To those who lost over 100 pounds

leodru

So there is a lot of debate these days about if it’s just about calorie counting or if it is about what you are truly eating. I personally find I do have trigger foods and they tend to be sugary foods for me so I basically started to wonder if I still struggle just trying to lose 25 pounds, with what I am eating, then what do those who lost over 100 pounds have to share. So if you lost over 100 pounds do you find it made a difference in what you ate or will calorie counting get you through?

wamydia

I lost 106, then gained back 10 and have been fighting with those 10lbs ever since. I still need to lose a minimum of about 45lbs to get within spitting distance of where I want to be.

To answer your question, for me all that mattered in the beginning was calorie counting. I lost a lot of weight at a good rate with very little concern over what exactly I was eating. I was making an effort to improve my eating habits along the way just because it made hitting my calorie goal easier, but ultimately I had plenty of room in my calorie goal to eat pretty much whatever I wanted and not go over.

However, as I've gotten lower in weight, it's become more of a struggle (as I said above, I've been fighting with 10lbs for quite a while and still have a significant amount to go). I've been doing a lot of experimenting with diet and exercise options and what I've concluded from that is that I do need to be more careful about what I'm eating in order to succeed at this lower weight. I think it is a combination of issue. First, I need to actually be able to eat closer to maintenance (and sacrifice the speed of weight loss) in order to be able to stay on track. If I try to eat too little, I lose it and binge on crap at night. This has lead to the second issue, which is that eating at a higher goal has sort of opened a floodgate for me because I can technically get away with eating more high calorie treats than I was before. Which leads to me wanting more of that type of food and less of the lean meat/ fruit/ veggie that I lost all of my weight on. My struggle right now is to not use my higher calorie goal as an excuse to eat more junk and then to not use the eating of junk to justify eating a little more junk and putting myself over my goal every single day.

So, yes, you can lose weight just by strictly adhering to your calorie goals, however if you have problems with being tempted into routinely eating over your goal, I recommend trying to cut back a bit on the high calorie treats and eat most of your calories in lean meats/ fruits/ veg/ etc. That said, I am still a big proponent of eating whatever you want in moderation. I just think that people need to make sure they understand what moderation is. One twinkie a week is moderate and isn't going to hurt anyone's weight loss. But eating four a day because they technically fit in a calorie goal is not moderate and can lead some of us down that path of chronic overeating.

LianaG1115

So there is a lot of debate these days about if it’s just about calorie counting or if it is about what you are truly eating. I personally find I do have trigger foods and they tend to be sugary foods for me so I basically started to wonder if I still struggle just trying to lose 25 pounds, with what I am eating, then what do those who lost over 100 pounds have to share. So if you lost over 100 pounds do you find it made a difference in what you ate or will calorie counting get you through?

All of the above!! I lost my first 50 before I joined MFP with watching what I ate. I lost the last 50 with MFP and counting calories. I think the last 50 I'm gonna try macros!!

zyxst

The basics that helped me:
1. portion control
2. calorie deficit
3. patience

I do have HBP and have to keep my sodium <2000, so that changes a lot of what I eat. I will say that my diet is what I want and like to eat, not what's good for me. I eat "dirty", "junk", "bad" foods and plenty of "bad carbs".

Meerataila

I lost the first thirty or forty pretty easily eating what I wanted and counting calories and getting a few minutes of exercise a day, working my way up to hour walks and short runs.

However, at that point my appetite attacked with a vengeance. I started having more bad days than good. I would binge on cereal, pudding, cookies, whatever I had been having in moderation before. At which point I realized I had trigger foods, bread being one of them.

To make a long story shorter, I lost around 70 pounds on low carb, started eating carbs again, bounced around the same 20 pounds for awhile, tried every form of intermittent fasting out there, realized finally that it wasn't an excuse to eat junk all day and that it was making me unhealthy because I was using it as an excuse to eat junk and the best I could do with it was maintain. Sometimes I gained.

I was going to go back to low carb, but I've always had ethical issues with it. My conscience got the better of me and I decided to give vegan a try. So currently vegan, still have about 15 pounds to lose (maybe not quite, if I can get some muscle on and replace the fat) and I still have appetite control issues with some foods. I do intermittent fasting (usually 5:2, reserving alternate day fasting for when I really go high cal on feast days). That helps a little. But my diet is still an issue. Homemade trailmix? Forget it. That had me in maintenance all week last week or maybe over maintenance. Salt and oil (coconut or olive oil) on my food can trigger me to overeat anything from onions to potatoes. Alcohol munchies? Danger danger! Raisins? I can eat them, but not every day. So I'm about to clean up my diet even more to get this last bit of excess fat off.


