Methodology in diet

I'm still well into my weight loss and journey to health here, so I definitely still have a lot to learn and sure as heck don't know everything nor will I ever, but from my own experience so far is it's not even so much about what you do as much as it is your mindset and finding the method that works to GET you to eat at a proper deficit without lying to yourself about your caloric intake.

In reality, what is it that actually gets us to finally lose the weight those of us that were obese? Or, lets not even look at losing weight, lets change it to success in anything you do? To be successful, you first need to get yourself in the proper mindset that if you want it bad enough, you'll make it happen no matter what (cliche I know). You'll find what method works for you, you'll do the research, you'll experiment, you'll keep trying harder and harder until you find what works. I'm not saying try for a week and give up, I mean the kind of mindset where you want to succeed as much as you want to breathe. Yes this was stolen from a motivational speech I use to help motivate myself in my journey to health [url] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WTFnmsCnr6g [/url]. I ramp myself up in my mind watching these motivational videos but instead of using these videos for finance, or weight lifting (granted I do use them for success in those things as well), or whatever it's supposed to help motivate you to do, I just change the words finance to health. Whether it's low carb diet, or tracking calories on MFP, or giving yourself the "illusion" that you're doing something other than tracking calories via a specialized point system like weight watchers for example (which is obviously just another way of tracking calories). Whatever floats your boat and gets you to eat at a caloric deficit.


Now of course I believe personally that there are definite medical roadblocks that can hinder progress and may warrant things like reducing sugar/high glycemic index foods. This is coming from someone who was pre-diabetic nearly a year ago and about 93lbs heavier than I am now. I remember all too well the sheer raw PAIN of hunger I dealt with that was very abnormal feeling hunger from what I feel now when I'm "hungry". The raw addictive symptoms I had if I didn't eat food and withdrawal symptoms I went through when I first started my journey. I couldn't eat sugar and carbs or I became addictively and literally painfully hungry again, period. The moment I ate more than around 90-120 carbs for the day especially items high glycemic indexed, I would get severe hunger pains and nearly binged so many times at the beginning of my journey. It wasn't until around 6 months in or so that I was able to start adding back in some carbs and sugars into my diet without getting these severe cravings. My doctor told me I was pre-diabetic a year ago, and had high blood glucose and was soon to be started on diabetic meds if I didn't turn things around immediately. This is only MY personal medical condition I dealt with when it comes to other medical factors that can pose problems to just a pure classic calorie tracking system for weight loss without modifying things like different macro-nutrient ratios.

Of course there was a lot more than just a doctor scare to get me to finally get into the proper mindset to succeed in my journey to health, but I don't really want to post my life-story here. That's reserved for my 1-year success post coming up in a few weeks hehe! But I guess TL:DR is I find that it's what you can do to convince yourself or the person you're trying to help succeed to find the proper mindset where they want to succeed as much as they've EVER wanted anything else in their life. If you can get them into that mindset, they probably won't even need your help as much because they'll be finding as much out about what works for them as your advice to them helps them.

But anywho, it's just my humble opinion lol! Not saying it's right or wrong, it's just an observation and/or epiphany of mine in my journey this past year.

I agree. It's what works for me, and pre-planning my calories lets me not think about it. Additionally, I know myself very well. If I were to stop counting and start winging it, my portions would grow, I'd miscount the donuts and the cookies, etc. As someone who was once VERY obese, hunger cues just don't work and I will overeat and gain weight. I think that given the amount of time involved in losing a lot of weight, doing something that is sustainable is important. For me, that's counting calories. I don't like setting myself up for failure, and denying my own tendencies to underestimate my calories/intake, giving up calorie counting would be a major problem.

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This is exactly me. I really don't mind taking the time to pre-log my day. On days when I wasn't able to log at the time I was eating, I'd think I had gotten a fair amount of protein, only to realize I hadn't when I finally did log my day. I originally joined MFP to track how many actual calories I was eating while doing the Core program through Weight Watchers, back when avocados and fat free salad dressings were "free", but I wasn't consistent here, so I really have no idea how much I was eating while I was losing weight. No matter what diet I was on, I would always end up cheating. Tracking here allows me to eat what I want without getting out of hand.

I have had emotional eating problems for over 40 years. I tried to do the calorie counting and it didn't work for me. I am very glad it is helping so many of you and I commend you for your great progress and diligence. It is a wonderful tool. But with my issues, it didn't work for me. I thought I was logging my food and exercise correctly for 2 weeks and didn't lose weight, so I went AWOL and binged and binged. I found something that does work for me. I am following the guidelines in Geneen Roth's material, Breaking Free from Emotional Eating. I do not count calories. The book helped me understand why I was overeating and how to stop overeating. I follow no particular diet. The basic principals are eat whatever you want, only eat when hungry, stop eating when full, do not eat when distracted, do not eat in secret, enjoy eating. I am pretty close to my goal weight now. I exercise 4X/week.

I agree with you completely. No method will meet all of the needs of everyone. Personally, I count calories. However, I do not do it to be obsessed. I do it for two reasons. First and formost, it keeps me accountable. If I can look at exactly how many extra calories I'm consuming in the little things that often get ignored. The second reason, which is closely related to the first is to get used to not over-estimating what I eat. I weigh things to avoid over-estimating, which really keeps me aware of what I'm putting in my mouth. I find that if I have to count and log something I will often think better about eating it or cut out some of the calories. It just gives me an easy roadmap.