What would have been most helpful to you when you started to lose weight?
terizius
Posts: 425 Member
What would have been most helpful to you when you started to lose weight?
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Replies
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"most helpful" in relation to what exactly? Most helpful tips or advice? Most helpful calorie intake/workout plans, diet advice etc?
If you make your question a bit more specific, you're more likely to get replies and helpful advice
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A food scale. Oh wait, I had one, do you?0
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Liftng4Lis wrote: »A food scale. Oh wait, I had one, do you?
Definitely this! Weighing everything (and I mean everything, measuring liquids etc) and track everything you eat and drink on mfp. That's the only reason I've stuck with it so long.
Also ignoring people that tell you there are 'good' and 'bad' foods, any food is 'good' food as long as it works within your calorie goals 0 -
Liftng4Lis wrote: »A food scale. Oh wait, I had one, do you?
Definitely this! Weighing everything (and I mean everything, measuring liquids etc) and track everything you eat and drink on mfp. That's the only reason I've stuck with it so long.
Also ignoring people that tell you there are 'good' and 'bad' foods, any food is 'good' food as long as it works within your calorie goals
EXCEPT kimchee! GAG!0 -
Liftng4Lis wrote: »Liftng4Lis wrote: »A food scale. Oh wait, I had one, do you?
Definitely this! Weighing everything (and I mean everything, measuring liquids etc) and track everything you eat and drink on mfp. That's the only reason I've stuck with it so long.
Also ignoring people that tell you there are 'good' and 'bad' foods, any food is 'good' food as long as it works within your calorie goals
EXCEPT kimchee! GAG!
haha well I forgot to mention personal preference! I'm sure for some people it's considered a 'good' food (no idea why though! eww)0 -
Not really, but I wish it hadn't taken me 5 yr on MFP to discover there was a forum.
Making up for it now.
Cheers, h.
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What would have been most helpful to you when you started to lose weight?
I'm sort of puzzled by the wording of the question. What would have been helpful ...
What was, indeed, definitely helpful were:
-- signing up for MFP. I have used other sites like this in the past when I have found it necessary to tweak my weight a little, but MFP is the easiest site I've used yet.
-- getting a food scale and weighing my food.
-- going grocery shopping and spending time looking at what is available and carefully reading labels. I went from eating the same ol' thing to eating a much wider variety of food ... and yet consuming fewer calories.
-- working for anything extra I wanted to eat. If I want cheesecake on the weekend, I need to cycle or walk enough to burn it off first ... and then some, just in case.
-- faithfully sticking to a net 1250 cal diet.
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The reason I phrased the question as I did is because most people end up learning as they go (welcome to the forums middlehaitch
But, I'm certain there were things that would have been "most helpful" had they been known from the very beginning. 0 -
-- going grocery shopping and spending time looking at what is available and carefully reading labels. I went from eating the same ol' thing to eating a much wider variety of food ... and yet consuming fewer calories.
This was probably the big one for me too. Actually planning and making decisions about my meals - starting with a thoughtful grocery list, instead of blindly grabbing whatever - made the hugest difference, I think. Prior to that, I was haphazard about food. I'd let myself get hangry and grab whatever was nearby and looked good. (A lot of things that are "nearby" and "look good" are high-cal wonders
)
Also, doing exercise every day kept my appetite down (I know that's not true for everyone). And it kept my head in the game - made me want to fuel my workouts better. Also helped with mood, energy, outlook, sleep, which all indirectly helped with motivation and consistency.
