Hate my body, need advice

Eimee90

Hi guys, im really lost fitness wise. Im a female 26 years old and used to be about 9 and a half to ten stone, im 5 foot four. thereabouts, quite active ect. Over the last 4 years i put on 5 stone. Im devastated. Theres no excuse i just lost the plot.

The last two weeks, ive started walking an hour and a half every night. Cut out all pasta, breads, sugars ect.. Eating salads for lunch, chicken and roast veg for dinner.

Im a teacher but i work two jobs so i dont get home till 9 most nights so the gym isn't viable, ive corrections, so the long walk is my option.

I feel awful looking in the mirror. Has anyone any advice on how many calories i should eat, exercise in the home. I want my body back.

Thanks so much.

Gumbo

Don't ever hate your body. Work with it.
Keep the walking. But every night, walk a bit faster, that walk will turn into a jog and that jog will turn into a run.

Buy a set of kettle bells, or weights on adverts. There's literally loads of apps for free on the iOS and android store that will give you 15 minute workouts that will have you sweating.

Important thing is keep it up.
If one of your kids in class cannot get their maths right, or their letters/words right, you tell them to keep trying.

Eimee90

Thank you, I think the important thing for me is to see light at the end of the tunnel.

LeinsterDub

It took you 5 years to gain it. Don't attempt to loose it in 5 weeks. You've made massive changes and quite frankly it's unlikely you'll stick to them. Make small changes.

Alf Veedersane

Do you have any idea of what you've been eating thats been a factor in ghe weight gain? Start there.

Then start making changes that you can make. They don't all have to be at the same time but if you can, that'd great. But just don't get yourself into a situation where you make large scale changes that are such a massive change that you can't keep up for more than 2/3 weeks and end up throwing out the baby with the bathwater.

Make improvements. If it's one at a time, so be it. But make them and stick with them.

The walking is always good but the biggest changes will be made by tidying up your diet.

Cake Man

Based on your stats mentioned above (age 26, current weight assumed at 94kg, height 5'4", small amount of activity of about an hour walking a few times per week), this puts you TDEE (total daily energy expenditure) at around 2100 calories. This is the amount if you took in every day would keep you at your current weight as you are now so you need to knock around 250/300 calories off that to be in a deficit (which causes weight loss).


So take in about 1800 calories everyday for the next few weeks and then re-calculate. How you make up those 1800 cals is up to you but obviously junk food/alcohol is going to "cost" you a good chunk of that 1800 and make you feel like crap. Foods that aren't processed (good cuts of meat, veg fruit, eggs etc.) will give you better bang for your buck.


You say you've no time for the gym but then say you walk for an hour and a half every night? That's not a problem anyway, keep up the walking and no harm doing a few home exercises (plenty of videos on YouTube) but ultimately, your calorie intake will define weight loss and not so much what or how much exercise you do. Download myfitnesspal app and track everything you take in (remember that most drinks have calories, not just food!).
It won't happen overnight so don't expect to have a fitness model body by next week, it'll take time and you just have to stick at it tracking calories religiously. Honestly no other way to do it.

Eimee90

Thanks so much guys, great advice

Irishcrx

There's a saying that goes with fitness and weight loss.
'It takes time and patience , but if you look in the mirror this time next year you want to think to yourself wow look what I've done in the past year and not wow I wish I had have done what I set out last year'
The mind and body are connected and particularly in fitness. Get your schedule , eating habits and plans right and set goals to stick to them then the body will follow.
Download myfittness pal and track everything you eat , follow the above advise on calories per day and track EVERYTHING , yes that means butter on bread , sugar in tea and coffee don't have hidden calories.
And look , once you get used to it and cut out the overeating 1800 a day is actually fine when your eating the right foods, you can still enjoy the foods you love if you work them into your expenditure on a cut I eat pasta , I eat pizza , I drink alchohol just not everyday. Think of the 1800 calories like a bank balance and when you eat something your spending that balance each day, you want to spend it evenly and not run out by 4pm split the meals up into manageable sections throughout the day.
Do some exercise if you can but also remember it is 80% diet , it's easier not to eat that 200 calorie chocolate bar than have to cycle 6km to burn it back off.
Do this and stick to it and you will see the weight start to come down, quickly at first (You will lose water weight first two weeks) and then it will balance to around 1.5 - 3 pounds per week depending on the person and when you see your body change it will drive you forward and make you more determent to crush your goals.
Your body will not out run a caloric deficit, track , eat smart , work in cheat meals for your sanity but control them and your body will burn the fat.
Good luck.

slavedave

Just to encourage you. Listen to the advice above - it is good advice. Think about the long haul. Don't even think weeks or months. Consistency is everything. Don't beat yourself up if you have a bad day or two, just reassess what lead to it and try to resolve to avoid (where possible) the conditions that led up to it. Sometimes it can be the trivial things that destroy good intentions.

