Weight loss tips

In Penelope's blog we were talking about weight loss, so I thought I'd start this thread.

Share your weight loss tips here please!

I'll start with one that I know works for a lot people. Log what you eat! I lost 15 or so pounds several years ago and one thing I did at that time was used fitday.com to log everything I ate. It takes time, but seeing the graph of what I was eating and watching the calories add up helped me be more mindful of what I was eating and how much!

On a similar note, different people watch different things when they diet: Low fat, Low carb, Low sugar.....etc! I think no matter what if you are paying attention to what you are eating, you will eat less!

Stop confusing boredom and/or thirst with hunger.

Um. Consume fewer calories than you expend?

Mr MattM wrote:Um. Consume fewer calories than you expend?

Exactly...

Cut/skip dinner.

Seriously, I think it comes down to a lifestyle change. I hate the word diet, as diets are only temporary. A change in lifestyle is something that is a long term solution. We are all creature of habit.

Jerry wrote:Cut/skip dinner.

This will only work for short term weight loss. What normally happens is that after you skip a meal, you end up eating more the next time you eat. Not to mention all of the nutrients that you are depriving your body. Especially for us runners.

Nick Morris wrote:Seriously, I think it comes down to a lifestyle change. I hate the word diet, as diets are only temporary. A change in lifestyle is something that is a long term solution. We are all creature of habit.

Yeah I think it has to do with eating for physical hunger and not for other reasons. Obviously filling up on healthy foods will get you further/give more long term energy than eating brownies and cookies but vowing to never eat sugar again is probably not going to work long term.

Nick Morris wrote:

Jerry wrote:Cut/skip dinner.

This will only work for short term weight loss. What normally happens is that after you skip a meal, you end up eating more the next time you eat. Not to mention all of the nutrients that you are depriving your body. Especially for us runners.

Of cause, we get to our goal, and worry about the unintended consequence later.

The truth is dinner is really obsolete.

I watched a TV story about a lady, who wanted weight loss, but hated sports of any kind all her life. She ended up losing by simply switching dinner with breakfast. Weird, but makes all the sense.

I make an effort to eat five to seven servings of fruits and veggies a day, and consume three of dairy. Fine, I ought to be doing that every day, but when I think I've gone too far eating cake and cookies, it works to pull me back in. Thinking about what I shouldn't eat just makes me hungry for it. Thinking about what I should eat works better.

Change weight loss to weight awareness. Using the word "loss" feels like you one day will "find" it again or want to find it. Therefore weight loss becomes a never ending game of lost and found lost and found. I prefer to look at my weight through mindful eating and weight awareness. I am aware at this particular weight I feel ____________ but at this weight I feel _____________. I prefer feeling __________ so I will be mindul of what I put into my body so I can achieve the feeling of ___________. The word loss never needs to come into the equation.

Then again if you understand anything I said above you might want to seek mental help.

Eat slowly. During residency I learned to inhale my food while things were quiet on call because you don't know how your night will go. If you eat really quickly just to get it done, you can eat a whole lot more without even realizing you're full.

This is obvious, but only eat if you're truly hungry and not because it's dinner time and convenient. Again, another bad habit from residency. It's 6:45, I'm not hungry yet, but the cafeteria closes at 7, and this night looks like it could be bad, so probably should eat, it may be the last meal for the next 10-15 hours.

Never eat because you're tired and eating will help make you stay awake by giving you something to focus on.

Between those 3 patterns and not running, I gained 20 lbs.

I agree about the lifestyle change, if a change needs to be made. It was in my case.

But, IMO, there has to be a target/a carrot, SOMETHING to motivate you that isn't food. Read all you want about the different diets, but glom onto something you believe in and stick to it until it doesn't work.

My biggest tip would be to stop treating food as comfort or an emotional item. It's fuel. That's it. Only give it what's best for it, not your taste buds.

Nick Morris wrote:Seriously, I think it comes down to a lifestyle change. I hate the word diet, as diets are only temporary. A change in lifestyle is something that is a long term solution. We are all creature of habit.

Absolutely agree. Lifestyle change not just a 2 month diet with 4 days of "I've been doing so good. This pizza won't hurt"

When I started running I was very over weight. Even though it's been a slow loss, I've never gone up, always down and now I'm at the weight I was when I got pregnant with my 2nd child.

Obviously, exercise and eating less calories than you burn. But sometimes people need a little help depending on age/gender/job. I take a fatburner too. Oxyelite has really worked well for me this last year. Now trust me, I'm not big on taking meds. Since I stopped doing drugs, I'm pretty cautious about what I put into my body, but this is a good one. Doesn't make me feel bad but I have noticed an actual change in my body I didn't get from running. I'm more tone/lean. It's pretty expensive especially if you buy it at GNC but you can find it online for a decent price.

With this though, you have to stay active and still eat right. Get out! Enjoy your life!!!!


Stay away from these strange programs like Atkins, South Beach, Acai. You'll lose but you will most likely gain it back plus another 10 pounds.

Be patient. It's hard but you have to or you'll fail.

ChasMcG wrote:I take a fatburner too. Oxyelite has really worked well for me this last year.

I used to take ephedra and felt like that stuff really helped me drop weight. Of course, everything good has to eventually be regulated and/or banned.

