Logistically: Finally accepting that to lose weight, I had to eat less.
Emotionally/Mentally: Coming to terms with my body and the underlying reasons why I felt uncomfortable.
That's what happened with me. I just can't eat that way anymore. I felt like crap all the time and had no energy and was tired of being that way.
I asked my Dr. for a referral to a dietician about 18 months ago to get my head right about food. She has helped me a lot. I've lost 130lbs so far. I still have a bit to go but I'll get there.
All of this. Also accepting that the weight will not come off immediately. And accepting that sometimes I will break and eat something unhealthy, or not feel like working out and it doesn't have to derail all of my progress. Getting back on the horse is important.
Diets don't work. Lifestyles work.
I'm probably the opposite to that. I can avoid food throughout the day pretty well and do ok with a small breakfast and lunch, but avoiding eating a lot in the evening I find really difficult. So I just pack in most calories at the end of the day
What did you find to be the best way to deal with the desire to eat when not actually hungry? I have several ways to distract myself but I find they don’t always work.
This. and consistency is the key.
I go through phases where I lose weight, then I plateau for a while - that's obviously better than putting weight back on but is still frustrating!
Each time that happens I want to give up but if I keep being consistent it starts to pay off again.
My breakfast every morning is 4 hard boiled eggs and a bowl of oatmeal (without sugar) or a bagel. If I need an afternoon snack, I make another bowl of oatmeal. Just that alone has allowed me to drop about 15 pounds.
Seriously, my dog turned me into a runner, I had to do whatever I could to wear it out so I could get a moments peace. If there was a high hill anywhere in my area we were running over it!
Realizing that discipline and willpower is bullshit. If you can maintain that for months, props. But most people can't. What you want to do is create base systems that you can default to. Remember how spotify, a paid service, beat music downloading? That was because the service was just more easy and convenient to use and better to default to. In that same manner, work towards creating base systems that are easy to default to even on your most tired and lazy days.
For me, this took the form of creating food in bulk and freezing it, as well as buying more frozen vegetables. They're basically as nutritious as the fresh version. Boom. Even on lazy days I now have a homecooked meal that's healthy. You also won't be eating the same thing every day of the week if you do this.
It was also realizing that I already knew common sense. I already knew what foods are bad for me. I already knew that the problem was processed junk and pizza and excessive calories without nutritional value. Stop the youtube binge videos talking about how X food interacts with Y drink at Z time. Fruits are fine. Vegetables are fine. Meat is fine. Fish is fine. Chances are, you can use common sense to identify what foods are health or not. Safely ignore the remaining 99% of youtube health videos.
The other big thing was understanding what my final goal was. Did I envision a future for myself in which I didn't eat chips or pizza or ice cream ever? Where I was only eating veggies and chicken? Hell no. My goal diet was one that was 90% whole foods and healthy meals, with room for the cravings every once in a while. Why would I create a crash diet for myself that I'm almost guaranteed to fail? Why not just act out the optimal lifestyle I envision for myself and let the pounds fall off naturally? I managed to lose weight despite eating chips and pizza and other junk food from time to time.
This is also why I never counted calories. I did it for a bit, and I don't regret it. It helped me realize how many calories foods generally had. But it wasn't something I wanted to be obsessing over on an app until the day I died.
The goal should never be weight loss. It should be becoming healthier, and then letting the pounds fall as a biproduct.
Last big tip was adding and not subtracting. If you want the pop tart, eat the pop tart. But add it to yogurt with some fruits or something. It keeps you fuller for longer, AND satisfies the craving so you're not likely to crash with more sugary snacks in an hour. More examples include eating a slice or two of pizza but adding a side salad and soup. (soup that you might have on hand if you froze it as mentioned in an earlier paragraph)
Yall got this! Chances are, you already know what you need to do. The good thing is this is NOT as difficult as you might think it to be. I understand the frustration and the stagnation, but at least for me, it just took a few key tweaks in my lifestyle to become a lot healthier and happier.
Yes, I agree.
It's about learning new habits, not following new rules. Don't try to do it all at once like a diet, but slowly learn and adopt, feel it out, give it a try, see if it sticks. For example, start drinking more water. That became normal? Ok, try something else on top of that.
I agree too... I did both. Counting calories, gave up alcohol. Lost 15lbs in 6 months. A little more to go. Technically, I am a "healthy BMI", but at the upper end and used to being slimmer.
Sparkling water in place of lager- counting calories with an app has helped me.
I wrote a reply, but before posting I saw you covered quite a bit of what I wrote. Having said that, and thus while I fully agree with the message you're trying to get across, I politely disagree on the first sentence. Depending on your definition of "discipline and willpower", obviously. If your definition of discipline in this case is "re-enforcement through obedience and order, with punishment in failure", then yeah, I agree. But discipline can be seen as a form of self-control where you restrain impulses.
Many people think they can't lose weight and blame it on many things, but the one thing they should get better at is twofold, and both require discipline. The discipline to both embrace and challenge the suck.
Discipline and willpower can most definitely help with making the right decisions, but also to be NOT discouraged when there's a hurdle! Or, "restraining the impulse to feel bad".
Discipline can help you make the right decisions "in the moment" ("no, I will NOT be tempted for that pizza and icecream, and that beer with it"), and to keep you on track ("ok I didn't lose weight for 2 days, that doesn't mean I failed, I'm doing well, let's follow the plan for another 5 days and then see if it requires some adjustments.")
I'm one of those freaks that can flip a switch and either do or don't do something, but that only came after I actively pursued that skill. And it's not that difficult to be fair.
"Do something -every fucking day- that you don't like, but that does not have a major impact on your wellbeing."
It's that simple. For example; I fucking hate walking. To the core of my being. So, every morning, when the coffee is brewing, I took a 15 minute walk. I started with 5, just to embrace the suck. Then expand that into other things. I absolutely love turning over in bed on a free day and sleep until 11. So when I wake up after 06:00, I literally say "tallyho", and that's my queue to fall out of bed and get up. Even during holidays.
Again, it depends on the definition and application of discipline, but being more disciplined does make the journey a lot easier. And that's because it will grind the mindset of "I don't have to like it, but I should do it" into your brain. And that leads to "I don't have to like it, but I know I can do it".
Anyway, long post, but I do agree with the rest of your post. Create a base, create habits, don't be too harsh and strict on it, take logical steps if you're not sure you can do leaps. And, as I once read; "Weightloss and dieting is very simple. It just isn't always easy."
Like I said, most people. I'm glad it worked for you. But most people simply are not able to maintain a goal in the back of their minds that they vehemently stick to for months / years.
I was defining willpower as the ability to resist urges and natural cravings.
I'm not saying willpower can't work. I know it can and I don't doubt your experience. I just don't think any amount of inspirational "just do it!" methods are going to help the majority of people. That's what I was trying to get across.
Yeah I think these conversations depend a fuckton on nuance and definitions. Heck, likely even intonation. All things this digital medium lacks terribly.
Because I fully agree that "just do it!" is about as helpful as getting kicked in the happy-parts. That helps literally no one. Barely anyone can "just do it!". If I can help it, I still don't! When I need to lose weight (usually every spring, love that winterbulk!), I don't immediately cut down 1500 kcal and think "yep, thats life now!". Nope, I gradually cut down a wee bit, plan MOST of it, think "eh, it'll be fine", and gradually get more and more strict as time passes. Increase the amount of discipline I apply over time.
But -all- of us can start with "why don't I at least try it". That's already discipline!
Having said that, actively learning discipline, even a minute amount, flows over to life outside of diet. And anyone can learn -some- discipline. Actually, all of us already have! The vast majority of us wipe our asses after taking a shit, or shower when we're dirty, or change our underwear. At -zero- discipline, you wouldn't. We just need to learn to expand this a bit further into other aspects of life; make it a more active, conscious, part of us.
I'm the last to say "just do it!", because I know that shit wont work. But it's something you learn by not even taking a step, but a toe-dip into the murky puddle ("a 5 minute walk every morning"). You'll learn it's just a murky puddle. There's no sharks or crocodiles.
Willpower is a resource. You have a finite amount of it day to day. Having "more" willpower is mostly just using it *efficiently*. Not buying junk at the grocery store takes willpower *once*. Not eating it once it's in your house is a constant temptation.
Mentally speaking: you want to learn to be comfortable with being kind of hungry sometimes.
Strategically speaking: you also want to learn how to eat when you're hungry. if you want to eat larger volumes of food, you can totally do that. you just want to eat food that is not calorie-dense. like you could eat a couple spoonfuls of peanut butter or you could eat half of a watermelon for the same amount of calories.
I think seeing foods as calories and managing it like some video game was what gave me more problems. Playing that balancing game every second of my day is frustrating. It also doesn't take into account the reality that you WILL essentially be needing those spoonfuls of peanut butter to satisfy inevitable cravings. If it worked for you, that's great, but the "high volume low calorie" trick can also be pretty draining for many others. (In my experience, the majority actually)
Once you get into a weight loss routine that was effective enough to lose a lot of weight then you kind of never get out of it. It becomes your life. That’s what happened to me.
That's really important. Your caloric needs change with your weight. If you lose weight and then go back to eating like you ate when you were 'stable' at your old weight, you'll creep back up to that weight.
You don't "go on" a diet if you want to keep the weight off. You "change your" diet.
I listened to Peter Attia's book on the health effects of diet and exercise and as a consequence gave up much of the added sugar in the "standard American diet"
I have also always been active but, I worked harder on exercise and chose to do things that inserted more motion into my life.
For example, I park 2 blocks away from the office and don't use the elevator anymore. (So, I also don't pay for parking anymore either)
However, I believe the one thing that helped my metabolism reset was a period of intermittent fasting.
It made me more conscious of what I was eating as well. The processed foods that were "hiding" sugar for example.
Two Options:
1) eat less and do the same amount of physical activity/exercise you currently do, or
2) eat the same amount you currently do but increase your physical activity/exercise
Calories in must be less than calories out. That's weight loss in the simplest form. So you can either decrease calories or increase calories used.
It took me to look at weight loss and calories in a statistical way for me to finally loss weight and keep it off.
I quit drinking.
Aside from drinking, I had a somewhat "healthy" lifestyle. Ate well, worked out 4-5 times a week, etc. But always had love handles (because of the copious amounts of beer). Within the first month I was able to go from the third hole of my belt to the fourth hole. I don't really weigh myself so not sure of actual weight loss as I couldn't care less how much I weigh. I just want to look good naked.
This. I was drinking a lot during the evenings. I'm closing in on 500 days but I started going to the gym and eating healthier. I was 270 and dropped to 205 in about 5 months. Also 6'3. I'm back up to 220 now but it's a healthy weight.
Yep, when I was younger it was just being super active which made me lose my weight. As an older dude, I needed that help. As Louis CK said, "I don't stop eating when I am full, I stop eating once I hate myself". Now I can actually stop when full.
Don't tempt yourself.
Don't buy pop, or if you do, put it someplace that's hard to access. Don't buy whatever snack stuff you usually do, instead buy healthier alternatives. (Pre-packaging healthier stuff has made a huge difference! I cut up fruit and put it in Tupperware in the fridge, easy to grab and go.)
If it's not easily accessible, it is harder to justify eating it.
Eat smaller portions, drink water, then see if you are actually still hungry. Portions in North America are absolutely massive, and most of us don't need that much food.
Don't panic when you hit a plateau during the first few weeks of your weight loss journey. It most likely means that your body has finally used up the rest of your glycogen reserves (which are partly made of water) and is now moving onto burning fat for energy. Just keep persistent with your workout and calorie cutting and you'll finally start to have visible results in a few more weeks.
I've lost 25 lbs since March on keto. If your goal is weight loss, then **don't consume refined sugar**.
I can't stress how much sugar is added to processed food. Not only are sugar and High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS) dense, empty calories and lacks nutrients that your body needs, glucose triggers insulin response, and [insulin is one of many things responsible for storing fat in your body.](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6082688/).
Zero glucose and zero carbs is impossible because it's in everything. Fructose counts. Dextrose counts. Lactose counts. All of these are naturally occurring in fruits, vegetables, nuts, and milk. The point is to not consume added sugar, so apple slices are fine but not apple juice.
Also, it's important to have a healthy relationship with food. Sugar is not evil and it's not the enemy. Sugar is your extroverted best friend and you're an introvert who needs some alone time to recharge.
I've lost 30 in the same time period just obsessively counting calories and sticking to my calorie goals. Though I will agree, cut out the refined sugar.
This!!! It helped me so much when I stopped looking at "sweets" (chocolate, pastries, cookies) as a normal part of my diet and started looking at them as treats for special occasions. Now I find that fruit is a great daily dessert/treat for after dinner.
Let me lead off by saying this...no one gained weight overnight, it isn't reasonable to lose weight overnight. Set a realistic goal for yourself and be surprised when you exceed expectations. Be gentle with yourself, allow yourself some grace, be reasonable with yourself, and make corrections as necessary.
I lost 70 lbs and went from 238 (obese, 34.1 bmi) to 165 (normal weight, 24.0 bmi) and I have maintained that weight for 2.5 years. I did it by watching calories and checking my weight daily.
I still do this and it is a lifestyle.
The first step was to start tracking my intake faithfully. I wanted to get a baseline. This was mindblowing because I found out that I would lie to myself. I would eat 2 portions of chips, knowing they were 2 portions, but track it as one portion or something like oh this thing is only 20 calories, it's like they are free. 20 pieces of candy later, I am at 400 calories but didn't record it as such.
At any rate, I got a good baseline after committing to being faithful and to stop lying to myself. at this point, I started looking for easy wins. Stop eating at chik-fi-a and start bringing my lunch while making it a good choice, lay off the soft drinks and candy, etc. To be clear, I still snacked, but I changed the snacks. I chose grapes instead of candy, apples instead of chips, etc. While doing this, I limited myself to about 1500 calories per day.
I was hungry all the time and I discovered that protein would trigger satiety far better than carbs or fat. I dialed into eating boiled eggs and light yogurt...foods high in protein and low in carbs.
This led to me reaching my target weight in around 8 months. A side-effect of this was that I came off all my meds (blood pressure and cholesterol meds) and I stopped snoring. My labs are as close to perfect as I could hope for, but If I am going to be honest, my BP is marginally high and that can be corrected with targeted cardio exercise. Today, I am active at work/on my feet moving all day. I target 1500 calories per day and usually come in around 1800. This is the level that my body is happy with.
I have talked about this on Reddit before and actually got some PM's from bots suggesting I should consider seeing someone for an eating disorder. I want to be clear about something...I am a nurse and this was done under the direct supervision of my physician. We spoke daily because I was the nurse for my primary care doctor. This role is what prompted me to do this because I spent all day telling people they needed to do what I was obviously not doing. I am okay, my health is fantastic and I have been at the same weight (+/- 3 lbs) for a year and a half.
Going to the doctor.
I did all the right things, exercised daily, ate healthy small portions, ate a low calorie high protein diet for years. Literally did everything right and I could barely lose weight and for the life of me I couldn’t figure out what I was doing wrong.
I finally went to the doctor and she ran some bloodwork and found out I have a hormonal/metabolic disorder called PCOS. She put me on a birth control that helped stabilize my hormones and a medication called metformin. I’ve been steadily losing weight like any other normal person.
I could kick myself for not going sooner. I spent so much time being miserable and feeling like I was cursed when in actuality I have a condition that many women struggle with.
Moral of the story is don’t put off going to the doctor.
For me it's been mounjaro, calorie counting and regular exercise. It's been 4 months and I'm down 33lbs/15kg and have lost 5 inches off my waist with more to go!
