Fitness/diet advice

The Mediterranean Diet is one of the healthier options, giving you what you need without starving etc

Weight loss is a calculation of calories in versus calories out. You want to be at a deficit to lose weight, with 3500 calories being equivalent to a pound. Usually people accomplish this by exercising more nf reducing calorie intake. You also want to factor in the calories that your body burns just by existing. Free apps like MyFitnessPal and Lose It help you to log your calories and exercise. There's also tons of free workout videos on YouTube. If you focus on portion control and healthier eating choices along with boosting exercise, you should be able to lose 10-15 pounds by your wedding no problem. Healthy and sustainable weight loss is usually around .5-2 pounds per week. However, the less you have to lose, the longer it usually takes. For exercise, I would make sure to definitely incorporate weight training (whether body weight or otherwise) because when you build more muscle, you will burn more calories at rest and get a toner physique.

Yes, Hannah is correct. I recommend you reduce your calories to 1500, and your FH reduces it to 2,000. And for exercise, I recommend you do Chloe Ting's 28 day flat tummy challenge then her 30 day flat belly challenge. https://www.chloeting.com/program/

If you guys are looking to do an at home workout, I would highly recommend Team Body Project workouts. They have ones for free on YouTube and they cater to all different fitness levels (they offer modifications and use real people—not fitness models/trainers to work out with them).

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I have a few comments:

1. Hannah accurately has summarised how to lose ‘weight’, it is all about calories in vs calories out. If you want to actually ‘tone’ down and be more defined, I would highly recommend weight training. When you do cardio or even no exercise and are merely worried about weight, your body doesn’t just lose fat, you lose muscle too. Weight training though is what will give you definition and make you look ‘slimmer’. I used to do weights 5 x a week and at 190lbs I was super fit and slim. I became fixated on the numbers however and when I got to my goal weight of 170lbs doing cardio, I was technically ‘fatter’ than I had been before. You need to decide what your goal is and what you want to do to achieve it. In any event, be patient – weight loss/muscle definition takes time!

2. Do not listen to any person here who tells you how many calories to consume – go see a dietician. Your BMR (basal metabolic rate) is how many calories your body burns just to keep you alive and this figure varies from person to person based on age/weight/activity levels etc. Therefore, what for me might be a calorie deficit eating at X calories might be a calorie surplus for someone else. Just the same, how much your calorie deficit is, is also something you need to decide based on you and how low you can go that will be comfortable and still within a healthy range to sustain your body.

3. There are hundreds of diets out there; Keto, Atkins, Mediterranean, 5:2, 16:8, etc. Whatever you choose, whether to follow a ‘diet’/eat intuitively/cut out ‘junk’, you need to chose what works best for YOU.

My advice:

Set yourself a realistic goal, identify what are you comfortable with doing re food (i.e. cutting certain things out or minimising portions) and exercise, and most importantly, be patient. Weight loss takes time. Good luck!

As others said: put more calories out than you're taking in.

For tangible action items that will make a quick difference:

- Stop drinking anything other than water. No alcohol, no juice, no soda no tea... water only.
- Read the ingredients on your food and try to eat as clean as possible. No added sugars! Most deli meat, snacks, almost everything has added sugar - find the options that don't. For example, Cheez-Its don't have added sugar (obviously not a "clean" food though) find balance.
- Move. Every. Single. Day. Minimum of 10,000 steps. Pick up some weights. Do crunches and pushups during commercial breaks.
- No excuses.

The first thing you need to do is figure out what your maintenance calories are. There are calculators online you can use. Once you have this figured out, decrease your calories by 100-200 calories. If your goal is to add a bit of muscle, i would recommend only decreasing by about 100 so you have enough fuel in your system to build. Next, look at your macros (protein, carb, and fat). You want to eat 1g of protein per pound of your goal weight. (Ex: you weigh 140 now, but you want to weigh 130. You would eat 130g of protein each day. Protein has 4 calories per gram so this is equivalent to 520 calories. (130 × 4 = 520)). Next, fats. You want to make sure you eat enough healthy fats for hormonal health. This is usually around 25% of daily calories. Each g of fat has 9 calories. So if your maintenance is 1700 calories, you decide to cut to 1600 calories you would need to eat 25% of those calories from fat. 1600 × 0.25= 400. 400÷9 = 44g of fat. The rest of your calories will come from carbs. Carbs also have 4 calories per gram. So far we have 520P + 400F = 920 cals total. 1600 - 920 = 680. 680 ÷ 4 = 170g carbs.


Keep in mind, I just made your calories up for reference. You can keep track of these in my fitness pal or something similar, but make sure you set your own nutrition goals in the app or it will give you something that is most likely way too low. I would also recommend getting a food scale.
As for exercise, focus on strength training. Squats, deadlifts, pull ups, etc. 3-5 days a week. Focus on getting stronger and your body will start to change in amazing ways. You have plenty of time to achieve your goals so don't try to do anything drastic because you won't be able to stick to it.
I know this is really long lol but I'm a fitness trainer and this is the stuff I wish I would have known when I started. The most important thing is consistency! Also, water and plenty of sleep!
Here is a link where you can do your maintenance calories:https://www.freedieting.com/calorie-calculator

Find a workout regimen you enjoy enough to stick to! honestly it took me a while to figure out what i liked enough to stick to because an important part of all of this is to stay consistent and by finding an exercise regimen you enjoy enough to stick to, it helps!

I am a firm believer in Keto so I would suggest doing that diet, Good luck and best wishes