Hello all, my name is Jason and I am 27 years-old. I have been 'dieting' to lose weight. I went from 380 to 279, unfortunatly the diet I was on was all ephedra and they hid that from the clients. Getting off of those pills really sucked and when it was all said and done I found myself 8 months later back up to 335! :( Now I have been dieting again since the new year and am down to 315, but I was wanting something more than a diet. I was wanting a LIFE CHANGE!! I do not want to be skinny, I am 6'6" and I will need some muscle to look proportionate. My dad sent me a link to John's site and that was all I needed. What a great resource of info and inspiration!! I have been researching like a fiend these last few days and am hoping you all can help guide me.

I am trying to develope my meal plan, and I wonder where I should be starting with a calorie total. I am not, and have not, been eating ten times my body weight in calories, so if I did that I think I would start gaining. Can anyone guide me to a good meal plan to start with?

Also, should I start right off with supplaments? I also saw that John used Metamucil and has now switched to another fiber, what is the need for this? Is there any danger of daily use?

I know I have a lot of questions, but I want to do this right the first time! I am very frustrated with wasting years to achieve the little progress that I have. I am very motivated and inspired by all that I have seen here, but I want to make sure that there aren't any special changes that I would need to make because I have so much weight (90 lbs) to lose.

Thank you all in advance for your help and guidance!

first of all, its most important that you write down everything you eat in a normal day, calculate the cal's and start choping!
well you probly should be eating about 2800cal's/day alot of people would suggest 3150 but i belive thats for people that wanna lose a minnium amount of muscle (after bulking) so you can go lower than that, but not too low if you are planning to bulk!

i dont think anyone can make a meal plan for you, unless you pay them, but doing research is alot better.

you wanna start drinking water, only water, at least 1-2gallons/day
also start eating every 2-3hours, these 2 things will boost your metabolism

just start off with your breakfast, make it healthy, then do this with all your meals, write it down, use www.fitday.com to keep track of how much cal's, carbs, protein and fat you are getting and adjust your diet accordingly

just remember that healthy food has ALOT less cal's that junk food, so it may seem like you are eating more, but you are not

also aim to lose about 2-3pounds a week, thats if you dont wanna lose alot of muslce with it.

there are lots of good resources out there, you just gotta look and read more, it will come to you!, heres a few links of mine...

http://forum.bodybuilding.com
http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/david7.htm
http://www.teenbodybuilding.com/anthony2.htm
http://www.bodybuilding.com/teen/bigcourse.htm

good luck :)

Hey Jason,

Mate, afte rrading your post what i would suggest is as taffer said, writing down what you eat,

but you want to get some muscles and shed the fat? start working out if you arent already, and also do some cv , to burn off bodyfat,

as for supplements, if i was you id start off only on whey protein to use for shakes, as you're trying to lose fat and keep/gain muscle, you dont want any mrps etc (useful for bulking imo).

As for fiber, you can , but i dont see the need, take a multi vit tho


Hope this helps mate,

good luck

Mark

Jason: I was about 5'8", 250lbs in 2000. I've gradually eased into a fitter lifestyle, and I'm now 198lbs. I still have about forty-five pounds to lose. Here are a few things I've learned about losing weight for good in the past twenty years of trying to manage my weight:

1) Your body's weight is like a two-mile-long freight train. It takes a lot of energy to get it to shift direction. Less important than your speed is which way you're going; once you start burning fat, progress will be apparent. Personally I'm a lot less concerned about whether I'm losing half a pound a week or two than whether I'm losing, gaining, or static.

2) Big weight gain creeps up on you when you're not looking. You get busy, you stop excercising, you stop weighing - since you know it's not going down - and, the next thing you know, it's six months later and you've gained 25 lbs. Many people have told me not to weigh every day "because it can be discouraging" to watch your weight fluctuate a couple of pounds depending on fluid intake, etc. One of the things the National Weight Control Registry (http://www.lifespan.org/services/bmed/wt_loss/nwcr/) studies of people who lost sixty or more pounds and kept them off for five or more years found is that a majority of them weighed themselves every morning. Even now, five years later. In my opinion, that's because, you gain five pounds, you stop wanting to weigh yourself to verify that you gained five pounds, and the next thing you know you've gained fifty. Weigh yourself every day, without fail, but know well that you can be losing fat and gaining muscle, so the tightness of your belt is at least as important as what the scale tells you.

