How much can I lose each week?

[BitFat]

So, I’ve name changed for this and bagged myself an appropriate name.

I want to lose weight as I’m currently 16 stone and would ideally get down to 11. I cook most of my food myself and therefore wouldn’t know where to begin with calorie counting. I also have a rowing machine and am going to start using it every day.

So, what do I do? I’ve never dieted before, other than ‘eat less’ is there anything I should watch out for?

And, as per title, I want to do this quickly and then maintain it.

Last thing - my ankles are very fat. Anything specific I can do for them?

I cook all my food but, for meals that I make, My Fitness Pal has a recipe bit where you can add in each ingredient and it’s weight, then say how many portions you are making and it works the calories out for you.

Logging everything I eat on MY Fitness Pal was a game changer for me. I had clearly been kidding myself wrt how many calories I was eating. Logging food has allowed me to see where calories sneak in and taught me to make better food choices and eat more realistic portion sizes.

Ah interesting. So say I make vegetable soup, I weigh the carrots, and weigh the celery etc, then put it in four freezer tubs, and work it out that way?

Do food items keep the same calories even when cooked? So for example is 2oz sugar the same calories whether it’s in tea or cooked in a cake?

I like the Nutracheck app and it will work it all out if you add the ingredients. There are lots of others too.

Most of the apps will do it for you or you can use an online calculator to work out your TEE (total energy expenditure), if you take 500 calories off that I think that usually works out as a pound a week lost - or a bit more as you are quite overweight. I wouldn’t personally try more than this.

Lots of people have systems that work for them and will try and tell you it’s the only way. In reality there are many ways to get there, but I think that plenty of fibre and protein, limited refined carbs and sticking to meals and maybe one planned snack is helpful.. I also find it helps to plan the day in advance so you think about anything that’s going to be challenging and how you will deal with it.

Your ankles are probably water retention - do they go down overnight? You should get them checked as it can be a sign of more serious conditions although it probably isn’t. Loosing weight will help, exercise helps as it keeps the blood moving as does elevating your legs when you can.

On this subject while exercise doesn’t help you loose much, people who exercise have much more success keeping weight off as it’s a key part of changing your lifestyle. Walking is a good way to start if you are very sedentary right now. start small and build up to 45 mins a day.

Oh I see you have a rowing machine - that’s great too.

Yeah. It’s not as good as I thought it was going to be for drying laundry so I might as well use it for exercise 😆.

And thanks for your other answer, very useful information.