How does one start losing weight?

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May as well try asking here...

How do you lose weight?
Tips, advice, magic...

I'm far too flabby around my mid-section and I want it gone, but I've never had to diet or anything before so wouldn't even know where to start - bear in mind I'm unemployed so healthy food is seriously limited, I also tend not to have fixed meals...and my exercise options are limited to walking around the local streets. I feel like I don't have many options to help myself out here, it feels unrealistic to try to lose weight right now when I can't get much in the way of healthy food or join a gym

In all reality, you simply need to reduce your caloric intake and increase your activity level. If you ate 1200 calories a day and walked briskly for 30-40 minutes every day, you'd probably start losing weight.

The food doesn't actually have to be healthy...or healthful, as is the more appropriate term. Why it is the norm to eat healthful food while on a low calorie diet is because of the following...

1. You are not eating as much food so to get the same level of nutrients, you need to eat more nutrient dense food so you do not become deficient in these nutrients.

2. Cheaper foods tend to be higher in simple carbs, which is sugar that your body makes use of very quickly. Your body will either very rapidly turn it into energy or fat, depending on how much energy you are using at the moment. It also causes large fluctuations in insulin and blood sugar levels, which, over a long period of time, can lead to type II diabetes. These types of carbs also aren't very good at keeping you from feeling hungry.

Foods like meat, poultry, fish, and vegetables have complex carbs. They take longer for your body to digest so are more likely to be utilized as energy rather than whisked away to fat stores. Vegetables also have a lot of bulk. The combined complex carbs and bulk help you feel full and keep you from getting hungry so quickly.

You will be more hungry in an hour if you eat 300 calories worth of instant noodles than you would if you ate 300 calories worth of chicken breast, broccoli and potatoes, in proper serving sizes combined.

Simple.

1. Eat less.

2. Exercise more.

You should also seek the advice of a licensed and degreed physician before starting any weight-loss regimen.

Eat balaced meals... Spot reduction is a hard thing... you could try stomach crunches & breathing exercises..

Whoa. I wish I'd encountered all the novel advice here before I stopped eating for months at a time.
To think, eating less and exercising is the secret!

I've "struggled with my weight" (read: been fat) my entire life-
the only thing that's seemed to have a consistent affect for me is drinking obscene amounts of water.
(That, and half a year of on a prescription weight loss pill.)
A cliche tip, but I've found it very helpful.

Everyone's different, and I've found that the exercise part of "diet and exercise" does nothing for me. I've gone to gyms and seen no results. I spent a month in Reno, Nevada walking over five miles per day in the summer (when the temperature was over 105), and I only lost five pounds. I should have lost 50 just from sweating it off. But then I changed my diet and started losing weight, and fast. I went from 210 to 180 very, very quickly, simply by eating less and eating healthier. Junk food and candy bars went away. (Mostly. I'm still occasionally tempted.) Diet soda only. Only eating when I was hungry, and not simply when I was bored. Eating smaller portions per meal. I'm not saying you shouldn't try exercise, just that you should find what does and doesn't work for you and stick with it.

I'd tried the "diet and exercise" spiel in great variance for ten years or so before I finally saw a doctor who gave me a script.

It always made me sad to hear people share their diet "tips" for losing weight:
Cut out soda and junk food. / Haven't had any since I was 5 or so, thanks.
Cut down on meat and dairy! / I'm vegan.
Cut your caloric intake! / Been doing that progressively for ten years, all the way down to zero.
Wait. You said you're obese? / Um. Yeah...
Well you must just sit around all day, huh? / If exercising 3 hours daily is sitting around, sure.

My parents tried very hard to get me into an inpatient treatment facility for anorexia after I went 8 months without eating in high school, and the lady peered around my desperate tearful mother at me and whispered "We don't take fat girls".

I gained it all back after going off the prescription last time, five years ago.
I recently came off it again (after losing 65 lbs) and I'm terrified.

Have you had your thyroid level checked? Having low levels can really make you "efficient" on small amounts of food. I have read stories of people being called a liar and accused of cheating on diets when they had stuck scrupulously to them.

That said, I can also recommend checking into the South Beach Diet. Get the book from the library. I'm not sure how well it can be adapted to a vegan diet, but it's worth a shot and you eat "regular" foods.

Also, restricting calories too much for too long puts your body into "starvation mode" and causes it to hang onto all the calories it can.

Saying "eat less, exercise more" is the oversimplified mathematical equation view and research has shown it is far from that simple.

If you are eating an appropriate reduced calorie diet and getting a sufficient amount of exercise and still not losing weight, then medical disorders such as Cushing's Syndrome should be considered. The vast majority of people, however, fail at losing weight because they do not adhere to their diet or exercise program. This is usually because they have chosen them such that they are unrealistic or they attempt to live a lifestyle they are incompatible with.

What I've been hearing lately is people should reduce Carbs and Sugar. Or actually reduce Grains and Starch intake like potatoes.

While I would consider myself extreme in that case, the reason why I lost around 20 pounds over the course of two weeks is that I started counting calories, and increased my daily calorie requirement by working out. At the moment, I devote most of my spare time to keeping my ass in motion, running, cycling, weightlifting, around two to three hours a day. From my perspective and experience, there is no easy way out. Losing weight means abdication, hardship and discipline. That said, it can still be fun. What keeps me motivated is the fact that I am seeing results fast. Start with calculating your daily calorie requirement, then just increase it by a little through physical activity (half an hour a day should be suffice), and then monitor what you eat each day, try to go under your daily requirement by 500 to 1000 calories. A health and nutrition coach once told me that one pound of body fat roughly equals 3.500 calories. So, if you eat 3.500 calories less over the course of any amount of days, you lose one pound.

I've heard there's a different diet thing one should follow for different blood groups..

Increase physical activity,at least an hour exercise every day, decrease calorie intake,but not too much.Don't bother with fad diets,instead have a healthy well rounded diet including portions from all food groups.Healthy carbohydrates such as brown rice,sweet potatoes,whole grains such as quinoa,millet,brown rice,lots of leafy green vegetables,and protein.If you crave sweets,have some fresh fruit.

They're finding now that some people can have certain thyroid conditions that escape conventional blood tests. They actually have to know what they're looking for to detect it.

Hey, I like your handle Polgara. Another Eddings fan!

Are you still around Bloodheart? From your post I get it you're not significantly overweight, just worried about a bit of extra fat and flabbiness especially around your middle?

Pilates is very efficient for that - you can find free videos on youtube and you don't need any equipment. You can also choose easier exercises to start with and work your way from there. You won't get any results over night so you'll need patience and consistency for it to pay off. But it does, big time. Walking is also good - I'd do it for one hour daily.

Training with small weights is excellent for shaping and toning - you can buy a pair of 2kg (each) dumbbells for 10 pounds (shipping included) on Amazon. But you can do without if you can't afford it.

If money is tight eating "right" can be difficult - do you have a vegetable market in your area? During the summer it's a lot easier to get some fresh local produce and that would help you a lot.

It's not that simple. If this worked, then there wouldn't be so many overweight people. There are medical conditions that affect weight as well. :/