To ask what helped you lose weight and keep it off in the long term

[Sustainablelossofweight]

I have a fair bit of weight to lose, at least 4 stone or so.

I have tried and failed to get into new eating and fitness routines more times than I can count and it has become a cycle of doom which has gone on for far too long.

I know I am an emotional eater and also that my portions are too big so these are the things I need to work on however my motivation for losing weight now is that my weight keeps creeping up and I'm worried about the future, want to stay fit and healthy for my kids / husband etc.

If you have lost a lot of weight before and kept it off, can I ask how you have done this and what you do now to stay on track? Thanks in advance! x

Eat nothing standing up e.g. no grazing at the fridge. When you eat do nothing else - just concentrate on the taste of the food -do not surf the net or watch television. If you feel full, don't have that last forkful "to prevent waste". It's better to throw out food than be overweight eathing it.

I once lost 15kg - this is what worked for me:

• ban little snacks - I used to think things like 'this snack is only 50kcal/100kcal etc, so it's fine if I eat it', then I would do that repeatedly throughout the day. Once when I had a cheat day during my diet, did those snacks but this time added up the calories - it came to 800kcal!

• alter the snacks you do have - choose snacks that are more filling but not necessarily high calorie - eg peanut butter with banana on brown toast, or boiled egg with salt

• if you tend to get hungry or crave more of a certain food quickly after you've already eaten, keep reminding yourself that you've just had some, that you're just craving the taste rather than being actually hungry

• reserve one treat a day, which you can do at a set time if you like. Allow yourself to eat that's both filling and a treat, eg a brownie. It's much more sustainable to allow yourself treats while dieting, plus it works as a way of teaching yourself balance/moderation which will be helpful in keeping the weight off after you've finished actual dieting.

• still have 3 meals a day but aim for the balance of 1/3 vegetables, 1/3 protein and 1/3 carbohydrates for lunch and dinner. For breakfast I recommend either porridge or egg on toast

Forgot to add in my previous post but as for exercise:

• walking is great, especially if doing strenuous exercise is difficult for you

• YouTube workout videos are great - lots of channels on there do a workout challenge where you follow their free program they made for a week/etc. Having that structure really helped me stay consistent whilst still exercising at my convenience. I recommend Holly Dolke, Chloe Ting and Pregnancy and Postpartum TV

I lost around 4 st on OMAD and doing exercise. I go the gym and swim, but walking is great exercise too especially incorporating some hills.
I didn’t weigh myself much, but go on clothes sizes instead. I went from a 16 to size 8/10. The exercise I did also changed my body shape so I looked and still look slimmer than I am. I am on top of my healthy BMI and people are always surprised how much I weigh, but I look toned which helps.

How's is this a long term strategy socially though? Day you get invited out to dinner, most people can't be happy waiting until 7pm to eat.

I think recommending one meal a day is irresponsible and definitely not healthy.

Weigh your food, do not restrict the food you like to eat, increase your non exercise activity, stupid things like never taking the lift and parking further away from shops all these things add up. I would definitely recommend lifting weights it's completely turned my life around in pretty much every aspect I can think of.

Also if you have a bad day or a bad meal don't write the rest of the day/week off. If you accidentally stubbed your toe you wouldn't stubb the other one as well, it's done move on. Slow and steady wins the race take as long as you can to lose the weight and it will give you the best possibility of keeping it off.

I gained a couple of stone during lockdown and I realised my lifestyle had become unhealthy. To be honest it scared me and I knew I had to do something about it, especially when DS expressed concern about my weight.

When the world started opening up again I took part in a 30 days fitness challenge at a friendly local gym and really enjoyed it. I’ve never been sporty so finding something I was good at (weightlifting) was really inspiring for me. The exercise helped my mood which made me less likely to want to overeat and I started keeping track of my calories and getting more protein. Alcohol was the next thing to go as it was interfering with my workouts and making me feel off balance. I did a 30 day alcohol free challenge (The Alcohol Experiment) and almost a year later I am still going strong.

I have lost 4 stone. I’m the fittest I’ve ever been and my mental health is so much better.

