3 Top Tips?

QueenZeeIsm
QueenZeeIsm Posts: 104 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I'm so ready for this. What is your 3 top (not big) tips for weight loss? Sometimes we just need a place to start. I know eating healthy and exercising is big tips, but if you had to break it down... what to eat, what not to eat, what workout to start with and what to wait with until later. Anyone have some attainable goals to kick-start this process with?

Replies

  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 28,052 Member
    1. Food - accurately track and log - use a food scale and learn how to get accurate entries from MFP's cluttered database. Find the foods that fill you up for the least calories and focus on them. Know thyself - you may need to moderate trigger foods or you may need to ban them completely.

    2. Exercise - maintain the discipline to create healthy habits - motivation is fleeting.

    3. Mental - be patient. You didn't gain the weight overnight, and you won't lose it overnight. Better to lose slowly and sustainably than to yoyo for decades.
    QueenZeeIsm wrote: »
    I'm so ready for this. What is your 3 top (not big) tips for weight loss? Sometimes we just need a place to start. I know eating healthy and exercising is big tips, but if you had to break it down... what to eat, what not to eat, what workout to start with and what to wait with until later. Anyone have some attainable goals to kick-start this process with?

    This is all individual. Someone's workout might start with walking out to the mailbox, someone else might jump in to Couch to 5K, someone else might already be a runner and need to focus on eating less.
  • Beautyofdreams
    Beautyofdreams Posts: 1,009 Member
    1) Be consistent in your logging and exercise. View your daily calories as a budget. The intake as withdrawals and
    the exercise as deposits or whatever metaphor works for you.
    2) Keep it simple. Do activities that work with your time constraints, access to equipment and level of fitness and
    you enjoy. It will increase the likelihood of sticking to it.
    3) Set small goals and reward yourself with nonfood rewards. Make weight loss a game that you can enjoy. Be
    adaptable because life happens and don't view a setback as the end. If your car had a flat tire, you would
    change it, not slash the other three.
    4) DON'T COMPARE YOURSELF TO OTHERS! We are all individuals with different responses to exercise,
    different bodies, diets and exercise programs and at differing points in our journey to health and fitness.
  • dragon_girl26
    dragon_girl26 Posts: 2,187 Member
    1.) Be knowledgeable about your intake. Regardless of what approach you take (flexible, keto, etc..), track your intake, weigh solid foods, and measure liquids. It really is invaluable info.

    2.) Be patient. You didn't gain it all in a day, and you won't lose it in a day. Good health is a lifelong journey. Take time to understand how weight loss works, and what a healthy rate of loss looks like. You also aren't going to be running marathons in two weeks time, so go easy on yourself with your fitness and weight progress.

    3.) Start small and don't try to tackle too much at once. A huge drastic overhaul could be overwhelming. Set small goals that focus on something other than just moving the scale. Maybe you want to try to run a mile. Maybe you try a new workout class, or eat one less sweet a day. Whatever it is, give yourself something that doesn't make your success all about the scale.
  • Leonie_M234
    Leonie_M234 Posts: 57 Member
    1. For me calorie cycling so looking at the weekly total
    2. Walking and Neat
    3. Eat whatever you like as long as it fits but keep protein levels fairly high
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 34,203 Member
    1. Eat foods you enjoy, combining them to get reasonably adequate overall nutrition, good satiation, and (key for weight management) appropriate calories, on average. Life is too short to eat in unenjoyable ways, just to lose weight or get healthy, and there are lots of good foods to choose from. (The occasional calorie dense treat, for joy, is fine, too.) Also, eating in unenjoyable ways is tough to stick with permanently, and "permanent" is what's needed to stay at a healthy weight long term.

    2. Find ways of moving more that you find enjoyable (or at least reasonably tolerable), whether official "exercise" or just more movement in everyday life. Activity you do and enjoy will happen more often than something you find miserable and exhausting (we like to skip miserable/exhausting with the slightest excuse). Any movement we actually do burns 100% more calories than a theoretically better one we skip.

    3. Read the MFP "stickies" (posts from regular MFP people, nominated by other MFP users to stick around long term, rather than disappear onto page 200 as they become less active). There's gold in there. Find them in the "Most Helpful Posts" section of each MFP Comunity forum topic area. There are a lot of them, so just start chipping away, as you have free time. Here are direct links to the best ones for starting out:

    https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10300331/most-helpful-posts-getting-started-must-reads#latest
    https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10300319/most-helpful-posts-general-health-fitness-and-diet-must-reads#latest
  • spiriteagle99
    spiriteagle99 Posts: 3,742 Member
    1. Think long term, not short term. Almost any diet can work if you follow it, but how long can you follow it? Find a sustainable way of eating that you can do for years without too much effort. Losing weight is only the beginning; keeping it off is what is most important.
    2. For me, limiting meals out was essential. It is astonishing how many calories most restaurant meals contain. Add alcohol and the total really gets high.
    3. Don't worry about minor slip ups. If you eat too much one day, get back on track the next. Don't wait for Monday. Don't restrict yourself too much to make up either. Just start over. Trying to make up for a splurge leads to over restriction, which can cause more binging down the line.
    4. Pay attention to which foods fill you up and which just make you want more. Some do well eating more protein or fat, some prefer to eat more carbs. I like eating fruit when I'm hungry, but that doesn't work for everyone.
    5. If you know certain foods will lead to binging, don't buy them.
  • elisa123gal
    elisa123gal Posts: 4,324 Member
    1, clear all the tempting junk food out of your house, car, work space. If you don't have it to tempt you. it won't happen.

    2. Each time you refuse to give in.. it makes you a bit stronger and you get good at sticking to your plan

    3. When your tempted to drink or eat off plan.. the temptation lasts about 5 to 15 minutes at the most.. if you can push through or busy yourself.. it passes and you'll be glad you didn't give in.
  • Inspirationalwaterjug
    Inspirationalwaterjug Posts: 384 Member
    Set realistic short and long term goals
    Eat like a normal human being
    Be patient
  • AndreaTamira
    AndreaTamira Posts: 272 Member
    Log everything. If you overeat, log it, too. It's ok, it happens. But it is easier to keep going if you are 100% accountable to yourself.

    Dont make yourself miserable. Find lower cal foods you actually enjoy, sometimes eat "unhealthy" foods if that makes it so you can continue on. Find exercises you actually want to do and are not just doing because you feel like you have to. Find routines that truly work for you.

    Patience, patience, patience. Weight fluctuates, weight comes of slower than expected, life throws curve balls at you... just be patient. Observe, make changes if you notice things are definitely not working, but dont freak out if your weight is "off" one, two weeks in a row.
  • age_is_just_a_number
    age_is_just_a_number Posts: 631 Member
    - make a small sustainable change eg., if you like to drink pop, then switch that out for water or sparkling water with lemon or lime in it.
    - Once you’ve adjusted to that change then make another small sustainable change eg., if you like to eat rice, switch that out for brown rice
    - Track what you eat
    - Monitor your macros
    - Monitor your metrics (weight and measurements)
    - Then adjust as needed
    - As you lose weight, your body is going to change, not only in appearance, but also in how it reacts to different foods.

    You’ve made a fantastic first step by logging into MFP.
  • tinkerbellang83
    tinkerbellang83 Posts: 9,129 Member
    My 3 top recommendations

    1) Know how to use MyFitnessPal properly (read the Most Helpful posts).
    2) Lose the mentality of good foods vs bad foods, everything is ok in moderation (with the exception of food allergies/intolerances and trigger foods for bingeing).
    3) Be patient and be ready to adjust your expectations - weight gain doesn't usually happen overnight, it won't be lose overnight.

    Some suggestions for attainable goals to start with:
  • djaxon1
    djaxon1 Posts: 82 Member
    1 - Eat lots more veg. I'll say it again - " Eat lots more veg. "
    2 - Dodge the stodge , I keep a magnifying glass in the kitchen to easily read nutrition labels, sugar is the devil !
    3 - Be honest , esp. to yourself.
  • ChickenKillerPuppy
    ChickenKillerPuppy Posts: 297 Member
    (1) As other have said, you need to track your calorie intake. It's a pain at first, but without knowing how many calories you are consuming, you have no idea if you are in a deficit how many calories you need to consume to maintain (the MOST important number). Track for a few weeks without worrying about weight loss just to get used to it and see what you are eating every day.

    (2) Don't eat like it's a diet! Feeling restricted leads to disaster (for me). I have treats every day. I still drink alcohol. I still eat foods I love. I just eat them in smaller portions or adjust them to be more friendly, but I still need to eat what I like, I just have to eat them in a quantity that doesn't make me gain weight;

    (3) Don't obsess over specific forms of intensive exercise. Just move more! I literally take a couple things out of the dryer at a time so I have to make more trips. Build in movement. That extra movement makes a HUGE difference.

    It's so hard in the beginning. Be patient with yourself and not too restrictive. Don't let perfect be the enemy of good - just because you can't do EVERYTHING, doesn't mean you shouldn't do some things. That has been a huge lesson for me.
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  • callsitlikeiseeit
    callsitlikeiseeit Posts: 8,626 Member
    learn how to accurately weigh and measure your food using a scale (cups for liquids)

    understand that weight fluctuates, and weight loss takes TIME

    learn to incorporate more movement if you are physically able to (whether purposeful exercise, taking stairs instead of elevator, parking further from stores, etc)

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