What worked for you in losing weight?

egreene718

I am on the journey of losing weight. The main problem I have is eating better foods and eating often. What are some tips/advice you guys have that you seen help, whether it be working out or certain foods you ate. Thank you in advance.

HoLLyZ82

i think the best thing you can do is to chart EVERYTHING. by doing this you will get a whole new idea in your head of whats going into your body. you will slowly become addicted to looking at everything and weighing things out along with eating a real serving size. in return this is going to benefit you for LIFE.

maparapa22

I was really holding myself accountable for EVERYTHING I ate. I feel it's the only way to lose the weight and keep it off. I also made small goals for myself rather than becoming overwhelmed with the total weight loss. Good luck

mkcalvert

I find that the longer I stick with eating at the same time of day I get all my meals in and my body starts asking for them, I always know when meal time is coming up or if I just need to drink more water.

milaxx

1. Eat breakfast within 1 hour of waking up

2. Remove as much processed and refined foods from your diet as possible

3. Drink your water

HeatherBriggs1970

Happy Friday!!

This is what's worked so far for me:

1. Always eating breakfast
2. Making sure to allow myself a yummy snack - just making sure I log it!! That way I don't get angry about this lifestyle change.
3. Instead of buying fruit and yogurt I love buying a light flavored yogurt and then mixing FRESH fruit in it. Makes a GREAT snack and you can get very creative.
4. I weigh myself every day so I can monitor how my body reacts to the food I ate the night before. For example - it's better if I eat a higher carb meal at lunch vs. dinner. I do the majority of my exercise during the lunch hour so naturally I am working that off vs. eating spaghetti for dinner then sitting around at night not working it off. That may not be your issue...but try it for a week and see if you learn something about how your body behavior is.
5. Drink lots of water. At least your 8 glasses. I drink about 12-15 8oz glasses per day but I really like water - obviously.
6. Portion size...logging your food on MFP will help with that. When you eat 3 cups of something and go in to log it and see that the portion size was one cup it really puts habits in perspective. I have realized that I was eating way too much and wasn't even hungry!!

Blessings to you in your journey!!

klf82

For me, I try to eat foods that are grilled or baked, and I eat veggies that are either fresh or frozen in order to reduce the sodium content that comes from canning. I also eat alot of apples because they are sweet and satisfying, as well as filling. The green giant individual serving of frozen veggies is great to help with portion control. I also cut out all pop. I love having just one pop a day, but nothing good comes from it. Now that I have gone three weeks without it, I no longer crave it. In fact, it doesn't even taste good anymore.

ShellyMacchi

there's nothing magic about losing weight *S*

What works for me
1. accepting there is no quick fix or short cuts to good health
2. focusing on being healthy is the most important thing... all the many many years i focused solely on trying to lose weight were a waste of time. Now i focus on eating clean as much as possible, LOTS of veg, only whole grains, pastas, breads; no refined sugars or sweeteners, (including no pop/soda, diet or otherwise);
3. never deprive myself of anything i love... i still have it all, pasta, cheese, desserts *S*... because i eat now the same way as i intend to eat for the rest of my life, and i cannot imagine going the rest of my life with no pizza *LOL*..so now i just make my own healthier ones. i never have 'cheat days' or meals... i simply incorporate all foods into my daily plan every day, whatever it is i want *S*
4. Patience - it takes times for your body to get used to changes and show results, sometimes weeks!.. just relax and be patient.
5. Moderate exercise. i know i am not going to be willing to work out like a possessed woman for the rest of my life, so not going to do it now either *S*
6. Sodium sodium sodium control! i find that by keeping that under control i almost have no choice but to eat more fruits and veg and whole grain products... calories are way less of an issue for me as a result.
7. EAT!!!! eat all the calories mfp allots to me.. including at LEAST 1/2 of my exercise calories every day (usually have way more than 1/2 actually).. the more i eat of them, the more weight per week i lose... i have proven it to myself over and over again.. it works!
8. DRINK WATER! and i mean more than the 8 glass minimum suggested here. i have found my body is happiest (weight loss, no water retention/swelling hands feet, blood pressure lower, and perhaos most importantly, no constipation *L*) when i have at least 12 glasses a day! i rarely drink anythign but water actually, as i prefer to eat my calories rather than drink them.
9. Patience! (yes, it is worth repeating)
10. Accountability to myself... record every single thing i eat and drink.. without fail, because it all counts.
11. Don't make excuses! Just do all items 1 thru 10 every day and it works. *S*