Small changes over a long period of time have been the most effective tool for me. Being consistent with my workouts, making time for regular movement, changing habits that were holding me back (drinking, poor sleep, making poor food choices) by replacing them with different ones (alcohol free, good sleep routine, choosing healthier foods with occasional treats).

I never ever thought I could do anything like this. If someone had said to me during Covid that I would be where I am now I would have laughed and said they were barking mad. Start small, change one thing at a time and believe in yourself.

Hi OP, I was an emotional eater too and used to be a size 20, I'm now a normal healthy weight and have been for several years.

I've done it by completely overhauling the way I view food and exercise. Here are my tips.

1. It's a gradual process. Reapeat - it's gradual. Don't expect it to happen overnight, or even in a few months. This is a minimum of a year to get into habits, and a few more years to keep going. It's long, but so is your life. You have the time - that's the number one thing to remember! - There is no quick fix to this, so accept it will take a while to truly make changes and commit to the long haul, for yourself and your future.

2. Personal trainer. If there's any way you can afford this, prioritise it, and shop around until find one you click with and feel comfortable with. Mine changed my life. It wasn't what I was expecting at all - there was no shouting or pushiness - she was encouraging and really my cheerleader! Amazing experience and we're still friends.

3. Educate yourself about processed foods (UPF's especially). I recommend a book called "Why we eat (too much)".
   Reading this and conversations with my personal trainer led me to completely change my diet. I cut out processed foods as much as I could, and that includes 'low fat' versions of dairy products, which had always been my go-to for weight loss previously (skimmed milk seemed like a no-brainer to cut the calories!)
   Switching to full fat milk, cheese and yoghurt was scary, not gonna lie! My PT told me to stop worrying about fat and just see how I feel. It felt so counter-intuitive. But it worked. I lost weight. I was more satisfied from every meal and snack I had - even a cup of coffee was more satisfying, and it helped to quell my emotional eating! It's amazing.
   If you are truly full and satisfied from your meals, you will not feel so much need for emotional eating - true story!

4. Savoury breakfasts.
   If you eat things like cereal, oatmeal with sugar/ honey, muffins, sweet yoghurt, flapjacks, or fruit / fruit juice for breakfast, stop.
   It spikes your blood glucose which is the last thing you want in the morning and you will be hungry after a couple of hours.
   Eat something like sourdough toast with avocado/ nut butter, eggs, meat, fish, vegetables - there are loads of options. Just avoid sugar in the morning entirely. It takes some getting used to, but trust me. It works. You will be more full and satisfied, and that is the secret to all of this. Sugar does not keep you full and satisfied.

5. Cook.
   Again linked to the UPF's I suppose. Cook your own meals from scratch. It takes time, but learn to enjoy it. Try to avoid ready meals as much as you can. Buy the best quality and freshest food you can afford.

6. Move.
   Strength training did it for me. I lived a fairly sedentary life all the way into my 30's and hated most exercise. I never thought I'd get into it, but my personal trainer really helped me see how rewarding it can be. I love it now. You have to find something that you love and fits into your life - if that's a 1.5 hour walk a day then great - I do that a couple of times a week but I'd get bored doing it every day, so I mix it up with some strength/ pilates/ swimming.

It took me a while to enjoy movement. There were many, many times where I didn't want to get out of bed for my morning work out, or I pushed myself so much I thought I couldn't carry on - that's where you have to find some strength inside yourself to just keep going. It does require some willpower.

That's where my final point comes in which is often overlooked...

7. Mental health. Look after it! If your brain isn't in good shape, your body won't be either. Whatever mental health means for you - have a creative outlet, do something with your friends, meditate, listen to music - just make time for yourself. Therapy can be really, really useful, too, even if you don't feel you have a 'problem' as such, just to talk through whatever is going on in your life. Look after your brain. It's really important. If you have other issues going on in your life that are affecting you emotionally, you need to find ways to support yourself with those - emotional health comes hand in hand with physical health. They are more connected than I ever realised.

So those are my 7 tips.

