What’s your best weight loss tip?!

[Normando91]

Bought myself some lovely trousers today… none of them fit/don’t make me look all lumpy and bumpy 😩
I had a baby 9 months ago and I think I’ve just been using that as an excuse to put on more and more weight! I’m constantly shattered and find myself skipping meals and then bingeing on crap. I need to stop and start making healthy choices and shift this weight, I’ve never been this heavy before and it’s starting to get me down.

So what are your best weight loss tips?! Any meal inspiration as I’m not very adventurous when it comes to cooking. Ideally I’d like to cut out meat as much as possible, even just having it for one or two evening meals a week… possibly not at all. I love all fruit and veg, I’ve just gotten so lazy!!

This is not realistic for many people. Exercise when you can (avoiding just after meals of course).

As someone who works completely varied shifts over a 24hr period, with an erratic sleep schedule to go with it, I appreciate that more than most

Exercise is not usually a big part of losing weight anyway, it's mainly what you eat.

I'm just going by my experience (and 2.5st weightloss), that by being a bit smart with the timing of my exercise I can burn around 50% more calories a workout). OP asked for tips and i gave mine, if she's going to go to the effort of working out she may as well max out the calorie benefit!

Intermittent fasting + lower carb + keep an accurate eye on the calories

I still eat 3 meals a day but I eat them between midday and 7pm.

Intermittent fasting is important for me - I get hungry every 2 to 3 hours once I kick off my hunger cycle by eating. So if I eat at 7am, I'll be hungry again at 10am, and 1pm, and 4pm, and then want dinner as well. If I don't eat til midday I barely notice, and then only need the 3 meals, no temptation to snack or need more.

Keeping an accurate eye on the calories is vital, especially when you don't have much left to lose. There is zero wiggle room for inaccuracies.

Exercise but don't rely solely on it. Do it more for your blood pressure and general health/flexibility, and be aware a lot of apps overestimate calories burned sometimes by up to 1/3rd

"by being a bit smart with the timing of my exercise I can burn around 50% more calories a workout"

How do you know?

Do you have a slow cooker? You can make lovely healthy meals in those, and then freeze extra portions for when you really don't want to cook.

Agree with MyFitnessPal for calorie counting.

Also, try and keep yourself as busy as possible. I know personally that it's when I'm bored that I'll start snacking.. so if I keep myself busy that a) doesn't happen and b) burns more calories anyway!

Brush your teeth early in the evening and don't eat anything after doing so - that really helped me stop binging on chocolate in the evening!

Ah, OP, your baby is still really small. Go easy on yourself!

I found the Joe Wicks app ace but I know others struggle with the amount of food you eat...lots.I tend to use it with my fitness pay to keep an eye on the calories whilst using the structure of Joe Wicks. His exercises have given me tone and strength.I've also given up alcohol for 6 months now which has made a massive difference to everything.
Easy change ...walk when you can and do it as fast as you can.

@Gwenhwyfar

"by being a bit smart with the timing of my exercise I can burn around 50% more calories a workout"

How do you know?

Do you mean aside from the 16 inches I've lost from my bust, waist and hips?

My fitness tracker. And before you jump in and say 'they're not accurate' - the actual specific HR/calories numbers that it displays doesn't matter.

What DOES matter is the fact the tracker has absolutely zero idea of when I last ate, yet my HR and calorie burn is significantly higher if I time my exercise well with when I had my last meal. That can't be faked and can't be inaccurate.

Not buying and sugary snacks or crisps is the key. If they arnt in the cupboard you can't have them. Snack on carrot and sweet pepper stick and rice cakes. What did it for me was just buying everything that was healthy for my meals. Just got loads of fruit and veg. Fish and chicken with loads of veg or rice. Just fill up on good food. It's changing the way you eat not a diet as such. I also read that sweet potatoe is the best food you can eat. I chop it and boil it and throw it into a bowl of soup for dinner. It's actually really filling. I do this Monday to Thursday. I have lost nearly a stone in 6 weeks just by doing what I've just written.

I’m not usually hungry in the mornings, and since looking into Intermittent Fasting, I now do that. So I eat dinner around 5.30-6pm and just have water after that, and don’t eat until about 11am the next day.

