What really works?

Silentpadna

hesn92 wrote: »

If you’re not losing weight over time you’re eating too much. I agree you need to tighten up on your food logging! Good luck

hroderick wrote: »

motivation + action + time = success

you are going to be surprised how many calories are in some things
log everything you eat every day, even weekends

I know it seems nit-picky to add the highlighted to the above responses, but I seem to be reading more and more of these original posts that either say they've doing this for "a week" or responses that don't include that important context. You have to have realistic time expectations. Sometimes it seems to go without saying, but because of the non-linear nature of weight, whether losing, gaining, or maintaining, I feel like this element gets lost.

The reason it's so important is that folks will make emotional instant choices based on data that may be concealed by fluctuations in too short of a time window. Nothing wrong with the responses I quoted; I just used them for emphasis.

bmaw01

Setup your week in advance.

On Sunday, you should cook in bulk. I like to do 1 huge salad, 1 nutribullet. Eat about 5oz beef, 2oz chicken, 100g of brocolli, protein bar, etc.

bilylusk347

Your treats can be bad depending on how much you have. Low fat popcorn? Very little dark chocolate?

Machka9

toxikon wrote: »

Weigh your food.

This.

And stick to your calorie limit.

JeromeBarry1

kshama2001 wrote: »

Trying to hit all three macros perfectly is a recipe for insanity.

I completely agree with this statement. I want to get the protein and fiber I need. There are always going to be fat and carbs, but old folks need to get the protein and fiber.

angelarene626

It’s those weekends!! I use to think the same thing too...I would eat healthy all week and exercise 3-4 times and then the weekend would come and I would eat all the carbs i had missed out on during the week. So I would fall into a cycle of being at a low weight on Friday, but by the following Monday, I would be right where I started the Monday before.

So now, I limit myself to 2 cheat meals on the weekend: one on Friday and another on Saturday or Sunday. But definitely not the whole day! And I worked in getting exercise on the weekends too to help counteract my cheat meals as well. Since I did that, I have noticed consistent weight loss since February.

AnvilHead

kshama2001 wrote: »

...Trying to hit all three macros perfectly is a recipe for insanity.

Agree. And not really necessary or even particularly relevant for about 99.9% of the population (the other 0.1% basically consisting of competitive bodybuilders in contest prep).

Andrea Valdez (part of Eric Helms' Team 3DMJ) wrote an excellent, very insightful article about the Degrees of Nutritional Adherence, which is worth a read for anybody regardless of where they are or what their goals are: http://3dmusclejourney.com/nutritional-adherence/

paperpudding

bmaw01 wrote: »

Setup your week in advance.

On Sunday, you should cook in bulk. I like to do 1 huge salad, 1 nutribullet. Eat about 5oz beef, 2oz chicken, 100g of brocolli, protein bar, etc.

Setting up your week in advance helps some people as does pre logging the day.

But cooking in bulk on Sunday and eating the one huge salad etc that you mention is just personal preference for you - no reason to apply it to OP.