What works for you?

I jump started my weight loss simply by reducing calories. As soon as I decided to lose weight using MFP, I started eating how I would for the rest of my life: mindful of calories I am consuming, eating mostly real whole foods that I cook myself, and exercising regularly. 30 pounds lost and 9 months of maintaining and I would say it was a success.

Don't bother with "detox" diets- there is no such thing, your liver and kidneys do all the detoxing your body needs.

Don't bother with any eating plan you won't stick with for the long haul. If you like the idea of eating South Beach way (or Paleo or Atkins or whatever) and can do it for life, then try it out and see if you like it. No sense in losing the weight on a diet that you will have to transition away from if you don't find it sustainable for the long haul.

Honestly, losing weight is the easy part. keeping it off for life is where the work really begins.

I sort of think the long term key is not to try to "maximize" your weight loss. You've got to find a way of eating and living that results in a healthy, stable weight.
I'm using MFP as an educational tool. By the time I reach my goal weight, I want to have a very good feel for the eating and exercise habits I need to maintain that weight. From there, if I slip and gain a few pounds, I can adjust.
Patience is tough. I'd like to be where I want to go right away, but in the end, I don't think that suits my long term needs.

Change your eating habbits into healthy ones while tracking your calories. Just seeing the rediculous calories you injest from junk food should be enough to open your eyes to how awful your diet has been.

I do both Paleo/Primal and IF. (I generally alternate (dinner-to-dinner) 24 hr fasts with 18/6 the rest of the days). It's very successful for me and I only wish I'd tried it sooner. Heavy weights every other day, walking and/or a little cardio (less than 30 minutes) on the other days. For me it is sustainable, enjoyable and I love feeling stronger and smaller all the time. I aim for 60 fat, 20 carb, 20 protein.

I've been at this a couple of years so my list is long, and I have been successful these last 3 years both with losing fat and then with maintaining and keeping my muscle. I owe a huge amount of success to IF and my DXA scan and the doctors constant checking of my hormones and blood levels proved that my journey from obese to 10% body fat did not result in losing lean body mass, even eating at a calorie deficit low enough that many on here would object to. It does not matter. My doctor is happy. I'm happy. I'm healthy and all the lab results prove that I did this in a healthy manner as well as the fact that I have sustained maintenance for over a year. It does not really matter what anyone else thinks. The facts are the facts.

There is no mystery to weight loss, everyone thinks something is wrong, their metabolism is broken, they have low thyroid, they have menopause or whatever issue, they are as unique as a snowflake, whatever. I thought a lot of these things once too but once the doctor helped resolve the health issues for me I learned there is still no magic pill. Most people eat more than they need to and are not at good at estimating calories as they think they are. Most people have a lower BMR than they think they do. The only way to know for sure is to go to a lab and have it tested. It doesn't seem fair to have to eat less and feel a little hunger. It's hard to face the truth of it, very hard. It's not fun. It's drudgery at times. But if you learn to enjoy your smaller amounts of food (necessary to lose weight, since the reason we got fat in the first place was eating too much whether we knew it or not), and rejoice in your victories it can be done.

Your body loses weight in chunks, not linear. I have found that you can do everything right and your weight loss seems to plateau but if you are patient and keep exercising and eating at a deficit (however slight) you will lose it, it will suddenly "whoosh". There are so many variables for the scale; water retention, digestion, hormones, allergies, sodium, carbs, water intake, DOMS, inflammation, the list goes on. People mistakenly think they lose or gain weight when they eat more or less because of these fluctuations.

Losing weight requires tremendous patience. You will not lose it when you want it or where you want it. The body does its thing. Some apparent plateaus can last a month or so. You cannot make it happen faster. You must focus on two things; calories and exercise. Nothing else matters. Scales and metrics don't matter. The day in and day out grind of exercise and calories are all that matters. It is not very exciting until things fall into place. You get your victories and you ride one victory to the next.

The scale is a trend tool. The scale is good but put it away and only check once a week and only use it as a trend tool. It will fluctuate, it does not matter. Take front side and back progress pictures at least once a month. You will see differences that the metrics won't tell you and it's that little bit of NSV that will keep you going until the next victory.

