What's the single most effective change you've made?

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  • dovetail22uk
    dovetail22uk Posts: 339 Member
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    Logging EVERYTHING. Made me realise that I don't need to eat as much as I was previously eating.

    I used to wonder why I got fat - now I've faced up to the fact that I'm a glutton!
  • SoViLicious
    SoViLicious Posts: 2,633 Member
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    Eat more and watch my sodium
  • GlorianEversea
    GlorianEversea Posts: 22
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    I lost 10 pounds in two weeks and I believe it started the EXACT moment I stopped eating out for two meals a day!!!! Portion size control is so important....as is knowing the content of your meal.
    I'd guess I was averaging 700 calories per meal.

    Secondly, I cut out the junk snacks. Now that I understand much more about caloric intake, I can see that I was basically nuking my fitness with stupid comfort snacks, like Ms Debbie cakes and Starbucks junk and the like. I was easily adding 300-600 calories to my diet with these snacks.

    Third, healthy snacks between meals to stop the gorge fest caused by being too hungry!

    Fourth, daily exercise.
  • USMC1968
    USMC1968 Posts: 62 Member
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    Eat less, move more, drink water...
  • Rockstar_JILL
    Rockstar_JILL Posts: 514 Member
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    Not eating as much prepackaged foods, upping my protein, lowering my sodium and most of all REGULAR exercise. Guess that is more than one change...but it works for me! :)
  • kitigonkukoo
    kitigonkukoo Posts: 218 Member
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    Planning the next day's meals out the night before thru this site!

    If I stray from the plan, no problem- I just adjust the rest of the day. If it's too late, then I rethink straying, because I feel that I won't have time to adjust my food intake to balance it out... so I just don't do it. Plus, as a side effect, it made me much more aware of the portions I was eating, and how many "sneaky calories" were in my food that I didn't realize...
  • DebbieLyn63
    DebbieLyn63 Posts: 2,650 Member
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    Accepting that I have to log everything I eat. I fought it for years, and stayed in denial of just how few calories my body really needed to maintain after I quit working, and how much I needed to cut everyday, consistently, to be able to lose weight. But once I accepted the reality that I will need to log for the rest of my life, and I am ok with that, now I can really see me getting back to a healthy weight again and keeping it off.

    If only I would have learned this lesson 14 years ago when I started down this road of weight-gaining, but I guess better late than never!
  • Taraanne76
    Taraanne76 Posts: 111 Member
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    Eating less than 30g of sugar 90%of the time as well as only eating slow digesting carbs.
  • nautiigirl
    nautiigirl Posts: 4 Member
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    Logging my food every day. I have never been good at keeping up with this because I thought it would make me feel more restricted, but I have found the opposite to be true. I find I can eat more because I am planning my meals and am able to make any food fit within my calorie goal. Instead of not eating food I enjoy that is higher in calories, I just budget for it, eat it and move on! I don't feel restricted at all, and every time I get on the scale I am a little bit lighter!
  • AmyMgetsfit
    AmyMgetsfit Posts: 636 Member
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    I have been a coke drinker for longer than I can remember, probably at least 35 years. I would drink 3 or 4 cans a day. I drink water now and iced tea. I have never been a water drinker. Before I go to bed, I fill 4 mason jars with water and berries or citrus fruit slices and herbs and put in the fridge. It is my water for the next day. It has been a month now with not even a sip of coke.
  • SRH7
    SRH7 Posts: 2,037 Member
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    Eating to my TDEE-20% and not following a specific diet plan.

    It has trained me to realise that I can eat at any time of the day and don't need to exclude foods in order to lose weight (which I'm doing successfully - still eating bread, drinking alcohol etc etc). By forcing structure on myself I was setting myself up to fail. Now I eat when I want - usually lightly during the day so I can have a massive dinner with snacks afterwards. I exercise (running, hiking, weights) and eat back every single exercise calorie. And my body seems happy about that!
  • miriamwithcats
    miriamwithcats Posts: 1,120 Member
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    Realizing that a lot of the gluten free cookies, chips, crackers, breads were just not worth the calories. They don't taste very good, AND are high in calories. So now I don't buy them. When I do need a treat, I eat one that is worth the calories, so it is more satisfactory.
  • cassiegal724
    cassiegal724 Posts: 63 Member
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    Hands down - establishing my workout regimen. I lost almost 60 pounds before really committing to fitness, but that took 1 1/2 years to get off. This last 30ish pounds have flown off in less than 6 months and I'm starting to see that I can look good naked, plus I feel sooooo much better overall and haven't been sick (knock on wood!!) for MONTHS! that is all :)
  • SRH7
    SRH7 Posts: 2,037 Member
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    Accepting that I have to log everything I eat. I fought it for years, and stayed in denial of just how few calories my body really needed to maintain after I quit working, and how much I needed to cut everyday, consistently, to be able to lose weight. But once I accepted the reality that I will need to log for the rest of my life, and I am ok with that, now I can really see me getting back to a healthy weight again and keeping it off.

    If only I would have learned this lesson 14 years ago when I started down this road of weight-gaining, but I guess better late than never!

    :flowerforyou:
  • sijomial
    sijomial Posts: 19,811 Member
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    Counting calories - as simple as that.
    Always eaten heathily and have been both fat and fit for many years - counting revealed the simple truth that I was eating too many calories.
  • Q2208
    Q2208 Posts: 3
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    I stopped smoking.
  • alpine1994
    alpine1994 Posts: 1,915 Member
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    It's tough to pick one, but I think I was overdoing at dinner way too much. I live with my boyfriend who loves things like chicken broccoli fettuccine, chicken parm, steak and mashed potatoes, etc. He somehow readily agreed to eating dinners with less carbs and sauces and using more herbs and spices. Now we usually just have lean meat and a veggie and I think it made a huge difference. It's insane how fast the calories add up in pasta, rice, heavy sauces, etc.
  • abibrand
    abibrand Posts: 10
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    Not so much a weight loss thing as a 'how I feel' thing, but eating enough protein. Before I started actually keeping track of what I ate, I had no idea how much protein I needed and wasn't getting and I feel different, better now.
  • K_Serz
    K_Serz Posts: 1,299 Member
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    Eating habits! Period!

    Workouts are still the same, no issues there. Depending on what I eat is what changes things.
  • iLoveMyPitbull1225
    iLoveMyPitbull1225 Posts: 1,691 Member
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    Making myself work out. absolutely the biggest change for me, because I dont have a problem eating healthy. Close second would be pre planning my meals and snacks so that I can keep myself on track.

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