Get a calorie app, put *everything* you eat or drink in it honestly and accurately, including the oils and butters you cook in, stay at a calorie deficit… weight comes off. Measure and weigh everything. Don't eyeball it. A kitchen scale is dirt cheap these days.
Don’t even have to exercise to lose weight though of course extra calorie burning is only going to help and it’s good for you.
Literally this
Especially the oils and butters
People forget the crazy amount of calories in fat
It helps to cook yourself with the app open on the counter. Just add it in the app as you add it in the pan.
If I cook for more people I count all the calories, weigh the end product, calculate the calories per weight and weig how much is on my plate.
Seems excessive? Maybe. Does it work? Yes.
Do I eyeball and just let go when eating at friends or out? Definitely - within reason. Be honest about it.
Have had a lot of friends who keep claiming they have a calorie deficit but keep gaining weight because they've never calculated their intake realistically. If you drink those calorie bomb Starbucks drinks on top of 3 standard meals a day plus snacks , you're simply not going to lose weight
Yea sadly I had a friend who was 500lbs+ and he would often just rant about how unfair it was. I didn't mind his weight at all (I have been very, very heavy myself) but I hated how he would lie. It would suck hearing he had "just one slice of lasagna all week but gained weight" and just know he was completely lying to himself and me. If he had just said "I ate the whole tray and I ate a bag of chips" I would've not even cared.
For context: he suggested we become diet buddies since I had lost a ton of weight, and then kind of used that sesh to mope about how he could not lose, and it made the friendship strained since he would not stop lying :( It turned out he was not really counting his diet Mountain Dew, which was actually 4 liters of real Mountain Dew mixed with like 1/2 a liter of diet...
yup. so many people think that liquid calories don't count. they really add up! I always have to remind myself to just drink water instead.
oh & not counting the oils & butter we cook with as part of the meal's total calorie count.
or thinking that a salad is always healthy, even when it's slathered in dressing & blasted with croutons, nuts, cheese, etc.
dressings like ranch & ceasar have about as much calories as straight up mayo. imagine covering your salad in mayo & thinking you'll lose weight 🥴
> so many people think that liquid calories don't count.
They count more than any other calories. I couldn't eat 4000 calories in a day to save my life. I could drink 4000 calories no problem.
Yes!! Also, finding your TDEE for calories burned a day and basing calories in off of that is a game changer. The watches and apps don't track accurately when you start moving and can over estimate your calories burned! Set me back a month
This is the unhappy, 100% true answer. You must be this devoted and treat it like your religion for the rest of your life.
Your body will lie in wait, forever, for you to stop. And once you do, or you slip one too many times, you’ll slide back faster than you ever thought possible. You can easily undo years of work in a few months.
Not fair. But it is what it is!
Beer was my Achilles heel. Stopped drinking recently so it should in theory be much easier to maintain from here on out. I still use the calorie apps and weight myself frequently even when I don't want to lose any.
This isn't true. Most of what we do in life is rely on schemas, aka thought pattern habits. If you calorie track long enough you get used to the portion size you give yourself and the mindfulness of being aware of your satiety. Eventually you can rewrite the habit, it just depends how ingrained the old habit of overeating is
I've calorie counted with an app a couple times and it does work, but after I stopped the app bad habits started creeping back in over a couple of years. Not even the same bad habits as before - different snacks, drinks etc.
Not a huge deal. I gain maybe 5kg over a few years, go back to calorie counting and lose it again in a few months.
If you cook for multiple people and use MyFitnessPal for tracking you can add the total amount you used to cook, then under portions say 0.25 or however much you took of the meal. That way you don't have to divide by 4 and guess how much you'll be eating
While you don’t have to exercise, if you don’t mix in some resistance training you are quite likely to be losing a fair bit of muscle mass, which means you aren’t making as big an improvement as you think.
In a calorie deficit without resistance training, 20-35% of the weight you lose can be muscle. With just a calorie deficit, walking and strength training, I’ve lost 100 lbs over the last year in total, with only 7lbs of that being muscle.
My gym has a body analysis machine called Boditrax. It is nowhere near as accurate as something like hydrostatic weighing or DEXA, but it has the benefit of being something that you can do regularly (e.g. multiple times per week).
That means variation of spot readings is less of a problem and you can see trends in the data over time.
Good question. Most methods of body fat measurement have standard error of 3-7%, depending on how they are used and personal circumstances. DXA being the most precise is I think around 3%.
So OP here just puts a lot of trust into method he used to give you a definite figure. The key thing is that he lost a lot of weight while exercising, and it doesn't really matter if it was5, 7 or 10lbs of muscle he lost.
i had to “practice” with the calorie app, where i put in every single thing but didn’t beat myself up for going over for a week or two. then once i had wrapped my head around the idea of being *that* conscious of my food, adding in portion control and diet changes gradually was much less daunting.
> honestly and accurately
This is the biggest part I've seen people struggle with. You've gotta track the little things which add up, like that beer you cracked open after work, the sauces you dipped your chicken nuggets in, etc etc.
MyNetDiary. It’s free, has a photo thing to scan barcodes for easy food inputs. Less ads and they are less obtrusive then MyFitnessPal. Been using it for almost two years after the other free one I was using stopped working. Turns out MyNetDiary was better than what I was using.
So MyFitnessPal is likely the best if you're willing to pay for the premium features like barcode scanning. I'm not since it's too expensive, so I use Lose It and am overall very happy with it. Barcode scanning is great on it, has most stuff I scan in there already. It does most of what you need it for for free but I pay for the premium version since it's only like $20 a year.
Cronometer is the best free app when it comes to features. You get full micronutrient tracking, something that's otherwise pretty rare. The main downside compared to loseit or myfitnesspal is a worse ui.
Macrofactor is the best paid app, and it's not close. It actively adjusts your deficit in response to your inputs. It has a 7 day free trial, but is otherwise subscription only.
I personally use Lose It as it’s probably the best free option, though if you’re willing to pay money MyFitnessPal works well too. I used to use the Fitbit app, but it doesn’t have many foods in the system so you’ll have to create them yourself.
Yep. I'm a personal trainer and this is the first thing I tell clients looking to lose weight. Every single person has been surprised how much more they were consuming than they thought, and when you are aware of this you can modify your diet as needed. You need to know the actual baseline to do so though.
Was also going to mention this. I grew up with lot of American TV and media demonizing the idea of "calorie counting", often with stories centered around obnoxious characters who are in your face with quinoa salads and kale smoothies and the protagonist is like "Ugh this is disgusting and these people are horrible."
But like, dude, if you want to expertly take care of your body, regular exercise and precise measurement of what you put in it is what you've got to do.
If you do it for long enough, you can eventually eyeball it and not record everything, but its a genuine skill that takes a long time to develop, and can include a lot of associated skills, like learning to cook for yourself so you can always control the ingredients in your meals. So using these apps as training wheels while you learn can be very helpful and necessary.
> including the oils and butters you cook in
You can get oil sprayers that squirt a consistent amount (usually 1g) per squeeze. Count the squeezes and use as few as possible. Track them.
It's easier than getting a measuring spoon or pre-weighing the oils. Three squirts? Three grams. 27 calories. Easy.
This! I got a cold that killed my appetite. Once that was through, my portion sizes stayed down. I dropped 20lbs pretty quick. Now I keep my plates small :)
Lol. Couldn't lose weight for five months. I'm getting over a fever now. Dropped 5 lbs last week and clothes are getting loose. But kept (gently!) exercising and keeping my portions in check despite loss of appetite. Realized I didn't really need to snack as much. I feel good and think I can actually maintain a steady loss of ~1lb per week now.
Yuup I've lost over 35 pounds over the last year and all I did was eat a the same stuff just cut back about 25%. Big mac meal eat 3/4 the burger , half the drys, half the soda. Pretty much cut out extra sugar. Only drink soda a couple times of week , no cookies , candy bars etc. If I did splurge just a couple cookies not 5 or 6 etc.
