Hello! I discovered this site less than a week ago, and it completely blew my mind.

For some quick background, I'm a 6'1", 248 pound, 25 years old male. I have been overweight my entire life, but I have had some pretty serious up and downs in terms of weight. I've lost significant amounts of weight in the past through either exercise and conventional diet or the Atkins diet, but the last year or two have been almost constant weight-gain. This is mostly due to the combination of my 50 hour work week and masters degree program at the same time. This reduced my time available for exercise, cut down my sleep to 4-5 hours per night, and worsened my overeating due to stress and snacking while being for so long. My eating habits are generally pretty bad, the main two problems being constant snacking, rarely eating breakfast (sugary cereal, if anything), and eating extremely large portions during meals.

Anyways, I recently got engaged and I decided there was no way that I'm going to show up at my wedding looking like this. I'm getting married in a little more than a year, and my goal is to weight 170 by that point. I'm not fixated on that number - I'm more concerned with being proud of my appearance for the first time in many years - but it's what I'm shooting for.

I spent a lot of time reading up on what worked for John Stone and what others in the forum have recommended. I also read and followed the links in Marcus' excellent "Guide to Nutrition for Weight Loss" and registered with fitday.com. Since I'm just getting started, I'd like to run my plan by the experts in the forum to make sure what I'm planning seems appropriate.

As far as diet goes, here's what I had planned for the first day...

8:00am
3/4 cup Egg Beaters Cheese & Chive (I like these better than the originals, and they are almost identical calorie-wise)
1 Morningstar Farm Sausage Patty
29.5g of Protein shake with 1 cup Skim Milk

10:30am
1 Medium Banana
1 Tbsp Jif Peanut Butter (probably not the best type, but it's what I had at home)

12:30pm
8 Oz Boneless Chicken Breast
2 cups Brown Rice

4:00pm
1 Oz Dry Roasted Peanuts
1 Medium Tangelo Orange
29.5g of Protein shake with water

7:30pm
2 Gardenburger Meatless Riblets
2 1/4 cup California Blend vegetables

10:00pm
29.5g of Protein shake with 1 cup Skim Milk

The overall stats are
Calories Fat (Sat Fat) Carbs (Fiber) (Sugars) Protein
2062 48g 8.5g 196.5g 26.5g 90g 218g
20.95% 38.12% 42.29%

Several questions jump out at me about this.
- The amount of carbs, and particularly sugar, is probably too high. I need to remove the banana maybe, but definitely find a less sugary skim milk to use. That alone is responsible for 1/3 of my sugar intake.
- Do I need to use a fiber supplement as John did? I'm pretty near the 30 he mentioned in his notes, but I guess more would be better?
- I need a little bit more protein, but I don't know where to get it (other than yet another shake). Unfortunately, I don't like tuna, salmon, or just about any type of fish. I can have shrimp in small quantities, but no more than once a week. Any other ideas?

My main question about this diet really is, should I increase the calorie content to something around 2500? I'm not sure if what I have right now is enough. If I add more, should I focus on protein even though that might unbalance the approx 40/40/20 mix I have now?

Regarding exercise, here is my plan.
Mon-Fri
6:45am : 30-45 minutes of cardio (eliptical, step machine, stationary bike)

Saturday
9:00am : 30-45 minutes of cardio (eliptical, step machine, stationary bike)

Mon, Tues, Thurs
6:30pm - 7:15pm weight training (Mon is back, biceps & abs, Tuesday is legs, Thurs is pecs, delts, triceps & abs)

How does that look? Eventually I'd consider doing some HIIT as John did, to shorten my morning workout time if nothing else.

Thanks for all the help, everybody. Hearing about all of your successes is a very strong motivator for those of us getting started. I hope I can be successful enough that one day I be the source of motivation for others, as John and the rest of you are for us. :bb:

you might not be getting enough calories.

agreed.. use the "harris benedict" formula to figure out your basal metabolic rate (BMR). Some people suggest you take in 10-12x your body mass. .. But as far as I understand, 2000 cals is probably too few for you.

Also, you might want to increase your protein intake on the days you lift, and maybe consider a post-workout protein shake, right after lifting.

Also, for the peanut butter, use something more natrual. The Jif should probably go... IMO.

Also, for the peanut butter, use something more natrual. The Jif should probably go... IMO.

Good call on the Jif. It's out as soon as I go back to the grocery store. Only reason I had some of it today is because I was below 2000 calories last night when I was planning my day and needed something to fill in the gap. I probably should've avoided it altogether, thinking back on it.

As far as more calories, I think I'll take it up to 2300-2400 and see how it goes for the first two weeks. If the progress is not what I'm looking for, I may increase it a bit.

I'll throw in another protein shake tonight after working out.

I thought of another question - how much should I care about sodium at this point? Some items, especially some of the vegetarian alternatives are pretty high sodium. Should I try to limit this to any specific value, or should I focus on calories and nutrient breakdown for now and ignore it?

well, i dont know tooooo much, but it seems to me, if that food you have there keeps you full, then why not keep it, i mean, your body will not be munching on muscle if your eating something good like the food you said every 2-3 hours. I enitially started my diet, on a diet of 1500 cals per day, and a lil more on workout days. i need 3000 cals to sustain my weight. i lost wieght really fast.. 2-3 pounds per week. but i didnt gain any strengh, nor did i loose any, but now i slowed down, and upped my cals, because i was getting sick of the agony of not eating. judging from a logical view, your food seems just right. but at first you may need more. did you ever try to estimate how many cals you took in on a normal day before you started this diet?

other then that.. im must say, that if you are engaged, then you have a duty to that person, to become a new and better person, because they looked past the "fat" and saw you for your true beauty.

best of luck, even though you probably wont need it, seeing as how detirmined you already are :tu:

I would just try to keep the salt intake low. Try to find what has less salt, and go with that. For instace, if you were to get Lean Turkey Breast.. then go with the low sodium lean turkey breast. You'll retain less water the less sodium you intake. I don't think that you really need to go overboard though.

As far as I know, you don't want to loose too much weight too fast. More then 2lbs per week is probably too fast.. but i am not 100% certain, it's just what i've read and heard.

Hope this helps!

- YON

Keep the fruit get rid of the peanut butter. You can eat much more lean meat and fruits and veggies. They are both low in calories because they have only 4 calories per gram not 9 cals per gram like fat does. Bottom line stay away from sugary food, white bread and fatty foods . Stay close to fruits, veggies , lean meats chicken/salmon/tuna and 97% fat free beef aslo be sure to consume carbs if you do any long term cardio they help start it up before the body switches to fat just be sure to consume whole grain carbs.
-phil