Starting / Re-Starting: Head First or Toe Dips ?

Last time I lost weight a few years ago, I went in head first! (gained it all back )

This time I dipped my toe. Week one I just promised myself I would wear my fitbit and be aware of how much I was moving. Nothing more.... Just to get into that mental state of actually giving a damn about my health.
Week 2 I promised myself I would try for 10,000 steps a day
From there started logging/weighing my food to stay within a calorie goal.
After I got used to that, I started paying attention to macros.
A couple of weeks later I started adding some additional exercise (Couch to 5k a few times a week)
Next steps sometime in the future, more varied exercise and weight lifting.

Definitely recommend the toe dip method. Telling myself day 1 I'm going to do EVERYTHING RIGHT sets you up for failure.

I don't think it matters. The most important part is motivation, consistency, and patience. Do whatever works for you that you find sustainable. You just have to want it.

A ) I always do everything starting with a toe dip, it's how I roll!
B ) No, I wouldn't do it differently
C ) In general I suggest the toe dip, because I know so many people who try to change too much all at once, burn out, feel like a failure, and quit. But obviously each person's personality should lead the way. Some people get discouraged if they don't see big results right away, and would be bored with the toe dip mentality.

It depends on your personality and different factors, but also, how small are we talking? Small changes in a positive direction are always good, but might not always lead to success, at least with weight loss.

Example 1:
-Week 1 - resolve to drink more water every day.
-Week 2 - add taking the stairs up 3 flights to your office every day.
-Week 3 - Go to bed earlier and wake up earlier.
-Week 4 - Start meditating every day.
-Week 5 - Start bringing your lunch to work.
-Week 6 - Take a vitamin every day.
-Week 7 - Start counting calories and try to remain in a deficit.

In this example, you're doing things that all probably help your overall health. They're all good things to do. But if you're trying to lose weight, the results will probably be negligible. Not everything that is good for your health = weight loss. You'll go six weeks trying to be "healthier" and will probably not see a change on the scale. This might discourage people, to the point where they give up before they even reach the calorie-counting in week 7. This is the risk of starting small and working up to bigger things.

Example 2:
-Week 1 - Start counting calories and try to remain in a deficit.
-Week 2 - Commit to working out 4x per week (even for just 20 minutes or so).
-Week 3 - Start bringing your lunch to work (within your calorie allotment).
-Week 4 - Resolve to drink more water.
-Week 5 - Go to bed earlier and wake up earlier
-Week 6 - Take a vitamin every day.
-Week 7 - Start meditating.

In this, with a few tweaks, you start with the bigger goals, and work down to the smaller ones. In this case, instead of having no weight loss in the first 6 weeks, you could lose anywhere from 3-12 pounds. That would probably be more motivating and urge you to keep it up.

I think people need "wins" early on in a challenge like losing weight. If you try for several weeks and don't see that it's working, what's the point in doing it? But if you start out with successes, it's easier to build on those.

for me, slow and steady was the way to go. i started out with fifteen to thirty minutes of walking and not missing a day of doing so. establishing a daily pattern of working out regularly helped me move from counting on motivation to having the habit of working out.

there's some research, for example, that suggests that it takes about six months to establish a new habit. so i committed to six months of exercising every day and gradually increased the intensity. it seemed to work for me.

same goes for what and how much you eat. cutting back gradually to my target calorie level and limiting or replacing calorically dense, nutritionally suspect foods with stuff that's good for me. again, the six month rule seems to be more like the twelve month rule though. getting dietary changes to stick seems harder for me.

last thing. for me, anyway, it wasn't a straight line. there were good days and bad days along the way. the trick was to stick to it without relying too much on good days or allowing the bad days to turn into bad weeks.

The toe dip / head first is a personal choice - just like getting in the pool!

With getting in the pool,
Some people need to dive in the pool head first as going in toes first causes them to change their mind.
Some people find the head first method too confronting and back off but dipping in a toe and slowly getting used to the water temperature bit by bit.

However, with weightloss, it comes down to how you want to lose weight and what you are currently doing. Do you want to try something like low carb or "eating clean" or do you just want to calorie count? What are your eating habits like? Are you going to have to make huge changes to meet your calorie goal or will doing something small like cutting out softdrink push you under?