Advice please from someone who has lost weight and kept it off.

thatonegirlwiththestuff

I'm going to be attacked here for not being a calorie counting fan. I actually track my macros a lot more closely than calories (I have previously trained for bikini competitions and followed the nutritional advice of my coach), so I do know how to get very lean. Try focusing on clean foods. Whole foods that will fill you up and foods low in glycemic loads and complex carbs. Egg whites, rolled oats, sweet potato, chicken, ground turkey, veggies and try to only eat 1 serving of fruit per day, such as berries or half a banana, and you'll be really surprised how fast you lean out. And if you don't already weight train, really give that a try. I do zero cardio, ZERO and maintain a low body fat by eating the right foods and weight training.

ladieofthebees

This all sounds so familiar - I was in the same boat for years! I was also resistant to getting a food scale (surely that's over-obsessing/my husband will think I'm nuts/what if the scale tells me I can't eat as much as I think?) but I have to tell you, it was the best thing I ever did. It helped me take true control of my diet/intake.

And yeah, my husband did think I was a bit nuts (and yeah, I can't eat as much cheese as I thought ) - but after a few weeks of me consistently losing weight, my husband also joined MFP and has me weigh out all HIS portions now (the day I caught him actually weighing his portion of ice cream was a quiet, internal triumph).

Follow the very comprehensive advice of the posters above, they know what they're talking about!

johnnylakis

The only way to avoid the see saw of weight is to set a calorie goal for the REMAINDER of your life. The up and down comes from dieting, hitting a goal, and then going back to BAD eating habits. Exercise is a WASTE of time if you are not going to watch your INTAKE. I have lost 37 lbs and STILL use my food scale EVERYDAY. I haven't been to the gym in months.

mccindy72

thatonegirlwiththestuff wrote: »

I'm going to be attacked here for not being a calorie counting fan. I actually track my macros a lot more closely than calories (I have previously trained for bikini competitions and followed the nutritional advice of my coach), so I do know how to get very lean. Try focusing on clean foods. Whole foods that will fill you up and foods low in glycemic loads and complex carbs. Egg whites, rolled oats, sweet potato, chicken, ground turkey, veggies and try to only eat 1 serving of fruit per day, such as berries or half a banana, and you'll be really surprised how fast you lean out. And if you don't already weight train, really give that a try. I do zero cardio, ZERO and maintain a low body fat by eating the right foods and weight training.

Not attacking you at all. This really works for very few people. Although you aren't tracking calories, you are tracking something, and weight training and restriction works for you, obviously. The average person is really going to struggle with this type of plan.

"Clean" eating (lord, I hate that term), is extremely difficult for most people, and really unnecessary for anyone who isn't in a competitive world.

OP, get a food scale, work on moderation.

Yes, weight training will really help you.

Castrofreak

I thought having a food scale would make me seem a lil crazy, but its helped a lot, and I couldn't imagine this journey without it! Plus my husband doesnt mind it. It sits on the microwave til I use it, and I only use it when I eat. Its not that crazy. He made jokes when I first bought it, but it stopped by the second day.

peter56765

I lot of good advice here. I'm going to chime in with one that gets short shrift around here: cardio. While weight training is important to build muscles, don't neglect the most important muscle in your body: the heart. Not to be too depressing, but heart disease is still the #1 killer in America, accounting for more deaths than all forms of cancer combined. We see thread after thread about clean eating and cancer fighting foods and whatnot, but lost in all that is the big elephant in the room: your heart health.

So while strictly speaking you don't have to exercise to lose weight, for health and fitness reasons, you should endeavor to get in both weight and cardio training every week.

bwogilvie

I lost about 65 pounds (from 215 lb. to 150 lb.) over the course of two years, most of it (about 47 pounds) in the first year. I've kept it off since December. Here's what I did:

- Created an MFP account, entered my stats (44-year-old male at the time, 5' 10", 214.8 lb., lightly active), and set a 1.5-pound weekly loss target. MFP estimated my calorie goal with a 750-calorie daily deficit.
- Logged as accurately as I could for several weeks, using a food scale for solids when preparing anything that was calorie dense (i.e., weigh peanuts, but not celery).
- Continued to get lots of cardio exercise (I've been a cyclist for years), log exercise, and eat back those calories.

After a month, I discovered I was losing more like 1.1 pounds a week after the initial water weight. OK, that's 200 calories a day I was either missing in my food logs or overestimating in my exercise or activity. I set my activity level to sedentary. After that, my losses matched pretty well with my logs. In particular, my exercise calories (estimated by a pretty fancy Garmin cycling computer/GPS/HRM, and when I run, by the equivalent for running) matched my actual loss. Note that my Garmin stuff estimated only 50-75% of what MFP's database estimates. If I had trusted the MFP database, I would not have lost as much weight.

The key lessons to take away from my experience? I think there are three.

1. Look at your results and readjust your goals as needed. I found I was losing slower than I intended; when I changed my activity level in MFP, the numbers came into alignment. All these numbers are estimates, so you need to monitor them and change them if results don't match the prediction.

2. Use a food scale, at least for calorie-dense foods. After a few weeks you might get pretty good at eyeballing things; even if you do, pull out the food scale from time to time as a reality check.

3. Cardio exercise is great, not only for the long-term health benefits and the way it makes you feel good, but also because it lets you lose weight while eating more than you could if you were sedentary. You don't have to go overboard, but even just a 30-minute daily walk would allow you to have a cookie, or three clementines, or over half a pound of carrots, as an additional snack. I found that made a huge difference in how satisfied I was, compared with times I couldn't get much exercise and had to eat a lot less.

Good luck!

stacerenea27

My calorie count is currently set at 1200 for 2 lbs a week but the estimate that I will lose is a lot less because I would have to dip below 1200 to lose 2lbs. I completely agree with the heart health comment. My mother is currently functioning with 30% heart function, up from 10% before a triple bypass. I have been logging about half of my excercise except sometimes I log more on the weekends because I do more. Thank you all so much for your excellent advice!