What has worked best for you?

AlyssaP1987

I want to lose weight and keep it off. I'm so sick of yo yo dieting and gaining it back. What has worked for you the best?

penguinmama87

Weighing food to the gram on a scale. It helped me find the sweet spot where I was still eating at a deficit but not such a severe one I burned out and gave up. Not everybody needs or wants that level of precision, but I have found it works really well for me.

lynn_glenmont

penguinmama87 wrote: »

Weighing food to the gram on a scale. It helped me find the sweet spot where I was still eating at a deficit but not such a severe one I burned out and gave up. Not everybody needs or wants that level of precision, but I have found it works really well for me.

For me, mostly this ^^ combined with learning over time how much estimating from meals away from home I could get away with and still be in the ballpark of getting the results I was aiming for. Weighing and logging meals I cooked myself has made me a lot more confident when I have to estimate, and my results suggest that confidence is not misplaced.

scarlett_k

Letting go of the ideas thay a) I need to do it fast and b) there's an "end" to managing my weight.

On average I've lost 12.5kg every year for the past four years. I have been on a rollercoaster learning what does and doesn't work for me but I have always persisted and letting go of the idea that I must have to suffer to lose weight was important too. You just need to find a deficit that you can stick to and try to develop good eating habits by making small changes to your life.

MargaretYakoda

Don’t quit.
That’s the main trick.
Also don’t buy into junk science and hooey. Stick with what a registered dietitian recommends for you. If you’re not diabetic or otherwise have a medical need for a specific diet, generic advice from a dietitian is fine.

It’s a long haul.

You will have bumps and detours. But stay focused.
You will very likely run into things like emotional barriers, life throwing you hand-grenades, unsupportive friends, mix ups with calorie estimates, and all kinds of stuff.
Not saying you’ll get all that. But some of it, at least, is very likely in your future.

Don’t let it stop you. Stay the course.

MsCzar

For me, the biggest breakthrough came when I finally made the mind-shift from 'I am on a diet' to 'I eat to support my healthy body.' Being 'on a diet' suggests a temporary way of eating one must endure until goal weight is achieved. Then you can go back to 'normal' eating. That sort of thinking will keep the yo-yo spinning forever!

Once I truly understood that making daily conscious healthy food choices and limiting my calories WAS normal eating, things became much easier.

ReenieHJ

All of the above is very important!! Plus for me, it was important to remember a bad day, week or even month wasn't the end all it needed to be. Get back on the course of what works for you and do the best you can with where you're at.

laurad1978

All of the above applied to me, plus realising this isn't short term it's how I should have been eating all along. Making it sustainable by enjoying meals out and having dessert. If I have a weekend with a lot of extra calories I make sure to get extra exercise in to account for it.

azuki

“alternate day fasting” lol

wunderkindking

Yeah, for me the biggest thing is just realizing what I was doing 'wrong' that made me obese and rectifying that with the realization that there's no end date. How I eat to lose is how I eat to maintain. I also did maintenance breaks along the way to practice that and realize that, yeah. No big change between losing and maintaining the loss. The only real difference is basically a single candy bar, couple of apples or bananas, or using actual milk in my couple of cups of coffee a day. OR - as in ONE of those, not all 3.

springlering62

Logging and learning, and then learning and logging some more.

Learning what works for me.

Learning that a moderate two mile walk does not burn off a package of Oreos or Geneva cookies.

Learning that vinegar and other popular ideas are not real diet plans.

Learning that I passionately love fruit, but was so filled up on candy and cookies I had no idea.

Learning that sometimes when I think I’m hangry, I’m really just thirsty.

Learning that sugar or calorie free products don’t taste bad, aren’t going to give me cancer etc, and that side effects (so far none except upset tummy from erithritol) are negligent compared to what the real thing was doing to my health - in the mass quantities I consumed it.

Appreciating and savoring a “real” sugar treat when I do have one instead of gobbling it and looking at the empty bag thinking “it’s gone? Already? I don’t even remember enjoying or even tasting it.”

Logging. Logging. Logging.

cmriverside

Logging
Food.


I lost 80+ pounds in 2007-2008. I've kept it off. I still log food.

cmriverside

...because I don't ever want to have to lose weight again. It's not fun. Fun is eating the food I like, in smaller quantities and knowing that it's okay to have it - just not all of it and not every day.

AnnPT77

Thinking more terms of making the weight loss process easy, not worrying too much about making it fast.

Using the weight loss process to experiment, find habits I thought I could continue long-term, ideally forever, in order to stay at a healthy weight once I reached there. Thinking of weight management as a set of permanent new habits, not a project with an end date after which things would "go back to normal".

Focusing on finding ways to be more active that were fun (ideally) or at least tolerable, so I'd be more likely to do them regularly, vs. seeking out theoretically perfect fat-burning, fitness-amping exercises (even if doing them made me miserable so I'd back burner them as often as I could rationalize).

Thinking about how to move more in everyday life in small ways, to create a bias toward movement rather than toward limiting movement or so-called "efficiency". (This got easier and almost automatic as I got lighter, because it was easier and more fun to move, at closer to a healthy weight.)

Figuring out how to achieve my calorie and nutrition goals, and feel adequately full, while eating foods I enjoy in rational portions/proportions, rather than going all in for "diet foods", "superfoods", etc. or arbitrarily thinking of foods as inherently "good" or "bad" without reference to context/portioning/frequency.

