Noticed you were starting to resemble Zach, congrats.

How does one count calories accurately? Are you measuring? I use my fitness pal but it's mostly swag. Also how does one get by on 1200 calories a day? I eat that at breakfast.

my only problem with a Vegan diet is the whole eating vegetables part.
other than that, I would totally be down for it.

Perspective SR.
At my heaviest I was at least 290 thats the highest I ever weighed myself may have even gotten a bit heavier. I am 5'10. I was always big but not really fat when I was young. I have been slowly losing weight by smaller portions nothing drastic. For the first time in like 35 years i have a 0 after the 2 in my weight. I hit a plateau at 220 that lasted for 2 years and finally started going down slowly. I am a 38 now.
36 is your moment of panic for me it is a number I haven't seen in almost 40 years yet is in sight.
Good luck friend

this is actually a really important question....

I generally use my fitness pal and I go by the old saying "trust but verify"

The way my fitness pal works is kinda like wikipedia...ANYONE can put in an entry (like a cheeseburger from mcdonalds = 300 calories or whatever)

and you can use anyone's entry..so if youre adding something for lunch..you start typing cheeseburger...and you scroll down to the mcdonalds ones and use use one that someone else has already input the info

the ones with the little green check-marks are generally better....

heres the cool thing...if you have something every day, like coffee with milk or whatever...

once u add it in there to your food diary, and you confirm it is correct.it just stays on your quick menu so u can easily add it any time after that.....so basically if it is something you eat frequently just confiirm it once time then boom it is in your system waiting to be easily added any time you eat it...

You can even do custom things like 'cheeseburger - no bun' and most of the time someone else already thought of that and did the work for you and it is already in the database to be found easily.

I have found mistakes though, but they are easily corrected and added in there.

for a male (who is not physically active), 1200 calories would be about right if you weighed 170 and were trying to lose 1 pound per week.

roughly : weight x 10 (170 x 10) minus 500 per day = losing 1 pound a week,

but then when you are at your target weight you would go back to 1700 calories

I use a digital scale and the Cronometer app/website. After a bit, most of the foods you eat will be in your recent list so it's pretty quick. Mixed meals like stir fry or a casserole are a pain but you only have to enter it once unless you make it drastically different each time. You want to be close but you don't have to get it down to the gnat's ass for general weight loss.

You can lose approx. 1.3 pounds for each squirrel you extract from your ass.

Vegan isn't just vegetables. Beans, nuts, fruit,rice/other grains, etc are all part of it. It would be extremely tough to get all of your daily calories just eating vegetables.

Fascinating.

In my opinion...the exercise and activity level are more important than what you consume.

Obviously don't gorge on shit food but if you are exercising 1+ hours a day, the rest takes care of itself.

Depends on what I'm feeling I guess. I've been eating a lot of berries, jackfruit BBQ sandwiches are good, I've found some veggie burgers I like. They're great with sriracha on em. Sweet potatoes. Breakfast is usually smoothies I'll blend up with spinach, berries, bananas, vega protein powder (berry flavor is the best), cashew milk, tart cherry, chia seeds, maca powder and maybe some salad parts I have to use up. There's a really good salad at Costco with some nuts and cranberries in it I eat a lot. My wife found a salad dressing that's Whole30/Vegan that's an avacado ranch flavor but not shitty for you.

Lots of beans and rice, Chipotle, Q'Doba has a great tortilla soup that can be vegan, Indian food, Asian food too. I'm doing a lot more shopping at Trader Joe's, Sprouts and not as much at Kroger or Publix as I used to. I found a black bean chili and vegan mac n "cheese" that's really good when combined. If I feel like eating shitty that's a go to.

I eat out less too. But I did find this vegan food truck restaurant in Austell (think dirty, fairly lower middle class suburb of Atlanta near Smyrna where I live) that's fantastic. Same parking lot with a Pollo Tropical my daughter loves - so we'll go over there and endure the dirty looks from the other vegans while my daughter eats chicken. LMAO

Honestly, I feel better than I ever have, and that's why I started eating this way. I want to run some 50k's over the next couple years and a lot of distance runners eat this way cause it helps in their recovery. So I tried it, and feel amazing. I never have indigestion, heart burn, reflux, or feel shitty after I eat this way. Ever.

Changing how I eat was made easier when I didn't look at what I can't eat anymore. I look at how much of this delicious stuff I can. I eat entire bowls of strawberries. Or 3-4 sweet potatoes. Or a giant salad. Or I'll get the best bread I can get my hands on and make crazy veggie or black bean burgers. If I spent all my time thinking about what I am not eating I'd hate it.

But I still love meat too. Maybe one day I'll be fully vegan, not ready for that yet. When I eat meat it's mostly chicken or seafood. I haven't had red meat since early December. I'm down 15 pounds or so since then. I plan to drop 19 more to be at 184 by the time my daughter is out of school for the summer. Then as my training kicks up hopefully I can get under 170 before this fall when I start running these crazy things...

this is repeatably proven false.

an hour of moderate excercise per day will not do jack shit in terms of losing fat if youre eating way too much

for example if you burn around 500 calories in an hour workout...that wont help you if you are eating 3200 calories a day and need to cut back to 2200, youll still gain weight in the end...

diet is the #1 most important factor....exercise comes next....some would even say NEAT comes before exercise and i agree personally

For most people it is nearly impossible to exercise their way out of a bad diet but you CAN lose weight with no exercise and the proper diet...

source: http://liamrosen.com/fitness.html

Wrong. You can lose weight not exercising at all. Just stay under your basal metabolic rate.

This is true. I stay away from the fake shit, it's disgusting.

I do like the nut based cheeses I've had, and I definitely prefer nut based milks to dairy now too.

If you'd told me on Dec 1 I'd enjoy eating this way and have found food I genuinely love I'd have laughed in your face.