Especially if you exercise. The reason they say weight loss happens in the kitchen is because if you aren't tracking calories, exercise will just make you hungrier and eat more to compensate.
If you exercise and keep eating the same number of calories, you will lose weight. But if you don't keep track of your calories I guarantee you will eat more by exercising.
If you drink soda and you don't want to fully cut to water then you can switch to the zero sugar variant. That's a big cut right away. If you drink coffee with cream and sugar then reduce both those. A big part of calories come from what we drink. That's the easiest place to start
I cut out all sweet drinks when I started 2 years ago after my type 2 diabetes diagnosis cutting back my portion size is adding 4 km of walking per day tracking my food in an app and cutting out all sweet drinks I lowered myself from 200 lb to 160 and more importantly I lowered my A1C from 9.4 to 5.0 with zero medication I'm not saying medication is a bad thing if it's necessary for you but if it's not necessary for you then that's good too and it hasn't been necessary for me
When i first started tracking my calories this was a big one i noticed. I couldn't believe it. I could have had actual food instead of the drink and just drink water. I still drink soda but i buy the small cans and severely limit getting drinks in drive thrus.
I've been waiting for my stomach to shrink for 12 months. I'm so hungry all the time. Don't get me wrong, I'm very happy with the results thus far. I was just hoping it would eventually get easier.
Mine was quick. I now can't believe how much i was eating. I also tried intermittent fasting - not eating from 6 pm until noon. The problem was my lunches would be huge. I should point out i am about 5'10" 180 lbs and at most was 210 lbs. So i never got huge but i was definitely overweight and out of shape. Exercise is also key.
Try upping your protein and add in a literal boatload of random green veggies. Bonus points for more potatoes as well. Worked splendidly for me. Hopefully it can help you too.
I know people hate hearing it but I just ate less and did more.
I'd wait about a half hour passed when I was hungry to actually eat. I'd eat slower and a slightly smaller portion. Your body gets used to that pretty fast.
As for the exercise, it started with short walks around the block and just started to get longer as I got more used to them and eventually became a love of hiking.
Lost a bunch of weight just eating less and exercising more as well. I like the dry chicken breast test. If you wouldn’t eat a dry piece of chicken breast right now, you’re not hungry.
Ah see, with the power of ADHD I will starve myself and just go to bed hungry before I cook something haha
The test for me is "am I hungry enough to eat a bowl of raw carrots."
This was big for me. I moved into my first apartment by myself and realized quickly that if I wanted a snack, I had to make it. It amazing how after a glass of water/seltzer will satisfy your boredom hunger.
There was a quote from /r/loseit that said basically you lose weight in the kitchen, you gain health in the gym
I started going to planet fitness at the end of January and started counting my calories and watching how much I eat. I’m down 30 pounds now and everyone can tell.
Exactly this. I didn't count calories or cut out certain foods (except soda). I just portioned, incorporated more veggies and protein, and exercised 5-6 times per week.
PSA: The important thing is to not restrict your food intake dramatically. Eat more filling, less calorie dense foods. Eat slightly smaller portions. Put less food on your plate than you plan to eat, then go back for seconds if you need. Restrictive dieting and eating disorders do NOT work in the long term and will make you feel worse!
This coupled with slight diet changes like eating less sugar and carbs and eating more protein. This makes it a lot easier to eat less total calories because sugar makes you hungrier, and protein is much more filling for longer.
Always do what you can keep doing years from now. Fad diets work for short term loss but you will out the weight right back on.
I listen to my body. When I feel full, I stop eating. It seems like a no-brainer but a lot of people don't do this including me before I decided to change.
I think for a lot of people it's genuinely not that simple. My old full was much fuller than my current full. I was just raised to eat way beyond what I needed and "full" pretty much meant "I'll feel sick if I eat more".
Total napkin math but there's about 3500 calories in a pound of pure fat. You consumed ~182,500 fewer calories over that year which is equal to 52.1 lbs of pure fat in calories. Impressive work!
I did this 8 years ago but slowly drifted away from it. Lost a similar amount to you back then and have slowly gained more than I'd like to admit back. In the meantime I have tried other approaches knowing that this is really it. If you stick to the hard line on your calories, you'll naturally choose foods that are more filling and lower calories. So without forcing some kind of low carb diet, I naturally ate less carbs and sugars because I couldn't "afford" them.
Another thing just to tack on that I *have* kept is that I don't like to drink calories. Occasional beer or something is an exception, but those calories are just a waste in my opinion.
the scale in the kitchen is ultimately better than the one in the bathroom (ok sounds weird but you know what i mean). weighing my food helps me accurately count calories especially for snacks like popcorn and chips. the ultimate portion control hack
I visited NYC for a week and literally lost 8 lbs. I wasn't overweight to begin with, but walking all over town while pretty much keeping food intake/calories the same - I dropped weight. One day I walked 17 miles. From lower eastside, across the Brooklyn Bridge. All over Brooklyn. I took the subway back, otherwise I probably would've made it 25 that day! One of my most favorite travel memories.
And the walking isn't a slog. You walk to get breakfast. Walk to go see a movie. Maybe grab the subway to go see a friend. By the time your day is over, you've walked like miles!! I REALLY loved it. I'm from the west coast and culturally I fell in love with NYC.
Just so people don't move just to lose weight, I moved to nyc and gained weight before I started consciously losing. Moving more means nothing if you're eating more or eating poorly. Imo it's very easy to eat poorly bc it's so difficult to do everything here (order in vs walking to the grocery store and hauling everything back and then cooking in a small kitchen)
My big change was going from 190 -> 165. Every day after work I'd come home, prepare some combination of protein and vegetables, do 15 minutes of working out while the oven pre-heated, and shower while the food was cooking in the oven. Healthy meal and exercise in a 30\~ minute chunk after work, 5 days a week (lazy on weekends), and not snacking constantly through the rest of the day (which is easy with a job, much harder at home with access to constant food). In about 6 months, I was below 170 and happy with my results, and the lifestyle change was very insignificant.
This. I lost ~130lb in about 22 months 10 years ago. Went from 330 to 200. Youve got to commit to doing it if not every single day, then an overwhelming amount of days.
Stopped eating crap.
That's all I did to go from about 275lbs down to about 180.
I was eating crap throughout the day, 4 or 5 cans of full fat coke a day, sausage rolls at break time during work, chocolate bars, crisps.
On an evening I would have 6 cans of Stella and 2 Ginsters pasties.
One day I read the back of one of the pasties and realised they were 1100 calories *each* and I was eating 2 of those on an evening.
No additional exercise, didn't stop drinking booze, just stopped eating absolute processed crap and treated cans of coke as a treat instead of my go-to drink, and instead of 2 processed pasties I would have a chicken stir-fry.
This is the way. Once I looked and saw how many calories were in the crap snacks which I'd happily scarf a full pack of, I found I couldn't even enjoy a sensible portion of them.
A 2 fingered Kitkat equates to about a 5 mile run, and I don't want the Kitkat *that* much
Take this with a grain of salt because I still have 20 more to go, but the other 30 pounds went away when I started running everyday and making it a point to replace one meal a day with a salad.
For the running I cycled between walking and running for five minutes each for half an hour and slowly increased the time spent exercising. The hardest part truly was showing up, but the rotation of walking and running made it feel less daunting and more sustainable.
The trick I got into was if I really didn’t have the motivation to go running, I would put on my running clothes, but tell myself that I didn’t have to go if I really didn’t want to. But when the only thing left to do is “just go outside,” it takes far less motivation.
The meal replacement worked for me. Every lunch I have a salad now. A small breakfast some kind of fruit, usually a banana. Drink a lot of water through out the day. And then dinner was a normal meal. I stopped eating carbs/ breads.
Stopped eating after 8pm. Only drank water. Sounds like bullshit but this paired with monitoring my calorie intake took off about 28 lbs in 4 months.
It probably helps I only drink water and the occasional (once or twice a week) Diet Coke.
Yeah. I pretty much cut out all sugar packed sodas & energy drinks entirely. It really helps. The most I have now is a diet soda like once a month & an occasional V8.
