Diets You've Tried and Your Critiques
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Low calorie "only eat certain foods" type of diet (think along the lines of apples, lettuce/salad and eggs/plain chicken breast) with 1 day of water fasting a week that one of my friends swore by, around 2008-2009... ended up constantly dizzy, and gained back all the weight after I quit... Looking back, I was probably averaging about 600kcal a day for a month... Lost about 15lbs in a month but f that
Also tried keto at one point but it made me feel so sick I ended up missing uni because I couldn't get out of bed0 -
Tried: Meal replacement shakes, Atkins, Jenny Craig, Nutri-System, low calorie/low fat, Weight Watchers (lifetime member). Nothing stuck.
What worked: Joining MFP, counting calories in/out, portion control. Reading every stickie on MFP to educate myself on nutrition and weight loss. If I didn't understand something, I Googled it or researched until I did. I lost 50 lbs. over a 15 month period and I've been in maintenance for almost 4 years now. I still log every day and weigh and measure everything that goes in my mouth. 5"2.5"/69 years old and still vertical.8 -
Tried: Low calorie foods and portion control, meal replacement shakes, Nutri-System, Deal-A-Meal, Atkins, Paleo, Raw Vegan. Had varying amounts of success and all-around ultimate failure. None of these every got me to a goal weight that I wanted it to, btw.
What worked: As with Trina - joining MFP, counting calories in/out, portion control. Reading all the stickies to educate myself on nutrition and weight loss with the help of Google. I lost 90 pounds over an 18 month period and have maintained that loss for 3 years now. I still log and weigh everything too. I still futz around with vanity weight I'd like to maybe lose, then maybe not.3 -
iandjray2723 wrote: »The ketogenic diet works great for me
It’s more of a lifestyle than a diet realy
Loosing weight is about minimising insulin production. We can’t mobilise fat stores iff we are producing insulin, insulin is a storage hormone ... so we can’t store in fat cells (sugar) and release from fat cells (low insulin state) at the same time.
Sorry iff this is confusing
If we're not producing insulin, we become diabetic. Losing weight is about a calorie deficit. And you don't hold onto fat in a deficit.
https://weightology.net/insulin-an-undeserved-bad-reputation/10 -
It's not just about weight for me. If it were, I'd still be on Adderall, that's the most effective weight loss habit I've ever engaged in.
Diets I've tried are as follows: Keto, vegetarian, cabbage soup diet, calorie counting, IF, and various other meal plans.
For non-drug induced weight loss, it's calorie counting every time. The problem is that I'm not really able to calorie count if my emotional state is out of whack. I lack the energy, motivation, discipline to do it.
For my emotional state, Keto works the best. IF is a close second. I'm clear headed, focused, disciplined, calm, reasonable, stable. It hasn't been studied well so I've no idea what is happening here. It could be that I have allergies/tolerance issues. I could be reaping the neurprotective benefits of Keto that are known about but poorly understood. It also could be something about altering the gut biome. But it happens, it's noticeable, and not just by me.
So, calorie counting with Keto and IF is the best possible way for me. It isn't easy but neither is how I feel/look when I eat a lot of carbs or how terrible I feel on every psychotropic medication I've ever tried. Turning down cupcakes is the hardship I choose out of the many available to me.
I can't really isolate effects of diet, though. Everything is so interdependent. Changing my diet changes so much in my life.7 -
I tried one "diet". One time. In about 2002 I heard Dr. Agatston discussing his new "south beach diet" on a news program. The book wasn't yet out, and I missed the beginning of the discussion, but figured out the basic details. I followed them, and some basic common sense and lost all the weight I needed to lose. It changed how I approached food. I maintained for MANY YEARS. It was easy (until menopause) to keep the weight off eating his "slow carb" way (lean proteins, lots of vegetables, healthy fats, nuts seeds, legumes, some dairy, some whole grains). Now, post menopausal, I'm about to launch back into a "phase one" diet to lose the menopause TEN.
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Low fat/low calorie - ah, the 90s. Haha. Wasn’t really “fat” at the time, just a little bit of chub. It worked, with exercise, but I was hungry all the time and it wasn’t sustainable.
Weight Watchers - been on it too many times to count, with varying degrees of success. Their older programs in the late 90s/early 2000s worked best for me. Was really just a complicated version of what mfp does for us now. Wasn’t that hungry and I liked it. Their new program is NOT for me.