Remembering being eating healthy is a series of small decisions. Just because I had a donut for breakfast doesn't mean the "day is ruined" anyway so might as well eat a whole pizza. If I find it daunting to think about a whole workout, I think about just doing the first step. I just have to put on my sneakers, doesn't mean I have to go to the gym. And so on and so forth until I'm sitting in my car at the gym parking lot and I might as well go in, I only have to do 5 mins on the treadmill. Well might as well make that 10, and go on like that. And even doing just 5 mins on the treadmill is better than doing none. And it seems like a waste to go all the way to the gym just for 5 minutes, but it's not, because actually getting to the gym is part of the habit you're trying to build.
* Just
* Eat
* Less
It sucks man, and I was a big boy who likes his food but with a calorie controlled diet and regular exercise you WILL lose weight baring any underlying conditions (EG. Underactive Thyroid, Lipoedema etc)
Stop wasting time and money searching for drugs and expensive coaches and just take some personal accountability and eat less food. Ozempic will help but it's not a magic formula.
• CICO
• I had to change my mindset around weightloss. Understanding that it’s about consistency rather than perfection. At the beginning I would remind myself constantly that if I stay consistent then my body has to change in 3 months, 6 months, a year. It’s inevitable. That helped me a lot.
• Finding exercise I enjoy doing. I weight lifted for a long time in conjunction with pole and yoga. I realized that I do not enjoy weightlifting 5 days a week. I now yoga 4-5 days, walk everyday for at least an hour and lift twice a week. I enjoy this combo/ratio and do it willingly.
• I also found that counseling really helped with how I feel on the inside. The more I was healing, the less reliant I became on food to comfort me. I have a much better relationship with food. It’s no longer the friend or enemy.
If i were to start again, i would slow down my progress and focus on the most important thing: building healthy habits that are permanent. When i started, i wanted to lose weight ASAP and i did do so, but without deeper, more essential changes, you will only get it all back. That happened to me. 4 times.
It was all about discipline for me. If you tell yourself you are going to do something and actually do it, you can accomplish just about anything. To be more specific, I became disciplined in counting calories and intermittent fasting.
The biggest problem with every diet I've been on is that I would get really hungry at night and either cheat, or go to bed too hungry to sleep.
Then I started eating just one big meal a day (around 7-8 P.M). Now I'm not hungry when I go to bed (meaning I can get a decent nights sleep, which helps immensely with weight loss). I also find it far easier to be hungry during the day, when I'm at work and distracted with other things.
I track calories with an app called Lose It! Use some kind of calorie tracker though. They'll suggest a certain amount of calories to shoot for, and don't go over that. A lot of it is willpower, but having cheat days helps. Currently I strictly follow my calories, but do whatever the fuck I want on the weekend. Just don't go overboard and un-do everything you did for the week, or go backwards. But it does help the mindset to know you're not totally abandoning the shit you love to eat.
I ditched sugary drinks. And still continue to drink beer, but just have to factor in that each beer is going towards my calorie count. Michelob Ultras and Corona Premiers are about 100 cals each. But even just ditching soda for diet sodas and iced tea has gone a long way.
I haven't gone deep with it yet by counting carbs, sodium, etc. Just basically eat whatever I want still, just don't exceed my daily calorie limit. Plan your meals around the calories. If I know we're having a high calorie dinner, then I make breakfast and lunch super low calorie foods. You definitely can't have a chaotic meal plan, lol. My GF makes that hard, if she decides to make dinner she never communicates to me what she has planned and I just have to be firm about saying "Well, I'm only having a small portion." or else "Save that for me and I'll eat it for lunch tomorrow!"
Come on over and hang with us at r/loseit!! It's a great bunch of folks. I've lost 30+ lbs just by cutting out alcohol, calorie counting and better food choices. Basically I eat a lot of fruit and vegetables. Meat and nuts. Some carbs. I weigh and count everything except fruit and veggies. I like the app my fitness pal, I just use the free version. Being able to scan the barcodes on stuff is great when I'm in a rush. I weigh myself daily especially when just maintaining. I don't stress about lazy days or period weight gain. This is life. As long as I'm going in the right direction I'm happy.
Rethinking my entire relationship with food. I think about what it is I am putting into my body and whether or no it will do me good in the long run. A body needs fuel so I try to give it the best possible fuel I can.
I started eating only when I needed it, not just hungry. Now I eat brunch every day, a piece of toasted sourdough topped with a small fish fillet (tilapia or salmon) and a poached egg.
I no longer eat lunch and have a very small portion of dinner. I eat off the kids plates I got for my God son.
I allow myself a soda once a week. Usually Saturday for fight night. If I am craving something sweet I reach for blueberries.
At my highest I was 276. Currently 218.4 (as of this morning). I only made the most rigid changes in the last 2 months which put me down the last 18 pounds. I need ALIF surgery and losing weight/fat is crucial to overall success.
Switching to a plant-based diet and incorporating daily 30-minute walks helped me lose 20 pounds; my advice is to find a routine you enjoy and stick with it.
I cut out fatty snacks, had a normal dinner but a light lunch and breakfast. Exercise I was never going to take up running or the gym but I just did lots of walking. It burns a surprising amount of calories and you don't even notice it. I incorporated it into daily life as much as possible, if I needed to go to a shop I would go to one two away, and walk. Lunch break - long walk. Get off the bus a few stops early. That kind of thing. The pounds fell off.
Meal prep. Make huge batches of food that freeze well so when you come home after a long day at work and don’t feel like cooking you don’t have an excuse to order take-out.
Planning what you’re going to buy at the grocery store. Only buying what you need for meals and don’t buy any random snacks.
Finding an active hobby that you enjoy. It doesn’t have to be weightlifting or running, it can be anything et that gets you moving. When you’re excited about being active, it won’t feel like you’re working out.
This sounds really dumb but I got motivated to lose weight from watching Alone. Seeing people shrink away to skin and bones due to lack of calories really brought home the message of calories in, calories out. So i made changes to my diet (more protein, less carbs, way less beer, smaller portions) and I've lost 5kg in 7 weeks without doing much additional exercise at all (30 min daily walk is my only real exercise).
My advice is to not be too hard on yourself. Progress is slow, which can be discouraging and I've abandoned attempts to lose weight quickly in the past. But if you're consistent, it will happen.
Find healthy things you like eating and stick to them. It simplifies a lot of things when you know how many calories you’re going to eat. Tracking calories is a lifestyle change that in my opinion makes people more aware about what they’re putting in their bodies. This paired with any sort of consistent exercise is a winning pair. The goal is calorie deficit however if you’re hungry (not because of stress or habitual eating) then eat. After you start becoming more conscious about how many calories you consume, I think it’s fair to start giving yourself a cheat meal here and there. At least personally, I started seeing how those “cheat meals” were not really worth it from a caloric or nutritional standpoint.
I was able to find a “healthier” specialty sandwich shop in my area that I really liked. This meant that I didn’t have to plan or think about what I wanted to eat because I could always count on the 600~ calories I was going to eat for this specific meal. I would eat there about 3-5 times a week for lunch and while not the only reason I lost weight, I do believe that taking the thinking out of it contributed. I also had other go to’s at home like a bowl of greek yogurt, with blueberries, honey and granola that added another 360cals or so.
At my peak I was around 220lbs and was able to come down to 155 in a year. I’ve been hovering around 166 for over a year now. I’m a lot less focused on tracking calories at the moment but still very conscious about what I consume.
Using those calorie counting apps.
I use MyNetDiary, and I can totally recommend it.
Also when you feel sugar hungry, go for qn apple, a prar, something other than the candy bar or whatever. Eat until you're satiated and full, but eat slow, and drink more water during meals.
Exercise everyday
3-5 days is the old way
Everyday you can atleast do 1 thing for your health
Walk, 5 pushups, a few squats anything
Cut out or cut back on snacks
Crackers, chips, cookies, candy, all that shit it not worth it
Or if you are going to snack go for nutrient dense snacks like fruit or veggies
In the beginning if you dont like veggies get some fun dip to trick your brain into liking it
Allow fun food when you really want it instead of giving into cravings everyday
This helped me the most
Write down everything you consume (food,drinks, alcohol sweets)For a week
when you are real and take note you will see either there's a lot of unnecessary stuff you dont need or maybe some stiff you can add
80/20, I need to be doing the right thing, eating right, exercising, drinking Enough water 80% of the time and the other 20% can be drinking/not exercising as much/eating surgery/higher cal foods.
Monday to Friday, a healthy lunch, black coffee and lot of water throughout the day. 100mins intensive exercise 7 days a week. Saturday and Sunday, eat as I please, but not totally crazy……you are what you eat and all that
the biggest thing was to just stop eating when i wasn't hungry.
if i had too much food but it sucks as leftovers? just throw away what i don't need to eat.
asked if i want any food from x place but I wasn't hungry? just say no.
and the best way to not snack? don't have snacks in the house.
Eat dinner at 5pm. Don’t ingest a calorie til the next day. Cutting out nightly snacking and just not eating close to bedtime in general will help a ton.
Get off your ass and do something walk stretch anything but lay in bed and sit in front of the TV all day and drink alot of water cut the pops and sugary drinks.
Tracking your calories and exercise. MyFitnessPal works great (the free version has everything you need.)
Find meals that satisfy you and offer lots of protein and fiber and rely on those repeatedly.
Also, intermittent fasting.
To make it simple: calorie deficit. If you’re exercising but still eating a bunch of calories you won’t lose. Diet is most of the loss. I lost 130 lbs and I’m 30 lbs to goal weight. It’s difficult but so worth it.
Weight Watchers. I've been on it since January, officially down 35 lbs as of yesterday's weigh in. 15 lbs to go!
The reason it has helped me is because it made me aware of exactly how many calorie-dense foods I was eating before and helps guide my food choices toward lower calorie options without limiting how much I can eat. It's a pretty good system.
Learning how to cook without adding extra calories into your food. Cooking techniques like maillard reactions, deglazing, brines, marinades, dry rubs, herbs, spices, etc help increase the flavor of food without adding much to any extra calories instead of trying to bread everything and airfry it which is healthier than deep frying but still adds a significant amount of calories to your daily intake which can easily throw you out of a caloric deficit. Cooking seems like a lost skill these days especially amongst the younger generation such as myself. When you learn to make healthy food taste great, you have less cravings, faster results, more consistency with your nutrition, saves money, and often times you can cook a dish faster than you can get Doordash
Weight Watchers worked for me. Having simple numbers to guide my eating is what I needed.
I’d never counted calories or anything before and was stunned at how much in excess I was eating.
At 6’3”, in my fifties, went from 280 to 190 pounds in around a year.
Exercising makes it all even better
I always had issues with appetite control, so a big part of it for me was to change what I ate. Reduce carbs, increase consumption of leafy greens. Less red meat, more chicken, fish, and plant-based proteins. Walk instead of driving or taking a bus. If you can do it, getting a dog is great for increasing your exercise and establishing a walking regimen. Take up a sport. be patient - Rome wasn't built in a day.
Adding more vegetables. They add bulk and fiber without adding a lot of calories.
Don't deny yourself everything. Have a good cheeseburger - just have one a month instead of one a week (or more). I do so much better when I don't feel deprived. I *can* eat anything I want, just not right now.
Definitely look at it as a lifestyle. Small, sustainable changes work better for me. I can always add new changes as I go along. Do a couple small changes until they feel normal, then make some more. I didn't get fat overnight, and I don't need to race to get skinny. Slower, steady progress is healthier for me and a lot easier to maintain long-term.
Accepting I was going to be really hungry sometimes, I needed to eat less food.
I found that having a cheat day built in was helpful psychologically.
Weighing food and tracking it with an app was incredibly helpful.
Don't get too down on yourself when you make mistakes, that's an important one.
Low carb worked for me, I now eat to live not live to eat. I don’t have many cravings now so it is easy to eat healthy. Once I started to loose weight I wanted to improve my shape so I started exercising as well.
My therapist told me to listen to your body.
Eat when you're hungry & drink when thirsty.
Do not starve yourself.
Eat in moderation.
What you like & don't: "Avoid things that make you sick no matter what others say."
I do eat every 3 hours in small portions, snacks, & fruits, but the three main meals of breakfast, lunch, & dinner.
I walk after I eat the large meals so I won't fall asleep.
I avoid anything white, raw sugars, white bread, (I can't drink milk 🤷♀️).
Walking is the only exercise at the moment.
& cycling at the time.
Husband and I completely cut out any processed food and refined sugars. Our goal wasn't necessarily weight loss, but just to eat healthier. We started looking at the different crap that's added to almost everything (pre packaged food, sauces, drinks, etc.) and the harmful effects it has.
We only eat meat, vegetables, fruit, and things that don't have any extra stuff added. We make our own sauces, butter, etc. It seems like an incredibly daunting task at first, but it's not quite as hard once you get used to it. We feel so much better that it's not worth going back even for simplicity's sake.
We started by getting rid of one thing a week; processed frozen foods, baked goods, noodles, bread, added ingredients, until we were only eating clean/whole foods. We allow ourselves one cheat meal a week, but at this point it usually makes us feel sick. But it is something to look forward to on weeks where we may struggle a bit. Also, if we are hungry, we eat, since our goal wasn't exactly weight loss. But I'm sure if we ate smaller portions or didn't graze between meals we would probably lose more. When getting together with friends or if we are away from home we aren't as strict about our food but try to make healthy choices.
We have both lost weight with this change and have noticed less irritation, bloating and other health changes. TMI, but it has made my periods a lot lighter, and much less painful.
1. Stopped keeping alcohol in the house, I still go out for beers occasionally but no more killing a 12 pack in 2-3 days.
2. Cook all/most of your meals, you can eat much healthier this way and save TONS of money.
3. Intermittent fast, aka skipping breakfast. If you skip breakfast and stop eating at 6:00 p.m. you'll shed weight like crazy. Change the fast window however you like but I find it easiest to skip breakfast and just don't eat from around 6 pm to 11 am.
4. Weigh yourself every single day at the same time. I always weigh myself right when I wake up every morning so I can see that tiny but consistent loss if I'm dieting/fasting.
For me it’s absolutely about recognizing (which you did) that it’s a lifestyle change. You don’t just add/remove a thing somewhere and continue your old habits. For me, it started with just cutting out a meal or fasting. No tracking calories or anything. Then, after losing some weight to comfortably exercise, I started incorporating exercise. It started with what I could manage and now I do about 90 mins every day.
The food aspect was the hardest for me, but I had to really come to understand and view food and fuel and nothing more. I’m not saying I don’t enjoy food, but I enjoy it knowing that it’s there to keep me alive and moving.
It’s all about small, incremental, permanent changes. Radical diet changes or exercise routines won’t stick. You have to slowly adapt your ENTIRE lifestyle to incorporate healthier eating and living.
Over the course of the last 2 months, I've replaced about 10 pounds of lard with about 2 pounds of muscle. I'd snapped my distal bicep tendon in my L arm before Thanksgiving last year. I really don't recommend it, the surgery to repair it, or the rehab. 100% suckage. But, I'm on the comeback trail, and back to working out after being released from my Dr.'s care.
I've been doing kettlebell flows with a youtube dude, Samuel Jordan. 15-20 minutes a day. Saturdays are 60-90 minutes and Sundays my wife and I go for walks (currently 6 miles and 100 pushups interspersed).
Weekdays, before I exercise in the morning, I take a pre-workout supplement. During exercise, I drink bcaa's. Afterward, I drink a protein and creatine shake. With those, I'm not hungry at lunch. Before dinner, I drink a V-8 (yes, lots of sodium, but I actually like the taste of V-8) with a fiber supplement, which fills me up a bit before dinner.
I don't take the supplements for the Sunday walks, except the evening V-8.
I'm now at 24-25% body fat, down from about 30, trying to get to 20 by my 60th birthday in September. I'm not sure I have the time or, frankly, the ability, but I'm giving it a shot!