I exercise in the mornings (so towards the end of my fasting) and find if I do it early, then it’s done. If I leave it until the afternoon, I just can’t be bothered. So I wear gym clothes for the morning school run and then go straight to the gym.

My tips would be make changes you can stick to long term, there’s no point eating stuff you don’t like as a quick fix. I now really enjoy greek yoghurt with granola, berries and flax and chia seeds, and have that most days for lunch. Then a ‘normal’ family dinner, I just watch my portions. I allow an occasional pudding, probably once a week or every other week, hardly ever have takeaways, don’t really drink alcohol anyway. I log everything on My Fitness Pal, including coffees etc. But I’ve reduced coffee to one a day because I have sugar / honey in it. If I have a snack, I make sure it’s worth it, so if I really fancy a chocolate bar, I have one I know I’ll enjoy, not just mindlessly scoffing biscuits that I’d regret having afterwards.

You get used to eating less, so after about 3 or 4 days of being hungry at bedtime, that stopped (it wasn’t enough to keep me awake or be uncomfortable, just a little rumbling). On days I eat more, I want more. So if I’ve had a sugar or carb-heavy weekend, I find I crave more the next day. So I have to be strict. I don’t want to spend half the week balancing an indulgent weekend, so I stick to my plan most of the time.

I'm going against the "no treat food in the house" advice and budget it in. Have something in you can have and decided when in advance, so when doing this, I bought small chocolate bars and I could have one only after lunch if I really still felt I wanted it, or I could save for the evening. And I used MFP and included it in my daily budget. Some days I wouldn't have the chocolate, but knowing I could removed the craving.

Eat before you are hungry, breakfast lunch and dinner at set times so you don't get to the starving hungry feeling stage. Plan meals in advance. Over cook so you have portions for lunch of things you can bung in the microwave when you are running late and now hungry.

Increase protein and vegetables in your diet.

I found spicy foods more satisfying, even when relatively low calorie.

My advice is only to follow a diet you would be happy for your kids to follow when they are older. Kids learn from watching adults so set them a good example of a balanced sensible approach to healthy eating.

@Margoskaftan
My will is weak as water, so I can't have any treats in the house at all, because I'd scoff the lot!
But yeah, no, you need to tailor a diet that works for you.

Cut down on bread. Don't have your evening meal too late and don't eat anything after it.

@JulieYS - this is why I had to buy thr individually wrapped small bars, while more economical to buy a big block and break off a row at a time, I wouldn't stop at one, and fall for the "just a bit more". But knowing banning myself all together would involve a big wagon fall. Just not sustainable for me to say "never".

For me it's keeping it simple, I calorie count using the Nutracheck app and intermittently fast. I've lost 17ibs in the past 2 months. Nothing is forbidden, I just have less of it.

Protein-rich breakfast helps me avoid mid morning snacking. Today I had one slice of toast, a few cooked mushrooms, few spoonfuls of baked beans. No butter. Kept me full for hours.

Low carb or no carbs , loads of vegetables , fasting and eating within an 8 hour window and nothing after 5pm .Then I lose weight .

Change how you think about food - for me food was always a treat (like a nice piece of cake or a packet of sweets), something I 'needed' when I was knackered and something to cheer me up.

Now I try and see food as fuel and other things as treats/things to do when knackered/things to cheer me up.

Don't eat unless you're hungry

When you do eat, only eat what you know is healthy, in reasonable amounts.

I really do think it's that easy. Just not easy to do in practise

I have lost around 2.5 stone since May 2020 but have been up and down a bit. Top bmi was 28.5 (nearly 13 stone) and now 23.5 bmi 10.5 stone). 1 stone to go!

Think I’ve finally worked out losing and maintaining. For me, it’s all psychological. Lost the full 2.5 stone over 4 months in first lockdown by doing 5:2 (as a 4:3) which worked well at the time as I wasn’t psychologically ready to make long term changes. But I can delay binging for a day! Went to bed at 8pm on a fasting day which made it easier. That said I rarely ate after 6pm any day so also cut out the evening snacking. Lost two pounds a week and results were quick so I felt amazing and motivated me to keep going.

