10 months ago I set out to lose weight. I had over the past decade changed my behaviors to get my house under control. I decided it was time to do the same with my body. Here’s what I learned so far:
Do your research and decide what eating plan makes the most sense for you long term. For me that was just plain old fashioned calorie countiing with a tiny weight watchers twist and a smidge of intermittent fasting. I signed up for a WW trial the day after I decided to try to lose weight. I thought a lot of it did not make sense or wouldn’t work for me long term. But I liked the idea that you didn’t have to count some foods but knew that would be a disaster for me to eat unlimited fruit. So when I switched to My fitness Pal I simply didn’t count or track low cal veggies, but did everything else. I also am never hungry in the morning. Often I didnt eat breakfast but I was inconsistent. So I decided to be consistent and fast for at least 15 hours and not eat until noon. I’m not sure this really played a part in my losses because it was how I ate most of the time anyways.
Don’t let others tell you how things will go. My second week I was at the doctor and mentioned that I was about to start a diet and had already lost 5 pounds, she said “that’s likely just water, at your age you aren’t going to lose more than half a pound most weeks”. I felt a bit discouraged but didn’t let it deter me. In fact I lost 10 pounds a month for the first 3 months, 6-8 for next 4. Only as I got close to a normal weight did my losses slow significantly. By then it was fine with me.
The number of people who will express disbelief/ disappointment in the fact that what I mostly did was count calories is amazing.
The number of people who say things like “Oh so you stopped eating carbs/sugar” is also amazing. No. Why woukd you assume that?
Buying clothing is a lot more fun and expensive (but expensive only because I want so many more clothes)
If you know the kind of people who will ask you how much weight you’ve lost and then exclaim loudly “Oh my god you lost 60 pounds.!!?” loudly, you may want to avoid them on public transportation or risk every eye in your train car focused on you. Lesson learned. Lol.
Assume this is the way you need to eat for the rest of your life so if you are miserable after the first few weeks you may need to change things. But give it a few weeks. I was ravenous the first 3 weeks but got used to eating less after that.
I love number 4. It’s seems to be the trend that in order to lose weight, you need to cut out carbs. No one acknowledges that fruits and vegetables are carbs, or maybe they cut out those, too.
I also started dieting a year ago, and what worked for me was calorie counting with the app MyFitnessPal, and lots of walking. What is helping keep off the weight is counting my calories with MyFitnessPal. I even logged all my calories for Thanksgiving Day and other huge eating days. It really helps me to eat less in the following days if I own all the calories I eat on big eating days.
I’m determined I’m not going to gain the weight back this time. I’m getting too old to lose the weight. You’re right. You have to learn to eat this way for the remainder of your life. But…it’s worth it, isn’t it?
Congratulations and thanks for sharing your insights!!
Congrats! Did you start or change an exercise routine with it? Or just change eating habits? I have a couple friends that are moderately active and by just changing what they ate, but not doing much more exercise than they already did in the course of a day, they lost a lot of weight.
Way to go. Trying some new things myself. Just focusing on healthy eating and less of it with regular exercise. Something I can do for a long time at 54.
Used to do the maniac stuff. Just not sustainable, at least not for me. Trying to cut out alcohol during the week. (leave it on the weekends because, well, we are civilized…)
Me too @rickle1. I couldn’t maintain the 1200 cals/day long term, but I’ve kept over 50 of the 80 pounds I lost off for the last 15 years. I do no alcohol and no desserts during the week, focus on whole grains, lots of fish and veggies for most meals. I’d love to lose another 15-20 pounds, especially as I’m approaching 50, and am being more careful with my portion sizes and adding some different mini workouts. My D just turned me on to Tom Daley’s 6 minute workouts on youtube.
@CADREAMIN Just changed my eating habits. I do try to walk everyday 10k steps. I have logged everyday but used a generic made up entry for my birthday “birthday 5000 calories” (total guess) my only total cheat day where I didn’t log my actual food. I then did a 500 calorie fast day the following week. I’ve also done 600 calorie fast days after thanksgiving and my daughter graduation where I logged 3k calories. These days really helped me to get back on track.
Did the 21 Day Fix (color coded containers) with the exercise program and lost 30 lbs 3 yrs ago. Have been in maintenance mode ever since but am trying new exercise stuff as I get bored. My goal for 2019 is to do something athletic / fitness based EVERY day. Doesn’t have to be intense, although I do some of that. Could be just going for a 2 or 3 mile walk. So far so good. Haven’t lost any additional weight though so I think weight is more about diet for me.
Cheating more than I should but you got to live…Best thing that happened to my diet was my best friend traveling more for work as it used to be a couple of scotches 2 or 3 nights during the week. Miss the company but better for overall health.
An aside for those golfers out there. I hit the ball better with the weight ON. Not a mass thing either. My scotch buddy tells me it’s because I had to swing around that whiskey barrel in my mid section. Now that it’s a straight path my hands are out of sync. I think he’s right, actually! ?
@momofsenior1 - same for me. Food is what makes the difference. Much more so than exercise, though I am a regular exerciser. As my dh says, “You can’t outrun your fork.”