Name one weight loss tip that worked for you besides tracking
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Most useful tip for me is prep! If I have prepped lunches in the fridge and convenient snacks and breakfast on hand, I'm going to eat them. I also have dinner calendar written out and ingredients on hand to make 30 minute meals daily. If I'm not prepared, I lose my mind and eat whatever I want in whatever quantity. If it's been laid out and prepped, there's very little chance anything will throw me off. Lazy monkey brain prefers what's easy and available immediately. Avoid decision fatigue!10
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Find an activity or exercise that you enjoy. I swim laps first thing in the morning. I actually look forward to it. I used to dread mornings. Now I'm up at 630am raring to go!5
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Relaxing about my 'diet' helped me a lot.
To eat foods I enjoy within my calories not because they are 'diet foods'
Learning to cook healthier recipes and batch cooking them.
Avoiding takeaways as much as possible.
Getting rid of the all or nothing mindset - life happens and it's OK to go over my calories once in a while - emphasis on the once in a while because consistency is key!
Not drinking my calories - especially alcohol - which just sets off a whole eating poorly thing because of the alcohol the day after!
Lots of water.
More sleep.
Realising that I don't have to go to a gym to get exercise- I enjoy walking and cycling and outside activities.
Trying to draw a line under my last meal of the day until breakfast- snacking in the evening was my nemesis!
And lastly and most importantly- drumming it into my head that it is not a race or a diet - I want to learn how to eat to maintain my weight for the rest of my life not race to the finish line starving and the inevitably put it all back on again.
I've been there several times.10 -
Going low carb.6
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One weight loss trick for me, besides tracking, was NO SNACKING after 6:00 pm!6
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These are greattips everyone. Thanks for sharing3
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Incorporating NEAT into everyday life. I can walk the length of my building, around the edges for a quick break and get 1300 or so steps in. I see people, say hi, keep walking. Doesn't take long. I also park a bit further from stores and am more willing to go down to the basement to grab something rather than deciding it's not worth it! I'd much rather walk some extra steps throughout the day than get on a treadmill, and it adds up!6
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Plan meals, get half my water in by noon, don't lie to myself, and forgive myself when I stray. Getting right back on the horse is key to staying on the path!5
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FEELING my feelings instead of "feeding" them.
Sometimes this requires some self-talk (sometimes out loud :-) ), that that's where honest logging comes in:
"Hey, there, honey: why are we standing in front of the pantry/fridge? MFP says we've had plenty of calories today, so we know we're not hungry for FOOD-- so what are we hungry for? Are we lonely? sad? angry? tired? anxious? blue? excited? happy? Well while that feeling may not be fun, it's not going to physically hurt us. . . so let's just go sit in our favorite chair and FEEL it for a while, OK? We can feel feelings without feeding them, right? And besides, if we give in to stuffing down that bad feeling or puffing up that good feeling, we'll loathe and resent ourselves later and THAT won't feel very good at all, will it?"18 -
Meal prep and watching my actual sugars with testing my blood. I've been able to slowly lose weight and celebrate every pound. I know I could lose it faster if I added in exercise but wanted to first retrain my brain on eating and what I'm craving before adding in exercise. I will say I've become a bit OCD with checking my sugars but I've gotten soo good at monitoring that I may be able to come off my type 2 diabetes medicine soon. To me that will be a huge celebration.8
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2.) Log the next day the night before. That way you don't have to make a decision when you're stressed, rushed, and hungry.
love this and I do this too! I work from home and I cook our meals a lot...so I measure as I cook, and track in MFP before I sit down to eat it with the fam.
4.) When you do laundry, put your workout clothes together for the week so you can grab and go easily.
I'm fortunate to work from home. I've switched to to leisure/work-out wear outfits with tennis shoes on when I wake up, so I can take a walk around the block here and there, or be ready to be active with something during the day.
6.) Have a good plan for whatever is your weakest time of day when you're prone to snacking. For me, that's evenings before bed.
I have trouble in this area too! I track my evening/afternoon snacks FIRST so I can plan my meals better. 100 calorie bag of popcorn, low-sugar oatmeal with blueberries, or some individual wrapped chocolates are my go-to's.
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Biggest thing that changed my life was getting into weight lifting and sticking to whole foods. Building muscle will speed up your metabolism to make fat loss so much easier and you'll have long lasting results! Sticking to whole foods brought down my inflammation and stabilized my hormone levels while losing a significant amount of weight (Now down 108 pounds; started in March of 2021). Ultimately you just need to find a physical activity you enjoy and can do regularly and be disciplined with what you're fueling your body with. Consistency is key, the results will come if you stay disciplined!8
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1) Find an exercise you will do. Not the "all hype exercise all the people are doing today, it is so fun you gotta do that" one that you don't really care about. lols. What can I say? I am easily swayed by motivated people! I walk. Yep, it is just as exciting as it sounds. Turns out, I think for me, exercise needs to be uncomplicated and repetitious because it is some sort of unwinding of mind, relaxation thing.
