But what did you really do to lose weight?

daross16

You know, if you look at any of my other posts, it's always in the style of ranting. It's what I do best. Every college paper I ever got praise for was also a well-organized rant.
ANYWAYS- I'm trying to crack the case:
What did you REALLY do to lose weight? This is best answered by women because men tend to lose weight differently.
I always see success stories and the answer is always so vague: "Oh, I just worked really hard. Ate clean and worked out five days a week." "It was all strength training." "Oh I walked 30 minutes all day" "I only ate pickles for all year."
Great. Glad for you. But can you be more specific? Give a general idea of your workout schedule? Did you do it home, at the gym, with weights, circuit training, how many calories were you working with, etc?

So tl;dr: What, in reasonable detail, did you do to lose weight?
I'm not looking for sassy responses or "constructive criticism." Just a straight answer.

VintageFeline

Ate less calories than I burned. Or at least that's what I'm doing. No secret, no plan, no "diet". Calories in vs calories out. 41lbs down so far.

Do I work out? Yes but that's irrelevant really, it just increases the calories out part of the equation so I can eat more and helps retain muscle while losing.

middlehaitch

CICO

tara_means_star

I put my stats in MFP and I count every calorie. I choose not to eat breakfast so that I can eat more of the foods I enjoy even if they are higher calorie while still staying in a deficit. I want to exercise more, but I really like being lazy. Occasionally, and I mean every once in a while, I do yoga or walk around the park. I've lost 35 pounds.

arditarose

Counted my calories and made sure to be in a calorie deficit. I was able to do so by weighing my food on a food scale and choosing the correct entries in this app.

janejellyroll

I tracked the number of calories I ate by using some simple tools (food scale, calorie database) so I could ensure I was meeting the calorie goal provided by MFP. I netted 1,260-1,400 during the time I was losing weight. I did eat exercise calories back, making allowances for over-estimation in the MFP database. I didn't really eat clean or focus on macros beyond making sure that I was getting sufficient protein and fat.

I worked out (running six days a week, cross-training 1 day a week, resistance training every day), but I don't think this would have done anything without the deficit. I did my workouts outside, in my living room, and in the gym room in my apartment building.

PaulaWallaDingDong

I walk and cut calories. I try to spread my calories out so I don't get hangry and make bad decisions. That's literally all there is to it for me.

daross16

middlehaitch wrote: »

CICO

check in check out...or Chongqing International Construction Corporation?

TavistockToad

Calorie deficit

xLyric

I look at how many calories I burn per day, including any exercise, and subtract a deficit in order to lose weight. There's no magic solution, you just have to eat less than you burn. If someone loses weight just eating low carb/fat/pickles, then they ate fewer calories than they burned. That's really it.

tara_means_star

daross16 wrote: »

middlehaitch wrote: »

CICO

check in check out...or Chongqing International Construction Corporation?

Calories in Calories out

kshama2001

daross16 wrote: »

middlehaitch wrote: »

CICO

check in check out...or Chongqing International Construction Corporation?

She made sure her Calories In were less than her Calories Out.

That's what everyone needs to do to lose weight. How you get there is personal preference. I like to weigh my food on a digital food scale and exercise. I walk/hike most days at lunch and three times a week lift weights or do bodyweight exercises.

I got a fitbit for Christmas and found it helps motivate me to walk longer distances.

tara_means_star

tara_means_star wrote: »

daross16 wrote: »

middlehaitch wrote: »

CICO

check in check out...or Chongqing International Construction Corporation?

Calories in Calories out

specifically Calories in < Calories out

williams969

I'm on a cut after a bulk now, but initially I lost 26lbs over 8 months. I used Fitbit to estimate my daily burn, and ate 250-500 calories less than that daily (synced my fitbit to mfp aids in this).
My diary is open to the public, so anyone who cares can see what I eat. My cut plan is exactly the same now as initially. Currently, my gross calorie intake is an average of 1750 (a 400 calorie deficit).

As far as fitness, I do progressive bodyweight strength training (specifically, You Are Your Own Gym, which is 35-45 min, every other day), plus I walk an average of 10,000 steps daily.

SweetestLibby

ate less and moved more. no special tricks. nothing complicated. Once I got the hang of that I started lifting weights - really heavy weights. I lost 95 pounds doing that and when I stopped doing that I gained 25 pounds back. Now I'm back to eating less and moving more and I'm down 5 pounds. I workout about 3(ish) times a week with cardio and lifting. Sometimes I go to the gym and sometimes I workout at home using Daily Burn.

