The real "secret" on how to lose weight

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  • FitClarice2016
    FitClarice2016 Posts: 3 Member
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    True but I'm never hungry when eating Ketogenic versus the others
  • snickerscharlie
    snickerscharlie Posts: 8,578 Member
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    This is why eating less than I burn isn't a 'diet' - it's a lifestyle. I've completely overhauled my relationship with food and know that when I go into maintenance, I WILL be able to maintain the weight loss.

    CICO. It's simple. It's science. :)

    Of course it's a diet. How could "completely overhauling your relationship with food" not be a diet?

    No, it's not a diet because, unlike a diet, my lifestyle changes won't end when the weight loss portion is over. :)
  • JoJean12
    JoJean12 Posts: 29 Member
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    Absolutely! I have been guilty after past weight loss successes of not following through to make it a life change habit. The day I reached my goal I would go right back to my old eating habits. This is the downfall of the majority who lose weight.
    Now I understand I have to basically eat this way for the rest of my life when I've lost my final 43 pounds.
  • cebreisch
    cebreisch Posts: 1,340 Member
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    Couldn't agree more. It really is all about taking in less calories than you burn. I can show SOOOO many weeks where that's absolutely true with the info from Fitbit and MFP - Fitbit does a chart showing calories in vs. out, and can show how much I lost that week. It's not about willpower or the all cabbage diet, or the grapefruit diet. It's about discipline and good choices. AND taking in fewer calories than you burn.
  • Sabine_Stroehm
    Sabine_Stroehm Posts: 19,263 Member
    edited January 2016
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    susan100df wrote: »
    susan100df wrote: »
    I agree that the secret is CICO. Following a program can be useful for some though. If you have a lot to lose like 100+ some of the advertised diets can be helpful as it gives people a plan to follow and may provide support that's important. Especially if they haven't tried to lose weight before.

    If someone doesn't know where to begin, Weight Watchers, Low Carb or even Jenny Craig will give them a guide to follow. When they have some success with it (the famous kickstart), they can transition to their own program using CICO as the tool.

    I have several family members who have done Jenny Craig and all regained their weight almost immediately. It did not teach them to log accurately and make good choices on their own.

    I know lots of people who have dieted and regained no matter what their method was. This includes MFP and other calorie counters.

    I know several people who have dieted and maintained for years. I know zero people who lost on Jenny Craig and maintained.

    I've never thought jenny craig was a good approach. It teaches folks NOTHING. (Even when it's teaching them)
    That said: it's not binary. It's not: use MFP or jenny craig. There are lots of ways to approach it. And logging now isn't the magical key to maintaining then. It can be part of the smart learning process though. Part of it. Logging can teach someone a lot about food.

    ETA: Based on your wording I wanted to add that Jenny craig is dieting too. It's just a diet where someone else does all the counting.

    Nowhere did I say that Jenny Craig is not a diet. I also didn't say that everyone that I know who has dieted has maintained. What I did say: Of the people who I know that have successfully maintained, none of them lost their weight doing Jenny Craig.
    I was merely replying to your wording where you juxtaposed dieting and jenny craig.
    I know several people who have dieted and maintained for years. I know zero people who lost on Jenny Craig and maintained.
    Thanks for clarifying what you meant.
  • Sabine_Stroehm
    Sabine_Stroehm Posts: 19,263 Member
    edited January 2016
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    This is why eating less than I burn isn't a 'diet' - it's a lifestyle. I've completely overhauled my relationship with food and know that when I go into maintenance, I WILL be able to maintain the weight loss.

    CICO. It's simple. It's science. :)

    Of course it's a diet. How could "completely overhauling your relationship with food" not be a diet?

    No, it's not a diet because, unlike a diet, my lifestyle changes won't end when the weight loss portion is over. :)

    A diet is what you eat.

    In your case, you've completely overhauled everything, which is your diet, and you've ensured a caloric deficit, which is your diet. And you on a diet.
  • cecsav1
    cecsav1 Posts: 714 Member
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    This is why eating less than I burn isn't a 'diet' - it's a lifestyle. I've completely overhauled my relationship with food and know that when I go into maintenance, I WILL be able to maintain the weight loss.