Sorry for the length of this! - I have been on a real journey with it and want to share my experience. I hope some of it is helpful for you.

This is exactly the kind of 'simple' yet difficult to follow advice that gets ignored. There is no way to do this without significant mental effort and an acceptance that you will feel negative emotions (maybe a lot of them) - but you just have to say no to food. And keep saying no. Yes it's hard. I would love to sit around all day eating cheese and nuts at will (my favourite things), but if I did, I would very quickly be the size of a bus. So I don't. It's that simple. Not easy. But simple. You need to stop trying to hunt for the 'magic solution' and realise that you, and only you, are responsible for what goes in your mouth. Every. Second. Of. The. Day. You have the ability to chose. The suggestion of therapy is a great one to help empower you to take positive ownership over those choices and to address the self sabotaging cycle you are stuck in. I don't say any of this because I think it's easy to do, and I wish you the very best of luck

Changing my focus from what I 'can't' have because its 'bad' to what my body deserves.
My body is 53 years old and has withstood a lot of wear and tear. Ideally I need it for another 30 years plus. So, just as if I had a beautiful antique that I wanted to preserve, I need to properly care for it.
With this in mind, I gradually starting adding in foods that would benefit me, and gradually reduced those that did nothing but satisfy my taste buds and didn't provide much nutritional bang for their buck.
Over a year, this led me to a vegan plant based diet, with very minimal processed food or alcohol. I'm two stone down with a BMI of 21, which I maintain. My only excercise is 30 mins of brisk walking a day.
Obviously cutting out animal foods isn't for everyone, but the principle of nothing but the best for your body can still be applied.
I think this worked for me because it started from a place of self love and care, rather my many previous weight loss attempts that were motivated by self disgust.

I’d say take one day at a time. If you think that you are going to restrict yourself for the next three months, that seems like a long time and too hard. Just do today, then tomorrow just do tomorrow. Don’t look any further than today.

Have you considered hypnotherapy? I’ve recently done it (not for weight management) and found the results amazing! It’s literally changed a huge aspect of my life. I was dubious at first, but it definitely worked for me.

I agree to some extent - it does require willpower - however
it's also possible to over-simplify. If you say 'look, this is easy and simple, you just need willpower' that's not really very empowering or helpful. It sounds like OP has been trying to do this for a long time.

There are definitely things that are helpful to know which make it easier. For example educating yourself about nutrition. The other day someone was saying they were trying to lose weight on 1200 calories a day and eating rubbish like Go Ahead bars and not feeling full and asking why they couldn't keep the weight off. The answer is obvious - a Go Ahead bar is processed carbs and sugar and is not going to keep you full, so you're going to struggle to stick to that diet no matter how much willpower you might have.

Educating yourself about the right kinds of foods that will keep you full and help you with cravings is a really important step and a lot of people don't know this. You don't need as much willpower if you're eating satisfying, real food.

I had to change my whole relationship with food, huge stress and emotional eater, would reward myself with food like a dog. Then one day came across a book by the fitness chef it changed my mindset and I used nutracheck app to calorie count I set it to just 1lb a week loss doing it too quick is restrictive and quite frankly demoralising after a week or so. I've followed it on and off now for 3 years I'm 4 stone down the big thing for me is that when I'm not following it because my mindset is changed although I don't lose I do maintain the new weight without much thought then when my mindset is ready to pull it in again I do it properly and lose a bit more. To me now there is no good food and bad food I choose a little bit of what I fancy and no longer binge because I think we'll blown it now. It took me a good 12 months to break that cycle as I'd had it since childhood

Oh, and the other thing I learned, is that it's very hard to make a sudden change in one area while everything else remains the same. If you've had years of a lifestyle that incorporates certain habits around food, it's very very hard to change them over night, which is what we try to do when we start a diet on Monday.
I had the advantage of making my change during lockdown when everything was so different and I had little else to do but focus on my 'project'. My usual habits were suspended and I had few diversions.
Within the context of normal life I'm not sure a sudden cold turkey would work. It never did before. Which is why I'd strongly recommend a slow and gradual process of change and acceptance that every tiny step, each apple instead of chocolate bar is a step closer to your goal and don't let perfect be the enemy of good.

