What is your best piece of advice for someone on a weight loss journey?

girlalmighty08

I have a goal to lose 50 pounds by July -- for any of you out there who have met your goals or are on your own journey, what is the best piece of advice you would give to someone? It can be specific and technical (i.e. training tips, snack ideas, meal prep tricks, etc.), or broad and inspirational!

Let's have it!

fiddletime

There are some stickies that you can read on this site. I'd say to read the community boards daily, because someone else is going through exactly what you are at any given moment. I read the questions but also learn a ton from peoples' answers.

jemhh

Make sustainable changes and have reasonable expectations. A big part of that is accepting that weight loss is often not as quick as we want it to be and that weight loss is not linear (even under the best of circumstances, you likely will not lose every week and may even see your weight fluctuate upward from time to time.)

blankiefinder

Buy a food scale. The single most important thing you can do. Best $10 I ever spent.

This isn't hard in one sense, but very hard in another. It's like a math equation, with a bunch of emotional and self control variables thrown in, but at the end of the day, a sensible deficit will get you to where you want to be. http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10257474/starting-out-restarting-basics-inside#latest

nadler64

I have two memes posted in my office that are constant reminders and that have kept me focused.

First: it's a marathon, not a sprint.

Second: Fitness is 20% exercise and 80% nutrition. You can't outrun your fork.

Machka9

Stick with it absolutely for 3 weeks.

Enter your details into MFP, set your goal of a loss of 1 lb/week or whatever you'd like it to be, make a note of the maximum calories MFP gives you to accomplish that goal.

Buy that food scale, then weigh and log everything that goes into your mouth. Be brutally honest.

Note that the food choices in the database, especially those marked "generic" or "homemade" could be inaccurate. If it looks low ... too good to be true ... try to find a choice with higher calories.

Exercise means that you can eat more ... but MFP, like most calorie counters, overestimates the number of calories burned. For example, no matter how hard and fast I ride my bicycle outside, or stationary bike, I choose one of the slowest/lightest choices, and thus, lower calories burned.

Don't count stuff like housework, grocery shopping, etc. ... those are all part of your everyday life, and if you did happen to burn a few extra calories doing that sort of thing, great, they're just bonus calories in case you underestimated a food choice.

Aim to eat back about half your exercise calories. You do need fuel for the activity.

Stick with this utterly and absolutely for 3 weeks.

At the end of 3 weeks, assess how you are doing, take photos, take measurements ... and stick with it for another 3 weeks.


I've lost 25 kg (55 lbs) this way.

seltzermint555

It's gonna differ for everyone but for me my 130+ loss has boiled down to counting calories (LOGGING everything every day), drinking a ton of water, and being very patient. I set small goals I knew I would reach - but never any drastic goals. When I weighed 262 for example I wanted to reach 220 or 230, and I looked at it more like "if I keep this tracking calories & walking 3-4X per week up I'll be AT LEAST 25 lb lighter by next year at this time" and then over-shot those expectations by a mile when I was at 199 that next year and so on... For me personally it has been very helpful to weigh daily and NOT focus on sharing my progress via social media such as facebook with my "regular life acquaintances". But that's a personal choice...some people love it and find it supportive but for me it's not.

OkieFitness

To me living a healthy lifestyle is about 3 things: Attitude, Exercise, and Intake - what you eat. If you set a positive, progressive focus on those? You can't help but succeed with your journey. Celebrate your incremental success and don't beat yourself up for apparent setbacks. I say apparent because as other posters have pointed out? Weightloss is rarely a linear thing. You CAN DO this!

ninerbuff

Just one main one: be CONSISTENT. The major fallback for any client I have is due to inconsistency if they aren't achieving goals.

A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

Obnoxa

You won't win every battle with food; that's just reality. But if you stay strong, log everything, and except that some days will be worse than others, you will win the war.

itstimeRK

Besides the obvious counting calories and weighing portions, there are a few tricks I've found helpful in losing and maintaining my weight--

1) Drink a glass of water before every meal.
2) Really look at your food, think about how it tastes and the texture. Chew slowly and enjoy it. When I mindlessly eat, I tend to eat too much.
3) Meet my daily fiber goals. Staying regular keeps my weight loss steady.
4) Crunchy foods that take longer to chew make me feel more full than soft foods that are swallowed quickly.
5) Keep fresh veggies on the counter, such as carrot sticks, celery sticks, bell pepper slices, cherry tomatoes, ect. Then if I get the munchies, I can pop something healthy into my mouth.

samthepanda

Preparation. This doesnt mean you have to have every meal and snack bagged up (tho that works for some). For me,it was finding a couple of healthy meals that I could have in the freezer or could quickly so when we were in a rush I knew what I could have rather than just grabbing pizza or chips. I also thought about when I wanted a treat - did I want a chocolate bar when we got back from school run which was grabbing quickly just I wanted something, or could I have fruit then and enjoy the chocolate more later. I decided to always sit down to eat my chocolate or treat and really enjoy it. I lost 70lbs and am now in year 4 of maintenance.