Hi, awesome successful people!! I gotta question..

Duck_Puddle

I set goals based on the things I need to do to achieve the results rather than the results themselves. My goals are based on meeting eating & exercise goals. Assuming I do those things, the weight loss will happen. And the behaviors are what I can control, and what I need to do long term to maintain my loss. So that's what I focus on, that's how I set my goals and that change in mindset to "my goal is to eat x and do y exercise this day/week/month" vs "I'm going to lose 5lbs in september" completely changed how I view this process.

I also do nothing that I don't see myself doing forever (or as long as I am able). I refuse to do crazy things to "jump start" weight loss or whatever. If I can't see myself doing something for the rest of my life (eg going low carb, cutting sugar/fast food/etc, juicing, etc) then I don't do it.

Sarge516

It takes consistent non-exercise and consistent unhealthy/over eating to get fat.

It takes consistent exercise (resistance training and cardio) and consistent healthy eating with a calorie deficit to lose weight.

Key word is consistent. Stick with it, it's a long term solution, not a quick fix.

SkinnyFatAlbert

Anything Dr. Oz says. Just kidding. I felt like my eating was out of control so I got back to basics (meat and veggies) then eventually expanded out. Exercise wise I'd say lifting a few times a week and a couple days of cardio to get my endurance up helped the most. I didn't really do anything fancy, just a basic full body of the big groups. I do circuits now to try to combine cardio and strength training.

Zelinna

Recognizing that motivation had absolutely nothing to do with it. The solution is discipline. Motivation comes and goes. If you're motivated, you don't need any help... but when you're not motivated, no amount of witty sayings and encouragement will motivate you.

You have to have the discipline to do what needs to be done even when you don't want to do it. All the time.

This!

I log absolutely everything, currently eating around 2000 cal/ day and have been for awhile. I look at my weekly calorie goal instead of my daily, so one bad day does not throw me.

I started to notice the biggest changes to how my body looked when I started included strength training and not just cardio.

cici1028

1) Logging everything eaten, even the late night snacks. They add up and they matter.
2) 1200 - 1400 a day
3) Circuit training/yoga

I took baby steps.
1) Portion control - count your calories, weigh and measure your food. Know what a serving is and stick to it. If you don't, count it.
2) Moving - start exercise. You don't have to jump to P90X immediately. Start with walking or something you enjoy like dancing.
3) Eating right. Started reducing processed food intake and cooking more... eating more vegetables, good grains, and healthy fats.

The scale is a great tool, use it in whatever way works for you. I used to weigh every day but I don't anymore because it started messing with my mind. Now when I weigh I focus on body fat% and muscle mass%.

Sarge516

Also, I just started getting serious about losing weight and noticed that the first day I started, I exercised and ate my calories, and then instead of eating a healthy dinner, I ate like 10 oatmeal cookies that I made....SNIP

You're not serious yet based on this ^^

SkinnyFatAlbert

eating real food and never trying to replace delicious ingredients with cauliflower or mashed old bananas.

I see your point but on the same token as people ask what makes a food "dirty" I'll ask you, what makes a food "real?" Isn't cauliflower as "real" as a candy bar?

silmarilliane

the one thing that helped was my mind set, which annoyingly you can't choose to change. one day i just wanted to eat better and lose weight. my mind set tends to leave me when i get down to a decent size though (especially when people start mentioning it) so i end up on a binge until i'm heavy enough to get in the mind set again... the only good thing is that my yoyos are getting smaller (4 stone off, 3 stone on, 2 stone off, 1 stone on, half stone off so far and still in the mind set)

1200 cals plus as many exercise cals as i fancy.
to start with i did zumba, tai bo and davina dvds around 4 times a week. now i do 30 day shred 4 times a week followed by some dumbbell reps and a zumba class once a week.

generally when i 'start again' i drop a load of weight quickly (water weight) and then it plateaus or increases, particularly when doing strength training. biggest advise is to take measurements and record them on mfp (and add other body areas), as it's depressing to see the scales stay the same, but nice if the tape measure says you're still getting smaller.

skullshank

eating real food and never trying to replace delicious ingredients with cauliflower or mashed old bananas.