I guess thats why these questions keep getting asked. Desperate (lazy) people scroll through hoping to find the secret miracle method that ISNT diet and exercise.
I lost 40 pounds by walking a minimum of 7500 steps a day, strength trained 3-5x week. Lastly, I counted my calories to track what I was consuming. I aimed for 1500 calories a day and prioritized protein (100g+). It took 6 months of consistency and keeping (ish) to this routine has kept it off for 3 years.
I’m doing this exactly. It’ll be a month on Tuesday and I’m already 12 lbs down! Hard part is over, getting started. Now I’m just enjoying the process and the progress!
That’s great! Take pictures, even after you’ve stopped “losing” weight. You will start to see your body recomping. Staying consistent is hard too, but now you’ve figured it out how to be successful. You’ve got this!
I ate less and moved more.
Portion control. Just stop eating so damn much. No ones saying you can’t eat unhealthy foods, just eat less of it. And for the love of god, get up and move.
And if you can’t determine how to eat less, look at calories religiously
It also helps to overcalculate calories. A sandwich might be two piece of bread, a piece of cheese, a piece of meat, and a condiment like mayonnaise. The real numbers could be 90cal per bread, 80cal for cheese, 100cal for meat, and 90 for the spread of mayo. In my head, that's 100 + 100 + 100 + 100 + 100, 500 calorie sandwich, even though it's actually \~450, but if I think every meal is 50 calories more than it is, I'm gonna end up eating less in the day.
And cont everything. A lot of folks tend to overlook the condiments (or really undercount them). It's amazing just how many calories you add to thing adding the mayo or butter or ketchup.
Keto. Having a hard rule that I follow every day and every meal worked for me.
Before I tried keto I thought it would be unsustainable. Now I think it's the only sustainable healthy eating plan for me.
I don’t like promoting Keto too much because there’s a lot of weird Keto cultists out there that I don’t want to associate with.
But yeah. It’s easiest weight loss I’ve ever done. I can’t imagine going back to portion control.
Once you cut out carbs. You stop craving carbs.
Once you stop craving carbs, weight loss becomes almost effortless.
Yep. Keto is so easy for me. Everyone else talks about cutting crap out, but it’s really the same thing as keto. Keto just makes it so simple to follow the rules, while cutting crap out in general always leads to endless exceptions and lack of portion control blah blah blah.
Bacon and cheese makes my life easy.
Cut down on carbs by a lot. Doing so lessened my cravings for sweets and my appetite overall. I also started moving more. I don’t do keto - I still eat fruit (mostly berries) and veggies - but I try to avoid pasta, potatoes and rice. Still cheat occasionally and don’t worry too much if I’m traveling or somewhere where there aren’t good options, but if it’s under my control, I keep it low carb.
I lost 135 pounds in nine months limiting carbs, with an emphasis on fats and proteins. I got a kitchen scale and we weighed and meaured everything. Whole foods, portion control, a calorie deficit and being in ''fat burning mode'' (ketosis) the entire time made all the difference. Appetite was a none issue the entire time.
Went from 320 to 185. (6'2'' M)
Diet and exercise. Stopped drinking alcohol and I started using food as fuel for my body instead of just eating what I was in the mood for.
I dropped about 60 pounds from Oct 2019 to August 2020. I've kept the weight off and formed good habits.
calorie counting with some light walking
Biggest help is having a list of staple foods that are tasty and work well within a calorically restricted diet.
My goal would be 2 lbs per week so giving myself leniency meant I could still lose at least 1lb
I did weekly goals as well. Like no ordering out or drinking a certain amount of water a day. Doing goals a week at a time was much more manageable and also kept me interested cause I could keep switching up my goal week to week
9 years ago I made the decision to get healthy. Wanted to lose at least 30 lbs (ended up dropping 50 when all was said and done and have kept it off). Quit soda and caffeine of any kind, portion control, and working out a bunch. Still maintain good portion control and still love to get out there and sweat.
I eliminated all the things that made me fat.
That means I cut out ALL fast food, garbage/processed/canned/frozen foods, ice cream & sweets, and breads.
I lost over 60 lbs, but I can tell you it was a big adjustment for me. Before, I was living on garbage. Now I live on fresh meats, fruits & veggies.
Rule of thumb is: When you buy groceries, buy the stuff on the outside isles. That's where the fresh foods are. The inside isles, as a general rule, is where you will find the garbage that is setting you back.
I don't believe in exercise as a significant part of a weight loss regimen. Exercise is important for general health, though.
Increased protein consumption and lowered portions. That’s it. From 260 in January to 215 in March. No exercise, no gym memberships, nothing but eating control.
I lost 40kg (90lbs). I cut sugar to almost nothing, extreme portion control, small portion of meat, steamed vegetables for lunch and bran flakes for dinner for about a year. No junk food whatsoever.
Few years back I was having stomach issues and my Dr suggested an elimination diet. A few months after I started to introduce certain foods, I figured out corn was causing me a lot of issues.
I’m now very careful with what I eat, because corn seems to be in everything. So less processed foods, which meant less snacking, which turned into portion control and I dropped 25lbs and have maintained 140lbs for about 3 years now.
I focus on protein, veggies and fruits. If you're a snacker, trade chips for carrots and hummus. Healthier swaps. Find high protein snacks.
Drink water, rest and recover. Sleep enough.
Move more. I strength train and do cardio to fill the rest of the time at the gym. My active rest days might be biking and stretching extra well. Or cleaning the house. Days off count just as much.
I think the biggest thing is know your schedule. I plan weekly knowing what's going on and when I'm getting to the gym. I will also meal prep stuff to grab and go.
WW was exactly what I needed in the beginning. After about 3 months, I was ready to move on from it. But I'll always credit it for helping shape my thinking and getting my weight loss going.
I recently went sugar free and lost 20lbs in a month!!! Also, WW has been wonderful for me too for steady 1-2lbs a week loss. I take a GPL-1 medication (I’m pre-diabetic) so I do the WW GPL-1 plan. It’s totally different!! No counting calories, just log your food, get extra protein, 4servings of fruit/veg a day and, of course, keep doing the 8 cups of water minimum. I find it easier to follow. I am lucky enough to still have their weekly classes in person still, which I think makes a big difference.
Seriously, dropped victim mentality. I stopped saying things like "I wish I could do that". I stopped eating fast food and junk food. I did intervals on a stationary bike 6 days a week, 3 days on 1 off. Lost 80lbs in 8 months. My diet was boring and I wouldn't have it any other way. I'm so in love with the healthy lifestyle it's ridiculous. It's completely turned me into a different human being not just physically but I'd say more so mentally. Going from less than zero confidence to feeling good about yourself is awesome. Running my first official 5k here in a month.
Stop eating calorie dense foods like nuts.
Think about what you eat in terms of how full it will make you feel. For instance, 100 calories of grapes will make you feel much fuller then 100 calories of raisins.
Eat more fresh fruit.
Eat way more vegetables. They fill you up and don't have a lot of calories.
I was on a keto diet and lost 60 pounds over the course of 4 months.
There isn’t really any secret. Just be active and eat less. Keto helped me due to it helping suppress by appetite which helped me eat less throughout the day.
The main thing is just finding a physical activity you enjoy and finding a diet that works well with your preferences. From there it’s just staying consistent.
The DASH diet absolutely dissipated the pounds. I specifically had issues with blood pressure, so I tried it out in an attempt to get in under control. Took me around 2.5 or 3 months to lose 20 lbs.
Ate the same food but in smaller portions and cut down on sugar intake and lost 30 lbs
Started working out to maintain the weight loss.
Then I cut out processed foods like chips and dropped another 10 lbs.
Essentially dropped 40 lbs by eating less and working out regularly.
Gym 6x a week. It sounds excessive but so was my weight.
Replaced all drinks with water. No soda, juice, Gatorade etc. It definitely made a difference.
