Those of you who have successfully lost weight...

[Howmanyflippingstone]

How have you done it?

Posted this thead yesterday but something funky happened to my op (half of it vanished) so MN deleted it.

Basically, I had a baby at the the start of lockdown, and between homeschooling the older kids/working full time and general stress, I've been eating shittily and struggling to shift the weight. Been swinging between WW and SW, which definitely isn't helping. My job is stressful and fairly sedentary, though I do get out for a 3 mile walk daily and am trying to get back into running, though it's hard to find the time and motivation.

I have a few friends who had success tracking everything they ate on mfp, and I gave that a go and it worked to an extent, but it was so time consuming that I couldn't keep it up.

I'm determined to get sorted in the new year but need some inspo and guidance

I did it by low-carbing, MFP, and most importantly for me, daily weighing. Also, plan ahead so you have the right foods available and then you don't need to snack or make a sandwich because there's nothing to eat.

The daily weighing kept/keeps me on the straight and narrow e.g. if I gain a pound or two I know I have to be disciplined and behave myself in the coming days!

MyFitnessPal might seem time-consuming at the start but most of us eat the same things over the course of a couple of weeks so you just tick your previous entry of say salmon fillet, 175mls wine, etc.

Good luck!

I lost 7 stone ish from July 2020 to August 2021 and have maintained so far - I'm encouraged to read of Thriwit's success keeping her massive loss maintained for over 3 years, as the conventional wisdom is that most people who lose weight put it back on within 5 years, half of those within one year.

I like the clarity and simplicity of 16:8 / 18/6 personally, and that's what I did to lose and still do to maintain, with a tiny bit more flexibility.

Within that framework I only eat 2 meals - one either porridge (massive bowl with quark and fruit) or steamed vegetables plus fish or eggs, and the other a normal family dinner. I avoid bread as far as possible - eat it as part of a family meal once or twice per month. Snacks are mostly avoided, but apples, and small quantities of almonds or walnuts and dates if I fancy something sweet without eating refined sugar.

I do eat something unnecessary containing refined sugar sometimes but never alone, only with family, and course correct the following few days with no snacks and smaller portions.

I try to walk 3-5 miles most days but don't always manage due to shift work. My job is not sedentary though.

I have lost 3 stones since beginning April.

At the start I used MFP to educate myself (who knew a mince pie was 346 calories?!) I now only use it to track my weight.

I do 16/8 because I'm not a breakfast fan anyway, and find that easy.

I only weigh once a week on a Thursday or Friday.

I drink wine and ease up a bit on Friday and Saturday night, there has to be some pleasures in life!

I cut down or cut out the worst for me.... bread and pasta. I now have them but in small portions, and fill up on veg instead.

Walking has really helped me. (I am mid 60s so tried C25K but it was too hard!). I walk most days 3 miles, sometimes 5.

I feel so much better for the weight loss. Good luck!

I joined SW three years ago and lost 4 stone, and managed to keep it off. I know what I should and shouldn't eat, I try and make all my meals from scratch, and I increased exercise as well. My only downfall is bread!

I'm reading for inspiration. I'm only a stone in myself. But OP it sounds like a really simplified diet might work for you. Figure out 3 breakfasts, 3 different lunch ideas or a theme like soup every day, and a 2 week meal plan for dinners. Stick to it for a while, change it when you get bored. Basically minimise the daily admin, only cook things you know and like, and accept a bit of repetition.

I lost 3 stone of baby weight over lockdown with a chronic pain condition - it was hard.

I honestly just cut down food and tried to focus on good stuff going into my body. Didn't ban treats but tried to be mindful. Walked as much as I could and did pilates 2-3 times a week.

I lost a lot of weight and have now been a size 8-10 for six years.

What worked for me was stopping the "diet", doing a lot of running, and giving up alcohol. No takeaways, no crap food bar the occasional square of chocolate if I really wanted it.

The whole "healthy lifestyle for life" thing really does work. For me, it was the mental shift of thinking in terms of health rather than numbers on scales, after years of yo-yo ing.

Noom is the only thing I've ever tried that has actually worked for me. It delves into why you are overweight in the first place, and how you can make small, manageable changes to gradually work towards your goal weight and then maintain the loss.

I find the language used very irritating and cringey - there's lots fistbumping and stupid hashtags which I'm not into. I also find there are sometimes technical issues with the app, but in fairness to them they've made a lot of changes recently to help with this, and they respond to your emails within hours and solve the problem.

