How are YOU losing your weight?

theinrich1025

For the last month or so I've been making very conscious decisions to eat better and exercise. I've lost a good solid 10 pounds that hasn't come back at all, but I am also not losing weight at all!
I am having the worst time trying to figure out what to eat when, what to do at the gym and how to put everything all together.
I haven't been looking for any quick fixes and have been trying my hardest to do everything the healthy, long-lasting way.
I spend a decent amount of money on good food and my gym membership, so my "personal trainer" piggy bank is as empty as can be. I've looked into some of the online options but can't seem to find one that is legit and worth the money.
I'm also a researcher so I think I have a pretty solid base of facts about different things that involve nutrition, fitness and exerciser, but once again, my problem is I can't put them all together into something that works.

Does anyone have any tips about what they have done and how they managed to lose their weight the healthy way, or any success stories of online personal trainers, ect, ect, ect, ect. ANY info is greatly appreciated!

Thank you!

rml_16

I've lost a good solid 10 pounds that hasn't come back at all, but I am also not losing weight at all!

Huh?

marilandica

Eat less and exercise more. For me at least, there's no magic combination beyond that. I keep my daily net calories within my target (I tend to eat "better" foods as a result simply because they tend to be less calorie dense, but I certainly don't eliminate any category of food) and I walk an average of 25 miles a week at 4.2-4.5 mph beyond my other physical activity (hiking, gardening etc). Honestly, for me at least. there's no actual need to over-think the whole process.

jlapey

Join this group:

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/groups/home/10118-eat-train-progress

Or at least read this from the group:

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/833026-important-posts-to-read

Kaelitr0n

Eat and exercise to be fit and healthy; losing weight should come as a byproduct of that.

I don't eat any processed foods, no grains or legumes (including peanuts, beans of all types, and soy), and I cycle my dairy consumption (one month on, one month off). I focus on getting high quality and organic proteins, including vitamin and mineral packed offal, and try to source it locally wherever possible. Also, loads of organic fruits and veggies. That's where the bulk of my budget goes.

Since I actively want to lose weight, I try to stay at or below 50g net carbs per day, which isn't terribly difficult once you give up grains.

Lift heavy and lift often. I hate strength training, but I'm trying to make a concentrated effort to get this in.

nomorebingesgirl2014

Bump

BigT555

Eat less and exercise more. For me at least, there's no magic combination beyond that. I keep my daily net calories within my target (I tend to eat "better" foods as a result simply because they tend to be less calorie dense, but I certainly don't eliminate any category of food) and I walk an average of 25 miles a week at 4.2-4.5 mph beyond my other physical activity (hiking, gardening etc). Honestly, for me at least. there's no actual need to over-think the whole process.

truth, especially bolded

marissanik

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

Good reference.

JoRocka

how do I lose weight?

eat at a calorie deficit at all times.

Lift all the things.
Eat ice cream.
do some cardio when I have time.

Iwishyouwell

- Intuitive eating meets intermittent fasting.

- A diet heavy in nutritious, satiating foods that don't tempt me to overeat.

- Indulging heavily in my trigger sweet treats when I have them, but limiting how often I do.

- Exercise is optional. I tend to prefer to heavily exercise during periods of maintenance than periods of active loss. I don't rely on exercise for body fat cutting, I rely almost solely on my deficit.

corgicake

All sixty pounds of what I've done was calorie counting and exercise. I shamelessly ate off the kids menu everywhere (if anything you will get a knowing smile out of the waitstaff and/or elders within earshot) and ate like a so-called "normal" person by today's standards when I exercised until the bike miles got too high and I learned about sports nutrition out of necessity. Elders remember a normal that worked for most people. If you know one, get them started talking on it and don't interrupt except to encourage them to keep talking by asking questions. Some of the most useful things I know were learned from them.

TminusFitnessN321

I've surprisingly lost 16lbs in 7 weeks by eating healthy (a lot of salads, low-carb foods, no sweets or pop) and eating 1500 calories a day... but I sometimes go over. -_- I walk everyday with my family for an hour or so in the evenings and I also do a mix of cardio kickboxing and strength training on the Xbox 4-5 days a week for 30 minutes. THE BIGGEST HELP, DRINKING A LOT OF WATER! It really is surprising when you kick out the junk foods and drinks from your diet, how much it weighs on your body.

