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I started at 250 and I am now 190 so I will tell you what worked for me.
The problem is that to reach your weight target would require continuous dieting which is unsustainable for most people.
What happens is that you start cutting calories, lose a little weight but the cravings overwhelm you and then you start eating too much and put the weight back on again.
So, you need a new approach which I call “step weight reduction”.
What I found worked for me is to set 5 lb reduction goals.
The method is to reduce calories, weigh yourself every day, and once you are down 5 lbs keep to this weight until you have adjusted your diet so that the new weight is sustainable without too much thinking. Once you are comfortable and your new eating habits are ingrained, then step down another 5 lbs.
The time between steps could be a week or several months or even longer, however long it takes to stabilize your eating at the new weight.
I will warn you though, for me to lose weight I had to cut out all added sugar (no soda, cookies, cakes, muffins, ice cream, candy, etc.), strictly limit potatoes, rice, and pasta and I had to cut my eating to an 8-hour daily window with only two meals a day. I also only use small dinner plates (8” diameter) to limit the amount of food per meal. When I go out to eat, I always share a meal, either an entrée or sometimes even just an appetizer with my wife.
I also had to replace all my clothes as I went from 2XL to a mix L’s and M’s.
Exercise is also good for you in its own right, a mix of walking and weight training works well. But in my experience, weight loss is almost all diet driven.
Cut out salads and fruits? If this is working for you great, but these are among the healthiest things someone can eat (just watch the salad dressing!). I never seen someone get fat off fruit, have you?
Yeah. Salads, too.
Hang around at the salad bar and watch. Salads are killing us, I believe. They contain almost nothing we need, have little taste so we shower them with flavored machine oil that should never be consumed by anyone.
Most fruits convert to glucose almost immediately. About the same as a Snickers bar.
I have a sweet tooth as well and substituted many sweets for less caloric sweets or natural sugar.
Cut out sandwiches, rice, flour tortillas, and unnecessary carbs. But if you must, eat them eat in the morning and half your normal serving.
Exercise in the morning or both in the morn and evening.
Yeah. Salads, too.
Hang around at the salad bar and watch. Salads are killing us, I believe. They contain almost nothing we need, have little taste so we shower them with flavored machine oil that should never be consumed by anyone. Most fruits convert to glucose almost immediately. About the same as a Snickers bar.
Not true. The sugar in fruit is bound up in fiber. It takes a long time for sugar from fruit to get distributed into your blood stream. The opposite is true for the processed sugars found in soda pop and candy.
Add a lot of vegetables. Just doing that fills you up on healthier, lower calorie food.
Sometimes I do the 30-plants-a-week thing. You strive to eat 30 different plants. So, if you have peanut butter on a rice cake for breakfast twice a week, that is still only two plants. It makes it fun to figure out how many different plant foods you can add to your diet. Round it out with fish and other proteins.
Yes, before someone comes in screeching and waving their arms, you do want to make it a variety of green leafies and beta carotenes and cruciferouses, not all starches and high carbs.
Not true. The sugar in fruit is bound up in fiber. It takes a long time for sugar from fruit to get distributed into your blood stream. The opposite is true for the processed sugars found in soda pop and candy.
You'd have to prove it to me, somehow.
I have come to believe the fiber story is just nonsense. Sugar is just sugar, I think. Doesn't matter whether it comes from an orange or a Snickers. But I do recognize I am preaching into a hurricane of long-taught counter beliefs, so I will probably make no progress among most folks.
You could live forever on steak and eggs. You'll starve on fruit.
A man who sported a fine example of central adiposity, once told me that eating red meat the way I do is not good for me. And yet here I sit - 5'10", 185 pounds, Cholesterol 134, and perfect blood work. My 78th birthday is next month. I will plank for 78 seconds and do 78 squats to celebrate.
Speaking of diets, though, I have read some fine ideas:
*Name your 5 favorite meals, which are made from primary ingredients - you know, like steak and eggs; grilled salmon and Brussels sprout; pork chop and broccoli. And just eat those 5 meals; nothing else.
*Steak & eggs twice a day for every weekday. During the weekend you can vary it.
Most people won't try those methods because they have been filled with nonsense about fiber, or variation, or plant based and as a result will stay overweight.
Alcohol should never be consumed. Seed oils like Canola and artificial items like margarine should be tossed out - cook with butter, lard or beef tallow instead.
See the above remark about "filling you up". Why in God's name do you need something to make you "feel full"? (See above link regarding central adiposity)
Don't believe this "you're not eating enough" BS. The LAST thing you need to do is eat more calories in order to lose weight.
Bananas are twice as calorically dense as an apple. In my experience as a primary care MD, overweight people tend to instinctively choose calorically dense foods even when eating fruits and veggies; such as a banana over an apple for fruit, corn over spinach for a vegetable.
Drink black coffee on your way to work. Don't eat breakfast if you're not hungry. If you really are, despite the coffee, then eat hard boiled egg and a piece of fruit, or cut up veggies for breakfast. Pack your lunch with you. An apple or an orange or strawberries or grapes or a peach/nectarine (NOT a banana). Some leftover grilled meat from the night before or a couple of hard boiled eggs. Some low cal non-starchy vegetable, like green beans, brussel sprouts, carrots, cut up peppers, etc. No bread, rice, potatoes, etc. Wait to eat until you get hungry. Only take a salad if you can eat it without dressing and without croutons - the dressings are usually very high in calories. If you must have carbs, very small portions of low glycemic index carbs, such as garbanzos, beans.
