Male 48: Finally after a decade have perfected my weight loss

When you get older it gets harder and harder to lose weight but now I have finally done it the healthy way.

Age 48 From 228lbs to 200lbs and still going strong after 3 months, here is what worked for ME.
Working from home, only exercise is walking the dog for 40 mins and some upper body exercise (little).

Step 1) First I eradicate all the heavy carbs, potatoes, rice, etc. This is the hardest part and you need a long weekend to do it because you CRASH hard when you do it.

Step 2) Medication. If you need it. I used Zyban, not for quitting smoking which I did a while ago, but just to prevent anxious eating. My doc was fine with using it for this purpose.

Step 3) What to drink. Ideally water with lemon/lime but I just can't do that full time, so I cheat with Coke ZERO and while not "good for me" it is what I needed to be "happy".

Step 4) No alcohol. I already gave up drinking before the diet so I was fine there, but it is key to not drink at all.

Step 5) The healthy diet gets the food down to the basics. Here is for me Male 48 over 200lbs 6' tall, broad frame, adjust for your own gender, height, weight, frame size.

8am:
1 coffee, cream and sugar. Walk the dog

12pm lunch and 2pm finish it off (two sittings):
1 full iceberg lettuce.
2 hand full of tomatoes.
1 hand full of carrots.
1 english cucumber
1 avocado.
lots of mayonaisse (low fat)
1 protein 500g chicken or 400g salmon or 350g steak or 450g pork etc. I usually share some with my wife and dog.
I just salt and pepper it, pan fry, add minced garlic to one side, flip and cook medium rare, slice and add to the salad.
3pm to 8pm:
Fresh fruit or canned fruit in water or Natures Valley granola bars (sweet and salty) as needed when I get hungry.

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Basically one main salad based meal for day + healthy snacks the rest. That salad is BIG, its a huge baking bowl in size (like a small bucket) but since it is salad and vegetables + some meat its not huge on calories, but it fills your stomach. Obviously you need to adjust the ingredient amount to your size.

What is great is that pretty much EVERY day I lose weight, usually 0.1kg and 2lbs per week for over 3 months. There was definitely a plateau time as my body adjusted getting energy from carbs to getting energy from the protein.

Effectively it is intermittent fasting since you don't eat again for 16 hours. If you had a cheat day and ate too much, just delay your huge lunch the next day as long as you can to make up for it. The later your lunch is, the less snacks you need to finish the day.
I know if I go to bed with just a tiny bit hungry then I have had a perfect day.

Occasionally you have a night where you are super hungry and maybe eat a block of cheese or something. I've had that but usually means that you were deficient by too many calories and its fine, I actually don't gain weight because of it.

Over the 3 months I've had maybe 2 "fasting days". This really kick starts the body and I just suffer being hungry and don't eat all day.

In general its not really even a diet, its just burning more calories than you spend BUT those calories you consume are *kitten* healthy ones. Not all calories are the same...

Thats it, if it helps just one other person then it was worth posting.