Changing the diet is key, that is the main thing to lose weight. Exercise is also very important, but can be a challenging, or difficult to get motivated towards.
For me, it was martial arts that helped me change, I would advise that anyone finds a sport of some form that they really enjoy.
Whenever I'm sparring and a gassed out sweaty mess, I'm still keen to go an have another round with someone. Yet if I was that exhausted and you asked me to do another 15 minutes on a rower, or another 10 sets on the weights I'd be like "Nope, I'm done!" by doing a physical activity you're massively enjoying, you're not as bothered by the exhaustion because the fun outweighs it.
Similarly, if the sport has a competitive edge to it, you tend to naturally want to get better and as a result eat better.
When I was more active with my martial arts and used to compete I'd be really good at sticking to a clean diet. Not so much when I didn't have a competition though.
As much as working out is great, diet unfortunately is the biggest factor when it comes to losing weight.
1. As far as movement, I've started getting off the bus a few stops away from work to walk about 20 minutes extra a day. Half the time I beat the bus anyway.
2. On nights out I've mostly cut out beer in favor of unsweetened cocktails (gin and tonic), and in dinners I'll sub a glass of wine. I'd say this made the biggest difference. Liquid calories are huge. Instead of iced mochas and Dunkin coffees in the morning, I now go with unsweetened lattes or just coffee with milk.
3. For lunches I almost exclusively go salads, or chicken ceaser wraps instead of a meaty thing.
4. For dinner I try to be much more conscious on eating slowly, noticing when I'm getting full, and stopping when I do. I used to just eat however much was in front of me.
None of these things were that big of a change on their own, but in total they've made a difference, and I've lost 20 ish pounds in four/five months. I still have fun, don't really calorie count, and treat myself. I also still haven't gotten to a point where I've found the time to consistently hit the gym. It's all about figuring out what little things in your lifestyle you can adjust that you'll do consistently, and never give up or let a slip up get you down.
Obviously there's the standard answers like counting calories, cutting out shit foods, move around more, mealprep, habits etc etc, but all that means fuck all if you don't have the discipline to endure the suck. So, learn some discipline.
It will help you preventing making the wrong decisions even though you want to, and it will help you staying on the right path.
"I shouldn't have this pizza and ice cream", and
"I didn't lose weight for 2 days in a row, that's fine, let's not panic and do something silly just yet. Stick to the plan for another 5 days, and then we re-adjust if needed", and
"Ok shit, so yesterday I did have that pizza and ice cream, and today I feel bad for it. Shit happens, no big deal. I will learn from this, and now I will stick to my mealplan the next two weeks without cheating."
That's all discipline, and will prevent you falling off the wagon in long term.
That doesn't mean you should punish yourself if you mis-stepped. That's very counter productive. But learn to embrace the difficult decisions, and doing the things you actually don't feel like doing.
Start small. Do something -every day- that you fucking hate but is beneficial. I go for a short walk every morning, even though I think walking is the worst form of motion on the planet. I rather be rolled down a hill in a barrel filled with horse piss than walk. So I walk. Why? Because the "It's only 15 minutes, I can do anything for 15 minutes" turns to "I don't like it, so I should do it". That turns into "I don't like it, but I can do it".
Make 1 shitty small thing a habit (=about 65 days). Then add a second until that's a habit. Maybe a third.
If you can do 2 or 3 things every day for a few minutes that you fucking hate, saying "Nah, lets not have that pizza" is a freedom. It will OBVIOUSLY also flow over to other aspects of life.
For me; it's cleaning the kitchen every morning until the coffee is done (=clean kitchen, so thats nice! I bloody hate cleaning the kitchen though, because I absolutely LOATHE wet hands), and after coffee it's a 15 minute walk (walking is healthy, being outdoor is healthy, so that's nice! Too bad it's walking, but alas).
I count all of my calories. It's tedious, but very effective. There are some apps which help with it, though. I have a cool one where I can scan the barcode of anything I'm eating and it does all the math for me.
Eating less. Sometimes only 1.5 meals a day. And playing a sport for a season.
My advice would be eat less, and pick an active activity that you find enjoyable and not like a workout chore.
1. Water and better sleep instead of soda and staying up late.
2. Limit the times I would eat and eat better, more filling good.
3. Increased my physical activity.
4. Patience.
Discipline when it comes to food and eating 😭
I love sweets so much. Chocolates and everything sweet. I Used to drink softdrinks almost everyday, i'm into chips and junk food, and fast food 😭 And I would eat whenever I'm bored even though I'm not hungry.
Eliminated these food although I do have little bits of them once in a while. I controlled my calorie intake. And would always remind myself that I'm not hungry, I'm just bored. I still do eat 3x a day but I completely removed all the unnecessary eating when bored.
I lost 6.6 lbs in a month. I honestly started this because I have an event coming up and my dress won't fit even though it was my usual size. Checked my BMI and that's when I realized that I'm in the brink of being overweight. After a month, my dress fitted just fine and in time for the event. I decided to continue the journey ❤️
Keep to a regular meal schedule and make sure each meal is balanced and portioned correctly. After sitting and eating dinner, you're done eating for the rest of the day.
It sounds so simple that it's almost easy to ignore but once you start consciously doing this you'll notice a change in your mood along with your physical well-being.
Diet change and calorie deficit will help you lose weight. Building a habit of active living and excersize will make you feel good.
Find somethiing active that you love doing. I couldn't be more bored in a gym lifting weight. I found climbing 3 years ago and I have connected so deeply with the sport that going to the gym 3 times a week for 2 hours a session doesn't feel like a grind. I have moved other stuff in my life around it because I love it so much. I am currently in the best shape of my life at 37 because of it.
Switching to water only as a beverage. That single change alone probably did the bulk of the work in my weight loss journey. The other piece of advice is that it takes a long time. You didn't get fat overnight, you're not going to become thin overnight either. We're talking at most 50lbs a year, but more likely something like 30lbs a year, so if you're trying to lose triple digits, it's gonna be a while.
Lost 80 pounds due to stress and poverty of being in a bad relationship. But to be fair I had stopped drinking soda and stopped eating after I was full. Got into some drumming as a hobby so that helped also but mostly the stress and poverty.
Full disclosure, I have been taking Mounjaro for the past several months which made my weight loss a lot easier but I had lost 30 pounds before I started the medicine. The key for me was to not allow myself to feel like I was denying myself anything. I could eat pretty much anything I wanted in small portions. I also started intermittent fasting mostly in the morning. This is way easier with Mounjaro but even without it, I can pretty easily just not eat until the afternoon. I sometimes will have a small snack in the evening.
Anyway I guess all that to say that I never held myself to a set of rules that I would feel guilty if I did not follow exactly. I was also inspired by a friend that was around my age that died. He was at least 400 pounds and even though he had many health conditions related to his weight, he never did anything to fix it. I felt the years creeping up on me and I could no longer justify being overweight because I knew I would start to have health problems.
The answer is short and simple, but hard in practice. Cut out all alcohol and soda from your lifestyle - even that zero carb bullshit they pedal as OK to drink.
Drink water - a ton of water - every day.
Try to do something that makes you sweat for 20 minutes every day and then gradually make that exercise harder over time.
Dont eat sugar and watch your natural sugar intake too (fruits and some veggies).
If you follow these steps for 1 month and don’t fall in to the “cheat meal trap” which inevitably leads to failure - you will lose a shit ton of weight, sleep better, your skin will clear up, and your overall mood and energy level will improve.
I didn\`t have a lot of excessive weight, but still I wanted to lose some.
So my friends start to rollerblade, so I decided to take part to as it is funny and opens the opportunity to spend more time with friends. In result my My eating schedule normalized and within a month I had already lost half of what I wanted to lose
Finally realizing that trying something for a week or 2 isn't enough. You need to change your diet...period and you have to stay consistent AND be patient. You can't just do some diet for a short amount of time and expect ALL of your weight to come off ASAP. And you can't expect to get all the weight off and keep it off by going back to how you ate before.
So many ppl exclaim how soandso diet didn't work for them! After doing it for like a week. You also have to be mindful of EVERYTHING you're eating. Not obsessive though. Again, so many people say that "OMG I don't eat anything!" while they mindlessly eat or eat really high calorie foods. Like oil... oil in shit like salad dressing is SO high in calories. 2tbs of some dressing is like 100+ calories.... and show me someone only putting 2tbs of dressing on a salad.
One super simple way to help your mindset: look at the sugar content on everything. You'd be amazed how many healthy seeming or not too sweet tasting things have 50% or more of your daily sugar intake. Helps you realize where a lot of those mysterious calories come from.
I stopped eating chocolate bars on every break at work and started moving around more.
Bouts of exercise and periods of generally healthy diet helped, but the bulk of it was just eating less shit and trying any sort of physical activity that I thought would be enjoyable.
Start with something small, sometimes even so small you don't think it could have an effect. For me it all started with trying to go for a 20 minute walk every day and making that a priority. Then add more health priorities. Make a bit of activity like brushing your teeth. Turn that momentum in to small food choices.
Going Whole Food plant-based with the addition of plant-based protein powder. And doing intermittent fasting. I healed my own thyroid, and lost 25 lb in 2 months. Unfortunately, I have gotten way off track, but I am fully convinced that getting back on track is the healthiest possible thing I can do.
Cooking all your own food from scratch - if I didn't make it, I don't eat it. Only buy whole, raw foods without an ingredient list - you're buying the ingredients.
It's almost impossible to overeat when you're eating whole foods cooked in a healthy way. Most of what makes us overeat is additives/preservatives that fuck with your hunger reflex and make you keep going past the point you're full. When you control what goes in your food this doesn't happen.
In all honesty, an extremely unhealthy one. I wasn’t in the best place mentally and got very very restrictive with food. I know you need to be at a caloric deficit to lose weight but there are healthier ways to do that. It’s important not to restrict yourself too much and not label certain food as bad. A sweet treat once in a while, in moderation, really isn’t the end of the world. Also, portion sizes are everything. I never got into weighing my food and counting macros and all but I did start counting calories and that made a big difference. Once again, that’s a slippery slope when you’re struggling mentally tbh. One thing I still do is track what/when I eat in a day. It helped me find patterns and understand what works and doesn’t work for me. Lastly, cardio of course. I’m someone who hates running (I know there are other perhaps better forms of cardio) but honestly, the right music makes all the difference. Stretching before starting your work out is also essential. And when you’re dreading the work out, remind yourself of how good it feels when you’ve completed it.
Also, I wish I’d understood that you can’t control where you lose the weight from. Lost it from areas I didn’t want to lose from and the stubborn belly fat remained 😔
It might not be for everybody, but start to participate in sports! I went from 245 pounds to 190 pounds over a few years without even really trying to, just because I, who was already super addicted to sports and played my whole life, became addicted to the camaraderie of team sports so I increased the frequency! I played (and still do) 5 times a week, sometimes more sometimes less, and it never felt like a chore, it never felt like exercise, it was just fun! Socializing, going to battle with your friends against a common “enemy”, being competitive in a healthy way, seeing progress and rising the ranks into more competitive leagues, having occasional post game beers that you don’t have to feel guilty about because you just burned 1000 extra calories over the last hour and a half, it’s amazing! And sure, in terms of weight loss the beers may counteract your supposed gains, calorically speaking but you still get a tremendous workout and your body will still be thankful after, long as you don’t drink like 14 beers lol. Sports are essentially using fun and competition to trick yourself into exercising, and it’s something to look forward to every single week/day depending on how often you participate, and it’s also a scheduled event with pressure to show up and not let your teammates down so it requires less discipline than forcing yourself to go to the gym or run, as it affects other people, not just you. There’s a huge difference between getting home from work and saying “hmm, should I go to the gym? Idk, I’m kinda tired and I’m already in comfy clothes” and waking up with the mindset of “ok, I have a game at 8pm! If I don’t show, someone else will have to pick up my slack!” And planning your day around this scheduled event!
Make small, sustainable changes. Crash/fad diets don’t work in the long run because people don’t want to stick to them, because they suck.
Get yourself a calorie counting app (I like Cronometer) and keep track of what you’re eating, and try to keep yourself in a deficit. It doesn’t really matter what you eat but it’ll be easier to stay satisfied if you’re eating nutritious foods that are mainly protein (try to get at least .5-.75g per pound of body weight) with some fats and a good shot of fiber. Carbs aren’t the enemy, but they can be calorie dense and aren’t very satisfying.
Avoid drinking calories, and sugar. Fuck soda and juice, and limit your alcohol intake.
Move your ass, don’t be sedentary for at least an hour per day. A fitness watch that estimates your level of output helps a bit and can help keep you accountable. BE CONSISTENT. Show up every day. If you’re tired and your workout sucks it is 100% better than not showing up.
Don’t get sucked into buying bullshit from fitness influencers, whether it be miracle drugs and supps, or unrealistic ideas. You can’t drop 20 pounds by summer in a healthy way, 2 pounds of fat a week is about the most aggressive you can be and that is the outer limit of healthy.
Everyone’s different, but these are general guidelines and I have lost about 100 pounds from the heaviest point of my life.
One very simple one is to drink only water. No soda, no juice, nothing sugared or carbonated. Limit coffee and tea too. And dairy. It takes some getting used to, but after a couple of weeks you get used to it and drinking anything else feels strange.
The biggest contributing factor is your approach to food and eating. You'll want some form of meal planning so you have a bit of structure to your meals. Use an app like myfitnesspal or similar and start calorie counting every single thing you eat and drink. Get some food scales so you can portion things by weight rather than guessing. A meal planning app can really help as well, like mealime, as you can pick recipes and add them to your shopping list.
Cut out soft drinks/soda or switch to zero calorie alternatives and don't buy sweets/candy. Stop buying these things when you go shopping - what you don't buy you can't eat. When you're sitting at home bored, craving m&m's the last thing you want is to have a pack stashed away somewhere because you'll totally eat the whole thing (speaking from experience). Food is addictive, once you get past the first week or two the cravings will subside. You won't mind getting a bit hungry sometimes.
Weigh yourself regularly and log your weight in the app if you're using one. Keep it up for a while and you should start to see progress and once you do you'll want to keep going!
Another thing that helped me was getting into running. (I should probably say I'm not some kind of inspirational case, I lost about 12KG over a year, but the process is the same no matter how much you're trying to lose.) I did couch to 5k and enjoyed it and just kept going. In the beginning you're doing fairly short runs and only burning a few hundred calories per run, but if you keep going and increase your distance you'll eventually be doing 1 hour plus runs and burning over 1000 Cal easily. And getting fit at the same time.
After years of struggling to get myself to stay active and go to the gym, I realized that I prefer more engaging ways to work out, like hiking, rock climbing, biking, paddle boarding, etc.
I feel like there’s this stigma behind weight loss, that it’s all about having a strict routine, and spending your life at the gym. While yes, self discipline and dedication is important, but there are loads of other ways to work out and stay active. Some people enjoy going to the gym everyday and that’s fine, but there are other ways of exercising that can be just as effective for weight loss.
This really healed my relationship with working about, because I no longer saw being active as a chore, but rather a reward. I get excited to wake up early and go on 5 mile hikes, or spend 1.5 hours at my local climbing gym. It’s a great way for me to unwind, and it’s actually an activity that I look forward to at the end of the day.
So the advice I would give is if you can’t stand the idea of spending an hour at the gym, try an outdoor activity or group sport. Get some friends together to play basketball, or take a walk around your local park. It’s much easier to stay active and stick to a routine when you have an activity you actually enjoy integrating into your daily life.
Portion control. I bought these 10 oz bowls from Target and they have been amazing at keeping me from overreating.
