What was the main thing you did to help you lose the weight?

Serah87 wrote: »

Digital food scale, once I got that the weight fell off.

ETA: Eating anything I wanted within my calories, etc.

This. I drink beer, eat chocolate, etc. As long as I weigh and stay within my maintenance calories, I maintain. As soon as I get lazy or stray from this, I gain.

Measuring food and logging it.

Finding exercises I like to do and can do with little preparation.

Finding healthier substitutes for my old junk food favorites. Such as a cup of sugar free hot cocoa instead of a candy bar when a chocolate craving hits.

Most of all: be patient and consistent.

I haven't reached my goal yet but like others have said it's all about calorie in and calories out. I also would say it's about patience. Just remember we didn't get over weight overnight and we arnt going to get healthy overnight. Because of this it's important to make sure your plan is sustainable over the long term. You are allowed to indulge along your journey just log everything! Also work to improve your relationship with food. By this I mean don't let what you eat determine your attitude. Don't feel guilt for indulging because it creates a negative relationship with food. This has been huge for me and it's stopped me from going on binges just because I ate a bit of junk food. I also like being accountable to someone. MFP is great for this because there is so much support if you add friends ( feel free to add me). I also have a friend who's my "personal trainer" and she calls me on it if I skip the gym or don't give it my all. Most importantly it's about truly believing that you will get to your goal. This is extremely tough if your like me and have failed in the past but if you don't 100% believe you can do it you will likely give up. So let yourself actually get excited to lose the weight and know that it will happen this time because you can do it

For me, it was (1) weighing solid food and measuring liquids, so I had a decent idea of what I was actually eating; (2) estimating on the high side of things when eating out; and (3) finding out which foods keep me feeling sated for the longest.

The only significant change I made to my diet was for breakfast: I found that one or two slices of buttered toast (150-300 calories) keep me satisfied until lunch, whereas a bowl of cereal with milk (400 calories) left me feeling hungry by 10 am. Otherwise, I just cut back a little on everything. I was already exercising about 450 calories a day, on average, so I didn't make any changes there.

These are things that I've learned that personally help me. Everyone is different, but these rules are why I personally have been successful.

Log everything you can, log on the site every day even if you don't complete your food log for the day, because it keeps the habit of it up.

Exercise when you can don't worry about it if you can't. If you exercise at every opportunity that presents itself, then you won't feel guilty when you are too busy to work out or when you get sick and can't.

Find exercise you love. More than one type, so you don't get burned out on only one exercise.

Cardio before weight training. 15-20 minutes of cardio is a great way to prepare your body for weight training.

When lifting weights, more weight and less reps builds muscle but more reps and less weight burns more calories.

Most important: Keep your body guessing. When you hit a plateau, it's because your body is used to whatever changes you made from your original way of eating/exercising. Change it up how you want. Maybe one week do only cardio. Then the next week, do 30 min cardio/30 min of weight training, week after that, 15 min cardio/45 min weight training.

Plan your week out both in food and exercise. If you plan out what parts of your body you want to work out each week, you can make sure all the parts you are concerned about are worked on, whether that be just arms and legs, the whole body, or only your abdomen. If you plan out your food for the week, at the very least plan on what you're going to have for dinner. That way if you know you're going to have a high calorie meal in the evening, you can make sure to eat accordingly. It makes it much easier to distribute your calories accordingly when you at least know what your last meal of the day will be, high calorie or low calorie. In planning both your food and exercise you can also save time. For example, if you know you're going to make say, spaghetti and meatballs, you know that you'll need to de-thaw the meat, pick out your spices, and get a pot of water ready to boil. If you have all these ingredients ready to go before dinner, you might be able to sneak in a 20 minute walk around your neighborhood on a day that you were too busy to go to the gym.

Weighed food.

Logged everything.

Lost at a reasonable pace and ate as much as I could while still losing.

Ate chocolate everyday.

Found exercise I enjoyed and did it.

Lost 86 lbs, entered maintenance, still doing everything the same but with a bit more calories.

Every time i want to eat i ask my self is this feeling coming from my stomach or my mouth? If its from my mouth i ignore it and go drink some water as it means I'm not actually hungry its emotional or confusing thirst for hunger. If its physically from my stomach i know its not an emotional response to say stress or boredom and i go and eat.

Keeps me inside my calorie allowance very easy.

Consistency over perfection.

Couple of things,
1. If I'm not hungry in the morning, I don't have to eat. (I was told my whole life that I would run my metabolism if I didn't eat breakfast)
2. I can eat 300 calories right before bed (once again, told my whole life not to eat before bed because those calories turn into fat. I'm the type of person who can not go to sleep hungry, so I would usually end up bingeing in order to get to sleep)
3. weigh everything.
4. Banking calories.

Eat less than I had been eating, move more than I had been moving