At home, for dinner, grilled meat and non-starchy veggies (roasted squashes are nice - they caramelize in the oven), a piece of fruit for dessert. No carbs, but again, if you must, a small portion of low glycemic index legumes.
You will only be eating from about 11 am until 7 pm this way.
Drink only water, with only one serving of coffee in the am. No diet drinks. No juice. No soda. No alcohol. No artificially sweetened drinks at all. No drinks with calories.
When you go out for a meal with friends, once in a while, maybe once or at most twice a week, if you must have alcohol, just one beer, or one glass of wine, rest of time water, and restaurant food - try to order grilled meat/fish/poultry with non-starchy veggies.
In addition to walking the dogs, try to get out without them for a very brisk walk, 30-60 minutes daily, walking as fast as you possibly can. Walking the dogs is great, but it's much slower walking. Shoot for a total of 15,000 steps/day or more - your phone in your pocket is probably a step counter. If you can add in other active social sports, great.
Obviously no candy, cake, cookies, ice cream, soda, juice, etc. Only once in a very long while, like a small serving at a b-day party or Xmas party, and if it makes you fall off the wagon, then not at all.
Guaranteed that you will lose the weight this way, and keep it off, as long as you can stick to this healthier lifestyle of healthy diet and brisk walking. It's not a diet. It's a new way of eating, and living. If you go back to the carbs and the alcohol, you will regain the weight.
If you cannot manage this on your own, weight watchers online can help you. I've also seen people have great success with Noom, but I hear it's expensive. In my experience, the people who eat the simple carbs that you're allowed to have on weight watchers have more trouble losing the weight and keeping it off.
waikiki thank you for the thoughtful replies, I appreciate it.
I'm more active than I let on - I often get my "10,000" steps in, I travel a ton, and am not totally an office bound couch potato. Having said that - you're right, I could do more. And I agree, I'm eating more than I burn off.
Re: salads - I never get "take-out" salad. I make them. I buy a head of lettuce, some cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers, sunflower seeds, maybe feta? dressing is oil and vinegar - which I make myself, never more than 1/2 tablespoon of oil for the entire salad, sometimes none - the balsamic is fine for me. If out to dinner (only occasionally) I may splurge on ranch or something, but I do not eat the croutons.
still not getting the "not eating enough" part - can you elaborate?
Meantime - many of the other "problems" folks have with this don't seem to bother me. I don't have "cravings" or anything, and, so far, I don't get burnt out on food. I could eat salad every day, no problem. I don't though, as sometimes I'm too lazy to make it or no time to go to the store or whatever. Basically, if I had a personal chef at home, I'd eat the right thing always, no complaints. I had a piece of pie about a month ago, it was magnificent - but that's about the only dessert I ate in June.
I've had pasta once in 3 months - and that was angel hair I made at home, a small portion with grilled chicken. Side orders when eating out - I usually get the soup - not the fries. I drink 1 to 2 cups of coffee per day, water the rest of the time, until dinner, when it's wine or water. I do not drink 10 beers a day or anything like that.
I cut back on "bad" fruit like oranges and eat more bananas now. More avocados, less apples. I do not eat granola bars. We did just recently try "ezekial" bread - I can live with that - but I've had NO bread for the last month, and don't generally miss it. I eat the sandwiches without the bread. I have no bread in the house now, no candy, no dairy (except good sharp cheese mmmmmmm), no pasta, and tiny potatoes that I cook on the grill. I air fry pork chops, or chicken breast, or fish. Or bake it in the oven. Seriously, I'm really a decent eater, I grew up eating healthy garden foods with limited resources in our family, and I never developed alot of bad food habits. Fast food was always a real treat back then, I rarely do it now. Sometimes it's unavoidable, particularly when traveling - but even then, I'm ok with just a single 99 cent burger, no fries, no drink. One weakness - a chili dog. Love chili dogs. But, eh, a couple times a year.
TMI yet? Seems like! Point is - I'm struggling here - only solution is to "move" more - which I can and will and am - but at least interested in the "eat more" advice...?
still not getting the "not eating enough" part - can you elaborate?
I'm not a dietician, but from what I understand from reading up on this is that there is still a lot of diet culture embedded in the way we think about food and fitness. There are a lot of people who think they're being "good" by going around hungry all day or all week, and then they find themselves in kitchen at night eating snacks over the sink, or in their "cheat day" on the weekend they end up eating so much more food than if they'd just allow themselves some enjoyment and fulfillment during the week. There are ways to maintain a calorie deficit, but that aren't completely lacking in fun and satisfaction (as with the "no sweets, no alcohol, no bread ever" advice.)
If you're not hungry in the morning, that's fine, but a lot of people will set themselves up for failure during the day if they don't consume more than coffee. Including fiber and protein and healthy fats (i.e. "eating more") at most meals keeps most people feeling full and lessens the opportunity for making sabotaging choices as the day moves on.
intermittent fasting..every day..it's easier than you think..eat your last bit of food by 5:00 PM..don't eat another bite until at least 9 the next morning..
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