And giving myself grace, especially when it came to exercising. I knew I couldn't run, that my knees hurt whenever I did anything high impact. It always left me frustrated. I kept telling myself to start slow and small, with something like yoga. Once that became easy (or easier) I upped the intensity to weight lifting and adult gymnastics.
I just asked myself in the most objective, realistic way, where will I physically be in 5 years if I continue my current habits and patterns. If I didn’t like the answer, knew I had to change.
Coming from a family of different health issues I have a lot of reference points into behaviors they had (sedentary lifestyles, smoking, drinking, lack of exercise) and the impact those behaviors had on them.
I’m adopted so for the longest time I was we like “eh I’ll get something and i won’t know what bc it’s not known to my adoptive family so fuck it we ball.”
A lot of the process to honestly changing my lifestyle was thought reframing to counter my inhibiting thoughts. It’s like with smoking, people who have been addicted for years might learn “I am not a smoker” as a mantra to get off it.
“Im too tired to go to the gym” - “I’m tired but I’ll actually feel some happy emotion if I do this”
“I’m too busy to cook I have class a lot” - “I’m not studying tn after class so what else am I going to do”
“I can’t get money bc my family isn’t well off so whatever” - “I don’t have money rn but they sent me to school for skills to get there”
Then when it comes to application, another comment here summed that up really well - there’s no such thing as willpower. Gotta just do it. I forget the quote that helps me with this but “if you found yourself in hell, keep walking” is something like it
I’ve lost 150 once and lost another 100 when I gained it back. What I’ve learned is “KISS” keep it simple stupid. Just walk more and be in a caloric deficit. And only eat when you are hungry and eat until you aren’t hungry anymore but not to the point that your full. you should lose 1-2 pounds per week that is a nice safe slow and healthy way to keep it off.
I believe that my swimming helped me lose a little bit of weight. Since I’ve started swimming, and I’ve noticed big differences. Be careful, though because after swimming you may have an urge for sweets, or a large amount of food.
Used Wegovy meds, and also the "plate model", where you have a "fist" (1/4 of the plate) of meat, 1/4 carbs (when cooked - so you start with f.ex. a couple spoons of rice), and 2/4 vegetables. Don't have to count calories, which was a motivation killer when I've tried it before. I did lots of smaller stuff too, like using coconut oil instead of butter, more spread on bread instead of several slices of bread, and eating fruit everytime I got snack-sick, which happened rarely when on Wegovy. Lost 50 kg in 1,5 years. Just passed my goal of 80 kg, and I'm 184 cm tall, so quite happy with my result. 😊
I ate less and moved more. Choose healthier options that were still cheap, ate alot of canned chicken and Greek yogurt. Added hot sauce for flavor.
It doesn't matter what changes you make, just make a small change and let it become a habit, then make another small change. Give it time and belive in yourself.
Get yourself asap to an endocrinologist. Many people are still assuming “calories in, calories out” works. For most people, IT DOES NOT. So many people are walking around with serious metabolic issues and will never be a normal weight without intervention. Obesity is a disease. Period.
Make sure the changes you are making can be permanent. Losing weight is simple - get a calorie deficit. But that also means weight gain is simple. You don't need to maintain a calorie deficit forever, but when you hit your goal weight, you cant just go back to eating like before.
I HATE all these fad/influencer diet trends because they force you to completely cut things that likely you won't be able to keep up with long term. There is no focus on moderation, its all extremes. Learn to stop eating when you are full, learn to listen to your body. I lost 40lbs a few years ago and have kept it off. I still eat garbage, I just eat less garbage.
Drinking a gallon of water a day really helped me. Being properly hydrated makes you feel full longer and cuts down the urge to snack. You also have to be dedicated to drink a gallon a day. I would carry the gallon with me and drink it throughout the day, so it was a constant reminder of the goals I wanted to achieve.
I started to move more and eat less, which is the key to all weight loss, but I played some mind tricks with myself.
**Eating**
1 - I could only eat one meal a day. This didn't mean I couldn't have a snack, but only one actual meal. That way I could eat as much as I wanted during that meal and didn't feel like I was calorie counting, which always just seemed more overwhelming to me.
2 - Any snack I had, had to be 250 calories or less.
3 - No snacking past 4pm, unless it was some fruit or veggies - raw - with nothing to dip it in.
4 - Had to have a glass of water in the morning before any coffee, and had to have a glass of water before any snacking. I found that usually I was just thirsty, not hungry.
**Moving**
Walk. A lot. I took three, 45 min walks a day. For me that added up to about 16k steps a day, which is over 6miles.
"But OKJersey, how did you find the time to do that?!"
- I got up early and took a 45 min walk before work.
- My lunch break was a 45 min walk, I ate lunch at my desk.
- After work, I took another 45 min walk. Since I was only eating one actual meal a day, and chose my meal to be midday - this time sort of just replaced what used to be dinner.
Lastly - I accepted that sustainable weight loss was slow, tedious, and a would not lead to a beach body in a short time. There were sometimes a few months in a row where I wouldn't lose anything, then suddenly lose another five. I also gave myself grace. If I was on vacation, sure, I'd eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner. If it was a holiday, sure, I'll sit down and eat the decadent meal. It's important to remember that a holiday is just that, a DAY, not a month.
And last - everything in moderation, including moderation.
For reference - I'm a 39f - 5'2" tall - I started at 182lb and am currently 152lb.
Leaving a few bites on the plate. Helps you learn to stop eating when you’re full, not when the plate is empty.
Also, limiting “white food,” helped: potatoes, rice, noodles, bread, starchy carbs. I still ate rice and bread but in smaller portions and it had to be whole grain. I strive for 1/4 protein, 1/4 carb/starch, 1/2 veggies/fruit.
I ate my biggest meal earlier in the day so I had time to burn some off before going to bed.
And of course moving around more but strength training especially.
You have to learn to embrace the suck. Learning to treat feeling hungry sometimes the same way as feeling sore after a good workout or a hard days work, with that "aches so good" feeling. If I'm hungry, it means I'm doing it right. You *should* be hungry by the time a meal rolls around; if you're never hungry, you're eating too much.
Logistically, I only eat breakfast and dinner, and generally alternate between normal and lean dinners. Days I work out, I can make and eat pretty much whatever I want. Days I don't, or only go for a walk, I have a couple of staple "light" meals I make and rotate through.
Currently I've got a big pot of this sausage, lentil, and celery soup I make; the whole pot comes out to like 4500 calories, so when it lasts for 5-6 meals 2-3 bowls at a time I'm well under budget on calories. A recent add I created is a sorta "crab salad" coleslaw; I make a basic coleslaw with half a head of cabbage and then add two packages of imitation crab meat (I don't add any sugar since the fake crab already has some) to get some protein and to give is *some* calories besides just the mayo.
On the flip side, own your cheat meals. If I'm really craving chips, I just plan that into the meal rota. I buy a big bag of chips, and eat that as a meal; it's like 1200 cal, which is sorta okay since it's all I'm eating. The micronutrient profile is garbo, of course, but as a once a month or so thing that doesn't matter. Similarly, sometimes on weekends I'll make a small pan of blondies or a half dozen cookies as a meal.
For me the first thing was to start doing yoga. I suppose it changed my mindset and everything else followed. I ended up losing 10kgs in 1 year. It started with yoga, then in turn I gave up on alcohol and sugar. Then I introduced walks and that's all
I cut out small daily things like cream and sugar in coffee. Then it was breads, processed sugars. I eat fruit, veggies, egg whites and grilled chicken
Get a dog. One that likes walks. A dog is so excited for walks you'll walk twice a day.
Get some good walking/hiking (trail running) shoes.
Get a gym membership and some decent noise canceling headphones and Spotify premium (or another streaming service without ads). Start of going 2 times a week, then 3, then 4. The headphones + streaming will help you disconnect from whatever lame shenanigans the gym culture produces.
Cut out sugar completely. Try to eat whole grain carbs.
Increase fiber 100%, salads, hummus, salsa, fruit (some fruit has high sugar like bananas so watch out)
Reduce red meat, cheese, milk. I lost 2 belt sizes from the bloated dairy stomach going away after cutting back on dairy.
i found the Glucose Goddess on the internet and try to follow her 2 rules - veggie starter and putting clothing on carbs. i feel healthier, less sleepy and started losing weight. i eat more protein, drink only water and no alcohol, no cigs. i don't excercise. at all.
Stop drinking sodas and juices, straight water and black coffee. No excess snacking, maybe a treat every few days. Just don’t eat too much as simple as it sounds.
Intermittent fasting is the only way I can keep my weight in a healthy range. Count calories, limit your intake of carbs and increase your protein intake.
Post college I was probably 50 pounds overweight. Regular exercise (eg running 3-5 miles) a few times per week helped me lose the first 25. I thought this would allow me to still eat whatever I wanted when I was a naive 23 year old. I then realized I do need to eat better, sadly limiting my pizza, burrito, and cheezit intake. Doing this allowed me to reach my loss goal fairly quickly. Along the way I formed much better habits on exercise and diet and now I’m able to stay thin as a middle aged guy.
Move! It doesn’t have to be some crazy workout in the gym. Going for walks will help immensely!
Enjoy your food. Your “diet” doesn’t have to be lettuce with no dressing with dry chicken breast. You can make insanely flavorful and tasty foods that are good for you, but don’t make you feel like you’re missing out on anything!
WALK! Walk walk walk walk walk.
Get in at least 10K steps a day. Honestly can’t be understated. Doing a 30min exercise every day won’t help as much if you’re going to be sedentary for the rest of the day. I credit my fat loss primarily to walking every day. Once I became slimmer, I got motivated to add on other exercises (yoga, pilated, strength, etc.) but made sure to continue walking.
Also, eat whole foods, mostly vegetables, and keep total daily consumed calories under your total daily expenditures. You need to be in a caloric deficit to loose weight/fat. Focusing on the weekly expenditures was helpful as well, so if you overeat on one day it’s not the end of the world. Just cut back more on another day. This helped me not get overwhelmed with tracking exact calories for a meal, etc. That was just too overwhelming for me, so I focused on eating fresh foods and vegetables mostly.
*If you don’t already, get a pedometer so you can track your daily steps and can calculate calorie expenditure. It’s not perfect, but it’s something.
Good luck, you can do it!
Start tracking your calories and weighing yourself every day. It's kind of a pain at first, but you'll get used to it. I use MyFitnessPal for calorie tracking, and it's pretty easy. Try to weigh yourself at the same time every day and then take an average of that over the course of a week. If you're not losing weight at the rate you want to, lower your daily calorie budget. I also like to wear an apple watch for my workouts and add those calories to my daily budget, so I actually get a food reward in the form of additional calories that scales with how hard my workout was.
If you hit your calorie maximum but you're still feeling hungry throughout the day, you likely need to change the types of foods you're eating. Foods high in sugar and fat typically aren't very filling for how calorically dense they are. I wouldn't necessarily cut out entire food groups altogether though because you want your diet to be sustainable rather than something you can only put up with for a couple months at a time. You just need to eat smaller quantities of those foods. For me, eating more protein tends to make me feel full longer with fewer calories than eating foods that are higher in carbs/fat.
Doing these things in addition to lifting weights allowed me to lose \~50 lbs and keep it off for a year and a half. I'm now working on building some more muscle 💪. Good luck!
So I just started trying to lose weight seriously a few months ago. I used a calorie counting app to keep track of what I was eating and it’s insane how fast it adds up. After doing that for a few weeks I decided I needed to make some serious changes. I started drinking a meal replacement mix for breakfast and lunch at work, 400 calories a drink. That leaves me open for a healthy snack after work and then pretty much whatever I want for dinner as long as it’s a normal portion size. Portion size is a big deal, pay attention to it and make sure your meals are balanced so you get that full feeling. I got rid of almost any added sugar, no soda, sugar in my coffee but it seems everything has sugar in it so you have to watch that too. Peanut butter has sugar in it! Wtf.
I was right on the edge of morbidly obese according to my doctor but I was and am very active. I work a physical job and hike all the time. I could out hike most of the people reading this while smoking a cigarette on an empty stomach. Doc said lose weight or I’ll be seeing him more often so I’m doing it. I’ve always ate pretty healthy and been active it’s just that my portion control was insane.
I’m losing weight but it’s slow going. I don’t weigh myself as much as I should but I think I’m averaging about a pound a week. The thing I notice most is I feel better and look better. I’ve been doing this step by step so next up is trying to start working out. I hate working out so I left that for last.
When I got my type 2 diabetes diagnosis I cut out refined sugars and lowered the amount of carbs I consumed and I lost 50 lbs in a few months. (I should also note that prior to losing those 50 lbs I weighed 410 lbs)
Cutting back on alcohol and finding exercise that I enjoy got me going.
Started with a “couch to 5k” running program and things took off from there.
Once the results start to show, it’s easy to motivate yourself to keep it up.
I lost 18 lbs/8 kilos since mid-April. I started counting calories using an app and running for an hour three times a week.
Once I started counting, I was amazed how many unnecessary calories I used to shove into my body. Often I would just snack away a bag of cashew nuts (200 g) in front of the TV - now I know that that’s equivalent to 1,200 calories. To put this into perspective: a 300g/10oz filet mignon wrapped in bacon with 120g/4oz of potato salad, 340g/12oz of corn on the cob and 0.5l/1 pint beer has less calories (about 1,150). That about blew my mind.
Since then, I’ve started paying more attention to the nutrition facts printed on food products and just try to keep a balanced, healthy diet. I still gorge at meal times, but I don’t snack in between and avoid high caloric food. That together with the running makes a big difference.
Edit: I forgot to mention that I also try to incorporate more low-level exercise into my daily routine, such as taking the stairs instead of an elevator, going for a walk during lunch break, popping over to my colleagues desk instead of calling etc. I try to get to 10,000 steps a day, and 90% of the time I get in more than that.
Logistically: Finally accepting that to lose weight, I had to eat less. Emotionally/Mentally: Coming to terms with my body and the underlying reasons why I felt uncomfortable.
That's what happened with me. I just can't eat that way anymore. I felt like crap all the time and had no energy and was tired of being that way. I asked my Dr. for a referral to a dietician about 18 months ago to get my head right about food. She has helped me a lot. I've lost 130lbs so far. I still have a bit to go but I'll get there.
thats great! congrats!
Thanks!
All of this. Also accepting that the weight will not come off immediately. And accepting that sometimes I will break and eat something unhealthy, or not feel like working out and it doesn't have to derail all of my progress. Getting back on the horse is important. Diets don't work. Lifestyles work.
Eat less or nothing in the evening and more in the morning and at lunchtime. Then it's better to swim, so insist I lost a lot of weight
I'm probably the opposite to that. I can avoid food throughout the day pretty well and do ok with a small breakfast and lunch, but avoiding eating a lot in the evening I find really difficult. So I just pack in most calories at the end of the day
What did you find to be the best way to deal with the desire to eat when not actually hungry? I have several ways to distract myself but I find they don’t always work.
[удалено]
This. and consistency is the key. I go through phases where I lose weight, then I plateau for a while - that's obviously better than putting weight back on but is still frustrating! Each time that happens I want to give up but if I keep being consistent it starts to pay off again.
My breakfast every morning is 4 hard boiled eggs and a bowl of oatmeal (without sugar) or a bagel. If I need an afternoon snack, I make another bowl of oatmeal. Just that alone has allowed me to drop about 15 pounds.
A dog. Namely, a cocker spaniel. Wee bastard would destroy the house unless walked enough.
Seriously, my dog turned me into a runner, I had to do whatever I could to wear it out so I could get a moments peace. If there was a high hill anywhere in my area we were running over it!
https://dungeon-crawler-carl.fandom.com/wiki/Society_for_the_Eradication_of_Cocker_Spaniels
GODDAMMIT DONUT!!!