I lost 2.5 stone on the Fast 800 diet (low calorie, low carb) and have kept it off. I would agree it’s others about educating yourself about food. Although the Fast 800 did work for me - it was short enough to sustain but long enough to change my palate - I’m now of the opinion that carbs themselves are not necessarily the problem, I think it is all about UPF. I do now eat carbs - less than I used to certainly, but those that I do eat are not UPF. If I eat bread, its bread I have made. If I eat a cake, its a homemade one. I don’t touch breakfast cereals. I really only drink tea, coffee, water, red wine and gin. I cook from scratch most days.

There are two very recent books out that explain just how helpless we are given the food environment we live in - Ravenous by Henry Dimbleby and Ultra Processed People by Chris van Tulleken. The van Tulleken twins also had a great podcast out explaining UPF called A Thorough Examination.

Good luck!

I need this thread so much. Thank you OP.

@ZoraMipha yes, completely agree there's a big place in this for arming yourself with as much knowledge of nutrition as possible; but ultimately there has to be an acceptance that it is mentally and emotionally hard, and that willpower is going to be key. The OP has stated she is an emotional eater, hence why therapy will be a great help. But I actually don't think having 100 people say what weird and wonderful food regime they went on is particularly helpful either. Because whatever the OP eats, at whatever times of the day she eats them, it will still come down to whether she can accept saying no to food and deal with the emotions that will be caused as a result. I myself am a follower of low carb and intermittent fasting (having done both for years), and maintain a healthy weight. But I still have to say no to food. And that's rubbish sometimes. That's the real reason I am not overweight. That's the real piece of advice that I think gets lost.

Ultra processed people is a good example of why this is wrong - there is even a chapter called “It’s not about willpower”!

I'm not there but I do know that a perfectionist mindset tends to be the thing that throws me off track. I'm great when the scales are moving in the right direction but even though I know about plateaus etc, I get too impatient and then a "fuck it" attitude creeps in.

I'm can feel myself doing it at the moment; I've lost 5lbs in 3 weeks which is really great, but because I've put a pound back on in the last couple of days (following a horrendous stomach bug so not even reliable numbers) my unreasonable inner dickhead is in a bad mood about it.

I don’t know whether you drink OP but for me it was absolutely giving up alcohol. So many “ empty calories” & boozing makes me want carbs. Sadly I started again & am now at my biggest.

I lost 3 stone and kept it off. What worked for me was making small changes very slowly. No food is banned, I just adjust my portion sizes and frequency of eating it. I reviewed my diet with a dietician and slowly implemented her recommendations. I did not make any changes that I was not prepared to keep up indefinitely. There are still chocolate and crisps in my house and I still eat them, but yet here I am holding my weight steady. It can be done.

For you, though, I think you need to get to the bottom of why you haven't been able to stick at a fitness routine and why you have all these emotional ties to eating. Most of weight loss occurs in the kitchen, it's true, but it really is so much easier to make those good choices when you are full of endorphins after a really good exercise session. For the former, have you considered working 1:1 with a personal trainer, and for the latter maybe having some counselling?

I do agree but I think the right knowledge does truly minimise the amount of willpower you need and how hard it is.

I was like OP, emotional eater and quite overweight a few years ago.

Now I really don't struggle at all. I don't need to do anything like low carb or intermittent fasting. I just eat real, nutritious food that fills me up.

I maintain a healthy weight and it's easy peasy because I educated myself. I don't deny myself and I don't get the cravings I used to.

Obviously 100 weird and wacky food regimes is overwhelming and not helpful.

But OP does need to educate herself about nutrition and what to eat. Just saying 'you need willpower' isn't all that helpful, she knows that and likely beats herself up because she can't find the willpower.

The reason she can't find the willpower is because she needs to know more about nutrition.

I feel that you should weigh yourself regularly, at least once per week. I know PP has suggested not to but weight can really pile on when you are unaware. I piled on 2 and a half stone gradually and deluded myself it was much less .

Weigh your food and count calories!