The course is basically a lot of answering questions and quizzes to try and find out about your eating habits and your relationship with yourself (eg I found out that I reward myself with food and I have a really negative relationship with myself and never truly believed I could lose the weight). Then they have some short articles for you to read that are tailored to the answers you gave, and include small tasks to complete. It does little quizzes along the way to track your progress and flag up anything that you need to go over again.

You also log meals but you don't have to count and weigh everything meticulously like with MFP - you can be as specific or as vague as you like. I'm very vague so might log "breakfast - buttered toast and cup of tea" and get it to estimate those calories, rather than putting in the brand of bread, weighing my butter, measuring the milk in my tea etc.

I'm sure it wouldn't be everyone's cup of tea, and I know with weight loss it is a very personal thing and really not a one size fits all, but for me it has been a game changer. I have never felt in control of my eating until I started using Noom. I've gone from feeling hopeless and like a fat failure, to seeing my weight slowly but surely decrease, and looking towards my goal as nothing but simple maths. Calories in/calories out. No emotional stress attached it, and no restricting and resisting. My mindset has completely changed.

They do a trial, so I'd recommend that. They ask you how much you would like to pay for this "free" trial, which pissed me off a bit, but one of the options was $1, so I chose that. I would recommend trying it to see if it works for you. You should know if it's working by the time the trial is up, and with me they sent me an email the day before the payment was due, to make sure I was definitely on board and ready to pay for the full service.

Oh and the app has a really detailed recipe function too, so if you are struggling with meal planning and calorie counting you can jump on there and choose a few things, and it will immediately give you the correct calories and log it for you when you say youve eaten it. You can also filter it to only show recipes that fit into what's left of your calories budget that day - which is great for when you've overdone it for breakfast and lunch and need to figure out a 300 calorie dinner in the next 5 mins lol

Just use recipes that are already calorie counted. I use Pinch of nom or Hairy Dieters.

If you've got loads to lose then semaglutide ( Ozempic ) is a gastric band in a weekly injection.

I have to take it as I'm a type 2 diabetic but it had the unexpected side effect of weight loss. You won't be hungry on it and you can't overeat otherwise it makes you feel sick. You soon get used to it.

My Dd and Dh have lost 2 and 3 stone in the last six months in it respectively, my Dh was dangerously overweight so I'm very grateful as nothing else seemed to work for him.

It's not for everybody as there are contraindications for people with a family history of oesophageal cancer. My endocrinologist said that the benefits far outweighs the minute risk especially when obesity leads to type 2 diabetes as in my case.

That said it's not available in the nhs ( unless you have uncontrolled diabetes either type one or two ) but my Dh and dd both paid a private gp £150 per month and did it like that.

I think it will become a weight loss option as it's a lot less invasive than actual surgery, it's already licenced for weight loss in the US. You do need to have a bmi of 31 or over though I think. My dd is small now. She came off it it and has maintained really well so it doesn't necessarily mean you will gain it straight back, as with all weight loss you've got to be sensible.

Can I also add it's easy to say rest less and move more, or calories in and calories out but thats quite hard for some people, I know it was for me. I have slowly over the last 5 years gone from 18.5 down to 12 stone, still a bit overweight fro my 5.5 frame but for me it's been a miracle drug both in terms of controlling my very high blood glucose levels and the weight loss. I did a fair fee stone in my own, a little here and a little there but the last 1.5 stone is down to the ozempic, I've also maintained the last six months too.

Being in the right frame of mind is crucial. You must be focused on weight loss & eat the things to aid it.

Took me a good while after my baby. I kept thinking, I’ll do it this week... But I just wasn’t ready at the time.

Look closely at what you’re eating that’s incidental. Like butter, high calorie yoghurts, snacks, ready meals.

I ate loads of nuts, for example, while BF (and lots of toast), I was always hungry. But I was still eating them six months later, just out of habit. I didn’t need all of the extra calories any more!

@Howmanyflippingstone

Is Noom any good? I tried to sign up for a trial but they wanted me to charge for it, and they're so secretive about what it actually entails so it's difficult to know whether it's worth it. I've heard some poor reviews of it tbh and it's very expensive.

It did absolutely nothing for me!

I tried once and as soon as you got to the paid bit all of the lovely little animations etc disappeared and it was basically links of other people's articles to read. I complained (because the trial was so different) and got my money back.

I did give it another go a few years later, and the paid content was much better. But still did nothing for me unfortunately

Lost over 3 stone on WW. basically sensible eating and portion control. Cook mostly from scratch and lots of veggies. Don’t. Tend to snack except on Greek style soya yoghurt

I've done mfp before. The best was when I was meal planning for a whole week at a time. I used the pinch of nom books as a lot of their recipies are 400 calories and then I had a menu plan with all the meals and calories written out so I could just pin them on the board and see how many calories I would be eating per day, then stuck to it.
I need to go back to do it again, since I stopped I've gained half a stone back

I lost 5 stone about 5 years ago doing mfp and using a Fitbit to get my 10000 per day.