South Beach - I did the first 2 weeks, where its most restrictive, and lost weight, but I didn’t carry on with it after that. I think eliminating whole food groups just isn’t for me.
Slim Fast - disaster. Do not recommend.
Now - when my head is in the game, I do great counting calories with MFP; however, based on the data I’ve been collecting here, Fitbit overestimates the calories I’m burning, so I’m testing out scaling back ever so slightly to see if that helps me.1 -
New to my Fitness Pal App and just reading thru boards, got on here to help track what I’m eating, I’m an Mom of 3 and an Advocare Girl and with that to help with appetite control, energy, and filling the nutritional gaps it gave me energy to start working out for the first time in my life so So I joined Pure Barre and for my bf joined Crossfit (HS/college FB for him-were now 38 yrs old).
We started our health and fitness journey January 2nd 2018 and since then I’m down 14# and 18 inches, he’s down 27# (inches and muscle can’t accurately measure as he’s doing CrossFit-but the pics are so telling!)
We clean eat 80/20, Faithful to Advocare products and love working out now that we found something that fits us!8 -
I've lost weight twice. First time (in 2002), I learned to cook well, started making my own meals regularly, got back into exercise (after blowing everything off for a stressful job), and mostly relied on writing down what I'd been eating, seeing where the extra calories were from and eliminating snacking and mindless eating. I learned a bunch about nutrition during that experience, read a number of books, including Walter Willett's, as well as some anti dieting books like Laura Fraser's Losing It, and a bunch just about food and cooking. Started going to green markets, getting a CSA, so on. Nutrition and exercise became hobbies.
I kept it off for over 5 years, but then had some struggles with depression, started eating more and exercising left and struggling with emotional eating. Gradually regained until January 2014, when I decided enough was enough. Then I used MFP, again focused on eating just regular meals, no snacking, no mindless eating. I already had pretty healthy eating patterns and cooked from whole foods. I did get back into exercising regularly again -- basically biking and running plus some swimming, various race goals.
I've never done a named diet, although I did experiment with paleo for a while when losing this last time (I lost most of my weight just eating based on what I consider a healthy eating pattern but eating all foods). I tried out keto at maintenance for a couple of months, but that was mainly just as another experiment.
My mom had tons of diet books (like the Beverly Hills Diet) when I was growing up and I was fascinated with them but could never actually follow a named diet, I get rebellious and skeptical quite easily (which ended my flirtation with paleo too).6 -
witchaywoman81 wrote: »Low fat/low calorie - ah, the 90s. Haha. Wasn’t really “fat” at the time, just a little bit of chub. It worked, with exercise, but I was hungry all the time and it wasn’t sustainable.
Weight Watchers - been on it too many times to count, with varying degrees of success. Their older programs in the late 90s/early 2000s worked best for me. Was really just a complicated version of what mfp does for us now. Wasn’t that hungry and I liked it. Their new program is NOT for me.
South Beach - I did the first 2 weeks, where its most restrictive, and lost weight, but I didn’t carry on with it after that. I think eliminating whole food groups just isn’t for me.
Slim Fast - disaster. Do not recommend.
Now - when my head is in the game, I do great counting calories with MFP; however, based on the data I’ve been collecting here, Fitbit overestimates the calories I’m burning, so I’m testing out scaling back ever so slightly to see if that helps me.
What food groups? Which diet?0 -
Sabine_Stroehm wrote: »witchaywoman81 wrote: »Low fat/low calorie - ah, the 90s. Haha. Wasn’t really “fat” at the time, just a little bit of chub. It worked, with exercise, but I was hungry all the time and it wasn’t sustainable.
Weight Watchers - been on it too many times to count, with varying degrees of success. Their older programs in the late 90s/early 2000s worked best for me. Was really just a complicated version of what mfp does for us now. Wasn’t that hungry and I liked it. Their new program is NOT for me.
South Beach - I did the first 2 weeks, where its most restrictive, and lost weight, but I didn’t carry on with it after that. I think eliminating whole food groups just isn’t for me.
Slim Fast - disaster. Do not recommend.
Now - when my head is in the game, I do great counting calories with MFP; however, based on the data I’ve been collecting here, Fitbit overestimates the calories I’m burning, so I’m testing out scaling back ever so slightly to see if that helps me.
What food groups? Which diet?
