What is your secret?

Working on a combination of quantity and quality of my food. Switching to lower calorie options where I can, or instead of eating 4 slices of pizza, maybe two. Planning out your meals helps aswell. Another big one is exercising daily

The only tip worth noting is to eat at a calorie deficit and exercise. And that's no secret at all. Yet so many ignore it and keep seeking more complicated and misguided approaches.

So why do over 90% of people who attempt to follow this tip fail?

90% fail? I'm a cynic and even I don't think it's that high. I think 100% who do it whole-heartedly will succeed, unless they have a medical impairment.

Whole heartedly is the key. It means being able to measure properly and accurately, and sticking to it over time. A lot of people are in denial about how much food they consume, or how many calories they burn while exercising. Or they try for 1 or 2 weeks and give up. Or restrict calories to an unsustainable level.

Do you think those of us who have had long-lasting success using tried and true methods are part of some special 10%?

Ok the problem with your "solution" as you described it, is that it forces people to ignore signals of hunger by their body and attempt to override them FOR THE REST OF THEIR LIVES.

No, it will cause your currently broken hunger signals to be fixed, probably in a short amount of time, and you will be cured for the REST OF YOUR LIFE. Logging food will be optional, because you will have built an intuition around eating.

Or you can continue making excuses, stay in denial, and keep searching for the magic cure.

No the reason people become obese is because of their choice of foods they eat, not the quantity. Quantity becomes an issue because their body doesn't know how to regulate food that it isn't designed to eat. If they attempt to alter only the quantity, then their body will relentlessly fight them until they give up.

Now if they change their diet, their body will learn how to regulate properly. If they don't change their diet, they will fail in the end.

This is sort of the message that's lost. Everyone thinks in terms of calories, not in terms of the quality of the food and how it will automatically take care of the calorie problem.

Not exactly. Many here start filling their calories with plenty of fruits, veggies, meats, and healthier options. Making it easy to stay under their calorie goal and full at the same time. SO many people calorie counting change the quality too.

In the end it is still calories in vs calories out. Hitting pro and fat macros is beneficial to body comp.
People do get fat because of quantity. Not quality - that impacts health yes but body weight? No

Not all the healthier options are all that healthy. Some people have intolerances to some of those as well.

Doesn't seem counterintuitive that a human body is so amazing and complex yet in millions of people it is completely unable to regulate their caloric intake? Why can't the body just say I'M NOT HUNGRY, STOP FEEDING ME! Because there is some external influence, that's why. No way this is a psychological problem.

The only tip worth noting is to eat at a calorie deficit and exercise. And that's no secret at all. Yet so many ignore it and keep seeking more complicated and misguided approaches.

So why do over 90% of people who attempt to follow this tip fail?

People fail because they think eating a clementine before bed or a tablespoon of apple cider vinegar before meals is going to make them lose weight.

I eat a little snack every two hours and the inches start coming off!

The only tip worth noting is to eat at a calorie deficit and exercise. And that's no secret at all. Yet so many ignore it and keep seeking more complicated and misguided approaches.

So why do over 90% of people who attempt to follow this tip fail?

Because they fail to follow through with the actions necessary to reach their goals.
They lose motivation and stop doing what works 100% of the time.

What works, works.
People just stop doing what works.
People fail the process by quitting. So, don't quit!
There again is the "secret".

Eat pizza. Drink wine. Work hard.

AMEN SISTER!!! Love this idea... it may take you a little longer but you'll be so HAPPY! :flowerforyou:

No, it will cause your currently broken hunger signals to be fixed, probably in a short amount of time, and you will be cured for the REST OF YOUR LIFE. Logging food will be optional, because you will have built an intuition around eating.

Or you can continue making excuses, stay in denial, and keep searching for the magic cure.

The only way your body can fix its broken hunger signals is by changing the diet. For those who can tolerate eating healthier foods, they are more likely to succeed. For those who insist on continuing to eat junk food, but trying to manually manipulate the quantity, they are in for a lifelong battle!

No, it will cause your currently broken hunger signals to be fixed, probably in a short amount of time, and you will be cured for the REST OF YOUR LIFE. Logging food will be optional, because you will have built an intuition around eating.

Or you can continue making excuses, stay in denial, and keep searching for the magic cure.

