What change did you make that helped you most?

LorinaLynn

Eating enough and weight lifting.

Other times I dieted, I just cut calories too much, so I felt like crap and looked worse.

Eating right and weight lifting gave me a body I never thought I could have. Better than when I was young and thin before gaining weight.

dare2begin

Started moving....every little bit helps!

codapea

Running really changed everything for me, especially since I was someone who thought I could NEVER run. It's changed my body, the way I eat, and it makes me love to exercise. Running also taught me that the voice inside of my head saying "I'm proud of you" meant more to me than hearing those word from anyone else in my life, which surprised me.

fiberartist219

Everyone is different, and honestly, getting off some medications helped me more than anything. My hormones were so jacked up for so long. Now that my energy is more stable, losing weight is a lot easier.

bacitracin

Working out and fasting and "eating healthy" didn't do anything for me, so I skeptically tried the ketogenic lifestyle and lost about 60lbs and got ripped!

Sharon_C

Thinking of my calories as money. I'm allowed to spend 1450 calories a day. How I spend them is up to me. I can splurge and spend them all at once, but then I'm not allowed to spend more. OR, I can be frugal and dole them out a little at a time. If I want to work overtime (exercise), I can have more calories to spend.

I know it sounds really weird but thinking of my calories as a budget has really, really helped me.

lgreen37

I had to start listening. I really did. I have been doing this for quite some time. I thought I had it down packed until I was introduced to this site. I know that what's good for the geese is not always good for the gander - but I had to listen to what some of my MFP friends were saying. For instance - You are eating too much if you are eating back all of your excercise calories. At first I didn't listen. I kept weighing in and not loosing - So - I decided to listen - and wha-lah the weight began to drop off. I'm so happy for this site -

Sharon_C

I stopped thinking of working out as an option. I stopped asking "do I really want to go to the gym/park today?" to "how long will I stay at the gym/park today?"

I love this^^^ I think I'm going to adopt this attitude.

deniseblossoms

Changing my all or nothing approach. In the past I would work out 7 days a week, 2x a day some of those. Or I would do nothing.

And exercising, weighing and logging calories, not drinking, no diet pills or quick fixes, and no soda diet or otherwise.

But mostly just getting up each day prepared to put the work in to get what I want out.

moreORless50

eating 3 meals aday stopped me from snacking on junk + started walking started at a small walk few times a week then upped it to 2 miles every day and just recently upped it again to 3 miles aday

Strangelyinsane

I'm no different than anyone else, it seems. I've been weighing my food when cooking and when eating processed food. I've been exercising very regularly, though not that intensely and I've been logging my food religiously. It's working for me.

doggiesnot

It sounds corny, but food and exercise.

Smaller portions and the quality of food. I used to eat seconds every time, and didn't care what I was eating, only if it tasted good. Now I look for nutritional value and eat a reasonable sized portion. I never drink soda, avoid sugars and salt and most sweets (sometimes I cave in, but I skip the office candy bowl).

Also, adding in exercise which was non-existent for me. I did 20-30 minutes of strength training 3 days a week, along with 60 minutes of cardio 5 days a week, and got great results. I like varying workouts and trying different things. Strength plus cardio is a great combo. I also added yoga.

MinnieInMaine

Realizing I could lose weight without starving myself or depriving myself of the foods I love. With some planning, better food choices and portion control, I'm still very happy with my diet (as in what I eat, not on a diet) and because of that I've been able to stick with this longer than ever - almost 3 years!

Also, patience. Boy, no one ever tells you you need patience to lose weight but it is a HUGE part of this process!

pandoraw

I started drinking Water. I now drink 4 to 6 cups a day. I use portion control as well. It gets easier every day.

Lisa760

Parking far and walking to my destination. It cuts down on stress, too.

Drinking only water.

Avoiding hidden sugar.

Logging everything I eat.

Weekly check-ins with MFP and co-worker.

Keeping a calendar taped to the bathroom wall displaying my weekly goal.

Carrying around a 1-lb. fat replica in my purse as a visual reminder.

Shua89

Logging everything. Every time I log my food I lose weight, when I stop I gain weight. You'd think I'd learn!

Logging makes me stop and think about my food choices and I ALWAYS log it *before* I eat it so that I can look to see if it's worth it.

Celeigh12

Another one for weighing my food!

oldmanstauf

Food scale has helped tremendously. One of the #1 things helping me the most.

Well, can't be ONE of the #1 things...scratch it, it IS the #1 thing

Cheryl188

EXERCISE, EXERCISE, EXERCISE!
You can diet away some pounds, but maintaining long-term health includes plently of exercise.

snarkymom72

Upping my calories and C25K!

Prisme

Making my own meals. I used to get food on the go a LOT.

Exactly! I would stop at the grocery store deli and get a sandwich made and buy a premade salad. Or if I wasn't starving, I would buy a frozen meal to cook when I got home. I kidded myself that since I wasn't at the drive thru getting McDonalds that I was eating better. I wasn't eating hamburgers and fries, I was getting food from the grocery store. I'm sure that pasta salad at the deli had no calories. LOL.

VorJoshigan

I started loving/forgiving myself.
I dropped sugar. Mostly.
I started logging every dang thing I ate no matter how embarrassed it would make me.
I started doing kettlebell exercises.
I started carrying around my fitbit.


The first one made all the rest possible.

BR3ANDA

My mindset.

burtnyks

For me it was mostly making all my meals so I know what's going into them. I do eat out sometimes on my weekly cheat day. I was also having a lot of "fake" sugar in terms of adding it to foods, or in things like Crystal Light..... and I had hit a plateau. I decided to give up the fake sugars and started losing again. I do use a little real sugar here and there, but its very limited.

emcdonie

Aside from sheer raw and utter determination.........the biggest help is logging my food. If I didn't I wouldn't be doing no where near as well as I am.

stardancer7

The first piece of advice I got on MFP was to buy a scale to weigh my food and it is the best thing I've done! No point in logging if I'm not accurate--and the days of making excuses and lying to myself are over.

SoDamnHungry

Cutting out sweets because I was binge eating them. I only went three weeks without them, but I feel like it kind of helped me "reset" my way of thinking about food. I eat them every day now, but not even half as much. Going off of them helped me realize how my body really didn't feel good after eating 6 mini bars in a row. I no longer save half of my calories for binge eating candy bars before bed (although I still eat one before bed).

surromom2010

Cut out soda/energy drinks with sugars. Still have my diet coke but now everything else is diet/sugar free too when it comes to drinks. Drink more water too, lost the first 8lbs in no time, before MFP, without exercise. I wish I could reset my ticker to include those 8lbs lol.

kacarter1017

Portion size decrease, closely followed by increasing exercise.

icimani

Portion control has to the biggest, by far.

Next would be exercising - not only intentionally working out, but just in general moving more and being more active.