What diet has really worked for you over the long run to lose weight?

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  • nupururja
    nupururja Posts: 43 Member
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    thanks all.... :)
  • Vailara
    Vailara Posts: 2,454 Member
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    From what I hear, LCHF does seem to result in quick weight loss in the beginning, beyond what you'd expect from the calorie reduction alone. It's only "water weight" and the rate of loss will slow down. However,if you only need to lose 10lb to get to a healthy weight, and want to do it quickly, it might be something to consider.

    I think 10lb/month would be difficult with just calorie counting, unless you're very overweight.
  • Miles_to_Go
    Miles_to_Go Posts: 48 Member
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    CICO. And fewer carbs, more protein and fat. But mostly CICO.
  • rsclause
    rsclause Posts: 3,103 Member
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    No diet by name. I just managed portions, reduced starchy carbs, maintained a deficit and ran 20 to 30 miles a week.
  • Amberonamission
    Amberonamission Posts: 836 Member
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    I have tried every "diet" out there. Not a whole lot of success. I have finally given into what has always worked that I have been talked out of 2 dozen times. I eat once a day. Whatever is being served is what I have. 1 time. I drink lemon water, black coffee and green tea most of the day. I try to lift heavy things repetitively 5 times a week.
  • elisa123gal
    elisa123gal Posts: 4,306 Member
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    Calorie counting does not work well for me. The best success I ever had was on the six week body makeover. However.. i tried going back to that and I felt weak and bad on it this time. On that you eat six times a day no processed food..no salt..no alcohol.

    yet..exercising for an hour a day and watching what I eat has always worked for me. So, I'm doing that and just eating how I know is best and it is working. I just added intermittent fasting 16:8 and it seems to be working too.
  • Need2Exerc1se
    Need2Exerc1se Posts: 13,575 Member
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    Eating for health is what works for me. But if I wanted to drop 10 lbs quickly for a special occasion, I'd go with low carb for the water weight loss.
  • courtneyfabulous
    courtneyfabulous Posts: 1,863 Member
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    nupururja wrote: »
    courtneyfabulous wrote: »
    Eating whatever I want within my calorie limit is basically the only thing that has worked for me in the long run for weight loss. I also like to eat as much "real food" as possible like meats, fish, whole grains, lots of veggies, greens, fruits, Greek yogurt, and make sure I get enough fiber and protein every day, and take vitamins. This is so I feel healthy. I also eat treat foods as long as they fit my calories so I don't feel deprived, but when I eat too many treats/sweets/processed/packaged foods I feel kind of gross and get acne breakouts. I also like to eat gluten free most of the time- I get bloated and my stomach hurts when I have gluten.

    But you aren't really talking about the "long run" are you? You're talking about fast dieting for a specific event. That's kind of contradictory.

    That's a very different goal and you're choosing to lose weight at the most stressful time of your life. At least the last couple months leading up to my wedding were stressful- and I was having just a small one (50 people) and had a wedding planner- still very stressful! I lost about 5 or 10 pounds before my wedding just by being stressed about looking pretty in my dress so I avoided any foods that I thought might put weight on me.

    I also quit alcohol completely until the day of my wedding- that probably helped the most. But be careful to only have 1 or 2 drinks at your wedding if you do that, believe me you will not need or want more.

    Good luck, but try not to put extra stress on yourself at this time with a weight loss goal on top of all the planning and impending major life event.

    Hi, I have managed to lose 35 pounds since march this year and hence reached my last 10 pounds now. I work out daily 1.5 hours at the gym and also follow the 1200 calorie diet

