Which weight loss method is the most successful?

Whatsthemotive

The one you’ll follow. It’s all about the calorie deficit.

Whatsthemotive

I did noom. I did WW. I did Jenny Craig. I’m doing better just tracking calories and activity on MFP. I think I had to be in the right place mentally to do the work.

ninerbuff

The one that YOU can do and maintain afterward.

A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

Thoin

The one that helps me keep the weight off that I lost.

Minion_training_program

harper16 wrote: »

Weight loss is caused by being in a calorie deficit. All weight loss methods have the same goal a calorie deficit.

The best weight loss method is one that best helps you reach your calorie deficit, and hopefully keep the weight off.

I don't follow any named diets.

This, this is all that matter for weightloss
How you do that, is totally up to the person, you could be eating only dog biscuits for all i care (i heard they are relly low in calories)
But law of physics is what matters here

hkVo2Run

My personal story: I started running (trained for half marathons) while also doing a low-carb diet. I lost 10 pounds in 6 months as a result. Then I decided to add carbs to avoid further weight loss. When I did that, I ended up being able to run faster-- I used to run a 10k at a pace of 10:30 min/mi before but after including carbs in my diet was able to run at 8:45 min/mi. That made my body burn more calories and I lost another 10 pounds within a period of 2 months. In conclusion, physiology is messy -- and probably why this discussion topic exists in the first place. But I would hypothesize that if I hadn't done the low-carb diet initially, the rest would not have happened.

janejellyroll

hkVo2Run wrote: »

My personal story: I started running (trained for half marathons) while also doing a low-carb diet. I lost 10 pounds in 6 months as a result. Then I decided to add carbs to avoid further weight loss. When I did that, I ended up being able to run faster-- I used to run a 10k at a pace of 10:30 min/mi before but after including carbs in my diet was able to run at 8:45 min/mi. That made my body burn more calories and I lost another 10 pounds within a period of 2 months. In conclusion, physiology is messy -- and probably why this discussion topic exists in the first place. But I would hypothesize that if I hadn't done the low-carb diet initially, the rest would not have happened.

Anecdotally, I feel like this isn't an uncommon experience. People may try some methods successfully earlier in their weight management process and as their lifestyle changes or fitness goals change, they may adapt/change.

Does your story mean low carbohydrate didn't work for you? Just because something doesn't work FOREVER doesn't mean it doesn't work. I loved walking on a treadmill early in my weight management efforts -- it was easy for me to access a treadmill and very non-threatening as a form of exercise. Now I'd rather do almost anything else than walk on a treadmill, but I'm where I'm at today because I started with that.

Theoldguy1

Exercise, specifically table push-aways and fork/spoon putdowns.

Analog_Kid

Move more. Eat less.

fr3smyl

It has to be a plan that doesn’t cause extreme hunger all the time. I person can fight their own body only for so long.
Along with that it needs to be something you can do long term.
If you feel restricted by what or how much you eat then it may get the pounds off but it is not something that will work long term.

russellholtslander1

80% lost weight.. how much weight? How long? What did you eat before you started?

I can eat just meat & eggs, and lose 3-4 lbs. a day, for a couple weeks. Do we count water weight, and note diets which have a diuretic effect? Do we look at long term success. Do we note that you had a big " last meal ", and gained 5 lbs. the day you started, and then lost weight immediately!! Does that count as losing weight?

Most of us have lost weight on dozens of diets.. but they didn't end up working for many of us.

The best diet is one where you have no desire to eat off plan, no cravings or hunger, so you eat the proper amount, and feel great.. and helps you get to a healthy weight, and causes no other health concerns. That isn't the same for everyone.. in fact I doubt ANY diet works for the majority, and there are many ways to do EACH diet.

I eat low carb, for example, but cheese causes me to gain weight. So does diet pop. I don't eat bacon, because salt is an issue. Oher people do different levels of LC, and eat foods I skip, like fruit, and I may eat more of another food, like eggs. I eat eggs every day. We have dietary categories, but may eat completely different forms of the diet.. same as vegans, eating different vegetables, or other non-meat products. A person who eats tofu, may not like a vegan diet without it, and vice versa.

If it works, stick to it, and keep repeating.. and be healthy.. stop worrying if it is the healthiest diet.. for YOU it is, and THAT is all that matters.

callsitlikeiseeit

Ive not read the replies and im positive this has been said but the most successful one is ....

the one you will stick to and that you will be able to maintain even after you have reached your goal.

neanderthin

Long term, have no idea, they all fail miserably on a % basis. There are some long term success stories for every diet and for me personally it's down 45 lbs from my heaviest 15 years ago and now maintain by controlling my carb intake. I never count calories and if I feel my cloths getting a little tight I'll just keep the carbs on the lower levels for a while, then I'm good. For me it works like a well tailored suit.

