Looking for a good weight loss diet!

Kirstin wrote:

I'm searching for a good diet to aid my weight loss journey ...
I really want something good, healthy, not too pricey and effective!

The only thing that works is to eat less than your body needs.
Do something which you can sustain the rest of your life.
Get your mind away from 'diet' as most people (including you) use the term. Diets are temporary.
Once you stop, you'll go back to eating like you normally eat & weighing what you normally weigh.

Eat what you like, just reasonable portions, and exercise at least 30 minutes per day.
There. That's not pricey at all, and is proven effective.

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I am 5'5" and 144 lb ... I'm hoping to lose 22 lbs at least ...
I'm hoping to reach my goal by the beginning of October

Going by BMI, you're already at a healthy weight, though at the top end of the range, so it's going to be slow.
No, you're not going to lose that much that quickly. Even 0.5 lb/week would be a challenging goal. Reset your MFP info.

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I just want to get my body fit, toned and lose those trouble spots.

For fitness, exercise. Include weightlifting.
You can't exercise away trouble spots, spot reduce, etc. You can target certain muscles (or groups) to get
stronger or larger (though for women with normal female hormones, the 'larger' is difficult).


Here's a newbie help post I compiled, which has links to various useful information,
including sexypants (go read that now) ((yes, right now)),
then this one about setting realistic goals.
There's also one about logging & measuring accurately.

This calculator from the Baylor College of Medicine will take into account your age, weight,
and activity level to tell you how many servings of the various food groups you should be eating to maintain a
particular weight.
It says that at 125 lb, if you were inactive, you'd need 1592 cal/day to maintain that weight.
(Using your stated age of 22, stated height of 5'5".)
So if you eat that much, while doing at least 30 min/day of moderately intense exercise, you should get to
that weight. Or nudge the calories down a little (don't go below 1200 unless your doctor says it's OK).

Ignore exercise calories. Most people underestimate what they eat, most machines overestimate calories burned.
For most people, most of the time, those errors cancel out.

MKEgal wrote: »

ThatLadyFromMN wrote:

in my opinion a calorie ISN'T a calorie, there's a difference between eating an apple and a candy bar

:sigh:
Would you ever say "a pound isn't a pound", or maybe "an inch isn't an inch"?
I doubt it.

For the purpose of gaining/losing weight, it matters not one bit whether you're eating apples or chocolate.
If you're eating fewer calories than your body needs to run, you will lose weight.

For health, it matters a great deal what you eat. Getting more calories from more natural / less processed foods,
higher fiber, higher protein, lower fat, lower simple carbs (don't go overboard on any of this) is healthier.
But plan for treats. I have a box of 40-cal fudgesicles in the freezer at work. I have peanut butter with breakfast
pretty much every morning, because I like peanut butter.
If your food choices are not enjoyable, you're not going to be able to sustain the life change.

what she said

It is not that easy for everyone. A good start is to change one meal.
A great lunch or dinner would be a Brown-Rice Salad with Spinach and Tomatoes and of course, water or green tea to drink. This meal is also a great choice for a detox.
Enjoy!

((2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
2 teaspoons red-wine vinegar
2 tablespoons chopped fresh dill
1 garlic clove, minced
Coarse salt and ground pepper
2 cups cooked brown rice
1 medium cucumber, peeled, halved lengthwise, seeded, and sliced
2 cups baby spinach
1 pint cherry tomatoes, halved))

malibu927 wrote: »

jenniblue6 wrote: »

It is not that easy for everyone. A good start is to change one meal.
A great lunch or dinner would be a Brown-Rice Salad with Spinach and Tomatoes and of course, water or green tea to drink. This meal is also a great choice for a detox.
Enjoy!

((2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
2 teaspoons red-wine vinegar
2 tablespoons chopped fresh dill
1 garlic clove, minced
Coarse salt and ground pepper
2 cups cooked brown rice
1 medium cucumber, peeled, halved lengthwise, seeded, and sliced
2 cups baby spinach
1 pint cherry tomatoes, halved))

What does it detox?

Also curious.

jenniblue6 wrote: »

It is not that easy for everyone. A good start is to change one meal.
A great lunch or dinner would be a Brown-Rice Salad with Spinach and Tomatoes and of course, water or green tea to drink. This meal is also a great choice for a detox.
Enjoy!

((2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
2 teaspoons red-wine vinegar
2 tablespoons chopped fresh dill
1 garlic clove, minced
Coarse salt and ground pepper
2 cups cooked brown rice
1 medium cucumber, peeled, halved lengthwise, seeded, and sliced
2 cups baby spinach
1 pint cherry tomatoes, halved))

Does this detox your soul?

hollyrayburn wrote: »

I think the best "plan" would be to eat foods that you enjoy, which you weigh to ensure that you are eating the number of calories that you think you are, and be sure to log everything that you eat, and that it is less than your TDEE. I don't buy into "plans" such as low/no carb, eat this not that, no fast food, you can never have ice cream again, etc. You're not going to eat that way the rest of your life, so don't force yourself to now! Since you think following a "plan", I'm sure you'll enjoy doing this too!

Find stuff you enjoy, try to meet macro goals. It sounds like you are on the right track. (and this "detox" stuff people are posting about; it's crap. You have these lovely things called livers and kidneys that do that for you, providing you're not an alcoholic and have damaged them, lol.) Good luck!

This is great advice.

See, here's the thing about losing weight: it's a slow process. There are no magic pills or magic diets. At best, at the VERY BEST, if you can somehow manage the hunger associated with it, a large calorie deficit is going to net you 3 lbs. per week weight loss. A more reasonable expectation is about 1 lb. per week.

So do the math. How much weight do you want to lose? Suppose you want to lose 30 lbs. Well, at a lb. per week, that's 30 weeks. So you need to eat in a manner that you can sustain for a long time!

Drastic, restrictive diets do not work long-term. This is why people fail. No one can do a "diet" for 30 weeks.

What do you think you can reasonably do for 30 weeks? Eat foods you like, in moderation, count calories, and get a bit of exercise to help create a wider deficit? Yep, probably.

Most of the people who are successful at weight loss understand this is a long-haul journey. It's going to take time, it's going to be slow, and you're going to have to be patient and consistent. You go look at the success stories on this site: they usually took a long time, because weight loss that lasts takes time.

Eat foods you can enjoy in portions that fit your calorie requirements. You'll be able to sustain such a diet, and you'll win in the end.