Obese dieters- what worked?

Calorie deficit. Which included accurate tracking. Depends what you think is slow. I never aimed to lose anyt faster than 1lb per week.

Calorie counting and eating whatever I want in moderation since it helps prevent me from binging. Weight loss is a slow process, I started a year ago and am still working on reaching my goal weight. Stay patient, you'll lose that weight eventually! Just gotta stick with it.

I've tried more than my share of diets too, but never maintained. Temporary changes in dietary habits only lead to temporary weight loss for me.

Measure & log. Stay in a calorie deficit. Stop looking for the magic bullet, there is no healthy & safe fast weight loss.

I think you need to forget about the idea of different fad diets, and decide to make a life story change, but one that works for you. It can be hard, as you need to look at yourself and what you are doing that has led to gaining weight, and what is stopping you from loosing it. Diets are not a magic bullet, and I think if you use a specific fad diet, even if you stick to it, the chances are you will put weight on afterwards, as you'll go back to rating who you were before when you put the wieght on.

The simple approach has already been mentioned, it is simply a matter of making sure your calories out are more than the calories in. You need to find what types of food will satisfy you, as what you choose to eat is completely up to you. By doing it as a lifestyle change, and being honest with yourself, I think there is a greater chance of success getting the weight off and keeping it off.

If it helps to know, as you go along, it gets easier. I found my tastes changed. I had a sweet tooth, but that has now diminished. I used to like junk food, but now it just tastes processed and I prefer fresh home cooked food, and find a lot of fried food to heavy.

You can do it, and when it starts to come off you'll feel great!

Girl, I went to my doctor and asked for help. Physicians these days will throw pills at high cholesterol, high blood pressure, diabetes, anxiety, depression, etc etc, all these issues caused by being overweight, so I thought, "Surely there is a safe prescription pill that can assist in weight loss? There's a pill for everything CAUSED by it..." I've been on Adipex (phentermine) tablets for 30 days and have lost 10 lbs. It's a stimulant, and it will cause some issues sleeping, but it cuts your appetite in half. I struggled and yoyo'd for years too. I hear ya. Its frustrating. Don't be afraid to ask your Dr. for help - it was hard for me to do, but I don't regret it. It's getting me where I need to go. It will help kick start your weight loss journey.

I lost the first 30 something by writing everything I ate in a little notebook, focusing on eating more whole foods and less junk, and moving more. I didn't weigh/measure/count calories.

I started losing in January at 5'2" and 208, solidly in the obese category, and am down 32 pounds now. My goal is to make it to overweight BMI by the end of the calendar year and to normal BMI by the end of 2018. I actually started logging my food in mid-2016 to get a sense of how calorie counting and measuring portions worked. Having that data helped me see where my "trouble spots" were - i.e. where I was consuming a lot of calories without much to show for it. Everyone's going to be different depending on what their eating habits look like, but the goal for everyone is to change your diet just enough to be in a sustainable calorie deficit. That's all low-carb and low-fat and apple cider vinegar diets do, anyhow - get you into a calorie deficit. I figure it's more sustainable to eat the way I enjoy eating, just less, and as I've gone on, healthier.

Because one of my main issues was too many calories from alcohol, I started off with about a month where I didn't change much of anything except not drinking. I lost 10 pounds, probably a decent bit of that water, but that wasn't sustainable and I had a couple of months where I really struggled to get into a deficit. However, because I was used to logging at that point, I didn't gain any weight over this time, which I consider a win. It took me until about mid-June before I really nailed down the best way for me to get into a deficit and stay in one. For me, that means eating every 2-3 hours, (almost) never finishing an entree when I go out to eat, not keeping wine or potato chips or microwave popcorn in the house, packing my lunch 4-5 days a week, and keeping the house stocked with foods that I like to eat more than I like fast food.

Anyhow, the fat hasn't melted away, but I don't feel like I'm on a diet either, and I feel like I could keep eating like this for the rest of my life. I aim to lose 3-5 pounds a month, going down to 1-3 pounds a month next year as I'm closer to my goal. You can do this! You just have to take that first step right now, keep going, and be patient.

There's a direct correlation between your experience of "yo yo dieting" and being frustrated that your results are very slow. Looking for quick fixes to speed things along is actually counterproductive to meeting your long term goal of losing weight and keeping it off.

I tried and failed to lose weight many times, but I finally lost 170 lbs IN MY 40'S and have kept if off for 2 years so far by accepting that it was going to take a long time and that along the way I was going to have to learn how to eat more moderately both while dieting and after. Over 2 years of losing I learned:

1. To be accountable for my own choices. No blaming other people for the food that was around, no expecting other people to accomodate my choices or preferences.
2. To plan ahead. My life is fairly unpredictable but day to day I still have some idea of how physically intense my day is going to be (i.e., do I physically NEED more food than usual) and where I'm going to be at mealtimes. I can pack a meal if I need to. I can eat early. I can go hungry for a couple of hours usually if I really need to.
3. To not undereat to try and speed things along. If you've got a lot of weight to lose, it's going to take a long time no matter what you do, and trying to shave time off by undereating isn't really going to make a difference to results in the end, but it will make a negative impact on your willpower and enthusiasm over time.
4. To be kind to myself and allow myself to enjoy food. I plan my food days with the understanding that I have to meet my nutritional goals FIRST, and any calories left over after that are "recreational calories" and I can do what I want with them. I've gotten good at packing a lot of nutrition into meals and I've ALWAYS got recreational calories leftover. A couple of cookies, or a glass of wine, or a few squares of chocolate.
5. To accept that once in a while (in my case, maybe up to 3X per year), the whole day is just gonna be shot. Thanksgiving is what it is. Enjoy it. Make a couple of concessions (e.g., the table is loaded up with starchy foods, I don't have to sample everything; Aunt Mildred's mashed potatoes are nothing special but maybe the stuffing is spectacular) but am I drinking a lot of wine and eating 3 slices of pie? Yeah, I probably am.