Science + Common Sense > Hype or Trendiness.

(I'm in year 5+ of maintaining a healthy weight, after around 3 previous decades of overweight/obesity.)

age_is_just_a_number

Consistency.
Making one small sustainable change at a time and then that becomes the normal. Then make another small sustainable change.
Tracking what I eat. I find this especially important when I’m doing a cut.

Eg., I was tracking what I was eating and my breakfast was ‘using up’ too many calories. I had been eating a bowl of cereal with some yogurt. I made a small change of swapping to proportions —- a half serving of cereal with a big bowl of yogurt. This change increased my protein intake at breakfast, I felt fuller longer and had fewer calories.
My new ‘standard’ breakfast is:
1tbsp each of chia seeds, hemp & ground flax
30 grams of Dorset(1) cereal
170 grams of Greek yoghurt

(1) I like Dorset cereal - Simply Delicious Muesli: a blend of rolled and toasted flakes with dried fruit, sunflower seeds and nuts. https://www.dorsetcereals.co.uk/
https://dorsetcerealscanada.com/
With Covid we were have some difficulty getting it, then found it on Amazon and have done a subscription for it. https://www.amazon.ca/stores/DorsetCereals/Homepage/page/A6DC127C-A5DA-47EF-88B6-4D8A4E3270F6

FitOn has this article on other healthy cereals. I’m sad that they didn’t include Dorset cereal in their top 10 list. Could be because they are American. I’m not sure Dorset cereal is sold in the USA. https://fitonapp.com/nutrition/healthy-breakfast-cereals/

StellarIam38

AlyssaP1987 wrote: »

I want to lose weight and keep it off. I'm so sick of yo yo dieting and gaining it back. What has worked for you the best?

Weighing food helps immensely! Also, making homemade and healthy options at home. A proper diet and exercise routine, and experimenting with macros and eating times.

You got this! Feel free to add to add as a friend and I'll help all I can!

Isaac

yweight2020

Getting in control of portion sizes and that's mostly by weighing and measuring.

ridiculous59

It took me three years to lose 90 pounds. I didn't do it quickly, but I did it in a way that worked best for me. I needed to be able to enjoy holidays, family events, wine, and delicious meals. And then get right back to counting calories when the event was over. Like someone else said, I can still have the things I enjoy, just not every day and in the quantities I used to have.

Exercise is also a key component for me. I "move" every day and can't imagine a day where I would choose to do nothing. I do things I love, like hiking and cross country skiing with my dogs, or paddling a dragon boat. I do things that are okay, like yoga and strength training (because they are both good for my overall health). And I do lots of other stuff in between, like walking with friends three times a week, running, kayaking, snowshoeing, HASfit workouts, etc. Exercise improves my physical and mental health. It makes me feel younger (I'm 62) and boosts my confidence. It's just something I need to do and has played a huge part in my weight-loss journey.

Fflpnari

logging and keeping honest with my self. Changing the mindset this is for life. Each little change adds up. I have bad days, but more often good days. Ive been in maintenance for 8 months keeping off 100 pounds. I did a small deficit. I learned what foods kept me full and what didn't.
Things i did in the past that led to yo-yo'ing. Thinking the weight would stay off, diets are temporary etc
I lost and gained weight every year. Changing my mindset has been the ultimate game changer.

Maintaining is not as exciting as losing. Im trying new workout, new adventures to keep my mind engaged.

Clairin

I think learning the calories in what you are eating can be eye opening and helpful. For example this morning I had 13 grams of granola with my yoghurt and it was 60 calories. Thats interesting to know as this is a tiny amount of granola. Before I weighed food I would easily have consumed way more calories than I realised or in fact needed.

frannyupnorth

Regular recalculation of the MFP Goals/Weekly Goals for my current weight.
I lost a reasonable ammount of weight and then my weight loss had slowed down. I was still weighing and logging, but seemed to be approaching a plateau. Turns out I hadn't recalcuted the MFP Goals/Weekly Goals and at my lower weight I needed nearly 200kcal less per day to keep up the initial rate of weight loss. Going forwards I'll recalculate on at least a monthly basis so the calorie drops will be smaller.

richardgavel

Making it long term. If I were to do it over again, I would lose a lot slower. I lost about 10 lbs per month for about 4-5 months and lost lean mass right along with the fat. So now I'm having to do the slow work to build back up the muscle to get the build I really wanted. And I wish I had done resistance training alongside the weight loss.

swim777

cmriverside wrote: »

...because I don't ever want to have to lose weight again. It's not fun. Fun is eating the food I like, in smaller quantities and knowing that it's okay to have it - just not all of it and not every day.

This! Also, for me, a bad day meant restricting the next day. I’ve learned, you exercise normally, eat regularly, and move on. This has been important for me to be successful. Although I usually weigh every day, if I know I’ve really gone overboard, I might wait about three days. I don’t go longer than three days without weighing. (Currently losing quite a bit of pandemic weight.) Hoping I’ve learned a few things!

dwanejoshua171

I have lost my weight by doing exercise and follow my diet plan which I have bought from My Diet Master and now I have lost 4 kg weight within 3 weeks.