Best weight-loss tip

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  • Tacklewasher
    Tacklewasher Posts: 7,122 Member
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    elisa123gal wrote: »
    I didn't read the article.. but there is more to weight loss than cico. if it worked like many of you claim. why do you have such a hard time losing weight? I realize this is a calorie counting site..and it is a path and it does work for many people. but if. people lost simply be deficit eating..no one would ever plateau

    Please understand that (as is said often on this site) the concept is simple, the execution is hard.

    People don't say that losing weight isn't a difficult thing. The common theme is it doesn't need to be made more difficult through random food restrictions, or following this or that diet, or whatever else is the trend today. Eat less than you burn (however you get to that) and you will lose weight.

    And I have no idea why plateau is an issue here.
  • Panini911
    Panini911 Posts: 2,325 Member
    edited January 2019
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    elisa123gal wrote: »
    I didn't read the article.. but there is more to weight loss than cico. if it worked like many of you claim. why do you have such a hard time losing weight? I realize this is a calorie counting site..and it is a path and it does work for many people. but if. people lost simply be deficit eating..no one would ever plateau

    Lost 100lbs twice using only CICO. no plateau. the only issue was i don't track on maintenance so eat in calorie surplus and gain weight.

    most recently, on my third go, i lost 42lbs. the last pounds i wasn't even able to work out beyond walking due to injuries. strictly CICO. eating a variety of food not cutting out any groups/macros.
  • karenvandam
    karenvandam Posts: 23 Member
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    CICO works, of course. But, let's not pretend that eating less than you burn is comfortable or easy for everyone. For me the biggest complicating factor is being hungry all the time. It makes it very hard to stick to the calorie target even with a minimal calorie deficit. Other complications for me are emotional eating, holidays, illness, injuries, and traveling. Other people struggle with meal planning, weighing food, and daily logging. It can be overwhelming and burdensome. That's why so many people find it difficult. CICO is so easy and yet so hard!
  • born_of_fire74
    born_of_fire74 Posts: 776 Member
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    elisa123gal wrote: »
    I didn't read the article.. but there is more to weight loss than cico. if it worked like many of you claim. why do you have such a hard time losing weight? I realize this is a calorie counting site..and it is a path and it does work for many people. but if. people lost simply be deficit eating..no one would ever plateau

    There are a number of reasons but a big one is that many people don't realize you have to adjust your calorie goal as your weight changes. If I continued to eat the 1800cal I lost weight on when I started, I would no longer be maintaining at my current weight; I'd be gaining.

    Also, without a fitness tracker, many people don't realize that the same activity burns different calories for different sized people. I burn ~250cal walking my dog 7kms each day. When husband walks the dog for a mere kilometer more and at a slower pace even, he burns almost twice that at ~450cal because he's got 85lbs on me.

    There are many other fiddly bits that complicate the execution but the concept is extremely simple: burn more calories than you eat and you will lose weight.
  • born_of_fire74
    born_of_fire74 Posts: 776 Member
    edited January 2019
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    karenvandam wrote: »
    CICO works, of course. But, let's not pretend that eating less than you burn is comfortable or easy for everyone. For me the biggest complicating factor is being hungry all the time. It makes it very hard to stick to the calorie target even with a minimal calorie deficit. Other complications for me are emotional eating, holidays, illness, injuries, and traveling. Other people struggle with meal planning, weighing food, and daily logging. It can be overwhelming and burdensome. That's why so many people find it difficult. CICO is so easy and yet so hard!

    This is an excellent argument against food restrictions. The way you get to feel full within your calorie allotment is by finding the foods that satiate you enough within that calorie allotment. For me, this is LCHF. For years I ate a vegetarian diet that was very low in fat because common wisdom was that dietary fat makes you fat. As a result, I overate and turned to high calorie baked goods (mmmm, pie) to satisfy my cravings for fat.

    If you randomly eliminate "bad" foods from your diet based on popular wisdom, you may be unwittingly cutting out the very foods that would satiate you and make it possible for you to stick to your calorie allotment.
  • estherdragonbat
    estherdragonbat Posts: 5,283 Member
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    But with experimentation, you can generally find out which foods help you feel fuller. People who do well on keto generally find that for them, it's fat. For me, if I eat a lot of protein and high-fiber carbs, I find I generally feel pretty full.

    My n=1 experience: when Passover comes, I can't eat any grain except for quinoa, no legumes including soy, no tempeh, no seitan. The only flours I can use are ground nuts, potato starch, and matzo meal—basically matzo is a cracker made of flour and water that has been rigorously supervised to make sure it's taken 18 minutes or less from the point that the water hits the flour to the point it comes out of the oven. So my protein sources for those 8 days are primarily (leaving out the gram here, gram there in some fruits and veg including potatoes), nuts (too high-calorie to make a staple out of, but a couple of ounces a day are all right) eggs (till they're coming out of my ears) dairy (I'm strictly kosher, my family is omnivorous, and the rules about meat and dairy on the same table can get tricky, so if I want to eat with my family, dairy isn't always happening), and quinoa (it may be a complete protein, but it's actually not especially high in protein compared to the other sources I enjoy year-round). The holiday lasts 8 days. By day 4, I'm ravenous. And this only happens at Passover. When I can't have my tofu or my Fiber One bars, or a whole bunch of other things that, once absent, I realize go a long way toward keeping me satiated.

