Intro

[Tiggerr]

Hi all from a newbie! Happy New Year to everyone.

Its been quite a few years since I seriously tried to lose weight. Early 50s man who apparently needs to lose 22kg (eek!). I've never previously followed any structured plan so I'm hoping that following the NHS guide, might be kick up the rear, coupled with the support, that I need. Only time will tell but good luck to you all.

[Hidden]

Hi and welcome to the forum

Have a good look at the pinned newbie thread as loads of info on there

I admit to finding calorie counting and measuring daunting to start with, but boy after 2 weeks it is second nature - I set up a spread sheet to count my daily caories and then another one with the calories of my regular foods etc to save having to look them up every time

Here's an example

Fruit and Veg

(last figure is the calories per that quantity, hope it makes sense)

Apple Gala100 gm = 53 calories

Avocado100 gm134

Banana100 gm51

Blueberries50 gm20

Brocolli100 gm34

Cherries 5 = 8 cals

[Tiggerr in reply to Hidden]

Thank you for the welcome and info. After looking at the calorie counter I was contemplating doing a similar spreadsheet. Now that I've seen it written down like that, I'll definitely start one now.

[Hidden in reply to Tiggerr]

You are welcome - hope it helps - Good luck on your journey and look forward to hearing how you get on

I also did a third tab where I put the total calories eaten each day

17-Oct 1589

18 - Oct 1703

19 - Oct 1817

20 - Oct 2137

and a recipe calculator

Chilli

Mince 750 = 930

Taco Beans = 344

Onion 148 = 52

Stock = 45

Oil = 136

Toms = 200

Total1707

divide by 6 portions = 285 cal per portion then plus the rice etc

[Tiggerr in reply to Hidden]

I love spreadsheets.

[Hidden in reply to Tiggerr]

Yep they are so versatile

ok I have the following tabs

weight (weekly weigh ins), Calories (daily total calorie intake), Calories in (calories in that day), Recipe calculator (Like the chilli I posted above but a few different recipes on it) and Freezer (yes I went mad and one Sunday I did a list of my freezer contents and that 3 Croquet's = 192

calories, 3 Hash browns = 224 calories etc)

It all saves time when back at work and planning meals is a lot easier and quicker as you can work out the calories per meal and see what you have left for snacks and drinks etc.

[Tiggerr in reply to Hidden]

Many years ago I did a 'freezer' one. Took me ages (large chest freezer plus fridge/freezer).... never, ever kept it up to date. C'est la vie.

Knowing my propensity for spreadsheets in the past, they are definitely not the whole solution. I'm hoping that another part of the equation is actually interacting with people like yourself, that are in the same boat.

[WeightWarrior in reply to Hidden]

Totally brilliant advice to make some kind of record (I don't do spreadsheets lol!) of how many calories are in things you eat regularly, rather than having to keep looking them up. I worked out what was in our regular family dinners and it makes it so much easier. I have documents called, for example "fish meal". I open "fish meal" document and it lists x grams of fish = x calories, x grams of potato = x calories, etc, then the total meal calories at the bottom. It's like a combo of an ingredients list (a bit like you'd refer to a recipe for quantities of ingredients I guess) and an instant look at the calories contained in it in bold at the bottom of the list. I've found it really useful and it saved a ton of time in the long run. I think it's really worthwhile spending the first few weeks collating the information about regular meals. I was also doing a daily food diary but I fell apart in December. Ah well, new year, new start, so happy new year and good luck to us all eh!

[rachelcook]

happy new year 😊 you can do it, particularly with the support on here #fellow newbie 😁