really just as simple as calories burned vs calories eaten?!

Amysexyback

Hi all. My weight seems to be in constant flux. I can't seem to get out of 190's and climbed back up into low 200's. I know burn more calories then you eat. I watch my carbs. I go to gym 2-3 days a week. I am not using any weight loss pills anymore and want to do this on my own. Any advice would be appreciated??? Feel free to add me.

queenliz99

Get a food scale and weigh everything, this gets you good at eyeballing.

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MelaniaTrump

Opinion: 90% of losing weight is eating right.
Exercise for your heart and to feel good.
Log every bite. I opened my diary to the public and it really helps !
This place rocks with a digital food scale. <$20 at walmart, target, bbbeyond.

Nikki10129

Watching your carbs has nothing to do with it, you've got to count your calories. Get a food scale and weigh everything you put in your mouth and be honest in your diary.

CattOfTheGarage

Yes, it is that simple. If you burn more wood than you chop, your woodpile will go down. If you spend more than you earn, your bank balance will shrink. And if you burn more calories than you eat, you will lose fat.

Having said that, there are a few flies in the ointment. Sometimes it can take some trial and error to estimate how much you're burning - although a lot of people find myfitnesspal's basic numbers to work pretty well, others have to tweak them. And your weight will fluctuate day by day depending how much water you're carrying, so you have to stop looking at your weight as a fixed number but as a range that can vary by 6-10lb. This is especially true for women and causes a lot of people to get discouraged and confused.

But if you stay the course, over time, your average weight will reduce, and all you have to do is eat less than you burn. No need to give up any foods or follow any awkward eating plans - just eat less than you burn and it'll get you there.

And stick around here, people have lots of tips on how to log accurately, how to manage hunger, exercise tips and so on.

Best of luck with the journey!

dykask

A couple years ago I lost 10kg (22 pounds) and mostly kept it off. I worked out harder and did gain back a couple kg, mostly muscle. Even though I wasn't dieting in those two years I was being pretty careful what I eat. For example replaced candy with nuts, that type of thing. But really I plateaued. I just couldn't seem to really lose more weight.

For me what started me dropping again was buying a fitness tracker and just learning how few calories I was actually burning throughout a whole day. I bought a Fenix 3 HR, mostly because it looks nice enough that my wife doesn't complain about it. (It looks more like an expensive watch and less like a sports watch.) However, getting a handle on what calories I burn has been a bit brutal to me. I was measuring my calories burned in workouts, but still had an inflated idea of what I was actually burning. For me burning 2500 C is a hard day and getting about 3000 C is very hard. Yet it doesn't take much effort to eat 3000 C worth of food.

So my advice is do whatever it takes to be sure you know how much you are burning and do things like log what you eat. A food diary is a total pain in the butt for me, but at least for now I'm going to do it. When you have visibility to make choices that are less painful but do make a difference.

As for a lot of the advice around carbs, fat or whatever. That stuff seems to change all the time. Although I'm pretty sure backing off refined sugars is helpful. I'm not too sure I buy all the talk about cutting back on carbs, although I do it to a limited extent. I'm living in Japan and the Japanese diet is very carb heavy, with lots of rice, noddles and bread. Yet the average Japanese is a lot thinner than the average American. I often see woman that are underweight eating a lot more carb laden food than I do. If carbs were so bad these people wouldn't be underweight. Sorry, I'm rambling ... the point is you have to figure out what really works for you no matter what other people say.

STEVE142142

You don't have to watch your carbs. As a couple other posters have said it's a matter of eating less than your body needs and you'll lose weight.
Going to the gym is secondary as far as weight loss. The average person cant burn enough calories in the gym to lose weight. The benefits the gym or mental physical and emotional.

Just to let you know I haven't given up anything. I like the occasional slice of pizza I like a Wendy's hamburger I'm not giving up beer on the beach. If I had to give up anything I like I don't think I'd be able to do this.

Machka9

Amysexyback wrote: »

Hi all. My weight seems to be in constant flux. I can't seem to get out of 190's and climbed back up into low 200's. I know burn more calories then you eat. I watch my carbs. I go to gym 2-3 days a week. I am not using any weight loss pills anymore and want to do this on my own. Any advice would be appreciated??? Feel free to add me.

Don't watch your carbs ... watch your calories. Calories are different from carbs. Get a scale and start weighing all your food and calculating your calories accurately.