Good ways to lose weight?
kaitlinbm12
Posts: 3 Member
What are some good ways to start losing weight other then eating healthy and working out? Especially if you have a messed up thyroid?
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Replies
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Eating less is how you lose weight. You can still gain while eating healthy.7
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Logging your food on MFP and following your calorie goal is a good place to start...2
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I'm not sure what you really mean...weight (fat) loss happens when you are in a deficiency of energy (calories). Your body requires XXXX calories (unit of energy) daily...the most substantial part of this requirement is your mere existence...then you have your daily...and last is exercise which for most people, energy expenditure from exercise activity is fairly small relative to the rest.
If you consume a balance of energy, you maintain weight. When you consume an excess of energy, that surplus energy is stored as body fat...you can think of it as your backup generator. When you consume less energy than is required to maintain the status quo, that backup generator kicks on and you burn fat to make up for the deficiency.
That's it...all diet plans work on that premise.
Also, eating "healthy" is irrelevant really...I mean it's definitely a good thing to do and I do eat very healthfully with my diet consisting substantially of whole foods, but I've lost weight, maintained weight, and gained weight eating healthfully...it still comes down to energy in vs energy out.5 -
Eating healthy is kind of like looking at good art. The definition of 'healthy' and 'good' will vary person to person. And does not guarantee weight loss.
To lose weight:
*Accurately & honestly tracking your food (and drink, condiment, cooking oil, etc.) consumption
*Enter your information into MFP, including height/weight/age/gender and activity level
*Select a weight loss goal such as .5 or 1 pound per week
*Eat the recommended calories per day, referring back to the 1st bullet point
*To be accurate on your food log, use a food scale for all solids and cups/spoons only for liquids
Regarding the thyroid, consult your doctor to check your medicine levels and determine if they need to be adjusted. Other than that, the thyroid condition can make the accuracy & honesty portion of food logging even more important. Honesty means logging everything, even a bite of this or a taste of that. (Or avoiding that sort of thing if its too hard to track.) Accuracy means accounting for it all, and avid food scale use.0 -
But I also have a bad thyroid which also makes it harder to lose weight0
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kaitlinbm12 wrote: »But I also have a bad thyroid which also makes it harder to lose weight
Yes...but there still isn't any kind of magic. Are you on meds?2 -
kaitlinbm12 wrote: »But I also have a bad thyroid which also makes it harder to lose weight
Then you can start tracking calories according to MyFitnessPal recommendations for a few weeks and then start adjusting down according to results. In the meantime, you should seek treatment for your condition.4 -
I have been on thyroid meds for 27 years and lost over 100lbs last year alone. Still at it. Dont let thyroid be a handy excuse.5
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kaitlinbm12 wrote: »But I also have a bad thyroid which also makes it harder to lose weight
Are you on medication to regulate those hormones? Then it shouldn't be an issue.2 -
Start logging every piece of food you put in your mouth, it is shocking to find out how many calories are consumed when not paying attention. From there you figure out a system of cooking and eating that eliminates high calorie meals.0
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This question kind of sounds like someone saying, "I know what I need to do to lose weight, but what can I do other than that?" If someone isn't willing to make the changes in their habits that they know they need to make then it is pretty much hopeless.14
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TimothyFish wrote: »This question kind of sounds like someone saying, "I know what I need to do to lose weight, but what can I do other than that?" If someone isn't willing to make the changes in their habits that they know they need to make then it is pretty much hopeless.
-high five- been waiting to hear this XD5 -
TimothyFish wrote: »This question kind of sounds like someone saying, "I know what I need to do to lose weight, but what can I do other than that?" If someone isn't willing to make the changes in their habits that they know they need to make then it is pretty much hopeless.
I didn't get that at all. My takeaway from the OP is that she's under the impression that "eating healthy and working out" is the only way to lose weight.1 -
kaitlinbm12 wrote: »What are some good ways to start losing weight other then eating healthy and working out? Especially if you have a messed up thyroid?
Don't overestimate the importance of thyroid hormone in this. In worst case scenarios this has an impact of ~5% to your BMR/REE.
Ensure you are being properly diagnosed and treated through a full thyroid panel and not just TSH. This includes TSH (0.2-2.0), fT3, fT4, rT3.
Other than that there is no difference. This is nothing more than managing a caloric budget to get to your desired weight.
