How I decided how to eat for life

jenncornelsen wrote: »

it's funny how many people are convinced they must cut out some food group to lose weight. that it is a certain food making them fat and not just too much food.

thorsmom01 wrote: »

You've nailed it!! It drives me nuts when I hear people talk about giving up foods, fad diets, and all that because it's just not necessary to lose weight. I've lost all my weight enjoying the foods I love, in moderation. :-)

Well I think a great many of us were in that spot (stuck in the diet zone) over the years long enough that it's a hard habit to shake and it's a new mentality that ppl learn here. Many ppl on here were in the diet mode for years and years so I don't think it's odd that when someone joins here they are NOT suddenly magically transformed the first day.

It takes time to change our habits and make mental changes. It takes examples showing ppl it works, positive posts and positive examples. That's why I like the positive posts toward new ppl on how it works... I think they go over better than expecting everyone new to already know it all when they first arrive here.

Funny how some members that have been here awhile seem to have forgotten where they came from. Some from the very same spot that new ppl are at when they arrive here.

Always good to remember where we came from... and how far we've come. That can really help out others when we reach out and it helps us to actually stay in that positive place of keeping the weight off.

Not everyone chooses to continue eating the same foods they gained on, some want to make changes in what they put in their bodies. Why get down on those members? It's all individual...each of us are in this by ourselves when it comes to it.

rabbitjb wrote: »

I was too confused by 30 years of dieting industry: been there, done that, didn't work

I decided feck it. I've done it all and yo-yoed for decades, throw it away and simplify it

So I started calorie counting ...and if I want something I eat it, if I ran out of calories I stayed hungry that day, amazing how rarely that happened after the first few times...I learned to select carefully to ensure I had plenty to eat and averaged over the week..I learned to batch cook dishes and fit in my social life and foods I love I eat ...but the foods I consider my "god I just fancy..." have totally changed

And I learned to exercise more and weight lift and worked out I love being fit and strong

All with a view to maintenance ...eg I know I'm losing weight but can I do this for life as I'll just be able to do it with more calories

now I get to eat 2100-2300 calories daily and have just had wagamamas for lunch, homemade cheeseburger and fries for supper and an icecream and still have 500 calories left:)

Yup me too...steak and grilled veggies and pasta for dinner tonight...and as I type this I am drinking a 100 calorie long island ice tea and eating chips...why cause I like them and it's hot and I want them and I have the room.

mamapeach910 wrote: »

Lourdesong wrote: »

ninerbuff wrote: »

I looked objectively at many different approaches and why it would/wouldn't work for me. Practically all diets fall under these so I just kept it simple:

Vegan- I like meat too much
Low carb- I like carbs too much
Paleo- Too many restrictions for things I like
"Clean" eating- I like processed foods from boxes and cans

So it left me with pretty much with:

Eating whatever I wanted, but making sure I met my daily macro/micro nutrient essentials and staying within a calorie limit to reach whatever goal I was striving for at that time.

Remember it's for LIFE, not just to lose a few pounds on a plan that you'll ditch later because you HATE being on it. Of course this is what I PLAN to do for life. Others will have their own too.

A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

All those diets create a lot of stumbling blocks and too many opportunities to go off the rails. Like some complicated gadget with way too many needless features - the more things there are, the more things there are that can go wrong.

Well now, wait.

Vegan... not complicated. It's an ethical choice.
Low carb... not complicated, it's meat, cheese, veggies, eggs. You just leave out the starches.

I'll give you paleo and clean because the goalposts move so much. I don't even know what paleo is any more. I did paleo so long ago that it was basically low carb without dairy. Now I don't even know what it is any more.

But dietary choices are often a matter of preferences that we've built over a lifetime. They're no more complicated than avoiding liver and beets because you don't like them.

Vegan isn't always about ethics..
Low carb not complicated but why do that...I love pasta, potatoes, rice etc as I am sure the OP does as he stated he likes carbs too much he didn't say it was complicated.

JPW1990 wrote: »

Lourdesong wrote: »

ninerbuff wrote: »

I looked objectively at many different approaches and why it would/wouldn't work for me. Practically all diets fall under these so I just kept it simple:

Vegan- I like meat too much
Low carb- I like carbs too much
Paleo- Too many restrictions for things I like
"Clean" eating- I like processed foods from boxes and cans

So it left me with pretty much with:

Eating whatever I wanted, but making sure I met my daily macro/micro nutrient essentials and staying within a calorie limit to reach whatever goal I was striving for at that time.

Remember it's for LIFE, not just to lose a few pounds on a plan that you'll ditch later because you HATE being on it. Of course this is what I PLAN to do for life. Others will have their own too.

A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

All those diets create a lot of stumbling blocks and too many opportunities to go off the rails. Like some complicated gadget with way too many needless features - the more things there are, the more things there are that can go wrong.

Why do people insist on equating "different" to "complicated"? Doing any of those things (except maybe "clean" because you need to buy 15 dictionaries first) isn't complicated. I eat cheeseburgers without buns, not complicated. I eat asparagus and steak for dinner without a potato, not complicated. I use whole cream in my coffee instead of coffeemate, definitely not complicated.

Seems to me that it's far more complicated to weigh and measure every morsel of food/drink I put into my mouth rather than just deciding to not eat XXXX anymore.

I did weigh. It does work. I lost 40 lbs. But I'm never doing it again. I certainly wouldn't make a conscious choice to do that for the rest of my life and tell myself it's uncomplicated.

Mostly I stopped calorie counting because it took away the joy of cooking for me. I avoided making complex dishes because sitting down and weighing out 10-15 ingredients, trying to determine how much oil was/was not used in frying, and then summing everything up and dividing by the portion was a nightmare. (Did that serving of chicken curry have more or less potatoes in it? Did I give myself too much chicken this time?) And before someone says, "well that's what the recipe builder is for," please keep in mind that cooking shouldn't be formula. There is a joy in substituting what you have in the fridge. To have the freedom to add a dash of this, and a pinch of that.

If all that works for you, rock on. It certainly worked for me. There's no doubt that limiting calories work.

But i've been maintaining for the past year mostly by trying to be conscious about eating less and moving more. I go up a few, go down a few but in the end, I weigh what I did when I was in high school.

ninerbuff wrote: »

Of course the idea is to find a program that works for you as an individual. No program is wrong if the individual doing it likes it and can sustain by it.

Agreed. There is nothing wrong with vegan/paleo/low-carb/or "clean." If you like it and can sustain it... Do it! Just know that there is nothing magic about them either. Just like there is no wrong way... There is no one "right way" either.

I have been maintaining at goal for 4+ years eating whatever I want within calorie goals right here on MFP. Works just fine for me and it's super sustainable long-term! I feel better when I eat more nutritious and less processed food, but it's not necessary for weight loss or maintenance. Do what works best for you and what you'll stick to.