How much have you lost, and how (an informal poll)?

funjen1972

Weight lost: 15 lbs (in 3 months)
Method: calorie counting with mostly clean eating. 1300ish daily. Exercise a few times a week & I count shoveling snow as exercise!

I've found being calorie-aware has helped the most.

DianaLovesCoffee

16 lbs since Christmas.
Calorie Counting, Couch to 5K 3 days per week, minimum 10k FitBit steps per day.

jessupbrady

First go around, I lost 68 lbs; hurt my back and was laid up and let myself go and now I've got 20lbs to get rid of.... but, using the same approach I did the first time. CICO and so in love with IIFYM! Makes it so much easier to enjoy what I eat.

StaciMarie1974

~53
IIFYM without too much stress on the macros. Sorry if that is conflicting! I do aim for protein, fruits & veggies and the rest tends to fall into place.

I'm at maintenance now for 4.5 months.

TheVirgoddess wrote: »

I'm looking for something a little more specific than "eating at a deficit" - what approach you took (clean eating, IIFYM, flexible eating, portion control, low carb, paleo, etc) to get to your deficit. I'm doing this because I'm curious.

So I'll start:

Weight lost: 71.4 pounds
Method: IIFYM/Flexible eating

I will post the results in a few days, if anyone is interested in the outcome.

Thanks!

cwolfman13

I spent 9 months losing about 40ish pounds and another 1.5 years maintaining and focusing on my fitness and lifting and basically doing a re-comp.

By and large I eat a lot of whole foods and meals prepared from scratch, whole ingredients. I've found that as I've aged, the nutrition part seems to play a bigger and bigger role overall. I am flexible in that I don't eliminate anything from my diet really, but foods that are traditionally considered "junk" make up an extremely small part of my overall diet.

My primary "junk" food is good, craft beer...which I actually don't drink much of when I'm in a cut because it's just too hard to fit it in without skimping on other nutrition...maybe one or two on a weekend. In maintenance I regularly drink craft beer though.

I think portion control is huge regardless of what you're doing and pretty much the most important thing you can learn in all of this.

Unknown

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mayfairmenthols

As of today 24lbs lost since around the first week or two of January, just by portion control, counting calories and increasing exercise.

I previously lost 84lbs a couple of years ago through the Low GI diet and increased exercise - although the exercise was greater than now (full gym work out 2-3 times per week plus aqua-aerobics weekly, versus daily walking and a 30-60minutes per week on stationary bike at home now), so tbh, comparing then to now I think the exercise was the key factor as I'm not following Low GI this time at all and still losing steadily at only a slightly slower rate.

Looking at the breakdown of my diet (I'm really busy so I do count the calories and log everything but rarely consider carbs/protein/fat even though I WANT to) I'm eating about 50% carbs daily, 30% fat and 20% protein. In an ideal world I'd like to change those figures a bit and see if I lose in a better way but I don't always have the time to contemplate every little nutritional nugget of information, plus I'm still quite nervous about letting those around me know I'm losing because I've had quite a lot of judgment in the past with a lot of amusement at 'the huge fat girl trying to lose weight' - it's easier to be discrete when you're not studying the nutritional information to the nth degree on a snack

We shall see... I still have a LOT to lose. 24lbs down....102 to go

momtolose15

About 20 pounds lost in more than 15 months. Here is what I did. Changed my morning breakfast to a healthy smoothie. Soy ,banana ,berries ,spinach and dates. Replaced lunch with a big salad .Snacked responsibly and ate the same dinner I have had for years . This only on weekdays. Weekends I eat what the family eats. Tried not to eat too much of the high calorie foods consciously pizza icecream etc. Exercise 5 days a week..long hour long walks/hike.

cstevenson86

SW: 265 lbs.
CW: 224.6 lbs.
GW: 150 lbs.

I've lost 40.3 pounds!

Diet: Body By Vi program which consists of two meal replacement shakes per day, with a snack between each meal. You get to eat what you would like for dinner. I have also begun to learn portion control. I drink as much water as possible per day.

Exercise: Monday - Zumba
Tuesday - Core & Toning
Wednesday - Zumba
Thursday - Yoga
Friday - REST
Saturday - Zumba
Sunday - REST

I also try to get 7.5 hours of sleep per night. Hope this helps!

TheSatinPumpkin

I Follow Atkins 2002 (DANDR) WOE in addition to periodically checking my calorie intake as i continuously control portion control. While i had a bundle of energy and half the time i was bouncing off the walls, i had no intentional exercise program until i lost around 180-200lbs to which i implemented paced walking and the elliptical everyday but Sunday.

I started on August 27, 2013 and as of today i have lost 249lbs.

snowflake930

160+ pounds ( been fluctuating on maintenance for almost 16 months, losing and gaining the same 5 pounds-that is the plus).
Strictly portion control and counting calories.

esjones12

40lbs through exercise and eating at a deficit. I have been slowly switching out processed foods for whole/organic.

skinnynat1

lost 11 lbs doing the 21 day fix with portion control and workouts and with the help of my free coach to keep me on track

Asher_Ethan

27 pounds lost... I do 75% paleo and make sure I'm under 2000 calories a day.

epido

Weight loss: 88 lbs

Method: Making healthier food choices, cutting out fast food and soft drinks, drinking more water, lots of lean protiens, avoiding most processed foods, and cutting out most bread (because I want to eat the entire loaf in one sitting if it is good bread - I have no self control once I start eating it, so not eating it is the better option for me. I didn't cut it out because I think it's "bad" or anything similar. And I will still have some from time to time.)