I see your point but on the same token as people ask what makes a food "dirty" I'll ask you, what makes a food "real?" Isn't cauliflower as "real" as a candy bar?

fair enough, if you'd like to argue semantics.

what i should have said was...i eat food prepared in the traditional, more well-known ways.

for pizza crust, its some rendition of flour, yeast, sugar, salt, and olive oil...NOT mashed up cauliflower and water.

you get it.....the people get it....that's what matters, but i appreciate your pointing this out to me.

JoelleAnn78

Please read my profile. It will outline what I did and what I was thinking right or wrong. PM if you have questions.

Says it is only open to friends. I would love to read your Profile!

ktsimons

Recognizing that motivation had absolutely nothing to do with it. The solution is discipline. Motivation comes and goes. If you're motivated, you don't need any help... but when you're not motivated, no amount of witty sayings and encouragement will motivate you.

You have to have the discipline to do what needs to be done even when you don't want to do it. All the time.

I like this...

kathyrazz

For the food part just keep on trying to find something that works for you. There's fantastic advice all over this forum for weight loss, but even though I tried to incorporate that good advice in my diet, nothing was working for me. I *finally* found a system I can a) stick with and b) see some results from, but honestly it's taken me a year to get to this point.

Definitely set yourself up to get lots of exercise. I do some on my own now, and have joined a gym and organized with a friend to meet me there several days a week for either weight training sessions or cardio classes. Just helps keep me that little bit more committed to doing the exercise.

Good luck!

missalica

For me, I do the best when I take time to enjoy cooking. The days and weeks that I get interested in looking up and making healthy meals. Have friends over for healthy dinners, make it a group effort. It's tough to do it alone so having friends who are going to support you (and make your cheat nights more memorable) will provide you inspiration, even on your down days.

I really like skinnytaste.com and sarahfit on youtube

olehcat

bump for later reading

_nicole_jane

Bumping for later. Thanks!

TheFitHooker

1. Turning motivation into habit and realizing this is a commitment not an interest. Also to not rely on the scale and to focus more on the tape measure.
2. Started at 1600 calories a day, moved to 1400 now at 1200.
3. Circuit training workouts work best for me. Something that gives cardio, strength and abs all in one. I find my inches just fall off with it.

spaingirl2011

1) Committing--not waiting for motivation to come (it's not a dog, it won't come when called).

2) Planning when I can. Having dinner and other meals set up makes it so much easier to follow through on actually making that food and eating it--instead of saying, "eh, I'm just going to eat out tonight." Especially after a long day of teaching and meeting with students, having dinner on standby prevented lots of extra calories.

3) Doing some kind of activity every day. Some days are more intense, others aren't. Either way, I move!

4) Dealing with my inner demons (which also takes commitment and practice). Not eating my feelings, not eating food when it's there, not eating until I am fit to burst (which allows me to eat whatever I want to at a restaurant, because my body doesn't need the whole plate of food).

YogaLegs87

Consistency! Getting into a routine of making the right choices made such a huge difference for me.

And I really love the 80/20 rule as far as food goes. 80% as healthy as I can possibly afford/make it, and 20% treats. Keeps me from feeling deprived.

joe_d

Have some low calorie go-to foods when you've just got to munch on something. For example, for times like getting home from work (already hungry) and making dinner, I now snack on carrots, celery, mini-peppers, etc., instead of crackers, chips, and cheese. I log the raw veggies I eat, but the damage is minimal compared to the calorie, carb, fat, and sodium filled junk I'd turn to before.

And exercise--I like what some other folks have said above. Just get doing something you can stick with. But over time as your body adjusts to it you'll have to increase the effort or switch up what you're doing in some other way. I found that weight came off fastest after switching my routine to something more intense, like using HIIT (high intensity interval training) for cardio, a boot camp class, adding a long, fast paced walk on my strength days, etc.

Good luck!