake, this looks like you
don't have that much lean mass you can afford to burn with an unbalanced
diet. You should also try to find a *good* doctor to help you, because
losing this amount of weight is a real stress for your body, you have to

be
careful about going not too fast and not starving yourself.

I wanted to have weight loss surgery, but I have mental illness and I

can't
find a doctor that feels I am stable enough.


I don't know the exact nature of your mental illness, but if you find a
doctor who does the surgery despite the illness, he won't be very honest.
Mental conditions (especially eating disorders of course) are
contraindications to surgery. What kind of surgery were you thinking

about?
I would be very cautious about these (stomach, intestine surgery), because
they don't work miracles as many people seem to think :
- the surgery itself can fail, leading to complications or even death -

and
obese people are more likely to get these than the rest.
- the surgery can hurt your health, by preventing you to eat enough
(especially proteins, meat is usually not well tolerated).
- the lost weight can remain very modest, for some people it's less than
20lbs. The surgery itself won't make you slim, it will just make you
slightly less obese.
- you will need to do a *diet* on top of the surgery. It's perfectly
possible to keep gaining weight after such a surgery (it's harder with
bypass, but pretty easy with gastric volume reduction) - just eat ice

cream
all day long in small servings.
That's why, at least here (in France), surgery must meet several strict
conditions :
- BMI 40
- *and* weight related life threatening complication (diabete, heart
diseases...)
- *and* failed attempt at regular diet that has been tried for at least a
year
- *and* psychotherapy (both to try to lose weight and to assess you for
surgery).

Since you will *have* to diet after the surgery, why not try it now? Same
with dealing with your psychological troubles?

I want to lose this weight. I moved in with my fiance' one year ago and

he
is really fit. I want to do things with him, but I am stuck to the couch
because just getting up to use bathroom sends my heart racing.


That's the usual deadloop... You're too heavy to move, so you move less.

And
moving less causes you to lose lean mass (muscles), which makes it even
harder to move. And both the lost muscles (lowered metabolism) and lack of
physical activity make you heavier.
Somehow, you will have to break it somewhere. But I don't think that's the
right place to ask about that right now, because if your heart really

feels
like this and if this is really from the physical stress (and not anxiety
related), you *need* to consult a doctor before you try to do any kind of
exercise.

I'm in need of some help. I have tried to exercise to tapes, but I can't
even stand there very long let alone do what they are doing.


Don't! The last thing you should do is trying to do high intensity stuff!

At
best, you will only discourage yourself, and at worst, you will hurt
yourself! Besides, some of these tapes are high intensity (big no-no at

your
current weight, you would ruin your joints!), most are not designed for
obese people (some movements should just not be done with 300+lbs on the
joints)... With the way your heart behaves, and your lack of exercise, you
either need to have a professionnal looking after you or to do it very
slowly.
The only exercise I would advice to do on your own (after seeing an heart
doctor) is walking - at your own pace and short distances at first.

Anyway,
with your weight, walking is going to burn more than those slim people are
burning doing high intensity stuff - just picture them walking around with

a
200lbs backpack! Swimming or *light* aquaerobics would be other options.
Just stay away from anything high-impact, high intensity or unmonitored.

You
don't need these right now, and they will hurt you.

I usually only eat once a day around 7 0r 8 at night. I have a big

serving.
I starve most days until I eat my one meal a day.


And then, you tell us you have no willpower?! How many slim people do you
think try to *starve* themselves? How many actually try to do aerobic

tapes
wearing a heavy backpack?
You really have to *stop* doing that. Don't you see the relationships
between the starving in the day and all these night meals? The later are

the
consequences of the frustration of the first... I bet your ideal goal

would
be to have this single large serving, and nothing else. But things just do
not work that way. The frustration only paves the way for the excesses.

What
you are doing is a great recipe to develop boulimia, not to lose weight.

If
you reduce the frustration, you will also reduce the excesses. Besides, a
single big serving a day is not very healthy, it's a huge stress on the

body
(digestion, blood sugar...).
Many overweight people have a manicheist way of thinking, they think in
binary mode : either you're starving yourself, or you're trying to make

your
stomach burst. Losing weight is also learning to walk the way of

moderation,
to discover that there is a middle ground. It's not about trying to starve
yourself, it's about eating *enough*.