The only way your body can fix its broken hunger signals is by changing the diet. For those who can tolerate eating healthier foods, they are more likely to succeed. For those who insist on continuing to eat junk food, but trying to manually manipulate the quantity, they are in for a lifelong battle!

And I do agree with this. Which is why healthier choices make it so much easier :]
Eating only junk you aren't going to get a big volume of food which makes it so much harder to keep the weight off!
A mix of the 2 is not so bad though. Depriving yourself of foods you love can cause binging or some giving up.
I try to eat as healthy as I can on a tight budget. I can feel very full on 1500 calories

Okay, I know I am a newbie here but there was a time when I was losing really well. I fell off the boat because, to be honest, I was too lazy and didn't love myself enough. Nonetheless, here are a few things I did (and am doing):

Drink iced water from a straw (you will drink more than you would if you sipped),

Carry 100 cal natural almonds and jerky (w/o nitrates) in your purse (to kill hunger in a pinch . . . and yes the jerky stinks!),

Post a photo of Beyonce / Amber Rose / Jennifer Lopez (or someone with your shape) on the fridge and on the mirror in your bathroom (slim in the waist and thick in the thighs!),

Weigh yourself every other day (this way you can catch your weight gain before it gets out of control),

Park in the last row of the parking lot and use the stairs not elevators (get exercise when you can).

Good Luck.

P.S. Remind me of these tips when you see me slipping. : )

The only tip worth noting is to eat at a calorie deficit and exercise. And that's no secret at all. Yet so many ignore it and keep seeking more complicated and misguided approaches.

So why do over 90% of people who attempt to follow this tip fail?

Because they don't stick with it. They give up. They have a bad day, turn it into a bad week, decide to start again "next month", etc. I tried for years to lose weight but it wasn't until I kept at it for several months that I finally succeeded.

This is the kind of response that frustrates me. Its as if the willpower to eat less is trivial.

I have an addiction to refined carbs. If I eat pizza for dinner, I will eat 3-4 slices and then be good for an hour or two. Then I feel the need to eat 2 more slices. So I end up eating 6 pieces at 350 pieces a pop after already eating 1500+ calories during the early part of the day. So I eat 3500 calories or more for all I know and don't burn that much. I have no willpower.

Yet at the same time, I exercise like a maniac. I am a long distance runner, and I will head to my gym at 9pm, do 30-45 mins of lifting and run 6-8 miles on the treadmill. I will do this 3-4 times a week and GAIN WEIGHT. My body wants to be overweight. The more I workout, the more I eat as long as I always have a caloric surplus, my body is happy.

Why do I have the willpower to work my tail off at the gym, but I don't have the willpower to put down a slice of pizza. Come on, there is something wrong with this picture.

For many people with a weight problem, moderation doesn't exist. I don't believe in portion control at all, but I do believe in cheat days, but the less frequent the better.

It's not really very secret, but I used Nutrisystem for 3 months before I started using MFP. I needed to have somebody else be in control of what I ate for awhile. I added lots of salads and veggies to their food, according to their guidelines. There are a few things I won't do. I drink 2 mugs of coffee every morning, with real half & half. I will not give that up. I also don't use fat-free salad dressings (although I did find one, Annie's Mango dressing, which is good and real). I use lower fat balsamic vinaigrette mostly, but I also like Trader Joe's champagne pear vinaigrette, which is low in fat and calories. I count all those "extra calories" and make sure they aren't pushing me too high.

I think that started me thinking about portion sizes very realistically. Now I am eating "regular" food, cooking more, but keeping my portion sizes in check. I still stick to their eating plan of breakfast, mid-morning snack, lunch, mid-afternoon snack, dinner and dessert. I find those 100 calorie pack cookies, etc, handy for dessert. I'm not too fond of "diet" foods. I don't drink soda or buy special artificially sweetened stuff.

I am fairly active. I play tennis and ski and I try to do something physical at least 4 days each week, usually more.

I have lost about 21 pounds, since October 1, 2011. It took me 40+ years to put all this weight on (I'm 69 now), so I'm not in a hurry to lose it fast, because I don't think you change bad habits that way. I am convinced that I will have to do this for the rest of my life.

