Name one weight loss tip that worked for you besides tracking
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1.) Use your initial enthusiasm to build habits that make it MINDLESS to stay on your plan later on when you aren't as focused. For example, take the time to build meals in MFP that you can fall back on whenever you don't know what to have for dinner. Find the restaurants where you can eat out and stay on plan. You won't always be focused on all this weight loss stuff, so you need to make your habits as easy and mindless as possible to stay the course.
2.) Log the next day the night before. That way you don't have to make a decision when you're stressed, rushed, and hungry. You can always choose to change it, but I find having it written down makes me less likely to make bad decisions in the moment. Like, I'll be tired and not sure what I want, so I just end up eating what I already logged because that's easier than figuring something else out.
3.) Brush your teeth after meals and snacks. It sounds silly, but having my mouth taste "clean" makes me less likely to reach for a snack. It signals my brain that meal time is over, and it makes me more likely to drink water.
4.) When you do laundry, put your workout clothes together for the week so you can grab and go easily. Likewise, have a tote bag with workout gear that stays in your car. Again, the goal is to make your exercise regimen an easy decision-free thing that you just do as a habit. The fewer decisions you have to make to get it done, the more likely it will happen when you're tired and unenthused. Even little things like having to find your tennis shoes can make you more likely to give up for the day. So remove as many mental/organizational barriers as possible.
5.) Begin as you mean to go on. That is, find a way of eating that you'd genuinely be willing to do the rest of your life. That way you won't have to worry about falling off the wagon because they're won't be a wagon. For me, this means eating out when/where I want. It also means I don't avoid any foods or food groups. I just fit them into my calories. Early on I found substitutions and foods that met my goals and gave me pleasure to eat. So now, in maintenance, I just have the ability to treat myself a little more often, but I haven't really changed how I eat.
6.) Have a good plan for whatever is your weakest time of day when you're prone to snacking. For me, that's evenings before bed. My solution is I have a Chocolate Protein/Vitamin Shake in the evenings while I watch tv. Then I eat a Greek Yogurt every night before bed. Both of these are logged ahead of time so my daily food fits around them. This gives me a daily treat to look forward to, and a healthy filling snack to help me sleep. Some people like to eat a bigger dinner, but I do best with a lighter dinner and an evening treat.
7.) Make your log fit YOUR patterns instead of MFP's. So don't be afraid to edit your macro goals or rename your meals to fit your life. For example, my meals are Breakfast, Mid-Day, Late Afternoon, Evening Routine, Snacks, and Drinks. That lets me track things more accurately. I also shoot for a lot more protein than the MFP default, so my macros are set to 35% Protein, 35% Fat, %30 Carbs. I decided on the fat/carb ratio based on what I gravitate to naturally by season. In Winter, that means more fat. In Summer, I may change it to 35-C/30-F because I eat more fresh veggies/fruits. The main thing is to bend MFP to YOUR needs instead of beating your head against a wall trying to meet someone else's idea of what you should eat. The more personalized you make your plan, the more likely you are to keep up with it.
All this to say...make it MINDLESS and make it EASY...if you do that, you will be consistent enough to see results over time. The harder you make it on yourself, the more likely you'll eventually throw up your hands and quit.
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Drink copious amounts of plain water. I think water is crucial to help achieve weight loss goals more efficiently and more expeditiously.7
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Eating at least 25mg of fiber (both kinds) every day. Eating water-dense vs calorie dense foods. and meeting at least my minimum water requirement.4
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Refeeds and diet breaks. I found that refeeds every 2 weeks on a steep deficit makes keeping your sanity a lot easier. I do a diet break about every 8 weeks during a cut as well.10
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A food scale. More than anything knowing exactly how much I am eating is key. Pay more attention to the food scale and less to the number of the people scale.14
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Meal prep. I never have to worry about what I'm eating because I bring food to work with me every day, and it's already been portioned out to meet my goals.