I'm going to go with the usual behavioural advice :
- Don't focus on eating healthy stuff right now. You don't need to go into
binary thinking and do all the opposite of what you're doing to lose

weight,
you just need to change some habits. Eating healthy stuff won't make you
lose weight (though it will make you healthier - but just losing weight

will
also do that, one step at a time), eating *less* will.
- Stop considering magical solutions. The plain and simple truth is that
losing weight is a very simple thing : if you eat less energy than you

use,
you will lose weight. Now, the trick is to find a way to eat less that

does
not make you feel like you're starving yourself.
- Stop trying to starve yourself during the day. Do several smaller meals
instead of one big one. It's better to do six meals a day than a single

one
anyway. Don't eat if you're not hungry. Stop eating when you don't feel
hungry anymore (or when you think you have had enough calories if you

really
can't feel satiety).
- Do real meals : sitting down, using a plate and fork... Try to chew and
taste the food, your meal should last at least 15 minutes. Even if you're
going to eat ice cream, make it a meal.
- If you have some compulsion to eat your whole plate, just serve yourself

a
small plate. If you want more, get up and go in the kitchen to refill your
small plate.
- Most meal do not need to be complete. I mean, you don't need to have a
start, a main course, cheese, salad, dessert for all your meal. A meal can
be a single main course. Just don't try to use that as an excuse to try to
starve yourself
- It's ok to be a little hungry before a meal, actually, you should not

eat
if you don't feel that (if you don't know what normal hungry is, just skip
breakfast but eat lunch at noon : that's normal hungry). But it's not ok

to
delay the meal until you are revenous - that's a great way to lose control
and over-eat.
- Watch how "normal" slim people eat (I mean, real slim people, not the

ones
who are on perpetual diet). If your fiance is a normal eater (and not a
dieter), just watch him. Or invite friends at home, watch people in
restaurants... There's a lot to learn from observation. Do they seem to
starve themselves? Do they try to eat as much as they can during the meal,
like they're going to starve until the next one? Do they always finish
whatever is served to them? Do they avoid some kind of food because it's
"fattening"? Do they try to eat as much "non-fattening" food in order to
avoid being tempted by "fattening" food?
- Try to write down everything you it. Make a diary. Write down your
feelings. That could be something like :
Date&Hour/Where&With Who/Food/Quantity/Feelings (emotions, hunger,
satiety...).
After a while, read old parts of it, try to spot where things went out of
control and why.
- Get rid of the problematic food (the one you binge on at night) in your
house. And I don't mean you should make an orgy out of it until the stock

is
gone or that you should force feed your fiance with it or try to give it

out
to friends! I mean throw it away, into the garbage can. Now, I don't mean
you should never eat that kind of food again, I just mean it's not wise to
have buckets of it at home - that's what you do, right? If you want to

have
some of that food, just go buy the smaller package you can find and eat it
slowly (meal style, not standing next to the fridge!). Try to make that a
pleasant experience, taste the food fully, without feeling guilt about it.
If you're not hungry anymore, throw away the leftovers instead of forcing
yourself to finish the package - yes, garbage can again. If in a few days,
you feel like having some again, you can always repeat the whole process.
The food doesn't disappear when you stop having it in the fridge, you

don't
need to stock on it, that's the job of the store. Besides, walking to that
store is giving you some exercise
- Food is not fattening. Really. You can eat French fries, cakes,

chocolate,
ice cream and all, and still lose weight. And you can eat healthy food and
stay fat. I promise, I'm still eating French fries from time to time,

cakes
a couple of times a week, chocolate daily, and I'm losing weight. What is
fattening is to eat *too much* food. If I ate five cakes a way, I would

gain
weight - that's what I have done for years. If I eat a couple of cakes a
week, I lose weight. No miracle there, as I said above, it's all about
*moderation*, not about seeing things in black and white.

I guess (I hope!) you're seeing psychiatrist because of your mental
condition. If so, tell him about your desire to lose weight and ask for
support, that's his job. If he doesn't feel up to it, or if he thinks that
should be handled by someone else, ask for the name of a intelligent
psychiatrist specialized in eating disorders. Because you do have an

eating
disorder, nightly binge eating is one. I think you might get a lot more

help
from a psychiatrist (or any kind of psychotherapist specialized in eating
disorders) than from a dietician (they usually ignore completely the
psychological issues, and many try to change all your habits at once, this
just doesn't work well).

I take medication that I have been told lowers my metabolism by 30%. I

have
gained all this weight since I began taking the medication back in 1996.


What kind of medication if I may ask? Some medication, especially for

mental
illnesses, do a lot more than lowering your metabolism. Some can really

mess
up the food intake regulation mechanism (hunger, satiety), which is a lot
worse.
This is not helping, but you can't blame everything on it. Lack of

exercise
and starving yourself during the day has lowered your metabolism by a lot
more than 30%! Besides, the natural way to adjust to a lowered metabolism

is
just to eat less (unless your metabolism is really low, like bellow 1200
calories), that's what a bunch of self-regulated slim people do by

instinct.
The lowered metabolism will hinder weight loss, but it's not a race

anyway,
and even with a modest weight loss exercising will become an option again
(and this can really boost your metabolism). It also made gaining weight
easier.

Any advice would be appreciated. I feel lost to help myself. I feel like

it's useless.