Xellercin

I read a meta-analysis several years back on long term success of diet approaches, and by far the most successful one was one that I've never heard talked about or marketed.

The approach was simply to have people project forward to how their body would feel *after* eating as opposed to focusing on how they would feel *while* eating. If subjects focused on the feeling after the eating is done, they naturally moderated their intake and chose healthier options, and had the best long term success with weight loss.

I wish I could track down the meta-analysis, or even the study, but I originally read it about a decade ago in school when I was my heaviest. Suffice to say, I use this approach myself, lost from obese down to a low-healthy BMI and maintained for many years until recently when I gained a bit due to meds.

This approach also helps for motivation to exercise. Instead of thinking about the actual exercise, which can be discouraging because it's hard, instead focus on how great it will feel afterwards. This can be highly motivating.

rhtexasgal

I've been on this weight loss journey for over 7 years and that is how long I have been logging here on MFP ... for several years, a healthy, balanced diet with exercise and following CICO worked. I lost over 50 pounds and then maintained for quite a while. Then perimenopause hit with full force and all the above no longer applied. After gradually gaining back 25 pounds over several years, all the while logging my food, exercising and staying under my overall calorie goal and not losing weight, I got tired of working harder and decided to work smarter instead.

I can blame hormones to a certain extent but then I also needed to start shaking things up a bit so I tweaked my macros to 35% protein, 35% fat and 30% carbs. I am not 100% successful BUT I have lost about 12 pounds since May ... slow and steady. I think I needed more protein for sure in my diet and I have to work hard to get enough but I still rarely meet my protein goal (I come really close though) and I also always seem to go over a little on the carbs (but way less than I have before). Also, based on weekly totals, I have been able to lower my sugar consumption substantially. I think the sugar thing and the protein thing is what really helped.

Of course, perimenopause is like the ocean ... waves come crashing to shore but eventually the tides go out. That is basically what is going on hormonally. I am constantly having to tweak my eating plan and sometimes I get tired of it. It took almost a month for me to lose 1 pound! While I still want to lose 10-15 more pounds, right now my focus is more on health and staying fit.

Bottom line is I decided that time is going to pass whether I do something or not so I continue to make changes so that my body feels strong and that number on the scale goes down a little. I don't think there is any one truly successful weight loss method. Everyone has different health issues and body chemistry so there no one size fits all ... once I got past the fact that I wasn't necessarily failing at CICO, I was able to figure out what would work for me. I'm still a work in progress ...

KeithBarrows

For my wife and I we definitely agree with being in a calorie deficit. However, we have found the mix of macros has huge impact on the rate that we lose weight.

Every "diet" we tried required 3-4 hours of weight lifting + 3-4 hours of cardio each week and a ~5500 calorie per week deficit and we lost about 1 pound per week.

We are now trying the Keto diet. After 2 weeks (13 days for me) with no exercise (yet) and a ~3500 calorie per week deficit and I have lost 11 pounds already.

I am calculating my weekly deficit by using the BMR MFP suggests minus the goal I set for myself multiplied by 7.

Your estimated BMR is: 2,022 calories/day
I set a goal for 500 calories less per day

2022-1522=500
500*7=3500

As far as hormones go what I can say with 100% certainty is this: Your metabolism is comprised of a production of hormones! The more out of natural balance, the more weight challenges one has - either under or over weight problems.

Jillian Michaels wrote a book - Master Your Metabolism: The 3 Diet Secrets to Naturally Balancing Your Hormones for a Hot and Healthy Body! An extremely eye opening look at our endocrine system and what exactly each of these hormones do. Just a thought.

corinasue1143

Weight watchers worked well for me. I lost 10 pounds in a week. Then I spent a week in bed, too tired for words. The next week I ate more, gained the weight back, but felt so much better. Repeat. Finally figured out this doesn’t work for me.

Next chapter. I subscribed to a local food service that delivered healthy meals. Lost a few pounds every week I was on it. When they went out of business, I went back to normal eating and slowly gained it all back.

Next chapter. Went to a wonderful dietician who told me what MFP now tells me about what and when to eat. She tried to teach me to do it myself, but I had so much to learn and I only saw her a few times. I lost 60 pounds in 6 months, felt great.
Life happened and I eventually gained most of it back.

Next chapter. Here I am.

JMC3Terp

It's been hit on a bunch. But definitely here to 40th or whatever the count is at that there is no best method.

Step 1: Eat in a calorie deficit.
Step 2: Find some sort of program/plan/system that works best for you. I tell people all the time, I couldn't have lost 120 pounds doing a different method than what I did. I found what worked for me. Likewise, what worked for me wouldn't work for alot of other people. During my weight loss, my mom also lost 75 pounds. While we both ate in a calorie deficit, our approaches were very different - because we each did things that worked best for us individually.