How can I loose the weight

GabbyFancy

Hi I’ve just joined my fitness pal. I’m 212 at 5’6 and I’m trying to get to 150. I need help trying to discipline myself and really push towards my goal. My biggest fear Is having health issues because of weight. What are some ways you guys discipline yourselves to loose the weight.

csplatt

weigh and measure my food for the day in the morning. make all food choices for the day ahead of time and pre log as much as you can. without a plan for the day we may be more impulsive.

AnnPT77

I make a plan that requires the minimum of discipline, pushing or other forms of unpleasantness, personally. "Lose weight fast" can be a trap.

I really committed to losing weight at an older age. I was already experiencing health consequences. I decided I wasn't going to do anything to lose weight that I wasn't willing to continue long term to stay at a healthy weight, other than a sensibly moderate calorie goal to achieve gradual weight loss until I reached a good weight for me. Loss from class 1 obese to a healthy weight took just under a year. I'm now in year 9+ maintaining a healthy weight, after around 30 years pre-loss of overweight/obesity. I'm feeling pretty good about having taken that approach.

Hedonistic aging hippie flake that I am, with a severely limited budget of motivation, discipline or willpower, that was ideal for me. When I reached goal weight, I'd already found and practiced the habits I'd need to stay at a healthy weight. All I needed to do was eat a few more calories daily to stabilize my weight, and go on with those established habits.

Sometimes a slow loss rate can get a person to goal weight in less calendar time than some extreme plan that causes bouts of deprivation-triggered over-eating, breaks in the action, or even giving up altogether because It's. Just. Too. Hard.

Too many people get here planning some grueling forced march that involves extremely low calories, fast loss, maximum food restrictions ("no treats, eat only superfoods" attitude), then they stack a punitively intense, miserable daily exercise plan on top of that. That doesn't usually end well, but it does seem to end quickly.

Maybe consider an alternative: Gradually remodel your eating. Start logging what you eat now. Notice foods that have a lot of calories that you could reduce (frequency or portion size) to reduce your calorie totals on a weekly-totals basis. Try that. If you can stay mostly full and happy most of the time with that change, keep it in your routine. Look for the next change. Substitute lower-calorie foods you like for some of the higher-calorie foods you eat. Figure out which foods are most filling for you, help you stay energetic. Keep going, chipping away in a positive direction. This can work.

A slow loss rate is fine, though it can take several weeks to show up clearly on the scale amongst larger daily water retention and digestive waste fluctuations. Consider this: If you were to lose weight at the very slow pace of half a pound a week on average, you'd lose 26 pounds in a year. If you do it by manageably remodeling eating, you'll know how to keep it off, and know a process you can use to keep losing.

I'm not necessarily saying to lose that slowly, just trying to get you to consider that a year is going to pass regardless. If you pick a sustainable loss rate you can spend that year productively, compared to getting on a merry-go-round of losing a few pounds by white-knuckling through an extreme plan, only to give up and maybe even binge, regain some/all of the loss (or more), fall into guilt or shame, maybe restart in a few weeks/months for another round of the same. That latter is a sadly common pattern.

On the exercise front, just look for ways to move more in daily life, or by adding some pleasant, manageable exercise. No extremes are necessary, and extremes can be counter-productive for weight loss: If we go too hard with exercise, we get fatigued, drag through our days, move less in daily life, rest/sleep more, and burn fewer calories than expected that way, effectively wiping out a bunch of the exercise calories.

The point is to find some balance: An easy enough plan so a person can stick with it long term, an effective enough plan that there's some progress toward goals. With the right plan, the person can also be learning the habits they need to not just reach a good weight, but stay there almost on autopilot when other parts of life get complicated, which they eventually will. It can work, and it's a very different mindset from "lose weight fast".

No one approach is perfect for everyone. Maybe this idea isn't for you. That's your call. But it's a possible approach to consider.

Wishing you success, no matter what you decide. In my experience, the quality of life improvement from being steadily at a healthy weight are more than worth the effort it takes to get there.

PAV8888

Forget about discipline as your primary goal.

Do you want to change your life's trajectory?

Then start checking into the habits and issues that are contributing towards your systematic (multi day/multi time, maybe in the past, maybe still going on today) over eating.

From someone who ate (not even drunk in my case, just ate) themselves into an even higher absolute and relative weight than you have... you didn't overshoot to 212 by accident.

You don't have to confront and resolve every issue.... maybe you're sedentary--too much gaming or tv? maybe you like food too much? Maybe you stress eat? Maybe everything you do with family and friends involves over eating?

Maybe you don't even know yourself as of yet --- I for sure did not (genuinely did not) realize what was causing half of my eating habits and problems when starting out.

But I logged my food before eating it.

I reviewed my logs.

Reflected on my day.

And slowly started making incremental changes.

Reducing cream and sugars in my coffee and cutting down (or out) mayonnaise and dressings was easy to figure out.

Figuring out situations of stress eating and how to partially work around them less so.

You don't have to be perfect to make progress. You don't have to go from 212 to 150 in one year.

But you can sure make improvements to your life over the next year or two!

Discipline is a tool. Logging is a tool. Ways of eating are tools.

But someone has to coordinate the project, pick, and use the tools.

And while power tools work fast, you can still build things with hand tools!

Sometimes even better!

neanderthin

I eat intuitively and what some would consider a species specific diet which is based mostly in consuming animal products. I don't think about what foods to eat generally speaking and I don't think in terms of calories either. There's many ways to solving a problem and this was mine. Whatever you decide I hope you find success. 😊

cmriverside

What they said ^

I was ready. I started at 220 and 5'8" - so about where you are. I have been at 140-145 for most of the past 18 years since I lost that 80 pounds. A couple times I've been injured which makes exercise tough, but I never let my weight go up by more than 10 pounds in 18 years.

Just start.

There are going to be setbacks. Unplanned meals out. Parties. Vacations. Birthdays. Holidays, etc.

Just try to keep the damage to a minimum (like just that ONE day, not the whole week) and get right back at it the next day.

Habits take time. If you don't give up then eventually you will succeed.

tomcustombuilder

Keep junk food out of the house

Count calories for accountability

Embrace a certain amount of hunger

Don't drink calories

When I'm in fatloss mode these are the things I adhere to