Weigh and measure food. We all think we can estimate well, but in reality it's impossible to know how many calories you're really taking in unless you weigh and measure food.
Water water water. I drink 2 cups of coffee every morning so I'm not tempted to stab anyone at work, and then nothing but water or herbal tea all day.
I'm not much of a snacker, but sometimes in the evenings I get the munchies. I find whitening my teeth is a great way to avoid unnecessary snacking. I can't eat anything for the 30 minutes I have the strips on and then when I remove them I brush my teeth, so I don't want to eat after that. Bonus - my teeth look great! 🤣
Routines. I'm all about routines. I eat meals at the same time every day. My alarm is set for 4:55 every morning so I can hit the gym before work. I always bring lunch to work so I pack it every evening to make the morning go a little more smoothly.13 -
I have been tracking my food on and off for more than a decade, now. I have gotten down to 155, where I wanted to be 145. I was constantly hungry. I was running all the time. I binged on the weekends. It was no good. I have been 220, where I indulged whenever I wanted to, and got to such a size that I was constantly low-level winded. All the time. It was also no good.
The single biggest thing that helped me lose weight happily besides tracking is- to reduce the suck.
If I want a ton of food, I up my protein instead of hitting the pantry. I go for a walk instead of getting ice cream. I recognize my feelings might play a part in my wanting x food. But if I'm burning out, time for a diet break eating at maintenance. If I want to eat with friends, make it a day eating at maintenance. If I really want a cookie, have a cookie. And no cheating it, a real cookie, the one I wanted.
Sure, weight loss is slower this way. I am not setting any goals for when I am done losing weight. Because this is practice for how I need to eat for the rest of my life- honoring what I want or need in a way that doesn't compromise my goals long term.
The only thing that helps me stick to tracking and weight loss is reducing the suck. Life is stressful enough, no need for me to stress myself further.20 -
Using a food scale to measure my snacks is way easier for me than using cups, for some reason. I have a snack just about every day, but only a very small amount. I don't like to eat snacks from the bag anymore. I use a little dish.6
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Meal Prep: Every week, I roast vegetables, cook lentils (you can make a big batch and freeze some for later use) cook up chicken and fish. That way, I always have healthy food I can eat for lunch or dinner without having to cook every day. End up cooking 2x a week and the rest is just heating up. Makes it so much easier to stay on track.
Limiting trigger foods: Mine are alcohol and cheese. I can have them but they are special occasion "dessert" foods instead of every day foods. Pretty amazing how many calories I rack up when I consume either or both of these.9 -
I lost a good chunk of my weight before I ever heard about MFP or calorie counting or even knew what a calorie was....maintained for years without tracking anything and am now working on my COVID Lbs...also not physically logging anything, though I always keep a lose tally in my head.
1 - Eat out less. I used to eat out every single day for lunch. One of the first things I did was brown bagging my lunch. On average my fast food lunches were in the neighborhood of 1200+ calories. I halved that or more when I started brown bagging my lunch and was still eating plenty of food volume wise. I also cut back on the amount of eating out and takeout we were doing as a family. I never thought it was all that much, but it was a few times per week. In a typical week these days, I eat out once per week for lunch and we get takeout or go out about once per week...usually on Friday or Saturday. So I basically went from 8x per week eating out or takeout to 2x per week.
2 - Kicked the soda habit...not entirely, but I usually drank anywhere from 3-6 regular sodas daily. I weened that down to none and then ultimately switched to zero calorie soda, but I keep that to about one or two per day...usually with my lunch. I sometimes have a zero sugar ginger beer and lime in the evening for a mocktail.
3 - Cut back on the snacking. My snacking was always more habit and boredom than actually being hungry. I would nibble away all afternoon at the candies my assistant leaves out on her desk...then have an afternoon snack...then an evening snack when I got home...then dinner...then a late night snack. I was always snacking and it's pretty counterproductive to weight management. I typically only have one late afternoon/early evening snack these days and it's mostly because I eat my lunch around noon and don't eat dinner until around 8 PM.