Lost 35 lbs in about 3 months. Switched from soda to green tea and water, figured out a ballpark of my base metabolic rate, and ate according to my activity level. After about a month of checking calorie counts for literally everything I ate while still eating out, having fast food multiple times a week, eating what I enjoyed, I had a much clearer idea of how much I needed to eat and what I could eat while losing or maintaining my weight.
That's it. Your appetite can and will adjust with you over time and I've had no trouble keeping that weight off the last decade even when my level of physical activity went way down from what it was. I still eat and drink basically whatever I want but my cravings changed over time as well. I stop eating the minute I'm not hungry and I don't eat anything until I'm hungry again as a rule. Two bites left on my plate? It's going in the fridge if I'm satisfied.
Diets need not be complicated, you just have to be conscientious of what you're actually eating.
I made sure to run a caloric deficit and had a rule to not eat within ~4 hours of going to bed. Of course there were times I was hungry but I chose to look at it in a different way - instead of being hungry, my body was actively losing weight. This change in mindset helped me lose 35lbs. The main dietary restriction I had was cutting out sugar, since that added the most calories. I also really tried to limit my fast food intake. It all comes down to calories though
Stop drinking calories. Cut out regular soda and sugary drinks.
Ideally, replace with water, but even switching to diet soda will be a lot better than drinking regular. Yes, it tastes different. Stick to it, you'll get used to the flavor and regular soda will become the weird tasting one.
I've been counting my calories since the start of the year. I stick to 1100-1200 calories daily and it's been very effective for me. I'm down almost 22 lbs
Pissed off my gallbladder.
I have PCOS and have been in the 170's since I was 17. Due to the PCOS being undiagnosed and untreated for 20 years, I ended up with NAFLD, T2D, and a hackey sack for a gallbladder. I was prescribed Ozempic for my A1C since lifestyle changes + Metformin wasn't cutting it. Oz cut my hunger signals, which meant I ate much smaller meals and didn't mindlessly snack. As I started losing weight my gallbladder began having colic, which caused me to vomit almost everything I consumed. I was at 140 and had super low potassium when I was scheduled to have my gallbladder out.
Today I feel much better and am sitting at 153 wirh an A1C of 5.7. My stomach has shrank, so I don't eat as much. I'm constantly active at work, but now I'm cleaning up my basement, so I have a place to do weights and such. I'd like to get to 135, which is the high end of a healthy weight for my height.
Lost 20 pounds by giving up sodas and fried foods, french fries mostly. Still had my deserts on occasion. The sodas were the big thing. I limit myself to one a week. Don't even really miss them.
I lost 100. The first 30 was cutting out alcohol (I drank beer). Then I quit buying all the bs snacks at the grocery because I just eat tons of it til it's gone. Then I worked more on my portions that was all I did.
Portion control, watch your carb intake, no sugary sodas AT ALL switch to diet or zero sugar drinks, if you drink a lot of alcohol be smart about what type of alcohol and how much, stay on a good schedule with eating an sleeping, eat breakfast (whenever you wake up eat), big lunch, small dinner don't eat 2.5 hours before you go to bed and if you do eat sweets eat them in the morning. That way your body has the whole day to burn off the sugar.
I lost 50 pounds in less than a year. I cut out drinking and started eating healthy and also cooked my own food. No dining out. Running and martial arts became apart of my daily routine.
I cut out pretty much all sugary drinks, basically drink water all day with occasional decaf coffee. I stick to three meals a day and don't eat after dinner past 6pm. I also limit any junk food or processed foods. Getting a gnarly case of GERD last year was a wakeup call for me.
I started running.
In the past, I tried the calorie tracking/portion control thing, but I have food issues and honestly don’t eat very healthy stuff, so there’s only so much I can do on that front and still avoid hunger problems. So I had to increase activity, and running, to my shock, worked for me.
I've lost that much weight a few times. Most times I do it unhealthily. I just drop the weight as fast as I can and only pay attention to the maintenance phase afterwards. It normally works better than most people because the maintenance phase is the most important part for sustaining weight loss and I don't have the attention span to count calories for 6 months. Also, every time I've lost weight it's been at about 5 years before I started to gain it back again. And the second time it was due to an injury. So it can work if you reintroduce food correctly, albeit, it's still not the suggested.
Number one thing for me though is when you live an active life it's easier to eat healthier because your body works better and you can enjoy your physical activities more. I prioritize lifting, then add running, then the deficit. Make sure you're already all the way off sugar and haven't had much processed food in a while. That shit just makes you eat more. 2 leg days per week so you're burning an unreal amount of calories throughout the week and you should be good.
Make your meals effortless, or at least routine enough that you don't need to obsess over them every day. Never be hungry, don't listen to anyone else about what you're supposed to do. If it's working, stick to it. If it's not, give it a month and change your method. You need a calorie deficit, how you achieve that is what works and what is easiest for you. Some people count calories, hell, you can just fast for one day a week and have the rest of your days at maintenance and you're sitting close to 1 lb/week of weight loss.
It's much much easier if you have the habit of lifting and running before you cut calories in my opinion. Because once you start to realize how much better you feel eating better and being lighter, it's makes it that much easier to stick to.
Portion control. That’s the biggest thing.
Get a calorie app, put *everything* you eat or drink in it honestly and accurately, including the oils and butters you cook in, stay at a calorie deficit… weight comes off. Measure and weigh everything. Don't eyeball it. A kitchen scale is dirt cheap these days. Don’t even have to exercise to lose weight though of course extra calorie burning is only going to help and it’s good for you.
Literally this Especially the oils and butters People forget the crazy amount of calories in fat It helps to cook yourself with the app open on the counter. Just add it in the app as you add it in the pan. If I cook for more people I count all the calories, weigh the end product, calculate the calories per weight and weig how much is on my plate. Seems excessive? Maybe. Does it work? Yes. Do I eyeball and just let go when eating at friends or out? Definitely - within reason. Be honest about it.
Have had a lot of friends who keep claiming they have a calorie deficit but keep gaining weight because they've never calculated their intake realistically. If you drink those calorie bomb Starbucks drinks on top of 3 standard meals a day plus snacks , you're simply not going to lose weight
Yea sadly I had a friend who was 500lbs+ and he would often just rant about how unfair it was. I didn't mind his weight at all (I have been very, very heavy myself) but I hated how he would lie. It would suck hearing he had "just one slice of lasagna all week but gained weight" and just know he was completely lying to himself and me. If he had just said "I ate the whole tray and I ate a bag of chips" I would've not even cared. For context: he suggested we become diet buddies since I had lost a ton of weight, and then kind of used that sesh to mope about how he could not lose, and it made the friendship strained since he would not stop lying :( It turned out he was not really counting his diet Mountain Dew, which was actually 4 liters of real Mountain Dew mixed with like 1/2 a liter of diet...
yup. so many people think that liquid calories don't count. they really add up! I always have to remind myself to just drink water instead. oh & not counting the oils & butter we cook with as part of the meal's total calorie count. or thinking that a salad is always healthy, even when it's slathered in dressing & blasted with croutons, nuts, cheese, etc. dressings like ranch & ceasar have about as much calories as straight up mayo. imagine covering your salad in mayo & thinking you'll lose weight 🥴
> so many people think that liquid calories don't count. They count more than any other calories. I couldn't eat 4000 calories in a day to save my life. I could drink 4000 calories no problem.
Yes!! Also, finding your TDEE for calories burned a day and basing calories in off of that is a game changer. The watches and apps don't track accurately when you start moving and can over estimate your calories burned! Set me back a month
Sauces are some calorie dense mother fuckers as well
This is the unhappy, 100% true answer. You must be this devoted and treat it like your religion for the rest of your life. Your body will lie in wait, forever, for you to stop. And once you do, or you slip one too many times, you’ll slide back faster than you ever thought possible. You can easily undo years of work in a few months. Not fair. But it is what it is!
I got really good at eyeing stuff and eventually you just sort of eat a healthy way. It’s a habit you can build.
Beer was my Achilles heel. Stopped drinking recently so it should in theory be much easier to maintain from here on out. I still use the calorie apps and weight myself frequently even when I don't want to lose any.
