Go all in...or take baby steps?

Depends on personality I guess. I usually go all in with stuff, but on this I dipped my toes in the water first by just counting all my calories for a week or two so I could see exactly what I was eating.

Eye opener!

Oh, and I gave up soda after that, then started dropping other bad food habits.

Which is better? some say take one habit and a time and work on that (increase water intake, increase fruits and vegetables, etc), others have drastically changed everything. I would like to know what worked for you?

I don't have an answer other than it probably depends on the person. I believe (I'd have to revisit the info) that we do have some research showing greater long term success rates in individuals who lose weight fast vs slow initially. One could take this and assume that this means you need to go "all in" so to speak.

But I doubt this is a cut-and-dry thing, and I think there's merit to the idea that some people aren't going to be able to adhere to approaches that involve aggressive habit changes whether that's overly restrictive dieting, aggressive training procedures, or simply being overwhelmed with too much change.

My hunch is that it probably depends on individual factors...

This answer wasn't much help but I think it's a great question.

What worked for me... um... pissing around for 4 years and half assing it and then deciding early this year that things needed to change.

So I say go all in, no point in wasting time.

Which is better? some say take one habit and a time and work on that (increase water intake, increase fruits and vegetables, etc), others have drastically changed everything. I would like to know what worked for you?

I agree that its a personality thing.

What would I advise? I think making small changes and working on health and weight loss as a lifestyle change in gradual steps is what is most likely to work long term for the majority of people.

What do I do? I tend to make a very regimented routine for myself of strict diet and regular exercise. So why? I've found for myself I am much more likely to get invested in my fitness if I make it challenging because, well, I like a challenge. My problem is and is always going to be maintenance. I lose weight easily because, as I mentioned, I like a challenge and I am very disciplined. My problem is when it comes time for maintenance and there is no need for a strict regimen anymore I get bored and stop paying attention.

I've been called a hypocrite on these forums before because I seem to advise differently than I act myself. I feel however that that isn't because I'm hypocritical, its because I honestly feel that my personality is not the norm personality and so what works for me would not work for the majority of people.

So for me the strict diet and exercise is what gets the weight off. Maintenance I'm still trying to figure out. I think many would argue the if you can do the small change method you will smoothly and naturally transition into maintenance and be more likely to keep the pounds off.

It's been my experience after having been around here for the last 2 years that the peoplthe ones who are who are still around with me, or those who have been here longer (and are still maintaining) have been consistently losing, or toning up or reaching whatever their goals were when they started were the ones who focused on improving slowly in small measured steps.

People who aren't around or those who keep appearing and disappearing from the site were the ones who always tried to do everything at once. They then give up and either never come back OR come back with even more weight to lose.

Weight loss is not a sprint, it's a marathon and those who are the most successful in the long run are those who have the patience to do it right, instead of doing it fast. YMMV.

I took small steps. And as time went on it got a lot easier. Then I kicked things up a notch.
It solely depends on what worked for you. It's a decision you have to make. There's no magic answer here. Good luck!

I guess, for me, the baby steps worked. I started out back in February just sick of being over 200 pounds and wanting a change. So, I gave myself a challenge to eat Special K cereal for breakfast and Lean Cuisines for lunch with a usual dinner, not measuring portion sizes (also eating out on Friday and Saturday nights, whatever I wanted). I lost about three pounds like that, without exercising. Then, late March, I found MFP and that's when I really buckled down on the eating/calories. I realized, after recording for about a week, that I'd been grossly under-estimating calorie intake and that was an eye opener. It helped me start making healthier choices. Now, I portion out all food. It took me a few weeks to add in exercise, and I'm still a work in progress with that. Another thing that's helped is setting shorter, smaller goals for myself that will lead up to my larger, ultimate goal. In the past, I've been so unsuccessful with weight loss because I'd say, "Okay, I need to lose 60 pounds." Then, I'd go all in for a few days and lose the momentum. This time, I've taken it so slow. I set my weight loss goal per week at 1 lb. because that's realistic and healthy. It's not pie-in-the-sky, so I have more initiative to do it. My first milestone was to get under 200 by my summer vacation, which is still 10 weeks away. Right now I'm 205. It's been three months since my journey started and I'm still at it. Until now, the longest I've ever kept up with a weight loss effort has been a week, max.

I'm in the "baby steps" camp too.I started by logging all my food , good and bad and then trying to stay in my limits. Then I added exercise and have slowly increased that too When I get to maintenance I'll take that in baby steps too, only adding back 100 calories at a time til I get comfortable. As others have said and I've said before weight is just about the most intensely personal thing we can do, do what works and ignore the rest!

Remember your actions aren't just going to reflect on you. You're path to a new healthier lifestyle will no doubt affect your love ones as well. Some good, while some of your choices well..may take some getting used to.

For instance, I no longer drink booze. I also shy away from parties where I know there will be fatty foods. While my wife on the other hand is a social butterfly and LOVES to go to parties and of course drink. So my healthy lifestyle effects our relationship.

Trust me, it's not always lot of fun to sit at a party, where everyone is eatting all kinds of goodies and drinking when you've made other choices. On the other hand, she loves the new me.

We now negotiate which parties we go to and she understand if I decline some of the invites.

So you may want to think of how your new lifestyle will affect your loved ones and then decide to baby step or go all in.

Yes

I think it depends on your definition of each.

When I started, I went "all in" in that I was committed, I didn't go over my calories, I exercised. I did not go all in by hitting my macros immediately (heck, I didn't even know what they were), by eating clean (I still don't BTW), or feeling like I couldn't ever have a treat. But I was totally committed, and knew that I could do this.

I took baby steps in some other ways. First, I started by hitting my calories. Eventually, I became interested in macros, and started hitting those. Now, I'm trying to get more fruits and veggies in. I really struggle with that, so it's something that's probably going to take me a while before I just reach for a banana instead of some chips.