How do you know how many calories you should be eating per day?

[Fordian]

Or, how much fibre etc? How much water to drink? How much exercise? How do you know when to go up a dose? How often to inject? Whereabouts? People say ‘apart from the usual side effects…’- how do you know what a usual side effect is?

Is there a booklet that comes with MJ as everyone seems to know this stuff!

You should get information from your pharmacy about the basics like when to inject. That’s also on the patient info leaflets that accompany the medication which you should read carefully. Those will also detail all the side effects, how likely they are and when to seek further advice. Again, your pharmacy is also likely to give more information on these as well. Many pharmacies have online FAQs or information sections which anyone can find and read.

Your pharmacy should also outline the standard dosing schedule, which is to stay on each dose for at least 4 weeks. You can stay on a dose if it’s working for you, go up if not, or go down if you’re experiencing side effects that don’t settle down over the 4 weeks on that dose.

Pharmacies will also tell you to eat a healthy diet, do some weight bearing exercise if you can and drink a reasonable amount of liquid (doesn’t have to be just water), as per any diet programme. etc etc

I don't know about other pharmacies but Oushk send a pretty detailed booklet that cover everything you need to know about the injections - when/where/how etc. It explains all side effects and gives advice on dealing with them.

You can work out how many calories you need by finding out your TDEE (total daily energy expenditure) and subtracting 500. Eg. if your TDEE is 2000 then you can eat 1500 calories a day to lose 1lb a week. BMR is basal metabolic rate and that is how many calories your body needs just to function and keep you alive. It's not recommended to eat below your BMR.

Not eating enough calories might lead to faster weight loss but will cause fatigue, muscle loss, hair loss, nutrient deficiencies, gallstones etc. Nourish yourself appropriately and focus on learning long term sustainable habits.

30g of fibre a day is recommended for every body. I feel better when I have a bit more so I take a supplement (biomel).

You can track your calories and nutrients on apps like nutracheck (the best), myfitnesspal, fitbit etc.
I like using a fitbit to track my exercise. I aim for 12k steps a day which "earns" me an extra 400 calories a day.

Resistance/strength training is recommended because on WLIs muscle loss can account for up to 40% of total weight loss. That's why consuming enough protein and not calorie restricting too much is so important. You will end up weak and "skinny fat".

I follow youtube tutorials for dumbbell and body weight exercises I can do at home. There are lots to choose from, just find some that work for you.

Do exercise that you enjoy, that's the most important thing in my opinion because you'll be able to keep it up!

Drinking enough water is vital! I drink 4-6 litres of water a day. On days where I only drink 2-3 I find I'm quite bloated and usually the scales will show a gain because of water retention. It can be hard to do but I feel it's made the biggest difference to my body.

There is lots of info and help out there regarding WLIs! It can feel daunting at first but once you do it you'll find it's actually easy enough. There's lots of support groups too - here, reddit, fb, nutracheck forums etc.

Thanks!