What has helped you be most successful?

KateSimpson17 · July 2015

I've tried MFP several times over the last few years, but this is the longest I've ever stuck with it (3 weeks and down around 5 lbs)! What made me successful this time was making friends and discovering the forums. What in your life or MFP has helped you be successful?

strong_curves · July 2015

Patience, consistency & a food scale.

DeguelloTex · July 2015

Patience and leaving emotion out of it. And a food scale.

CJsf1t · July 2015

strong_curves wrote: »

Patience, consistency & a food scale.

^This. I have still a long long way to go but this time I am so motivated that I have not let any negative experiences to hold me back .

Kalikel · July 2015

My Synthroid, first and foremost.

Cleaning up my diet.

Exercise.

Lourdesong · July 2015

DeguelloTex wrote: »

Patience and leaving emotion out of it. And a food scale.

Same, on all points.

yopeeps025 · July 2015

food scale+ the end game that while take a long time

KateSimpson17 · July 2015

strong_curves wrote: »

Patience, consistency & a food scale.

getting a food scale was a big thing for me too! I used to make sure I had at least an extra 100 calorie deficit because I had no idea how much food I was actually eating. My food scale is probably the best $10 I ever spent... even if my boyfriend thinks it makes me look like a drug dealer lol

TheVirgoddess · July 2015

Consistency.

clarelara24 · July 2015

Definitely patience. Also smaller portions and more fruit instead of snacks like chocolate and crisps. Still have days off though :-)

_benjammin · July 2015

strong_curves wrote: »

Patience, consistency & a food scale.

socioseguro · July 2015

Taking responsibility and accountability for my actions, measuring and logging all my food, planning and cooking my own meals. Using MFP.

mbcieslak87 · July 2015

Everything that was said above - especially consistency and a food scale! But also, keeping in mind that this is a lifestyle change, and that with life comes exceptions and special events... learning to not beat myself up over slip-ups was the hardest part for me...

MommyL2015 · July 2015

A food scale and my treadmill.

accidentalpancake · July 2015

Kids.

KateSimpson17 · July 2015

mbcieslak87 wrote: »

Everything that was said above - especially consistency and a food scale! But also, keeping in mind that this is a lifestyle change, and that with life comes exceptions and special events... learning to not beat myself up over slip-ups was the hardest part for me...

THIS! Allowing yourself to mess up sometimes is a big deal, at least for me. As someone on another thread said "If you get a flat you wouldn't get out and slash the other three tires"!

theawill519 · July 2015

I've learned to absolutely love exercise. I don't love to diet, but the exercise I do motivates me to stay within my calorie goal.

Also, I want to be healthy, not just skinny.

atypicalsmith · July 2015

Thea519 wrote: »

I've learned to absolutely love exercise. I don't love to diet, but the exercise I do motivates me to stay within my calorie goal.

Also, I want to be healthy, not just skinny.

Same here! I don't want to waste all those calories burned on stupid stuff that could negate my deficit!

TerraRoberts24 · July 2015

Exercise and realizing that I don't have to starve myself to be healthy and in shape. Once I figured that out, I have been so happy. I can eat so much, as long as I stick to my calories, and still maintain or lose. So that's helped me a lot. Also, keeping a food journal daily has helped immensely.

nvmomketo · July 2015

Limiting how often I eat out. I eat much better and more safely (I'm a celiac) at home than I ever could in a restaurant.

Reading a lot on diet and nutrition helps a lot. Most doctors don't help with weight and nutrition, so I needed to educate myself on what (I consider to be) a healthy WOE.

bennettinfinity · July 2015

I think the major themes have been covered sufficiently, but I would add the one thing that helped me down the path of 'lifestyle change' was when faced with choices, asking myself 'is this a choice I can live with for the rest of my life?'

- Give up chocolate? Nope
- Exercise daily? Yep
- Forego holiday/birthday celebrations? Nope
- Weigh my food? Yep
- etc.

CatMom8 · July 2015

Came back to MFP without the 'tude the last time I had. It is keeping me honest (for the most part.) Weighing and measuring my food. Going low carb. Exercise, which I am slowly ramping up. Finding protein shakes that I can use, as I am lactose intolerant. Finding wonderful online support groups. I always hated going to Weight Watchers meetings, etc. But I like the online component. I feel more relaxed. I have learned a lot! Oh.. and trying harder to "listen" to my belly and not overeat. VERY difficult.

KrisiAnnH · July 2015

Exercise; realising I can workout at home, that there are tons of workouts for free online (so no excuses!) and that it's not for weight loss (unless you count a bigger deficit) but to make me healthier/fitter overall. Weighing scale too as many people have said.

Also realising that I can eat pretty much whatever I want (within moderation) and still lose weight. I used to think as long as I was eating 'healthy' foods it didn't matter how much of it I was eating, and that I had to have no junk or 'bad' foods. Definitely not the case, a big part of why I think I've stuck with it so long is that I'm not restricting

Unknown · July 2015

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jaqcan · July 2015

Using a food scale
Eating at home
Planning a weekly menu
Planning for a snack after dinner
Not drinking my calories by cutting out/back alcohol
Eating breakfast when I'm hungry, not just because I woke up.

MoiAussi93 · July 2015

Eliminating added sugar.

Need2Exerc1se · July 2015

Fear. I hate the thought of having disease or to take meds everyday just because I wanted to eat too many chips.

WickedPineapple · July 2015

(1) Food scale. (2) Finding other coping techniques for dealing with stress/anxiety/depression. (3) Eating out less and cooking/baking more.

GreenValli · July 2015

Logging my food everyday and knowing that there are others that are on this weight loss journey like me who are being patient and consistent also.

lemurcat12 · July 2015

DeguelloTex wrote: »

Patience and leaving emotion out of it. And a food scale.

This.

It's really helpful to me to approach this analytically. So what I did was think of my weight as a problem to solve like I'd approach a problem at work. I figured out what I was doing to gain weight and changed that--obviously what I was doing was eating excess calories, but I figured out precisely how I was doing it and the least painful way to instead have a calorie deficit. I also decided to create good habits, like exercise. And because I like data I used this tool and others (like a spreadsheet) to monitor stuff. When I messed up that was something to fix, not something to get upset or down on myself about. It was a logical problem, not an emotional thing. This made a huge difference in my ability to do it and sustain what I was doing and made it more interesting also.

Creating a community helps too. For various reasons I didn't want to talk about weight loss with people off line, so MFP was helpful there, but now that I'm into exercise and training activities it's easy to find communities and that helps me with motivation (as does training for things). For example, I got into running more by signing up for races and I've gotten much more serious about swimming by signing up for a masters swim group (which is also more fun than laps on my own).

candykay0605 · July 2015

the success stories really really help

What has helped you be most successful?

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