If you are 365 lbs., the world looks quite bleak. All the exercises mentioned online are quite hard to do for such a heavy person, and there are not many easier solutions online. I get you; I was also close to 300 lbs. Hence, I thought of writing a small blog post to help anyone who is suffering from such issues. Do share this post if you found it interesting.
I weigh 365 lbs., how do I lose weight? There are no easy solutions to lose weight from 365 lbs. But, if you understand the concept of dieting and follow a suitable diet (calorie-based/low-carb/plant-based/et cetera) continuously, you will surely lose your weight. You can also add small exercises like strolling for half an hour each day, and they will accelerate your path to victory.
There are a lot of things you need to understand to lose weight properly. So, keep reading this article till the end.
What you need to understand about dieting
People take dieting as something that they occasionally do when they start gaining weight, but only those who make diets their lifestyle tend to succeed better with them.[1] It is not about just eating less; it’s about what you are eating. And herein comes the concept of calories.
Calories are the basic parameters through which we count the energy stored in our food. A human body has a daily requirement of calories to function properly. Let’s say the requirement is about 2500 cal for a man. If he eats more than that, he is likely to gain weight as our bodies tend to store fat due to evolutionary reasons. On the other hand, if the same man eats fewer calories than the recommended dosage, he will likely lose weight.[2]
That is not to say that all foods are seen in calories. Far from that, you can eat 1 kg of cucumber, and only 25 g of peanut butter and both foods would provide you the same calories.[3][4] However, the satisfaction and the fulfillment that you feel from calories is also different.[5] But, the rule of thumb is, if you eat low-calorie and a fiber-rich food, you will eat less in calories.
Is that even possible? How can you eat only low-calorie foods all day? Herein comes the concept of dieting.
Choosing a suitable diet plan
Several diets are out there to make things easier. These three are the most popular of them: 1) calorie-based diets 2) low-carb diets 3) plant-based diets.
In this article, we are going to briefly examine each of them and provide you suitable directions for when to use them and when to ignore them.
The calorie-based diets are the easiest for those who don’t want to restrict themselves. You do have to keep in mind the proportions, but you can eat almost anything. There is no restriction about which macronutrient you should prefer or when you should eat.[5]
There are. However, some additions to this diet form like the intermittent fasting or the one meal a day diet plan wherein they add some restrictions like eating at a specific time, and that’s all.
Next in line are the low-carb diets. There are many diets in this category: keto diet, Atkins diet, Paleo diet, et cetera. The basic idea of these is to make you eat more fats as fats are more satisfying than carbohydrates.[6] The carb number is diminished to puny levels (20-40g).[7] The keto diet especially uses a process named ketosis to further gains by using fat as a fuel source[8] instead of glycogen, which is the primary energy source for a non-dieting human body.
The third are the plant-based diets. As veggies and fruits are quite low in calories, you can eat as much as you want without exceeding your calorie limits. There are many proponents of plant-based diets as well, but it is hard to get your proteins only from plants unless you are taking supplements.
All of these three diet forms are somehow reducing the number of calories you eat in a day. They only change the form and what you eat in a day according to their philosophies. But, some people find it quite hard to follow through these diets, and hence we introduce you to an effortless way.[8]
Start small and achieve big
The American professor and social scientist BJ Fogg says in his book tiny habits, “When you know how you can create tiny habits, you can change your life forever” [9] Fogg, has done numerous studies on this.[10]
Think about what can be done if you can create a habit of eating 1500 g of vegetables every day? A habit is something you can repeat without thinking too much about it. Do you have to think while driving your car? Because it’s already a habit.
So, what you can do with the concept of habits? The easiest thing to do would be to achieve something that is acceptable and quite easy to do for you. Something that can give you easy wins at the start when you are feeling low and depressed.
Here are some action steps:
- Make a habit of walking five minutes every day
- Make a habit of eating a hundred grams of vegetables every single day.
- Make a habit of eating only one packet of processed chips/noodles/junk food. If you find that hard, make the number 2.
- And so on.
Add small exercises as well
Many personal trainers will only recommend strenuous exercises like cardio, weightlifting, et cetera. Still, for someone who hasn’t lost much in the past few months (or ever), that is not a very sure thing. Hence, we would recommend you to start small by just weight at a moderate pace. You can do it anywhere — in your porch, near your garage, in your office, or in your room.