2) Find a diet you will stick to - that means a deficit or maintenance that you will stick to. What this really means: know thyself. Forever I was trying to mitigate snacking, because I did that at least 1-2 times a week some weeks! Many people make such a huge deal out of snacking that I totally assumed snacking was what was keeping this 5'3" shortie 270+ lbs. Nope. I could literally eat one meal a day, and still be 270+ lbs. I am this way with meals. Is there a word for a meal-er? I read one lady said that she ate over 1000 cals of condiments. I mean, I could do that. And still be hungry. I also NEVER ate my daily protein, a second thing I needed to become aware of, I don't hate meat.. I can't say I like it either. I made so many assumptions. So if you know yourself, you will begin to see where your game is wrong. It is hard. Watching other people is so much easier, and I love observing, but when it comes to me - might as well be blind.
Those are two solid principles, but the advice on this thread is gold my friend. I recommend some reflection and maybe making a document on the ideas. Even the ones that are opposite, to remind you that there is somewhere you will be different - and yet still be successful.11 -
[quote="justanotherlosere So if you know yourself, you will begin to see where your game is wrong. It is hard. Watching other people is so much easier, and I love observing, but when it comes to me - might as well be blind.
That is a profound statement!6 -
I park way out all the time and don't give it a second thought. I also don't automatically take the elevators.5
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No snacking between meals and eating my last meal by 5:30 or 6:00.2
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Some of these go hand-in-hand with tracking, so I feel that they are cheating but here goes anyway:
- Weigh everything/no eyeballing. Eyeballing will make you complacent, and portions will start to grow (for me). Also, weighing keeps me accountable. I'll weigh out one serving and eat that, and if I want another, it makes me make that conscious decision.
- Macro tracking. I eat lots of fat, do ok on protein, and low carbs if left to myself. Being able to identify and remediate that has helped tremendously in keeping satisfied.
- If I know what I'm going to be eating (for lunch or dinner), I'll track it, and it helps me plan my snacks for the day and shore up where I may be deficient in my macros.
- Eat my calories for the day and keep consistent. If I under-eat on one day, I tend to binge the next day, and being able to ID that has helped me tremendously.
- Exercise and goal setting. For me, this means running, having a race always signed up for with a goal in mind (sub-XX:00 5k, etc.), and being able to answer the 7-Ws for it. (who, what, where, why, how, when, and with what) to make it an actual goal.
- Have fun while exercising. While I tend to push myself on "breakthrough" days, I like having a day or two during the week to myself without numbers while exercising; no pace, no miles, no intervals, and where my only goal is to enjoy myself. This looks like a trail run, paddleboarding, or playing a sport.
- Keep to my routine no matter what. This is a hard one. I run outside and hate the cold. I finally invested in some proper cold-weather, wet-weather, and cold/wet/windy running gear to make it more enjoyable, but there have been awful weather-wise. Stick through it because having a week off makes it hard to pick up again.
- To go along with the last bullet point, make a routine you can stick with. While it may be tempting to overcommit when you get started, don't. You can add to it later, and it'll make you feel good about getting to that point in your progression, while the opposite, overcommitting and having to cut back, will discourage you.
- Drink, but don't drink your calories. I've basically switched to water/soda water/seltzer, except for my post-workout protein shake or fat-free milk.
Goals: 169.9 (looking to see that 6 on the scale). Only 8.1 more lbs to go! Sub 22:00 5k.
edit: formatting5 -
Figuring out what I was absolutely unwilling to go without. I cannot give up my morning pot of tea with sugar. I’ve tried using less, using honey, using artificial sweeteners, nothing satisfies me and I have a miserable day. Sure, probably psychological rather than physical need, but I acknowledge it is there.
So, I plan around those calories. I try to make sure all my other calories are high impact and not empty.
I also have one day a week where I don’t measure. I know that I can undo a week’s worth of hard work with one day of binge eating, but one day a week I eyeball that teaspoon of butter I’m putting on my potato. I put off my cravings until my “free” day and may have ice cream, but I’m not eating a half gallon, just enough to quench the craving. The constant grind of deprivation will end my efforts no matter how much success I’m having.
I’m losing about 3 pounds every two weeks with that, so it works for me.7 -
1. Moderation - I don't mean moderation as in eating less (although important). But rather moderation on how you approach weight loss. I have a tendency to go for extremes. I want the fastest rate of loss so I try to pick an extreme calorie goal and go all in with exercise. In my past this has led to falling off the wagon and regaining all losses. This time my focus is on moderate goals and making it easy on myself and I have lost more weight than ever before and it has been almost easy. I eat food I enjoy in appropriate portions (not health food I don't like because it is healthy). I find ways to move my body that I find relaxing, fulfilling, enjoyable and don't do exercise I don't enjoy because it burns more calories.
