If you have successfully lost weight how have you done it?

[Ihatejanuary78]

Not injections, I don’t qualify.
thank you

The key is making it sustainable, and unfortunately targets like lose x amount by my holiday in y time aren’t really compatible with good long-term changes you can stick to.

Half a kilo a week weight loss is generally considered sustainable. You won’t be in such a big calorie deficit that you’re hungry and likely to binge. And mentally, you won’t be expecting to drop loads every week. But it would take you 12 weeks to lose your stone at that rate, not the 8 weeks your holiday is in. Would you be happy with that or think it was all pointless, go wild on holiday then think there was no point getting back on it?

Try the Human Being Diet.
It is a Mediterranean diet, 3 meals a day, 5 hour gaps between meals, eliminates snacking and balances blood sugar levels. It works.

thehumanbeingdiet.com

I've lost 11.5 stone just by calorie counting. As I've lost more I've added in exercise because I've wanted to.

I do try to eat more protein and vegetables, but my main focus is just calories so as long as it fits in the daily allowance I can eat it.

With calorie deficit diets, won't your body go to starvation mood and really hold on to the fat?

Every method of losing weight involves eating fewer calories than your body uses. Every 'diet' involves calorie deficit. Every 'lifestyle change' in order to lose weight involves calorie deficit, otherwise the weight wouldnt come off

The answer to your question is no. There is a slight slowing of metabolism but studies show this its not significant enough to compensate for the deficit of calories (assuming a daily deficit of around 500 or so).

It sounds just like the HB diet only there is no monthly cost.

Therapy and gastric bypass 🤷‍♀️ worth every penny after spending over 2 thirds of my life obese.

It's keeping it off that's the trick. It's got to be sustainable.

Low-carb, high protein, loads of vegetables, moderate wine.

Plus I weigh myself every morning, to keep on the straight and narrow - if I've put on a pound or two it can be dealt with that day and not left to ratchet up to 5 or 6 pounds when It's harder to shift.

@timoteigirl Yes. Definitely. In 1969, research showed that losing just 3 percent of your body weight resulted in a 17 percent slowdown in your metabolism. This has been known about for a long time, despite the 'calories in, calories out' propaganda. I think some of that slowdown is temporary. But for me, it was partially permanent. Although of course, some of that reduction in metabolism is age related.

I dieted hard, calorie deficit wise, when I was younger. And the 1200 cal diet that I could lose weight on at 25 is now higher than my daily maintenance diet.

Although some of my issue is insulin resistance, which is why the diabetic drug, mounjaro, is helping me so much. I eat more than 1200 a day now and can lose weight whereas before, after a while I couldn't lose weight even when reducing to 500 calories a day.

I have an appointment about my pre diabetes with a nurse in a few weeks, maybe they will prescribe me mounjaro!

I think you have to be type 2 and not just prediabetic but good luck! Do let us know how you get on as I am pre diabetic also so interested.

Consumed less calories than I expended, based meals around protein, exercised daily, drank hardly any alcohol, 7-9 hours sleep a night, 2 litres water a day. Lost 2 and a half stone, 2 years ago. Have maintained since and will never put it back on, but I still do all the things I did to lose the weight in the first place.

Gastric Sleeve, on the NHS, took 3.5 years on the waiting list and I've lost 7.5st in 7.5 months

Intrigued by the ones who've signed up for Zoe, is it expensive? I'm not too bad, I could lose half a stone maybe, and have an outdoorsy active lifestyle, but am approaching perimenopause age, and I am aware that my body will change and it'll be harder to shift then than now. I am determined I will not end up like my mother and grandmother, so I need to get a grip on eating like an adult now!

I did tip over into diabetic at one point and maybe I am insulin resistant as I find it so hard to lose weight.

Calorie counting and eating healthily for around 85% of my calories.

I also find it very difficult to lose weight at all. It is very depressing.

My GP monitoring me watched my struggles and willingly wrote me a referral for private surgery. It was such a novelty post op to diet and actually lose weight. I was very young the last time I was able to do that. But that effect after bariatric surgery is only temporary. Hormonal changes assist the weight loss, but these changes go back to your normal after a few months (5 months for me, up to a year and a half for some).

So the injections working on my insulin resistance have been great. I'm now lower than my first post-op target weight.

Re: insulin resistance, do Monjaro etc reset the body? Someone upthread who said they now consume more calories but lose more weight now - how?

I consume more calories on low carb and lose weight , calorie deficit but eating carbs doesn’t work for me

@Herbologistinwaiting

I did the full Zoe programme very soon after it was launched. It included a continuous glucose monitor which by far the best part of the programme. It was absolutely transformational for me.

The rest of the programme was not new to me, maybe because I'd ready everything they had polished, perhaps because their advice is really not very tailored to me at all but the monitor obviously gives me continuous feedback on my blood sugar which was super helpful.

It's a mindset. We all want to be slim but very few want to actually lose weight.
I went 5 months last year wanting to lose weight and dropped 12kg.
Stopped eating most carbs basically, plus no desert, no extra mouthfuls, no alcohol during the week.
Didn't do a diet but just cut the crap and did 12k steps a day most days.

Just eat less.

More soups. Fewer sandwiches.

More veggie sticks. Fewer sweeties.

Strength training.

It does boil down to eating less. Except for a very few people. I know when I'm honest about what I eat....it's far more than I like to think it is.