"Lose It" app, which is a food log. Awareness does the trick. I set it to about 2/3 of my average daily calorie burn, and stick to it, with a day off every two weeks or so.
Works for me.
A loosely moderated place to ask open-ended questions
Search asklemmy π
If your post meets the following criteria, it's welcome here!
Looking for support?
Looking for a community?
~Icon~ ~by~ ~@Double_[email protected]~
"Lose It" app, which is a food log. Awareness does the trick. I set it to about 2/3 of my average daily calorie burn, and stick to it, with a day off every two weeks or so.
Works for me.
Cooking at home. 100%. For 3 months to start. Then give one day a week out for another 3 months. And meal plan and prep on Sundays.
You can and will do it, but it will take time.
Overweight and obesity are extremely complex disorders, that combines genetic predisposition, changes in hormonal levels and horrible obesogenic environment that we have nowadays. There is no simple answer on how to lose weight as it depends on multiple factors too - your home and work environment, availability of stores with fresh products, your medical history, your goals in general. What is working well for one person, may not be ideal for others or even sometimes dangerous (depends on other comorbidities).
Most important part is not just to lose weight, but do it safely and maintain the weight loss. For that you need a whole lifestyle change, that is why it is so hard for many people. The major rule is: permanent dietary changes needed for a weight loss and regular exercises needed for maintaining the result.
My advise (if you are in the US) - find an obesity clinic with obesity board-certified physician, discuss all your concerns and develop a plan what will work specifically for you. It is pretty well covered by insurances and you will always have a specialist who can answer your questions and help to overcome any barriers in the future.
And remember we all are just internet strangers, take all our advices with healthy skepticism.
Keto!
Lost around 10 kg in lockdown era. Ate less and did some exercises 3 days a week (nothing fancy. Just played a YouTube video and followed along). Most importantly I got used to feeling a bit hungry sometimes.
Intermittent Fasting - eating hours 10am-6pm
and
Early morning exercise - 25min bike ride or walk at 5:30am (everyday or every second day)
No real diet change, but already had healthy options for most meals.
Seconding IM, but for me I just skip eating for a whole day a couple/three times a week.
I try not to eat healthy any more than I have to.
I stopped eating ice cream. Still not sure why that did it, I didn't think I was eating that much. 70lbs down.
COVID. Lost 10kg.
Eat raw veggies (salads)
In the first week or two you won't feel like it was a real meal since your body still craves sugars, fats and junk. But once you get past the cravings you find out that this huge meal filled with fiber is super filling but the calorie count is really low, and so you start losing weight
Carnivore. Went from 275 to 150 in a year of as close to zero carbs as possible.
I started taking antidepressants
Stopped drinking beer and doing HIIT/circuit workouts regularly -- lost about 30lb so far
Nutritional Ketosis reversed my obesity and high blood pressure (after 6 months)
https://www.dietdoctor.com/low-carb/for-doctors (they have references just hover over the numbers)
Ketogenic: The Science of Therapeutic Carbohydrate Restriction in Human Health a scholarly book for medical professionals if you prefer heavy book medical texts π¦β΅
There are many paths to metabolic health, this path worked for me. Because my insulin levels are kept low by avoiding carbs by body is able to self regulate hunger, satiation, and cravings. I no longer had to struggle to maintain my diet, it was no longer a impossible hill to climb. I found the hormonal model of healthy eating much easier to maintain then the calorie counting model.
The body is an amazing homeostasis machine, if you let it.
The hardest part was learning how to go out socially and eat drink on plan without hurting my social life. Bars: soda water. Restaurants: salad/eggs are always available. Coffee shops: black coffee, Americano. Clubs: Soda again, with a lime slice.
Same here. I got lucky and discovered the Keto diet pretty much right before it took off into being the latest fad. So I got the benefit of missing all the βlose 100lbs in 10 minutesβ nonsense and the commodified aspect of everyone selling you something.
And it worked fantastically and lead to complete lifestyle changes that have persisted and made a healthier me.
I still recommend it to people but always give heavy caveats to stay away from the fad part and go with the basics.
I've seen a few people recommending calorie counting here but haven't seen anyone mention Macrofactor, which seems weird considering how often I see people recommending Kagi. I draw the parallel because, while it's a paid product, I find it significantly better than the competition.
I started using it at the start of the year and have had steady progress. Foremost, it is extremely snappy and easy to log food. The database is fairly expansive without having poor quality user submissions. The real win of the app is the feedback loop. Rather than estimating calories expended using formulas meant to be accurate across a population (but not necessarily accurate to each person), it uses your calorie intake data and your weight data to derive your expenditure.
This, to me, helps reduce the stress of tracking significantly. Reason being, if you habitually do not track something like small bites during cooking or condiments, the calculation will take it into account and reduce your calorie target accordingly.
It also doesn't take into account data from activity trackers. Instead, your exercise is essentially smoothed over the following weeks. It helps psychologically to break from "I exercised so I get a treat" mentality, where you 1: immediately eat back whatever you've burned (or more) and 2: are telling yourself a reward for good behavior is calorie-dense food.
The website has a lot of data driven articles.
It also has a bunch of neat graphs. Anyway. Would recommend it. Obviously there's a LOT of different ways to lose weight, but for me it starts with understanding what I'm putting in my body. Can't outrun a bad diet.