Some trainers would say walking is not that ineffective. That’s not true! In fact, you can lose a lot of weight just by walking half-an-hour each day. But, as we said before in our habits topic, remember to start small.
Here is how much weight you can lose just by walking every single day[11]:
- Walk 15 minutes every day – 63 calories burned
- Walk 30 minutes every day – 126 calories burned
- Walk 1 hour each day – 251 calories burned
- Walk two hours each day – 502 calories burned
If you can burn just 500 calories per day, you can lose 1 lb per week.[12] You can do that just by dieting. But think if you could include exercise and burn 500 more each day? That’s 2 pounds per week buddy! Fat will run like the dude who’s pants are on fire.
You can read more about walking and weight loss here.
But that’s not all. We have some extra ninja tips for you to help you lose more weight, so stay tuned and keep reading this article.
Ninja tips to help you lose more weight
Get a lot of sleep
Sleep is highly effective for constant weight loss, and if you are not getting proper sleep, you are likely to lose less weight than when you are.[13] Sleeping less also creates stress in our bodies, and stress is an unreliable quantity. Sometimes stress can make you lose a lot of weight, but mostly it results in either a stalemate or weight gain in the body.[14]
If you have problems with sleeping, you can tune into pink noises to help you sleep better.[15]
Don’t eat before 11 AM
This is what I do, and I am telling you — nobody is even talking about it. Think of how much more you can eat if you haven’t eaten for half a day. In the morning, try to avoid eating anything before 11 AM. If you want to do it the lazy way, you can drink some coffee— which is the day starter for many of us, including me. And you can eat some low-calorie vegetables like cucumber or carrots. But that’s all.
This will help you in reducing the number of calories you eat in a day without feeling like starvation at all times.
Use mouthwash when you feel the dry mouth
This is a fantastic tip! Use fluoride-based mouthwash to keep off hunger in case you are extremely hungry and feeling the dry mouth that is associated with sugar depravity. Mouthwash will not provide you any calories, but it will keep your hunger and cravings away for at least 30 to 45 minutes. I’m currently using this mouthwash, and it is working amazingly for me.
Use the 10-minute trick
Nir Eyal, in his book indistractable, suggests a way to distinguish between real hunger and hunger due to anxiety. Many of us eat not due to our body’s requirements but due to stress and its repercussions. In that case, just wait 10 minutes after your cravings reach the peak. In case hunger is for real, and after 10 minutes you still feel like to eat, just go for it.[16] Check out the audiobook here.
Create a meal plan
You can create a meal plan to format your daily eating pattern properly. In this way, you can avoid a lot of bad foods which you eat when you don’t know what you need to eat at all times.
Calculating your calories
Calorie calculation is an easy way to understand what you are eating and how many nutrients you are getting from the food. It is an easy way to gain that extra mile in weight loss. You can use apps like myfitnesspal to track all your calories and foods. It also gives you the macronutrient ratios of your diet every single day.
Sleep early to get better results
For many, munching happens during the night time and people with bing eating problems can eat as much as 25% of their total calories at nighttime.[17] Hence, the best idea would be to sleep early and avoid those nightly munches that could ruin your dieting plans.[18]
Drink a lot of water
Water has been associated with weight loss for a variety of reasons. Drinking more water is also quite fulfilling and can help in eating fewer calories.[19] Hence, instead of eating just vegetables and fruits, try to make juices out of them so you can get that extra water in your body.
Protein is your friend
Protein is considered one of the most fulfilling macronutrient out there. So, if you add more protein to your diet instead of carbs, you can keep fulfilled for a long time, and the desire to eat would be less.[20] Protein is also efficient in keeping the metabolic rate at a sustained pace so that you can lose weight consistently instead of the missing days.[22]
Conclusion
That is it for this article. If you keep making small habits and continuously diet using the plans provided in this article, you are sure to lose weight. Also, if you keep working on these types of small habits, they will affect other features of your life as well. So, keep doing the hard work and keep getting success.
Do remember that if you liked this article and gained a little bit of knowledge, give 5 seconds to share it with your friends so they can be helped out too. In case you have any questions or queries regarding this article, you can use our contact us form to contact us anytime. Goodbye!