Are you referring to the bolded? South Beach diet. It’s been about 15 years since I tried it, so my information might not be current, but from what I remember in the first 2 weeks you aren’t allowed to eat many/any carbs, including fruit, pasta, bread, etc. I think in phase 2 you’re allowed to add some in slowly, but I didn’t even reach that point before I realized SouthBeach wasn’t for me.0 -
witchaywoman81 wrote: »Sabine_Stroehm wrote: »witchaywoman81 wrote: »Low fat/low calorie - ah, the 90s. Haha. Wasn’t really “fat” at the time, just a little bit of chub. It worked, with exercise, but I was hungry all the time and it wasn’t sustainable.
Weight Watchers - been on it too many times to count, with varying degrees of success. Their older programs in the late 90s/early 2000s worked best for me. Was really just a complicated version of what mfp does for us now. Wasn’t that hungry and I liked it. Their new program is NOT for me.
South Beach - I did the first 2 weeks, where its most restrictive, and lost weight, but I didn’t carry on with it after that. I think eliminating whole food groups just isn’t for me.
Slim Fast - disaster. Do not recommend.
Now - when my head is in the game, I do great counting calories with MFP; however, based on the data I’ve been collecting here, Fitbit overestimates the calories I’m burning, so I’m testing out scaling back ever so slightly to see if that helps me.
What food groups? Which diet?
Are you referring to the bolded? South Beach diet. It’s been about 15 years since I tried it, so my information might not be current, but from what I remember in the first 2 weeks you aren’t allowed to eat many/any carbs, including fruit, pasta, bread, etc. I think in phase 2 you’re allowed to add some in slowly, but I didn’t even reach that point before I realized SouthBeach wasn’t for me.
I think you're not quite remembering it right. In the first two weeks you're required to eat substantial vegetables at every meal (and snacks). So that means carbs at every meal. It's suggested that you have 1/2cup of beans/legumes daily. Legumes are carb dense. You also have dairy and nuts/seeds which also contains carbs. When the two weeks are over you re-introduce fruit and grains at a pace that works for you. The carb count goes up there too, of course.
It's not low or no carb, it's just low glycemic carbs eaten in low glycemic load meals. It's still "not for everyone". Here's a visual.
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Sabine_Stroehm wrote: »witchaywoman81 wrote: »Sabine_Stroehm wrote: »witchaywoman81 wrote: »Low fat/low calorie - ah, the 90s. Haha. Wasn’t really “fat” at the time, just a little bit of chub. It worked, with exercise, but I was hungry all the time and it wasn’t sustainable.
Weight Watchers - been on it too many times to count, with varying degrees of success. Their older programs in the late 90s/early 2000s worked best for me. Was really just a complicated version of what mfp does for us now. Wasn’t that hungry and I liked it. Their new program is NOT for me.
South Beach - I did the first 2 weeks, where its most restrictive, and lost weight, but I didn’t carry on with it after that. I think eliminating whole food groups just isn’t for me.
Slim Fast - disaster. Do not recommend.
Now - when my head is in the game, I do great counting calories with MFP; however, based on the data I’ve been collecting here, Fitbit overestimates the calories I’m burning, so I’m testing out scaling back ever so slightly to see if that helps me.
What food groups? Which diet?
Are you referring to the bolded? South Beach diet. It’s been about 15 years since I tried it, so my information might not be current, but from what I remember in the first 2 weeks you aren’t allowed to eat many/any carbs, including fruit, pasta, bread, etc. I think in phase 2 you’re allowed to add some in slowly, but I didn’t even reach that point before I realized SouthBeach wasn’t for me.
I think you're not quite remembering it right. In the first two weeks you're required to eat substantial vegetables at every meal (and snacks). So that means carbs at every meal. It's suggested that you have 1/2cup of beans/legumes daily. Legumes are carb dense. You also have dairy and nuts/seeds which also contains carbs. When the two weeks are over you re-introduce fruit and grains at a pace that works for you. The carb count goes up there too, of course.
It's not low or no carb, it's just low glycemic carbs eaten in low glycemic load meals. It's still "not for everyone". Here's a visual.
Ooh thanks for sharing! I didn’t remember the legumes part; I remember eating a lot of salads and lean proteins. They also had this “dessert” which was ricotta cheese with an extract (vanilla, almond, whatever) and sometimes cocoa powder in it. It didn’t taste bad, but I remember feeling a little odd about it.
