Losing weight without injections - what really worked for you?

[30GrandLessStress]

I’ve gained about 4 stone since Covid for a variety of reasons (mainly eating too much shite) and I’m desperate to shift it.

The last 2 years has been a merry go round of different diets and subsequent failures. The only one that has really worked in any sense is Keto, but I found it so restrictive and incompatible with family meals, which is a significant factor as Dh and I are hugely time strapped.

I’ve started exercising consistently 5-6 days a week, and through that I’ve been very slowly losing (1-2lb a month) but it’s not enough.

As it stands currently, I eat very little through the day - first food is lunch at 2pm which is normally a salad with chicken, eggs or tuna. Sometimes I even skip this depending on how busy I am.

We eat dinner at 7pm, usually something home cooked - spag bol, curry and rice, chicken and veg, soup etc.

I do have a downfall of snacking in bed while I watch tv, normally a chocolate bar or pack of crisps.

Have tried calorie counting, slimming world and all other manners of diet but nothing sticks. Time is my main challenge, if I had a very defined set menu to follow I think I would find it so much easier!

Came back to add that I have swapped biscuits for rice or corn cakes - yes they taste like cardboard but they give me enough crunch to feel like a snack and I can have 3 for under 100 cals (by the time I’ve crunched through them I’ve got over the snack “need”)

I know I’m a binge eater so I just cannot have chocolate or biscuits in the house - if we are given them, I have to get the DC’s (teen boys) to get them away or give them away

it is a case of working out strategies for your weak moments - have an alternate option ready for those moments you know you struggle with

What worked for me, after years of Slimming World, Weight Watchers etc, was intuitive eating. I unfollowed all SW accounts on social media and started following intuitive eating accounts and it totally changed my mindset after years of having a dieting mentality.

I lost 2 and a half stone and have kept it off with no effort.

I eat when I’m hungry and I stop when I’m full. I only eat what I truly want to eat, something that will be really satisfying. No low fat, fat free substitutes. I also walk a lot.

I don’t have cravings, I don’t overeat and I don’t even think about food now. When I was dieting it consumed my thoughts.

Not eating late at night.

Eat your dinner, brush your teeth, don’t eat anything else

Calorie counting using my fitness pal - weighing and measuring. Not eyeballing. 10,000 steps a day. Using a service called Tara Grimes Fitness and learning to change my mindset and self talk and learning to make better nutrition choices. Having a protein goal each day which stops the food noise. Adjusting my calories down as I lose weight.
Accepting that as I’m 40+ it’s going to be a long process but that makes it sustainable.

Quitting sugar and being generally low carb but not quite keto

Intermittent 16:8 or more like 17:7 has worked for me, I’ve lost more than 3 and a half stone. I completely overhauled my diet too and rarely eat sugar or fatty foods now.

Crisps and chocolate used to be a daily occurrence, multiple times most days and often instead of meals. All that has stopped and I gave up sugar in coffee and tea.

I started in January and I’m still losing the odd pound now even though I’m just trying to maintain. I also joined a gym and exercise as much as I can, weights and walking mostly.

I feel the best I’ve felt since I had to give up running years ago and love how clothes fit and feel. I’ve gone from a size 18 apple to a lean 10-12.

I’ve lost nearly two stone this year but haven’t been going hard at it as I don’t want to give it much headspace, more little changes that I have kept up.
I rarely eat cereals, bread, pasta, rice, potatoes, crisps, cake,chocolate etc anymore. No breakfast at all three days a week when I work, and take a salad these days without fail.
Try and snack on fruit (which I hate) and cheese! Try not to snack or eat between meals at all but this is what I find hardest. Got some low cal biscuit things which are ok.
Eat plenty of eggs. So filling.
No alcohol.
Not massively active but do try and brisk walk for an hour three or four times a week which I never did before.
I’d like to lose another 5 or 6lbs ideally but am not that motivated to push it to the next level and probably about right for my height now anyway, I’m 5ft 9.
Coming up 54.

I’m disabled - spend pretty much most of my time in a wheelchair so it’s easy for me to put on weight. Genuinely the only thing that worked for me was frozen and chilled calorie counted weight watchers meals with added veg to bulk the small portions out. And lots of will power. Lost seven stones and to date have kept it off.

I have lost 3 stone since April this year as I was turned down for mountjaro. I have been having berries granola & yoghurt for breakfast, homemade salad for dinner and healthy ish tea with steamed veg. I have avoided the large bags of crisps & chocolate I was eating almost daily & have concentrated on snacking on fruit. I try to drink in excess of 2 litres of water a day which I think has been key. I roughly try to stay within 1200 - 1500 calories a day & weigh myself every couple of days to keep on track. I've had an unhealthy day today & gone way over my calories but yomortows another day. Hope this might help 😀

Tomorrow's another day...

I eat healthy but it’s the lack of exercise and alcohol that’s my issue. Must try harder!
I tried Ozempic but the side effects were too much for me.

Ive lost 5st since January. Basically most days I just eat a lunch of about 400-500 calories. Then dinner eat whatever without thinking much about the calories. If I'm going to eat something really unhealthy like a takeaways i don't bother with lunch and just eat what i want for dinner. Don't really snack anymore. Havent upped my exercise much because i find exercise just makes me hungrier. Drink lots of fluids.