I also started working out with a personal trainer. I use kettle bells, and have started doing barbell work as well. Despite saying I would never be a runner when I started all of this, about a year and a half ago, I have also added running into the mix about 4 months ago.

joejward95

Weight lost - Around 70, MFP only says 58 because I lost some before I joined.

Just reduced calorie intake. Literally that is all.

mom2my4boys

Lost 102lbs, (of the 125 I set out to loose) quit smoking, (it was interfering with running) gained 10lbs back while quitting. Now I'm at 97lbs lost in about 1 1/2yrs. I try to do 80% clean healthy foods, 20% whatever I feel like. I try to hit my macro's but don't stress about it and on the weekend I loosen up and have a few beers.

I can't remember if you asked about exercise or not. I get an hour of cardio M-F and weight train.

bajoyba

Weight lost: 86 pounds

Method: mostly IIFYM/Flexible eating

In the beginning, before I'd done much reading, I did a straight up calorie deficit without much regard for macros. It totally worked, but I've always been a pretty balanced eater anyway - I just ate a lot of everything. Then I read about IIFYM and decided to put a little more emphasis on my protein intake, so I did that. I rarely hit my macros spot on, but when I'm paying attention, I can usually get pretty close. I feel most satisfied eating that way, and my nutrition is important to me, especially when I'm working out a lot.

queenliz99

Lost 26 pounds by counting calories and walking everyday.

Liftng4Lis

14 pounds lost. Eating at a deficit, lifting heavy things and the unfortunate cardio twice a week.

mom2ava07

18 lbs lost thus far in 2 months by cutting portions of the foods I used to eat anyway, and exercising regularly (cardio).

mburgess458

Lost 30 lbs so far. Calorie counting, moderation, and stopping night time snacking (eating in the middle of the night after going to bed).

Phrick

weight lost: 102 pounds in the last 2 years (Feb 21 was my anniversary)

Method: portion control, paying close attention to protein macro, moderate attention to fat and letting carbs land wherever they land. Is that IIFYM? I don't "do IIFYM" particularly but I do pay attention to them! I also found exercise I love (walking and even running, who knew?!) and do one or the other daily.

SezxyStef

60lbs

Started with low carb (17 day diet)
Moved to strict calorie counting and eating exercise calories back
Ended with IIFYM/Calorie counting here and heavy lifting.
Maintaned for almost a year doing what I ended with.

getalife9353

Lost 25 lbs. in 15 weeks. 50 lbs. remaining to loss.
Set my daily calories goal equal to my maintenance calories once I reach my goal weight - 200 (should make transitioning to maintenance easy.) Current calorie goal is 1700 net, but I don't stress if I am over/under. My weight loss rate will go way down as I get closer to goal. Expect to reach my goal weight in about 1.5 years from now.

Started eating more like I did growing up, when I didn't have a weight problem. Which basically means I quit eating fast / convenience foods for dinner.

Dinner now consists of:
4 oz. meat (chicken, salmon, or pork primarily)
2 vegetables each 3.5 - 4 oz.
1 cup whole grain rice or 4 oz. of potatoes. (sometimes skip this)

Breakfast varies: During the work week will usually be 2 nature valley granola bars, Weekends is bacon, eggs, hash browns and biscuit.

Lunch - work week = fast food more often then not, weekends all over the place, sometime skip, sometimes a sandwich and soup or fruit, sometimes same as dinner.
At some point I plan to clean up my work week lunch and start taking my lunch to work. This is more about money quality of food then calories though.

As the weather warms up and I start doing more active recreation (primarily cycling and kayaking) I will add fuel for those activities.

So far this has worked for me and is pretty easy to do. I recently went on 1 week vacation followed by a 2 week business trip to a foreign country without calorie tracking and still maintained my weight loss, just using intuitive eating based on what I have been doing.

tephanies1234

13 lbs lost in 110 days, 12 lbs to go.

1)No specific restriction diet.
2)Calorie counting.
3)Dramatic decrease on eating out at restaurants (4-5x a week to only 1x on the weekend and eating only at maintenance that day).
4)Less homemade baking to decrease any temptation of "eat it before it goes bad, don't let it go to waste". There's only 2 people I bake for and most recipes make too much.
5)My home cooked dishes haven't changed, except that I have more now, and my snack choices aren't any different.
6)I do aim for 80-100g protein a day which I've changed. Most of my diet was carbs and fat before.
7)I lift weights and don't starve myself.
8) I'm not a huge alcohol drinker, but I limit it to one day a week or nothing. And right now I stick to red wine.

Justcallme_J

Weight lost: 56 pounds
Method: flexible eating/portion control
I eat basically everything I did before, just less of most things. I do try to get more vegetables and fruit now, so my diet has gradually changed without any specifics attempts to cut other foods out of it. I'm also constantly trying to get enough protein which has been a struggle for me. Other than that I don't stress over macros much. For the first several months I lost because of diet alone. In the last few months I've tried to get into the habit of exercising by walking several times a week.

mymodernbabylon

20 lb, eating less. First half just less calories, second half EM2WL of TDEE-15% and focusing on getting enough protein. Always everything in moderation.

SuggaD

I didn't weigh myself when I started, but I've lost around 65 lbs. I did it by calorie counting, lifting weights, and doing cardio. In the process, I cleaned up my diet and limit non-whole foods to relatively small percentage of my diet.

MJ_Watson

85lbs down from my highest, 72 of which I lost with MFP. (I lost that first 13lbs after moving to a walking city but didn't change my diet and got stuck at that new weight for a couple years.)

I lost it by calorie counting/flexible dieting. I sort of do IIFYM, but really, I just worry about hitting my protein and let the rest fall where it will. It's usually about the same, anyway.