Psychgrrl

Used MFP, a food scale and a fitness tracker as the tools to keep me on track and accountable.

daross16

williams969 wrote: »

I'm on a cut after a bulk now, but initially I lost 26lbs over 8 months. I used Fitbit to estimate my daily burn, and ate 250-500 calories less than that daily (synced my fitbit to mfp aids in this).
My diary is open to the public, so anyone who cares can see what I eat. My cut plan is exactly the same now as initially. Currently, my gross calorie intake is an average of 1750 (a 400 calorie deficit).

As far as fitness, I do progressive bodyweight strength training (specifically, You Are Your Own Gym, which is 35-45 min, every other day), plus I walk an average of 10,000 steps daily.

THIS is a specific answer. Thank you!

diannethegeek

Well, I lost 55 pounds over the course of a year. I started at 1700 calories (based on my stats) and 20 min of exercise daily. Sometimes that was walking, belly dance dvds, or Richard Simmons dvds. Sometimes I took cheat days every week and sometimes I didn't. Sometimes I added weights and sometimes I didn't. For a while I increased my weight loss goals from one pound per week to two pounds per week (decreasing my calories) and then I backed off for a while and slowed down. Sometimes I added an hour of running or 20 minutes of circuit training 5 days a week and sometimes I did that 3 days a week. I slowly started to pay more attention to macros and protein intake and micronutrients. Overall, I kept my calories lower than what my body uses and made changes based on what works best for my lifestyle.

Is that a reasonable amount of detail?

DancingMoosie

I logged food and exercise. Use the mpf calculator to determine your goals weekly, then follow suit. Stay in a deficit. I didn't have a specific diet plan, but did try to eat a lot of veggies and less bread. I also worked out up to 3x/day on work days.
AM: exercise dvd (like 30 day shred)
mid am: treadmill power walk
PM: walk, jog, or circuit with weights.
Weekends were either a longer run or 45min-1 hour long workout dvd(check out the firm or Denise Austin).
I also started strength training with a power lifting team after losing the weight. Lifting earlier would have been good, but the coach invited me late in my weight loss journey. Using weights and eating enough protein will help you minimize muscle loss as you lose weight(higher % loss will be fat).

AmazonMayan

I stick to my calories most days and go over occasionally but not by a lot very often. I eat anything I want I just eat less of it. I do try to make most meals and snacks low calorie so that I can indulge at least once daily. I'm eating the way I used to before I gained except less amounts for now. Well I do eat a lot more meat than I did in the past but really I wasn't eating enough protein then. I want to have this as real life. It's not torture at all to me doing this.

I do try to get up and move daily other than normal activity. I have some mobility issues that prevent that time to time so I make the best of it on the good days. I try to either get in a good walk - which isn't as easy now that we've moved - or at least ride the stationary bike 4 or 5 times a week for at least 30 minutes. I like a good several mile hike at least 2 or 3 times monthly but that hasn't been possible as of late. Now I'm waiting for improvement in the weather and I'll be back at that. I lose much much faster when I stay even moderately active. I do some strength training and want to try heavier lifting again soon.

I'm also still losing and have a long way to go but last year was successful for me.

daross16

janejellyroll wrote: »

I tracked the number of calories I ate by using some simple tools (food scale, calorie database) so I could ensure I was meeting the calorie goal provided by MFP. I netted 1,260-1,400 during the time I was losing weight. I did eat exercise calories back, making allowances for over-estimation in the MFP database. I didn't really eat clean or focus on macros beyond making sure that I was getting sufficient protein and fat.

I worked out (running six days a week, cross-training 1 day a week, resistance training every day), but I don't think this would have done anything without the deficit. I did my workouts outside, in my living room, and in the gym room in my apartment building.

Thanks!

seska422

I tracked what I consumed as honestly and accurately as I could. I bought a food scale to use to weigh solid foods.

I experimented to find a calorie goal and macro balance that kept me satisfied.

I eat foods I like and I don't eat foods I don't like. I don't "eat clean" by any stretch of the imagination. I mostly eat smaller portions of the types of foods I've always eaten and will continue to eat after I've lost all of the weight I want to lose. My freezer is full of handy frozen meals and frozen steam-in-bag veggies so that I can fix a meal in 10 minutes or so whenever I'm hungry.

