How did you lose weight? (I'm new to this)

MelWick524

My trainer also told me, "You can sneak snacks here and there and decide not to log little bites of this and that, but even if you're not keeping an accurate food diary in a journal or online, your body keeps one." I think about this ALL THE TIME... like last night. My son ate some of his chicken nuggets. I devoured the rest of them when he said he was full. Then, at 2am I got up had a glass of strawberry milk & a random spoonful of peanut butter. lol. I ended up logging it this morning, because, what is the point of "hiding" it? So my friends don't see it in my diary? So that I "forget" I ate it? Well, I can "hide" it all I want, but my body won't. It's such awesome advice, because I used to do it all the time, like I was sneaking around from somebody other than me. It's so strange how our brains work!!!

Kimberly_Harper

I stopped drinking beer, cut way back on other alcohol, and overhauled my diet. I replaced a lot of the food I was eating with whole foods that were lower calorie so that I didn't end up hungry all of the time (I'm not very good at eating anything I want but keeping the portions small, which works for many people). I started cooking my own meals instead of going to fast-food restaurants or ordering pizza. I walked or did resistance machines at the gym a couple times per week (have been slacking on that lately). I started doing all of that in September of last year and as of today I have lost 39.5 lbs. So, around 7 months.

MuddyEquestrian

The first time I gave MFP a shot I ate a stupidly low number of calories and worked out like crazy....lost 45lbs in 4 months and over a year and a half I gained ALL of it back. So this time around I'm doing this differently and it's working really well.

This time around I've gone from 158 to 143 in just about 3 months with another 20 lbs to reach my goal weight. I tend to follow a 5:2 schedule where I eat "maintenance" calories (about 1700) 5 days a week and eat 500-600 two days a week. It seems to keep my cravings at bay and I feel great doing it....it's not for everyone though.

My biggest advice is don't cut out certain foods just because you think they're "bad". There's no "bad" food. If I am too restrictive I end up going crazy one day and putting on a pound or two and get discouraged. Eat what you want in moderate amounts.

As for exercise, I lost the weight I have so far without it. I just recently started running 3-4 days a week. I will start working out harder once I've gotten closer to my goal weight.


Good luck, hope this helped a bit

amcook4

80 pounds gone, very simple, eat less, move more.

valcala23

Thanks everyone for your advice and letting me in on your journey wether it was a good adventure or a bad one, I really appreciate the time everyone took to post, you might not think so but it really is helpful to hear all these different stories.

harpsdesire

I'm not a success story yet, but so far this has been working for me:

The only thing I cut out is soda and sweet tea.
I added in more veggies, because it's good for me. I budget some calories for a treat (reasonable portion of something I truly like) regularly.
I exercise by walking 30min-1hour each day, with usually one day a week when I don't do a 'walk for exercise' but am otherwise lightly active like cleaning the house (going up and down stairs 20-ish times usually!), sight-seeing or taking a short hike/walk in a park. I don't generally track that 'doing fun or required stuff that's also sort of exercise.'

The mistakes I've made are not planning ahead and finding myself with nothing healthy to eat, and going over my calories because I neglected to log something in and forgot about it. I've learned to actually take the time to plan out my meals, and to log food right away while it's fresh in my memory.

I haven't lost that much yet but it's only been a short time.

SLLRunner

valcala23 wrote: »

What workouts did you do? How long did you perform your workouts? What foods did you cut off to see results? What foods did you add to your new diet? How much weight did you lose? Where there mistakes you did, What did you learn from your mistakes?
Share your story it would help me im new to this...

I simply kept all the foods I love and learned about weighing food, logging everything I eat, doing portion control, including exercise calories, and most importantly, I learned how to eat within a weekly calorie deficit. I also learned not to beat myself up when I go over calories, and to just pick myself up and carry on. I've lost 44 pounds and maintained for over a year.

dopeysmelly

I didn't really do any workouts. Just focused on eating within my deficit most of the time and making sure I met my protein/fat/fiber targets every day. I added a daily walk after a few months, but only help ease my back. I rewarded myself for losing 65lbs by joining a gym and becoming much more active.

I also ate out as usual, did business trips and vacations when I didn't log and just managed to get back on to it when I got home. You don't have to be perfect.

Mistakes?.. Honestly, what I did worked for me. I wish maybe I'd done it sooner, but that's about it.

valcala23

dopeysmelly wrote: »

I didn't really do any workouts. Just focused on eating within my deficit most of the time and making sure I met my protein/fat/fiber targets every day. I added a daily walk after a few months, but only help ease my back. I rewarded myself for losing 65lbs by joining a gym and becoming much more active.

I also ate out as usual, did business trips and vacations when I didn't log and just managed to get back on to it when I got home. You don't have to be perfect.

Mistakes?.. Honestly, what I did worked for me. I wish maybe I'd done it sooner, but that's about it.

Thanks for your information and good to know your doing great!!!..