What's working for you?

jan110144

A weight loss/fitness program is certainly NOT a "one size fits all". I am wondering if it would be helpful I everyone would share what you have found to be key elements in your journey. I am happy with what I am doing, but looking for anything I can tweak as I get closer to goal and the going gets tougher.

I'll start ...

1. I preplan my food and exercise for the day.
2. I usually have exactly the same breakfast and lunch every day. I have a lot of variety in my dinners. This simplifies my day immensely. Breakfast and lunch can both be easily modified to save 100 calories or so each if I have a special occasion later in the day.
3. If I am eating out, I always plan ahead what I am going to order. If I have a bigger lunch. I have my standard lunch for dinner.
4. I always eat back 30-50% of my exercise calories. Which leaves me around 1000 net calories
5. I try very hard to never let myself get too hungry or too tired.

So far ... 35 pounds down since I started at the end of July. 7 pounds from goal.

So ... what have you found to be key for you?

88olds

I’m maintaining. After years of keeping a diary, I finally got to a point where I can go long periods and maintain without it. Notice I don’t say I’m forever done with tracking. I’ve gone back to it three times now when maintaining didn’t seem to be going so well. It’s worked every time I’ve tried it.

I lost the last 40lbs of 100+lbs on Weight Watchers. Nothing magical about WW, its basically trademark protected calorie counting. But WW is where I learned tracking. It’s tracking and journal on WW, logging and diary on MFP.

Tracking is far and away been the best weight loss tool I’ve found. But to work, tracking requires a willingness to track no matter what, the good, bad and ugly.

I attended WW meetings. I think of the meetings as being the school of what not to do. After a few weeks, the road to failure seemed clear- make a mistake and eat over your number, declare the day a failure, abandon the tracker/diary, vow to start again tomorrow. Start again whenever.

So I adopted the strategy that eating over my number was not a reason to abandon the tracker. The process is more important than the numbers.

AnnPT77

Your key elements sound sensible, except that 1000 calorie net makes me shudder. I'd add:

* Only eat food I actually enjoy.
* Find forms of exercise I actually considers fun, and do them for manageable amounts of time (good overall life balance) and at sensible intensity (which depends on current fitness level).
* Move more throughout the day, in non-exercise daily life activities.

cmriverside

Eating the same thing for breakfast and lunch wouldn't work for me, neither would eating such a small amount.

I don't preplan anything other than grocery shopping. I'll think about what my next meal will be but I don't prelog it. I have maybe 20 different meals that I prepare regularly enough to know their calories and macros. I eat a wide variety of protein sources, fats and lots of different vegetables and fruit. My main "plan" is to get about 30g protein and a half to full serving of fat in every feeding and at least five servings of vegetables and fruit daily.

The other part of my "plan" is to get an hour of exercise a minimum of five days per week.

sardelsa

What works for me definitely would not work for others, including yourself.
But for fun, what I do in a deficit:

-I follow a lifting program regularly (usually 3-5x per week). This is #1 for me, because if I am not lifting I need to stop the deficit immediately.
-I am very active in my day to day life, but I fit cardio in when I can
-I keep protein fairly high. I aim for about 130-160g (so 1g per lb or more) this helps with not only appetite but adherence since it prevents me from choosing other foods that don't fit my macro profile. So if I want a snack, I have limited options since it I aim for 20-40g per meal of protein. I don't track but keep a mental tally of my protein.
-I eat mostly foods I enjoy, but I eat a lot foods for their macros that aren't my #1 favourite. For example, chicken breast, turkey, canned tuna, low fat cottage cheese, egg whites, plain protein powder.
-I drink quite a bit of coffee/espresso as an appetite suppressant.
-I calorie/carb cycle. On my rest days or even lower impact lifting/cardio days, I keep my calories fairly low and lower my carbs and fats a bit. Keeping protein high. Then on weekends and high lifting days I can increase my carbs significantly. I find my workouts benefit as well as adherence.
-Similar to you, I keep most of my meals and snacks the same which allows me to eat a flexible dinner. Since I don't strictly track my intake, I have a limited choice of foods I can eat during the day especially during a low day, and I try my best to adhere to that.
-I weigh myself 5-7x per week and use a trend weight app in order to know if I am in deficit or not (and not too large of a deficit), since I don't log my calories it is a bit of trial and error
-I don't keep a large deficit. 0.5-0.75lb per week works well for me. Allows me to be consistent and I can remain in deficit for longer
-I do regular diet breaks every 10-12 weeks

Again... all of this is personal preference and works very well for me.

middlehaitch

cmriverside wrote: »

Eating the same thing for breakfast and lunch wouldn't work for me, neither would eating such a small amount.

I don't preplan anything other than grocery shopping. I'll think about what my next meal will be but I don't prelog it. I have maybe 20 different meals that I prepare regularly enough to know their calories and macros. I eat a wide variety of protein sources, fats and lots of different vegetables and fruit. My main "plan" is to get about 30g protein and a half to full serving of fat in every feeding and at least five servings of vegetables and fruit daily.

The other part of my "plan" is to get an hour of exercise a minimum of five days per week.

I could have almost written this. ^^

My breakfasts and lunches have a only small variations, but that is because I like what I eat.

Cheers, h.

kami3006

*I use a food scale for everything.
*I don't cut out foods I enjoy.
*I follow a weekly calorie goal. This helped tremendously as it allows me to fit in higher calorie foods/meals regularly and eat more on lifting days when I am hungrier versus cardio days when I'm not.
*I exercise regularly: Primarily weight training for body composition with some cardio thrown in for cv and mental health.
*I eat 100% of my actual calorie burns through exercise. This allowed me to feel fully energized and properly fueled to continually progress in my lifting.
*I skip breakfast. If I eat too early then I am hungry all day long, regardless of macros. I split my calories between two larger meals and one snack before bed. Eating before bed helps me sleep better.
*I pre-log foods when I know there is going to be a higher calorie meal. That way I can fit the rest of my day or next couple days around it.
*I accept that there will be times I cannot have accurate information and that a best guess will have to do.
*I understand why fluctuations happen and keep my eye on the bigger picture.
*I use a trending app as well as other metrics (pictures and measurements).


So this is what I did to lose 25 lbs, bulk/cut, and maintain throughout the past five years.