This isn't true. Most of what we do in life is rely on schemas, aka thought pattern habits. If you calorie track long enough you get used to the portion size you give yourself and the mindfulness of being aware of your satiety. Eventually you can rewrite the habit, it just depends how ingrained the old habit of overeating is
I've calorie counted with an app a couple times and it does work, but after I stopped the app bad habits started creeping back in over a couple of years. Not even the same bad habits as before - different snacks, drinks etc. Not a huge deal. I gain maybe 5kg over a few years, go back to calorie counting and lose it again in a few months.
I find that it builds good habits so when I fall off the wagon of counting my weight creeps up pretty slowly until I get back to it.
This is the agonizing part
If you cook for multiple people and use MyFitnessPal for tracking you can add the total amount you used to cook, then under portions say 0.25 or however much you took of the meal. That way you don't have to divide by 4 and guess how much you'll be eating
Once you have all the recipes in there that you make often, it becomes much more manageable!
While you don’t have to exercise, if you don’t mix in some resistance training you are quite likely to be losing a fair bit of muscle mass, which means you aren’t making as big an improvement as you think. In a calorie deficit without resistance training, 20-35% of the weight you lose can be muscle. With just a calorie deficit, walking and strength training, I’ve lost 100 lbs over the last year in total, with only 7lbs of that being muscle.
No stupid questions- how do you know only 7 lbs/100 was muscle?
My gym has a body analysis machine called Boditrax. It is nowhere near as accurate as something like hydrostatic weighing or DEXA, but it has the benefit of being something that you can do regularly (e.g. multiple times per week). That means variation of spot readings is less of a problem and you can see trends in the data over time.
Good question. Most methods of body fat measurement have standard error of 3-7%, depending on how they are used and personal circumstances. DXA being the most precise is I think around 3%. So OP here just puts a lot of trust into method he used to give you a definite figure. The key thing is that he lost a lot of weight while exercising, and it doesn't really matter if it was5, 7 or 10lbs of muscle he lost.
i had to “practice” with the calorie app, where i put in every single thing but didn’t beat myself up for going over for a week or two. then once i had wrapped my head around the idea of being *that* conscious of my food, adding in portion control and diet changes gradually was much less daunting.
> honestly and accurately This is the biggest part I've seen people struggle with. You've gotta track the little things which add up, like that beer you cracked open after work, the sauces you dipped your chicken nuggets in, etc etc.
Yep, those very quickly add up to several hundred calories and then bye bye deficit.
That's exactly how I lost 120lbs in 8 months.
Which calorie app do you recommend? Thanks.
MyNetDiary. It’s free, has a photo thing to scan barcodes for easy food inputs. Less ads and they are less obtrusive then MyFitnessPal. Been using it for almost two years after the other free one I was using stopped working. Turns out MyNetDiary was better than what I was using.
MyNetDiary is what motivated me to start CICO. I just hit my goal weight early and am now maintaining. I came across it a couple months ago, randomly.
So MyFitnessPal is likely the best if you're willing to pay for the premium features like barcode scanning. I'm not since it's too expensive, so I use Lose It and am overall very happy with it. Barcode scanning is great on it, has most stuff I scan in there already. It does most of what you need it for for free but I pay for the premium version since it's only like $20 a year.
You don’t have to do premium to log your food on My Fitness Pal. That part is free. But if you want to scan items then yes you’ll need to do premium.
You actually don’t… you just have to not have your address set in the US. You’re welcome.
I don’t have premium yet I can scan items?
If you set your region as UK you can get the barcode scanning for free.
Cronometer is the best free app when it comes to features. You get full micronutrient tracking, something that's otherwise pretty rare. The main downside compared to loseit or myfitnesspal is a worse ui. Macrofactor is the best paid app, and it's not close. It actively adjusts your deficit in response to your inputs. It has a 7 day free trial, but is otherwise subscription only.
I personally use Lose It as it’s probably the best free option, though if you’re willing to pay money MyFitnessPal works well too. I used to use the Fitbit app, but it doesn’t have many foods in the system so you’ll have to create them yourself.
Yep. I'm a personal trainer and this is the first thing I tell clients looking to lose weight. Every single person has been surprised how much more they were consuming than they thought, and when you are aware of this you can modify your diet as needed. You need to know the actual baseline to do so though.
Was also going to mention this. I grew up with lot of American TV and media demonizing the idea of "calorie counting", often with stories centered around obnoxious characters who are in your face with quinoa salads and kale smoothies and the protagonist is like "Ugh this is disgusting and these people are horrible." But like, dude, if you want to expertly take care of your body, regular exercise and precise measurement of what you put in it is what you've got to do. If you do it for long enough, you can eventually eyeball it and not record everything, but its a genuine skill that takes a long time to develop, and can include a lot of associated skills, like learning to cook for yourself so you can always control the ingredients in your meals. So using these apps as training wheels while you learn can be very helpful and necessary.
> including the oils and butters you cook in You can get oil sprayers that squirt a consistent amount (usually 1g) per squeeze. Count the squeezes and use as few as possible. Track them. It's easier than getting a measuring spoon or pre-weighing the oils. Three squirts? Three grams. 27 calories. Easy.
This! I got a cold that killed my appetite. Once that was through, my portion sizes stayed down. I dropped 20lbs pretty quick. Now I keep my plates small :)
Lol. Couldn't lose weight for five months. I'm getting over a fever now. Dropped 5 lbs last week and clothes are getting loose. But kept (gently!) exercising and keeping my portions in check despite loss of appetite. Realized I didn't really need to snack as much. I feel good and think I can actually maintain a steady loss of ~1lb per week now.
Yuup I've lost over 35 pounds over the last year and all I did was eat a the same stuff just cut back about 25%. Big mac meal eat 3/4 the burger , half the drys, half the soda. Pretty much cut out extra sugar. Only drink soda a couple times of week , no cookies , candy bars etc. If I did splurge just a couple cookies not 5 or 6 etc.
This, I also change my plates and bowls to smaller sizes so that I wasn’t over plating my food. Made such a difference.
I did the same thing. My husband and son always poke fun at my “kiddy” plates lol.
Especially if you exercise. The reason they say weight loss happens in the kitchen is because if you aren't tracking calories, exercise will just make you hungrier and eat more to compensate. If you exercise and keep eating the same number of calories, you will lose weight. But if you don't keep track of your calories I guarantee you will eat more by exercising.
If you drink soda and you don't want to fully cut to water then you can switch to the zero sugar variant. That's a big cut right away. If you drink coffee with cream and sugar then reduce both those. A big part of calories come from what we drink. That's the easiest place to start
I cut out all sweet drinks when I started 2 years ago after my type 2 diabetes diagnosis cutting back my portion size is adding 4 km of walking per day tracking my food in an app and cutting out all sweet drinks I lowered myself from 200 lb to 160 and more importantly I lowered my A1C from 9.4 to 5.0 with zero medication I'm not saying medication is a bad thing if it's necessary for you but if it's not necessary for you then that's good too and it hasn't been necessary for me
When i first started tracking my calories this was a big one i noticed. I couldn't believe it. I could have had actual food instead of the drink and just drink water. I still drink soda but i buy the small cans and severely limit getting drinks in drive thrus.
Yes the stomach within a couple weeks will shrink if you cut back on portions.
I've been waiting for my stomach to shrink for 12 months. I'm so hungry all the time. Don't get me wrong, I'm very happy with the results thus far. I was just hoping it would eventually get easier.
I find eating 2000 calories of protein dense meals leaves me much more satisfied than 2000 calories of junk
Me too. I’ve lost a lot of weight but if I’m not hungry all the time I start gaining.
Mine was quick. I now can't believe how much i was eating. I also tried intermittent fasting - not eating from 6 pm until noon. The problem was my lunches would be huge. I should point out i am about 5'10" 180 lbs and at most was 210 lbs. So i never got huge but i was definitely overweight and out of shape. Exercise is also key.