3) It's difficult to overestimate the importance of excercise. The same study showed those same people burned an average of 2800 calories per week from excercise (that's 400 per day if you're doing it every single day). My personal experience is that excercise helps even out the bumps in your diet. If you're doing 400 calories a day of exercise, and avoiding stupid calories, you're going to slowly lose weight, no matter what else. With your weight, your knees are probably in trouble, and your wind probably leaves a bit to be desired. The nice thing about being so heavy is a little excercise goes a long way; I use a "calories/pound/mile" number of .543 (which is a bit on the pessimistic side), which would mean you could do your 400 calories a day in a 2.1 mile walk, which you can do at a very liesurly pace in 45 minutes. My petite wife often complains when we're walking that every mile we do is 100 calories for me but only 50 for her.

4) COUNT CALORIES! There are probably some you're forgetting. Every 500 calorie-per-day deficit you have is one pound lost per week. If you weigh 335 lbs, and aren't losing weight (much less gaining it), you must be eating at least 3200 calories a day, and that's if you have the metabolism of a sloth. You're probably eating (and burning) more than that. See, for example, this Basal Metabolic Rate calculator: http://www.hussman.org/fitness/bmrcalc.htm One of the other key findings from the study I mentioned above is that most of the weight-losers ate breakfast. Eat healthy food on a regular schedule (say, six smaller snacks) during the day, and you'll not feel hungry, even on reduced calories. As well, really listen to your stomach - stop eating when you're full, not when you run out of food. The knack of listening to our stomachs is something many of us have lost. If you keep a calorie diary for two weeks you'll be astonished at the number of calories you're getting. And, you'll start avoiding things because you don't want to write them in the book.

5) If you really want to change your life, not just do another yo-yo diet, don't diet. Change your life! What I did was cut out as many refined carbs as practical (i.e., brown rice instead of white, oatmeal instead of cereal, whole-wheat instead of white bread), and eliminated stupid calories (sweets, soft drinks, etc). I haven't given these things up temporarily - I have bid them goodbye, forever except as the rarest of treats. There is not a time in my life I am looking forward to when I get to eat a chocolate bar every day, because there will not be such a time, because I am not on a diet. "Change your life" sounds blythe, but what it really means is, don't get drastic so you can lose weight faster. Choose excercise and dietary changes you can do every day for the rest of your life, and stick with them. Yes, when the happy day you reach your goal comes, you'll get to eat more carrot sticks, but that's just a change in quantity, not in kind.

6) Other studies have shown, the longer it takes you to lose the weight, the more likely you are to keep it off. Let's face it, most of us aren't as strong-willed as John Stone. If you try to completely change every aspect of your life tomorrow, you're probably going to blow it in a few months. Take it slowly, and accept that it will probably take you a couple of years to lose the weight. Yes, you can crash diet and be 250 for your 28th birthday, but you'll be 350 again for your 30th.

I've done it more slowly than most - in part because I only got really serious about it in the past twelve months, or so. I started out walking a little and trying to eat a little better. About a year ago, I started excercising in earnest, and went from 235 to 200 in about six months. A variety of personal and work things (starting with a knee surgery to try to correct some of the damage of being overweight so long) cut out my excercising for a while, and I can tell you it's a lot tougher to maintain weight when you're not excercising.

Finally, the bottom line is: think and act like a thin person! My biggest breakthrough was to start thinking and acting like someone who weighed 160 lbs; I take the stairs, because that's what a thin person does. I eat less, because that's what a thin person does. I work out every morning, without fail, because that's what a thin person does. Soon, I hope to actually look like that thin person I act like!

TQ

:gl:

Thank you so much for taking the time out to reply to my thread. I have been watching what I eat, but I have not been counting my calories. Since the New Year I have cut out all processed sugars, white bread, and most bad fats (occassional steak). I have always drank diet soda, so that sugar intake is not there. The hard part will be losing the caffiene intake. I will still have my black coffee in the morning, I know of several guys who still do without effects.

I will go and checkout the info that everyone gave me, and I will start counting my calories.

Thanks again everyone!