What do you do to lose weight?

I fast for 24 hours twice a week

This is what I have done and the advice I give to you:

-take tiny steps in the process especially if you start feeling overwhelmed with information (low carb, no carb, eating clean, raw foods WHAT???) There is a TON of information out there, a million people trying to lose weight and twice as many ways to go about it. This can be so so daunting. Make little changes that makes sense to YOU and will fit into your lifestyle.

-set small goals that you want to accomplish every day (less soda, more water, taking the stairs, eating evry 3 hours, just whatever YOU want to accomplish) and add them up at the end of every day. Chances are even if you weren't perfect all ALL things, you did accomplish something and that leaves a positive thought in your head before bed and something positive to wake up to the next day.

-if your life after weight loss won't be without ________ (ice cream, cake, a diet coke, potatoes etc) then don't cut it out for the sake of weight loss. Moderation is what works for me.

-feel free to let people know that you are doing this YOUR way and although you appreciate their advice (because for some effed up reason everybody seems to think they know better or have a faster/quicker way), you'd like to stick to what works for you.

-don't try to be perfect. Just wake up every day and try to be a little bit better than you did yesterday

Why must coffee and tea be cut out? Is this only if you take sugar?

Pssh I love tea and coffee! have them everyday, never had any problems

Caffeine causes a short-term elevation in your metabolism, which gives you a burst of energy. Like any addiction, however, as your body becomes accustomed to caffeine, it begins to compensate. Used over the long term, caffeine actually reduces your metabolism. . . you come to need increasing amounts of caffeine just to stay alert. The slower metabolism actually causes you to gain weight on less food. This makes Diet Coke the perfect product, since it is actually helping to create the problem it's trying to "cure."

I wish I would have known this 34 months ago...lol (joking)........ I drink a 100 calorie coffee (with real sugar and creamer) every morning.. I drink 2-3 24 oz. Diet Pepsi's every single day (with my 100 oz of water I get in too) and have somehow managed to lose a few pounds.. The biggest things that I have figured out is 1. Get Moving!! If you got time to sit and watch even a 30 minute show or surf the web everyday then you have no excuse for not getting up and going for a 30 minute walk or do some form of exercise. 2. Everything in moderation!! Work in your Lean meat, Veggies, and Fruits, Whole grains but also work in some things that make you not feel so deprived. I have a 1% glass of Chocolate Milk everyday before bedtime. I mix a hand full of Almonds with a cup of Kelloggs Crave Double Chocolate cereal to make a tasty dry candy like treat. Everything fits into my daily caloric intake and once a week we go out to eat and have whatever my heart desires. No Guilt, its my treat for all the weeks hard work... Best of Luck to you....

Lots of great advice.

For me, i started very small. I just entered my numbers in MPF and started logging all of my food - every bit of it.

Within a couple of weeks, i was amazed at how much i had learned about food and the nutritional values of all of the food i was eating. The more i learned, the more i started naturally, with hardly any effort, making better and better choices about what to eat and what to buy and have in the house.

I generally have no trouble sticking to my calories now and rarely feel hungry with no calories left to consume.

Really i am shocked about how much simple knowledge gives me huge control.

Good luck!

I usually just eat a less. Crazy, right?

I've struggled with losing weight my entire life- I finally decided enough was enough and got serious about it.

For me, I have to be very strict with my diet and I have to workout a lot if I want to see good results.

When I first started out, I could only walk about 5 minutes before getting winded. So, I did this several times a day, as often as I could- and within a month, I was up to 30 minutes of walking a day.

I cut out all pop and sugary drinks and that alone made a big difference..I only drink water and a lot of it.

I know that if I have junk food in the house, I will eat it. So, I don't buy anything 'bad' in bulk. When I go grocery shopping, once a week, I buy myself one snickers bar and enjoy it when I get home.
I allow myself other 'treats', and just make sure it fits into my daily calorie intake- or, I workout a bit extra for the day.

I eat a lot of boneless, skinless chicken breast- I always grill it.
When I need to use oil- I use extra virgin olive oil.
I also eat a lot of fruits and veggies.

