losing weight without food scale

LiftHeavyThings27105

So, what worked for me so far has been reading the labels on everything BEFORE I buy it. I spend a lot of time at Trader Joe's (thank the good Lord above for the TJ here in Winston-Salem). I have spent a lot of time and money on things not from Trader Joe's but have had really good luck there. In that they have the things that I like. I am a creature of habit, which I think is helpful as well.

I also - when making something - have my measuring cups. Both the spoons and the cups. So, I have it all covered. There are no excuses any more. Also, been doing this for almost two years at this point so have a pretty good idea by eyeballing things. Still, I don't trust that *IF* I can measure it.

Portion size and control is super important.

Also, taking the time to experiment with what works for me and what does not work for me has been a blessing. I was out of the gym for three months and spent a lot of time playing with things. What happens if I eat more than 3,500 calories for a week? What is my true maintenance caloric intake? What happens if I eat 1,700 calories for a week. So, real world stuff. I know the answer to those questions....and to many many more.

Using an on-line TDEE Calculator - as I have stated at least 1,000,000 times - is a great starting point and a great way to start close. But, you HAVE to invest the time in figuring out these things for you for real....which means that you use an on-line TDEE calculator, track / log your weight using that number for two or three or four weeks (the longer the better) and see what happens for you. And then adjust accordingly. Once you graph stays flat you know that you have pretty much found your maintenance number. Opps....this is MFP where they do things a bit differently (bmr + eat back a % of work out calories burned). Same concept applies.

Weighing myself every day and having the mind set that each day is simply a data point on the graph for the week is HUGE. Mind set is everything.

Logging is really important, as well. I have helped several people who had no idea what they were eating (and their guesses were WAY OFF). I was not much better. And, I do not use MFP for logging food. I use another way, one that works much better for me. But, the point is, I log my caloric intake each and every day.

Getting good at logging was also really helpful. At first you think that you are doing a good job but you really suck at it. It takes a little bit of time and practice to get good at logging food. Both in doing it (how many 'meals' do you skip in the beginning?) and in doing it accurately. Was one serving one tsp or one Tbsp? HUGE difference.

Anyway, just my experience......

And, finding what works best for YOU is key. What works for your buddies is great....for them. May or may not help you. Lots of people get offended when you ask them what they do and then you do not follow suit. I just tell people - as I have said in here 1,000,000 times - that everyone is different and I tried that for three weeks or whatever but it did not work for me. if you frame things that way then people will understand that their input is valuable to you and will not get <kitten> off when you ask them for the 10th time 'What are you doing about this or that?'.