So yep, for me food matters a lot, but at first it didn't. I figure anyone who can lose weight without taking out foods they like should go right ahead until and unless it becomes an issue for weight loss or health.

Wenchiness

Proud to be a member of this club! In general weighed measured and opted for much healthier overall choices. That being said, I "treated" myself well and often with chocolate, candy, chips, and those sugary protein bars, as long as it fit within my calorie goals. I still have about 100 lbs to lose, and things have slowed considerably, but I truly believe it was due to exercise restrictions after a surgery, and with the consequent infection. To speed things up, I went on Dr. Hyman's 10 day detox plan, and lost an amazing 6 lbs twice. The first time after coming off it, I did go to the Chinese Buffet for a birthday indulgence. Promptly gained back 4 lbs that I know was mainly water sodium but took a good week to come back off. The second time, my big "splurge" was a cinnamon roll at a brunch. 3 lbs gained. I added back to my diet a salsa with sugar (still 10 calories) salad dressing with sugar (35 calories) cheese (within caloric guidelines) and quinoa. Promptly showed a 3 lb gain. Grrrrr, since I'm not going to live the rest of my life without sugar, or dairy or grains, I am simply not going to restrict myself any more. I will continue to eat generally healthy and allow myself fruits, dairy, wheat and the very occasional caffeine. I feel that binging is caused by deprivation, so I do not deprive myself, but now I will severely limit what I get. I was jonesing for cheesecake last Feb and bought one, figuring out exactly how I would work off that pile of additional calories. I ate that first piece and was enveloped by peace, tranquility and happiness. But that piece did the trick, and now my freezer is taken over by a box of cheesecake with 1 piece missing. I know I will end up tossing it. Next time I will get a slice of cheesecake or a 2 pack. Same thing with corn dogs..... something I don't generally like. Was going to go to Sonic and just get one, but instead found some fakey corndoggy things made by Morningstar Farms... a vegetarian concoction. If you don't look at them while you eat them they are incredibly tasty, and satisfied the craving and under half the calories. I say eat what you want if it's generally healthy and indulge in your cravings and less healthy options as needed to keep you from feeling deprived or unhappy.

WBB55

I lost 100 lbs. Then added a lot of muscle (and thus some more pounds), and now my goal is to lower my body fat%.

I found that at the beginning, it was all about staying as committed to the slog as possible. Sure, birthday dinners and dessert happens. But for me we were talking about 2 years of eating at a deficit. It was all about waking up and doing it again for another day. Deciding the extra calories weren't worth it, changing habits. If I found a trigger, I worked with it. Figured out "why" I was being triggered. Stress? Hanging out with friends? Bored? Craving salt? I figured out tactics that worked for me to deal with every instance of "life" happening that was a potential event that could de-rail me.

Towards the end -- for ME -- it just became harder to maintain a deficit because my TDEE lowered, and lowered, and lowered from around 2500 to around 1950, and there was less room for error while still losing (and I started running to raise my TDEE). That's when it made more of a difference what I ate. Mainly because I had to make sure I was getting in all of my nutrients in smaller and smaller total calories. When you're only eating 1200-1400 per day, it's tough to fit in that glass of wine or cheese on your lasagna. Not that you can't. It just became easier to make lasagna without cheese, and then sprinkle some parmesan on top, since that satisfied my brain without breaking the calorie bank, so to speak. I ate carbs, sugar, etc. But my nightly bowl of ice cream became sugar free because I didn't want to give it up, but I couldn't afford the calories anymore for the full-flavor version.

As far as trigger food, I did at first give up added sugar and HFCS completely for a couple months. The cravings went away eventually. And my tastebuds re-aligned themselves to appreciate natural sugars in things like fruit, carrots and sweet potatoes. But as I reintroduced sugar, I found I simply didn't want things like candy bars and Little Debbie's. They tasted terrible (still do).

GiveMeCoffee

When I started I was stricter on what I ate because I thought that's how you dieted. Then I learned a little bit more and up'ed my calories, got rid of the "diet" foods, and started eating what I enjoy.

Once I figured out that I didn't have to eat mini meals all day long, could eat my 1-2 bigger meals that were heavy on protein and veggies, it's kept me satisfied and left me room for a nightly dessert.

