What change did you make that helped you most?

I joined this site and read a book called Eat To Live. It changed my life.

Learning how your body responds and reacts to different sources of calories and different qualities of food.

Understanding my body and the science and design of it has given me everything I need to maintain a healthy weight for the rest of my life.

What worked for me honestly was pre-logging my food and doing very low Carbs.

Study.

I've spent months in PubMed and reading people like Lyle McDonald and such, seeking for the base of many ideas I had about nutrition and body recomposition. Starting dieting without the understanding of what a protein is, having a grasp of the metabolic process of fat loss, etc. is crazy. Starting to exercise and specially lifting is crazy if you don't have a minimal idea of what muscles are there in your body, what is their natural movement, what's the purpose of isolation work, how muscle is created, etc. There are so many things to know yet there's also the sufficient and basic amount of knowledge you should get to be, therefore, confident in what you're doing. Knowing what's happening in your body, understanding the process taking place in body recomposition in general, as well as getting to know minimally what "healthy" may mean; this is the most important and basic key for success. Because any difficulty you may confront won't lead you to biased myths that will stall your path because that minimal knowledge prepares you for that. Knowing and keeping pace of many things thought to be truth in the past but not now (for example, meal timing, "clean" eating, etc.) will allow you to accomodate your diet to your lifestyle better, then, will make everything easier. The most important thing is, when you know the minimal (we're not playing to be doctors or experts here, never, I don't mean that in any possible way; actually the more you know the more you see how deep many problems go) you are more capable of being responsible of yourself. Going to the nutritionist (or MFP, or X) and saying "yes, yes, I will" to everything that person may say is not the thing to do. The thing to do is not to confront him/her without being humble and aware of your ignorance, but with the needed critical spirit of asking WHY should I be doing this, with the will to prepare yourself to change the way you have been living in this aspect - that requires the capability of being minimally independent, minimally knowledgeable, minimally confident in what you're doing because you know what's happening and know you're doing the right thing and is a long-term, whole-life decision. You can't be that dependant. Things will come to their way when doing so and knowing so. Losing weight is a compromise to oneself, I think, which implies more than anything trust, confidence. In yourself and what you're doing. The only way to do so, is understanding sufficiently the pace you have to take so when something unexpected happens -say, a plateu- you know those things that will resort to a good choice, and that will make you stick to your plan - you know it's just time, compromise and effort, because you're in the right path and results will come.

Personally, I have hypothyroidism and after many defeating stories I was tired of making myself to be DOOMED, saying "Oh, I'm ill and it's hard, look at those who struggle also to lose weight, I was healthy and got this, how unlucky...". I understood putting those excuses is dooming yourself and that you have always to fight for the idea of being ABLE to do the things you want to do instead of easily giving up because you're ignorant and everybody seems to say it's hard. There are impossible things, sure, but search very well before giving up. I started searching about it, metabolism, nutrients, etc. and came to know I was putting excuses and following the trend of indulging in my hypo thing to not make the changes. It was because I didn't know what to do. I learned how. I lost weight and still do. I'll get to my goal, and I'm still learning everyday.

This is a journey of knowledge. Learning what works for losing weight. I want to know what change you made that has made the biggest impact on your success of losing weight and getting healthy. For me I haven't figured it out. I'm still crunching numbers. I have ED so in the past restricting food was the only way I knew how. I have been eating which is good but I can't seem to get it right. I have been fluctuating 5 lbs for over a year. I have my macros set and I eat at a deficit. I'm sure my issue is accurately logging my cals. I'm just wondering what has worked for you.

Thank you in advance for any advice or information.

1) Logging every bite of food. This led to 2) Don't drink your calories. I still drink *some* calories, but I reduced that to a fraction of what it was. My downfall was sweetened coffee drinks.

I kind of knew before I started logging that I was drinking a ridiculous number of calories every day. When I started logging was when I fully realized it was over 1200 a day. After eating, I was easily consuming 2500-3500 calories per day because of the drinks. All that with no exercise and with a sedentary desk job.

Quit drinking soda pop and got off my *kitten*

I started cutting out/down carbs in my diet on August 1st. I eat 3 meals a day with a snack between breakfast, lunch and after supper. (6 meals a day) sounds like a lot, but I am feeling better. I have shed 10 lbs, and am aiming for at least 5-10 more by Nov, 20th. I also joined Curves and went 3 days a week before I had gall bladder surgery a week ago. However, I am going to return to Curves. I dropped 2 BMI's. I am under a doctors care.

less carbs and more lean protein

Eliminated soda. I only have the occasional zero cal or sugar free soda/drink.

Keeping fast food to an absolute minimum. Even if I'm cooking unhealthy foods, it's still far superior to mcdonalds anything.

The biggest change for me, so far, is inputting everything I intake. that has allowed me to see where my weak points are. Sugar was the big one. Now everything is under control in that department, and things are looking good! Thanks MFP!