To ask how you lost weight and kept it off

[Pinkbutton85]

I go round and round and round and round in circles. Then round and round and round some more.

I know the science. Eat less, move more.

I’m lazy. I have little time to do a workout. I love junk food. I am my own worst enemy.

I know where I go wrong. I know my excuses too...

I’m wondering what worked for YOU.

Just clean eating? Slimming world or weight watchers? Going vegan?

I’ve lost 4 stone (2 to go) with a combination of low carb and exercise, first running and now CrossFit.

I don’t calorie count and I eat lots. Has taken me since last May. I now eat and drink in a completely different way and exercise 5 x/week. It’s been hard but I don’t think I’ll ever go back as I look and feel so much better. I’ve lost 11 inches off my waist and have gone from a size 18-20 to almost in a 12, 14 starting to feel a bit loose.

Typical day would be bacon/egg/avocado for breakfast, some sort of salad with fatty dressing and big portion protein for lunch and curry with cauliflower rice for dinner. Snack of a piece of cheese, few blueberries, occasional high protein bar. I also have a sneaky few carbs after an exercise session as they have less impact then, so still have the occasional roast potatoes or bit of pasta.

This definitely feels sustainable long term and the exercise helps loads as for the first time ever I’m eating to try and fuel my body to do better at press ups, pull ups etc and not trying to starve/deny it.

It's brutal and a lot of my friends/colleagues are overweight and don't want to hear it but I follow a culmination of these rules.

•Only eat 2 meals a day. (I skip breakfast)
•Go to bed hungry
•Learn how many calories are in food - 100 calories are in a slice of bread etc.
•Know how many calories you should eat a day (TDEE Google it)
•Learn hunger doesn't build, it comes in waves, have a drink and forget about it for a while.
•Food isn't important, it's fuel.

My overweight friends "say oooo I couldn't skip breakfast"
Or "I can't go to bed hungry" Or "I have to eat three meals a day"
They struggle losing weight but they just eat too many calories each week.

Calorie counting. That way I can still treat myself, I’ve just had two ‘portions’ of a desert but only had 1400 calories the rest of the day so I’m fine. I know it’s not the healthiest way but I just couldn’t give up junk food/sweets forever. It’s too hard.

Lots of things have more/less calories than you’d think. I don’t eat some of the things I used to now because they’re not ‘worth’ the calories.

Im dieting atm. I cant decide whuch i hate most...being plump or being on a diet.

I rekon id rather eat nice food long term than be skinny.

I’ve recently started to lose weight.

I have a big bowl of ready brek for breakfast with a glass of grapefruit juice plus water.

A cup of strong tea mid morning because I like a little pick me up!

Banana/apple/orange for mid-morning snack instead of biscuits.

For lunch I have a jacket potato with Weight Watchers baked beans/fat free cottage cheese/tiny tin of tuna plus salad. I used to have sandwiches so essentially I’ve stopped eating bread.

We’ve also started to eat lots of veg based dishes for dinner, cut back on meat and I’ve cut out alcohol during the week.

I wanted to be able to look back on the day and be able to remember everything I’d eaten. But most importantly, this has to be sustainable otherwise there’s no point in trying.

Also, I do a dance based exercise class, Pilates and I try to do a couple of long walks a week. I make sure I walk fast enough to get out of breath and try to walk almost nonstop for an hour.

I did the blood sugar diet for a while and that really kick started the weight loss which was very motivating. I gave myself mini pit stops i.e. target weights where I would allow myself to relax a little and just maintain for a month or so then try and lose the next little bit. When in relaxed mode I would have carbs when eating socially or if I fancied it at weekends.
This really helped me relearn how much I needed to eat to feel satisfied and I enjoyed my food enormously. It was liberating savouring a slice of cake and feeling like it was the first time I was tasting it. Equally if it wasn't very good cake I wouldn't feel like finishing whereas in the past I would have shovelled it down just because it was there.
I'm maintaining now by doing the 5:2 IF way of eating and I find myself making much better food choices because I genuinely crave the healthier food options. It doesn't feel much like a diet at all.

Watching with interest

I have an underactive thyroid. It needs a moderate calorie intake to support its function. I like exercise, I work out most nights burn 300 calories so I need some carbs. I don’t drink alcohol except a glass or two at the weekends, don’t touch fruit juice, hardly any refined sugar, plenty of fruit, veg, lean protein, always take my own healthy lunch to work I’m still half a stone over the maximum healthy weight for my height, I cook from scratch most nights so calorie counting is time consuming.

I lost nearly 2st on Weightwatchers 4 years back. Guess what? It came back.

I’m always tweaking SW recipes or making it up. As long as you stick to the basic rules it works.

I lost 7 stone in 9 months with Weight watchers 2 years ago and have stayed the same weight. I don't eat breakfast, don't snack, drink 2 litres of water before 4pm and eat high protein low carb meals. I walk at least 10k steps per day, usually 13k. My daily calories are about 1500.

Placemarking

I lost 4st with Weight watchers and have kept it off for almost 15 years. I still go to WW meetings and track what I eat most of the time but not obsessively - just enough to stop myself from piling it back on

Diet type things that have worked for me are high fat low carb, MFP and 5:2.

General things that have worked are postponing eating as much as possible - no breakfast, small lunch, normal dinner. Not having bad food in the house. Change of mindset that I will always need to monitor and be careful as I'd just choose to eat badly. Monitoring is not hard and I can still enjoy food though. Appetite and cravings reduce.

However, the main thing that has worked was leaving a FT you job that made me unhappy, and being a SAHM. I have so much more time to plan, shop, organise and think about what I'm eating, and less stress so less emotional eating.