Drinking 10 glasses of water a day does wonders for me. It helps to keep me feel full and just makes me feel good.

Getting enough sleep is extremely important. I find that if I don't get enough sleep, I am bloated and retain water.

I workout everyday, for at least an hour a day.

Eat better. Eat less. Move more. Plain and simple.

Read the labels on foods and learn what a true portion size is. You'll be shocked to see that what you THINK is a correct portion - likely is 2 or 3 servings.

You don't HAVE to eliminate anything from your life, as long as you can work those items into your daily calories. This isn't about restriction and "dieting", it is a lifestyle change. If you change your life and you start to eat healthy 80% of the time, you can surely enjoy the things you love the other 20% of the time. I treat myself every single day. Lost nearly 60lbs and have kept it off for almost 2 years. There's NOTHING wrong with remembering to live.

Best advice I can give is start slow and small. There is always an urge when someone starts to try and loose weight to go all guns blazing, cut down food dramatically, try and exercise for hours everyday e.t.c... this won't work. make small changes, first week I just started weighing myself and logging what I eat. Next week I started trying to deliberately eat healthier things and doing half hour of gentle cardio everyday. Third week, I added a walk to my routine 5 days a week. Later I upped the cardio intensity, then added weight training 3 days a week, and over all of these little changes, I keep trying to swap what I am eating for healthier choices.

The problem with a diet is that at some point, it stops. The thing about a lifestyle change, if you do it right, is that it will be a permanent change in the way you think about food, and you shouldn't slip back into your old ways.

I also recommend setting lots of little weight / measurement targets. Setting an ultimate goal of loosing 100lbs sounds good, but is daunting, and can get depressing when you think to your self "I've been doing this a month and I still have 90lbs to go!". My first target was 12lb lost because that took me out of obese and into overweight according to BMI. Now I have achieved that, my next goal is 217lbs (a further 10lb loss) because that takes me down to 15 1/2 st. My next target after that will be to get down to a nice round 200lbs. I haven't set anything beyond that, because I may decide I am happy there, I will evaluate when I reach it

EDIT: On the Tea/Coffee debate, I drink 5 - 6 cups of tea a day. I have given up putting sugar in it, but I'm not gonna give up tea, the amount of caffeine in it is almost negligible, and the water intake does me good.

If you mean you don't eat for 2 days per week, you are making it harder for yourself to lose weight. Your body will think it has to hold onto the fat for the famine you are creating. Your metabolism will slow down, so you burn less calories, and you'll have less energy. Also, the lack of nutrition you are inflicting on your body cannot be good long term. This is terrible diet plan for anybody. You should meet with a nutritionist to learn how to lose weight healthfully so you can look good and feel good or just follow the great advice everyone has been mentioning here on this board.

If you mean you don't eat for 2 days per week, you are making it harder for yourself to lose weight. Your body will think it has to hold onto the fat for the famine you are creating. Your metabolism will slow down, so you burn less calories, and you'll have less energy. Also, the lack of nutrition you are inflicting on your body cannot be good long term. This is terrible diet plan for anybody. You should meet with a nutritionist to learn how to lose weight healthfully so you can look good and feel good or just follow the great advice everyone has been mentioning here on this board.

This isn't true. What she is doing is a technique called interim fasting. You still get the same amount of calories over the week but in a smaller window. So if your TDEE is 3000 calories a day, that would be 21000 calories a week to maintain. That would be a goal of 16800 calories in a week to lose about 1 lb per week. This means she would have to eat 3360 calories in a day for those five days. Some studies suggest IF, is much better for burning body fat as it forces yourself to use the fat stores. The key though is replenishing your body when it is feeding.


You can look at www.leangains.com for more information. Many of us do 16/8 or 20/4. This is a lot different than starving yourself on the 1200 calorie day diets. I was doing 16/8 for a while where I would fast from 7pm to 11am the next day and then eat 3000 calories from 11am -7pm but I was having trouble sticking with it. So now I am more about 14/10.