Top 6 lessons from my weight loss journey

Joe64321

I thought it might be useful to pass on a few tips I learned in losing weight using the app in hope they may help others. I pass these on knowing that everyone's body is different and what works for one person may not work for another. But each of these tips is something I learned along my journey that I wished I had known at the start. As background, I spent 2.5 years without MyFitnessPal losing 20 pounds, and then lost 15 pounds in less than six weeks with it.

-Focus on the carbs, not the fat - For all the talk about a low fat diet being good for you, there is no scientific evidence dietary fat is a cause of heart disease, diabetes or any other disease. In fact there is actually more evidence that increasing the fat in your diet will accelerate your weight loss, since fat makes you feel less hungry and slows the release of calories from your digestive system. So when you start getting the summary from the app of your breakdown of protein / fat / carbs, pay close attention to your carbs. My advice is: 1) eliminate all industrial / processed / refined flour / fructose foods from your diet since these are the worst possible carbs / sugars, and 2) keep your carbs consistently low to maximize the fat burning.
-Make sure you are getting enough protein - Prior to using the app I was not consistent in my protein intake, and was often severely under the daily recommended amount (which depending on your source can be 0.7-1 gram of protein for every pound of body weight). It took me the first couple weeks to get consistency in my intake of protein / fat / carbs, and once I did the weight loss seemed to kick in.
-Maintain consistency in consuming / burning calories - For the last 2.5 years, I was in a routine of going to the gym five days a week. This level of exercise resulted in my body naturally wanting to consume more calories. While this was fine Mon-Fri on my workout days, when I hit the weekend I switched to a low activity / sedentary lifestyle. The result was that I took two steps forward during the week, and then two steps back on the weekend - and then I'd wonder why I was not making more progress. I solved this quickly using the app by adjusting either my calories (e.g. eat less), my activity (e.g. long walks on weekends) or both.
-Find your go-to low calorie / low carb / filling snacks - There will be times in the day you just need a snack. I used to eat a lot of nuts as a snack to fill me up, but after using the app I realized how dense they are in calories for my portion sizes. I found my solution in two foods: 1) popcorn with some nutritional yeast (for protein), and 2) celery with humus (small humus portion size). I would eat these at times in the day where I was hungry but not ready for a meal. Find the foods that work for you and just keep them stocked for when you need them.
- Limit your eating window - I can't prove this actually helped me, but I will still pass it on. I made sure not to eat after 6 PM under the belief any calories consumed in the evening will not be put to good use. I actually chose to do my workouts / walks in the morning before I ate too, under the assumption that it would accelerate the fat burning. Again, I can't prove it helped, but I suspect it did.
-Add a low impact activity into your day - I added a daily walk into my routine to increase my energy expenditure. On days I wasn't going to the gym or when I knew I was eating out, I would increase the length of this walk. I found this a great way to adjust my activity to the anticipated calorie consumption each day.

Well that's all I can think of in my first pass. I'd love to hear your tips too.

AnnPT77

My tips - things that were important for me, maybe not for all others - would be:

* Think about calorie and nutrient goals as "pretty good on average, over a day or few" rather than aiming at "perfect every single day".

* Focus on making weight loss easier rather than trying to make it faster. The stretch goal isn't about just losing the weight, it's about staying at a healthy weight long term. Doing that requires finding and grooving in new habits that can work almost on autopilot when other parts of life get challenging (because they will). Personalize tactics to one's own preferences, strengths, limitations, lifestyle. I decided not to do anything to lose weight that I wasn't willing to continue forever to stay at a healthy weight, other than a sensibly moderate calorie deficit until I reached goal weight. Other people can give us ideas to try, but not guaranteed solutions. That goes double for trendy tactics from tabloids or the blogosphere.

* Get overall good nutrition, recognizing that both fats and protein contain "essential nutrients" (in the technical sense that our bodies can't make those essential amino acids and essential fatty acids from any other food intake). Most people will find so called whole foods more filling and nutrient dense, but that doesn't mean I can't have a treat occasionally just for joy. A variety of dietary styles can provide adequate nutrition.

* Look for enjoyable exercise (at minimum practical, tolerable exercise). Any exercise I actually do regularly is 100% more beneficial than unpleasant exercise I skip or procrastinate with the slightest excuse.

* Routine habits I repeat most days are the most important focus. The majority of my days trigger the majority of my results, not the rare day when I eat too much cake or work out for 5 hours.

* Increasing exercise gradually is typically better for weight loss and for fitness improvement. Punitively intense exercise can bleed calorie burn out of daily life movement, wiping out some of the exercise calories. Over-exercising short-changes recovery, which is where the magic - rebuilding better - happens. How often, long, or intensely I exercise is less important than whether that exercise load is appropriate for my current fitness level. The sweet spot is a manageable challenge to current capabilities. "Manageable" avoids counter-productive fatigue or injury risk. "Challenge" creates fitness progress. As the current exercise gets easy, that's the time to increase duration, intensity or frequency (or change exercise type) to keep a challenge in the picture. Elite athletes don't go maximum intensity every workout, and they have the best professional advice money can buy. Why would us regular duffers do otherwise?

* Losing any meaningful total amount of weight is a long game. Sometimes a slow target loss rate can get a person to goal weight in less calendar time than an extreme approach that causes deprivation-triggered over-eating, breaks in the action, or even giving up altogether because it's Just Too Hard.

There's probably more, but that's enough. As context, I'm 68 F, severely hypothyroid (medicated), in year 8 of maintaining a healthy weight after just under a year of loss (50ish pounds) from class 1 obese, and around 30 previous years of overweight/obesity.

Debz2451

Wow that's brilliant well done you 👏 👍

Hobartlemagne

Excellent lessons learned. Those can benefit everyone.