Tip, tricks, and secrets

There is no magic exercise or magic food that makes you lose weight. There's no "secret." It's just basic math: eat fewer calories than you burn.

What helps me is planning, planning, planning and patience. Planning meals with lots of veggies, having healthy low-calorie foods available at all times, and also planning for workouts. Block a time of the day for some exercise on your calendar, a walk, a bike ride, an youtube exercise video. Although, you don't need to workout to lose weight, it makes the weight go down faster and it puts you in touch with your body and it is great for the mind. It is too easy to disconnect with our amazing body and let it go, exercise reconnects body and mind.

Do it for yourself and noone else.
If you are doing it for other people it is all too easy to fail.

Don't talk about it.
If asked answer questions. But just keep your head down and working.


Stop listening to the"expert" advise of friends and colleagues.

It took us time to gain the weight and develop poor eating, drinking and thinking and living patterns & habits and it's going to take time to lose the weight and develop better/healthy eating, drinking and thinking and living patterns & habits. Don't allow yourself to get in the "hurry up and get it done" trap. Time is on your side--take your time.

As painful as it may be, take pics of yourself AND do measurements each month to monitor your progress.

When (not if, but when) the scale seemingly isn't moving...take measurements. This weight loss is not merely about the pounds going down, but NSVs (non scale victories) are just as (if not more) important as well.

It's really and truly about cals in and cals out--no matter what fantastic diet plan or scheme you discover, it's still going to come down to "cals in and cals out" (CICO).

This weight loss is truly an adventure and it's an exciting and COOL and FUN one--it's all how you look at it. It's truly a "glass half full or half empty" deal. You can CHOOSE to look at this as hard, tough, bitter and a bummer OR you can look at it as it may not get easier, but you're getting stronger and stronger more each day.

You will have some "hiccups" and failures, DON'T get bent outta shape (literally) about it OR blow it off either. Take it as it is when you fall/fail, get back up, dust yourself off and get back into the race, period.

Lastly...be your own cheerleader and watch how FUN and COOL this lifestyle change becomes and is--BOOM!

One of the things I had to learn during weight loss is that tips and tricks are highly individual. A calorie deficit is necessary for weight loss. This is an indisputable fact. How you get there, whether it's low carb or moderate carb, lots of little meals or IF, small plates, food scales, condiments, spices, favorite meals, they're all individual. What helped me might make things harder for the next person. When it feels like weight loss advice all contradicts each other that's because it often does. The important thing is to get into a deficit, however the best way to get there is for you. Play around with different things and see what you like rather than feeling like you have to stick with something dogmatically.

Also, read the stickied "most helpful posts" at the top of each section. Really good info in those.

Weight loss and lifestyle changes are a marathon, not a sprint. Slow and steady wins the race. You didn't get fat in a month so don't expect much progress in a month. Give the program at least six months regardless of your goals. At the end of those six months, if you are being truthful in your logging and you maintain a deficit, you WILL weigh less. Even if it's five pounds it's a win. Keep doing what you're doing so long as you are moving in the right direction.

Vicham76 wrote: »

Be true to oneself. Do not lie to yourself when you exercise and do not lie to yourself when you eat. When you count calories it is extremely important to account for everything. A bad day is a bad day, tomorrow you can do better. Do not cheat the numbers to fit.

Boom! These are tremendous tips, period.

These help me:
1. Log it before I consume it.
2. Prelog my expected dinner (a guess is okay to start with, edit later) so I can see how much I can eat earlier in the day and not get caught short of calories.