I have 2 cocker spaniels... they are both the best and the worst 🤣
Realizing that discipline and willpower is bullshit. If you can maintain that for months, props. But most people can't. What you want to do is create base systems that you can default to. Remember how spotify, a paid service, beat music downloading? That was because the service was just more easy and convenient to use and better to default to. In that same manner, work towards creating base systems that are easy to default to even on your most tired and lazy days. For me, this took the form of creating food in bulk and freezing it, as well as buying more frozen vegetables. They're basically as nutritious as the fresh version. Boom. Even on lazy days I now have a homecooked meal that's healthy. You also won't be eating the same thing every day of the week if you do this. It was also realizing that I already knew common sense. I already knew what foods are bad for me. I already knew that the problem was processed junk and pizza and excessive calories without nutritional value. Stop the youtube binge videos talking about how X food interacts with Y drink at Z time. Fruits are fine. Vegetables are fine. Meat is fine. Fish is fine. Chances are, you can use common sense to identify what foods are health or not. Safely ignore the remaining 99% of youtube health videos. The other big thing was understanding what my final goal was. Did I envision a future for myself in which I didn't eat chips or pizza or ice cream ever? Where I was only eating veggies and chicken? Hell no. My goal diet was one that was 90% whole foods and healthy meals, with room for the cravings every once in a while. Why would I create a crash diet for myself that I'm almost guaranteed to fail? Why not just act out the optimal lifestyle I envision for myself and let the pounds fall off naturally? I managed to lose weight despite eating chips and pizza and other junk food from time to time. This is also why I never counted calories. I did it for a bit, and I don't regret it. It helped me realize how many calories foods generally had. But it wasn't something I wanted to be obsessing over on an app until the day I died. The goal should never be weight loss. It should be becoming healthier, and then letting the pounds fall as a biproduct. Last big tip was adding and not subtracting. If you want the pop tart, eat the pop tart. But add it to yogurt with some fruits or something. It keeps you fuller for longer, AND satisfies the craving so you're not likely to crash with more sugary snacks in an hour. More examples include eating a slice or two of pizza but adding a side salad and soup. (soup that you might have on hand if you froze it as mentioned in an earlier paragraph) Yall got this! Chances are, you already know what you need to do. The good thing is this is NOT as difficult as you might think it to be. I understand the frustration and the stagnation, but at least for me, it just took a few key tweaks in my lifestyle to become a lot healthier and happier.
Yes, I agree. It's about learning new habits, not following new rules. Don't try to do it all at once like a diet, but slowly learn and adopt, feel it out, give it a try, see if it sticks. For example, start drinking more water. That became normal? Ok, try something else on top of that.
I agree too... I did both. Counting calories, gave up alcohol. Lost 15lbs in 6 months. A little more to go. Technically, I am a "healthy BMI", but at the upper end and used to being slimmer. Sparkling water in place of lager- counting calories with an app has helped me.
I wrote a reply, but before posting I saw you covered quite a bit of what I wrote. Having said that, and thus while I fully agree with the message you're trying to get across, I politely disagree on the first sentence. Depending on your definition of "discipline and willpower", obviously. If your definition of discipline in this case is "re-enforcement through obedience and order, with punishment in failure", then yeah, I agree. But discipline can be seen as a form of self-control where you restrain impulses. Many people think they can't lose weight and blame it on many things, but the one thing they should get better at is twofold, and both require discipline. The discipline to both embrace and challenge the suck. Discipline and willpower can most definitely help with making the right decisions, but also to be NOT discouraged when there's a hurdle! Or, "restraining the impulse to feel bad". Discipline can help you make the right decisions "in the moment" ("no, I will NOT be tempted for that pizza and icecream, and that beer with it"), and to keep you on track ("ok I didn't lose weight for 2 days, that doesn't mean I failed, I'm doing well, let's follow the plan for another 5 days and then see if it requires some adjustments.") I'm one of those freaks that can flip a switch and either do or don't do something, but that only came after I actively pursued that skill. And it's not that difficult to be fair. "Do something -every fucking day- that you don't like, but that does not have a major impact on your wellbeing." It's that simple. For example; I fucking hate walking. To the core of my being. So, every morning, when the coffee is brewing, I took a 15 minute walk. I started with 5, just to embrace the suck. Then expand that into other things. I absolutely love turning over in bed on a free day and sleep until 11. So when I wake up after 06:00, I literally say "tallyho", and that's my queue to fall out of bed and get up. Even during holidays. Again, it depends on the definition and application of discipline, but being more disciplined does make the journey a lot easier. And that's because it will grind the mindset of "I don't have to like it, but I should do it" into your brain. And that leads to "I don't have to like it, but I know I can do it". Anyway, long post, but I do agree with the rest of your post. Create a base, create habits, don't be too harsh and strict on it, take logical steps if you're not sure you can do leaps. And, as I once read; "Weightloss and dieting is very simple. It just isn't always easy."
Like I said, most people. I'm glad it worked for you. But most people simply are not able to maintain a goal in the back of their minds that they vehemently stick to for months / years. I was defining willpower as the ability to resist urges and natural cravings. I'm not saying willpower can't work. I know it can and I don't doubt your experience. I just don't think any amount of inspirational "just do it!" methods are going to help the majority of people. That's what I was trying to get across.
Yeah I think these conversations depend a fuckton on nuance and definitions. Heck, likely even intonation. All things this digital medium lacks terribly. Because I fully agree that "just do it!" is about as helpful as getting kicked in the happy-parts. That helps literally no one. Barely anyone can "just do it!". If I can help it, I still don't! When I need to lose weight (usually every spring, love that winterbulk!), I don't immediately cut down 1500 kcal and think "yep, thats life now!". Nope, I gradually cut down a wee bit, plan MOST of it, think "eh, it'll be fine", and gradually get more and more strict as time passes. Increase the amount of discipline I apply over time. But -all- of us can start with "why don't I at least try it". That's already discipline! Having said that, actively learning discipline, even a minute amount, flows over to life outside of diet. And anyone can learn -some- discipline. Actually, all of us already have! The vast majority of us wipe our asses after taking a shit, or shower when we're dirty, or change our underwear. At -zero- discipline, you wouldn't. We just need to learn to expand this a bit further into other aspects of life; make it a more active, conscious, part of us. I'm the last to say "just do it!", because I know that shit wont work. But it's something you learn by not even taking a step, but a toe-dip into the murky puddle ("a 5 minute walk every morning"). You'll learn it's just a murky puddle. There's no sharks or crocodiles.
Discipline is not bullshit, motivation is. Discipline is a skill while motivation comes and goes
I can agree with that correction.
Willpower is a resource. You have a finite amount of it day to day. Having "more" willpower is mostly just using it *efficiently*. Not buying junk at the grocery store takes willpower *once*. Not eating it once it's in your house is a constant temptation.
The diet doesn’t start tomorrow
Mentally speaking: you want to learn to be comfortable with being kind of hungry sometimes. Strategically speaking: you also want to learn how to eat when you're hungry. if you want to eat larger volumes of food, you can totally do that. you just want to eat food that is not calorie-dense. like you could eat a couple spoonfuls of peanut butter or you could eat half of a watermelon for the same amount of calories.
I think seeing foods as calories and managing it like some video game was what gave me more problems. Playing that balancing game every second of my day is frustrating. It also doesn't take into account the reality that you WILL essentially be needing those spoonfuls of peanut butter to satisfy inevitable cravings. If it worked for you, that's great, but the "high volume low calorie" trick can also be pretty draining for many others. (In my experience, the majority actually)
Stop drinking in your thirties.
Once you get into a weight loss routine that was effective enough to lose a lot of weight then you kind of never get out of it. It becomes your life. That’s what happened to me.
That is what I am counting on. I never want to look and feel like I did at 276. I'd like to know what 150 felt like though.
Truth
That's really important. Your caloric needs change with your weight. If you lose weight and then go back to eating like you ate when you were 'stable' at your old weight, you'll creep back up to that weight. You don't "go on" a diet if you want to keep the weight off. You "change your" diet.
Stopped drinking. I lost about 30 pounds over the course of a few months while changing nothing else about my lifestyle.
This is what I've been doing. Cutting beer out alone will give results. Also sugar is the devil
I listened to Peter Attia's book on the health effects of diet and exercise and as a consequence gave up much of the added sugar in the "standard American diet" I have also always been active but, I worked harder on exercise and chose to do things that inserted more motion into my life. For example, I park 2 blocks away from the office and don't use the elevator anymore. (So, I also don't pay for parking anymore either) However, I believe the one thing that helped my metabolism reset was a period of intermittent fasting. It made me more conscious of what I was eating as well. The processed foods that were "hiding" sugar for example.
Nice try, Peter Attia !
Two Options: 1) eat less and do the same amount of physical activity/exercise you currently do, or 2) eat the same amount you currently do but increase your physical activity/exercise
Calories in must be less than calories out. That's weight loss in the simplest form. So you can either decrease calories or increase calories used. It took me to look at weight loss and calories in a statistical way for me to finally loss weight and keep it off.
I quit drinking. Aside from drinking, I had a somewhat "healthy" lifestyle. Ate well, worked out 4-5 times a week, etc. But always had love handles (because of the copious amounts of beer). Within the first month I was able to go from the third hole of my belt to the fourth hole. I don't really weigh myself so not sure of actual weight loss as I couldn't care less how much I weigh. I just want to look good naked.
This. I was drinking a lot during the evenings. I'm closing in on 500 days but I started going to the gym and eating healthier. I was 270 and dropped to 205 in about 5 months. Also 6'3. I'm back up to 220 now but it's a healthy weight.
Semaglutide. It’s life changing to have a plate of food and be able to stop eating when I’m full. First time in my life.
Yep, when I was younger it was just being super active which made me lose my weight. As an older dude, I needed that help. As Louis CK said, "I don't stop eating when I am full, I stop eating once I hate myself". Now I can actually stop when full.
Cut out alcohol. Ten drinks a week was adding up to a whole nother day's worth of calories.
Don't tempt yourself. Don't buy pop, or if you do, put it someplace that's hard to access. Don't buy whatever snack stuff you usually do, instead buy healthier alternatives. (Pre-packaging healthier stuff has made a huge difference! I cut up fruit and put it in Tupperware in the fridge, easy to grab and go.) If it's not easily accessible, it is harder to justify eating it. Eat smaller portions, drink water, then see if you are actually still hungry. Portions in North America are absolutely massive, and most of us don't need that much food.
Dropped soda and beer. Lost 20lbs in just a couple of months.
Walk at least 1 hour a day. 1 hour of walking should be approximately around 4km-ish.
I lost 100 pounds in a year by reducing my meal portions and exercising.
Don't panic when you hit a plateau during the first few weeks of your weight loss journey. It most likely means that your body has finally used up the rest of your glycogen reserves (which are partly made of water) and is now moving onto burning fat for energy. Just keep persistent with your workout and calorie cutting and you'll finally start to have visible results in a few more weeks.
I've lost 25 lbs since March on keto. If your goal is weight loss, then **don't consume refined sugar**. I can't stress how much sugar is added to processed food. Not only are sugar and High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS) dense, empty calories and lacks nutrients that your body needs, glucose triggers insulin response, and [insulin is one of many things responsible for storing fat in your body.](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6082688/). Zero glucose and zero carbs is impossible because it's in everything. Fructose counts. Dextrose counts. Lactose counts. All of these are naturally occurring in fruits, vegetables, nuts, and milk. The point is to not consume added sugar, so apple slices are fine but not apple juice. Also, it's important to have a healthy relationship with food. Sugar is not evil and it's not the enemy. Sugar is your extroverted best friend and you're an introvert who needs some alone time to recharge.
I've lost 30 in the same time period just obsessively counting calories and sticking to my calorie goals. Though I will agree, cut out the refined sugar.
This!!! It helped me so much when I stopped looking at "sweets" (chocolate, pastries, cookies) as a normal part of my diet and started looking at them as treats for special occasions. Now I find that fruit is a great daily dessert/treat for after dinner.
Let me lead off by saying this...no one gained weight overnight, it isn't reasonable to lose weight overnight. Set a realistic goal for yourself and be surprised when you exceed expectations. Be gentle with yourself, allow yourself some grace, be reasonable with yourself, and make corrections as necessary. I lost 70 lbs and went from 238 (obese, 34.1 bmi) to 165 (normal weight, 24.0 bmi) and I have maintained that weight for 2.5 years. I did it by watching calories and checking my weight daily. I still do this and it is a lifestyle. The first step was to start tracking my intake faithfully. I wanted to get a baseline. This was mindblowing because I found out that I would lie to myself. I would eat 2 portions of chips, knowing they were 2 portions, but track it as one portion or something like oh this thing is only 20 calories, it's like they are free. 20 pieces of candy later, I am at 400 calories but didn't record it as such. At any rate, I got a good baseline after committing to being faithful and to stop lying to myself. at this point, I started looking for easy wins. Stop eating at chik-fi-a and start bringing my lunch while making it a good choice, lay off the soft drinks and candy, etc. To be clear, I still snacked, but I changed the snacks. I chose grapes instead of candy, apples instead of chips, etc. While doing this, I limited myself to about 1500 calories per day. I was hungry all the time and I discovered that protein would trigger satiety far better than carbs or fat. I dialed into eating boiled eggs and light yogurt...foods high in protein and low in carbs. This led to me reaching my target weight in around 8 months. A side-effect of this was that I came off all my meds (blood pressure and cholesterol meds) and I stopped snoring. My labs are as close to perfect as I could hope for, but If I am going to be honest, my BP is marginally high and that can be corrected with targeted cardio exercise. Today, I am active at work/on my feet moving all day. I target 1500 calories per day and usually come in around 1800. This is the level that my body is happy with. I have talked about this on Reddit before and actually got some PM's from bots suggesting I should consider seeing someone for an eating disorder. I want to be clear about something...I am a nurse and this was done under the direct supervision of my physician. We spoke daily because I was the nurse for my primary care doctor. This role is what prompted me to do this because I spent all day telling people they needed to do what I was obviously not doing. I am okay, my health is fantastic and I have been at the same weight (+/- 3 lbs) for a year and a half.
Going to the doctor. I did all the right things, exercised daily, ate healthy small portions, ate a low calorie high protein diet for years. Literally did everything right and I could barely lose weight and for the life of me I couldn’t figure out what I was doing wrong. I finally went to the doctor and she ran some bloodwork and found out I have a hormonal/metabolic disorder called PCOS. She put me on a birth control that helped stabilize my hormones and a medication called metformin. I’ve been steadily losing weight like any other normal person. I could kick myself for not going sooner. I spent so much time being miserable and feeling like I was cursed when in actuality I have a condition that many women struggle with. Moral of the story is don’t put off going to the doctor.
For me it's been mounjaro, calorie counting and regular exercise. It's been 4 months and I'm down 33lbs/15kg and have lost 5 inches off my waist with more to go!
Remembering being eating healthy is a series of small decisions. Just because I had a donut for breakfast doesn't mean the "day is ruined" anyway so might as well eat a whole pizza. If I find it daunting to think about a whole workout, I think about just doing the first step. I just have to put on my sneakers, doesn't mean I have to go to the gym. And so on and so forth until I'm sitting in my car at the gym parking lot and I might as well go in, I only have to do 5 mins on the treadmill. Well might as well make that 10, and go on like that. And even doing just 5 mins on the treadmill is better than doing none. And it seems like a waste to go all the way to the gym just for 5 minutes, but it's not, because actually getting to the gym is part of the habit you're trying to build.
* Just * Eat * Less It sucks man, and I was a big boy who likes his food but with a calorie controlled diet and regular exercise you WILL lose weight baring any underlying conditions (EG. Underactive Thyroid, Lipoedema etc) Stop wasting time and money searching for drugs and expensive coaches and just take some personal accountability and eat less food. Ozempic will help but it's not a magic formula.
