Who are these people who can just cut out soda, etc?

My sister.

She changed how she takes her coffee, cut back a little on sweets, and works out a little more. She lost 30 lbs, but can't seem to lose any more.

I'm kind of jealous, but I know that what I'm doing will work in the long run.

sheldonklein wrote: »

juliebowling1 wrote: »

I just don't understand why some people just cut out sugary drinks, fast food and maybe cut back on drinking and they lose weight. I've never been a fan of soda, I rarely eat dessert and I have had alcohol in over twenty years. Now, I readily admit I love pasta and potatoes and those have to go except for small portions now and then. But why do some people seems to lose so easily?
I don't mean to sound like such a whiner. Is it all about changing your metabolism?

Why do you think it's easier to cut out Coke for a Coke lover than a triple portion of pasta? Eliminating 1000 calories a day is hard, whatever the source. And if you eliminate 1000 calories, you will lose weight. It has nothing to do with metabolism.

Cutting a coke is actually pretty easy because so long as you don't mind the slight difference you can move over to diet.

I actually think it was harder for me to give up my sweetened tea for unsweetened tea than it was for me to go from regular to diet.

I used to drink 600-1200, or more, calories a day in milk. It wasn't about changing my metabolism, it was about changing how many calories I consumed.

My hubby cut out soda, and excessive junk food, and that worked for him... Because he wasn't replacing it with anything else. Essentially, he's just eating less.

What most people have said.

OP, you need to let go of the idea that some people have it easy and that you are in some way disadvantaged. I call it the myth of the naturally skinny people and it really is a myth. Did you know, that a fatter person has a faster metabolism than a thinner person? Bodies require more fuel to run, the larger they are. That thin person gets to eat less than you consistently, not more. A lot of overweight people are convinced it is the other way round and that they starve while certain "lucky" people eat what they like. This is not true. The idea will hold you back.

We can't guess at what other people are doing or how easy or hard it is to give up certain foods vs others. What we do know is that we gained because we ate too much, not because life was unfair to us. We can lose when we eat less and take responsibility for our own choices and worry less about what we guess others are doing.

My husband drinks A LOT of beer. If he stop drinking beer and made no other diet or activity changes, he would lose weight rapidly.

I'd already cut out liquid calories before deciding to lose weight. It does seem like an easy thing to cut (although since I didn't consume them, of course it would). I think everyone overweight likely has some area where it's not that hard to cut down, though. (I ate pretty thoughtlessly in some ways.)

It's not about changing your metabolism, it's about eating less calories than you burn. Period. That's all you need to lose weight. You can do it by lowering the amount of calories you consume, burning more calories than before, or a combination of the two. For me, it's mostly category A. I cut out most sodas by switching to unsweet tea with Equal because it's a flavor I happen to like. But I still drink soda, mostly at games or if I'm really short on calories for the day. Just not every day like I was. Making that change cut out 200-300 calories a day from my diet that weren't really necessary. I don't eat dessert at restaurants much at all because I've gotten used to smaller, more normal portions and I'm usually to full to eat dessert now.

Losing weight isn't about WHAT you eat, it's about HOW MUCH you eat. Granted, a diet composed of nothing by twinkies and soda will catch up to you very quickly because you're not getting the nutrition you body needs to survive, but it can be done that way. I never cut out all my favorite 'junk' foods. (by junk food, i mean foods that are high in calorie but have little to no nutritional value) I simply found ways to cut down on them, espically when I was eating them due to snacking out of habit. I do eat a little better than I did, after all, if you substitute low calorie options for high calorie options, you can eat a lot more in terms of bulk! But I still have 'junk' food, I still eat foods that aren't as good an option nutrition-wise, and I'm doing fine. The only vitamin deficiency I have is something my body doesn't seem to want to absorb via my digestive track, not because I'm not getting enough of it.