F00LofaT00K

For the last month or so I've been making very conscious decisions to eat better and exercise. I've lost a good solid 10 pounds that hasn't come back at all, but I am also not losing weight at all!
I am having the worst time trying to figure out what to eat when, what to do at the gym and how to put everything all together.
I haven't been looking for any quick fixes and have been trying my hardest to do everything the healthy, long-lasting way.
I spend a decent amount of money on good food and my gym membership, so my "personal trainer" piggy bank is as empty as can be. I've looked into some of the online options but can't seem to find one that is legit and worth the money.
I'm also a researcher so I think I have a pretty solid base of facts about different things that involve nutrition, fitness and exerciser, but once again, my problem is I can't put them all together into something that works.

Does anyone have any tips about what they have done and how they managed to lose their weight the healthy way, or any success stories of online personal trainers, ect, ect, ect, ect. ANY info is greatly appreciated!

Thank you!

You can eat all the "best," "good," and "healthy" foods, avoid all of the "bad" and "unhealthy" foods and be the most committed gym member ever, but if your not in a caloric deficit, you will not lose weight. I gained weight doing what you're doing because I was just eating too much fish, chicken breast, vegetables, etc. Too many calories=too many calories no matter what foods they come from.

I've realized that there are no foods that are entirely good or bad for you. Foods are what you make of them. I eat everything in moderation while eating at a slight caloric deficit and I have been successfully losing weight since October. Eventually, I reach a weight where I maintain and I have to reduce my calories a little bit more. You have clearly reached a point where you are eating exactly what your body needs to maintain your CURRENT weight, which is why you lost 10lbs but not an ounce more. I highly suggest tracking calories and paying attention to how many grams of carbs, protein and fat you are putting into your body. Do some research on IIFYM (if it fits your macros).

ETA::: I don't do any exercise, aside from my physical job, I just make sure I'm in a caloric deficit. Science says you MUST lose weight if you eat fewer calories than your body needs to fuel itself. It then turns its own fat stores into the energy it's lacking. . . thus we experience weight loss!

corbinskiii

I plan and prep all meals every Sunday for the whole week, it gives me no excuse to go out and grab something unhealthy, not to mention it saves a ton of money. All food is weighed on a scale and logged before I eat it. I eat lean proteins and try to make healthy choices and always stay within my calorie allowance. I run on my elliptical machine and that's really it. Planning and self control have been my best friend.

Quirky_but_nice

I make sure I weigh and measure and log EVERYTHING. Then, if you are keeping below the calorie level you will lose weight.
HOWEVER there may be a too generous calorie level as someone else has posted earlier. If that's the case you need to lower it by about 150 calories and see if that makes a difference.

Feel free to look at my diary, it's public, for ideas of foods and portions.
erm .... and treats!

FindingAmy77

I just make it a every day thing, eat at decicit of foods that I have consciously purchased to be as healthy or natural as possible, exercise daily and drink water. I eat what I like. I try new foods and recipes here and there too. I keep it basis as possible and think I can maintain this for life. So far, so good.

TheNewMe99

It is very hard for me to lose weight. Calorie deficit is great but the kind of calories you eat is important. I have been eating clean for a few months now and feel so much better. Making sure to have a balance meal plan with portion control is also important. So 30 net carbs for the day is low. Try staying within 30 carbs or less per meal. Before you exercise have a carb and a protein at least 7g of protein. Limit you sodium/salt intake. Remember fruits are healthy carbs they contain vitamins and antioxidants our bodies need. If you want to make this a life style you have to find the right combo that works for you. Look into the Paleo diet. As for exercise (which I hate) I recommend lots of cardio, walking, biking, hiking, swimming, find what you like. Beach body has exercise videos you can you use for strength training. There are all different levels for you to pick from. Good Luck and keep me posted!

icrushit

I'm doing a lower carb thing, and watching my calorie intake at the same time. I'm probably eating about 500 less calories every day, and doing a lot (60- 90 mins) of walking as I have the freedom to at the moment. Between all those, and after losing about 3lbs of water weight at the beginning, I'm finding the weight is coming off quickly enough, even slightly too quickly (2- 2.5lbs per week). I'm ok with that though, as I'm just letting things normalise a little at the moment, and have only been doing this three weeks, so if the weight loss continues to be so quick, I will up my food a little and taper it back a little. Right now though, no complaints, and no unhealthy side effects of my approach. Moreover I feel much more energised, and in general do not find any hunger pangs too bad (ones I only feel between 8pm and 10am, when I stop eating).

Re: exercise, I'm only walking, something I love to do, but ideally I would like to add some proper resistance training soon enough, as well as introducing some occasional high intensity interval exercise like sprinting. Those three seem to be the way to go for optimal fat burning from my reading.