    CICO. It's simple. It's science. :)

    Not to be nit - picky, but eating less than you burn is technically not a permanent lifestyle change either. Eventually, you will want to maintain, therefore you will want to eat as many calories as you burn.
  • Doc0862
    Doc0862 Posts: 43 Member
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    I am adjusting my diet to fit the lifestyle that I want. I agree whole heartedly that to lose weight stay just under the calorie burn. I used to hate to drink water but after making myself drink it one day I realized that now I prefer it over all other drinks. Same way I'm approaching food it is just math not a diet because if I say the word diet I get hungry. it is surely in my head in my case. I started eating healthy low calorie foods and again now I prefer them over all others. I actually had to increase my calorie intake because it was too low but I was eating good and plenty of vegetables and broccoli and fruit. I used a method my father used all his life. He told me to simply never eat more than a handful of any one thing, and after breakfast just eat a little every hour or so.... it works and it works fast. I'm never hungry and when I started Jan. 1 I weighed 268 now yesterday I weighed 241. I did start exercising now up to 15min am and again 15 min pm. I feel literally like a new man. I heard someone on tv say this "Nothing tastes as good as I feel." Just sharing my own experience..... peace and love to ya'll.
  • ninerbuff
    ninerbuff Posts: 48,679 Member
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    susan100df wrote: »
    I agree that the secret is CICO. Following a program can be useful for some though. If you have a lot to lose like 100+ some of the advertised diets can be helpful as it gives people a plan to follow and may provide support that's important. Especially if they haven't tried to lose weight before.

    If someone doesn't know where to begin, Weight Watchers, Low Carb or even Jenny Craig will give them a guide to follow. When they have some success with it (the famous kickstart), they can transition to their own program using CICO as the tool.
    With the exception of Weight Watchers (counting points instead directly just counting calories), the other two are still diet programs that have low long term success rates.

    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

    9285851.png

  • beckyrowan
    beckyrowan Posts: 1 Member
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    there are not quick weight loss programs that work....I tell myself that everyday! Portion control and exercise are my friend ;)
  • Annr
    Annr Posts: 2,765 Member
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    When you relinquish your evaluation process to another person or system (like Jenny Craig, weight watchers, HydroxiCut, bla blah) you begin to lose yourself. When you lose yourself, you are not able to be fully present in your life, and the world around you is robbed of your unique gift.

    Now, (not spending my money on someone else's view on what to eat), I can hunt in my kitchen and gather what I truly wish for. There is a sense of pride in that act alone. I choose, I fix, and I persevere.
  • CoffeeNCardio
    CoffeeNCardio Posts: 1,847 Member
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    My problem with Jenny Craig and Weight Watchers and other premade diet programs is the removal of responsiblity. Or perhaps I should say the transference of tesponsibility. It's hard to log accurately in MFP all day and realize you're 600 cal over and you did this to yourself. You're responsible. You are to blame. There is literally no sane argument in which you can transfer the feeling of having failed to meet your goal that day (no I'm not saying one day should make one go all woe is me) to someone or something else. Check out a TOM thread in here, even other women won't support the hormonal hunger excuse, as well they shouldn't.

    With WW, it's so simple and easy to shift the responsibility. I couldn't meet my goal today because WW doesn't have a number for this food. I failed because Jenny Craig is too restrictive, it's not personal enough, they don't know my frame size. It's not my fault. Clearly the program must be flawed... easy.

    Part of the reason I love CICO so much is that it leaves no more room for nonsense excuses and rationalizations and false logic than does this forum. CICO isn't just king because it works, it's king because it's near impossible to blame grade school mathematics for our own shortcomings. Nothing wrong with Jenny Craig, it is just CICO in disguise after all, but it's sure harder to say math is to wrong than it is to nitpick the frill and facia WW puts on basic CICO to make it look special.
  • snickerscharlie
    snickerscharlie Posts: 8,578 Member
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    Does Weight Watchers still do the fruits-and-veggies-are-zero-points thing?
  • zoeysasha37
    zoeysasha37 Posts: 7,088 Member
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    Great post @ninerbuff
  • senecarr
    senecarr Posts: 5,377 Member
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    The 90% of people regain comes from the cutting edge research of the 1950s based on giving overweight people a dieting pamphlet and checking their progress a year or two later.
    We don't really know how many people maintain their weight loss. NWCR has interesting research about those that do maintain.
  • KristinaJeanPhD
    KristinaJeanPhD Posts: 10 Member
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    Does Weight Watchers still do the fruits-and-veggies-are-zero-points thing?

    I just quit WW and came to MFP... Yes they do, and that is one of my problems with it. I lost 80 pounds on WW twelve years ago, kept most of it off for eleven years. This past year, I gained 20 back because I got lazy- stopped tracking, less active, more wine lol. When I lost the weight on WW, fruit wasn't 0 points, but now it is. And the new program is so restrictive. Sugar is bad, I get it, but sugary things are double the points that they should be now. The old WW basically made CICO fun, but now that everything is so skewed, it feels like another fad diet to me. I eat clean most of the time, and I am a vegetarian for non-weight reasons. I don't need WW to slap my hand if I want a 40 calorie fudgcicle. And I don't need them to allow me to eat hundreds of calories in fruit for free.