to ask for your diet secrets/success stories?

[malika54]

Posting here for traffic really. What was your most successful diet? How did you keep the weight off? Thanks for sharing!

[StillStayingClassySanDiego]

How old are you?

I lost

[ElsaAintAsColdAsMe]

Not quite a success story yet but I've downloaded mfp to my phone. It's really made me think about what I eat and if it's boredom or hunger I'm eating for and have so far lost over a stone. I'm rubbish at strict diets so this has been good for me. I'll keep it going even when I get to my target.

[malika54]

I'm 36 and my metabolism isn't what it used to be. To lose anything I need to really cut down calories and I don't feel it's very healthy to be on 1000 calories for days on end Hence the post

[StillStayingClassySanDiego]

Sorry, chatting.

A vegetable smoothie for breakfast.
Green salad for lunch.
Chicken/ salmon with couscous / grain and veg for tea.

I used to lose weight quickly on this when I was younger, not so easily now

[Lazyafternoon]

I lost 2 stone (13st down to 11st) by doing Weightwatchers and jogging.

Doing weightwatchers was really about making think about what I was eating. I had never really considered how mad some of the rubbish like Haribo, glasses of wine etc were. It was about planning my food and eating sensibly. The meetings were crap (for me) so stopped WW after 3 months but still use MyFitnessPal whenever I feel like I'm slipping back into bad habits.

I also started doing exercise. I got a fitness band and aim for 10k steps a day. And I signed up for a 10km Race for Life back in January. That's been my challenge and motivation for getting out and putting my trainers on at least a couple of time a week. When I started I could barely jog 100m. But slowly I've got better and although 10km next weekend is still going to be really tough I think I'll be able to jog (slowly) the whole way.

I'm sure the combination of changing the way I eat and exercising more is the key to success. Just doing one or the other I don't think works that well. But I don't stick to it really strictly. It's a change of lifestyle and I'm in it for the long term rather than a diet so will take the weekend 'off' occasionally.

[trinity0097]

Lchf, have lost 4.5stone so far and never felt hungry.

[Notsure1234]

5:2, lost 2 stone and find it quite easy

[Hopefully]

• Happy scale app for monitoring weight daily (no fooling myself that it was a blip!)
  

• no food at all after 6pm; eliminates evening munchies. If I don't get dinner in before this time I skip it. I have the motivation that if I eat late my yoga the next morning is horrible.
  

• yoga first thing (5am) which has the double benefit of burning calories and stopping me eating for a while when I get up!
  

• knowing my greedy times and working with them - I know I can't resist the urge to snack when at home with DCs, so I don't try to, just keep the snacks healthy (TONS of avocado, on rice cakes or sourdough, cheese, dark chocolate, some fruit) and know that if I've eaten enough that I'm not hungry before my 6pm cutoff then I won't have dinner, so it evens out (I either snack heavy and skip dinner or snack light and eat dinner).
  

It sounds a little deranged, but it works for me and my lifestyle right now. If my lifestyle changed I would adapt it (eg if I worked in an office I would probably eat less in the day and more in the morning and evening).

[lougle]

DH and I started dieting at the end of March. He's lost 12kg, I've lost 8kg, so far. Simple diet:

-Use My Fitness Pal to track calories.
-Avoid refined carbs. We've cut out bread, white potatoes and rice, largely. We have them once in a blue moon. Now we have sweet potato as our main carb.
-DH was 86kg and has 1500 calories per day. I was 69kg and have 1200 calories per day. We tend to end some days under target and go over target every so often. The last couple of weeks I've been averaging 1000 calories, but today I've probably had 1800....I try not to stress too much.

It doesn't need to be any more complicated than that.

Breakfast is usually Greek yoghurt. Lunch is salad.

[CaveMum]

Whole30 - I lost 11lbs in 30 days and DH lost a stone. Not once did I feel hungry or deprived.

It's basically a Paleo diet - lots of meat and veg, no dairy, wheat, grains or sugar in any form.

Link to the Whole30 site

[OboePlayingImmortalRabbit]

Slimming World. I started following the plan in March last year, when I weighed 12 stones. I now weigh 7 stones 2lb.

[Gwenci]

Agree with pp about the motivation that a calorie tracking app gives.

I'm currently on a very low calorie diet and having to record everything I eat and watching how quickly the calories add up helps me be strict and not eat things unnecessarily.

I'm using the Lose It! app and really like it.

[lifesuckssometimes]

Both me and DH lost around three stone with 5:2 that was over two years ago and maintaining. Both want to lose a bit more but happier than we were and it doesn't interfere with life. Can't think of any diet I could have stayed on for two years.

[lisbapalea]

Lost two stone last year on BIWI's Low Carb bootcamp here - have kept it off successfully but need to pull my finger out on the current Bootcamp to shift a final 7-14lbs!

[bigtapdancingpimp]

The three S's - soups, salads and smoothies

Low-carbing no longer works for me so I only eat meat at the weekend. Plenty of veg/lentil chilis, curries and casseroles during the week and good carbs like bananas and jacket potatoes (no bread, rice or pasta). I cut loose at the weekend and have some wine and fatty meat. Controversial but I don't eat breakfast - I find it wakes up my appetite and I'm starving by 11am.

I also exercise a lot; five times a week at the gym (yoga, pilates, circuit training and running).

[frankie001]

I've been on slimming world for a year and so far have lost 5.5 stone. Still more to shift though!

[Gwenci]

I agree with the no breakfast thing! People tell me off about it all the time but I find if I skip breakfast I gradually get peckish around lunchtime. If I eat breakfast I'm ravenous by mid morning! Haven't eaten breakfast for years.

It troubles my MIL no end if we stay over!

[malika54]

Thanks a lot guys, I wasn't expecting so many responses so quickly!
Food for thought too!

[abigwideworld]

Go to slimming world and keep going!

[KeithRichardsPetCat]

For me - 800/900 calories a day. 3 litres of water every single day and 2/3 1 hour gym classes a week

No alcohol. No sugar

And a "Slimatee" every other night

It's not fun but it works

[KeithRichardsPetCat]

ALSO the above is not healthy - I'm aware of this and don't recommend it to anyone. But just saying that it works for me

[freshprincess]

2.5 stone on 5.2 fasting and maintained for 2 years.
same weight as I was in my 20s, though not the same shape, thanks to my lovely DCs.

[Bigoldsupermoon0]

Not really a diet but seen some positive changes. I'm not big into effort, so it's been good for me!

• Stop taking sugar in coffee (15kcals a pop x 3 a day)
  
• Reduce the amount of coffee whitener I have in my brew (15kcals a pop x 3 a day)
  
• Reduce the amount of butter I have on my toast for breakfast
  
• Eat breakfast later or skip it entirely
  
• Whack a pack of pre-chopped veg (like those green veg medleys) in the microwave when I'm having something carby like rice or pasta; stick a load under the rice/pasta in my bowl so I get bulk without as many kcals
  
• Stick red lentils in every tomato based sauce I cook - keeps you full for ages, doesn't affect taste.
  
• Cut out soft drinks, fruit juice, smoothies and sweets.
  

I still have a wee bar of chocolate most days - I'll never be able to give that up - but I get snack size ones now. Saving of about 70kcals per day there, too.

[Bigoldsupermoon0]

Oh, and swap big loaves for little ones and still just have two slices. Thought I'd be hungry, actually wasn't.

#genius #lazydieter

[JohnBarrowmaniac]

I lost 8.5 stone at Slimming World and have kept it off for just over 3 years now. I basically stick to the diet and qwalk for 1.5 hours each day.