4 - Cut way back on alcohol
5 - Made regular exercise a mostly daily routine. I don't do much in the way of "workouts". The only thing I do that I really consider to be a "workout" these days is my 2-3x per week in the weight room. Other than that I'm just recreationally active. I bike (MTB and road), hike, and walk my dog as my primary forms of exercise...and then throw in some playing around with the kids, shooting hoops or kicking the soccer ball around, playing catch, playing in the pool, etc. I sit around a lot less than I used to.5 -
Most useful tip for me is prep! If I have prepped lunches in the fridge and convenient snacks and breakfast on hand, I'm going to eat them. I also have dinner calendar written out and ingredients on hand to make 30 minute meals daily. If I'm not prepared, I lose my mind and eat whatever I want in whatever quantity. If it's been laid out and prepped, there's very little chance anything will throw me off. Lazy monkey brain prefers what's easy and available immediately. Avoid decision fatigue!10
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Find an activity or exercise that you enjoy. I swim laps first thing in the morning. I actually look forward to it. I used to dread mornings. Now I'm up at 630am raring to go!5
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Relaxing about my 'diet' helped me a lot.
To eat foods I enjoy within my calories not because they are 'diet foods'
Learning to cook healthier recipes and batch cooking them.
Avoiding takeaways as much as possible.
Getting rid of the all or nothing mindset - life happens and it's OK to go over my calories once in a while - emphasis on the once in a while because consistency is key!
Not drinking my calories - especially alcohol - which just sets off a whole eating poorly thing because of the alcohol the day after!
Lots of water.
More sleep.
Realising that I don't have to go to a gym to get exercise- I enjoy walking and cycling and outside activities.
Trying to draw a line under my last meal of the day until breakfast- snacking in the evening was my nemesis!
And lastly and most importantly- drumming it into my head that it is not a race or a diet - I want to learn how to eat to maintain my weight for the rest of my life not race to the finish line starving and the inevitably put it all back on again.
I've been there several times.10 -
Going low carb.6
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One weight loss trick for me, besides tracking, was NO SNACKING after 6:00 pm!6
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These are greattips everyone. Thanks for sharing3
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Incorporating NEAT into everyday life. I can walk the length of my building, around the edges for a quick break and get 1300 or so steps in. I see people, say hi, keep walking. Doesn't take long. I also park a bit further from stores and am more willing to go down to the basement to grab something rather than deciding it's not worth it! I'd much rather walk some extra steps throughout the day than get on a treadmill, and it adds up!6
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Plan meals, get half my water in by noon, don't lie to myself, and forgive myself when I stray. Getting right back on the horse is key to staying on the path!5
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FEELING my feelings instead of "feeding" them.
Sometimes this requires some self-talk (sometimes out loud :-) ), that that's where honest logging comes in:
"Hey, there, honey: why are we standing in front of the pantry/fridge? MFP says we've had plenty of calories today, so we know we're not hungry for FOOD-- so what are we hungry for? Are we lonely? sad? angry? tired? anxious? blue? excited? happy? Well while that feeling may not be fun, it's not going to physically hurt us. . . so let's just go sit in our favorite chair and FEEL it for a while, OK? We can feel feelings without feeding them, right? And besides, if we give in to stuffing down that bad feeling or puffing up that good feeling, we'll loathe and resent ourselves later and THAT won't feel very good at all, will it?"18 -
Meal prep and watching my actual sugars with testing my blood. I've been able to slowly lose weight and celebrate every pound. I know I could lose it faster if I added in exercise but wanted to first retrain my brain on eating and what I'm craving before adding in exercise. I will say I've become a bit OCD with checking my sugars but I've gotten soo good at monitoring that I may be able to come off my type 2 diabetes medicine soon. To me that will be a huge celebration.8
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