There's days I eat fast food, I love to bake, make ice cream, and I do all of that usually a few times a week. Learning how to eat in moderation and finally understanding portion control is what made the difference.

marilandica

Eat less, exercise more. That's it.

Of course, you pretty quickly find that you make different food choices when you're observing a calorie limit - at least you do if you're staying within the calorie limit and don't want to be hungry all of the time. Lots of high volume, low calorie stuff like vegetables. More protein even if calorie dense over carbs because it tends to satisfy hunger longer. When you're on a budget, you want the biggest bang for you buck. Food pretty quickly had to be worth eating (really good or satisfying) if I was going to "spend" calories on it. An excellent piece of dark chocolate? In. A gas station candy bar? Out. Still, nothing was or is taboo to me -- I ate and still eat bread, pasta, rice, fruit, etc. etc.

Meerataila

Towards the end -- for ME -- it just became harder to maintain a deficit because my TDEE lowered, and lowered, and lowered from around 2500 to around 1950, and there was less room for error while still losing (and I started running to raise my TDEE). That's when it made more of a difference what I ate. Mainly because I had to make sure I was getting in all of my nutrients in smaller and smaller total calories. When you're only eating 1200-1400 per day, it's tough to fit in that glass of wine or cheese on your lasagna.

I think this has made things a lot tougher for me since I hit the normal weight range, too. Just no wiggle room anymore.

Krizzle4Rizzle

The basics that helped me:
1. portion control
2. calorie deficit
3. patience

I do have HBP and have to keep my sodium <2000, so that changes a lot of what I eat. I will say that my diet is what I want and like to eat, not what's good for me. I eat "dirty", "junk", "bad" foods and plenty of "bad carbs".

I think you are awesome.

Silver82

I've found that it's all about calorie deficit and getting the exercise to balance both your metabolism and body in general. Through the years I've learned that you should make every calorie count, in other words, eat foods that give you a proper amount of nutrition.

When you're restricting your calories it's a must that the food going into your body will give it everything it needs to function properly. I think it helps a great deal to make healthy choices. Your mind and body will thank you. Even when you get to maintenance you still need to stay away from overly processed foods. It's perfectly fine to cheat now and then but the bulk of your food needs to count.

UsedToBeHusky

Well... I've come close anyway. I didn't worry much about what I ate. IIFYM for life!

But, I did run into a stumbling block, and it turned out that I have insulin resistance. It forced me to change my macros, but I'm still losing weight and eating what I want. I'm just more careful about portions.

lukewind

I lost my first 50lbs by simply just calorie counting. Now I did cut out fast food, but besides that I let myself eat anything that I wanted so long as I stayed with my deficit. Once I lost that first fifty pounds I began slowly weening myself off all the bad stuff. I stopped consuming soda, corn syrup, and by in large most empty calories. I allowed for a treat now and then of course, but I made sure 90% of what I ate in a week was food that had value beyond its calories.


So yes you can lose weight based on restriction alone, but eating healthy and cutting out the bad stuff will help control your appetite better, and in the end will just make your healthier. My cholesterol did not budge and inch when I lost my first 50, but losing my next 50 with better food it went down dramatically.

I actually recommend to people to just eat what they want at first and slowly ease into eating better, cold turkey rarely works for the long haul.

defauIt

Lost just around 100 here, it's calorie counting 100%. I eat whatever I want so long as I end the day with enough protein and around my calorie goal. I have occasional cheat days where 90% of my food are danishes, eclairs, coconut cream pie, key lime pie and ice cream.

Most days I just snack on reasonable portions of candy/chocolate/ice cream/pop tarts so long as they fit in my daily goals.

Edit: Just to add, I also keep an eye on my micros and take a multi vitamin every couple of days to make sure I'm not deficient in anything.

JoanneLynn

Bump to read later

leodru

Thanks for the input. I've cycled through a lot of diets at this point (styles?). When I myself "go" and eat whatever i want (not portion controlled) I always as surprised how after a day or so how unsatisfied I feel. I like my sweets and do enjoy take out from time to time but i do lose more and feel better when i'm eating nutrient rich. I have accumulated a fair number of friends who have lost over 100 pounds and am sometimes very surprised how every cycles between the "good" and the "bad". But then they seem to be the ones are successful. Interesting really. I've never been over 200 - I'm 5'6" so do need to lose 30'ish. Still looking for the key but maybe it just is what it is and i have to stop looking for the magic when its just in front of me anyways. Calorie deficit - from there if i'm not getting enough volume then add more fruit and veg to the mix for filling. Thanks!