The healthiest way to lose weight and keep it off?

simkins_mary

This is my second time using MFP to lose weight. The first time around I lost about 50 pounds in a 5 month period. After falling off the wagon I gain all 50 back. This time around so far I have lost 24 pounds in about 3 months time. Many of my friends are using keto diet to lose weight, and they are losing rapidly. My question is should I try keto or stick to what I am doing? I worry that if I do keto I wont be able to sustain the way of eating. I am afriad the second I eat a carb I will gain every pound back. I am 38 years old 5'3" and 240 pounds. My goal is to reach a healthy weight of 140. Help! I need to lose 100 lbs!!!!!

kommodevaran

You lose a bit extra water weight initially on keto, and it comes back when you stop keto, that's all. Fat loss is always down to calorie deficit. You can lose faster if you have a lot to lose. The best thing you can do for yourself, is to figure out how you want to eat and move every day for the rest of your life, and do a slightly modificated version of that to lose weight.

malibu927

The healthiest way is to pick a sustainable calorie deficit (in your case 2 pounds a week is fine now, but as you get closer to your goal you will need to drop it) and once you've hit your goal, eat at maintenance to keep it off. Keto will work if it helps you keep to your deficit. While you do lose more when you initially cut your carb intake, it is only in the form of water weight. Increasing carbs afterwards will bring the water back, but will not make you gain fat unless you eat enough to take you over maintenance.

AnvilHead

Eat a reasonable diet at a sustainable calorie deficit, stick to it, have patience, and don't make it any harder or more complicated than it has to be. You lose weight by consuming less calories than you expend.

If keto (or any other diet/macro combination) isn't sustainable for you, it's not the answer you're looking for.

loveisapineapple

If you don't think that you can stick to Keto, I would probably skip it. I tried Keto, but I missed veges, beans and legumes and whole grains too much to stick to it. It made me feel gluggy. Some people do really well on it, and find it satiating - but that was definitely not me.
To lose weight it's just about calories, you know what works for you because you have done it once before.
Personally, I like eating a wide variety of nutrient dense foods, I cook all my meals and don't eat anything pre-prepared. And I increase exercise because mentally it helps me stay on track. That is what works for me, it may well not work for everyone.

Orphia

Generally, fast weight loss like yours tends to mean you binge it all back.

With a smaller calorie deficit, you get used to eating more at maintenance, and learn habits that last a lifetime.

With a smaller deficit, you don't starve yourself and it's easier to stick to.

The best diet is one you can stick to happily. Most people fail on Keto because they think they have to punish themselves to lose weight.

With MFP you can eat whatever things that you feel you need, in the right portions.

CarvedTones

The crazy thing from your two part question is that keeping it off might be the hardest of the two. While losing, you are in weight loss mode and shooting for a deficit every day. You have some margin for error; if you are counting exercise calories too high or are off on portions or whatever, you just lose a little slower. You are also goal oriented - a finish line to cross is ahead. In maintenance, the finish line is being dead but looking good. You have to make the better habits stick for the rest of your life.

AnvilHead

CarvedTones wrote: »

The crazy thing from your two part question is that keeping it off might be the hardest of the two. While losing, you are in weight loss mode and shooting for a deficit every day. You have some margin for error; if you are counting exercise calories too high or are off on portions or whatever, you just lose a little slower. You are also goal oriented - a finish line to cross is ahead. In maintenance, the finish line is being dead but looking good. You have to make the better habits stick for the rest of your life.

I guess it depends on how you decide to set goals. If you just look at 'goal weight' as the finish line, I can see where it could feel like a dead end - but you can always set new goals once you get to the maintenance phase to avoid that feeling. Reduce your body fat percentage and/or put on a little muscle (via recomp or bulk/cut); run a 5K/10K/half/whatever; lift x number of pounds in the lift(s) of your choice; ride a century/metric century on your bike, work to improve at the sport of your liking, etc. All of those require proper nutrition and training, so they'll help keep you on track rather than just looking at it as the drudgery of simply fighting to stay at the same weight all the time. If you don't have some kind of goal, you're aiming at nothing.

CarvedTones

Yeah, I do have those kinds of goals. I have some long races and routes I want to paddle in SUP, for example. I mean the commitment to make the changes permanent. In "loss mode", you make adjustments like you will in maintenance but you go further and eat less than it takes to maintain your weight. No matter how well you manage to come up with menus and snacks, it doesn't come natural when you have been eating too much and gaining weight or maintaining at a higher weight. It takes discipline and discipline is hard. There is a point where you will get more, enough to maintain yourself at the new weight. But it still takes discipline and discipline is still hard.