    Also, I don't run a very aggressive deficit, so that also helps with hunger. (I took a maintenance break last Passover. I suppose it may have helped, but not enough.)
  • karenvandam
    karenvandam Posts: 23 Member
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    I don't go for food restrictions - just trying to maintain a calorie deficit sufficient to lose weight at 0.5 lbs/ week. I've tried everything I can think of (short of Keto) to find a way of eating that would not leave me hungry. I've tried drinking water before every meal, eating more protein, eating protein at every meal, eating less sugar, increasing fiber, eliminating artificial sweeteners and diet soda, increasing fat, eating 6 small meals a day, eating 3 large meals a day, and eating large volume foods. I even got a fitness watch so I can more accurately track my exercise and eat those calories back.

    I've learned a few things that seem to minimize the hunger, but there's nothing that totally works. I just have to keep my deficit very small or risk getting too hungry and over-eating.

    My point is simply that holding to the calorie deficit is difficult for me. I am in charge of what I put in my mouth, but I can't seem to control the hunger signals. It doesn't mean CICO doesn't work, just that it's not always easy to do.

    Sometimes the hard-core CICO posters make it seem so easy - and maybe it is for them.
  • born_of_fire74
    born_of_fire74 Posts: 776 Member
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    karenvandam wrote: »
    I don't go for food restrictions - just trying to maintain a calorie deficit sufficient to lose weight at 0.5 lbs/ week. I've tried everything I can think of (short of Keto) to find a way of eating that would not leave me hungry. I've tried drinking water before every meal, eating more protein, eating protein at every meal, eating less sugar, increasing fiber, eliminating artificial sweeteners and diet soda, increasing fat, eating 6 small meals a day, eating 3 large meals a day, and eating large volume foods. I even got a fitness watch so I can more accurately track my exercise and eat those calories back.

    I've learned a few things that seem to minimize the hunger, but there's nothing that totally works. I just have to keep my deficit very small or risk getting too hungry and over-eating.

    My point is simply that holding to the calorie deficit is difficult for me. I am in charge of what I put in my mouth, but I can't seem to control the hunger signals. It doesn't mean CICO doesn't work, just that it's not always easy to do.

    Sometimes the hard-core CICO posters make it seem so easy - and maybe it is for them.

    I'm sorry that you're having such a hard time of it. I guess I won the weight loss lottery because finding LCHF was like flipping a switch for me. I hope you can find what works for you too. Best of luck. Cheers!
  • kami3006
    kami3006 Posts: 4,978 Member
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    karenvandam wrote: »
    I don't go for food restrictions - just trying to maintain a calorie deficit sufficient to lose weight at 0.5 lbs/ week. I've tried everything I can think of (short of Keto) to find a way of eating that would not leave me hungry. I've tried drinking water before every meal, eating more protein, eating protein at every meal, eating less sugar, increasing fiber, eliminating artificial sweeteners and diet soda, increasing fat, eating 6 small meals a day, eating 3 large meals a day, and eating large volume foods. I even got a fitness watch so I can more accurately track my exercise and eat those calories back.

    I've learned a few things that seem to minimize the hunger, but there's nothing that totally works. I just have to keep my deficit very small or risk getting too hungry and over-eating.

    My point is simply that holding to the calorie deficit is difficult for me. I am in charge of what I put in my mouth, but I can't seem to control the hunger signals. It doesn't mean CICO doesn't work, just that it's not always easy to do.

    Sometimes the hard-core CICO posters make it seem so easy - and maybe it is for them.

    I think that the intent in those posts is that the energy equation is simple, not that the execution is. Plenty of people struggle for infinite reasons. The goal being to show that it doesn't have to be more complicated than our minds and much false info already make it out to be. For the average person it's simple but not necessarily easy. I respect that.
  • TamLam99
    TamLam99 Posts: 247 Member
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    karenvandam wrote: »
    I don't go for food restrictions - just trying to maintain a calorie deficit sufficient to lose weight at 0.5 lbs/ week. I've tried everything I can think of (short of Keto) to find a way of eating that would not leave me hungry. I've tried drinking water before every meal, eating more protein, eating protein at every meal, eating less sugar, increasing fiber, eliminating artificial sweeteners and diet soda, increasing fat, eating 6 small meals a day, eating 3 large meals a day, and eating large volume foods. I even got a fitness watch so I can more accurately track my exercise and eat those calories back.

    I've learned a few things that seem to minimize the hunger, but there's nothing that totally works. I just have to keep my deficit very small or risk getting too hungry and over-eating.

    My point is simply that holding to the calorie deficit is difficult for me. I am in charge of what I put in my mouth, but I can't seem to control the hunger signals. It doesn't mean CICO doesn't work, just that it's not always easy to do.

    Sometimes the hard-core CICO posters make it seem so easy - and maybe it is for them.

    I am in the same boat, I feel nagging hunger even with the smallest deficit, it is the main reason I throw in the towel. It's true hunger, not thirst, not boredom or stress eating, it doesn't go away after the first few weeks either. While the CICO concept is so simple, it's not always easy for me either. I try to incorporate my favorite foods in so I don't feel deprived and try to find higher volume foods to take the edge off. It's a struggle, doable but very challenging. I wish you luck, and if you find some magic formula to end the hunger please share :smile:

  • debrakgoogins
    debrakgoogins Posts: 2,033 Member
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    elisa123gal wrote: »
    I didn't read the article.. but there is more to weight loss than cico. if it worked like many of you claim. why do you have such a hard time losing weight? I realize this is a calorie counting site..and it is a path and it does work for many people. but if. people lost simply be deficit eating..no one would ever plateau

    People have a hard time losing weight because they don't accurately calorie count. CICO takes work and people want a quick fix so they don't do it or don't do it well.

    People plateau for a number of reasons. Maybe they don't reassess their calorie needs as they lose weight. Perhaps they get used to what they eat and think they can go back to not logging their meals and end up eating more than they think they are. Maybe their excercise habits change. So many things could cause a plateau.

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