I maintained fairly well (within a stone) for 4 years. It crept up at the start of this year by another stone and whilst I haven't weighed myself (can't face it) I think I'm probably up another 2. I am very blue.

What I have NOT done that I was doing before (as that may help):

Kept up any activity - I am now incredibly sedentary due to wfh

Kept an eye on portions

Not drunk my calories (used to have a tea in Costa, now have a latte)

Don't chose the healthier options if eating out - saying fuck it on your birthday is fine, going to Nando's because you can't be arsed and having large fries all the time is not.

Using food as a stress relief

Not managing stress well at all - 12 hour days at constant pressure, juggling kids/parents and husband = no time for self

Going over 45 - tbf, can't help that one!

So what I would say is a bit of focus on yourself and keeping that up is needed. When I was losing my weight it was my hobby. I then got quite resentful of that (fair) but instead of reframing that positively I gave up. Add in Covid and a fundamental problem with aligning work/life balance in a busy job that doesn't help with this = things not to do!

So bit of a rant but that reframing thing is so important

I think (unhelpfully) that what works is very individual to the person. I agree with pp’s that diets don’t work, only lifestyle changes do (and that takes time and patience). I’ve lost and gained the same 2-3 stone so many times. I can definitely lose it through calorie counting on MFP but I end up putting it all on again - and often a few lbs more. I think it is because eventually I start trying to fit more and more rubbish into my allowance. And, the more rubbish you eat, the more you crave it, I find. I don’t believe a calorie is just a calorie - calories from an avocado (which will fill you up and have a slower energy release) will do much different things to your body than a few chocolate biscuits (which will not fill you up and cause an energy spike and then slump) - even if the calorific totals are the same, the biscuits are not going to satisfy you and an hour later you’ll be craving more food.

I’ve just started the Second Nature programme on NHS recommendation, which basically aims to be a lifestyle change based on introducing more veg and lessening ultra processed or sugary foods (similar to a Mediterranean approach). No calorie counting. Also focussed on things you can do to get better sleep and less stress response, that can lead to unhelpful choices.

Good so far but it is basically a similar thing to the pp who lost 10 stone - half your plate is veg and consider the quality of everything else you eat. Focus on your 3 meals a day and plan healthier snacks, with flexibility to have a drink or “treat” food when you really want it rather than habit.

I don’t think any of it is a quick solution!

The best way to do it is to use it create a six week plan.

That way you don't have to enter it at all for the six weeks, but just stick to what you planned.

I have the same breakfast everyday. Lunch is a variation of wraps - chicken, salmon etc. With veg and mixed beans, plus homemade tomato soup (essntial as it creates that full feeling)

Dinner is something like :

Fish pie, shepherds pie, chicken casserole, stirfry, fish plus potato and veg.

I batch cooked 6 fish pies and 6 shepherds pies. The supermarket does ready prepped casseroles. Stirfry takes 5 mins.

Snacks are usually 3 or 4 a day and a combination of fruit and nuts and thick zero fat yoghurt (filling). I also drink various types of milk- a hot milk plus tumeric or cacao is lovely and stops me eating cheese.

After 6 weeks you then switch up the meals - low calorie bagel instead of wrap, seasonal dinners.

If I exercise then I eat to replace those calories, like a protein shake, or a bagel, or an apple crumble! If I dont exercise I am still running at a 100
or so calorie deficit so the weight very slowly comes off without me noticing. I weigh in every 3 days or so.

Its slow but I lost a stone of lockdown weight.

Had a gastric sleeve. 17 years of weight struggles required drastic action for my health!

I also agree with PP that meal planning is important and this is not a diet for me now. It is a way of life. I lost and put on my weight again years ago with SW then going straight back to my old way of eating once I had reached goal. Sounds obvious now, but if you do that then you are just going to gain again as your old way of eating was what made you overweight to begin with.

I lose 2 stone after both babies using WW blue plan. I ended up buying loads of ready meals from m&s - the healthy ones. I scanned them in the shop with a barcode scanner.

I also agree with PP, porridge is the breakfast of gods!

@Yazoop that sounds really interesting. Is it a prescribed thing or an online plan or what? (will google a bit later do just being lazy!)

Ps the only reason I say 6 weeks is it depends on freezer space. I bought a 2nd hand freezer on ebay for £20! Best investment ever.

Second freezer I should say.