What’s the most important thing you learnt about your weightloss?

GemstoneofHeart

That being healthy and losing weight are separate and mutually exclusive. Being one does not always mean the other. To lose weight, you need a calorie deficit-plain and simple. To be healthy, you need a sufficient macro and micro nutrient mix and should exercise regularly and maintain a healthy weight.
Also, that it’s okay to take a short (or long) break from losing weight if you need to refeed. It’s okay to eat over maintenance some days and enjoy the food in life. I have been more successful since applying these principles and allowing myself breaks as I needed it. I have gained enough discipline that after my break is sufficient i can return to CICO easily. I think that’s been my biggest win of all.

Iffiormana

GemstoneofHeart wrote: »

That being healthy and losing weight are separate and mutually exclusive. Being one does not always mean the other. To lose weight, you need a calorie deficit-plain and simple. To be healthy, you need a sufficient macro and micro nutrient mix and should exercise regularly and maintain a healthy weight.
Also, that it’s okay to take a short (or long) break from losing weight if you need to refeed. It’s okay to eat over maintenance some days and enjoy the food in life. I have been more successful since applying these principles and allowing myself breaks as I needed it. I have gained enough discipline that after my break is sufficient i can return to CICO easily. I think that’s been my biggest win of all.

Exactly planning and determination is important.I used to beat myself up in the past for eating a donut or pizza but now I just enter my calories in MFP & even after eating a pizza I remain under my caloric goal because then whole day I eat healthy & low calories.
We often mistake starvation with dieting which leads to sudden weight loss but you can’t do that forever.

vollkornbloedchen

The most important thing?

It's NOW or never ...
Just plunge in and stay on track until you reach your goal

Maintaining for 2 years now after losing 100 lbs.

rachelannette

The most important thing for me has been to realize it is going to take time, and I have to be patient. I have lost 45 lbs in six months, but I have another 45 to go to reach my ideal weight. Faithfully counting calories and posting them on MFP everyday is THE most important thing for me to stay accountable. I also go to the gym 3 to 5 times a week and find that trying new classes is fun, especially the ones with upbeat music. Keeping the 80-20 fact (diet 80 versus exercise 20) is the key to weight loss for me. I also do not deprive any food, but always strive to eat healthy with an occasional sensible treat (all counted in the daily caloric allowance) works best for me. I remind myself daily how posting to MFP and always being honest about how much and what I have eaten is key. And last, I am always on the lookout for new motivation, new recipes, new ideas, new thoughts that we all share here.

amusedmonkey

Weight loss is simple; eat less. It's the mental part that needs the most attention. I refuse to jump into the rabbit hole of a generalized food X vs food Y, HIIT vs LESS, or some other trivial minutia and keep my food intake as simple as it gets - eat not too much food. The things that occupy 99% of my effort is mentality, strategy, learning about myself, and habit building.

rainbow198

That I didn't have to eat rabbit food or do intense workouts to lose weight.

Before I found online forums I would read women's health magazines and watch those diet and fitness segments on talk shows.

Almost always they would show these small plates of food I wouldn't enjoy or would still be hungry eating or doing exercise moves I couldn't do at the time.

I did it my way (not being hard on myself and losing on the slower end) and I lost over 80 pounds and kept it off for 5 years literately eating what I wanted (while being mindful of my calorie intake) and doing no overly intense workouts without a gym membership.

h1udd

However long you think its going to take .... double it and up the units.

ie .. if you think you will have visible abs in 6 weeks ... the reality is 12 months

elizabethmcopeland

consistency beats perfection
simple beats optimal
honesty beats appearance
hard work beats quick fixes

every single time

mabelsdaddy

Do not cut out the things you love...but use them as a treat or sparingly. Have a day once in a while where you just have a "you" day. You think people will complement you all the time, while they will actually do the opposite. Your body is gonna do weird things at certain stages, but trust the process and be true to yourself. Also, girls do not flock to you like in your day dreams, LOL

Leannep2201

I learnt that I am not “dieting”- instead, I am focusing on sensible eating habits, including some of the foods I love, while staying in a calorie deficit. I can not sustain a “diet” for the rest of my life. But my new sensible eating habits, that I can do.

I learnt to trust the process. If I’m weighing and logging my food correctly and hitting my calorie target, the weight will come off. Sometimes the number on the scales can be a bit weird (higher sodium days, hormones, water retention can all account for this), but I’m losing consistently, and that’s what matters.