I went from 217->173 and have stayed in that range for 4 years. Iβm 5β10β / M / 43years
Short answer: high protein / adequate fat keto with skipping breakfast (aka 16:8 intermittent fasting)
I tried it for weightloss, and immediately had health benefits within 36 hours of switching over. Iβm never going back. I feel 10 years younger. Brain fog lifted, joint pain gone, more energy to move and do things, more patience and clarity at work and home. Hunger is a signal now and Iβm never hangry.
Itβs also just not that hard. I eat a ton of awesome meals full of chicken and roasted veg, bbq meats I smoke, steaks, omelets, huge salads. Life is good and I feel good.
I rode an elliptical, lifted weights and ate healthier to lose 60lbs. Lots of water too.
I was never good at staying on a diet. I have really bad self control and go through phases where I get hooked on soda or energy drinks or smoking, etc.
Two things helped me finally lose weight and maintain a pretty healthy build (these days 90kg 183cm originally 110-115k).
First, I found I could lose weight in short periods when I had a concrete goal. I lost 10k in maybe 6 weeks. Plenty of it was water weight and came back. But after doing that 3 or 4 times I was down to a place I felt more comfortable with myself. During those cycles I was basically always thinking about my calories. It would get tiring in normal life but it was ok if I was trying to hit my goal.
Second, by focusing on my macros and trying to limit salt every day I ended up filling my stomach way before I went into calorie surplus. By going low sodium it eliminated any kind of fast food and most frozen foods. Getting rid of salt wasn't really for health it was just to lose water weight and hit my goal. But getting rid of salt ended up making my diet way healthier.
I also had some success by cutting out bread. I don't think bread is terrible for you or anything, but by giving myself that limitation I made myself choose better options
Ulcerative colitis
I ate less by keeping snacks out of my home.
Low carb diet. I count carbs and keep the daily total below 70g and try to keep it closer to 30g per day. My peak weight was 235# and I am now at 172#.
Start with no sugar no bread, try it. It works.
This might not work for everyone but this is honestly what I did:
I made sure my health was in check. Were my Hashimoto's medications up to date? Did I have any deficiencies? etc
Started eating filling food, without calorie counting. Both when I cooked and when I ate out I picked options that used nutritious ingredients and a variety of food groups, but also weren't absolutely fucking dreadful to consume. Getting rid of enjoyment from your diet completely is the fastest way to relapse into binge-eating and just generally isn't helpful.
Started not just exercising, but also moving around more. Either alone to run errands or just with friends, we can just walk around and talk, see where the road takes us. (I understand this might be difficult for suburbia Americans though)
Understood my goals. I wasn't sure initially if I wanted to just lose weight or gain muscle. I had some not-so-great experiences with the scale when I was an athlete that I only just started overcoming. I wanted to decrease my overall volume so I stopped looking towards the scale and just made sure to do the workout exercises that catered to my body's needs and checked for progress in the clothes that stopped fitting me.
Hope this helps! I've been a lot healthier and happier since taking my health into my hands and staying away from the disordered habits of my gymrat family π«‘
When I started wfh, I started eating more snacks, smaller meals (or not finishing after I was full), walking a lot while listening to podcasts (I had given up driving for taking rides hares before that was suddenly a danger).
Today, I live in a place that doesn't have a lot of natural beauty (downtown of my city) so walking sucks. I have a car again. And I work in the office 2-3 days per week. I have regained the weight.
did most of what others said -(mostly) plant based diet, work out, don't eat too many snacks (crisps, chocolate, etc). additionally I stopped eating gluten bc my gf is allergic - started losing weight almost immediately. srsly have been really bad when it comes to snacks and skipping workouts these last few months and I still lost quite a bit of body fat.
Eat healthily, exercise.
I eat less for my main meal so now I don't feel hungry after it but not stuffed. I've also cut out added sugar and don't snack between meals - I make sure to leave the snacks on the supermarket shelves as I will eat them.
I also try and get a work in each day but walk harder not further, so usually at a pace averaging 110 steps per minute - walk harder not further.
This is not going to be helpful, but I started weight loss that resulted in about 35 pounds lost simply by going to a con and waiting for people to meet up to eat. Ended up with me not eating until like 8pm each day, so close to 24 hour fasts for 4 days in a row.
Once I was kinda used to it, I did shorter ones and started roughly calorie counting as well.
Cutting snacking, calorie dense foods, and counting caloiries.
Calories in/calories out is the only thing that works long term. You dont go on a diet, you change how you eat permanently.
I keep bread in the freezer so i dont snack on it. I only have a small desert. Measure portions until you have a good eye for it, etc.
Working out to burn calories is unsustainable for the majority of people.
Stop drinking soda and alcohol at random. They are loaded with empty calories. You can easily drink 600-1000 calories a day with soda if you have a couple of glasses with meals and snacks.
For me to keep it off was the challenge. I Started by working out how much I needed to eat for maintenance, through calculators and counting my calories for a couple of weeks.
Then I just brought a small deficit of a couple hundred cals, and increased exercise; making sure to go for a walk each day, started lifting weights at the gym.
Now im halfway to my weight goal. But it was all about setting the habits and keeping them going, turning down extra cake in the office or having a smaller lunch to balance everything out, now I dont have the same cravings I used to. Its been a slow year but I am happy with it.