Hi my name is Chris and I'm looking for a weight loss program
it doesn't matter, every fat loss program operates under the same principle. Eating fewer calories that you burn on a weekly basis over time. You want to have a diet that you can stick with pretty much permanantly . People make the mistake of going on a "diet" and then once they lose the weight going back to their old eating habits and put then weight back on.
What worked for me is having a high protein diet and staying around 14-1500 calories per day. I've been consistent for 7 months and completely changed my eating habits. In that time I've lost about 40 pounds and I lost 20 or so the year before that when I went into it halfway. I'm all in now and I am at about 27% body fat, just under 100 lbs of lean muscle and I'm weighing it at about 143 lbs as of today and I'm 5'6". Almost every day I alternate these meals for lunch and dinner (and they keep me full at it hits my 100+ grams of protein per day): lemon chicken breasts, baked chicken cutlets, taco bowls without rice or beans, meatballs (93/7 lean ground beef), steak. I have been eating chocolate rice cakes for snacks, sometimes with a scraping of peanut butter on the top. I try to drink at least a half gallon of water a day. It has worked for me and I'm about 60 lbs down and back to my college athlete weight. I log every single thing I eat. I didn't go off my diet and cut alcohol for 3 months. Now I occasionally have an ice cream or a beer but 99% of the time I am eating healthy and I actually enjoy it now. Staying in a deficit for a little while and upping the protein should work in terms of fat loss, weight loss and building muscle.
There is no universal "best" program.
The one non-negotiable is to eat fewer calories than we burn, on average. . . over a fairly long time, if we have quite a bit to lose. That's true whether we count the calories, or use another method.
What matters IMO is finding an approach that's manageable and achievable for the unique individuals that we are - something that suits our preferences, strengths, challenges, lifestyle.
Myself, I did this (link below) to lose from class 1 obese to a healthy weight, and stay at a healthy weight (so far) for about 10 years since:
That might suit you . . . or it might not.
Best wishes - the quality of life improvement from succeeding is more than worth the effort, IME.
not everyone on looking to lose weight. Some people are looking to add it. Others are trying to improve their health and energy. But, the calorie counting tool here is useful for all of those.
It’s a very personal journey, but it’s enlightening to see where your calories are coming from so you can decide what makes sense for you. Intermittent fasting helps me, but many people hate it.
I make sure I eat plain meat without all the trimmings of yummy home cooked food. Zero cane sugar and processed food is when I lose weight.
What are you looking for, a meal plan, a structured paid for program? Unfortunatley, there is no 'one size fits all' when it comes to weight loss. It is individualized.
I used to like Weight Watchers, because it is a way to look at portion control with only quasi tracking (points is really tracking, people.) But, they now have so many 'zero point' foods, and some that can have a good number of calories, that it can easily fail. Noom, is an interesting idea, haven't looked into it closely. But, it looks at the psychological reasons for eating. So much of our eating is NOT for nutrition but for stress/boredom/moods/celebration/etc. By restructuring the way we think about eating, we can help ourselves.
If you looking at a meal plan, per se, ignore ALL THE FAD DIETS. No one diet plan out there will make you lose weight. Even on the diet proven to be the most overal healthy - plant forward (aka Mediterranean) you can gain weight if you don't watch amounts. But, increasing veggies for the fiber and water and lean proteins can help you feel full and help you not overeat as much. Cutting back on easy to digest and calorie dense processed foods is a huge key to health and weight loss.