Good luck with the weight loss

cwolfman13

If you're not losing weight, you are eating too much. You can eat very healthfully and not lose weight...I've been maintaining my weight for a year eating very healthfully...it has nothing to do with that...it has everything to do with how much you are eating. If you eat to a maintenance level of calories, you will maintain weight regardless of whether those calories are coming from healthful foods or junk foods.

TLDR, you're eating too much. Eat a little less and/or move a little more.

navygrrl

I weigh my food, strength train, do cardio sometimes, drink lots of water, and try to make sure I get enough sleep. I used to eat without caring about portion sizes. Now, I still eat the same foods, but I make sure they fit in my calories for the day, at least most of the time.

I've gotta say - accurately keeping track of my food and keeping my calories in under calories out has worked great, but lifting heavy things has been a godsend. My body is actually changing and I get to feel like an Amazon.

MKEgal

I am having the worst time trying to figure out what to eat when, what to do at the gym and how to put everything all together...
I'm also a researcher so I think I have a pretty solid base of facts about different things that involve nutrition, fitness and exerciser, but once again, my problem is I can't put them all together into something that works.

You might get some benefit from reading a few of my blog posts.
I've got LOTS of links to actual research & resources, and I've done posts about goal-setting, exercise, and studies about weight loss.
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/blog/MKEgal

I spend a decent amount of money on good food and my gym membership, so my "personal trainer" piggy bank is as empty as can be.

Do you have a Planet Fitness near you? Their basic memberships are $10 per month & they often have trainers on staff. (And they're open 24/7, so you have one less excuse.)
(ETA: just looked it up on the www.planetfitness.com site. There are gyms in Lake Worth, West Palm Beach, and Royal Palm Beach. Those are the 3 nearest 33415 zip code.)
Also, in my post about exercise I give a link to find an ACSM-certified personal trainer in your area. Invest in a couple of sessions, explain up front that you want her/him to design a program for you to start & tell you how to tweak it as you get lighter, stronger, more fit. That can be one session, then use the second to be sure you're doing the exercises properly / safely.

Does anyone have any tips about what they have done and how they managed to lose their weight the healthy way

First, I used a BMI chart (links in my blog post about goal-setting) to decide on a healthy goal weight. For now, I'm going for the top end of a healthy BMI range (165), and see how I feel when I get there. Maybe I'll want to be another 10 lb lower, maybe not.

Incidentally, my doctor thinks that weight is not realistic for me because it's what I think I weighed in high school. :huh:
If I was fat back then, why does that mean I can't be healthy now?! :grumble:

Using the formula my doctor & dietician told me, I multiplied my starting weight times 10, then subtracted 1000 calories to lose 2 lb per week. (1700) If I hit a plateau, I'll cut another 50 cal. Recently I haven't been eating even that much, and I feel OK about it. Yes, I have occasional splurges (oreos, Chinese buffet) but for the most part I'm below my 1700 goal every day.

BTW, that's absolute intake, not "net". Ignore net. (That's what my doctor told me.) Eat below your goal, and treat exercise as a bonus toward weight loss. If you're really hungry at the end of the day, eat back 1/3 to 1/2 of what you burned in exercise that day.

I also exercise 5 or 6 days per week. I always do cardio, and try to do weights every other day.
I'm up to 45 min on the elliptical, that being the most efficient way to burn calories that's available to me. 45 min is 493 cal going by what the machine says, or 731 cal according to MFP. (When I want to eat back part of those cal, I go with the lower number.)

I started with 10 minutes on the treadmill, and once I could do that without feeling completely worn out I increased the time.
When I switched from the treadmill to the elliptical, the time went down again because it's a harder workout & it kicked my butt.
I generally have a workout partner, though he doesn't put as much effort into it as I do & it shows. I noticed Thurs. that we were running about the same pace but my heart rate was close to 30 bpm below his.

For weights, I alternate a couple weeks working on building muscle with a couple weeks working on building strength. (Explained in my blog post about exercise.) Make sure you're working both/all sides of a joint: if you're doing bicep curls, also do tricep dips. If you're doing hamstring curls, also do quadricep extensions.

MKEgal

Calorie deficit is great but the kind of calories you eat is important.

It doesn't matter (in re weight loss) if you eat 1500 calories of peanut butter (16 tablespoons) or 1500 calories of carrots (4.3 kilos, or about 9.5 lb).
If you're at a calorie deficit you're going to lose weight.
You're going to be much happier if you're eating the carrots because you'll have more bulk & be eating more/longer, chewing more, so you'll feel more full.


One other somewhat surprising thing I found, and have been doing, is to have most of my calories for breakfast, and a much smaller dinner. That took some getting used to, because I'm generally not hungry when I wake up, don't want to be near food.
(Breakfast now is generally a glass of milk with carnation instant breakfast, a banana, and a piece of whole-wheat bread with peanut butter & sometimes jelly.)