Then I let it slide as still loved to gorge so put 1 stone back on, so did a hard core Fast 800 in May 2021 (I only occasionally went over my 800) wearing gym gear most days which made me move more eg walking fast on school run, lunging while doing the dishwasher. That shifted 1.5 stone in 5 weeks and was so motivating! But then it ended and 1 stone went back on. My mistake was not planning a long recovery period where I gradually learned to eat normally - I just went back to old ways.

Then did 1000 calories a day in January and lost the stone again, But now I’ve managed to shift my mindset and using the fast 800 diet books (yummy food) when organised, and my Fitbit app, calorie count everything. I’ve maintained when life is busy and eating/drinking out a lot, and lost another half stone while life is calmer. It’s taken two years to feel mentally able to want to make permanent changes and calorie count. I still love carbs and the physical feeling of stuffing my face. But have slowly accepted that it’s not possible to eat like a student all the time!

So my tips are:

1. don’t fight it - you need to be psychologically in the right place for a particular diet and that changes over time. 2a) realise some days it’s easy eg mid cycle when you are busy and out and about all day - if you’re not thinking about food, don’t eat! Then you lose 1/2lb of fat that day. Your adrenaline will carry you through!! 2b) on the flip side, some days are hard - working from home in the kitchen just before your period after no sleep is so much harder - just realised I actually do crave crap then so I just calorie count it and reduce the healthy stuff. A whole bag of chocolate Easter eggs at 10:40am is fine instead of a healthy for lunch! Both are 500-600 calories! And you don’t need lunch after all that chocolate! But a packet or two of hula hoops at 3pm kept hunger at bay until an early high carb dinner with a ton of veg on the side! Still under 2000 calories for the day but feel like I ate what I liked (90% of the calories were from crap! Yum!)
2. fast 800 is sooooo motivating as weight falls off initially. Much easier to learn how to maintain when you look fabulous! Just plan for the end phase don’t come off it with no thought to the future!
3. fall asleep with the kids at 8pm. Don’t feel guilty and enjoy the extra hours of not thinking about food!
4. reverse diet - once you have lost a chunk quickly and feel a bit better about yourself, keep counting calories but gradually increase them or spend days eating more normally but still religiously add it all to Fitbit (guesstimating more as eating out is just a stab in the dark).
5. if you’ve popped out for an unplanned meal out, don’t order a starter or desert - but get a spoon so you taste other peoples! Enjoy special occasions though but try to skip a meal earlier in the day. Or go for a run during the day.
6. drink water!
7. get your hair done - the compliments on how amazing you look are so motivational. 😂😂
8. cauliflower rice! It’s a game changer. 24 calories and tastes like 300 calories if basmati when mixed into the sauce!
9. start running. Slowly slowly slowly but when you are unfit your Fitbit tells you you’ve burned loads of calories as it was such a slog dragging yourself along that 2km route. Same about if calories/time as a fit person doing a 5km!

If you don't buy it you can't eat it!

Fasting and walking are the best things to do. Easy and don’t require extra brain space for planning. Skip breakfast and lunch to start with. Then try 24 hour fast once per week. Works wonders.

Walk wherever you can. Park a bit further from the door. Walk to a shop nearby rather than drive. Find excuse to walk, just slow gentle walking to get the body moving would do.

Try not to buy any “treats”. No ice cream, chocolate, crisps, sweet yogurt, protein bars or anything with added sugar/sweetener that’s considered a treat.
If you must have something, only buy the ones you know you can’t stand. Liquorice is mine. Absolutely detest the stuff but if i need a sugar hit i will have that, wince, then spit it out. That absolutely kills the junk food mood.
Or only buy baby food treats, low sugar and boring to eat. Also i feel guilty to eat them as they are meant for my kids. And stupidly expensive compare to adult snacks.
Stick to these rules and all the excess weight will melt away in a year or so.
Good luck

Log absolutely everything you eat. Use an app or a notebook, whatever, but if it goes in your mouth it gets recorded.

@AnnaSW1

If you don't buy it you can't eat it!

Unless someone gives it to you.