What item did you cut out that made a difference?

Fancy coffee creamer. (Yeah, I figured it out and I was basically drinking a full days worth of calories in my many cups of coffee.) Now I limit myself to one large cup a day and calculate the calories in my breakfast.

The other thing I did was cut out soda and replaced it with Crystal Light.

Eliminating those two things basically stopped my weight gain.

Then I added exercise to lose weight. It's amazing how fast the weight came off once I started doing that. I don't feel deprived. I still get to eat that slice of Pizza on Friday night.

I haven't cut it out, but popcorn. The popcorn itself wasn't the problem, but the huge bowl of it with large amounts of earth balance on it were. And, I did it a few nights a week, sometimes for dinner. Now I only occasionally have a much smaller bowl.

Booze

First meat, and then fake meat products like Morning Star.

I haven't cut anything specific out. What I introduced however, thanks to MFP and FitBit, was awareness. Awareness of how many calories I needed to cut to reach my goals. Awareness of how many calories are in certain foods, thanks to the database. Awareness of how many calories I'm burning thanks to my FitBit. Awareness of how exercise makes it so much easier to stay within my calorie allotment. All that awareness has enabled me to make better choices, and therefore, I haven't needed to cut out anything.

If I know I'm going out to dinner during the week, I make some sacrifices during the day, or even in the days leading up to to the event, so that I am still within my weekly budget. I still eat pizza, drink wine, eat ice cream - I may not do all that in the same day but I still have all the foods I love. I met my goal and am now maintaining.

I just started looking at what I was choosing BEFORE it got near my mouth and making conscious choices instead of reflexed face-stuffing.

It was amazing to realize how much junk I was eating! When I started paying attention and actively deciding if each candy/bread/pastry/etc was worth it for for my long term goals, I started dropping the pounds fast!

Now I choose foods I enjoy in quantities that are satisfying instead of stuffing and I feel great and am continuing to lose.

Sugar.

I eat low sugar cereals. Spoon size shredded wheat and bran has 0 sugar added. Compare it to others at 9 or 15 g of sugar. Huge difference. I put fresh fruit on it. I do indulge once in awhile, like ice cream, but I try to keep it to a minimum.

I rarely have sugared beverages. Don't like them really.

Sugar is the culprit more than fat.

And exercise exercise exercise. Your body will crave it once you start. Find things you enjoy and you will make it a priority. I have a messy house but my body is getting less messy. lol.

I'm just getting started too. I cut out bread (all forms) for 1 week and I lost weight already.

I started out by making Sunday the only day that I would have either grains, sweets in general, or alcohol. And I would only allow myself one serving of two of those things on any given Sunday. Alcohol wasn't an ongoing problem (not a big drinker) but bread, pasta, baked goods, etc. were my big out of control foods. I needed to learn to have self-control with them. I use that method--Sundays only--for several months (probably 5 or 6?) Then I started adding things back in a bit more, letting myself have them throughout the week a little bit. It's not for everybody but that worked for me. I can now eat one serving of crackers instead of an entire sleeve or one serving of ice cream instead of an entire tub of it.

I've never been one to count calories but I have to say that what works best for me is knowing my goal each day and making the decision on how to get there. I haven't eliminated any particular foods, but, when your looking at your day and tracking in real time, it gives you the opportunity to say, today, it's about my favorite breakfast, ahhh but tomorrow, is about my favorite dinner foods, or snack, etc. Changing up your daily self rewards while maintaining your calorie count is key to consistently reaching your goals day to day. It helps keep you in the game by understanding that you don't have to have the same thing for each meal everyday. Just change it up and keep your approach fresh everyday. Variety is the spice of dieting!

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I did not cut anything out.

But I did add something: more exercise.

My wife and I were just talking about this last night. The turning point for me was getting a FitBit Zip and walking 10K steps per day. I was already eating at maintenance and had been lifting heavy for a year. But I couldn't cut the body fat off.

I started analyzing my numbers, calories in vs. out, and realized the easiest thing for me to do was add more exercise.

Eating at a large calorie deficit, for me, or depriving myself of foods and drinks that I enjoy, is a fast-track to falling off the wagon, or binge-eating type behavior. It is far easier, for me, to eat at a slight deficit (or maintenance, on a lot of days) and simply add exercise to my day to create the necessary caloric deficit.

I understand different diets work better for different people; however you want to get your deficit, do it. But I know for myself, deprivation is way harder for me to maintain consistently.

I'd rather eat the food and move more.

High calorie salty salad dressings.:bigsmile:

I don't think there's really anything I've cut out completely- just cut back. I was never a soda drinker, but I have significantly cut back on alcohol intake. I like a lemonade or tea once in a while and I have cut back on those too. I try my best not to drink calories because I just find it unsatisfying. I've cut back on pasta and bread. I've cut out 99.9% artificial sweeteners from my diet, and I have cut back on processed foods.