menchi

1. Log everything, it's tedious and gets a bit addictive, but do it.
2. Plan what you are gong to eat the next day and log it the night before. You don't have to stick it 100% but it helped me stick close (partly b/c changing a lot of it was a hassle lol!)
3. Get a kitchen scale and weigh your food. If you can use a weight measurement instead of a volume (like 2 cups of cereal), it will be much more consistent and accurate. Pay attention though :huh: , 1 oz of raw chicken does not have the same calories as 1 oz of cooked chicken. Weigh and log the right thing.
4. Like most of us you probably have idle eating habits (ever look at your bag of chips and think WHO ATE ALL MY CHIPS?!! and then realize it was you?). Convert that to an idle drinking habit :drinker: . Keep plenty of water near you. I have several bottles of water on the car, big cups on my work desk and bedside table, a bottle I leave at the gym, etc.
5. Pack snacks ahead of time. I have ziploc pouches of cereal and almonds, 1 oz each, that I can grab in the morning and snack on when I need. It has less sugar than an energy bar, is cheaper than buying a snack, and keeps you from overeating b/c you were hungry.

The end result? I love my kitchen scale, I have an obscene number of nalgene and camelbak water bottles (but they are so pretty :flowerforyou: ), I reuse my ziploc bags, and I'm maintaining my goal weight now. :bigsmile:

menchi

Gyah, sry double post.

Bobbejo

I read a book called the Abs Diet. It wasn't a "diet" as much as teaching you the right way to eat and why certain foods are good. I highly recommend it as a learning tool. My trainer says don't eat anything that comes from a box. I try to stick to that as much as possible. Last, but not least, stick with it. If you have a bad meal recover right away. Don't wait for the next day or the next Monday. Start eating "right" at the very next meal.

ampjorgensen

I can't realistically give up foods... I just have learned portion control and not to eat them often. If i gave them up I would eat them one day and from experience its a down hill spiral. I stay within my calories and try to eat all my food groups. A HUGE thing for me is PORTIONS PORTIONS PORTIONS i can't say it enough because I used to eat such HUGE portions of fatty meats and cheese covered veggies. I now eat veggies and if they have any cheese is shredded low fat mozzerella or some crumbled fetta just a sprinkle. I still eat brownies. I have found TWO alternative recipes one makes one brownie 110 cals and the other makes them 90 (the only reason i ever eat the 110 is out of convenience. a brownie mix +can of diet soda... can't lose)

I avoid lots of sodium it only makes my body hold water and makes me feel like poop so i eat some sodium but I am definitely low sodium and LOTS of water. I have found favorite LOW CALORIE foods...

For example I LOVE mushrooms so when i make speghetti I make my hamburger into meat balls I have a mealball and LOTS of mushrooms that i cook in either a very small amount of olive oil or steamed. mmmmm. I love speghetti so i use sugar free speghetti sauce (40 cals per serving)

Egg whites have way fewer calories without that yoke so sometimes I'll just cut the yoke out of recipes or if it is a recipe like quiche i only add like half the yokes

hope this helps

carolynmittens

i know a lot of people here say it doesn't matter what time you eat, but for me, the one thing that ALWAYS gets my weight to start moving down is when i don't eat before bedtime. i workout at night so this is really hard for me to do, but every time i give myself a few hours before bed of no food, i start losing. might just be my wacky body though.

SilentRenegade

Here's what has worked for me... keep in mind I've lost 10.5 pounds in 2 weeks and I'm pretty sure it's water weight from being on depo, but it still keeps me motivated... this is what I've been doing for two weeks.

1. Tracking EVERYTHING I ingest to the best of my ability on this site. I have the app on my iPhone so when I'm at work I can put my lunch in so I don't forget anything.
2. I drink a whey protein shake in the morning within 30 minutes of waking up. It's about 30g of protein. Sometimes I have eggs or another breakfast food with it as well.
3. I drink A TON of water compared to what I used to. I can go through 7-10 bottles of water in a day depending on what I'm doing.
4. I zig zag my calories. One day I'll eat 1300-1400 (MFP guideline) and the next day I'll only eat 600-700, then the next day I'll eat 1300-1400 again. This seems to have boosted my results... not sure if it's recommended or not, but honestly I have a hard time getting close to 1400 calories since I've started cutting back on my eating. (My mother says my stomach is shrinking and does not want as much food as it used to.)
5. Instead of milk, I've been drinking Silk Unsweetened Almond milk, it's only 35 calories, tastes great with my protein shakes, and great in coffee.
6. I may not exercise everyday, but I try to stay moving. At work I randomly walk around, sometimes I briskly walk to the back of the store if I need something instead of strolling to the back of the store, parking further away from stores so I have to walk more, doing random squats to pick something up, calf raises when I'm standing there doing nothing. On my days off of work I try to go to places where I can't sit on my butt all day, I clean, whatever it takes. I just try to keep moving. I have TONS of energy from this too