i cant stick at a diet for more than 5 days

jennifer_417

Don't give up everything you love...just learn how to eat fewer calories than you burn.

Edited for typo.

cafeaulait7

I like eating and not being hungry, so I don't run much of a deficit under maintenance. But I have more patience, so it all works out

Last time (yes, I got my bad habits back and shouldn't have), I even ate at maintenance for my goal weight. It worked so easily but just took soooo long.

I just simply can't have as many treats as I would like, period (I like a lot). They were completely empty calories anyway, so it's better to eat less of them. Now I'm borderline pre-diabetic and my triglycerides were kind of high, so it's just unreasonable for me to want a big dessert every day! Really -- no excuses on that. I still eat little ones, though, no doubt

neandermagnon

The trick is to find the easiest way to eat and live that still results in actual fat loss. This fat loss need not be fast. The goal isn't to lose weight as quickly as possible, it's to reach your goal weight/bf% and stay there for life. It doesn't matter if it takes longer to get there, what matters is that when you get there, you stay there for the long term.

So, what you need is a small calorie deficit (set your MFP goal to lose 1lb a week, or if you only have a few lbs to lose, then 0.5lb a week), aim to eat all the things your body needs from foods that you like (protein, fat, carbs, vitamins, minerals, fibre water) and with your remaining calories, eat what you want. Do exercise that you enjoy and will find easy to stick to, and eat back your exercise calories (be realistic about calorie burns though, MFP tends to overestimate those). You have to track your food intake carefully, I'd recommend using a digital scale and weighing your food, to be sure that you're logging everything accurately.

Then give yourself targets for long term compliance. Your first target is a 1 week goal. i.e. stick with the above for 1 week. Then have a 3 week goal, a 1 month goal, a 3 month goal, a 6 month goal, a 1 year goal.... etc etc etc. By the time you get to 1 month, you should find you're in the habit of eating better, logging your food and doing regular exercise that you enjoy, and it should get even easier.

Monitor your weight weekly, but don't stress out about 1 week gains, look for a trend overall. If your weight is generally going down, even if the occasional week it goes up (e.g. TOM week or after a day of eating a lot of sodium) then you're doing it right and keep going. If it stays the same for several weeks, or there's a consistent pattern of weight gain, then lower your calorie goal. If you're losing more than 1lb a week, or you're feeling constantly hungry/crankyaa/tired etc then raise your calorie goal.

Also monitor inches and how you look in the mirror. If your weight stays the same or goes up, but the inches are going down, then *this does not count* you're doing it right and don't lower your calories unless the inch loss also stops, or if you reach goal (as in a goal dress size, rather than a goal weight, because that counts more than the scale).

QueenBishOTUniverse

I me neither, just today I had taco bell, and Wendy's!

That's funny, my "diet" today consisted of taco bell for lunch and five guys for diner! I was actually laughing because based on my calorie intake and macro settings, today was actually my best day this week :laugh:

This is the deal OP, you've gotten some great advice in this thread, start with some small changes and make sure they are changes you can live with. As some have suggested, you may just need to spend a week or two measuring and logging all of your food to build the habit. From there, figure out how much you are eating on average, and start trying to find ways of cutting your average intake down a bit. Once you've got some confidence with that, here's some advanced reading for you:

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1080242-a-guide-to-get-you-started-on-your-path-to-sexypants

NRSPAM

^^^These people speak truth! I use a bodymedia to determine what I burn. Lately been having a hard time staying under on my intake, but I usually have good results with it. The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over, and expecting different results. You need to figure out what you need to change. It has to be something that you can live with for the rest of your life, or you will eventually fail. So many people out there don't want to hear it. Lift more, move more, eat more, be successful. That's my motto anyway.

Duck_Puddle

5 days is pretty good! I can't stick to a diet for a whole 12 hours. So I don't. I just eat fewer calories than I use (most of the time). And make small changes at a time-not going balls to the wall eating nothing but celery and working out 700 hours a day. Eat foods you like (that fit your calorie goals) and do some sort of activity you enjoy doing. And don't do anything you can't see doing for the rest of your life.

ElnuevoAdrian

I'll tell you the secret: It's a combination of choosing your favorite way of dieting and personal motivation. People say some lack willpower, but willpower is a small piece of the equation. We all have the willpower to lose weight. Hell, if I told you to eat a magic fruit and you'll be at your goal weight, you would probably have the willpower to eat the damn fruit right?