Mr MattM wrote:

ChasMcG wrote:I take a fatburner too. Oxyelite has really worked well for me this last year.

I used to take ephedra and felt like that stuff really helped me drop weight. Of course, everything good has to eventually be regulated and/or banned.

I did take that a few times before the banning. But I can kinda understand why they banned it. That was pretty close to speed to me especially when you're trying to recover. It was like Meth without the foil and rotten teeth

Yeah... funny thing is, it's still technically legal. The FDA banned it but cannot write it's own legislation because the herbal ingredient was classified as GRAS (generally regarded as safe). The legislation to officially ban ephedra has to be submitted to the House of Representatives for approval and that hasn't been done. I think that since the big retailers responded by taking those products off the shelf, the FDA is happy. So, you can still find ephedra... not that I would take it. Now. As far as you know.

Mr MattM wrote:Yeah... funny thing is, it's still technically legal. The FDA banned it but cannot write it's own legislation because the herbal ingredient was classified as GRAS (generally regarded as safe). The legislation to officially ban ephedra has to be submitted to the House of Representatives for approval and that hasn't been done. I think that since the big retailers responded by taking those products off the shelf, the FDA is happy. So, you can still find ephedra... not that I would take it. Now. As far as you know.

Ah gotcha

Keep the tips coming!

When we eat out, I always only eat half (or less even) of what comes on my plate. If I order a burger, I cut it in half right away. Restaurant portions are ridiculously huge.

ChasMcG wrote:

Be patient. It's hard but you have to or you'll fail.

Spot on....

ChasMcG wrote:

Mr MattM wrote:

ChasMcG wrote:I take a fatburner too. Oxyelite has really worked well for me this last year.

I used to take ephedra and felt like that stuff really helped me drop weight. Of course, everything good has to eventually be regulated and/or banned.

I did take that a few times before the banning. But I can kinda understand why they banned it. That was pretty close to speed to me especially when you're trying to recover. It was like Meth without the foil and rotten teeth

Ok maybe I'm the only one on these boards in this particular stage of life but I can't take anything really because I'm breastfeeding and I'm likely going to be pregnant before I wean my toddler so there goes any supplements other than prenatal vitamins. Not that I'm complaining because I've taken caffeine pills and a few other mostly-caffeine over the counter/very legal/but made me feel awful pills and they were probably not that smartest thing I've done.

Peg Coover wrote:Keep the tips coming!

When we eat out, I always only eat half (or less even) of what comes on my plate. If I order a burger, I cut it in half right away. Restaurant portions are ridiculously huge.

1) Peg, that's a big one. There have been a number of studies comparing restaurant portion sizes today with those in the 70's and the sizes have grown significantly - along with the calories you ingest when you eat it. Get over the idea that since you paid for it, you should eat it all. As was pointed out above, you are ingesting fuel, and you can get great satisfaction from ingesting half as much of something that tastes great when you add in the satisfaction you get from exercising the self control.

2) Become nutritionally aware. Log what you eat as was pointed out above. Go low tech and use a notebook if you have to, but there are a lot of good internet sites (Sparkpeople, etc.) or iPhone apps (Lose It) that are free and give you easy access to the nutritional information related to what you are doing. Some of them, like Lose It, also allow you to put in your exercise and tells you how much more you have left in calories to consume that day to meet your weight loss goal. It is a REAL learning experience to find out that eating 1 chocolate chip cookie from the bakery completely, more than completely at 1.5x, offsets swimming a mile or requires you to run another 4+ miles to burn it off. It'll make you think twice about eating that cookie.

3) Don't eat because you are bored. An awful lot of calories can be consumed sitting there watching TV without you even thinking about it or realizing the magnitude of what you are eating. If you can, clean out your pantry of the nutritionally useless high calorie stuff so you won't be tempted. When you do snack, don't take the bag of chips to the couch with you, pour some in a bowl and limit yourself to eating just that amount. Better yet, when you feel that urge to graze, go for a walk.

Tom H wrote:

3) Don't eat because you are bored. An awful lot of calories can be consumed sitting there watching TV without you even thinking about it or realizing the magnitude of what you are eating. If you can, clean out your pantry of the nutritionally useless high calorie stuff so you won't be tempted. When you do snack, don't take the bag of chips to the couch with you, pour some in a bowl and limit yourself to eating just that amount. Better yet, when you feel that urge to graze, go for a walk.

I read a lot of fiction and if the characters are eating or drinking wine, I find myself craving some good food or wine too! I'm sure a similar thing happens when watching tv.

I'm good at limiting, my husband is not! Before he knows it he has gone back for 3-4 handfuls of chips or eaten 10 cookies (when we have them).

I've made myself go outside and either pull weeds, pick up twigs, or walk if I'm so bored all I want to do is eat.

Great tips Tom!

Not sure if anyone mentioned this or not - (Edit: I see Tom H just did above.)

My doctor turned me onto www.sparkpeople.com, like a FaceBook for dieters.

I used it to track everything I ate and my weight. I also joined some groups, made some friends, and I lost 50 pounds. One of my SparkPeople friends gave me the ecouragement to train for a marathon after running a 5K on a whim.