Question for People Who Have Lost 30+ Pounds in 6 Months

BlondeQtTexas

I lost 30 lbs in 3 months. Going from a size 12 to a size 6.

I cut out wheat, dairy, beef, corn and sugar. I lift weights and did cardio 3-4 times a week and walked a mile or more every day. My muscles are very toned now. I should mention that I had a cheat day every Friday and we often went out for Mexican food - which has all the food items I cut out - and I still lost the weight and fast. If you must eat them, only do it once a week.

You need to eat breakfast. Even if it is a protein shake

For lunch and dinner you need to eat chicken or fish with a green vegetable on the days you don't work out. On the days you work out add a complex carb like a sweet potato, brown rice or quinoa.

You will also need amino acids. THEY ARE KEY. Here is an excellent guide http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-nicholas-perricone/the-top-10-weight-loss-su_b_227618.html

When you drop the 30 you can start adding back fruit and stuff. But if you want to drop the weight in 3 months you don't want hardly any sugars at all and fruits are sugars.

Also, you must a lot of water a day. like 3 liters.

Look into eating clean diets. Tosca Reno's Recharged is an excellent book about clean eating. It aslo has recipes and daily menus. http://www.amazon.com/The-Eat-Clean-Diet-Recharged-Lasting/dp/1552100677


Good luck!

jackieatx

Give up red meat and all refined sugar. It will melt off.

shaelataylor

i normally plan my meals out the night before so that i know what im going to have and just leave a little cushion for a few extra snacks in case i get hungry. i have my weight loss set to 2 pounds a week. most of my exercise is running. i run 2.7-3.1 miles 3 times a week and walk that at least one other day. i still eat sugar, carbs, everything. ive lost a little over 55 pounds since joining and ive been here about 4 months.

LorinaLynn

I lost 30 pounds in about 7 months, eating an average of 1600 to 2000 calories a day total (base plus exercise calories), running 3 times a week and doing light resistance training 4 times a week. (Since then, I switched to heavy strength training, and while the scale has gone up, my body got smaller.)

I never cut anything out of my menu. Still had breads, pasta, bagels, pizza. I did best when I aimed for 100g of protein a day.

AC417

I eat about 1,650 calories a day. On days I do lots of exercise, I try not to dip below 1,200 or I'll feel like crap the next day, but avoid eating back most of my exercise calories. I've lost 30 pounds since February, and most of the weight I lost in the beginning was just due to cutting out all the crap in my diet like sodas, junk food and white bread and pasta. I've put in more fresh vegetables and lean meats into my diet and avoid fried foods as much as possible. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy a slice of pizza or a burger now and then, but I try to plan for it and watch my portions.

In the beginning I didn't even exercise as much as I do know. I've ramped up my exercise lately because I have a lot more energy and because I don't want my weight loss to slow down too much. Nowadays I lose about a pound a week.

ameena76

The way I lost 35 pounds in 6 months was to cut back on my portions (try cutting your portions in half and see what happens) and not eating processed or fast food. Good luck to you!

tuppance

I have lost 42lbs since the middle of january. I mostly eat cereal for breakfast, salad or soup for lunch and pretty much what I like for tea, I try to eat more fruit and veg than I ever did before but sometimes I don't manage it. We are on a really tight budget due to a self-employed husband (plasterer) being quiet work wise due to the credit crunch/recession.

If i eat 'crap' then I go for a walk. I haven't been able to excercise a lot due to a nasty accident while out running - i fell, broke my elbow, broke my nose and at the same time tore the sack my brain sits in and leaked cerebral fluid out of my nose for a fortnight. 2 1/2 months down the road I am able to walk but advised not to jiggle my brain for a while longer.

My diary is open if you want to look, some days I haven't had time to finish logging

Sherbog

I credit my success with portion control. Bought myself a set of food scales, measuring cups and in the beginning I weighed or measured every helping of everything. I was surprised at how I had guessed at portion size and lied to myself so much. I gave up eating out until I felt I had the strength to make healthy choices.

Exercised faithfully every day and logged all my time spent burning calories.

This worked for me.

Curvy_princess

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chevy88grl

I lost 30lbs from April 2010 to Sept 2010.

I did it by going to the gym 5-6 days a week and running each time I went. I did it by being cautious with my food (I stopped drinking pop and stopped eating ALL fast food). I started reading labels and paying attention to serving sizes. I still had cookies or a candy bar, but I definitely paid attention to what I was eating.

I feel like learning portion control was probably the biggest factor in my weight loss. Learning what 1 cup of rice is vs what you think is 1 cup is a HUGE eye opener.

ball858

I have lost 56 lb in 7 months, I started out at about 1400 cal but have now bumped back up to 1700 and eat my exercise calories (or at least I try to)

High protein meals - fish / chicken / red meat and tons of veg!

I do a bootcamp (circuits) 3-4 x a week and strength training with cardion 3 x a week.

Good luck

indyang77

I've lost 38 lbs in 5 months. My weight loss has slowed down a ton since I started working out, and doing my 3rd week now of P90X. That is because I am gaining much needed muscle mass. I started out at 1290 cals and got down to 1200 and the weight loss stopped. I am now up to 1400 to 1500 net while doing an hour a day workout, 6 days a week. I try to avoid processed food when possible, eat more whole foods and veggies, fruits, NO soda at all, no artificial sugars, etc. If you can cut out chips and replace with carrots and hummus or a greek yogurt dip, you will see change. Processed food is poison for your body.