Alternatives to eating to manage stress never worked. Removing the stress worked.

F45 or HIIT training 4 times a week
Small boot camp with trainer 1 time a week
Park run as a family once a week
Yes it's expensive, yes it takes time - but you only get one body invest in it !
(We all spend money on clothes, cars, entertainment, houses, kids... stuff - but how often do you hear someone say I can't afford to work out or I don't have the time) make the time ! We all have 24 hours in the day.

Be kind to your self.... eat well, more protein and veg - less carbs (love pasta? Have half your normal pasta serving with veg) and no one died from having a wine on a Friday or some chocolate - just don't do it daily ! Good luck op, the first 6 months are the hardest !

Slimming world for me. Then once I got to my target weight I carried on with speed / free food, healthy extras and syns for treats, but switched to full fat yoghurts, cheese and using oil rather than fry lite etc (personally feel it's healthier than all the low fat stuff) and I've managed to maintain my weight for almost a year.

I felt the basic SW principles of filling up on fruit, veg, lean meat and pasta / rice etc, reducing but still having bread, cereal, cheese, milk, and limiting but not completely denying myself chocolate and other crap made sense to me and seemed like a healthy approach. I tried to cook decent filling meals and use my syns for nice treats, and avoided the more processed things they suggested like mug shots and their ready meals. I also stayed away from their dessert recipes. Found them all disappointing and would rather use more syns for a decent slab of cake.

I agree some of the recipes weren't great - never enjoyed any from the website, however there were some gorgeous ones in the magazines. I definitely tweaked the recipes to suit mine and DHs tastes. We like our food spicy and always added extra herbs and spices to what the recipes suggest. If you're tweaking by adding other free foods I can't see how that can be a problem. It didn't affect my weight loss anyway! When I did start to feel bored I'd search online for new recipes and then go through and make them slimming world friendly. I rarely came across one that couldn't be adapted to make them low syn or free without totally changing the flavour

Sometimes it’s working out what your problem area is. Whether it’s sugar, carbs emotional unless the diet and more importantly the food plan after the diet addresses that it will probably come back on again. Did slimming world once it was full of returnees all singing the diets praises.

I have no idea how people find the time to calorie count! One meal must take ages to work out.

Eat loads of veg.
Never leave home without an emergency apple and banana
Don't have a biscuit tin
Eat off a small plate
Vanity

4 stone weight gain with both babies

One thing that worked for me was cutting down wine consumption. Previously averaged one small glass a night. Now I have a generous one on a Friday night. It worked for 2 reasons: not drinking alcohol calories and not making poor snacking choices after having a drink. One glass of wine and my will power is toast!

I lost nearly two stone for my wedding.

I started 18months prior to the wedding to try and do it sensibly.

Used 'my fitness pal' - logged absolutely everything i ate and it got quite addictive.

I also bought a second hand treadmill and used it everyday. Id watch 'tipping point' (lol) when on it. Very brisk walking during the show and running for the duration of the adverts.

Iv kept it off due to stress (sorry this isnt ideal.... and i dont recommend that form of weight loss)

It depends on how overweight you are. Look at the documentary by Dr Rachel Battarham from UCL. If you have a BMI over 35 you chances of keeping it off for 5 yrs are something like 1:137. and at BMI 40 it's 1:630.

At those weights the only scientifically proven long term sustainable weight loss method is Bariatric surgery. Not bands . They are too easy to cheat and NHS won't do them anymore. Sleeve or Bypass. Go see your GP. It's a long 6 month minimum programme including dietician and psychologist. Before surgery. To make sure you really understand the process.
My sister had one last year. Has completely changed her life in so many positive ways. Wishes she had done it five years ago. She couldn't get up of the sofa without a stick last March. In April she is doing the Three peaks challenge. !

If weight is not so severe but a matter or 2or 3 stone. Then logging EVERYTHING you eat. Work out the amount of calories you need to lose weight and stick to it.

Exercise will not make you lose weight. Only eating less will do that.

Only eat when you’re really hungry
Stop as soon as you’re no longer hungry
Cups of tea in between if you have to have something
Walk everywhere you can
Weigh often
Fill the time you usually spend eating or thinking about eating doing something useful. Believe it or not, housework is one of the best calorie Bürgers.

You really don’t need to spend any money on this

I'm on WW at the moment and have lost a few lbs over 2 stone so far. Have another stone or so to go. I've always been a bit like you, OP, in the start-stop cycle and faffing about dipping into various fads. WW is the ONLY thing that's ever worked for me, and I'm really in the zone now (not always the case, clearly).

I really believe that different things work for different people. My friend has followed the blood-sugar diet (or a version of it) for the last couple of years and lost over a stone straight off the bat (that she didn't need to lose - that was a by-product of other health reasons). She raved about it so I tried it for 2-3 months and didn't lose an ounce.
Slimming World didn't suit me either - I gained weight!

So I suppose you have to find something that suits you. And bear in mind that if you punish yourself too much, you just won't sustain it. I wanted to be able to lead a normal life, going out socially and being able to factor that in without wrecking the whole thing. Weight Watchers allows that. If it's all a massive chore, or involves too much of a lifestyle change, you just won't keep it up.

Can anyone suggest healthy snacks that are filling but I can leave at work for the post-school day slump. I’m a teacher and as soon as the kids leave I am desperate for a pick- me up but do think sugar might be a no no for me as I just can’t stop. I was thinking nuts but they are a bit moreish too.

Apple and piece of cheese
Clementines and ration your nuts
Wholemeal bread and dark chocolate

Shamelessly bookmarking.

I’ve gained weight since I quit smoking and it seems very stubborn weight, I’m not losing anything.