I've been sans thyroid gland since 2000. I paid no attention to my diet and gained 70 lbs over 14 years. Once I started tracking calories and being aware of my intake I lost 60 lbs in a year.1 -
My thyroid hasn't worked in years. I take my replacement hormone faithfully and as I'm supposed to. To lose weight, I've been eating less and exercising.2
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I know what I need to do. And I do eat healthy and work out. And I do take my thyroid meds. I just wanted to hear what everyone else is doing as well. I didn't wanna hear criticism.0
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You haven't gotten criticism.11
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Also, "healthy" is a relative term. I had a cheeseburger and fries for dinner last night; I had pizza for dinner tonight; my kids and I made chocolate chip cookies earlier, and I had two of them. None of those are stereotypically "healthy" food, but they fit in the context of my overall calorie and macro goals, so I ate them. What matters for weight loss is a calorie deficit. If you're eating too many calories for you to lose weight, the nutritional profile of that food is irrelevant.3
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I got a messed up thyroid, type 2 diabetes insulin dependant and I'm bipolar. It's very hard to loose weight. Back in 2001 I did go from a size 24 to a 16 but then 4 babies later, changes in medication I'm back up a 24, two years ago I was a 30 but I managed to loose some weight and now it's stuck again2
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As far as I know I don't have a thyroid issue. Despite cutting down food portions and exercising more, I don't seem to be making any progress. I am losing inches but my weight is the same. I am so lost.0
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In terms of weight loss, eating healthy makes it easier to consume fewer calories than you burn because (1) junk food tends to be really calorie dense and (2) if you're malnourished, your body is going to tend to produce hormones to make you hungrier so that you'll eat more (assuming an environment where eating more is possible).
But eating healthy doesn't guarantee that you'll lose weight because it doesn't guarantee that you'll eat fewer calories than you burn.
e.g. I lost 10 pounds between January and July by eating healthy and working out (but not counting calories). I lost 30 pounds between August and November by adding calorie counting to the mix. (I didn't mean to lose quite as much as that; it took a while to figure out my daily calorie burn.) For me, the accountability of just logging everything dropped my calories substantially. A psychological effect, certainly, but an effective one nonetheless.0 -
kaitlinbm12 wrote: »I know what I need to do. And I do eat healthy and work out. And I do take my thyroid meds. I just wanted to hear what everyone else is doing as well. I didn't wanna hear criticism.
Ok, so, to answer your question directly:kaitlinbm12 wrote: »What are some good ways to start losing weight other then eating healthy and working out? Especially if you have a messed up thyroid?
If you have a bad thyroid, you do the same things as everyone else (some combination of eating less and moving more, however it fits your lifestyle best) plus get testing and treatment for your thyroid condition.2 -
Truvanessa wrote: »As far as I know I don't have a thyroid issue. Despite cutting down food portions and exercising more, I don't seem to be making any progress. I am losing inches but my weight is the same. I am so lost.
If your deficit is small you may need to weigh and measure your food on a food scale. Most people including the experts are not good at eyeballing portions.
I didn't use a food scale for 6 months, I'm down 40 lbs BUT my rate of loss went from 2 lbs a week to 1/2 lb a week. I pulled out my food scale and found I wasn't accurate on a few of my foods which could be up to 200 calories I wasn't counting.
Just a thought.2 -
kaitlinbm12 wrote: »What are some good ways to start losing weight other then eating healthy and working out? Especially if you have a messed up thyroid?
Shave your head, maybe. Everything else is going to be a change in the amount of calories you eat and the amount of calories you burn. Calories In, Calories Out. If the Out is bigger than the In, over time you lose weight.
You can eat crappy if you want, but just remember to keep Calories In less than Calories Out.
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CI<CO1
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kaitlinbm12 wrote: »I know what I need to do. And I do eat healthy and work out. And I do take my thyroid meds. I just wanted to hear what everyone else is doing as well. I didn't wanna hear criticism.
OK, so I'm thinking that maybe some of us misinterpreted your original post. When you wrote "What are some good ways to start losing weight other then eating healthy and working out?" did you mean that you feel like you're already eating healthy and working out, but you want to know some additional things you could do?
And when you said (in that quote) "start losing weight", did you maybe mean that in spite of eating healthily and working out, you haven't been losing weight as expected?
If you're looking for some additional things to do, most of them would still be (loosely) either eating a bit less, or working out a bit more.
If the problem is that you're already doing what it seems like you should be doing, but you aren't losing weight, then the most likely explanation is that your eating or exercise calorie estimates are a bit off somewhere.
The possible solutions to that would be (1) more accurate food logging (use a scale for weighing food you make yourself, don't pick the lowball calorie entries from the database but instead pick medium or high ones that match the foods you're eating - that kind of thing), and/or (2) eat back a smaller fraction of your exercise calories, like 75% of them if you're currently eating back 100%.
Truly, I think folks here - most of them anyway - want to be helpful, not to criticize. Communicating in writing/reading can sometimes be more difficult than if we were talking in person.
I have a messed-up thyroid, and am pretty old besides (61), and have managed to lose around 60 pounds on MFP and get to a healthy weight. I'm sure you can accomplish your goals, too.
It may require some patience and experimentation at first, to find the right approach. Other folks will help, and try to answer your questions, but most of us are just amateurs at this weight loss thing, too, and communicating in writing (only) can be hard.
Wishing you success!
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