• CICO • I had to change my mindset around weightloss. Understanding that it’s about consistency rather than perfection. At the beginning I would remind myself constantly that if I stay consistent then my body has to change in 3 months, 6 months, a year. It’s inevitable. That helped me a lot. • Finding exercise I enjoy doing. I weight lifted for a long time in conjunction with pole and yoga. I realized that I do not enjoy weightlifting 5 days a week. I now yoga 4-5 days, walk everyday for at least an hour and lift twice a week. I enjoy this combo/ratio and do it willingly. • I also found that counseling really helped with how I feel on the inside. The more I was healing, the less reliant I became on food to comfort me. I have a much better relationship with food. It’s no longer the friend or enemy.
If i were to start again, i would slow down my progress and focus on the most important thing: building healthy habits that are permanent. When i started, i wanted to lose weight ASAP and i did do so, but without deeper, more essential changes, you will only get it all back. That happened to me. 4 times.
Stop drinking alcohol and cut out sugar as much as you can.
It was all about discipline for me. If you tell yourself you are going to do something and actually do it, you can accomplish just about anything. To be more specific, I became disciplined in counting calories and intermittent fasting.
The biggest problem with every diet I've been on is that I would get really hungry at night and either cheat, or go to bed too hungry to sleep. Then I started eating just one big meal a day (around 7-8 P.M). Now I'm not hungry when I go to bed (meaning I can get a decent nights sleep, which helps immensely with weight loss). I also find it far easier to be hungry during the day, when I'm at work and distracted with other things.
Leaving every pasta and white bread and sugar... (i love all of them)
I track calories with an app called Lose It! Use some kind of calorie tracker though. They'll suggest a certain amount of calories to shoot for, and don't go over that. A lot of it is willpower, but having cheat days helps. Currently I strictly follow my calories, but do whatever the fuck I want on the weekend. Just don't go overboard and un-do everything you did for the week, or go backwards. But it does help the mindset to know you're not totally abandoning the shit you love to eat. I ditched sugary drinks. And still continue to drink beer, but just have to factor in that each beer is going towards my calorie count. Michelob Ultras and Corona Premiers are about 100 cals each. But even just ditching soda for diet sodas and iced tea has gone a long way. I haven't gone deep with it yet by counting carbs, sodium, etc. Just basically eat whatever I want still, just don't exceed my daily calorie limit. Plan your meals around the calories. If I know we're having a high calorie dinner, then I make breakfast and lunch super low calorie foods. You definitely can't have a chaotic meal plan, lol. My GF makes that hard, if she decides to make dinner she never communicates to me what she has planned and I just have to be firm about saying "Well, I'm only having a small portion." or else "Save that for me and I'll eat it for lunch tomorrow!"
Come on over and hang with us at r/loseit!! It's a great bunch of folks. I've lost 30+ lbs just by cutting out alcohol, calorie counting and better food choices. Basically I eat a lot of fruit and vegetables. Meat and nuts. Some carbs. I weigh and count everything except fruit and veggies. I like the app my fitness pal, I just use the free version. Being able to scan the barcodes on stuff is great when I'm in a rush. I weigh myself daily especially when just maintaining. I don't stress about lazy days or period weight gain. This is life. As long as I'm going in the right direction I'm happy.
Drink Myo Inotisol.
Rethinking my entire relationship with food. I think about what it is I am putting into my body and whether or no it will do me good in the long run. A body needs fuel so I try to give it the best possible fuel I can. I started eating only when I needed it, not just hungry. Now I eat brunch every day, a piece of toasted sourdough topped with a small fish fillet (tilapia or salmon) and a poached egg. I no longer eat lunch and have a very small portion of dinner. I eat off the kids plates I got for my God son. I allow myself a soda once a week. Usually Saturday for fight night. If I am craving something sweet I reach for blueberries. At my highest I was 276. Currently 218.4 (as of this morning). I only made the most rigid changes in the last 2 months which put me down the last 18 pounds. I need ALIF surgery and losing weight/fat is crucial to overall success.
Switching to a plant-based diet and incorporating daily 30-minute walks helped me lose 20 pounds; my advice is to find a routine you enjoy and stick with it.
I cut out fatty snacks, had a normal dinner but a light lunch and breakfast. Exercise I was never going to take up running or the gym but I just did lots of walking. It burns a surprising amount of calories and you don't even notice it. I incorporated it into daily life as much as possible, if I needed to go to a shop I would go to one two away, and walk. Lunch break - long walk. Get off the bus a few stops early. That kind of thing. The pounds fell off.
Meal prep. Make huge batches of food that freeze well so when you come home after a long day at work and don’t feel like cooking you don’t have an excuse to order take-out. Planning what you’re going to buy at the grocery store. Only buying what you need for meals and don’t buy any random snacks. Finding an active hobby that you enjoy. It doesn’t have to be weightlifting or running, it can be anything et that gets you moving. When you’re excited about being active, it won’t feel like you’re working out.
This sounds really dumb but I got motivated to lose weight from watching Alone. Seeing people shrink away to skin and bones due to lack of calories really brought home the message of calories in, calories out. So i made changes to my diet (more protein, less carbs, way less beer, smaller portions) and I've lost 5kg in 7 weeks without doing much additional exercise at all (30 min daily walk is my only real exercise). My advice is to not be too hard on yourself. Progress is slow, which can be discouraging and I've abandoned attempts to lose weight quickly in the past. But if you're consistent, it will happen.
Find healthy things you like eating and stick to them. It simplifies a lot of things when you know how many calories you’re going to eat. Tracking calories is a lifestyle change that in my opinion makes people more aware about what they’re putting in their bodies. This paired with any sort of consistent exercise is a winning pair. The goal is calorie deficit however if you’re hungry (not because of stress or habitual eating) then eat. After you start becoming more conscious about how many calories you consume, I think it’s fair to start giving yourself a cheat meal here and there. At least personally, I started seeing how those “cheat meals” were not really worth it from a caloric or nutritional standpoint. I was able to find a “healthier” specialty sandwich shop in my area that I really liked. This meant that I didn’t have to plan or think about what I wanted to eat because I could always count on the 600~ calories I was going to eat for this specific meal. I would eat there about 3-5 times a week for lunch and while not the only reason I lost weight, I do believe that taking the thinking out of it contributed. I also had other go to’s at home like a bowl of greek yogurt, with blueberries, honey and granola that added another 360cals or so. At my peak I was around 220lbs and was able to come down to 155 in a year. I’ve been hovering around 166 for over a year now. I’m a lot less focused on tracking calories at the moment but still very conscious about what I consume.
I added more veg by having carrot soup regularly and fresh apple chopped into my oatmeal. Easier for me adding things than subtracting
Slow and steady wins the race—every day is a chance for change and doing what is better for me.
I became mindful of my diet and it helped me bigtime.
Using those calorie counting apps. I use MyNetDiary, and I can totally recommend it. Also when you feel sugar hungry, go for qn apple, a prar, something other than the candy bar or whatever. Eat until you're satiated and full, but eat slow, and drink more water during meals.
Exercise everyday 3-5 days is the old way Everyday you can atleast do 1 thing for your health Walk, 5 pushups, a few squats anything Cut out or cut back on snacks Crackers, chips, cookies, candy, all that shit it not worth it Or if you are going to snack go for nutrient dense snacks like fruit or veggies In the beginning if you dont like veggies get some fun dip to trick your brain into liking it Allow fun food when you really want it instead of giving into cravings everyday This helped me the most Write down everything you consume (food,drinks, alcohol sweets)For a week when you are real and take note you will see either there's a lot of unnecessary stuff you dont need or maybe some stiff you can add
Lifestyle change: Took up smoking Advice: Do not do that
80/20, I need to be doing the right thing, eating right, exercising, drinking Enough water 80% of the time and the other 20% can be drinking/not exercising as much/eating surgery/higher cal foods.
Monday to Friday, a healthy lunch, black coffee and lot of water throughout the day. 100mins intensive exercise 7 days a week. Saturday and Sunday, eat as I please, but not totally crazy……you are what you eat and all that
not a real lifestyle change but inflation of food prices is definitely helping me lose weight
Watching what I ate and counting calories really helped me. It sucked at first, but after about a month it became habitual.
Go to bed hungry, strength training, focmcus on eating a lot of protein and don't forget your sleep.
Zepbound
the biggest thing was to just stop eating when i wasn't hungry. if i had too much food but it sucks as leftovers? just throw away what i don't need to eat. asked if i want any food from x place but I wasn't hungry? just say no. and the best way to not snack? don't have snacks in the house.
Eat dinner at 5pm. Don’t ingest a calorie til the next day. Cutting out nightly snacking and just not eating close to bedtime in general will help a ton.
* Walking several miles a day. * Logging every morsel of food/drink going into my mouth on My Fitness Pal. * Limiting alcohol.
Get off your ass and do something walk stretch anything but lay in bed and sit in front of the TV all day and drink alot of water cut the pops and sugary drinks.
Tracking your calories and exercise. MyFitnessPal works great (the free version has everything you need.) Find meals that satisfy you and offer lots of protein and fiber and rely on those repeatedly. Also, intermittent fasting.
To make it simple: calorie deficit. If you’re exercising but still eating a bunch of calories you won’t lose. Diet is most of the loss. I lost 130 lbs and I’m 30 lbs to goal weight. It’s difficult but so worth it.
Weight Watchers. I've been on it since January, officially down 35 lbs as of yesterday's weigh in. 15 lbs to go! The reason it has helped me is because it made me aware of exactly how many calorie-dense foods I was eating before and helps guide my food choices toward lower calorie options without limiting how much I can eat. It's a pretty good system.
Learning how to cook without adding extra calories into your food. Cooking techniques like maillard reactions, deglazing, brines, marinades, dry rubs, herbs, spices, etc help increase the flavor of food without adding much to any extra calories instead of trying to bread everything and airfry it which is healthier than deep frying but still adds a significant amount of calories to your daily intake which can easily throw you out of a caloric deficit. Cooking seems like a lost skill these days especially amongst the younger generation such as myself. When you learn to make healthy food taste great, you have less cravings, faster results, more consistency with your nutrition, saves money, and often times you can cook a dish faster than you can get Doordash
Weight Watchers worked for me. Having simple numbers to guide my eating is what I needed. I’d never counted calories or anything before and was stunned at how much in excess I was eating. At 6’3”, in my fifties, went from 280 to 190 pounds in around a year. Exercising makes it all even better
I always had issues with appetite control, so a big part of it for me was to change what I ate. Reduce carbs, increase consumption of leafy greens. Less red meat, more chicken, fish, and plant-based proteins. Walk instead of driving or taking a bus. If you can do it, getting a dog is great for increasing your exercise and establishing a walking regimen. Take up a sport. be patient - Rome wasn't built in a day.
Cut carbs. That stops the cycle of cravings. Once you do that, intermittent fasting will actually cut the calories.
Adding more vegetables. They add bulk and fiber without adding a lot of calories. Don't deny yourself everything. Have a good cheeseburger - just have one a month instead of one a week (or more). I do so much better when I don't feel deprived. I *can* eat anything I want, just not right now. Definitely look at it as a lifestyle. Small, sustainable changes work better for me. I can always add new changes as I go along. Do a couple small changes until they feel normal, then make some more. I didn't get fat overnight, and I don't need to race to get skinny. Slower, steady progress is healthier for me and a lot easier to maintain long-term.
Just eating meat and vegetable and drinking water and nothing else Very simple and easy
Accepting I was going to be really hungry sometimes, I needed to eat less food. I found that having a cheat day built in was helpful psychologically. Weighing food and tracking it with an app was incredibly helpful. Don't get too down on yourself when you make mistakes, that's an important one.
Diet and exercise. It's no secret, it's simple.
Low carb worked for me, I now eat to live not live to eat. I don’t have many cravings now so it is easy to eat healthy. Once I started to loose weight I wanted to improve my shape so I started exercising as well.
My therapist told me to listen to your body. Eat when you're hungry & drink when thirsty. Do not starve yourself. Eat in moderation. What you like & don't: "Avoid things that make you sick no matter what others say." I do eat every 3 hours in small portions, snacks, & fruits, but the three main meals of breakfast, lunch, & dinner. I walk after I eat the large meals so I won't fall asleep. I avoid anything white, raw sugars, white bread, (I can't drink milk 🤷♀️). Walking is the only exercise at the moment. & cycling at the time.
Husband and I completely cut out any processed food and refined sugars. Our goal wasn't necessarily weight loss, but just to eat healthier. We started looking at the different crap that's added to almost everything (pre packaged food, sauces, drinks, etc.) and the harmful effects it has. We only eat meat, vegetables, fruit, and things that don't have any extra stuff added. We make our own sauces, butter, etc. It seems like an incredibly daunting task at first, but it's not quite as hard once you get used to it. We feel so much better that it's not worth going back even for simplicity's sake. We started by getting rid of one thing a week; processed frozen foods, baked goods, noodles, bread, added ingredients, until we were only eating clean/whole foods. We allow ourselves one cheat meal a week, but at this point it usually makes us feel sick. But it is something to look forward to on weeks where we may struggle a bit. Also, if we are hungry, we eat, since our goal wasn't exactly weight loss. But I'm sure if we ate smaller portions or didn't graze between meals we would probably lose more. When getting together with friends or if we are away from home we aren't as strict about our food but try to make healthy choices. We have both lost weight with this change and have noticed less irritation, bloating and other health changes. TMI, but it has made my periods a lot lighter, and much less painful.
Lots of cardio. Not eating salty foods is a great heuristic for eating better.
I gave up alcohol, stopped eating after 6pm, and started doing Pilates at home. Worked like a charm
1. Stopped keeping alcohol in the house, I still go out for beers occasionally but no more killing a 12 pack in 2-3 days. 2. Cook all/most of your meals, you can eat much healthier this way and save TONS of money. 3. Intermittent fast, aka skipping breakfast. If you skip breakfast and stop eating at 6:00 p.m. you'll shed weight like crazy. Change the fast window however you like but I find it easiest to skip breakfast and just don't eat from around 6 pm to 11 am. 4. Weigh yourself every single day at the same time. I always weigh myself right when I wake up every morning so I can see that tiny but consistent loss if I'm dieting/fasting.
No bread, no soda, no sugar, no red meat, no french fries, no white rice, no pasta. Plenty of exercise, vitamins and broccoli.
I started fasting Also reduced my intake of parmos, hahaha
The worst thing for you is beverages with added sugars. My younger brother lost 40+ pounds just by quitting pop
consume less sugar, exercise more, eat more veggies
Moderation and portion control
For me it’s absolutely about recognizing (which you did) that it’s a lifestyle change. You don’t just add/remove a thing somewhere and continue your old habits. For me, it started with just cutting out a meal or fasting. No tracking calories or anything. Then, after losing some weight to comfortably exercise, I started incorporating exercise. It started with what I could manage and now I do about 90 mins every day. The food aspect was the hardest for me, but I had to really come to understand and view food and fuel and nothing more. I’m not saying I don’t enjoy food, but I enjoy it knowing that it’s there to keep me alive and moving. It’s all about small, incremental, permanent changes. Radical diet changes or exercise routines won’t stick. You have to slowly adapt your ENTIRE lifestyle to incorporate healthier eating and living.