The only tip worth noting is to eat at a calorie deficit and exercise. And that's no secret at all. Yet so many ignore it and keep seeking more complicated and misguided approaches.

So why do over 90% of people who attempt to follow this tip fail?

Because they don't stick with it. They give up. They have a bad day, turn it into a bad week, decide to start again "next month", etc. I tried for years to lose weight but it wasn't until I kept at it for several months that I finally succeeded.

This is the kind of response that frustrates me. Its as if the willpower to eat less is trivial.

I have an addiction to refined carbs. If I eat pizza for dinner, I will eat 3-4 slices and then be good for an hour or two. Then I feel the need to eat 2 more slices. So I end up eating 6 pieces at 350 pieces a pop after already eating 1500+ calories during the early part of the day. So I eat 3500 calories or more for all I know and don't burn that much. I have no willpower.

Yet at the same time, I exercise like a maniac. I am a long distance runner, and I will head to my gym at 9pm, do 30-45 mins of lifting and run 6-8 miles on the treadmill. I will do this 3-4 times a week and GAIN WEIGHT. My body wants to be overweight. The more I workout, the more I eat as long as I always have a caloric surplus, my body is happy.

Why do I have the willpower to work my tail off at the gym, but I don't have the willpower to put down a slice of pizza. Come on, there is something wrong with this picture.

For many people with a weight problem, moderation doesn't exist. I don't believe in portion control at all, but I do believe in cheat days, but the less frequent the better.

So the "secret" is finding your own way to maintain a moderate calorie deficit for an extending period of time. One guy's secret might be eating every 6 hours. Yours might be never ordering an entire pizza (get it by the slice, leave the restaurant so you can't go back). It might be high protien and "clean". Maybe it's intermittent fasting, or calorie cycling, or a spike day, etc. It's very personal. There is no one universal secret besides maintaining a calorie deficit.

No, it will cause your currently broken hunger signals to be fixed, probably in a short amount of time, and you will be cured for the REST OF YOUR LIFE. Logging food will be optional, because you will have built an intuition around eating.

Or you can continue making excuses, stay in denial, and keep searching for the magic cure.

The only way your body can fix its broken hunger signals is by changing the diet. For those who can tolerate eating healthier foods, they are more likely to succeed. For those who insist on continuing to eat junk food, but trying to manually manipulate the quantity, they are in for a lifelong battle!

Well now, you're starting to make a little more sense. I was convinced you were a troll earlier. Maybe you're not, after all.

Someone consuming nothing but junk food, at a deficit, would still lose weight (see the twinkie diet for example). But they might feel deprived, hungry, and low on energy. If they came to the boards asking for help, with an open diary, we would probably observe that their protein consumption is low. Then we could suggest shifting the diet toward more protein, and life goes on. They can still eat as much "junk food" as may fit into their budget.

I've lost sight of what point you are trying to make. Are you trying to suggest that if you eat junk food you will struggle? How much is too much? Is any junk food allowed?

I eat a fair amount of junk food. I'm not struggling with my weight whatsoever. I know I'm not a special case.

My point was that permanent weight loss is not a simple matter of generating a caloric deficit and exercise, it is a matter of correcting a problem in the body that is caused by an unnatural diet. I don't believe in calorie counting at all because it doesn't solve what I believe is the root of the problem.

I guess I could have said "sustainable diet at a moderate calorie deficit with reasonable macros", but that's already making it sound too complicated. Indeed, if I attempted the twinkie diet I would feel like crap and likely end up binging every night. I could perhaps start with the twinkie diet or mostly-junk-food diet, but I would quickly come to learn (if I didn't already intuitively know it already) that a nice balanced dinner would make me feel much better than a pile of twinkies. On the other hand, if I have gotten all the nutrition I need for the day, and can "afford" 300 more calories, I could eat that in twinkies or ice cream with no penalty.

But see, here we go again, doing what I wanted to avoid, which is taking a very simple concept and talking about it and analyzing it so much that people will come to believe that it's complicated.

Funny you should ask ... I wrote about that the other day. Nothing as far as tips go.

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/blog/AmerTunsi/view/the-secret-198709

chocolate. for some reason, my weight always goes down when I eat a handful of chocolate. LOL

I HATE YOU!!!! I'm so jealous right now! LOL