Choosing the right diet is the first key. IF you start a "Only eat grapefruit for 10 days" diet, you're probably going to fail because 1) that would suck to eat. and 2) in 10 days you aren't guaranteed a ****load of weight loss. Now if someone told you to eat a grapefruit once a day and change nothing else, it would probably be something you could stick with for probably the rest of your life. Even at 1 a day, it might be an inconvenience, but for the greater good of your weight loss, you would probably do it right?

The second key is personal motivation. Lets assume that you have never heard of sdlanodcm. You don't even know what it is, and have NO clue what it does. if I told you they sold hamburgers, delicious hamburgers and french fries, you might be more tempted to go. Now turn that word around. Mcdonalds. Suddenly you know what it is. What they sell. They are programmed into your head to think about delicious hamburgers french fries, and you will probably jump at the chance to eat it. You think I'm going no where with this logic? Wrong. It's all in the advertising. Just like all the commercials on T.V. about weight loss pills that work, you see the before picture and the after picture. You start to wonder if they are real, and that using their method, you too can lose all that weight.

This is where it leads to MY story. My story begins with wanting to lose weight. The key was I wanted to enjoy the diet. I stumbled onto a subdivision of a website with a diet I hadn't heard of. The Ketogenic diet. I saw it on www.reddit.com/r/keto. The Ketogenic diet looked like it was Atkins on crack. Low carb, high fat, moderate protein. I was skeptical. I love breads and I love rice and beans and potatoes. But then I saw the foods I could still eat (some of it in moderation, like alcohol). Steaks, eggs, butter, fatty foods that don't even sound like diet food; Bacon, broccoli, cauliflower, pizza (low carb one) pepperoni, liquor, etc. etc. etc. I could eat that. That doesn't sound THAT hard to do. Bam! I had found a diet I could do. They say it takes you 21 days to start a habit. If I could do something in 21 days and not revert to my old ways, I could definitely stick to it for a long time.

Then the second key appeared. I started reading stories online in this forum of people like me and you. Not spokespersons on television. Nobody was selling me ****. It was simply, I've been doing this for 10 days and I've already lost X pounds. The results were too good to be true. I started seeing more posts of people losing ten, twenty, fifty, a hundred pounds! And I thought "well maybe just like the television commercials, there could be some extreme results for a small number of participants". Then I started reading more and more and more people with results. Not just weight, but actual inches lost. Others were feeling healthier. Some could sleep better, others had better skin and hair. Regardless, it started to look better and better. Then I read some other stories about people who hadn't lost weight, and had issues with the diet. They were constipated, felt gross eating so much fat, etc. etc. No real issues of anyone gaining weight. thought. Weird! So I started the diet. For ****s and giggles I tried it full blown Keto for 1 week. I weighed myself at the beginning of the week and at the end of the week. Holy ****. I lost 15 pounds! This was too good to be true. I continued two more weeks and by the end of the month I was down 35 pounds. The weight was dropping off. Clothes started fitting better. Suddenly, the loss of appetite began. I wasn't as hungry anymore. The cravings for chocolates, sweets, breads were almost non-existent. Every time I got a craving, I would look at a picture of my at my heaviest and I would think, well...this craving will pass. I would have cheat days every month or so, but always maintained myself to a strict diet every day when i didn't cheat. Suddenly 6 months later I was down 105+ pounds. I was looking better, my ego and self esteem shot through the roof.

I wish the story ended with a happy ending. It didn't. For other reasons I won't really get into, I stopped doing the diet. I felt confident about myself and thought the hard part was done, I had lost the weight now it would be easier to keep off and I went back to my habits of eating unhealthy foods. Suddenly 2 years later I'm right back to where I began, as if I hadn't lost weight at all.

BUT, I'm starting over again. 24 days ago I vowed to fix the mistakes I committed and not only fix the symptoms, but also the reason for my overeating. I'm down 24 pounds (haven't lost weight in 3 days) so in 21 days I lost 24 pounds, and I'm hoping for it to continue falling off. Some of my clothes fit a little better, but I have a long way to go (goal weight loss of 250 pounds, to arrive at 200 pounds myself) but I know that it works, I have seen the results first hand, so I know I can do it and I know I can achieve weight loss again.