To say eat more is wrong.

To say eat less is wrong.

To find the exact calories needed for YOU to be in a healthy sustainable calorie deficit is the right answer. Wait, if you need to adjust by 100 do it, wait, adjust, wait, adjust, wait. The tortoise wins this race.

All that matters is calories. A healthy balanced diet within a calorie budget for a deficit that is right for YOU is all that matters for weight loss. Don't make it complicated.

You want to eat as healthy as you can because it makes you feel better and perform better, and makes you healthier. There are a bunch of "tricks" and "clean eating"; reducing sugar (especially HFCS), fiber, white flour vs whole grain, low carb, low fat, on and on. But really all that matters is calories for weight loss. If you need to eat a certain way for health reasons or to feel better do it, but extensive good food and bad food lists will drive you insane at some point, it’s a constantly moving target. Just eat what you like, mostly healthy, mostly balanced, within a calorie budget. Getting caught up in "tricks" is mainly a waste of time, and I probably wasted 15 years doing it so I'm no better than anyone else.

Also people play mental accounting games with calories just like with finances. Make steps to make sure you are making accurate measurements. Packaged foods can have MORE than they say but not less (they get in trouble if less so they would rather error with MORE).

If you typically intake sodium at a certain rate your body adjusts, but if you make a sudden change then you will see a spike.

Exercise is for making your lean body mass pretty (especially lifting weights) for when the fat is gone. Losing fat with no muscle is ugly and cardio alone will not make you pretty. You cannot out exercise too many calories.

Everyone needs resistance training to improve their health and bone density and this will especially improve your quality of life when you get older. But you will not gain all that much lean body mass as fast as everyone thinks. Guys of course will gain more. A DXA scan will prove the point. There are lots of stories about changing size but no one REALLY knows unless they do a DXA scan. Here's more about that --> http://bradpilon.com/weight-loss/intermittent-fasting-and-bulking/ this is true whether you IF or not. My DXA scans proved that I really didn't gain that much lean body mass yet I look very muscular for a female. I have very high bone density from over 30 years of lifting yet my lean body mass is still only 104 lbs and my RMR is still only 1380.

I recently had my DXA scan done and at 51.5 years of age I have the bone density of a super athletic 30 year old. That is a direct result of lifting for over 30 years. Now if that is not scientific proof that lifting weights keeps you younger I don't know what is. Also I believe it is why most people think I look much younger than I really am. Because of this I don't have to worry about osteoporosis. If you wait until you are older and your bones start to deteriorate it's a bit too late, you can't get back what you lost, and you can only start a resistance routine that will prevent further damage.

Cardio is good for you but it is optional. I love cardio, but you can't out exercise too many calories. Of course you burn calories, but not near what all the HRM's say. I learned the hard way, running marathon after marathon (yes even multiple runs during the day), as well as hitting the gym hard, martial arts, staying active all the time, not eating while watching TV, not binging, not mindlessly eating, not pigging out, not having emotional eating issues, yet I gained weight year after year, each decade putting on the pounds. I worked harder and harder, not able to figure out what was wrong. It didn't seem like I ate too much, but for my small size I did and didn't realize it until just a few years ago when I finally started losing weight by eating less.

Everyone is different, but it's very easy to do a lot of cardio and think you can eat more than you really need, especially when you need to lose weight. It is also easy to think that you are burning more fat than you really are. Just do cardio if you enjoy it and because it's good for you.

Too many changes at once can be hard on some people. I've always eaten healthy so it easy for me to simply eat less. Eating at a calorie deficit is hard on people; even a small deficit puts your body in a state of flux with hormones and such. Everyone is different. Some people can handle a deeper calorie deficit than others, this is not right or wrong, it just is. Stress in your life affects your hunger hormones; lack of sleep, fatigue, job stress, family stress, financial stress, etc. Add in emotional eating issues and it gets even more complicated. Most people can only handle so much change/stress at once, they try to do too much and fail. Sometimes it might be a better strategy to eat at maintenance and make some small changes first, it really depends on how much stress you are taking in at the moment.

What is the exact number of calories for you?