5 stone off - exercise, come hell or high water i walk 60-90 minutes daily. Calorie counting - 1200 per day over 3 mostly home cooked meals with v low carbs ( rice bread pasta etc).... i prep loads in advance. The biggest challenges are being tired, stressed and eating my emotions. I can mitigate some of this by having good quality tasty food in the freezer rather than making 'bad choices ..

I fall off the wagon all the time - ive put on 8lb in the last month through not paying attention. I'll get it off again by doubling down on food and upping the walking.

Its a journey!

Intermittent fasting worked for me. I did a combination combination of 5:2 and 4:3 (500 calories 2 or 3 days a week). I lost about 3 stone and have mostly kept it off. It isn’t something I could have kept up forever but it worked for me to get a calorie deficit to lose weight.

I go to the gym every morning before work(5 days a week), do a combo of cardio and weights. Have greek yogurt, protein powder, chia seeds and berries for breakfast. Then have lunch and dinner but make sure it's high protein. Sometimes I fancy a snack so will have one of the DCs little chocolate bars. At the weekend I slack off a bit and add some wine to my menu.

Cook (as in the brand) frozen meals for dinner. The ones that need potatoes and veg with them, you can have loads of veg and a bit a potato, the rest of the family can have as much potato as they need. Obviously you still need to stick to the exercise and lunch but this has helped loads with the difference in calories need across the household.

That and find yourself something low calorie to snack on in bed. You know you’re going to do it so build it in. Popcorn, low calorie ice-cream, a lollipop, freeze-pops. Don’t rely on self control, you’re setting yourself up to fail, give yourself some ok alternatives.

And you don’t need to be perfect, just aim for an improvement - sometimes not put more weight on is a great achievement!

Low carb here for me - I don’t find it restrictive for family meals - I just have microwave bags of cauliflower rice that I can sub for me with a chili or curry or something or I’ll do extra veg rather than the potatoes. Also we use meal boxes in the week - green chef do keto options so then I don’t have to think about it

3 substantially vegetable/wholegrain meals a day, minimal booze, no snacks.

Look at the Human Being Diet - I now know several people who have lost vast amount of weight from it. It allows a once a week treatment which kick starts your body into reminding itself to burn fuel. It sounds like you’re starving yourself for most of the day.

Family life is very incompatible with weight loss. But to some extent I think when you want to lose weight you have to opt out of some of the family eating, even if you’re present.

However, your snacking chocolate in bed is your absolutely worst habit and you know it!!! I’ve lost weight so completely cutting out snacking and having three veg and protein meals a day

We don't buy easy to consume calories... If it isn't there then it can't be eaten. To be fair UOF reduction came about because I read about a link between depression and autoimmune conditions and UPF consumption. It seemed plausible and we have family issues with both. Weigh loss is a happy unintended consequence.

What @Lottapianos said. Absolutely nailed it. This is also what is working for me, late 40s with a long history of yo-yo dieting. I recommend the MacroFactor app for logging as it calculates your expenditure (calorie burn) based on your weight and food logging. It is excellent and if you follow it consistently 80/20 you will succeed as long as you are doing consistent resistance training 3-4 x per week

I agree wholeheartedly with this poster. I have lost nearly three stone this year (I also put on a lot during COVID) and what has worked is everything the poster suggests. I do eat more protein than before but not in any following a special diet kind of way. The key for me was aiming for health, not restricting what I ate amount wise. In fact I eat more now, just I eat different things.

Lifeplus metabolic reset diet.

21 days of nothing but healthy protein and veggies for every meal, protein measured, veggies all you can eat. Lots of water only They give you supplements for stuff you've cut out.
The. 21 days to reintroduce the foods over cut out slowly and stabilise.
Each round of diet and stabilisarion phase you loose anything between 1-3 stones depending on how strictly you follow it without cheating etc.

The only thing that worked for me! Was pricey for the supplements but because you metabolism gets boosted and you stabilise it doesn't go straight back on.

You pick up some cooking tips too which if you keep can be great!

Wow, some fantastic success stories and advice here, thank you! I need to have a good read through them and see which bits I can take for myself.

I definitely do think that I need to have no restrictions on what foods I can eat, so calorie counting makes the most sense for me, but I also need to figure out why I haven’t been able to stick to it so far.

I might try to come up with a set of rules for different scenarios where I fall off the wagon, I always seem to do better when I have defined rules that are easy to follow. For instance, on keto if I were peckish, I would just snack on a hard boiled egg or a handful of nuts.

The snack in bed is definitely a downfall, I would love to be able to cut it out, but at the same time, I feel like I need some sort of treat, and if I’m going to have it at any time then why not in bed at night?

Honestly OP, I would say first of all well done for changing your habits and taking care of yourself. Also, you say you are losing 1-2 pounds a month: in a year that could be 12kg and in 2 years 24kg which is a hell of a lot of weight. If you have found something which does work for you the important thing is to keep chipping away at it and don’t give up! You can do amazing things if you just believe in yourself and stick with it. Whatever you do needs to be sustainable for the long term not just a couple of months; and maybe what you are doing is exactly that?