ZugTheMegasaurus

I don't crave sugar, so I can't help you with that one. But chips I have a serious craving for. I especially love to dip.
I've recently replaced chips with special k cracker chips. 27 chips for only 110 calories. And they have fun flavors.
For dip attacks, I've switched to veggies and hummus or salsa.
The calories can still add up quickly, but not as quick as with other chip and dip choices.

Love hummus and salsa! Salsa's expensive though... I wish I could make my own! ) I know a good salsa recipe, but not the exact way to do it.... only seen it done by my parents.

Salsa is beyond easy; just cut the stuff up and put it in a bowl. Many people use food processors or choppers because it's faster, but I just use a knife. I usually make a massive amount about once a week (I eat it with virtually every meal); it's incredibly cheap (usually less than $5 for the entire thing -- I wish I knew the container size...it's really big though) and a lot lower in sodium than the store-bought stuff. Plus I can modify and improve it each time I make a batch.

MsMargie1116

You are welcome to look at my food diary. I am living proof that you will lose by eating more!!! I've lost over 55 lbs since January 1st.
- I exercise 6 days a week, and take one day to rest. But sometimes on my exercise day off, I get some sort of activity in such as walking at the mall, buying groeries (yes, when I'm walking around a grocery store for 1 - 1 1/2 hours, I count the calories I burn.
- I have my settings set on sedentary and eat all but about 200 or so of my exercise calories back. So that I have that to fall back on my exercise day off.
- I allow myself a meal, sometimes two, of what ever I like, but still count my calories...
- I weigh/measure everything I eat.

Every body is different, so you want to find what works for you. For me, this works; for others it may not.

ShifuYaku

I have lost 42lbs since the middle of january. I mostly eat cereal for breakfast, salad or soup for lunch and pretty much what I like for tea, I try to eat more fruit and veg than I ever did before but sometimes I don't manage it. We are on a really tight budget due to a self-employed husband (plasterer) being quiet work wise due to the credit crunch/recession.

If i eat 'crap' then I go for a walk. I haven't been able to excercise a lot due to a nasty accident while out running - i fell, broke my elbow, broke my nose and at the same time tore the sack my brain sits in and leaked cerebral fluid out of my nose for a fortnight. 2 1/2 months down the road I am able to walk but advised not to jiggle my brain for a while longer.

My diary is open if you want to look, some days I haven't had time to finish logging

Oh I hope you get well fast! That sounds painful, and sorry that it happened. I'll check your diary... thanks for the advice!

minkakross

the ticker at the bottom of my post was reset in January so 50ish pounds about a third of the way through the 6th month. I looked at your diary and I would say that you need to log everything; you can't review what you did right and wrong if you don't keep an honest account.

keys to my success so far. 1200 calories (like a religion), I eat a high protein and low carb ratio. I exercise 4 times a week for no less than 45 minutes usually an hour. I swim, do water aerobics with and without weights, and walk a moderate to fast pace outside or on a treadmill. I do not eat my exercise calories more than 2 times a month allowing for my version of a cheat day so I can have things like sweets.

Picturesque2u

^_^; Vegetables are better than chips. Which vegetables should I be eating? I already eat a lot of tomatoes and cucumbers. Onions go in the food sometimes... what else is there?

I love buying Organic fresh spinach (prewashed) and have fallen in love with baby arugula. At any rate, even if you buy frozen veggies in steam bags you will find you get a lot out of them, they're quick & easy additions to any meal and taste good too.

Broccoli, Carrots, Cauliflower, Corn, Sweet Potatoes, asparagus.... Need I say more?

Good Luck!

I made up my mind that my weight wasn't going to be lost in a few months. Time is not a consideration at all because of the many success stories I've seen where people have lost over a course of a year. So I decided to LIVE a healthier lifestyle. That's all.

ChasingHaven

I lost 30 pounds in about 4 months back in 2010, going from a size 18 to a size 12. I was around 159 lbs.

I found an online calorie counter (elsewhere) and just started logging calories. I ate pretty much whatever I felt like, keeping within the basic macros they provided. I was allowed between 1300-1550 calories. I learned pretty quickly to budget my calories, ate more tuna , chicken and vegetables. I'm not big on raw vegetables and if I have a salad I tend to top it with a lot of stuff. But it was still healthier than what got me fat. My favorite vegetables were mushrooms, corn, green beans and black-eyed peas!

When I wanted to eat out ( and I still did-often!) I had the nutritional stats in my hand and budgeted my calories accordingly. I did little to no exercise. The pounds melted away effortlessly. It was the first time I'd lost weight so easily!

And then...I took a break for the holidays, lol. I never really got back on track and with several major deaths in my life the following year and a devastating death of a friendship I just let the pounds creep back up. It took some time, but today I'm at 209 (my heaviest ever, oy!) and struggling to get back in sync. I'm not quite sure why something that was so easy is so hard to get started again.

I appreciate this post! Another spark to help get me motivated and see if I can get this done again! I know it can be done and there's so many people in this thread who are proof- no matter what method helped them achieve it. When you look at it with this view, isn't it silly NOT to take six months and be 30+ pounds lighter? Time to start kicking myself in the butt again...

Keep it up everyone!

kdiamond

1. Weigh EVERYTHING. Every. Single. Morsel.
2. Eat at home 95% of the time.
3. Exercise every day, even 30 minutes. 5 days of week of intense exercise.
4. Vary daily calories based on acitivity level. Weight loss is not linear, neither is the amount of fuel your body needs.
5. Don't cut everything you like out of the diet. Moderate eating. Once every couple weeks, indulge in one cheat meal (not a day, a meal).
6. Stick with it forever to keep it off. It becomes second nature after a while.

babycook

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