    Sounds like you are eating too few calories and exercising too much.
  • courtneyfabulous
    courtneyfabulous Posts: 1,863 Member
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    It's possible you have metabolic damage if you've been doing that for 7 months and are no longer losing weight. Great job on the weight loss but you might want to ease up a bit.
  • courtneyfabulous
    courtneyfabulous Posts: 1,863 Member
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    Or maybe you have lost all the weight you are going to lose. Are you just trying for a certain number on the scale? Do you really need to lose another 10 pounds?
  • BiggDaddy58
    BiggDaddy58 Posts: 406 Member
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    Calories In and Calories Out...it's worked for me..down over 80 pounds since March 1st.
  • NancyYale
    NancyYale Posts: 171 Member
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    My diet was called "Eating Less". For the first 100 pounds or so, I did that on Weight Watchers. After WW went ballistic on sugar and carbs, I changed to tracking calories on MFP and have lost another 12 or so. You can lose weight on any "diet" as long as you eat at a calorie deficit. The key is to choose a way of eating that you like, feel comfortable with, that's healthy in the long run, and that you can do forever.

    Because if you go back to old overeating habits, you gain it all back.
  • powered85
    powered85 Posts: 297 Member
    edited October 2016
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    Understanding roughly how many calories I burn a day through general day to day routine and planned exercise to determine how many calories I need to eat to have a caloric deficit

    honestly logging my food using a food scale and weighing in grams

    Choosing foods that are filling but not overly calorie dense and easy to eat too much of
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 27,988 Member
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    nupururja wrote: »
    courtneyfabulous wrote: »
    Eating whatever I want within my calorie limit is basically the only thing that has worked for me in the long run for weight loss. I also like to eat as much "real food" as possible like meats, fish, whole grains, lots of veggies, greens, fruits, Greek yogurt, and make sure I get enough fiber and protein every day, and take vitamins. This is so I feel healthy. I also eat treat foods as long as they fit my calories so I don't feel deprived, but when I eat too many treats/sweets/processed/packaged foods I feel kind of gross and get acne breakouts. I also like to eat gluten free most of the time- I get bloated and my stomach hurts when I have gluten.

    But you aren't really talking about the "long run" are you? You're talking about fast dieting for a specific event. That's kind of contradictory.

    That's a very different goal and you're choosing to lose weight at the most stressful time of your life. At least the last couple months leading up to my wedding were stressful- and I was having just a small one (50 people) and had a wedding planner- still very stressful! I lost about 5 or 10 pounds before my wedding just by being stressed about looking pretty in my dress so I avoided any foods that I thought might put weight on me.

    I also quit alcohol completely until the day of my wedding- that probably helped the most. But be careful to only have 1 or 2 drinks at your wedding if you do that, believe me you will not need or want more.

    Good luck, but try not to put extra stress on yourself at this time with a weight loss goal on top of all the planning and impending major life event.

    Hi, I have managed to lose 35 pounds since march this year and hence reached my last 10 pounds now. I work out daily 1.5 hours at the gym and also follow the 1200 calorie diet

    You may be overdoing it and holding on to water due to stress:

    http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/research-review/dietary-restraint-and-cortisol-levels-research-review.html/

    ...a group of women who scored higher on dietary restraint scores showed elevated baseline cortisol levels. By itself this might not be problematic, but as often as not, these types of dieters are drawn to extreme approaches to dieting.

    They throw in a lot of intense exercise, try to cut calories very hard (and this often backfires if disinhibition is high; when these folks break they break) and cortisol levels go through the roof. That often causes cortisol mediated water retention (there are other mechanisms for this, mind you, leptin actually inhibits cortisol release and as it drops on a diet, cortisol levels go up further). Weight and fat loss appear to have stopped or at least slowed significantly. This is compounded even further in female dieters due to the vagaries of their menstrual cycle where water balance is changing enormously week to week anyhow.

    And invariably, this type of psychology responds to the stall by going even harder. They attempt to cut calories harder, they start doing more activity. The cycle continues and gets worse. Harder dieting means more cortisol means more water retention means more dieting. Which backfires (other problems come in the long-term with this approach but you’ll have to wait for the book to read about that).

