What actually makes you lose weight?

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kjo9692
kjo9692 Posts: 430 Member
in Food and Nutrition
Hello everyone! This is my first post here and I want to say first of all that I have been truly inspired to continue with my weight loss goals this year thanks to all the amazing success stories, so thank you all :)

The first time I ever tried to start losing weight I did it with a nutritionist here in Panama (Central America) and I actually was very close to lose all the weight I had to lose, but I was in school and it was getting pretty hard to eat healthy cause I was always at someone else's house and was eating whatever they had, etc. Long story short, the first thing he told me was that calories was NOT important. He said the most important things to keep in mind were to make sure I was eating proteins in my three meals, carbs (good carbs) for lunch and breakfast, and fats (like olive oil, olives, etc.) for lunch and dinner, fruits for breakfast and vegetables for lunch and dinner, and I stuck to that plan and I lost so much weight (about 25 pounds in 2 months, I was just 15 pounds away from my goal at that time). Of course, together with a good exercise plan, staying hydrated, and one cheat meal a week, and a list of things that I couldn't eat. But, seeing all your posts I could see that most of the success stories are thanks to counting calories and balancing it. And to be honest, the diet I had was also within 1200 calories for me, so if I ignore all the health advise given to me about the carbs, and the fats and blabla, I can say that I also lost weight by balancing the calories I eat vs. the ones I burn. Sooooo...

I guess I just want to know how have you lost weight? By a mixture of both? Is it the whole calories counting system? Thanks!! :wink:

Replies

  • MityMax96
    MityMax96 Posts: 5,778 Member
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    Caloric deficit is how you are going to lose weight.....
    If you get a chance, do a google search for "twinkie diet"
    A professor did that and ate below his caloric needs and lost weight......


    Now you will want to make sure that when you diet, you hit your macro minimums
    For protein and fat.....carbs are not essential, so you can cut them out all together if you like....but it may make you grumpy. :wink:

    1200 calorie diet is not one I would suggest, unless you are overweight or obese......
    Try to make sure whatever diet routine you choose, you can make it work for you over the long term......or you will crash and burn and that will suck.

    There is no specific timing to get your calories/macros in for the day....as long as you get them in....
    Unless you are planning to get on stage for a competition, then perhaps timing could play a role....
    but most studies show that what matters at the end of the day is that you got your caloric and macro needs met.
  • nomeejerome
    nomeejerome Posts: 2,616 Member
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  • refinedredbird
    refinedredbird Posts: 209 Member
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    To lose weight, you simply have to burn more calories than you consume, it doesn't matter what you eat in this respect, as long as it is less. The more "bad" foods you consume, the less you can eat because of the high amount of calories in that food, the "good" foods tend to have less calories, therefore you can eat more. I personally try to eat a high amount of protein per day because it makes me feel more full than if I eat foods that are more carb based. Protein helps you build muscle and your muscle helps burn fat.
  • BigGuy47
    BigGuy47 Posts: 1,768 Member
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    I lost weight by consuming calories than I burned.

    I focus on macros for my health, I watch my carbs because I'm a T2 diabetic and I try to keep my protein up for retaining muscle mass. Fat is delicious, I eat lots of it.
  • Ainar
    Ainar Posts: 858 Member
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    Calories. I counted them and that's how I lost weight. You ate more than you can burn you gain weight, you ate less than you burn you lose weight and if you ate just as much as you burn you stay the same weight. So figure out your maintenance cals and ate below them.

    Whatever diets are out there for fat loss in the end of a day they still work only because total calories consumed is decreased. Your nutritionist got you eating in calorie deficit by using portion method and having you do a balanced and healthy diet. But it worked only because you were eating less calories.

    That's all good, if you wanna do it healthy way as much as possible. But you could ate only candies and ice creams, hamburgers, fast foods, etc and still lose weight just as good as by eating healthy balanced diet. You would prolly feel worse and would not be that healthy tho.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,867 Member
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    Consuming fewer calories than your body needs to maintain makes you lose weight. This is all very basic math and science.
  • SharkAl
    SharkAl Posts: 4
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    3600 calories = 1 lb of fat. So you would have to burn 3600 calories more than you consume to lose 1 lb.

    I think diets are just different strategies on how to do this but I think it all comes down to calories at the end of the day!! The healthier the better of course!
  • aquarabbit
    aquarabbit Posts: 1,622 Member
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    Caloric deficit is how you are going to lose weight.....

    I agree. Even though I love working out and do it daily, at the end of the day, watching my calories is what makes me lose the weight. I would also think about getting a digital scale and some measuring cups if you're unsure about portion sizes. It took me a while to get the hang of just how much a cup or 4 oz of meat, etc, was. It really helps to know you're logging something right.

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