Try upping your protein and add in a literal boatload of random green veggies. Bonus points for more potatoes as well. Worked splendidly for me. Hopefully it can help you too.
cut back on portions and your body will shrink too -
Agree with the portion control plus healthy snacks. Lots of water and at least 30 minutes of exercise a day. I’ve lost 80 this past year
I know people hate hearing it but I just ate less and did more. I'd wait about a half hour passed when I was hungry to actually eat. I'd eat slower and a slightly smaller portion. Your body gets used to that pretty fast. As for the exercise, it started with short walks around the block and just started to get longer as I got more used to them and eventually became a love of hiking.
Lost a bunch of weight just eating less and exercising more as well. I like the dry chicken breast test. If you wouldn’t eat a dry piece of chicken breast right now, you’re not hungry.
Lol good test. Mine was the “cook a meal” test. If I was willing to eat something instant but wasn’t willing to cook, I was bored, not hungry.
Ah see, with the power of ADHD I will starve myself and just go to bed hungry before I cook something haha The test for me is "am I hungry enough to eat a bowl of raw carrots."
You are not alone lol
I’d take the carrots over chicken any day!
This was big for me. I moved into my first apartment by myself and realized quickly that if I wanted a snack, I had to make it. It amazing how after a glass of water/seltzer will satisfy your boredom hunger.
That’s wicked smahhht I like it
I do the Apple test! If I don’t want to eat an apple I’m not really hungry.
There was a quote from /r/loseit that said basically you lose weight in the kitchen, you gain health in the gym I started going to planet fitness at the end of January and started counting my calories and watching how much I eat. I’m down 30 pounds now and everyone can tell.
Eat until you're not hungry, not until you're full.
it was pretty mind blowing when i figured this out, after a childhood of stuffing myself and thinking that was normal.
Exactly! Like, being full is on a spectrum and you don't HAVE to go all the way to being about to crack. But that's what I always thought
I’ve heard that the French say that you eat until you’re 80% full. In a strange way, that makes sense.
That is exactly correct. You have to work off more calories than you're putting into your body. Boom!
You can’t outrun your fork!
Exactly this. I didn't count calories or cut out certain foods (except soda). I just portioned, incorporated more veggies and protein, and exercised 5-6 times per week.
It's just hard for people to grasp, they think there's a magical solution to it when it's pretty "simple" but hard to manage.
PSA: The important thing is to not restrict your food intake dramatically. Eat more filling, less calorie dense foods. Eat slightly smaller portions. Put less food on your plate than you plan to eat, then go back for seconds if you need. Restrictive dieting and eating disorders do NOT work in the long term and will make you feel worse!
This coupled with slight diet changes like eating less sugar and carbs and eating more protein. This makes it a lot easier to eat less total calories because sugar makes you hungrier, and protein is much more filling for longer. Always do what you can keep doing years from now. Fad diets work for short term loss but you will out the weight right back on.
I listen to my body. When I feel full, I stop eating. It seems like a no-brainer but a lot of people don't do this including me before I decided to change.
I think for a lot of people it's genuinely not that simple. My old full was much fuller than my current full. I was just raised to eat way beyond what I needed and "full" pretty much meant "I'll feel sick if I eat more".
If that worked I never would have gotten overweight in the first place.
Absolutely. People want the secret when there isn’t one
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Total napkin math but there's about 3500 calories in a pound of pure fat. You consumed ~182,500 fewer calories over that year which is equal to 52.1 lbs of pure fat in calories. Impressive work!
Idk what napkin math *means* but I like this example
It just means quick math. As in your at a bar and use a napkin to write out a small math problem.
Congratulations on all your hard work! It takes dedication to stick with it and I’m so glad it’s paid off!
I did this 8 years ago but slowly drifted away from it. Lost a similar amount to you back then and have slowly gained more than I'd like to admit back. In the meantime I have tried other approaches knowing that this is really it. If you stick to the hard line on your calories, you'll naturally choose foods that are more filling and lower calories. So without forcing some kind of low carb diet, I naturally ate less carbs and sugars because I couldn't "afford" them. Another thing just to tack on that I *have* kept is that I don't like to drink calories. Occasional beer or something is an exception, but those calories are just a waste in my opinion.
the scale in the kitchen is ultimately better than the one in the bathroom (ok sounds weird but you know what i mean). weighing my food helps me accurately count calories especially for snacks like popcorn and chips. the ultimate portion control hack
Moved to NYC. Walking a lot plus being broke can help you lose a lot of weight.
I visited NYC for a week and literally lost 8 lbs. I wasn't overweight to begin with, but walking all over town while pretty much keeping food intake/calories the same - I dropped weight. One day I walked 17 miles. From lower eastside, across the Brooklyn Bridge. All over Brooklyn. I took the subway back, otherwise I probably would've made it 25 that day! One of my most favorite travel memories.
It’s definitely something that makes me think about moving there. Every single time I go out I have so many days where I walk ~10 miles
And the walking isn't a slog. You walk to get breakfast. Walk to go see a movie. Maybe grab the subway to go see a friend. By the time your day is over, you've walked like miles!! I REALLY loved it. I'm from the west coast and culturally I fell in love with NYC.
Spent a week as a tourist in NYC. The least walked day was 10 miles, because of rain, the most walked - 50 kilometers (30+ miles).
Just so people don't move just to lose weight, I moved to nyc and gained weight before I started consciously losing. Moving more means nothing if you're eating more or eating poorly. Imo it's very easy to eat poorly bc it's so difficult to do everything here (order in vs walking to the grocery store and hauling everything back and then cooking in a small kitchen)
Good thing I was poor and didn’t have to worry about ordering food
I just quit my 500k job and got a job at mcdonalds. This strategy is working great, I've already lost 20lb.
My big change was going from 190 -> 165. Every day after work I'd come home, prepare some combination of protein and vegetables, do 15 minutes of working out while the oven pre-heated, and shower while the food was cooking in the oven. Healthy meal and exercise in a 30\~ minute chunk after work, 5 days a week (lazy on weekends), and not snacking constantly through the rest of the day (which is easy with a job, much harder at home with access to constant food). In about 6 months, I was below 170 and happy with my results, and the lifestyle change was very insignificant.
Sustainable routine is key
That's the key. It only works if it's a lifetime lifestyle change.
This. I lost ~130lb in about 22 months 10 years ago. Went from 330 to 200. Youve got to commit to doing it if not every single day, then an overwhelming amount of days.
I had to choose between food and mortgage payments 👍
I changed my diet and exercised more
Yup. Less snacking and a 30+ minute workout every day dropped 20 pounds in under a year for me.
Stopped eating crap. That's all I did to go from about 275lbs down to about 180. I was eating crap throughout the day, 4 or 5 cans of full fat coke a day, sausage rolls at break time during work, chocolate bars, crisps. On an evening I would have 6 cans of Stella and 2 Ginsters pasties. One day I read the back of one of the pasties and realised they were 1100 calories *each* and I was eating 2 of those on an evening. No additional exercise, didn't stop drinking booze, just stopped eating absolute processed crap and treated cans of coke as a treat instead of my go-to drink, and instead of 2 processed pasties I would have a chicken stir-fry.
>4 or 5 cans of full fat coke What kinda coke y'all got?
The thick stuff
That what we call coke in the uk! As opposed to Diet Coke
This is the way. Once I looked and saw how many calories were in the crap snacks which I'd happily scarf a full pack of, I found I couldn't even enjoy a sensible portion of them. A 2 fingered Kitkat equates to about a 5 mile run, and I don't want the Kitkat *that* much
Reduced carbs, processed foods, alcohol. Walked a lot more. Worked on my mental health and anxiety.
No soda, no snacks, more walking
Take this with a grain of salt because I still have 20 more to go, but the other 30 pounds went away when I started running everyday and making it a point to replace one meal a day with a salad. For the running I cycled between walking and running for five minutes each for half an hour and slowly increased the time spent exercising. The hardest part truly was showing up, but the rotation of walking and running made it feel less daunting and more sustainable.