Depending on your psyche, you may find having people keep you accountable to be really helpful. My wife goes to a well known weight loss group and she is doing amazing and they have a little gang on facebook that motivate each other. I train on my own in the gym and have a degree of self discipline, but much prefer group classes to get me fired up -you may find 45 min classes helpful if there is something close to you, or even a training partner that will kick your rear when you don't fancy doing anything. It would eat into your 1.5 hour time for walking but it could be helpful when you are ready for it.

Setting realistic, small goals that lead to a much larger one is key. They make things "bite-sized" - it is so satisfying to track changes over a long period of time, plus it also balances out those soul-destroying periods where not a lot seems to change (weight loss and strength gains appear similar in my experience on this point).

Try to avoid injury as much as possible since that can set you back on the exercise front. This means getting some good (sometimes professional) advice on what is good for you, good footwear for walking in etc. I thought I knew a lot about sport and physiology but as an older man, I am still learning as I go. There is some really good advice from people here on Boards esp those that have their own businesses, or have been training for years. You'll notice them if you look back through the posts.

And... keep... going! You will get there if you are diligent and consistent with your food control and exercise.

Pepe LeFrits

Some good advice posted above.

elsa21 wrote: »

The last two weeks, ive started walking an hour and a half every night. Cut out all pasta, breads, sugars ect.. Eating salads for lunch, chicken and roast veg for dinner.

Im a teacher but i work two jobs so i dont get home till 9 most nights so the gym isn't viable, ive corrections, so the long walk is my option.

That sounds to me like a pretty tough routine to maintain. It’s natural when you get a burst of willpower to start on an aggressive routine of change but 99% of the time it’s a recipe for failure, because willpower is finite and you’ll fall off the wagon. That isn’t a critique of you; we’re (nearly) all wired exactly the same. If you built up the weight over a couple of years then you probably have formed some bad habits that will be difficult to overcome. The answer isn’t to just cut all of them straight off the bat with nothing but willpower. Stopping bad habits is incredibly difficult, but replacing bad habits with more positive ones is much easier.

Keeping at a healthy weight through exercise and good diet is a lifelong activity, not a one-off sprint for a couple of months. As others have said, start small. Once you’ve been doing something for a month, a month and a half, it will become habit and won’t be something you need to force yourself to do. Then you can add more on and build it up, and most importantly, the changes will last. Start with changes that are small enough that you’ll still be able to manage them when you’re feeling low and unmotivated.

AgaArts

Well done on deciding to make a change, it will be tough over Christmas with a lot of temptation so don't let any slip-ups get you down.

Regarding the 1.5hours walking, you'd get a lot more from a 45-1h gym session 3-4x a week than you would walking 1.5 hours 5x a week.
It would also get some time back for yourself.

If that is something you're interested in, could be worth letting people know roughly where you live and get a recommendation for a Personal Trainer for a while.

Mellor

5 stone in 4 years is only 160-170 excess calories per day. That's nothing, 2 chocolate digestives. Or small packer of crisps. The key is that it's a consistent excess, which is very easy to do with habitual or routine treat/snack.

The above also illustrates the most important part of losing weight. Consistency. A small change consistently over a long period is much more successful than trying to cut out a large chuck of your diet for a short burst.

Cake Man wrote: »

Based on your stats mentioned above (age 26, current weight assumed at 94kg, height 5'4", small amount of activity of about an hour walking a few times per week), this puts you TDEE (total daily energy expenditure) at around 2100 calories. This is the amount if you took in every day would keep you at your current weight as you are now so you need to knock around 250/300 calories off that to be in a deficit (which causes weight loss).

So take in about 1800 calories everyday for the next few weeks and then re-calculate.

While I don't disagree with your numbers, 2150 sounds about right for lightly active. I'd probably suggest basing the target amount off of sedentary calories. It reduces the risk of over estimating exercise (which most people/calculators do). And also creates the situation where any activity is a bonus.
Sedentary maintenance is probably 1950 calories. A which puts a mild deficit target at 1500-1700. Say 1600 in the middle.

If they really wanted to allow for the exercise energy, it quite easy to work calories burned walking/jogging exactly and add it in. Rather than relying on generalisations in a TDEE formula.