Raspberry Ketones for the rest of us!

There's a LOT of broscience/hoscience BS floating around the boards lately, and I can only assume it's because the new year has brought a new population of users, and unscrupulous jerks want to take advantage of the new people by feeding them misinformation and possibly sending them PM's offering them a convenient solution for the low, low price of 39.95. However, in the past year I have been moderately successful and I have a ton of very successful people on my FL, and I would like to offer some counterbalancing information from people who have been here a while and had some success.

So, I'm going to offer my own tips and words of wisdom, and hope others chip in some of theirs.

1) I am an add-exercise-and-eat-back person. My method is find your TDEE (without exercise) and subtract 10-20% for your deficit, but never more than 20%, and then add and eat back exercise calories. Others add their exercise to their TDEE- either way is fine and if you do it right, should work out to be the same over a week.

2) I have an HRM, but I don't use it really. There's nothing WRONG with using it, but I just think it's annoying to wear. Realize that an HRM is just another method of ESTIMATING your calories, and your actual weight loss or gain is the ONLY way to tell you if the numbers you're using are correct. Don't freak out over the details of if your run was 415 or 427 calories burned. It all comes out in the wash.

3) My nutrition method is this: Get your protein (I believe in 1 gram per lb LBM) first, and eat some vegetables every day (and fruit, though I don't really eat as much fruit as I should- I'm trying). That's pretty much it for my rules. I like fat and try to get 30-35% of my cals from fat as I find dietary fat very satiating and it makes it easier to stick to my calorie goals. I freaking love pizza and eat a half-pizza at LEAST once a week. With ranch dressing. I don't believe in food-group restriction or eliminating anything. I've tried that method in the past, and it never works for me long-term. Eating the foods I like AND sticking to my goals is a long-term solution. MOAR PIZZA!

4) SLOW DOWN. Weight loss is actually the easy part. The ultimate prize is maintenance. If you cut your calories too low, or eliminate too many things, you are setting yourself up for failure at maintenance. Here's the real scoop- if you go with too big of a calorie deficit, then you sacrifice muscle along the way. Muscle is MUCH more difficult to add back than fat, (ask any bodybuilder!) so when you inevitably regain weight, you gain a higher percentage of fat than you lost, so at the end of a yo-yo diet cycle, you are actually FATTER than you started (even if you end up the same or slightly lower weight). It's a curse. Don't do it!

5) LIFT WEIGHTS NOW! Not when you get to goal weight, not later, DO IT NOW! I've been a runner all of my adult life, and I still run, but nothing has changed my body like lifting has. I actually lift less often than most people, because I want to balance my running and lifting, so I do a customized full-body program 2x a week, allowing me to work on my running goals simultaneously. My progress is likely slower than if I were concentrating exclusively on lifting- but don't get me wrong- I'm still strong! Sidenote- lifting has made me a faster runner than ever before. Imagine that!

6) SLOW DOWN (the fitness version!)- You will not be able torun as fast or as far or lift as much weight as someone who has been working on it a while. There's no shame in being a beginner. You don't need to compete with anyone but yourself. Trying to do too much too soon is how you get injured. And while we're on the subject- you're running too fast. When you start out, it should feel like a slow shuffle. Trying to run fast is why people fail and quit running.

7) STOP MESSING WITH YOUR PROGRAM! Results take time, and if you switch things around every two weeks because you're not seeing the results you expect, you never will. You have to stick with it.

8) Stop telling your friends and family and coworkers and everyone else what you're doing. Opinions are like ***holes, and everyone will give you theirs and pollute your mind with all kinds of nonsense advice that you don't need, and then they;ll watch what you eat and make comments. Just do you and let the results speak for themselves. Later on, when people ask what you've been doing, THEN tell them.

9) CUT ALL EXCUSES NOW. Nobody is trying to sabotage you. You're not a snowflake. There are ways to make time, work with a budget, deal with annoying spouses, etc. There is a workaround for every excuse except your bad attitude, so knock it off.

10) DON'T GIVE UP! everyone makes mistakes. No mistake is the end of the world. Just get up tomorrow, clean slate, and try to have a good day. There's no point in dwelling on the past or starving yourself of exercising like crazy the rest of the week, just move on. It will be OK.

That's it. No supplements. No metabolism revving tricks. No pretending beans are cookies. No magic or fairy dust whatsoever. Just hard work, patience, and dedication.

OH, P.S., I'm 5'3", have a desk job (sedentary outside of exercise), and thyroid disease, and I lost most of my weight at 1650 cals/day. My macros set to 40C/30P/30F (though I think you should use the 1g/lb LBM method).

I went from this:


to this:




I'm not at goal and I'm far from finished, so I'm a bit nervous posting the pics, but I feel like I have to show my progress here. So I already know, there's work still to be done. Please don't feel compelled to tell me that, lol.

Now, please add your own NO BS words of wisdom!