Fast or slow in making life changes?

Catchphrase33

I am a "B". I started out with just changing my diet then I moved on to exercising, And I started exercising slowly I didn't come out of the gate with a bang. I tried "a" many, many times but always failed. I figure it is like this. When you diet you lose calories, your body needs time to adjust to this.

goldthistime

I used to choose A, often successfully, and sometimes maintained for 5 years or more. But now that I've learned option B, I'm wondering if all those A's would even have been necessary. I had to wait till my situation permitted the intense commitment I thought necessary. If I started sooner, maybe my weight gain range would have been 10lbs instead of 20 or 30lbs.

777Gemma888

elisa123gal wrote: »

okay.. I'll be sexist. From all the reading on here.... Men kill it by going balls to the wall. They go all in and do it by the book and get it done fast. It really makes me sick. haha.

Women? We snowball way better to goal.

Age, physicall ability, fitness & health history are also factors to consider outside personality. Too many variables.

Not all who have chosen option A are male, just as not all option B or sbrand37's introduced option C are male. Option D would likely be a light or heavy caloric restriction@snowball to goal ... Doubt a fair percentage of females on MFP are satisfied with simple caloric deficits ... Females do tend to mossey on in around January and December extolling their Eating disorder-centric approaches though. Meh! No thank you! Too slow and unhealthy.

Believe it is about sticktoitiveness per individual, less gender. One's approach to fitness or fat loss isn't a sex and gender issue. Not all who lift heavy are male. Not all who run or cycle are females.

ETA: android edit issues

fitbethlin

Thank you so much for all the info! I know we're all told to follow (B) as a sustainable option, but I'm glad to see the variety of approaches. I know a variant of B is working better for me. Sometimes I find myself wanting to join a big group of people who are chastising people who try (A), but I know that what works for me isn't always what works for others.

I am interested in the demographics of what makes (A) work for some people vs others, but I don't think that's very cut and dried. I guess I'm more interested in what makes each system work best. Then, when a n00b is joining the message boards, I'm not just jumping on the "You must do B!" bandwagon and providing some actual advice. (Like, don't hold off on doing something until your life situation allows you to be balls to the wall, but go for it if you can. Or make sure that you ask yourself if this approach works in other ways in your life - if this is how you do stuff, then do it! But if not, don't beat yourself up if it doesn't work.)

I'm glad to see a diversity of opinions here. Thank you!!

jennypapage

i guess a middle ground of (A) and (B) works for me. If i make a decision, i immediately act on it. When i decided to lose weight (before i found mfp), i immediately switched from using a regular plate,to using a fruit plate to eat my food. I cut out pasta and rice,and only had one slice of bread per day.
A couple of months later i discovered mfp. Since having a calorie goal was all that mattered,i started using my digital food scale and i switched back to regular food plates, added back pasta,rice and bread, but cut my calories to a minimum so i wouldn't have to re-adjust my goal every 5kgs i lost. A couple of months later I bought wii games to work out at home. Stayed like this for a year (changing only my work out method from wii to c25k and running) and now i'm close to maintenance and i have been slowly upping my calories. I'm glad i did it this way because i believe i would have had a harder time reducing my calories down as i lost the weight.By starting off with a low number, my body got used to eating less early on, and i learned what to eat to get the most nutrients out of my diet. All the extra food i now eat is just a bonus.

kommodevaran

I don't find A and B mutually exclusive. I started with being more active and getting in a meal structure, and when I started counting calories, I aimed to be accurate at the logging, but not strict as in "low on calories". I also adjusted lots of tiny habits that evolved and let one thing lead to another. What I discovered, is that whatever you do, adds up over time. So any changes in habits don't have to be drastic to cause dramatic results, but you have to stick to them for them to be of any use, so you need habits that feels good to stick to.

zkjmum

I've been an A person forever...and even if I did hit goals, they were short-lived and I was back where I started before I knew it every time.

So I have to say B...it's making all the difference in the world to me. I'm not in a rush to reach a destination, I've just changed things up a little...enough to see weight loss slowly happening in ways that I can easily live with for the rest of my life.

DEBOO7

Combined a & b... I made a decision in may 2014 to change me and that was a lot of changes! the journey still continues but has been adjusted and re-adjusted along the path. The more reading I did and sites I joined the more I learnt and got better at it. I've gone from 210lbs to 126lbs with a goal of 120lbs. It's been slow, but it's a change for life so what's the rush? I won't be distracted from my goal, I've come too far.

lemurcat12

kommodevaran wrote: »

I don't find A and B mutually exclusive. I started with being more active and getting in a meal structure, and when I started counting calories, I aimed to be accurate at the logging, but not strict as in "low on calories". I also adjusted lots of tiny habits that evolved and let one thing lead to another. What I discovered, is that whatever you do, adds up over time. So any changes in habits don't have to be drastic to cause dramatic results, but you have to stick to them for them to be of any use, so you need habits that feels good to stick to.

Yeah, this is basically what I was trying to get at too. To do A successfully, IMO, requires B-type work.

Saying "if I don't immediately start losing 3 lb every week I will quit" doesn't really seem like a successful approach to A.

For example, time and time again I decided I was going to go from sedentary to back to my old exercise schedule IMMEDIATELY. I'd go out for a 5 mile run at about 10 min miles (what I considered a jog from the old days) and be unable to go past a block without finishing and get discouraged. Or I'd be more sensible and go to the gym and do stuff I could do every day for a week or so and then work would interfere and I'd decide I'd blown it and quit until it was a better time.

This time (in Jan 2014), I acknowledged it would take me time to get into shape and get those habits going again and so I decided I would walk everywhere I could (week 1-2 -- this did immediately involve lots of 3+ mile walks and some 5+ mile walks), and then that I would go to the gym 3 times a week for 30 min, but take it easy (weeks 3-4, maybe), and then I added time, another day, intensity, so on.

But all the time I was doing this I had a clearcut goal in mind, an idea of what I wanted to be able to do in 3 months, 6 months, a year, that was realistic based on my knowledge of myself and how long training for various events would take (I scheduled in races from 5K to half marathon and rides from 30 miles and biking to work regularly to a century ride and multi day bike trip).

I'd consider this a B, but assuming I could go out and run a half marathon my first weekend after starting might be an A, but it would be a failure, period, and not just based on my personality IMO.

(Exercise is the easiest to describe, but diet was similar -- I could just go faster since I was already doing a lot of the basics like cooking, eating vegetables, eating a balanced diet, so on, and structure can be added easily and was key for me too.)