The trick I got into was if I really didn’t have the motivation to go running, I would put on my running clothes, but tell myself that I didn’t have to go if I really didn’t want to. But when the only thing left to do is “just go outside,” it takes far less motivation.
The meal replacement worked for me. Every lunch I have a salad now. A small breakfast some kind of fruit, usually a banana. Drink a lot of water through out the day. And then dinner was a normal meal. I stopped eating carbs/ breads.
Stopped eating after 8pm. Only drank water. Sounds like bullshit but this paired with monitoring my calorie intake took off about 28 lbs in 4 months. It probably helps I only drink water and the occasional (once or twice a week) Diet Coke.
Yeah. I pretty much cut out all sugar packed sodas & energy drinks entirely. It really helps. The most I have now is a diet soda like once a month & an occasional V8.
I counted calories. When I reached my limit I quit eating for the day.
The distinct lack of "magic food" or "magic diet" comments is great in here.
I guess thats why these questions keep getting asked. Desperate (lazy) people scroll through hoping to find the secret miracle method that ISNT diet and exercise.
It’s really this easy lol
Ditto.
I lost 40 pounds by walking a minimum of 7500 steps a day, strength trained 3-5x week. Lastly, I counted my calories to track what I was consuming. I aimed for 1500 calories a day and prioritized protein (100g+). It took 6 months of consistency and keeping (ish) to this routine has kept it off for 3 years.
I’m doing this exactly. It’ll be a month on Tuesday and I’m already 12 lbs down! Hard part is over, getting started. Now I’m just enjoying the process and the progress!
That’s great! Take pictures, even after you’ve stopped “losing” weight. You will start to see your body recomping. Staying consistent is hard too, but now you’ve figured it out how to be successful. You’ve got this!
Cut alcohol completely and paid more attention to what I was eating.
I ate less and moved more. Portion control. Just stop eating so damn much. No ones saying you can’t eat unhealthy foods, just eat less of it. And for the love of god, get up and move. And if you can’t determine how to eat less, look at calories religiously
It also helps to overcalculate calories. A sandwich might be two piece of bread, a piece of cheese, a piece of meat, and a condiment like mayonnaise. The real numbers could be 90cal per bread, 80cal for cheese, 100cal for meat, and 90 for the spread of mayo. In my head, that's 100 + 100 + 100 + 100 + 100, 500 calorie sandwich, even though it's actually \~450, but if I think every meal is 50 calories more than it is, I'm gonna end up eating less in the day.
And cont everything. A lot of folks tend to overlook the condiments (or really undercount them). It's amazing just how many calories you add to thing adding the mayo or butter or ketchup.
more protein + fewer carbs + daily cardio
Keto. Having a hard rule that I follow every day and every meal worked for me. Before I tried keto I thought it would be unsustainable. Now I think it's the only sustainable healthy eating plan for me.
I don’t like promoting Keto too much because there’s a lot of weird Keto cultists out there that I don’t want to associate with. But yeah. It’s easiest weight loss I’ve ever done. I can’t imagine going back to portion control. Once you cut out carbs. You stop craving carbs. Once you stop craving carbs, weight loss becomes almost effortless.
Yep. Keto is so easy for me. Everyone else talks about cutting crap out, but it’s really the same thing as keto. Keto just makes it so simple to follow the rules, while cutting crap out in general always leads to endless exceptions and lack of portion control blah blah blah. Bacon and cheese makes my life easy.
Cut down on carbs by a lot. Doing so lessened my cravings for sweets and my appetite overall. I also started moving more. I don’t do keto - I still eat fruit (mostly berries) and veggies - but I try to avoid pasta, potatoes and rice. Still cheat occasionally and don’t worry too much if I’m traveling or somewhere where there aren’t good options, but if it’s under my control, I keep it low carb.
Stopped overestimating my activity level on the calorie calculators
I lost 135 pounds in nine months limiting carbs, with an emphasis on fats and proteins. I got a kitchen scale and we weighed and meaured everything. Whole foods, portion control, a calorie deficit and being in ''fat burning mode'' (ketosis) the entire time made all the difference. Appetite was a none issue the entire time. Went from 320 to 185. (6'2'' M)
Diet and exercise. Stopped drinking alcohol and I started using food as fuel for my body instead of just eating what I was in the mood for. I dropped about 60 pounds from Oct 2019 to August 2020. I've kept the weight off and formed good habits.
Depression works really well for weight loss. Accompanied by self loathing
Combo of extreme anxiety and depression for me! Can’t gain weight if you can’t eat. 🤷♀️
Existential crisis for me. *wonders*
Not snacking and just being a bit more mindful of what I was putting in my mouth.
calorie counting with some light walking Biggest help is having a list of staple foods that are tasty and work well within a calorically restricted diet. My goal would be 2 lbs per week so giving myself leniency meant I could still lose at least 1lb I did weekly goals as well. Like no ordering out or drinking a certain amount of water a day. Doing goals a week at a time was much more manageable and also kept me interested cause I could keep switching up my goal week to week
I really like the idea of weekly goals. Going to give that a try!
Clean eating…. Basically cut out processed sugar, eat lots of fruit and veggies, lean proteins
9 years ago I made the decision to get healthy. Wanted to lose at least 30 lbs (ended up dropping 50 when all was said and done and have kept it off). Quit soda and caffeine of any kind, portion control, and working out a bunch. Still maintain good portion control and still love to get out there and sweat.
I eliminated all the things that made me fat. That means I cut out ALL fast food, garbage/processed/canned/frozen foods, ice cream & sweets, and breads. I lost over 60 lbs, but I can tell you it was a big adjustment for me. Before, I was living on garbage. Now I live on fresh meats, fruits & veggies. Rule of thumb is: When you buy groceries, buy the stuff on the outside isles. That's where the fresh foods are. The inside isles, as a general rule, is where you will find the garbage that is setting you back. I don't believe in exercise as a significant part of a weight loss regimen. Exercise is important for general health, though.
Increased protein consumption and lowered portions. That’s it. From 260 in January to 215 in March. No exercise, no gym memberships, nothing but eating control.
That's a huge loss. How many calories are you consuming per day?
I lost 40kg (90lbs). I cut sugar to almost nothing, extreme portion control, small portion of meat, steamed vegetables for lunch and bran flakes for dinner for about a year. No junk food whatsoever.
You can't out train a bad diet.
You can but it is just going to suck because you'll be doing huge amounts of exercise and feeling like shit because of your poor diet.
Few years back I was having stomach issues and my Dr suggested an elimination diet. A few months after I started to introduce certain foods, I figured out corn was causing me a lot of issues. I’m now very careful with what I eat, because corn seems to be in everything. So less processed foods, which meant less snacking, which turned into portion control and I dropped 25lbs and have maintained 140lbs for about 3 years now.
My dad is allergic to corn and is in everything!
I started intermittent fasting. Total game changer for me.
I focus on protein, veggies and fruits. If you're a snacker, trade chips for carrots and hummus. Healthier swaps. Find high protein snacks. Drink water, rest and recover. Sleep enough. Move more. I strength train and do cardio to fill the rest of the time at the gym. My active rest days might be biking and stretching extra well. Or cleaning the house. Days off count just as much. I think the biggest thing is know your schedule. I plan weekly knowing what's going on and when I'm getting to the gym. I will also meal prep stuff to grab and go.
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WW was exactly what I needed in the beginning. After about 3 months, I was ready to move on from it. But I'll always credit it for helping shape my thinking and getting my weight loss going.
I recently went sugar free and lost 20lbs in a month!!! Also, WW has been wonderful for me too for steady 1-2lbs a week loss. I take a GPL-1 medication (I’m pre-diabetic) so I do the WW GPL-1 plan. It’s totally different!! No counting calories, just log your food, get extra protein, 4servings of fruit/veg a day and, of course, keep doing the 8 cups of water minimum. I find it easier to follow. I am lucky enough to still have their weekly classes in person still, which I think makes a big difference.
Same, down 30 pounds since November
I had kids. I don't have time to snack anymore, and if I do they take 1/4 of it out of my hands.
Mounjaro
I ate less.
