Can you lose weight and keep it off?

[peanutbutterandbanana]

There are so many different methods and thoughts out there as to HOW to shift it and I need to do something this year ONCE AND FOR ALL!

So what worked for you? What are your tips?

Please tell how much you lost and how long it has stayed off

And finally - what is the best thing about losing weight (to help with my motivation!)

Thank you

Can't comment on keeping it off as I regained most of mine during 2 pregnancies but I really recommend joining a thread on here for support.

you keep it off by never ever going back to eating the way you did before.

yoyo dieting is caused by overweight people starving themselves till they "hit target" and then reverting to their old habits

only by changing how you eat for the rest of your life will you stay slim

TalkinPeace - and which programme helps and supports you to do this best of all the diet/weight loss programmes out there?

Talkin is right - you need to change the habits that made you overweight in the first place. IMO, diets - in the commonly accepted sense - don't work and set you on a yo yo path that gets ever harder to manage.

Finding the diet (in the sense of how and what you eat day to day, rather than a weight loss plan), that works for you is key, together with the regular exercise that suits you. Some people love pushing themselves to the limit, others fare better with gentle swimming/walking/yoga. Some people feel amazing low carbing or on a vegan diet, others are positively ill. For me, as a general rule (so 80-90% of the time), I think eating the best quality food you can get, avoiding white carbs and sugar, processed food and transfats goes a long way to making your diet healthier and easily finding your natural healthy weight - which isn't necessarily the number you think it is....

You may find this book interesting OP.

It is entirely possible but you have to change your mindset and accept certain things. I hit my goal weight last year and have managed to maintain through the Christmas period but I knew that I couldn't have a 2 week splurge. Christmas for me had to be a day or two and then I had to reign myself back in. I work on an 80/20 rule to maintain - I have to be careful with my food and exercise 80% of the time and I can allow myself 20% to relax and indulge a bit.

When I look at a bit of cake now I don't think - ohhhh yum yum yum I MUST eat that - I think if I eat that I'll be disappointed and angry with myself when I get on the scales tomorrow and I've put on a Ib. I ask myself if I really want something and if I'm really hungry. For example - this Christmas my mum made us a lovely Christmas cake and every day I told myself I'd finally cut it and eat a slice - trouble was every afternoon at about 3pm when I'd sit down with a cuppa ready for my slice of cake I wasn't actually hungry so I didn't cut the cake.

There is a great blog I think below which explains about changing your mindset and making sure you truly enjoy your indulgences
here

just to add I have tried every diet you can think of - the only thing that worked for me was challenging my own habits and cravings and thinking more carefully about what I ate. None of the fads worked and some of them were just awful - I'm thinking of the 2 weeks juicing and surviving on 400 cals worth of shakes and soups a day!!!!!! You don't need a DIET to loose weight, you just need to think about what you're eating, cut out the snacking and picking the leftovers off your kids plates etc etc Limit booze to maybe once a week etc.
Do it slowly and sensibly 1ib a week and it will stay off - anything where you loose 7ibs in 1 week is just asking for trouble and is not sustainable long term.

peanutbutter
Weight Watchers got me half way there
but 5:2 has been the magic bullet for me (and many others)
as its a way of eating that happerns to result in weight loss for those with weight to lose, but works great for those who want to stay slim while still enjoying life.

Thank you. Lots of lovely suggestions here. On another thread today I read some advice to 'eat mindfully' and I have had that in my head all day, really thinking if I want to eat something because I am hungry, or because I have the habit of eating.

I like the look of that book Sleep and have now ordered it. And I'm going to read that blog, Sweetheart, when I'm off MN. I'm using some of the threads on MN for motivation. I am finding that some very simple messages I have read on MN have really helped me keep focus, just because they are simple.

I too have done everything under the sun, but ultimately the only time I lose weight is when I think about every mouthful. But I am more interested as to how successful dieters keep it off as something horrendous statistic like 95% of dieters put their weight loss back on... and some. Almost everyone is an expert at "dieting" but not everyone is an expert at 'keeping it off' and that is what I am interested in :)

Thank you!

Mindfulness is really important peanut, I agree. A good way to use this to get back in touch with appetite and improve digestion and metabolism at the same time is to try, every meal, to relax and eat slowly. All the better if you do it without distractions such as TV or work whenever possible. Make sure you take a few deep breaths and focus before you begin to eat - saying grace is a good trick to help, even if you aren't remotely religious , it makes you relax.