Lost 8 lbs in 1st month: here are my tips

sarahdegennaro3138

Tip 1: Add an unadulterated fruit or veggie to every meal. (Steamed veggies with salt, a piece of fruit, salad with vinegar or fat-free dressing, for example.)

Tip 2: Cutting back on calories makes you feel hungry. So does exercising. Give yourself leeway to workout a little less or less intensely during this first month while you retrain your eating habits.

Tip 3: Track even when you mess up. I had some 3,000 calorie days on vacation but still lost weight.

Tip 4: Don't go overboard. If you lose weight quickly by dropping under 1200 calories per day, you're going to gain it back quickly. Only take actions that you can imagine yourself doing the rest of your life.

Tip 5: You don't need to use oil in your cooking. I've sauteed onions with a little bit of water and dry-fried mushrooms on a cast iron. My partner didn't taste the difference.

Be kind to yourself & have a great first month!

kommodevaran

Great tips, but I'd like to give a bit of insight/opinion/warning on the low fat approach. In my experience, that's part of the kind to yourself-package. Our every day diet must be convenient and taste good, or else we can't keep it up. The alternative, junk food, is just too easily available to risk that. It may have worked a hundred years ago, but it doesn't in our current environment and culture. I had tried sticking to low fat for years and couldn't for very long. A central part of the problem was that I could stick to it for a while - a few months, a year - until I couldn't, and when I couldn't, and had no better alternative, I turned to junk, more junk than ever. I had missed the flavors and mouthfeel so much, and my "new habits" didn't feel comfortable at all, when I didn't have weight loss as a goal anymore. We need a bit of fat in our diets. Vitamins from vegetables aren't absorbed without fat. Fat makes lots of foods taste better. In fact, the great flavor combinations, and not worrying about dietary fat - or sugar and salt, for that matter - has helped me eat more vegetables.

I also don't cut back on calories so much that I feel more hungry.

Fuzzipeg

I agree, not all fat is bad. In the same way that fat aids the absorption of many vitamins it is also essential because it underpins our hormone production. Generalising, fat acts as protein does in that it helps us feel full for longer which can help with weight loss.

smn888

My tip is to read the FAQ for new users that join MFP. (comes in the welcome message I believe)

The best take away from that (for me) was learning about satiation... and switching to foods that were high satiation but lower calories. ie: Chicken Breasts vs Lean hamburger. The breasts will satiate far better and are less calories. The hamburger will have more cals and you need to eat more of it because it doesn't satiate as well.

HollyFromCleveland

Good info for a newbie like me. And, I don't recall getting a welcome message! My inbox is empty. Feel free to friend me you guys!