What Worked for You?!
Replies
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missysippy930 wrote: »missysippy930 wrote: »
Yup. Succinct and to the point.missysippy930 wrote: »
Actually ... no.
You should not plan to follow your diet for the rest of your life or you'll continue to lose weight for the rest of your life.
Actually, no.
Per Oxford dictionary’s first entry -
Diet: The kinds of food that a person, animal, or community habitually eats.
From the Greek: diaita, meaning ‘a way of life’.
Per Oxford dictionary's second entry -
Diet: A special course of food to which a person restricts themselves, either to lose weight or for medical reasons.
I diet (second definition) to lose weight.
I eat a maintenance diet (first definition) to maintain.
For me, they are two similar, but different, things for when I'm in different places.
Given that I've remained within a healthy BMI for the vast majority of my life, it seems to be working.
Everyone has a diet. (Food they eat)
You don’t need a different diet to lose weight than to maintain the weight loss. It’s all about the number of calories.
It is all about calories.
When I want to lose a bit, I switch to low calorie food. When I'm OK with where I am, I eat higher calorie foods.
That's what works for me!
(That was what the question was ... right?)
Yes, it was the question.
So why did you say my initial response was not good advice then?🙂1 -
Wow! Thank you:
@Liampp
@jdog022
@manderson27
@seltzermint555
@NovusDies
@JeromeBarry1
@csplatt
@vanityy99
@zeejane03
@jnik554
@grace42c
@sgt1372
@estherdragonbat
@amusedmonkey
@jan110144
@aegean2
@nvmomketo
for all of your advice/help/personal stories and insight. I will be going through this advice for a while. I appreciate it! This is inspiring and loving the repeat patterns of changes for life that feel SUSTAINABLE to you, not diets or temporary things.
Thanks Again!
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Hitting my calorie targets.1
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To lose around 50 pounds in a bit less than a year (at age 59-60, while hypothyroid), and maintain a healthy weight for about 3 years since, I did (and do) this:
http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10636388/free-customized-personal-weight-loss-eating-plan-not-spam-or-mlm
and this:
http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10610953/neat-improvement-strategies-to-improve-weight-loss
. . . while keeping pretty much the same (quite active) fun exercise schedule I'd had for the previous 12 years (i.e., the last 12 years of staying obese).
For anyone who isn't already active, I recommend finding something(s) active they personally find fun (ideally so fun they'd do it even if it weren't good for them), and gradually increasing duration/intensity/frequency to keep it a bit challenging, but still fun, and fitting well into good overall life balance (enough time for work, chores, family, non-exercise hobbies, etc.) Exercise should be fun and energizing, not miserable and exhausting.
Bonus points if the enjoyable activity helps build/maintain strength as well as cardiovascular health. (Personally, I mostly row - on water when I can, machine when I must - and spin; with some other fun stuff like biking and walking thrown in now and then.)
IMO, it's:
Appropriate calories for weight loss + well rounded, balanced eating for nutrition (and some treats for joy) + fun exercise for fitness = best odds of continuing long-term good health and appearance
. . . which is what most of us want, right?
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missysippy930 wrote: »
Actually ... no.
You should not plan to follow your diet for the rest of your life or you'll continue to lose weight for the rest of your life.
Instead, follow your diet until you near your goal, then figure out what your plan will be for maintenance.
At least that's what works for me.
IMO, maintenance has been super-easy for me because I'm eating just like I was when I was losing weight, I just have more calories most days. Having a sustainable and flexible plan allows me to stay in my weight range even when I'm getting less activity. The point, to me, was never to have a completely different way to eat when I was losing weight. The plan was to figure out how to live the whole rest of my life without yo-yoing.2 -
For me, also, grazing doesn’t work. I can’t do “many small meals” because I am never full. I do big breakfast, big lunch, dinner and snack later.1
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For me, also, grazing doesn’t work. I can’t do “many small meals” because I am never full. I do big breakfast, big lunch, dinner and snack later.
Same here, although I do a small breakfast with larger lunch and dinner. The grazing and mini meals works well for some people but I'm in the "never full" camp when I try anything remotely similar. I also need 400 calories for lunch (or a little more)...if I try to get by with a smaller lunch I feel like snacking all afternoon.1 -
What I suggest for new people is just to log for a week without trying to change anything, then look at your diary. It’s much easier to make appropriate changes when you know where you are right now. Are there certain foods, situations, places, or people which lead you to overeat? Any small changes that would have a large effect? I ended up changing my driving habits to avoid places where I would stop for junk food, and meeting my mother for movies instead of meals. I also took action to solve some issues in my life which were leading me to emotionally overeat. And I told my husband that he needed to stop offering me his leftovers, and expecting me to wait on him to finish meals when he would take more than an hour at the table. Everyone’s life is different and so their strategies need to be different.
It also helps to add activity which you enjoy enough to stick with it. More calories will help you feel less deprived, and strength training will help preserve your lean muscle mass while you eat at a deficit.2 -
I find I lose weight easily when I stick with mostly a plant based diet. It hard sometimes because I dont live alone. I also keep in mind that you cannot outrun the fork, and not to beat myself up if I don’t always make may goal.3
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I’m only about a month in this time around, but I feel like this is the first time in about 9 years that I feel positive and in control about weight loss. This is what’s working for me now:
I examined every situation I feel like I usually over eat - and I am finding strategies for them.
For example I used to always snack/eat a small meal when I was cooking food for my kids, and I’d also finish their food if they didn’t. Now I actively talk to myself (in my head) when I’m cooking for them and say that this not food for me, it’s not even food I actually want - it was just food I was eating because it was there. If I feel the overwhelming urge to snack at that point I try to eat cabbage or red pepper slices. I haven’t been perfect but so far it’s working.
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