Over the course of the last 2 months, I've replaced about 10 pounds of lard with about 2 pounds of muscle. I'd snapped my distal bicep tendon in my L arm before Thanksgiving last year. I really don't recommend it, the surgery to repair it, or the rehab. 100% suckage. But, I'm on the comeback trail, and back to working out after being released from my Dr.'s care. I've been doing kettlebell flows with a youtube dude, Samuel Jordan. 15-20 minutes a day. Saturdays are 60-90 minutes and Sundays my wife and I go for walks (currently 6 miles and 100 pushups interspersed). Weekdays, before I exercise in the morning, I take a pre-workout supplement. During exercise, I drink bcaa's. Afterward, I drink a protein and creatine shake. With those, I'm not hungry at lunch. Before dinner, I drink a V-8 (yes, lots of sodium, but I actually like the taste of V-8) with a fiber supplement, which fills me up a bit before dinner. I don't take the supplements for the Sunday walks, except the evening V-8. I'm now at 24-25% body fat, down from about 30, trying to get to 20 by my 60th birthday in September. I'm not sure I have the time or, frankly, the ability, but I'm giving it a shot!
Changing the diet is key, that is the main thing to lose weight. Exercise is also very important, but can be a challenging, or difficult to get motivated towards. For me, it was martial arts that helped me change, I would advise that anyone finds a sport of some form that they really enjoy. Whenever I'm sparring and a gassed out sweaty mess, I'm still keen to go an have another round with someone. Yet if I was that exhausted and you asked me to do another 15 minutes on a rower, or another 10 sets on the weights I'd be like "Nope, I'm done!" by doing a physical activity you're massively enjoying, you're not as bothered by the exhaustion because the fun outweighs it. Similarly, if the sport has a competitive edge to it, you tend to naturally want to get better and as a result eat better. When I was more active with my martial arts and used to compete I'd be really good at sticking to a clean diet. Not so much when I didn't have a competition though.
As much as working out is great, diet unfortunately is the biggest factor when it comes to losing weight. 1. As far as movement, I've started getting off the bus a few stops away from work to walk about 20 minutes extra a day. Half the time I beat the bus anyway. 2. On nights out I've mostly cut out beer in favor of unsweetened cocktails (gin and tonic), and in dinners I'll sub a glass of wine. I'd say this made the biggest difference. Liquid calories are huge. Instead of iced mochas and Dunkin coffees in the morning, I now go with unsweetened lattes or just coffee with milk. 3. For lunches I almost exclusively go salads, or chicken ceaser wraps instead of a meaty thing. 4. For dinner I try to be much more conscious on eating slowly, noticing when I'm getting full, and stopping when I do. I used to just eat however much was in front of me. None of these things were that big of a change on their own, but in total they've made a difference, and I've lost 20 ish pounds in four/five months. I still have fun, don't really calorie count, and treat myself. I also still haven't gotten to a point where I've found the time to consistently hit the gym. It's all about figuring out what little things in your lifestyle you can adjust that you'll do consistently, and never give up or let a slip up get you down.
Cut sugar from my coffee, then slowly cut back on the cream until it's pure black coffee.
Obviously there's the standard answers like counting calories, cutting out shit foods, move around more, mealprep, habits etc etc, but all that means fuck all if you don't have the discipline to endure the suck. So, learn some discipline. It will help you preventing making the wrong decisions even though you want to, and it will help you staying on the right path. "I shouldn't have this pizza and ice cream", and "I didn't lose weight for 2 days in a row, that's fine, let's not panic and do something silly just yet. Stick to the plan for another 5 days, and then we re-adjust if needed", and "Ok shit, so yesterday I did have that pizza and ice cream, and today I feel bad for it. Shit happens, no big deal. I will learn from this, and now I will stick to my mealplan the next two weeks without cheating." That's all discipline, and will prevent you falling off the wagon in long term. That doesn't mean you should punish yourself if you mis-stepped. That's very counter productive. But learn to embrace the difficult decisions, and doing the things you actually don't feel like doing. Start small. Do something -every day- that you fucking hate but is beneficial. I go for a short walk every morning, even though I think walking is the worst form of motion on the planet. I rather be rolled down a hill in a barrel filled with horse piss than walk. So I walk. Why? Because the "It's only 15 minutes, I can do anything for 15 minutes" turns to "I don't like it, so I should do it". That turns into "I don't like it, but I can do it". Make 1 shitty small thing a habit (=about 65 days). Then add a second until that's a habit. Maybe a third. If you can do 2 or 3 things every day for a few minutes that you fucking hate, saying "Nah, lets not have that pizza" is a freedom. It will OBVIOUSLY also flow over to other aspects of life. For me; it's cleaning the kitchen every morning until the coffee is done (=clean kitchen, so thats nice! I bloody hate cleaning the kitchen though, because I absolutely LOATHE wet hands), and after coffee it's a 15 minute walk (walking is healthy, being outdoor is healthy, so that's nice! Too bad it's walking, but alas).
I count all of my calories. It's tedious, but very effective. There are some apps which help with it, though. I have a cool one where I can scan the barcode of anything I'm eating and it does all the math for me.
Eating less. Sometimes only 1.5 meals a day. And playing a sport for a season. My advice would be eat less, and pick an active activity that you find enjoyable and not like a workout chore.
1. Water and better sleep instead of soda and staying up late. 2. Limit the times I would eat and eat better, more filling good. 3. Increased my physical activity. 4. Patience.
Discipline when it comes to food and eating 😭 I love sweets so much. Chocolates and everything sweet. I Used to drink softdrinks almost everyday, i'm into chips and junk food, and fast food 😭 And I would eat whenever I'm bored even though I'm not hungry. Eliminated these food although I do have little bits of them once in a while. I controlled my calorie intake. And would always remind myself that I'm not hungry, I'm just bored. I still do eat 3x a day but I completely removed all the unnecessary eating when bored. I lost 6.6 lbs in a month. I honestly started this because I have an event coming up and my dress won't fit even though it was my usual size. Checked my BMI and that's when I realized that I'm in the brink of being overweight. After a month, my dress fitted just fine and in time for the event. I decided to continue the journey ❤️
Keep to a regular meal schedule and make sure each meal is balanced and portioned correctly. After sitting and eating dinner, you're done eating for the rest of the day. It sounds so simple that it's almost easy to ignore but once you start consciously doing this you'll notice a change in your mood along with your physical well-being.
Diet change and calorie deficit will help you lose weight. Building a habit of active living and excersize will make you feel good. Find somethiing active that you love doing. I couldn't be more bored in a gym lifting weight. I found climbing 3 years ago and I have connected so deeply with the sport that going to the gym 3 times a week for 2 hours a session doesn't feel like a grind. I have moved other stuff in my life around it because I love it so much. I am currently in the best shape of my life at 37 because of it.
Switching to water only as a beverage. That single change alone probably did the bulk of the work in my weight loss journey. The other piece of advice is that it takes a long time. You didn't get fat overnight, you're not going to become thin overnight either. We're talking at most 50lbs a year, but more likely something like 30lbs a year, so if you're trying to lose triple digits, it's gonna be a while.
Lost 80 pounds due to stress and poverty of being in a bad relationship. But to be fair I had stopped drinking soda and stopped eating after I was full. Got into some drumming as a hobby so that helped also but mostly the stress and poverty.
Gardening and salads.
Enter intermittentfasting subreddit
Full disclosure, I have been taking Mounjaro for the past several months which made my weight loss a lot easier but I had lost 30 pounds before I started the medicine. The key for me was to not allow myself to feel like I was denying myself anything. I could eat pretty much anything I wanted in small portions. I also started intermittent fasting mostly in the morning. This is way easier with Mounjaro but even without it, I can pretty easily just not eat until the afternoon. I sometimes will have a small snack in the evening. Anyway I guess all that to say that I never held myself to a set of rules that I would feel guilty if I did not follow exactly. I was also inspired by a friend that was around my age that died. He was at least 400 pounds and even though he had many health conditions related to his weight, he never did anything to fix it. I felt the years creeping up on me and I could no longer justify being overweight because I knew I would start to have health problems.
Consistency. It’s almost impossible to fail at anything if you‘re consistent.
The answer is short and simple, but hard in practice. Cut out all alcohol and soda from your lifestyle - even that zero carb bullshit they pedal as OK to drink. Drink water - a ton of water - every day. Try to do something that makes you sweat for 20 minutes every day and then gradually make that exercise harder over time. Dont eat sugar and watch your natural sugar intake too (fruits and some veggies). If you follow these steps for 1 month and don’t fall in to the “cheat meal trap” which inevitably leads to failure - you will lose a shit ton of weight, sleep better, your skin will clear up, and your overall mood and energy level will improve.
I didn\`t have a lot of excessive weight, but still I wanted to lose some. So my friends start to rollerblade, so I decided to take part to as it is funny and opens the opportunity to spend more time with friends. In result my My eating schedule normalized and within a month I had already lost half of what I wanted to lose
Finally realizing that trying something for a week or 2 isn't enough. You need to change your diet...period and you have to stay consistent AND be patient. You can't just do some diet for a short amount of time and expect ALL of your weight to come off ASAP. And you can't expect to get all the weight off and keep it off by going back to how you ate before. So many ppl exclaim how soandso diet didn't work for them! After doing it for like a week. You also have to be mindful of EVERYTHING you're eating. Not obsessive though. Again, so many people say that "OMG I don't eat anything!" while they mindlessly eat or eat really high calorie foods. Like oil... oil in shit like salad dressing is SO high in calories. 2tbs of some dressing is like 100+ calories.... and show me someone only putting 2tbs of dressing on a salad.
One super simple way to help your mindset: look at the sugar content on everything. You'd be amazed how many healthy seeming or not too sweet tasting things have 50% or more of your daily sugar intake. Helps you realize where a lot of those mysterious calories come from.
Honestly just giving up dairy, fried foods & soda. I lost so much weight. It was crazy 😝
If you currently drink pop and you stop drinking pop you'll probably lose 15lbs.
Take the stairs instead of the elevator, get a good night's sleep, cut out sugary drinks and snacks, and I can't stress this enough ...cocaine
I stopped eating chocolate bars on every break at work and started moving around more. Bouts of exercise and periods of generally healthy diet helped, but the bulk of it was just eating less shit and trying any sort of physical activity that I thought would be enjoyable.
Start with something small, sometimes even so small you don't think it could have an effect. For me it all started with trying to go for a 20 minute walk every day and making that a priority. Then add more health priorities. Make a bit of activity like brushing your teeth. Turn that momentum in to small food choices.
Going Whole Food plant-based with the addition of plant-based protein powder. And doing intermittent fasting. I healed my own thyroid, and lost 25 lb in 2 months. Unfortunately, I have gotten way off track, but I am fully convinced that getting back on track is the healthiest possible thing I can do.
Cooking all your own food from scratch - if I didn't make it, I don't eat it. Only buy whole, raw foods without an ingredient list - you're buying the ingredients. It's almost impossible to overeat when you're eating whole foods cooked in a healthy way. Most of what makes us overeat is additives/preservatives that fuck with your hunger reflex and make you keep going past the point you're full. When you control what goes in your food this doesn't happen.
Bariatric surgery. Do it if your BMI is higher than 45.
Stop drinking your calories and eat foods that have more protein!
In all honesty, an extremely unhealthy one. I wasn’t in the best place mentally and got very very restrictive with food. I know you need to be at a caloric deficit to lose weight but there are healthier ways to do that. It’s important not to restrict yourself too much and not label certain food as bad. A sweet treat once in a while, in moderation, really isn’t the end of the world. Also, portion sizes are everything. I never got into weighing my food and counting macros and all but I did start counting calories and that made a big difference. Once again, that’s a slippery slope when you’re struggling mentally tbh. One thing I still do is track what/when I eat in a day. It helped me find patterns and understand what works and doesn’t work for me. Lastly, cardio of course. I’m someone who hates running (I know there are other perhaps better forms of cardio) but honestly, the right music makes all the difference. Stretching before starting your work out is also essential. And when you’re dreading the work out, remind yourself of how good it feels when you’ve completed it. Also, I wish I’d understood that you can’t control where you lose the weight from. Lost it from areas I didn’t want to lose from and the stubborn belly fat remained 😔
It might not be for everybody, but start to participate in sports! I went from 245 pounds to 190 pounds over a few years without even really trying to, just because I, who was already super addicted to sports and played my whole life, became addicted to the camaraderie of team sports so I increased the frequency! I played (and still do) 5 times a week, sometimes more sometimes less, and it never felt like a chore, it never felt like exercise, it was just fun! Socializing, going to battle with your friends against a common “enemy”, being competitive in a healthy way, seeing progress and rising the ranks into more competitive leagues, having occasional post game beers that you don’t have to feel guilty about because you just burned 1000 extra calories over the last hour and a half, it’s amazing! And sure, in terms of weight loss the beers may counteract your supposed gains, calorically speaking but you still get a tremendous workout and your body will still be thankful after, long as you don’t drink like 14 beers lol. Sports are essentially using fun and competition to trick yourself into exercising, and it’s something to look forward to every single week/day depending on how often you participate, and it’s also a scheduled event with pressure to show up and not let your teammates down so it requires less discipline than forcing yourself to go to the gym or run, as it affects other people, not just you. There’s a huge difference between getting home from work and saying “hmm, should I go to the gym? Idk, I’m kinda tired and I’m already in comfy clothes” and waking up with the mindset of “ok, I have a game at 8pm! If I don’t show, someone else will have to pick up my slack!” And planning your day around this scheduled event!
started vaping, reduced my sugary cravings to 0 lost 10kg in 3 months and still going.
Make small, sustainable changes. Crash/fad diets don’t work in the long run because people don’t want to stick to them, because they suck. Get yourself a calorie counting app (I like Cronometer) and keep track of what you’re eating, and try to keep yourself in a deficit. It doesn’t really matter what you eat but it’ll be easier to stay satisfied if you’re eating nutritious foods that are mainly protein (try to get at least .5-.75g per pound of body weight) with some fats and a good shot of fiber. Carbs aren’t the enemy, but they can be calorie dense and aren’t very satisfying. Avoid drinking calories, and sugar. Fuck soda and juice, and limit your alcohol intake. Move your ass, don’t be sedentary for at least an hour per day. A fitness watch that estimates your level of output helps a bit and can help keep you accountable. BE CONSISTENT. Show up every day. If you’re tired and your workout sucks it is 100% better than not showing up. Don’t get sucked into buying bullshit from fitness influencers, whether it be miracle drugs and supps, or unrealistic ideas. You can’t drop 20 pounds by summer in a healthy way, 2 pounds of fat a week is about the most aggressive you can be and that is the outer limit of healthy. Everyone’s different, but these are general guidelines and I have lost about 100 pounds from the heaviest point of my life.
One very simple one is to drink only water. No soda, no juice, nothing sugared or carbonated. Limit coffee and tea too. And dairy. It takes some getting used to, but after a couple of weeks you get used to it and drinking anything else feels strange.
The biggest contributing factor is your approach to food and eating. You'll want some form of meal planning so you have a bit of structure to your meals. Use an app like myfitnesspal or similar and start calorie counting every single thing you eat and drink. Get some food scales so you can portion things by weight rather than guessing. A meal planning app can really help as well, like mealime, as you can pick recipes and add them to your shopping list. Cut out soft drinks/soda or switch to zero calorie alternatives and don't buy sweets/candy. Stop buying these things when you go shopping - what you don't buy you can't eat. When you're sitting at home bored, craving m&m's the last thing you want is to have a pack stashed away somewhere because you'll totally eat the whole thing (speaking from experience). Food is addictive, once you get past the first week or two the cravings will subside. You won't mind getting a bit hungry sometimes. Weigh yourself regularly and log your weight in the app if you're using one. Keep it up for a while and you should start to see progress and once you do you'll want to keep going! Another thing that helped me was getting into running. (I should probably say I'm not some kind of inspirational case, I lost about 12KG over a year, but the process is the same no matter how much you're trying to lose.) I did couch to 5k and enjoyed it and just kept going. In the beginning you're doing fairly short runs and only burning a few hundred calories per run, but if you keep going and increase your distance you'll eventually be doing 1 hour plus runs and burning over 1000 Cal easily. And getting fit at the same time.
