To ask for your best tip for losing weight. My best one is...

[mameulah]

...on another thread someone said that anytime you lose any amount of weight you should always double it. If you hadn't been eating sensibly you would have probably put that much on!

I also like the Kellogs advert about, 'it is not what you lose, it is what you gain.'

Any other inspiring thoughts out there?

tia

Slimming world always works for me. Was always 10.5-11 stone( quite tall so not overweight) at uni, then someone introduced me to the theories of slimming world (never went to a class) and i went down to 9.5 stone for my wedding 5 years ago. 2 pregnancies and a lot of cake eating later I was feeling rubbish and started sw again, and am now 9 st 3, with a bmi under 20. My dad marvels at the amount I eat , but it I all low fat and low sugar, although a lot of fruit. So I never get hungry. And you are supposed to have some syns every day so you don't deny yourself. Everything in moderation, but mostly healthy choices.

Write down everything you eat. Lots of studies have shown that this really helps weight loss.

Finally accept that you eat far too much and stop doing it
As pp has said, eat when you're hungry and stop when you're full
Don't sit on your arse all day, get up and move
Eat lots more fruit and veg
Couch to 5k - gives a psychological boost so you don't feel down and overeat
If you eat due to PMS, keep serotonin levels up by eating plain oat biscuits and consider taking 5 htp, B6 and magnesium too

Use a smaller plate for all your meals.
Don't routinely buy biscuits/crisps/cakes ,etc. Especially not multipacks. If you really want a bar of chocolate or a packet of crisps then walk to the shops and buy one. Yes, just the one.
Watch what you drink. Cut down or out on fizzy drinks, alcohol, those special coffees, etc.
Walk whenever possible. Climb the stairs instead of using escalators or lifts.
Take up a specific exercise that you enjoy and do it at least twice a week.
Do some form of weight training.

I'm another who believes in giving up breakfast.
It just kick starts my appetite so I want to snack all day

Eat more veg and fruit. Aim to eat 2 pieces of fruit and 6 portions of veg (or 3 large portions) then you naturally eat less of the bad stuff.

don't have junk food in the house.

Have healthy snacks in the fridge that you can eat straight away.

Drink water to fill you up.

Low fat products aren't good for you. The fat is just replaced with rubbish.

Eat less bread.

Meal planning helps me because then I'm not tempted to have something easy.

If you're tempted to eat junk, think about how you want to look and tell yourself that the chocolate/crisps/ect you're about to eat will not help. Think about how you'll feel after you've eaten it, then go brush your teeth/use mouthwash/drink some water/distract yourself with something.

My Fitness Pal to log everything you eat (down to milk in tea, butter on toast etc).

No "diet" or "low fat" foods, they're chock full of sugar. Just real, unprocessed food in small portions, teamed with an active lifestyle.

Has worked for me, down to 9st 7lb for the first time since my teens, and am keeping it off.

I run daily and rarely eat "treats."

Walk everywhere and try and fit in a bit of exercise if you can.

Cut doen on alcohol ( i only "allow" myself to drink two nights a week, however much or little)
Drink herbal tea- i find peppermint really refreshing and a change from tea or water.
Home cook your meals.
Nowt wrong with fat in your diet as long as the right sort. I have no issue with cheese or butter but try to avoid anything processed or not "homemade"

Be realistic. You are going to want treats so fit them in eg a takeaway once a fortnight, a can of coke at the weekend. Bake your own muffins instead of eating chocolate.

Do a detox week (or 5 days) every six months or so to reset your body - no dairy, alcohol, caffine, meat, bread, pasta or eggs. You can have fish, rice, potatoes and anything else. After a week you will feel fab!

Oh and send your child to nursery. Within six months you will have had 3 d&v bugs whoch really helps shift those last few pounds

Watch what you're drinking. Not only alcohol but I think it's easy to forget how many calories are in a latte/a coke/a tea with sugar or cordial/fruit juice. Drink fizzy water if plain water is too boring

Accept the unpleasant fact that the word diet is another way of saying starve yourself so that you need to burn your stores for energy, which means feeling hungry.

Also, feeling hungry isn't the most terrible feeling in the world.

Stop eating processed food

Yes to breastfeeding. I hardly had an ounce of fat when I was.

Or have undiagnosed coeliac disease. Amazing what a bit of malabsorption does for your weight! Your hair starts falling out though.......(am better now though!)

"Nothing tastes as good as being slim feels". Stick this moto on the fridge.

Cutting right down on alcohol really helps as it stops the munchies that inevtitably follow too much to drink, so a double saving of caloreis there!

Another one here who put on weight when breastfeeding - and when training for a half marathon (it just made me hungry and I ate loads. Not badly, but more carbs than usual. I know muscle is heavier, but it wasn't just that).

I think most diets work if you stick to them (lost 3 stone on WEightWatchers after DC1, and three stone on Low carb after DCs 2 and 3. I preferred low carb because I didn't feel hungry.

The problem is that if you go back to your old eating (or for me, drinking!) habits, the weight comes back, so you also need to make changes (ideally not just diet, also exercise) for the longer term. I like 6:1 to stay on track.

Love rollmeover's advice - good sense. I also like the quote 'Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.'

I am another who didn't lose weight from bfing, despite having an enormous greedy baby. Wonder why it works that way for some.

Breastfeeding, slimming world, exercise - even if it is just walking to and from nursery/school several times a day, especially if you have a 1yr old in a backpack whilst pushing a double buggy.
Ohh and complication following wisdom tooth extraction leaving you unable to open mouth wider than the tip of your baby finger for five days. This last one followed by a long course of two types of abx that make everything taste like metal saw me lose 1 1/2 stone in a month :)

I think it's important to still have what you like but healthier versions. So my diet still consists of the same kind of foods i just try to have less of it and if there is a lower calorie option I'll have it, like baked crisps instead of normal crisps. Psychologically it works for me because i don't feel like I'm making huge sacrifices. I've lost 20lbs this way since August last year.

Aside from breastfeeding and walking everywhere when I had a baby (not a toddler whose pace is somewhat slower than mine), the thing that worked best for me was waitressing in a children's restaurant. You know, the kind with a pub at one end, soft play at the other, and a sea of melted ice cream and squashed chips in between.

I only did a 3-month stretch over a summer while at uni and lost two stone! 12 hour shifts encompassing at least two meal times, on your feet the whole time. When you do finally get a break, you've already worked through the hunger and come out the other side, and the food is so unappetising you'd rather just have a quick snack.

Best thing - getting paid to do it!

mynameissuz sounds similar to how I lost weight when I was nursing. The weight literally fell off me. Walking miles every day - round the ward, to x-ray, theatre, etc. plus having to physically lift patients, combined with missing meal breaks.

Exercise in the evening -20 mins of Julian michaels every night did it for me.

I mean jillian 30 day shred

Dieting is mostly in the mind, it's the psychological side of it that makes it so damn hard.

Agree.

Also agree about skipping breakfast. It kickstarts my appetite too.

Get pregnant. I felt so sick I could barely eat. I had perfectly healthy babies mind...and was half a stone lighter than pre-pregnancy by a couple of weeks after the birth - breastfeeding sucked it right out of me.

Oh, be stressed and anxious.

And yes, go traveling somewhere without nice food.

Only eat when you're actually hungry and only eat as much as you need to satisfy your hunger...

Dysentry worked well for me

(Apart from that, i recommend biwis low carb bootcamp)