Asklemmy

Calorie counting through MyFitnessPal. I am unable to accurately gauge how many calories I'm consuming just by eyeballing it, and this is especially difficult given my TDEE (total daily energy expenditure) is about 1350 calories. (I'm short.) The only way I've been able to manage my weight is by turning it into concrete understandable numbers.

I have a 3,312 day streak of calorie counting now. It's the one habit I've managed to keep up, and while my weight has gone up and down I've kept track of it all. At my starting point, I weighed 150lb (obese by BMI), and I'm currently down to 118 (high end of normal by BMI).

I'll focus on decision making with a threefold approach. If that sounds fancy, well that's because it is.

Firstly, large change comes from seemingly insignificant decisions. Actually, they just seem so small because they are made in the current moment. But decisions made in the moment are all anybody has and ever had, and so they are actually most meaningful.

Secondly, grow your capacity for decision making. Don't start with the oak, but with the seed. Start small, slow, and with low expectations. Keep in mind that these take place in the moment.

Examples:

• Pay attention to the moments in your day when you could have made a decision. Don't interfere, just observe.
• While going for a walk, decide to change your path. Take an unplanned turn. Try a U turn.
• See how long you can just sit somewhere. More challenging than it sounds.
• Swim one extra lane.
• Stop watching after one episode.
• And so on.

Thirdly, the same as point two, but focused on cultivating healthy eating patterns.

Examples:

• Observe your eating behavior without interfering and judgment. You're simply learning about how things are and have been.
• Throw away a handful of chips. It's alright to toss food given your circumstances.
• Switch out a chocolate bar with stracciatella quark. Chocolatey protein!
• Read up on nutrition while waiting for the train. What is glycogen? How does one properly store prepared food?
• Cook something nutritious and tasty by adding spices, cheese, cream, butter, salt, sugar. Can't be worse than a factory meal, right?
• Standing in the store in front of what you're craving, and pay attention to what you're feeling. Buy it.
• Standing in the store in front of what you're craving, and pay attention to what you're feeling. Say no.
• And so on and so forth.

Lastly, I'd like to say that weight loss is a personal journey, filled with unique challenges and discoveries. Beyond these practical steps, it's crucial to remain open to deeper insights about yourself. Whether it's addressing emotional eating, seeking social support, or trying out sport, the essence lies in making a series of informed decisions in the present moment. Each choice, no matter how small, propels you forward, shaping the future you envision for yourself.

Long COVID.

Lost my appetite, smell, & taste. Appetite came back in about a month, smell & taste were off for 6-8 months. Lost over 50lbs from just not wanting to eat.

What worked best for me was fitting eating around my weekly routine.

I have a standard 5 days work, 2 days weekend.

In general, the weekend is for fun so I applied that to food as well.

The week is for healthy eating. No snacks, bed early to be well rested. The weekend is for blowing off steam and eating treat foods.

For me, this meant that I reduced my cravings as I wasn't eating unhealthily all week. By the time the weekend rolls around now I don't want that unhealthy food that much. Note. It's taken a while to get to this point but my weight has now been consistently low for over 2 years.

I think the main thing is whatever you find that works for you, it has to become something you can sustain.

Dance Dance Revolution. More specifically, an open source clone of it called StepMania. Very fun way to lose weight. You'll want to invest in some high quality metal dance pads if you really enjoy it though.

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 🦜⛵

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.

amphetamines

Eliminating certain kinds of food entirely

Some foods tended to be things I quite simply ate too much of, and eliminating them entirely was the simpler option. Snacks are obvious in this category, but less obvious for me was bread and sandwiches.

Walking, a whole lot of it

Running can often be the exercise that comes to mind when wanting to lose weight, which is natural on account of its cultural prevalence and high energy requirement. The problem is that you can't really do a whole lot of it without getting tired, and if you're overweight it probably hurts like hell to do it.

Walking, on the other hand, can be done essentially in unlimited quantities. I took every opportunity to go for long walks at a brisk pace, listening primarily to podcasts but also audiobooks to keep me entertained. It was also a good opportunity to catch up with family by giving them a call.

Caloric restriction

At the end of the day, no matter what kinds of food I ate, my appetite still pushed me to put more energy into my body than I was able to spend. As such, I had to implement some form of caloric restriction to keep the number going down.

These things worked for me but may not be appropriate for you. Losing weight is very hard, some trial and error is probably a good idea. Good luck!

Lost 100 lbs by having a slimfast shake for breakfast and a Greek yogurt or banana for lunch. Anything I want for dinner.

I found out I was diabetic and had damage to my eyes. So I switched to a diabetic diet overnight and lost 12kg in a couple months. Kept it off too, gained a little back over Christmas (because Christmas is all about the food for me) but lost it by end of January again.

No sugar unless it's fruit, very controlled carbs portions and all wholemeal/ brown varieties. Some days no carbs only vegetables. I've not eaten potatoes since October. Snacks are nuts or fruit, deserts are yogurt and fruit with some dark chocolate every now and then to help with the sugar cravings. It's not easy but I really want to keep my feet and eyes.

People with metabolic disorders here:

That's the neat part, you don't.

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.

I won't give a specific solution.