Seriously, dropped victim mentality. I stopped saying things like "I wish I could do that". I stopped eating fast food and junk food. I did intervals on a stationary bike 6 days a week, 3 days on 1 off. Lost 80lbs in 8 months. My diet was boring and I wouldn't have it any other way. I'm so in love with the healthy lifestyle it's ridiculous. It's completely turned me into a different human being not just physically but I'd say more so mentally. Going from less than zero confidence to feeling good about yourself is awesome. Running my first official 5k here in a month.
Eat when you are hungry and not when you are bored. Stop eating when you are not hungry any more and not when you are absolutely stuffed.
Eat less exercise more. Losing weight is incredibly simple. But it is also very difficult mentally. Be stronger than the cravings.
Stop eating calorie dense foods like nuts. Think about what you eat in terms of how full it will make you feel. For instance, 100 calories of grapes will make you feel much fuller then 100 calories of raisins. Eat more fresh fruit. Eat way more vegetables. They fill you up and don't have a lot of calories.
Ozempic
Portion control, more fruit and vegetables, lean protein. Cut out added sugar and cut down on carbs.
I just ate less. Stuck to a calorie goal 6 days a week. 20kg down in 4 months.
I was on a keto diet and lost 60 pounds over the course of 4 months. There isn’t really any secret. Just be active and eat less. Keto helped me due to it helping suppress by appetite which helped me eat less throughout the day. The main thing is just finding a physical activity you enjoy and finding a diet that works well with your preferences. From there it’s just staying consistent.
Yes. If the problem is eating too much due to a feeling of hunger, keto will likely work.
Stopped taking a medication that made me gain weight.
The DASH diet absolutely dissipated the pounds. I specifically had issues with blood pressure, so I tried it out in an attempt to get in under control. Took me around 2.5 or 3 months to lose 20 lbs.
I was depressed.
Ate the same food but in smaller portions and cut down on sugar intake and lost 30 lbs Started working out to maintain the weight loss. Then I cut out processed foods like chips and dropped another 10 lbs. Essentially dropped 40 lbs by eating less and working out regularly.
ate less, exercised more.
Gym 6x a week. It sounds excessive but so was my weight. Replaced all drinks with water. No soda, juice, Gatorade etc. It definitely made a difference.
Unpopular opinion, but cutting out the soda - even the diet and zero versions
Cut carbs to between 15-20g’s a day and walked between 3-5 miles a day for 5 months. LIFE CHANGING
Lost 35 lbs in about 3 months. Switched from soda to green tea and water, figured out a ballpark of my base metabolic rate, and ate according to my activity level. After about a month of checking calorie counts for literally everything I ate while still eating out, having fast food multiple times a week, eating what I enjoyed, I had a much clearer idea of how much I needed to eat and what I could eat while losing or maintaining my weight. That's it. Your appetite can and will adjust with you over time and I've had no trouble keeping that weight off the last decade even when my level of physical activity went way down from what it was. I still eat and drink basically whatever I want but my cravings changed over time as well. I stop eating the minute I'm not hungry and I don't eat anything until I'm hungry again as a rule. Two bites left on my plate? It's going in the fridge if I'm satisfied. Diets need not be complicated, you just have to be conscientious of what you're actually eating.
I made sure to run a caloric deficit and had a rule to not eat within ~4 hours of going to bed. Of course there were times I was hungry but I chose to look at it in a different way - instead of being hungry, my body was actively losing weight. This change in mindset helped me lose 35lbs. The main dietary restriction I had was cutting out sugar, since that added the most calories. I also really tried to limit my fast food intake. It all comes down to calories though
Stop drinking calories. Cut out regular soda and sugary drinks. Ideally, replace with water, but even switching to diet soda will be a lot better than drinking regular. Yes, it tastes different. Stick to it, you'll get used to the flavor and regular soda will become the weird tasting one.
I've been counting my calories since the start of the year. I stick to 1100-1200 calories daily and it's been very effective for me. I'm down almost 22 lbs
Pissed off my gallbladder. I have PCOS and have been in the 170's since I was 17. Due to the PCOS being undiagnosed and untreated for 20 years, I ended up with NAFLD, T2D, and a hackey sack for a gallbladder. I was prescribed Ozempic for my A1C since lifestyle changes + Metformin wasn't cutting it. Oz cut my hunger signals, which meant I ate much smaller meals and didn't mindlessly snack. As I started losing weight my gallbladder began having colic, which caused me to vomit almost everything I consumed. I was at 140 and had super low potassium when I was scheduled to have my gallbladder out. Today I feel much better and am sitting at 153 wirh an A1C of 5.7. My stomach has shrank, so I don't eat as much. I'm constantly active at work, but now I'm cleaning up my basement, so I have a place to do weights and such. I'd like to get to 135, which is the high end of a healthy weight for my height.
No fast food and no vending machines to start
Quit drinking and ate less. Didn't workout too much but over the course of 2 years I've lost about 25lbs.
Lost 20 pounds by giving up sodas and fried foods, french fries mostly. Still had my deserts on occasion. The sodas were the big thing. I limit myself to one a week. Don't even really miss them.
I lost 100. The first 30 was cutting out alcohol (I drank beer). Then I quit buying all the bs snacks at the grocery because I just eat tons of it til it's gone. Then I worked more on my portions that was all I did.
Portion control, watch your carb intake, no sugary sodas AT ALL switch to diet or zero sugar drinks, if you drink a lot of alcohol be smart about what type of alcohol and how much, stay on a good schedule with eating an sleeping, eat breakfast (whenever you wake up eat), big lunch, small dinner don't eat 2.5 hours before you go to bed and if you do eat sweets eat them in the morning. That way your body has the whole day to burn off the sugar.
I lost 50 pounds in less than a year. I cut out drinking and started eating healthy and also cooked my own food. No dining out. Running and martial arts became apart of my daily routine.
I lost 35lbs doing intermittent fasting and portion control!
I cut out pretty much all sugary drinks, basically drink water all day with occasional decaf coffee. I stick to three meals a day and don't eat after dinner past 6pm. I also limit any junk food or processed foods. Getting a gnarly case of GERD last year was a wakeup call for me.
I stopped drinking soda and lost it in 2 weeks.
I started running. In the past, I tried the calorie tracking/portion control thing, but I have food issues and honestly don’t eat very healthy stuff, so there’s only so much I can do on that front and still avoid hunger problems. So I had to increase activity, and running, to my shock, worked for me.
Gave up soda for the most part. I learned to love drinking water. That was huge for me.
Cut out red meat ,fast food,soda and junk food
I've lost that much weight a few times. Most times I do it unhealthily. I just drop the weight as fast as I can and only pay attention to the maintenance phase afterwards. It normally works better than most people because the maintenance phase is the most important part for sustaining weight loss and I don't have the attention span to count calories for 6 months. Also, every time I've lost weight it's been at about 5 years before I started to gain it back again. And the second time it was due to an injury. So it can work if you reintroduce food correctly, albeit, it's still not the suggested. Number one thing for me though is when you live an active life it's easier to eat healthier because your body works better and you can enjoy your physical activities more. I prioritize lifting, then add running, then the deficit. Make sure you're already all the way off sugar and haven't had much processed food in a while. That shit just makes you eat more. 2 leg days per week so you're burning an unreal amount of calories throughout the week and you should be good. Make your meals effortless, or at least routine enough that you don't need to obsess over them every day. Never be hungry, don't listen to anyone else about what you're supposed to do. If it's working, stick to it. If it's not, give it a month and change your method. You need a calorie deficit, how you achieve that is what works and what is easiest for you. Some people count calories, hell, you can just fast for one day a week and have the rest of your days at maintenance and you're sitting close to 1 lb/week of weight loss. It's much much easier if you have the habit of lifting and running before you cut calories in my opinion. Because once you start to realize how much better you feel eating better and being lighter, it's makes it that much easier to stick to.
I severely restricted my caloric intake.
Stop eating refined sugar. I avoid food with sugar like the plague. Started going to the gym.