I also learnt to listen to my body- I’ve learnt about what foods satisfy me, and to eat when I’m hungry, so that I don’t feel deprived and be more likely to make bad choices. It’s ok to eat at maintenance for a day or two if I’m sick, away for the weekend, or just having a hungry day. As long as I’m consistent with my logging and eating at a deficit, a day or two isn’t going to make much difference. Life happens, and I’m in this for life, so it’s important to handle all situations that life throws at me!!!

jls1leather

Literally LEARNING weight loss. In my 50s and have never needed to lose weight until illness treatments cause weight gain. Figured I wanted to drop 40 lbs. I know workouts, but been reading weight loss and this. Ppl at the gym look at me like iust be crazy. Dropped 19 lbs so far, so about 21 to go. But I see stories of ppl dropping 100 lbs in months ..... HOW is that possible?@!

seltzermint555

elizabethmcopeland wrote: »

consistency beats perfection
simple beats optimal
honesty beats appearance
hard work beats quick fixes

every single time

I love this, and was just going to say "consistency is 100% of it" but I like the above even better. So ditto.

ceiswyn

Weight fluctuates because of factors other than fat. Don’t give everything up as hopeless because despite everything you’ve gained 5lb before your period.

swimmchick87

1) Personally, I have realized that I simply cannot take "breaks" from logging and weighing in. If I'm not doing well, I avoid the scale like the plague and I can get into pretty strong denial about how much weight I'm gaining. Then I fall into the trap of eating all of the things before my "diet" starts again. In the future, if I really just feel that I need a "break" I plan to set my calories to maintenance and continue logging and weighing in.

Last fall I lost 20 pounds and decided to take a "break" for the holidays. I never got back on track and ended up regaining those 20 pounds, plus almost 20 more in 6 months because I kept binging and saying "One more day/weekend won't make that much of a difference, it's not like I'm going to wake up skinny because I don't eat this dessert now...I'll get back on track on Monday."

2) I've noticed that by far my strongest motivator is when my weight gets "bad enough" that it's impacting my every day life. For example, at almost 200 pounds I just felt huge and disgusting all of the time, I was out of breath doing basic every day tasks, there was literally no clothing style that was flattering, and I avoided certain situations or activities due to my weight. I was just uncomfortable all of the time, even just sitting there. No clothes were comfortable either- any bra I wore dug into my skin, no matter what size, and pants were uncomfortable too. At this stage, I'm highly motivated to make a change so that these issues go away.

When I'm at around 160 pounds, I'm still overweight, but it doesn't really impact me very much. There are clothing styles that look flattering and are comfortable, I feel better and just more comfortable in general, I don't have to avoid any activities or situations; I'm in decent enough shape to do anything I want. Therefore, I lose the motivation and it's a lot harder to refuse something in the moment. This time, my plan when I get down to whatever I feel is this "more comfortable weight" is to reset my goals to just lose .5 pounds per week. Hopefully getting a lot more calories and not having to be so strict will help me with motivation to keep going. If even that seems difficult, I can always set to maintenance until I feel ready to start again. Even maintaining at 160 is a whole lot healthier than doing the yo-yo thing.

AnvilHead

That it's better and more effective to do something that's 60% optimal 90% of the time than it is to do something that's 90% optimal 60% of the time (to paraphrase Eric Helms).

drabbits2

It has taken me a LONG time to come to grips with the fact that I use food as both a reward and a comfort. Great day-have a treat! In a bad mood? Have a treat! So basically every day needs a treat. Which is why I have 15 more pounds to lose (kind of surprising it's not more). I have had a hard time coming up with other ways to treat myself or comfort myself. One would think that at age 48 I would have a handle on that, but I do not. Second, it has been hard work to stop seeing exercise as a big chore and instead see it as a stress-buster, time to myself, a way to get stronger and healthier, a way to feel better, a way to stay flexible and prevent future health issues--because when I have a sustained period of regular exercise I do feel much better, mentally and physically, never mind the number on the scale. I have lost some weight but have more to go but more than that, for a woman my age, it's more about being healthy and having good habits for the second half of my life, having strong bones, remaining flexible, being able to be active in my old age, not vanity necessarily. If I think of exercise as a treat I am giving myself, I am more willing to stick to it. Today for example I took a walk around the lagoon at Northwestern University (I live in Evanston, two blocks from NU and Lake Michigan--SO lucky) and I counted literally 12 baby bunnies out and about. So that is a nice treat that isn't food!!!

jtomm2005

You’re never too old to lose ....

You won’t get to your goal overnight ...

aliyusaf

That you have to do it for yourself and not for anybody else. It really doesn't matter what anybody else thinks. It took me a year or so to lose nearly 40 kg, but 15 years to get to the stage that I could start on the journey. It wasn't that I didn't think there was a problem - there clearly was but I didn't acknowledge it. The journey towards health is never linear and is filled with ups and downs. Just be patient and go with the flow. In the same way that it is not really possible to lose 10 kg in a day, you will not gain it by an odd day of dodgy food choices. Besides, an odd day of dodgy food choices is not a problem, but two or three days a week is. We didn't become overweight overnight and neither will we lose the weight overnight. Relax, sit back, understand your own body and take the long view.

Or something like that with more inspirational quotes and angels blowing trumpets on high.