What works for you ultimately depends on you; be it intermittent fasting, OMAD, cutting sugar and/or salt, simply eating less, working out, a combination of the previously mentioned, etc. but what I feel allowed me to actually lose weight (~50 pounds so far) was accepting that -- whatever you end up doing -- it's not temporary. It's a lifestyle change. You're just going to regain that weight if you return to the habits that brought you there in the first place.

Mentally, I also approached it as "one step at a time". Weight fluctuates for all sorts of reasons be it water intake, you just ate, etc. I didn't get discouraged as I saw the number go up and down a few pounds here and there, but continued to view every few pounds as a milestone worth celebrating (not with a cheat day, mind you). The general trend kept going down, I was getting and remaining healthy, and that's all I really cared about.

I went from 110 to 75kg a few years ago by no longer snacking in the evening.

I eat something at 5-6, and then that's the last thing for the day.

That alone did it already.

2 hours of moderate exercise a day, ate less and replaced things like potato chips etc. with healthier things eg. nuts

Eating less. When making dinner I wold make half of what I usually made, for lunch I would only have small things like a salad or soup, I stopped supplementing during/after training with gels and recovery drinks, cut out desserts. Went from 68kg to 63kg in couple of months.

Stopped drinking beer and doing HIIT/circuit workouts regularly -- lost about 30lb so far

I'm struggling with this right now. I started going to the gym 6 times a week almost a year ago knowing it wouldn't be enough by itself but trying to only make one big lifestyle change at a time. Now my gym habit is well and truly locked in I really need to improve my diet as my next big change. My weight has been basically exactly the same since I started. Lots more muscle mass now but still....

Good luck to everyone trying to make improvements to their health!

Oh I actually did lose like 20kg a few years ago by doing keto but it wasn't sustainable to me so I put it all back on. I guess the lesson for me there is to keep trying until you find a sustainable change you can stick to as a lifestyle, not just temporarily.

I fucking love the local burger joint. Every full pound I lost, I allowed myself a burger and onion rings. 40 pounds to lose, 40 burgers to eat.

Still working on it. Goddamn antipsychotics make it really difficult, but I’m gonna do it.

Eat healthily, exercise.

• Water. No drinks other than water or black coffee/ tea.
• Understanding nutritional value better and counting calories (for a while). Intuitive eating has been sven better for me after that.
• OMAD. One meal a day. Suited my hunger pattern for a long time and allowed me to feel full after a meal which I like while feeling light most of the day which I also like.
• Home cooked meals 99% of the time. Literally. Maybe eat out once a month most months.
• Enjoying feeling healthy, so liking eating the things I ate and working out etc.

Things I didnt need but do recommend:

• Improved fiber intake.
• Cutting all caloric drinks.
• Know how much fat youre adding to your food, that tsp you just added are actually 2 tbsps.
• Choose better carbs. Thats mostly about fiber content again. So whole wheat instead of white.
• Dont mean to sound like that guy but good for gut foods. Yogurt, pickles and other fermented products.
• The mental side. Know that a bad meal, day, week doesnt ruin anything. You don't need to be perfect, just improve in the long term.

I could go on forever but I'll stop here.

Counting calories was the biggest thing, I like Cronometer. I did a crash diet to reset what my body expected out of portion sizes but quickly scaled back up to healthier amounts (no point getting an eating disorder over this). Don't obsess over tracking things exactly it's all flawed anyway. Instead just be consistent so trends over time can be identified and adjusted. I didn't do this for weightloss but I also quit drinking around that time which helped too. Started going bouldering regularly, recently bought a bike, and I don't own a car so I tend to do a lot of walking.

Recently something shifted where I'm no longer counting calories to make sure I'm eating small enough portions, I'm counting calories to make sure I'm eating enough. I never changed what foods I eat I just changed the portions.

Oh and if I'm feeling really hungry but don't have a lot of calories for the day I'll microwave a potato for a bit then pop it in an air fryer to finish. Baked potato quality in under 10 minutes, if you don't load it with dairy then they are less than a calorie a gram making them pretty diet friendly.

Stress and Insomnia 😇

By figuring out how I would eat to keep a healthy weight. Then I just started eating like this. Its slow, but you don't run into the problem of being "done" with losing weight and picking up weight again. You just have a better eating habit and can stick with it basically forever - and as a bonus you can even have things like Pizza while losing weight.

By quitting drinking alcohol

Literally the only thing I changed about my life at that time and I went from 185 lbs to 165 lbs in 3 months

I was drinking a fifth per night of alcohol that was at least 100 proof, so I was a bit of an alcoholic at the time

I quit cold turkey and within just a few weeks I started feeling a lot better overall and by about 4 months after I quit the cravings stopped every time I smelt alcohol

I've been sober now for about 5 and a half years and the weight has stayed off the whole time. I've basically been 160±5 lbs since

I ate less

Counting calories. I used MyFitnessPal, but I'm sure there are other apps.

Figure out how many calories you need daily to maintain your current weight, depending on age/gender/height, and then subtract about 500 calories from that. This also depends on your stats; you don't want to go below your minimum daily calories. You'll be hungry and dizzy all the time, and your body will try to store extra fat because it thinks you're starving.

You can eat whatever you want, as long as you stay under your daily calorie number. You might not be healthy (depending on your food choices), but you will lose weight.

Good luck!