    When what they should do is take a day or two off (even one day off from training, at least in men, let’s cortisol drop significantly). Raise calories, especially from carbohydrates. This helps cortisol to drop. More than that they need to find a way to freaking chill out. Meditation, yoga, get a massage...Get in the bath, candles, a little Enya, a glass of wine, have some you-time but please just chill.
  • natasor1
    natasor1 Posts: 271 Member
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    U want to loose weight FAST, so your plan has to be very different from slow "good" plan. If u had 1 year to go, I'd confirm u eat what u want, all groups of food, sometime allow yourself some treats. But this is all regarding LONG RUN. If we enter area of fast loss 10 lb for 4 weeks, think of loosing 2.5 lb a week. Only aggressive mono-diet can help. Looks like u stand on the very end of jorney to your perfect weight. This adds additional hurdel to loosing last 10 lb.
    My suggestion is simple. You go to groccery store, buy ton of skinless chicken breast, romano salad leaves, spinach, asparagus, kale. Fish like perch, cod or whiting. Fruits will be allowed only 1 little piece a day or may be not at all. You may be surprised, but u will have to consume less than 1200 cal a day. That''s all u eat for 1 week. Then check on yourself if it's too hard for your body (zooming in the ears, lightheaded or anything else) try to eat more of the same stuff up to 1200 cal.
    If u get better, go back to 900 cal a day. For 4 weeks u are not gonna loose your hair, or avitominouse. U may take a breake ever u want, your mood will be better, but weight will stop going down. This all stuff not for long run, but for short express weight loss for an event only. That weight may very easy to gain back rite after your event and u slip back to your regular diet.
  • Evamutt
    Evamutt Posts: 2,422 Member
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    I'm not on any special diet. I've lost 22lbs so far in about 3months. But i have changed my eating to make it work for me. I eat protein (meats/poultry) veggies, fruits and i added bread & potato almost every day because it sustains me & I like it. I rarely ate those before, but didn't lose any weight
  • cerise_noir
    cerise_noir Posts: 5,468 Member
    edited October 2016
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    OP, dont listen to this. Horrible advice, especially before a wedding.
    natasor1 wrote: »
    U want to loose weight FAST, so your plan has to be very different from slow "good" plan. If u had 1 year to go, I'd confirm u eat what u want, all groups of food, sometime allow yourself some treats. But this is all regarding LONG RUN. If we enter area of fast loss 10 lb for 4 weeks, think of loosing 2.5 lb a week. Only aggressive mono-diet can help. Looks like u stand on the very end of jorney to your perfect weight. This adds additional hurdel to loosing last 10 lb.
    My suggestion is simple. You go to groccery store, buy ton of skinless chicken breast, romano salad leaves, spinach, asparagus, kale. Fish like perch, cod or whiting. Fruits will be allowed only 1 little piece a day or may be not at all. You may be surprised, but u will have to consume less than 1200 cal a day. That''s all u eat for 1 week. Then check on yourself if it's too hard for your body (zooming in the ears, lightheaded or anything else) try to eat more of the same stuff up to 1200 cal.
    If u get better, go back to 900 cal a day. For 4 weeks u are not gonna loose your hair, or avitominouse. U may take a breake ever u want, your mood will be better, but weight will stop going down. This all stuff not for long run, but for short express weight loss for an event only. That weight may very easy to gain back rite after your event and u slip back to your regular diet.
  • tomteboda
    tomteboda Posts: 2,171 Member
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    I'd suggest setting aside diet plans this last month before the wedding for a couple very good reasons.
    1. You do not need the stress. Stress turns women into Bridezillas. Do you really want to be a Bridezilla?
    2. Dress alterations are expensive. And time-consuming. Whatever your weight at your last fitting, you should REALLY be that weight at your wedding if at all possible. And don't try to rush a last-minute alteration. You will look much better in a perfectly altered dress than 10 lbs lower and in an ill-fitting one; and if your dress isn't fit perfectly right now, this is really your last good chance to get it fixed.

    I'm not saying "throw healthy eating out the window" and "don't bother exercising". Seriously, do eat nutritious foods, and get some activity that you enjoy in because you've got to take care of yourself. But don't try to lose a ton of weight in these last few days. You want to be relaxed and happy on your wedding day. That will shine through the photographs. Let it.

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