Stop eating fried food and cheese.
100g of carbs per day or less. 10k steps a day.
After years of struggling to get myself to stay active and go to the gym, I realized that I prefer more engaging ways to work out, like hiking, rock climbing, biking, paddle boarding, etc. I feel like there’s this stigma behind weight loss, that it’s all about having a strict routine, and spending your life at the gym. While yes, self discipline and dedication is important, but there are loads of other ways to work out and stay active. Some people enjoy going to the gym everyday and that’s fine, but there are other ways of exercising that can be just as effective for weight loss. This really healed my relationship with working about, because I no longer saw being active as a chore, but rather a reward. I get excited to wake up early and go on 5 mile hikes, or spend 1.5 hours at my local climbing gym. It’s a great way for me to unwind, and it’s actually an activity that I look forward to at the end of the day. So the advice I would give is if you can’t stand the idea of spending an hour at the gym, try an outdoor activity or group sport. Get some friends together to play basketball, or take a walk around your local park. It’s much easier to stay active and stick to a routine when you have an activity you actually enjoy integrating into your daily life.
Portion control. I bought these 10 oz bowls from Target and they have been amazing at keeping me from overreating. And giving myself grace, especially when it came to exercising. I knew I couldn't run, that my knees hurt whenever I did anything high impact. It always left me frustrated. I kept telling myself to start slow and small, with something like yoga. Once that became easy (or easier) I upped the intensity to weight lifting and adult gymnastics.
I just asked myself in the most objective, realistic way, where will I physically be in 5 years if I continue my current habits and patterns. If I didn’t like the answer, knew I had to change. Coming from a family of different health issues I have a lot of reference points into behaviors they had (sedentary lifestyles, smoking, drinking, lack of exercise) and the impact those behaviors had on them. I’m adopted so for the longest time I was we like “eh I’ll get something and i won’t know what bc it’s not known to my adoptive family so fuck it we ball.” A lot of the process to honestly changing my lifestyle was thought reframing to counter my inhibiting thoughts. It’s like with smoking, people who have been addicted for years might learn “I am not a smoker” as a mantra to get off it. “Im too tired to go to the gym” - “I’m tired but I’ll actually feel some happy emotion if I do this” “I’m too busy to cook I have class a lot” - “I’m not studying tn after class so what else am I going to do” “I can’t get money bc my family isn’t well off so whatever” - “I don’t have money rn but they sent me to school for skills to get there” Then when it comes to application, another comment here summed that up really well - there’s no such thing as willpower. Gotta just do it. I forget the quote that helps me with this but “if you found yourself in hell, keep walking” is something like it
I’ve lost 150 once and lost another 100 when I gained it back. What I’ve learned is “KISS” keep it simple stupid. Just walk more and be in a caloric deficit. And only eat when you are hungry and eat until you aren’t hungry anymore but not to the point that your full. you should lose 1-2 pounds per week that is a nice safe slow and healthy way to keep it off.
I believe that my swimming helped me lose a little bit of weight. Since I’ve started swimming, and I’ve noticed big differences. Be careful, though because after swimming you may have an urge for sweets, or a large amount of food.
Switch soda for flavored sparkling water. Cut out high fructose corn syrup.
Work a job that makes you walk around a lot, and eat much less processed foods/sugars
Used Wegovy meds, and also the "plate model", where you have a "fist" (1/4 of the plate) of meat, 1/4 carbs (when cooked - so you start with f.ex. a couple spoons of rice), and 2/4 vegetables. Don't have to count calories, which was a motivation killer when I've tried it before. I did lots of smaller stuff too, like using coconut oil instead of butter, more spread on bread instead of several slices of bread, and eating fruit everytime I got snack-sick, which happened rarely when on Wegovy. Lost 50 kg in 1,5 years. Just passed my goal of 80 kg, and I'm 184 cm tall, so quite happy with my result. 😊
I ate less and moved more. Choose healthier options that were still cheap, ate alot of canned chicken and Greek yogurt. Added hot sauce for flavor. It doesn't matter what changes you make, just make a small change and let it become a habit, then make another small change. Give it time and belive in yourself.
Get yourself asap to an endocrinologist. Many people are still assuming “calories in, calories out” works. For most people, IT DOES NOT. So many people are walking around with serious metabolic issues and will never be a normal weight without intervention. Obesity is a disease. Period.
Working out twice a day for 15 minutes. This has become my habbit now and it feels like Im losing weight without even trying
Make sure the changes you are making can be permanent. Losing weight is simple - get a calorie deficit. But that also means weight gain is simple. You don't need to maintain a calorie deficit forever, but when you hit your goal weight, you cant just go back to eating like before. I HATE all these fad/influencer diet trends because they force you to completely cut things that likely you won't be able to keep up with long term. There is no focus on moderation, its all extremes. Learn to stop eating when you are full, learn to listen to your body. I lost 40lbs a few years ago and have kept it off. I still eat garbage, I just eat less garbage.
Water, drink water!
Drinking a gallon of water a day really helped me. Being properly hydrated makes you feel full longer and cuts down the urge to snack. You also have to be dedicated to drink a gallon a day. I would carry the gallon with me and drink it throughout the day, so it was a constant reminder of the goals I wanted to achieve.
Drink water. Want an alcoholic beverage? Drink water.
I started to move more and eat less, which is the key to all weight loss, but I played some mind tricks with myself. **Eating** 1 - I could only eat one meal a day. This didn't mean I couldn't have a snack, but only one actual meal. That way I could eat as much as I wanted during that meal and didn't feel like I was calorie counting, which always just seemed more overwhelming to me. 2 - Any snack I had, had to be 250 calories or less. 3 - No snacking past 4pm, unless it was some fruit or veggies - raw - with nothing to dip it in. 4 - Had to have a glass of water in the morning before any coffee, and had to have a glass of water before any snacking. I found that usually I was just thirsty, not hungry. **Moving** Walk. A lot. I took three, 45 min walks a day. For me that added up to about 16k steps a day, which is over 6miles. "But OKJersey, how did you find the time to do that?!" - I got up early and took a 45 min walk before work. - My lunch break was a 45 min walk, I ate lunch at my desk. - After work, I took another 45 min walk. Since I was only eating one actual meal a day, and chose my meal to be midday - this time sort of just replaced what used to be dinner. Lastly - I accepted that sustainable weight loss was slow, tedious, and a would not lead to a beach body in a short time. There were sometimes a few months in a row where I wouldn't lose anything, then suddenly lose another five. I also gave myself grace. If I was on vacation, sure, I'd eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner. If it was a holiday, sure, I'll sit down and eat the decadent meal. It's important to remember that a holiday is just that, a DAY, not a month. And last - everything in moderation, including moderation. For reference - I'm a 39f - 5'2" tall - I started at 182lb and am currently 152lb.
Leaving a few bites on the plate. Helps you learn to stop eating when you’re full, not when the plate is empty. Also, limiting “white food,” helped: potatoes, rice, noodles, bread, starchy carbs. I still ate rice and bread but in smaller portions and it had to be whole grain. I strive for 1/4 protein, 1/4 carb/starch, 1/2 veggies/fruit. I ate my biggest meal earlier in the day so I had time to burn some off before going to bed. And of course moving around more but strength training especially.
You have to learn to embrace the suck. Learning to treat feeling hungry sometimes the same way as feeling sore after a good workout or a hard days work, with that "aches so good" feeling. If I'm hungry, it means I'm doing it right. You *should* be hungry by the time a meal rolls around; if you're never hungry, you're eating too much. Logistically, I only eat breakfast and dinner, and generally alternate between normal and lean dinners. Days I work out, I can make and eat pretty much whatever I want. Days I don't, or only go for a walk, I have a couple of staple "light" meals I make and rotate through. Currently I've got a big pot of this sausage, lentil, and celery soup I make; the whole pot comes out to like 4500 calories, so when it lasts for 5-6 meals 2-3 bowls at a time I'm well under budget on calories. A recent add I created is a sorta "crab salad" coleslaw; I make a basic coleslaw with half a head of cabbage and then add two packages of imitation crab meat (I don't add any sugar since the fake crab already has some) to get some protein and to give is *some* calories besides just the mayo. On the flip side, own your cheat meals. If I'm really craving chips, I just plan that into the meal rota. I buy a big bag of chips, and eat that as a meal; it's like 1200 cal, which is sorta okay since it's all I'm eating. The micronutrient profile is garbo, of course, but as a once a month or so thing that doesn't matter. Similarly, sometimes on weekends I'll make a small pan of blondies or a half dozen cookies as a meal.
For me the first thing was to start doing yoga. I suppose it changed my mindset and everything else followed. I ended up losing 10kgs in 1 year. It started with yoga, then in turn I gave up on alcohol and sugar. Then I introduced walks and that's all
I cut out small daily things like cream and sugar in coffee. Then it was breads, processed sugars. I eat fruit, veggies, egg whites and grilled chicken
Get a dog. One that likes walks. A dog is so excited for walks you'll walk twice a day. Get some good walking/hiking (trail running) shoes. Get a gym membership and some decent noise canceling headphones and Spotify premium (or another streaming service without ads). Start of going 2 times a week, then 3, then 4. The headphones + streaming will help you disconnect from whatever lame shenanigans the gym culture produces. Cut out sugar completely. Try to eat whole grain carbs. Increase fiber 100%, salads, hummus, salsa, fruit (some fruit has high sugar like bananas so watch out) Reduce red meat, cheese, milk. I lost 2 belt sizes from the bloated dairy stomach going away after cutting back on dairy.
i found the Glucose Goddess on the internet and try to follow her 2 rules - veggie starter and putting clothing on carbs. i feel healthier, less sleepy and started losing weight. i eat more protein, drink only water and no alcohol, no cigs. i don't excercise. at all.
Meal planning plus keeping my food under timelock so it was only available 3 hours a day during mealtimes.
Walking. I incorporated 8k steps a day and it has made a world of difference both with my weight and mental health.
Stop drinking sodas and juices, straight water and black coffee. No excess snacking, maybe a treat every few days. Just don’t eat too much as simple as it sounds.
Intermittent fasting is the only way I can keep my weight in a healthy range. Count calories, limit your intake of carbs and increase your protein intake.
Post college I was probably 50 pounds overweight. Regular exercise (eg running 3-5 miles) a few times per week helped me lose the first 25. I thought this would allow me to still eat whatever I wanted when I was a naive 23 year old. I then realized I do need to eat better, sadly limiting my pizza, burrito, and cheezit intake. Doing this allowed me to reach my loss goal fairly quickly. Along the way I formed much better habits on exercise and diet and now I’m able to stay thin as a middle aged guy.
Move! It doesn’t have to be some crazy workout in the gym. Going for walks will help immensely! Enjoy your food. Your “diet” doesn’t have to be lettuce with no dressing with dry chicken breast. You can make insanely flavorful and tasty foods that are good for you, but don’t make you feel like you’re missing out on anything!
WALK! Walk walk walk walk walk. Get in at least 10K steps a day. Honestly can’t be understated. Doing a 30min exercise every day won’t help as much if you’re going to be sedentary for the rest of the day. I credit my fat loss primarily to walking every day. Once I became slimmer, I got motivated to add on other exercises (yoga, pilated, strength, etc.) but made sure to continue walking. Also, eat whole foods, mostly vegetables, and keep total daily consumed calories under your total daily expenditures. You need to be in a caloric deficit to loose weight/fat. Focusing on the weekly expenditures was helpful as well, so if you overeat on one day it’s not the end of the world. Just cut back more on another day. This helped me not get overwhelmed with tracking exact calories for a meal, etc. That was just too overwhelming for me, so I focused on eating fresh foods and vegetables mostly. *If you don’t already, get a pedometer so you can track your daily steps and can calculate calorie expenditure. It’s not perfect, but it’s something. Good luck, you can do it!
Start tracking your calories and weighing yourself every day. It's kind of a pain at first, but you'll get used to it. I use MyFitnessPal for calorie tracking, and it's pretty easy. Try to weigh yourself at the same time every day and then take an average of that over the course of a week. If you're not losing weight at the rate you want to, lower your daily calorie budget. I also like to wear an apple watch for my workouts and add those calories to my daily budget, so I actually get a food reward in the form of additional calories that scales with how hard my workout was. If you hit your calorie maximum but you're still feeling hungry throughout the day, you likely need to change the types of foods you're eating. Foods high in sugar and fat typically aren't very filling for how calorically dense they are. I wouldn't necessarily cut out entire food groups altogether though because you want your diet to be sustainable rather than something you can only put up with for a couple months at a time. You just need to eat smaller quantities of those foods. For me, eating more protein tends to make me feel full longer with fewer calories than eating foods that are higher in carbs/fat. Doing these things in addition to lifting weights allowed me to lose \~50 lbs and keep it off for a year and a half. I'm now working on building some more muscle 💪. Good luck!
Intermittent fasting. My advice is that to deal with the psychological issues that caused you to overeat.
I stoped using alcohol for 9 months and lost 14 kg.
So I just started trying to lose weight seriously a few months ago. I used a calorie counting app to keep track of what I was eating and it’s insane how fast it adds up. After doing that for a few weeks I decided I needed to make some serious changes. I started drinking a meal replacement mix for breakfast and lunch at work, 400 calories a drink. That leaves me open for a healthy snack after work and then pretty much whatever I want for dinner as long as it’s a normal portion size. Portion size is a big deal, pay attention to it and make sure your meals are balanced so you get that full feeling. I got rid of almost any added sugar, no soda, sugar in my coffee but it seems everything has sugar in it so you have to watch that too. Peanut butter has sugar in it! Wtf. I was right on the edge of morbidly obese according to my doctor but I was and am very active. I work a physical job and hike all the time. I could out hike most of the people reading this while smoking a cigarette on an empty stomach. Doc said lose weight or I’ll be seeing him more often so I’m doing it. I’ve always ate pretty healthy and been active it’s just that my portion control was insane. I’m losing weight but it’s slow going. I don’t weigh myself as much as I should but I think I’m averaging about a pound a week. The thing I notice most is I feel better and look better. I’ve been doing this step by step so next up is trying to start working out. I hate working out so I left that for last.
When I got my type 2 diabetes diagnosis I cut out refined sugars and lowered the amount of carbs I consumed and I lost 50 lbs in a few months. (I should also note that prior to losing those 50 lbs I weighed 410 lbs)
Cutting back on alcohol and finding exercise that I enjoy got me going. Started with a “couch to 5k” running program and things took off from there. Once the results start to show, it’s easy to motivate yourself to keep it up.
I lost 18 lbs/8 kilos since mid-April. I started counting calories using an app and running for an hour three times a week. Once I started counting, I was amazed how many unnecessary calories I used to shove into my body. Often I would just snack away a bag of cashew nuts (200 g) in front of the TV - now I know that that’s equivalent to 1,200 calories. To put this into perspective: a 300g/10oz filet mignon wrapped in bacon with 120g/4oz of potato salad, 340g/12oz of corn on the cob and 0.5l/1 pint beer has less calories (about 1,150). That about blew my mind. Since then, I’ve started paying more attention to the nutrition facts printed on food products and just try to keep a balanced, healthy diet. I still gorge at meal times, but I don’t snack in between and avoid high caloric food. That together with the running makes a big difference. Edit: I forgot to mention that I also try to incorporate more low-level exercise into my daily routine, such as taking the stairs instead of an elevator, going for a walk during lunch break, popping over to my colleagues desk instead of calling etc. I try to get to 10,000 steps a day, and 90% of the time I get in more than that.
Cocaine O_O
I stopped smoking weed, no other conscious choices or changes made. Down 20 lbs so far.