Choices

Angall08

How many things have you tried to lose weight other than exercise? Pills, drinks, wraps and so on? Did it work in any way?

SonyaCele

i only do calorie deficit for diet. People will claim all those other things work, but only if used in conjunction with a calorie deficit, and its the deficit that's generating the weight loss not the magic pill or wrap.

seska422

I didn't exercise but I didn't do the other things you listed either. I logged my calorie intake and kept it lower than my calorie output.

Chieflrg

When I'm cutting, I just eat in a deficit. It's simple & works every time.

jennybearlv

I did the old 90's Weight Watchers where you ate servings of different food groups. I only went for the summer, but those habits kept me losing and staying a healthy weight through my twenties. Then I completely forgot everything I learned and had no success whatsoever with WW points. I did Lose-it which is calorie counting almost exactly like MFP, but no user database. I lost 30, then switched to MFP because they began supporting Garmin trackers. Got tired of dieting and gained it back, then back to MFP again.

I haven't tried any wraps or shakes. My doctor put me on Topomax, because I was losing weight and he thought it would help. It worked along with MFP for about a month, could have just been the MFP, then I got lethargic, couldn't sleep, and started arguing with my husband all the time. It also made me incredibly forgetful. So, we got rid of that. It's just been calorie counting since then.

AnvilHead

No matter what road you take to get there, it will always come down to calories in vs. calories out. There's no magic shortcut. The only thing you'll lose by buying pills, drinks and wraps is the money you waste on them.

Exercise is a good idea for a lot of reasons, but you can't out-exercise a bad diet either. I burned about 500 calories running and cycling for over an hour today. I could easily hit the kitchen and wipe out all those burned calories (and then some) in about 3 minutes.

Here's a handy chart for reference:

spiriteagle99

I'm old enough I've seen a lot of weight loss fads come and go. Most were complete garbage. Some were downright dangerous. A lot were simply a waste of money. Many diets work, ultimately by restricting calories, but few are sustainable over the long term. A healthy sense of skepticism will save you a lot of effort and money.

What does work is eating less than you burn. Whether that is by eating less or exercising more is up to you. I've generally had success with a combination of both.