I think that's the real problem. I hope I'm not sounding harsh, I really

do
not intend to, but here is what you are saying :
- I gained weight because of a medication
- I have no will, I can't lose weight by myself
- I was denied the miracle solution that would have worked. That solution
was surgery. I would have given my body in the care of the surgeon, and he
would have made it go slim for me.
- I can't help myself, I need someone to make me go slim.

The only person who can decide that you will lose weight is yourself. Not
even your fiance can decide that for you. And for that, you will need some
will. You will even need some level of egocentricity - I guess that like a
many obese people, you do care a lot for others. That's a great quality,

but
this should also extend to yourself. To lose weight, you will also need to
accept yourself, it's not a battle against yourself and your body, it's a
battle *along* with them. This means you will have to partly accept your
current body, and not just that ideal slim body off in the distance. If

you
can manage that, you will be able to enjoy every single pound lost -

because
you will like your body in all its intermediate states, instead of only
looking at the final picture, and you will also accept more easily the
setbacks and plateau we all experience.
You managed to gain all that weight on your own, with only a little help
from the medication. Why should you not be able to walk the path in

reverse?
Only one person in the world can decide how much food you eat at a given
meal, and that's yourself. And to be able to tell when enough is enough,

you
do have to listen to yourself. No dietician can tell you when you're not
hungry anymore...

I had a dream that I would have the surgery and for months I
was planning on being thin again. So when the surgeon told me he would

not
do surgery I got really sad. I was looking forward to an easy way out.

That
is if there is one.


There is an easy way out, actually, it's so easy that many people do not

try
it or even think about it. Eat Less, Move Your Body More. It's free, you
don't need a dietician for that, no guru doctor... Surgery comes with its
own problems, it's not a miracle solution. I feel something really wrong
with the act of mutilating your body in order to achieve weight loss. I

know
that for some people, it's a last chance solution, but surgery is the

thing
that feels sad for me.

I had given up on losing weight the natural way. Now it seems that is my

only way out.

What do you call the natural way? What did you try?
Trying to starve yourself during the day and bingeing the whole night is

not
the natural way. Just look at real (non-dieting) slim people. Or have a

look
at (the few remaining) slim kids. That's what maintaining (or losing)

weight
the natural way should be. Usually, dieting people do all the opposite...

I want to be healthy and active again. I am trying to quit smoking too.
Tomorrow will be my first day without smoking. That is another story.


One thing at a time Trying to lose weight *and* to stop smoking at the
same time is a lot of things at once.
According to most doctors, the tobacco is hurting you more than the extra
fat. Without the cigarette, you heart should be doing a lot better, so
walking might actually become an option again. I also noticed that my

tastes
for different foods shifted when I stopped smoking. Eating fat and sweet
things is pretty typical among smokers. Smoking destroys your sense of
smell, so you don't get much in the way of aromas from food. As a result,
many smokers seek food with pleasant textures (soft tender stuff) and

strong
tastes (salt, sugar). This means stuff like French fries, ice cream...

They
also stay away from vegies, because they find them tasteless (they trully
are if your sense of smell is lacking). The sense of smell is the thing I
recovered the fastest when I stopped smoking, along with my breath. I

hadn't
eaten vegies or fruits for years, but now I actually enjoy them. Not

because
they're healthy, but because they actually taste good!
If you stop smoking, you will also have to accept that you *might* gain

some
weight. It's not guaranteed, some people do not gain a single pound when
they stop. Actually, it's more of a risk for slim people than for very fat
ones - tobacco is useful to stay underweight, so quitting it hurts
underweight people more. Even if you gain some weight, it should not be

more
than a few pounds. At least, from a strictly biological point of view.
Psychology can make you compensate the lack of cigarette with food, but
that's where your psy can be a great help.

I don't have much money to buy good food. I have a very low budget for

food.
Is there a cheap way to eat good? If so what kind of things could I buy

that
would be cheap?


Yes, there is a cheap way. Buy whatever you usually buy, but in lesser
quantities Yes, even if you throw away some food as I wrote above. If
instead of eating a bucket of ice cream a night, you eat one a week,

that's
a lot of saved money!
Again, you don't need any kind of special food to lose weight. You don't
need special pills, many don't work or are harmfull (especially for the
heart). You don't need overpriced diet food - it just doesn't work

(studies
have shown people just eat more of them). You don't even need veggies -
they're for being healthy, not for losing weight.
The only thing you might need is to cook a little, though that's not an
obligation either. But cooking can also be less expensive than buying
pre-made food.
You don't need money to exercise, at your current weight, walking in the
best exercise you can do. And you only need a pair of good shoes for that.
Swimming is also a very good exercise, and swimming pools are not that
expensive.
Since I started losing weight, I actually cut my food budget by at least
30%.




 




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