losing weight

[Christinanina]

what do i need to stay away from to help me lose some weight im weigh 274 and im 30 and i need help

[claytex]

Dear Christinanina:  I lost lots of weight several years ago and have managed to keep it off.  Here is what I did and still do.  I eat mostly fruits and vegetables and whole grains.. First of all, you need to keep up with your daily calorie intake... Purchase a book like a food calorie counter.  You may be able to find something on line, but a book with all kinds of foods and the serving portions with the calories and other things like sodium will help you lots.  You need to find out how many calories your body uses per day.  That will depend on your activity level.  However a good guess would be that your body burns about 2000 calories a day.  The first thing to realize is that you need to eat fewer than 2000 calories a day if that is about what your burning daily..So... lets try to cut your daily calorie intake to about 1200-1300 per day.  One lb of weight is equivalent to about 3500 calories.  So if you want to lose a pound of weight your going to need to cut back a total of 3500 calories in three or four days and you will likely lose about 1 lb.  I hope this makes sense to you.  If your body is burning 2000 calories daily and you are eating 1300 calories daily that is a 700 calorie deficiency per day. So... in about 5 days you would loose 1 lb. (700 calorie per day X 5 days= 3500 calories.  Now... you can increase the daily calorie deficiency by exercising more and lose weight faster.  One hour of walking will burn up about 300-325 calories if you walk at a moderate speed.  Bottom line is learn how to determine how many calories your using daily and then know how many calories your eating daily... that way you will know if your doing what you should be doing to lose weight.  Ok next.  Im going to give you some examples of what and how I eat daily.  For breakfast  I will have about one cup of cooked oatmeal (cooked in  a little fat free milk) with about 1/4 cup of raisins added.  I use about a table spoon or less of Sugar Free maple syrup as a sweetner.. I also add a little cinnamon.  I drink water.  For lunch I will prepare a salad with shredded carrots  and cabbage, lettuce, a few green olives and maybe a few sliced almonds.. I also add a l/2 to 3/4ths table spoon of diced jalapinos.. I am convinced that the jalapinos help in digestion and weight loss...( that is strictly my own opinion... for what ever its worth)I also make a salad dressing out of 1/2 of a small avocado, I add some 1% butter milk, a little juice off of the green olives, a little garlic and onion powder.. mix it all up..its pretty good..I will also have a small baked potato, and maybe  a half cup of pinto beans or peas of some sort to get my daily protein.  I will have a peach half, or a pear or an apple for desert.  I some times cook the apples.
For the evening meal I will have a cup of cheerios or a cup bran flakes with a banana.  If I eat bread, I limit it to one slice daily of whole wheat bread.  You should not drink any kind of soda, diet or other wise.  Coffee, tea and most fruit juices  would be fine .. If you drink fruit juices, I would limit them, but sure that it says 100% fruit juice and not the fruit cocktail juices. It is also important to drink lots of water.  Personally, I try to drink 3 quarts or about 100 ozs daily.  The only meat I ever eat is sometimes, I will eat about 3 ozs of tuna, baked or broiled chicken or turkey daily..I do that maybe 2 times weekly.. you need to learn to read labels in the grocery store if you don't already.. I can tell you that sugar, and saturated fats are your biggest enemy... and sugar is the worst.  I do not eat anything that has refined sugar added. Also do not eat anything that is fried. Since I made my change to eating healthy several  years ago, I love it . I prefer eating that way... I feel better.  Im sorry I wrote so much, but if your really ready to change your life style I will be glad to share my experience with you.  You have to entirely change things.. diet and exercise are very important.. they should be  high on your priority scale and you will become  a much healthier person.  If you would like more daily menu suggestions, just send me a message and Ill send you some of the ones I use.. Hope this helps ..Claytex

I feel you christinanina I'm 33 and I weight 370 pounds and I'm on oxygen which makes it even more difficult for me but that is just my mindset. First you need to rid yourself of fatty foods,fried,sugary foods that are very high in calories. such as soda,french frieds etc. Your going to want to add more fruit and vegetables to your diet. But most important exercise walking every day and taking baby steps walking for 5 minutes  each day the first week and then buidling up. anything that you can do that will increase your heart rate and doing it every day over time you will start to loss the weight.you  want to track your food intake and not go over a certain number of calories. there are apps out there that can help you as well.i can't tell you how much to intake becasue its different for each person based off of the amount of weight that you weight etc.hope this helps as it has helped me.