Help

raeyaanicole

I've been trying to lose weight for awhile now but can never stay consistent and motivated. How do I do it? What are some tips to actually lose weight?!

Nony_Mouse

What is it that you are struggling with? Are you making your calorie deficit/weekly weight loss goal too aggressive? Being too restrictive with what you eat (eg cutting out things you consider 'bad' foods)?

Danp

My only tip is to lose weight in a manner and at a rate that doesn't require motivation.

Needing motivation, to me, is an indication that what I'm doing isn't right. Motivation is temporary and to succeed at managing weight for the rest of my life I need to find ways that don't require motivation. There are way to many ways to manage my calorie intake to do ones that I struggle with.

When trying to lose weight you should be asking yourself "how can I make this easier"

raeyaanicole

Thank you! @Danp & @Nony_Mouse Healthy food is good to me but I just have a problem with cutting out bad foods and staying consistent with it. I have no problem exercise either, it's just hard to make time with it while balancing school and work.

kimny72

Great posts to get on the right track:

https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/1080242/a-guide-to-get-you-started-on-your-path-to-sexypants/p1

https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/818701/the-myth-of-motivation-and-what-you-need-instead/p1

Lietchi

raeyaanicole wrote: »

Thank you! @Danp & @Nony_Mouse Healthy food is good to me but I just have a problem with cutting out bad foods and staying consistent with it. I have no problem exercise either, it's just hard to make time with it while balancing school and work.

You don't need to cut out 'bad' foods, whatever that may mean. For weight loss all you need is to burn more calories than you are consuming. And for that, exercising isn't even necessary.

That's not to say that eating healthy food and exercise isn't a good idea for your body and health, but it isn't strictly necessary for weight loss. You can introduce good habits for your health gradually, when you have created consistent habits with regards to the amount of calories you are consuming.

I've lost 30 lbs by eating all of the foods I like, just in smaller quantities, and by setting a weight loss goal that isn't too aggressive.

quiksylver296

kimny72 wrote: »

Great posts to get on the right track:

https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/1080242/a-guide-to-get-you-started-on-your-path-to-sexypants/p1

https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/818701/the-myth-of-motivation-and-what-you-need-instead/p1

Yep, read those!!! ^^^

jelleigh

I'm not sure if this would be helpful to you or not, but I think I have a similar problem and the time when I had the most consistent success was where I created a deficit through IF. The reason this worked for me was that the only "rule" i followed was that I stopped eating after dinner and until lunch time the next day and since my big problem is night time snacking, I essentially eliminated the time where I make poor food decisions. So I didn't need to worry about tracking or even what foods I was eating per se so it didn't seem so hard to stick to and didn't require special motivation.
The only reason I'm not still doing it now is that my work schedule has changed forcing me to eat dinner much later and so the IF approach doesn't suit me anymore. I realize that this was all just a big silly mind game, but it worked so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Nony_Mouse

Lietchi wrote: »

raeyaanicole wrote: »

Thank you! @Danp & @Nony_Mouse Healthy food is good to me but I just have a problem with cutting out bad foods and staying consistent with it. I have no problem exercise either, it's just hard to make time with it while balancing school and work.

You don't need to cut out 'bad' foods, whatever that may mean. For weight loss all you need is to burn more calories than you are consuming. And for that, exercising isn't even necessary.

That's not to say that eating healthy food and exercise isn't a good idea for your body and health, but it isn't strictly necessary for weight loss. You can introduce good habits for your health gradually, when you have created consistent habits with regards to the amount of calories you are consuming.

I've lost 30 lbs by eating all of the foods I like, just in smaller quantities, and by setting a weight loss goal that isn't too aggressive.

^^This is where I was going with my questions around being overly restrictive. One of the most common issues we see is people setting weekly weight loss targets that are too aggressive, and cutting out foods they think they shouldn't be eating. For most, that's a road to failure, because it's just not physically nor psychologically sustainable.

Weight loss isn't meant to be punishment. Make it as easy on yourself as you can.

Danp

raeyaanicole wrote: »

Thank you! @Danp & @Nony_Mouse Healthy food is good to me but I just have a problem with cutting out bad foods and staying consistent with it. I have no problem exercise either, it's just hard to make time with it while balancing school and work.

That's kind of illustrates my point.

You're having a problem cutting out bad foods. So this tells me that elimination and moralising foods aren't good strategies for you to achieve a calorie deficit. And because this approach isn't suitable for you it's difficult to stay consistent. So, change things up.

Try relaxing your approach to make it easier, stop classifying food as 'good' and 'bad' and eat foods you genuinely enjoy without the judgement. Try limiting and managing your foods instead of cutting them out entirely. Try changing your eating schedule to see if a different eating pattern might make things easier. Try switching up your macro mix and see if emphasising one more than the other makes things easier.

In short, experiment. Keep trying new things and approaches until you find the one that's works best for you.