Went hand in hand - working out made me feel good, and eating more home-cooked food (more veg etc) made me feel even better (and more satisfied on fewer calories).0 -
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Everyone's said it - scales!! Both bathroom and kitchen. Also getting a good group of friends through the forum -very motivating to have your own cheering squad!! Took me a while to do this.0
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I wish I'd known about this site years ago. Then again I didn't exactly look for it...0
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For me, it was realizing the importance of real food. Back in the 80's and 90s, (I know, I 'm old), I was the queen of nonfat this, low fat that. I avoided fat at all costs and I ate Lean Cuisines/WW meals. Now we know better and I eat real, whole food, keeping the processed stuff to a minimum. And now, Sugar is a treat, no longer an everyday thing. When I consider all the harm done, I wish I had known this back in my 20s! And grateful to know it now and have MFP to keep me accountable! Best tool ever!0
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I wish someone had told me about mindful eating. I also learned how to use mindfulness to be aware of emotional eating. I also got a treadmill desk - which I'm using right now. I like spending my evenings on the computer - but I need to move. A treadmill desk allows me to do both. And finally I learned to make small changes as I felt comfortable with them. It's not necessary to rush things - that's one reason why doing a pound at a time is helpful.0
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Don't keep anything in your house that you overeat.0
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Restricting and dieting are two different things.0
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I'm not sure that I could've done it differently. I do wish that I'd known, when the weight first started coming off, that it was going slow waaay down. When I realized how fast it was coming off, I thought I'd be done in a year or less. Ha!
But my goals changed as I went along and so did my approach. When I started, I couldn't have done what I do now because I had to go through all that to get where I am.
Probably 90% of it is mental for me and it came with experience - paying attention to what I do, how it works, what doesn't work, etc. That's stuff I couldn't have known until I learned it, KWIM?0 -
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A time machine so I could lose weigh years earlier.0
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If only I knew calories counting is all I need to lose weight. If I knew the mass amount of veges and fruits I could of eaten. If only I knew I can still eat anything I wanted.0
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Gardening. Having a variety of fresher-than-fresh organic vegetables a few steps out the back door makes it easy to let veggies take center stage in meals and snacks... and it's virtually free. Plus you burn exercise calories tending it! It's a win-win.0
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* Aim to drop body fat instead of body weight. I once became just a smaller version of the body I didn't like.
* You shouldn't restrict for long periods of time as it suppresses your metabolism. I'm doing a re-set now.
* Don't over complicate things. I feel liberated now and understand that I need food to fuel myself to lift.0 -
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*Cups/spoons are not an acurate measument for non-liquids
*No magic "diet" just CICO (wish I would have learned this 15 years ago)
*Weight loss isn't linear. Don't panic with a little gain day hear and there...as longs as you are tending the correct way.0 -
I needed tough love from someone who wouldn't accept my lame excuses for not losing weight. But, then again, I do believe that until you are really ready to make it happen, nothing helps.0
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What would have been most helpful to you when you started to lose weight?
I think this is a great question.
Ideally, I would have tracked everything I ate for two weeks prior to dieting to get an idea of the amount of calories I was eating and what I was eating.
From there I would have made small changes to my existing diet in order to move down to a calorie level where I was losing weight consistently but with the least amount of change to my existing diet set up.0 -
It would have been (would be) helpful if MFP included a chart in the goals area (where you enter your stats & how much you want to lose) that outlined what reasonable weight loss goals are based on your weight/how much you have to lose.
When I first joined (the first time around) I was like so many others with just a handful of vanity pounds to lose. But I was impatient and said 'lets get this done' and set my goals to -2 lbs a week. (Which I know NOW was totally unrealistic.) Of course MFP gave me 1200 calories, and that's what I ate. Sure I lost weight but I ended up skinny fat because I had no energy to exercise. I was hungry & miserable and not happy with my body anyway so I stopped logging for a while. Now that I know better I eat more, work out smarter and generally feel like I'm establishing habits I can stick to.0 -
Realizing that a loss of one or two pounds a week (over the long run) is AWESOME and worth sticking it out for.0
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I needed to stop eating my predominantly starchy meals and eat more well balanced. It kept my hunger in check for way longer. I concentrated on the protein side (30-35% of my daily calories) and the carb side fell into place within the calorie allotment.0
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