TIPS

kristinmkartist

Okay guys! I am really new at all of this yet but if you could give one tip to someone for losing weight what would it be???

I look at these posts and they motivate me so yeah just need advice! \

THANKS!

Amie_46

Commitment and Consistency.

Being committed to making the right choices at (almost) every meal, and being consistent with it.

It doesn't happen over night and there is no huge "secret".

Eat less, move more.

kms1981

Be 100% honest with yourself. If you are snacking or eating and not logging calories, you are not helping yourself at all!

kayemme

drink water.

canroadrunner

Log everything and EAT YOUR EXERCISE CALORIES.

stanvoodoo

Eat Protein first! Cut Soda and drink more water, crystal light, or lifewater/vitaminwater/powerade zero. Limit fast food and processed foods whenever you can!

Then exercise and increase amount of exercise time each week and lower calorie intake and you will be a success!

Go For It, Be Strong and Good Luck!

minburke

Be 100% honest with yourself. If you are snacking or eating and not logging calories, you are not helping yourself at all!

Definitely! and drink Water!

SiltyPigeon

Losing weight is easy. It's making the decision to lose weight over and over again, every day, several times a day.... THAT is the difficult part.

The only person that can stand in my way is me.... and I can take her!

lilac01

Just because u exercise it doesn't mean you'll lose weight. U need to also change ur eating habits too!! Good luck!

BakingGranny

Watch your sodium intake. That can pound on lbs quickly.

Tabimiller417

seeing yalls weight loss motivates me! =]

krissybug72

Slow and steady wins the race... there is no quick fix if there were everyone would be thin.

FaithandFitness

you will hit plateaus . . . just mix it up a bit, change some diet and exercise stuff and you will make it through

l3ugjuice

Count your calories, track everything. Try to be as honest and complete as possible. Do as much exercise as you can fit in (within reason: know your limits and what your goals are. If you arent trying to train to run a marathon, then...well...dont train to run a marathon). That's pretty much the main thing, eating fewer calories than you burn. There's other stuff; like watching sodium, keeping a good ratio of calories from fat protein and carbs, watching sodium, watching caffeine, etc....but if you just focus mostly on the calories, you are golden. Drink enough water!

The trick, I've found, is figuring out how to motivate yourself to be diligent about it. For me, I kinda have to obsess over it. I bought a bodymedia monitor and just cant wait to plug it in and look at the data, spreadsheets, etc. But that's just me, I'm kinda a nerd. Do whatever works for you.

Also: dont beat yourself up too much when you get sidetracked, just try to get back on track ASAP

Ilovepeppers

This is exactly what I did:
Month one: cut out all fast food completely
Month two: cut out all soda completely
Month three: stopped using oil when cooking + started eating meat only once a week
Month four: measured every break so that there was always more veggies than anything else on the plate (doing this now)

Lost 30 pounds in three months!

nenabug

Definitely be honest with yourself, do NOT beat yourself if you slide backwards a little. Don't ever give up! It took a lot of time and bad habits developed over time to get where you are. It'll take time to rewire and to get the weight off. Slow and steady is worth it. Celebrate all the individual victories and just keep plugging away. Be positive, remind yourself of the good and believe in yourself. You will get there!!

ahadj

Losing weight is easy. It's making the decision to lose weight over and over again, every day, several times a day.... THAT is the difficult part.

The only person that can stand in my way is me.... and I can take her!

Best thing I've heard all day!

speednut

1) Log everything you put into your mouth.
2) Be Honest
3) Set goals and work toward them
4) You will have some "off" days, but just try to do better.
5) If you see a McDonald's...RUN AWAY FAST!
6) Try to exercise every day, just walking helps.
7) Drink lots of water.
8) Visit MFP for lots of support.
9) Don't get discouraged, you will do it if you focus and win small victories.

GOOD LUCK!
We were all newbs once.

stephierue

If you log everything everyday you will see your habits slowly change because you are aware of what you are doing. U can't be in denial if the evidence is in front of you( if you're honest about logging). Slow & steady....

larisadixon

accountability...take pictures people...