2. Balance - This should not be an all or nothing endeavor. I find that thinking in terms of balancing my choices. For example, last year at Thanksgiving I took an extra long morning walk to compensate for some of the extra food, a special dinner with friends might be balanced with a lighter breakfast/lunch that day, when participating in special events or gatherings I might give myself the grace to eat at maintenance.
3. Patience - There will be weeks where the scale doesn't move or even goes up. Weight won't drop off as quickly as you want it to or even as fast as it did for the first few weeks. Patience will be your friend in those tough weeks where things aren't moving as you think they "should". I am nearing my maintenance goal and I fully expect these last10 lbs will take nearly as long as it took to lose the first 50.
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Make a routine you can stick with. While it may be tempting to overcommit when you get started, don't. You can add to it later, and it'll make you feel good about getting to that point in your progression, while the opposite, overcommitting and having to cut back, will discourage you.
This is so true! I can't tell you how many I have seen quit due to this exact issue. They just disappear into a hole of exhaustion/overwhelm. I always feel sad, and hope I will see them again.2 -
Go to standby meals that always fit your calories. Find the one you will eat and like and hits some of your weaker macros. Always keeping the ingredients for that meal (or 3) - so you don't have to habitually obsess about food all day, every day, for every meal.
I have a high fiber tortilla, with egg whites, refried bean and veggies every day usually for breakfast. No matter how much calorie deficit I am in, and no matter how many maintenance calories this meal is perfect. 1) gives me 50% of my daily protein 2) gives me 100% of my daily fiber for around 200-300 calories. Perfect start to the day! I don't have to constantly stress about protein.2 -
This thread is golden and should be stickied. So many good things here! I'm still early in my journey but things I think will be really helpful to me:
--Go for good, not perfection; development of habits, not motivation. It's more important for me to log than it is to be 100% accurate. I'm not going to stress about the number of cherry tomatoes or even if it is a teaspoon or a teaspoon and a half of olive oil. (I imagine as I get closer to maintenance, I might need to be more careful.)
--Someone on a different thread posted that going for seconds usually puts her over her calories. I am trying to stay away from seconds, except for vegetables and salads.
--Keep trying to look back at my diary and see where I can make little improvements, tweaks that will make a difference.
--Believe (this is the best thing I've gotten from the lists, that people CAN and DO lose significant amounts of weight *AND KEEP IT OFF.* And not believing that I would or could keep it off is, I think, why I never tried to lose much before. In other words, I think that even before we get there, our focus can/should be on practicing how we will maintain.3 -
So many awesome tips! I also agree that this thread should be stickied.
Prioritize yourself and your goal, be it weight loss, getting blood sugar in control, whatever. And realize you will not achieve your goal until you do make that your priority.4 -
Plan - Both food and exercise the night before. I make a note of my main meals and what exercise then I know what I have left in the jar for the odd treat during the day.
That and as a night time boredom snacker - if it gets bad I just go to bed knowing it will be breakfast when I get up!3 -
Create habits and treat them like they are non-negotiable. I will talk myself out of going to the gym if I think I can justify it, so if I make it a habit, eventually I don't even question it, I just do it6
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- I agree with the person who says "eat only what you love". That's been my motto. I call it my "Marie Kondo diet". Not that I eat unhealthy foods but I only eat what brings me joy and not to make someone else happy because they offered it to me or think I should try it. I only get so many calories/day so it has to be what I enjoy!
- I have a husband who is partnering with me in tracking. Even though he's at maintenance, he still tracks with me which is very helpful.
- I measure everything and don't trust my eyes to gauge the right amount.
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Drinking all my water was key4
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Flavored popcorn!!! I can munch on air popped popcorn with salt and vinegar, dill pickle, sour cream and chive, cheddar flavors instead of potato chips!! If I want sweet I have peanut butter, sweet butter, maple bacon, birthday cake, sugar cookie and a whole variety of other flavors that I can eat without adding a bunch of calories!!!
It's the the perfect solution for satisfying a craving with out breaking the willpower!3 -
Meet yourself in the middle now. Don't use get back on Monday as an excuse. Your body doesn't know what a day of the week is.
What stuck for me was sticking to the promise I made to my future self!
Also, a certain YouTuber I follow called Jackson Desjardins. He is amazing and not your typical 'bro youtuber'. Check him out, he has some great tips for the mindset.
But it's not a diet, or a quick fix. It's for LIFE. If you don't see yourself doing this after a week, month or even a year. Then, it won't work. This how great you will feel being your super self 🐱
Good luck 🤞5 -
Switching my mindset from “I can’t have that” which only made me obsessively want it to “I dont want/need that.” I know if I want it I can adjust what I eat to accommodate. Simple shift sounds silly, but it worked for me. Viewing it as a diet is limiting, but viewing it as a lifestyle is empowering.4
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