Hope this helped.

SLLRunner

how do u pro,s do it

I haven't given up a thing I like to eat, I just choose to eat in moderation now. In other words, I burn more calories then I consume. MFP has the tools to track calories in/calories out so that I am able to stay accountable.

markusv3000

I have had the same problem.

A few things that has helped me to lose 13lbs so for this month.

10,000 Steps a Day
I bought a Fitbit and set a goal for 10,000 steps a day. If your not usually active like I wasn't, this can take some energy to achieve. But when you wake up eat day knowing you need to do 10,000 steps you think about more ways to be active on your feet walking, and you think twice about what you put into you body if you are going to be actively on your feet for more than a hour day.

Pre Planning
Pre planning is important. Plan your meals the night before. Keep low calorie snacks at home. And track everything you eat. I get overwhelmed with to much cooking. So I have 3 slim fast through out the day, and 2 chicken thighs and veggies from el polo loco for dinner. I randomly replace the slim fast with other low carb meals I cook like fish, pork chops, turkey, etc.


Limit what you focus on
I struggle with focus. But coming into the new year, I decided to make 2 things things my main focus and losing weight is 1 of the things. So when I get distracted with the things in life, I refer to my list of the 2 things that are important to me, and everything else doesn't matter.

Hope that helps. Don't give up.

Once again, I'm loving my fitbit. I think it's the foundation to my success so far. I have now completed 19 days of doing 10,000 steps a day, which I'm happy about because i would usually give up by now.

sowich25

Diets are no more than FADS. every once in a while you have to treat yourself to the things you like. As long as done in moderation. All you have to do is burn more calories than you intake to help you lose weight.

Karlayito1

I HATE any kind of diet! can't handle juicing, or not having carbs or cookies every day. This is why I would rather count my calories and sacrifice some things for others. I want to loose 6 more pounds so Im exercising everyday ( not so intense on some days) but I'm trying to make exercise a daily habit and not just something I do to loose weight. Since Jan 1 I've lost 7 pounds I have carbs and everything I like in moderation within my calorie goal of 1500 I do drink a lot of water, fruit, and vegs daily. I feel I eat way better when I'm counting my calories. No soda, no bag of chips while watching tv, no starbucks frappucinos, I have a skinny late instead. Good luck, Don't diet! get moving and start counting calories.

p4ulmiller

how do u pro,s do it

By remembering what I used to look like.

daimere

You have some great great advice. When I started losing weight 5 years ago, I just started walking more and ate less fast food (new job/no money). I lost 25 lbs not even trying. Then I started to really do it. I tried to figure out a few things I love: shrimp, mushrooms, broccoli. I tried to figure out things I hate: milk. So I chose not to drink milk, switched to soy/almond milk because why waste calories on something I don't like? I still had some treats (nutella with a note do you REALLY want to waste this many calories) that was on the top shelf and in the back. I chose exercises I liked and just tried to enjoy life. I wore a pedometer every day.

Now, I've tried to use that same method to lose again. And I've failed. Why? Because my life 3 years after was much different. So I've spent the last few years trying to refigure out what my new form of weight loss is. Now a days it is intermittent fasting (which I was VERY against for years). But I'm tracking on MFP, wearing a pedometer every day and losing weight! But either way, every form of weight loss I have tried hasn't been a fad diet. No grapejuice with every meal, etc. Even if I fall off the wagon a few times, as long as I get back up, I am fine. I failed 3 times last year. But I kept trying and guess what? I was down 25 pounds since Jan 1 2013! I'll take it!

Also read full-filled and Beck diet solution books. These are amazing books and will help SO much. You can do this. Trust me, you can do this! Never give up.

alisonlynn1976

You probably can't stick to it because you're not eating enough. Create a *moderate* calorie deficit and add some exercise. Accept that this is a slow, long-term process. Don't expect a dramatically new body after a week.

callyart

I don't diet. I am not on a diet. I am simply changing my lifestyle so I am healthier. This seems to be the most common answer, too.

I am exercising more and eating smaller portions with healthier options.

I am going to start exercising more next week, so I can eat more calories.

89nunu

I thought I just say again what has been said all throughout this thread. Don't diet.
A diet is already setting you up for failure cause you are waiting for it to finish...
Just watch what you eat and the fat will melt off!!