This study compared eating a small breakfast, medium lunch, and large dinner, [200, 500, 700 cal]
with eating a large breakfast, medium lunch, and small dinner [700, 500, 200 cal].

"The [large breakfast] group showed greater weight loss and waist circumference reduction ... fasting glucose, insulin [&] triglycerides ... decreased significantly to a greater extent in the [large breakfast] group."

In addition, hunger was less and satiety was greater.

Here's the abstract: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23512957
Here's a PDF of the whole article.
http://genetics.doctorsonly.co.il/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/Jakubowicz-at-al-Obesity-2013-oby20460.pdf

"subjects assigned to high caloric intake during breakfast lost significantly more weight than those assigned to high caloric intake during the dinner"
Abstract: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24467926
Full text: http://www.tradewindsports.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Nutrient-Timing-and-Obesity-2014.pdf

"data suggest that a low-calorie Mediterranean diet with a higher amount of calories in the first part of the day could establish a greater reduction in fat mass and improved insulin sensitivity than a typical daily diet."
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24809437

"Breakfast is associated with lower body weight ...
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24898236

cincysweetheart

Weight loss is all about calorie deficit. Weigh and measure everything. Track honestly and accurately. As for exercise... If you are looking for some help in that area... A lot of gyms have a trainer on site that can help you set up a program, but no additional charge. Maybe look into it.

misstweedy

I mostly stay within my net calories but within those limits I eat whatever Ilike. I do most of my own cooking from scratch so there's a limit on processed stuff, and I was never a fan of soda & fast food anyway. On the other hand, I do like the occasional beer or glass of wine and I certainly like (good) chocolate. Not having anything off limits means I don't feel like I'm depriving myself and this feels like a very sustainable way of eating.

I don't do any cardio at the gym because treadmills bore me to tears, but I do cycle a lot (around 150m/week), both because I enjoy it and because it gives me more calories to eat. I know I couldn't get by on the MFP allowance.

I also strength-train three times a week, mostly with free weights and bodyweight exercises because I want to ensure I lose fat, not muscle, and also because it feels awesome.

So far, it's working for me. I have lost 10 kg since January. I know others lose much faster than that, but I'm in no hurry, I feel like I can continue this lifestyle pretty much indefinitely, and I have also taken a week off logging here and there because I was travelling and/or wanted to give myself a break.

Karley_Chochard

I eat at least four fruits in the morning, a pound of raw greens in for lunch, and a lb of cooked greens for dinner. I do not eat after 10 because I normally go to bed around three. don't go to bed after eating or drinking anything other than water. cut out processed foods (except seaweed that stuff is amazing.) no dairy, meat, or salt. I have lost 7 lbs in less than a week by doing this. it works perfectly. try to eat as much nutrients though not the same things every day. honestly it is not fun... but getting on the scales and losing three lbs over night that's fun.

Meerataila

Calorie deficit.

How am I creating that deficit without being miserably hungry? I stopped eating foods that make me more hungry after I eat them instead of making me less hungry.

ladybird89

I think a lot of people overestimate how many calories they burn through exercise and/or underestimate the number of calories they are eating. BE CAREFUL when eating back calories. I divide my workout cals in half just to be safe.

Cait_G

Loving all the information in here! Bump!

47Jacqueline

There are no secrets. I ate less than I burned. I didn't starve myself or set a date. I didn't whine when I hit a plateau. I just kept going.

I did everythink I needed to to get where I was going. If I triipped, I picked myself up and continued on.

Swiftlet66

I'm probably not qualified enough to give you advice since I don't need to lose that much but for me, I just eat mostly what I want but in smaller portions. I naturally gravitate to fruits and vegetables and whole foods now so that helps. I also took up more outside activities like simply walking, jogging and trying to teach my dogs to walk and run a leash properly without tripping me over.

DeguelloTex

I eat at a calorie deficit. I lift weights, but that's not really about losing weight.

I don't eat any processed foods, no grains or legumes (including peanuts, beans of all types, and soy), and I cycle my dairy consumption (one month on, one month off). I focus on getting high quality and organic proteins, including vitamin and mineral packed offal, and try to source it locally wherever possible. Also, loads of organic fruits and veggies. That's where the bulk of my budget goes.

I eat processed foods, grains, legumes, and have dairy every day. I focus on getting protein at the best price and don't care if it is locally sourced. Also, some fruits and a lot of vegetables, actively avoiding anything labeled as organic.