Dieting vs. Lifestyle Changing...what do I do???

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  • deksgrl
    deksgrl Posts: 7,237 Member
    Dieting comes with the built in notion of "deprivation". The idea that if you are not DEPRIVING yourself, then you are not doing it right and you cannot possibly lose weight.

    That is a lie. You can lose weight without depriving yourself. You can eat "normal" foods. You can even eat fast food, pizza and ice cream, as long as you stay within your calorie goals.

    The other built in notion is that you have to about kill yourself with exercise, that is another lie.

    My advice is: Set a reasonable calorie goal, have a reasonable exercise routine. Eat foods you enjoy, in the proper amount. Time and patience.

    Weight training will help you preserve muscle while you lose fat so that you will like what you see after the pounds come off.
  • MeanderingMammal
    MeanderingMammal Posts: 7,866 Member
    How do I lose the weight I gained back without make purposeful effort to lose weight again?

    Can't speak for anyone else, but what I've found is that just tracking what I'm eating, within the bounds of my calorie limit and various categories within that, has made me much more thoughtful about the effect of what I eat. In some ways connecting to Runkeeper, so that I can see the effect of my exercise on that as well had a complementary effect.

    You're right, it's about lifestyle changes, rather than dieting. What do you want to achieve, weight loss, and how can that fit within your life. Again from a personal perspective I can't get on with the whole "weighing and measuring" zealotry, it just doesn't fit into my life so I end up underscoring on my calories, and listening to what my body is telling me. It's having an effect.
    In terms of exercise I've chosen to follow a route that fits into my life. I spend a lot of time travelling with work, so I run and choose hotels that I can go out for a run from. That reduces my reasons to not go out.

    That point about fitting with the lifestyle, and the thoughtful choices, means I'm no longer as tempted to eat poor choices when I'm in the car. I still have the odd Kit-Kat chunky, but I'm more inclined to stock up on fruit or dried fruit.

    The main thing for me is that if you try to fit your life around a diet, it won't work. Fit your lifestyle into your personal circumstances.

    All the best with it
  • Francl27
    Francl27 Posts: 26,371 Member
    Lifestyle change in the sense that I went into it knowing it was forever. Which I guess is why it took me years to find the willpower to do it. I haven't drowned myself in cardio (although my activity has increased a lot), I'm eating what I want within limits and watching portions, and I'm fully aware that when I'm at goal weight, I'll still only be able to eat about 300 more calories a day, less if I'm less active.

    The main issue with diets is that people go in wanting to lose weight, but don't really realize they'll have to maintain after. So they go all crazy with a lot of cardio and low calories, or cut some food groups, and as soon as they start eating 'normally' again and/or stop all the cardio, they just gain the weight back.

    I've been losing weight pretty fast too, frankly, eating 1600-1700 calories a day. But I know I'll probably have to maintain at 2000, so I try to be aware of that and just learn good eating habits as I go.

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