We’ve been trying to figure out an exact NUMBER of calories that everyone should be eating, without recognizing that everyone is slightly different. In truth, the calories aren’t the end game. Your body is. So the EXACT amount of Calories that are right for you is the EXACT amount that will allow you to maintain your ideal bodyweight no matter what some calculator or chart says.

In other words, an online calculator might tell you that you need to eat 2,500 calories
per day to maintain your ideal bodyweight. But the only way to know for sure if this is
the right amount for you is to test it out. If you gain weight or can’t lose weight eating
that much, then you know you need to eat less to lose weight no matter how many
calculators and text books say otherwise.

This doesn’t mean your metabolism is broken, it just means the estimate of your needs
was just a bit off.

-John Barban (The Body Centric Calorie Guide from the Venus Index and Adonis Index Manuals)

The good thing is you don't have to worry about the starvation mode myth if you are fat. Only skinny people have to worry about starvation mode. It does not mean you have the capability to eat at a large calorie deficit if you have emotional eating disorders or other issues going on, but at least you don't have to be afraid of it anymore.

I am short, petite, small; my RMR is low compared to others. With my doctors approval I had to eat less than or right around 1000 calories to lose weight. We are all different. There is no one size fits all. Even people my height and gender are different and some need more calories than I do. My doctor checked my hormone levels throughout my 60 lb weight loss journey (from obese down to 10% body fat) and everything was fine. I got stronger and stronger at the gym, my running and weight lifting strength improved even while eating on a significant calorie deficit. My DXA scan proved I did not lose lean body mass or go into starvation mode.

Also you do not have to eat the same amount of calories every day. You can think of it as a weekly calorie budget. You can eat low some days and high some days. You can be flexible. You can find what is sustainable for you.

The Theory of Fat Availability:
•There is a set amount of fat that can be released from a fat cell.
•The more fat you have, the more fat can be used as a fuel when dieting.
•The less fat you have, the less fat can be used as a fuel when dieting.
•Towards the end of a transformation, when body fat is extremely low you
may not have enough fat to handle a large caloric deficit anymore.

At the extreme low end, when your body fat cannot ‘keep up’ with the energy deficit
you've imposed on your body, the energy MUST come from SOMEWHERE. This is
when you are at risk of losing lean body mass during dieting (commonly referred to
as ‘starvation mode’). This happens at extremely low levels of body fat, under 6% in
men and 12% in women [Friedl K.E. J Appl Phsiol, 1994].

-Brad Pilon and John Barban (from The Reverse Taper Diet in The Adonis Index and Venus Index manuals)

For me it's all about a calorie budget. I had less of a budget available when I was losing weight, more to spend now that I'm maintaining and all the tools I used for weight loss come into play for the rest of my life maintaining.

When you have accumulated excess fat, you have accumulated a debt. It is hard to pay off the debt (you have less calories to spend). If you are sitting next to someone your same gender and height and they are not overweight and you are, they get to eat more than you (have more calories to spend) because they are debt free. You have less calories to spend because you are paying off your debt.

Wishing you the best! -Bobbie

Straight up it has been just the annotation of what I actually consume a day. Once I controlled my intake the more I notices little victories of weight loss. Once I noticed the lossI wanted to keep it going just by changing my routine started with a power walk on a treadmill, then once my stamina built started jogging barely finishing a mile. Now Im on a complete new routine of getting 6 miles of runnin in a week and like I said just controlling my intake. I still eat mcdonalds i still have treats but once I hit my goal I'm done. The hard part of it all is to not make it feel like work.

"healthy and sustainable" are your operable words. What is healthy and sustainable for one may not be for another. I cannot do a low carb diet. I get raging headaches, dizzy spells, etc. For others, they work great. So, for me, low barb isn't healthy OR sustainable.
FOr ME, I've found weight training with cardio is helping me change my body shape. I've increased my protein intake to help with maintaining muscle mass and I've become more mindful of sugar intake(it was admittedly a bit out of control before.) I still eat carbs, I just eat whole grains and such instead of all the sugar I used to eat.
I've honestly used trial and error the past year or so to find what i ENJOY and what gets me results.

Bump

For me, it's portion control. No tricks, gimmicks, fad diets, nothing. Just exercise and not eating so damn much.

This times infinity.