Allison4C

I am no expert, but I've been on here one month tomorrow and it seems to be working so far. Here is my advice:

1. log everything you eat. everyday. always. do you have a smart phone? having the app makes it very convenient.
2. eat at least 50% of your exercise calories
3. buy tons of lean meats and frozen veggies and cook at home often.
4. think ahead when you go out to dinner. do they have a menu online with nutritional info?
5. don't give up if you eat over your calories occasionally - the next day is a new day
6. my new drink of choice is vodka soda with lime - 60 cals if you're using 1 oz or 90 cals if you're using 1.5 oz
7. make friends on here. post your successes and frustrations
8. buy a food scale
9. www.skinnytaste.com
10. veggies veggies veggies
11. oatmeal oatmeal oatmeal.
12. no juice or sugary drinks. try minute maid light lemonade (5 cal). drink a lot of water.
13. take "before" pictures.
14. take your measurements - some people on here say that when they aren't seeing a difference on the scale, their measurements are still changing, which is encouraging.
15. don't weigh everyday. weigh once a week at the most, at the same time. naked.

lily1972

Be realistic: it won't come off overnight, but it's totally "doable"! Look at all the success stories!
Be honest: log everything! Even the things you may be tempted to hide...
Make changes: you will learn tons of tips on this site!
Make friends: stay motivated and be accountable :-)

Good luck! :flowerforyou:

hroderick

1. commit to a new healthy lifestyle instead of going on a diet.
2. be accurate in your exercise calories, that means investing in a good heart rate monitor and using it
3. be accurate in your calories, that means investing in a kitchen scale and using it
4. make some MFP friends that are similar to you
5. eat clean...means cooking from scratch much more than packaged and restaurant food

PattiAnne87

Hate to sound stupid but........we are supose to be eating out exercise calories too?????? I just want to make sure I understand this because my wt loss has been supper sslloooowwww. If our calorie goal is 1440 we burn 200 calories then we are to eat 1640 calories for that day??? I have been trying to stay at 1440 no matter what. Thanks for your input.

lily1972

Ahhh, the dreaded plateau! I subscribed to Jillian Michaels' free newsletter on her site, and she explains that everything is a question of hormones... to keep them active, you have to avoid keeping the same net calorie intake. In other words, focus on making your mfp goal an average at the end of the week and vary your net calorie intake from day to day. I've put it to the test and it really works!! But don't forget to do cardio - sweating is (perhaps unfortunately) important!

Good luck! :happy:

Tangerine302

Yes, they are talking about eating the calories that you burned during your added excercise. (Other then what you put for how active you are in the beginning).
As you enter your excercise for that day, the counter will automatically change it for you and you will get to eat extra that day!

PattiAnne87

Thanks, never thought I would be disappointed I need to eat more. I'll start trying to get everything in and hopefully see the scales go down. I felt like today was a success but now I need to eat more, but its just to late to eat and go to bed. I'll hopefully do good tomorrow.

dwellsouth

Great tips everybody! Glad you posted this here.
One thing that has motivated me to do more exercise is a friend's challenge to burn at least 500 calories a day! So maybe I had 400 by 6pm. but because I'm in the challenge, I went out and gardened or jumped on my elliptical machine or cleaned house...anything to hit that target! LoL

Zakth

There a lot of great tips that people have already given, many of them are what I would have suggested. The most important thing is that you do not get discouraged by the scale. If you do weigh in each day or perhaps even a couple of times a week you may notice that sometimes you go up over the previous day and sometimes you reach a new low. The better option would be to get a cloth tape measure and use it to keep track of your loss. Also take pictures of yourself and compare them. The pictures will give you an idea of how others see you. Also make sure you are drinking water, plenty of water. If you don't get enough your body will retain it which can make you feel bloated.

PattiAnne87

So I increased how much I was eating for breakfast and the first day I went crazy. I didn't look to see how many calories I was consuming until I logged it. Was over my goa (but it was healthy food, not fastfood, high fats etc.) l. The next couple of days I watched things closer, tried to eat my exercise calories and dropped 2 pounds pretty quickly!!!!

Thanks for all the advise.
:flowerforyou: