Whats ur secret?

rainbow198 · February 2020

I lost 80 pounds and 6 dress sizes without a gym membership, a trainer and didn't follow any diet plans. I'm in year 7 of keeping it all off and still going strong. There were no secrets...

- Calorie deficit
- I plan and track my meals
- Light meal prepping on Sundays to save time during the week
- Everyday I move/exercise
- When I was losing I weighed in every Friday morning and took measurements once a month
- Consistency with all of the above

gcibsthom · February 2020

117 lbs lost

No big secret. Calories in/Calories out. Patience. Dedication. Keep to your limits set on the log. Tenacity. Keep up the work. Don't give up no matter how long you go without losing a single pound....

drmwc · February 2020

I've lost 40 pounds lost from February last year. I've been in maintenance for around 6 months - I'm now around 140 pounds, with a BMI of just over 21.

I was diagnosed with borderline diabetes, hence the diet. It worked - the diabetes is in remission. I am aware that not everyone is a fan of all the steps I took, but they are working for me. The steps were:

Logging calories in and calories out, and being at or below target pretty much every day
Going teetotal. I find if I drink, one pint leads to another and then I'll eat a kebab. So hitting target calories was hard with drinking
Exercising a lot. I average 18,000 steps a day at the moment; and I also go hiking, swimming, climbing and lift weights.
Avoiding processed sugar and cleaning up my diet. I have a sweet tooth, so if I eat 1 doughnut, a second is likely to follow. So I abstain rather than moderate.
I weight daily, and use the Libra app to track the trend. This stops me getting hung up on any individual result.

The key one of these, of course, is hitting target calories. The other ones are steps which (for me) make it easier to achieve that main goal.

Siberian2590 · February 2020

drmwc wrote: »

I've lost 40 pounds lost from February last year. I've been in maintenance for around 6 months - I'm now around 140 pounds, with a BMI of just over 21.

I was diagnosed with borderline diabetes, hence the diet. It worked - the diabetes is in remission. I am aware that not everyone is a fan of all the steps I took, but they are working for me. The steps were:
Logging calories in and calories out, and being at or below target pretty much every day

Going teetotal. I find if I drink, one pint leads to another and then I'll eat a kebab. So hitting target calories was hard with drinking

Exercising a lot. I average 18,000 steps a day at the moment; and I also go hiking, swimming, climbing and lift weights.

Avoiding processed sugar and cleaning up my diet. I have a sweet tooth, so if I eat 1 doughnut, a second is likely to follow. So I abstain rather than moderate.

I weight daily, and use the Libra app to track the trend. This stops me getting hung up on any individual result.

The key one of these, of course, is hitting target calories. The other ones are steps which (for me) make it easier to achieve that main goal.

WOW!!! That's awesome!!!

I'm not even hitting 5000 yet, and it's taken me 2 months of evening walking to get there. In my defense, I'm 68, blew out 5 discs 2 years ago, and had 3 spinal surgeries last year. For the 1st month, every step was agony due to sciatic nerve impingement, but that's getting better now.

My biggest problem is how long it takes to walk 5000 or more steps, and for me, running is no longer an option.

drmwc · February 2020

Siberian2590 wrote: »

WOW!!! That's awesome!!!

I'm not even hitting 5000 yet, and it's taken me 2 months of evening walking to get there. In my defense, I'm 68, blew out 5 discs 2 years ago, and had 3 spinal surgeries last year. For the 1st month, every step was agony due to sciatic nerve impingement, but that's getting better now.

My biggest problem is how long it takes to walk 5000 or more steps, and for me, running is no longer an option.

Well done staying active. My Dad broke his back a few years ago. He is becoming reasonably active again, but it's definitely not been easy.

jperdomo79 · February 2020

@SoHowLongIsThisGonnaTake .... my journey started Dec 2012 and ended May 2013.....approx....5 months of exercising 5-6 times a week for (60 min), counting calories on (MFP) 1300-1500...I'm 5'4 and a quarter

and drinking 8 bottles of 16.9 oz.of water. I hope that helps.

jenilla1 · February 2020

My secret is setting priorities and sticking mostly to behaviors that align with them.

I simply want health and fitness - with all it's pros and cons (feeling energetic, looking good = pro, doing consistent physical work, having to exercise self-control with food intake = con) MORE than I want the alternative (eating dessert as primary food source, sitting on my butt all day = pro, feeling sluggish, looking weak and run down = con,.)

Whenever I think about it, I just feel like the pros of the former far outweigh the pros of the latter. And the cons of being fit and healthy aren't even that bad; after awhile they even start to feel like pros, too. The cons of "Unfit and Unhealthy Me" are never going to be good. So "Fit and Healthy Me" easily wins.

But that's just me. Not everyone is going to have the same priorities, and that's OK. Just figure out what's more important, analyze whether it's worth it to you, and then work towards it. This isn't a quick fix. It's a long term commitment.

It's all mindset. Do I really want it, or not? So that's my secret. That's what keeps me in the game*.

*Maintaining at goal since 2011.

motivatedmartha · February 2020

Patience

Sylphadora · February 2020

Zero carb OMAD (one meal a day) and weight training. Muscle is the most metabolically active tissue in the body so the more muscle you have, the more you get to eat

No calorie deficit since I'm maintaining

snickerscharlie · February 2020

Sylphadora wrote: »

Zero carb OMAD (one meal a day) and weight training. Muscle is the most metabolically active tissue in the body so the more muscle you have, the more you get to eat No calorie deficit since I'm maintaining

On a zero carb diet, what do you typically eat?

gopgirl425 · February 2020

111 down---ADF

JoshyPoo51 · February 2020

Down 102lbs. since the end of May. No secrets, just sense. Track my calories. Exercise multiple times a week. Cut out fast food. It definitely required discipline to get into the healthy routine, but now that I'm deep into it I can't see myself breaking out of it and falling off the wagon. Feels good, man.

Whats ur secret?

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