I don't exercise. I know that I won't exercise on a regular basis during maintenance either so I'm losing weight in the way I mean to continue.

daross16

diannethegeek wrote: »

Well, I lost 55 pounds over the course of a year. I started at 1700 calories (based on my stats) and 20 min of exercise daily. Sometimes that was walking, belly dance dvds, or Richard Simmons dvds. Sometimes I took cheat days every week and sometimes I didn't. Sometimes I added weights and sometimes I didn't. For a while I increased my weight loss goals from one pound per week to two pounds per week (decreasing my calories) and then I backed off for a while and slowed down. Sometimes I added an hour of running or 20 minutes of circuit training 5 days a week and sometimes I did that 3 days a week. I slowly started to pay more attention to macros and protein intake and micronutrients. Overall, I kept my calories lower than what my body uses and made changes based on what works best for my lifestyle.

Is that a reasonable amount of detail?

Pretty reasonable

coreyreichle

Logged everything I ate, and stayed under calorie goal, for extended period of time.

Later, added walking every day, for about 40-60 minutes during lunch.

Then, even later, added C25K every other day. Now, I'm running 30-60 minutes a day.

Negative_X

Ate less, moved more. Tracked every calorie going in and all my workouts. Cut out junk food, sweets and most processed crap. Initiated a total life style overhaul/change.

daross16

DancingMoosie wrote: »

I logged food and exercise. Use the mpf calculator to determine your goals weekly, then follow suit. Stay in a deficit. I didn't have a specific diet plan, but did try to eat a lot of veggies and less bread. I also worked out up to 3x/day on work days.
AM: exercise dvd (like 30 day shred)
mid am: treadmill power walk
PM: walk, jog, or circuit with weights.
Weekends were either a longer run or 45min-1 hour long workout dvd(check out the firm or Denise Austin).
I also started strength training with a power lifting team after losing the weight. Lifting earlier would have been good, but the coach invited me late in my weight loss journey. Using weights and eating enough protein will help you minimize muscle loss as you lose weight(higher % loss will be fat).

Oh my gosh! Three times in a day? I barely have enough energy to roll out of bed

MelodyandBarbells

Signed up for MFP when I first heard about it and then didn't use the account for like two years. Finally started using it and it was set to lose one pound per week at 1310 cals per day or some such. I couldn't eat that little and failed each day, so I came to the forums to read up on how the hell people did this??? From what I read I decided I needed more foodz and changed account to half lb per week. This suited my lifestyle nicely. Somewhere along the way I got a heart rate monitor to record my Les Mills Fitness workouts. Even prior to MFP and still now, I do a lot of their classes for exercise. I did pick up jogging for a bit when the classes were being annoying. It was nice to have something I could just open the door and exercise, not be tied to anyone's schedule, track/music selection, etc

I use the MFP iOS app to view the weekly calorie histogram --> net calorie average and calories remaining for the week . Even though so days I would eat/exercise way more, some days less, so long as I was somewhat close to my weekly target (over or under), I knew I was okay.

I actually ate a lot of fast food, simply because I didn't much like cooking, meal planning or that sort of thing or do it often enough. I didn't and still don't exercise daily, but at some point was doing up to three hours of cardio classes back to back because I liked them and wanted the calorie burn

Oh and food scale of course. I remember one of the first things I learned when I got the scale was that I could eat WAY more chicken!

Sued0nim

Calories in less than calories out

CICO

Which means

Weighing all food, logging it accurately, hitting calorie defecit across the week

Moving more...walking more

Getting fit and strong...3 x workouts a week in the gym, 1 with a PT .lifting heavy! progressive weights! getting cardio fitter

And not following fads or making excuses

usmcmp

http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/1161603/so-you-want-a-nice-stomach/p1

^That is exactly what I did.

_Terrapin_

rabbitjb wrote: »

Calories in less than calories out

CICO

Which means

Weighing all food, logging it accurately, hitting calorie defecit across the week

Moving more...walking more

Getting fit and strong...3 x workouts a week in the gym, 1 with a PT .lifting heavy! progressive weights! getting cardio fitter

And not following fads or making excuses

Mostly this; probably more in and out then Rabbit though.

daross16

seska422 wrote: »

I tracked what I consumed as honestly and accurately as I could. I bought a food scale to use to weigh solid foods.

I experimented to find a calorie goal and macro balance that kept me satisfied.

I eat foods I like and I don't eat foods I don't like. I don't "eat clean" by any stretch of the imagination. I mostly eat smaller portions of the types of foods I've always eaten and will continue to eat after I've lost all of the weight I want to lose. My freezer is full of handy frozen meals and frozen steam-in-bag veggies so that I can fix a meal in 10 minutes or so whenever I'm hungry.

I don't exercise. I know that I won't exercise on a regular basis during maintenance either so I'm losing weight in the way I mean to continue.

Lol. I appreciate the honesty