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We tried low fat no salt for a month. I learned that salt is in nearly all prepared foods and if you want flavour without salt start with very fresh, strong flavoured ingredients.
We’ve moderated back to low salt but I still pay a lot more attention to my vegetables.
Follow the create-your-plate diabetic plan. It does keep my blood sugars in check. A higher protein breakfast helps the whole day go better.
Weight Watchers. Generally balanced with lots of peer support. I did not like the suggested meal plans that came with it. Too “wet”. I’m a tactile eater and I need a lot of dry crunchy.
Consistently lost weight when I logged my meals daily and followed up with a dietitian once a month.0 -
witchaywoman81 wrote: »Sabine_Stroehm wrote: »witchaywoman81 wrote: »Sabine_Stroehm wrote: »witchaywoman81 wrote: »Low fat/low calorie - ah, the 90s. Haha. Wasn’t really “fat” at the time, just a little bit of chub. It worked, with exercise, but I was hungry all the time and it wasn’t sustainable.
Weight Watchers - been on it too many times to count, with varying degrees of success. Their older programs in the late 90s/early 2000s worked best for me. Was really just a complicated version of what mfp does for us now. Wasn’t that hungry and I liked it. Their new program is NOT for me.
South Beach - I did the first 2 weeks, where its most restrictive, and lost weight, but I didn’t carry on with it after that. I think eliminating whole food groups just isn’t for me.
Slim Fast - disaster. Do not recommend.
Now - when my head is in the game, I do great counting calories with MFP; however, based on the data I’ve been collecting here, Fitbit overestimates the calories I’m burning, so I’m testing out scaling back ever so slightly to see if that helps me.
What food groups? Which diet?
Are you referring to the bolded? South Beach diet. It’s been about 15 years since I tried it, so my information might not be current, but from what I remember in the first 2 weeks you aren’t allowed to eat many/any carbs, including fruit, pasta, bread, etc. I think in phase 2 you’re allowed to add some in slowly, but I didn’t even reach that point before I realized SouthBeach wasn’t for me.
I think you're not quite remembering it right. In the first two weeks you're required to eat substantial vegetables at every meal (and snacks). So that means carbs at every meal. It's suggested that you have 1/2cup of beans/legumes daily. Legumes are carb dense. You also have dairy and nuts/seeds which also contains carbs. When the two weeks are over you re-introduce fruit and grains at a pace that works for you. The carb count goes up there too, of course.
It's not low or no carb, it's just low glycemic carbs eaten in low glycemic load meals. It's still "not for everyone". Here's a visual.
Ooh thanks for sharing! I didn’t remember the legumes part; I remember eating a lot of salads and lean proteins. They also had this “dessert” which was ricotta cheese with an extract (vanilla, almond, whatever) and sometimes cocoa powder in it. It didn’t taste bad, but I remember feeling a little odd about it.
Ah yes the dessert. I'm not much of a dessert eater (and I started SB-like-eating before the book came out) so I've never actually tried the ricotta thing. It's always sounded good.
And yeah, it's basically a protein and veg with beans, nuts and seeds, and dairy two weeks, then add back grains and fruit as tolerated.
Of course the mail order program *called* the south beach diet is NOT the original. Boo for buying names.0 -
I'd consider fruit and starch to be food groups (although I'd usually consider legumes to be in the starch group if not being used as a source of protein).0
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Back in 2012 I solicited the help of a personal trainer for 3 months. During this time he not only taught me how to maximize my workouts for my own body type and interests, he also introduced me to the crossfiit eating lifestyle. It’s not so much calorie tracking as it is portion sizing, timing, and choosing the right foods. It’s super simple and broken down by blocks of protein, carb, fat for each meal and snack period. It provides a huge amount of flexibility and for me, it gave me the most success. In fact as long as I’ve followed it, I’ve either managed to lose or maintain my weight. The only time I’ve actually gained weight is when I don’t follow it. During that 3 month period I was with the trainer I lost 30 lbs (10lbs/month). http://library.crossfit.com/free/pdf/CFJ_2015_05_Zone6.pdf0
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I did the eat less diet. Wildly successful1
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Did keto for about 3 months. Did lose some weight, but my gosh, how I missed my carbs. Also had horrible keto headaches the first couple of weeks. Found it to be quite expensive and time consuming prepping my meals. Refocusing on a simple calories in < calories out plan going ahead.0
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