[Porthardygurl]

Hey All,

I have about 100 to lose and i was just wondering what has been the most successful food plan for you??? Did you do weights or exercise or just diet?
How long did it take you to lose 100?

[SugarRomeoTango4852]

Hello Porth,
I have no idea what works best but I am very interested in this thread. I am wondering the same thing you are!

[piper10]

Well, I was dragging my feet on this weight loss thing for a long time -- up, down, up, down. My weight loss really took off after I read the book "Eat to Live" by Dr. Joel Fuhrman. I don't do this anywhere NEAR perfectly, but my efforts to aim in that direction (basically vegan) are showing good results.

[DixC Chix]

Persistence. Flexibility.

The food plans and exercise regimes are as individual as our fingerprints. The only common denominator that I have found is just plain old stick-with-it-ness.

Find the way that will work for you. This might mean that you might try different plans before you find the right one with the right tweaks. And what works in the beginning might not work when you, plateau, get bored or feel too deprived or your not losing as fast, dealing with the stubborn last 20#, etc.

For me, I am on Weight Watchers with past influences from South Beach, Mayo clinic, low fat, low carb, calorie counting while addressing cholesterol, BP, pre-diabetic, thyroid, depression, laziness and cooking-for-one issues.

Good Luck with whatever you decide. Come back to 3FC often.

[GirlyGirlSebas]

Right now, I'm doing Medifast. In the past, I've had good results with Southbeach and calorie counting. My trouble? Never changed the way I look at food and gained it all back. There are lot of good plans out there. Choose one and make a commitment to yourself to not only lose the weight, but to create a new lifestyle for yourself in the process. Good luck! Come visit here daily. The motivation and support you can find here is invaluable.

[FitGirlyGirl]

The plan I am using is calorie counting with the help of a body bugg combined with IR diet principles. However, as others have said, the plan isn't the most important part. The most important parts for me have been sticking to it even when it is a slow process and changing the reasons why I am doing what I do. I don't eat the food I do and do my exercise in order to lose weight, I do it because it is good for me. Yes, I want to lose weight and I am losing weight, but that is not the main purpose behind the choices I make.

[Ky30]

My plan is:
Calorie counting staying under 1500 a day
Drinking 96oz plus of water a day
Working out for 30 minutes to an hour 5 days a week

I havent lost 100 pounds yet but im close ive lost 82 pounds and it will be 7 months on my journey Saturday.

[Eliana]

I like DixCchicks reply quite a lot! Persistence, patience, stick-to-it-iveness.

My specific plan has been quite simply calorie counting with a heavy emphasis on whole foods. I started out the first three months without exercise but would now recommend exercising from the very beginning. Why wait?

It has taken me 17 months so far. These last few pounds are kicking my rear end.

[sept15lija]

I haven't lost 100 but so far I've lost 95 pounds. My plan is simply calorie counting - with an emphasis on healthy foods, but I do have some junk within my allowance too. I also have been working on moving more, but I don't go to the gym. Mostly walking and dancing and major cleaning/organization projects are my workouts (looking forward to lots of gardening!). I think the biggest factor for the success I've had so far is that I am never off plan. The biggest part of my plan is keeping the food under control, and I have done that every day since I started.

[juliana77]

Another calorie counter here... it's simple, it's flexible, and it gives me a sense of accomplishment at the end of each day. I use a phone app to track so it's not an inconvenience.

I do 90 mins of cardio and 60 mins of strength training each week.

The best plan is one that you can stick with, because you don't want to be fighting with yourself every day. Sure, we all have hard days, but if it's too often then you'll be more likely to give up... especially when your numbers stall, and they WILL stall, so be prepared and keep your head in the game.

I am at 22 lbs in 2 months. I am a "whoosher" - I'll go a week or two with minimal loss, and then WHOOSH I drop 2-3 in a few days.

It took me a long time to gain the weight, so I don't expect to lose it overnight. I will be thrilled to reach 100 pounds in one year.

[Trazey34]

I'm a calorie counter as well - by no means has my progress been perfect, but it's been steady, and most of all, it's something I can live with forever. I didn't revamp every single thing I ate, I don't like 'fake food' or substitutions for every single article; rather, I ate less of things I liked. And I got up off the couch and good old fashioned walked my butt off. Lifted heavy things when I could, made cleaning house a workout, took laundry down 3 flights a few items at a time so i'd have to run back upstairs to finish a load. I never set foot in a gym ~ my house and neighbourhood is my gym

I also did some mental work to figure out what got me here, and how to never go back.

Most important tool in it all, for me was a simple set of KITCHEN SCALES and measuring cups. Even today I was sure I could eyeball 3oz of ham, weighed it and it was 4.6 ! It's vital to keep portion sizes in check.

[Nola Celeste]

Calorie counting.

I eat 1500 or fewer calories per day. I have done so since October 19, 2010. The only exceptions were planned--Thanksgiving and Christmas--and I "paid back" those calories by eating 1400 calories a few days over the following couple of weeks. I have been 100% on plan the whole time--and yes, I count the holidays as "on plan," as I planned for and enjoyed them.

It's the only thing I've ever done to lose weight that was A) cheap, B) effective, and C) sustainable. Of course, I had to make peace with the fact that I'm losing a pound a week or thereabouts and not the two pounds a week I lost on Jenny Craig or the five pounds a week I lost for the three weeks I tried Atkins.

The flip side of that is that I spent a ton of my parents' money on JC when I was in college (thank you, Mom and Dad), and I was only able to do Atkins for three weeks before my brain snapped and I upended a barrel of Chee-tos over my face.

What good is a plan that I can't adhere to? What good is a plan I can't afford? I've finally learned that the answer to both those questions is "no good at all for me." I'll take my 6.3 pounds per month and enjoy the fact that I have been able to actually adhere to the diet for six months. It's WAY better than flitting from plan to plan in desperation hoping for the Quick Fix that never comes.

I exercise as well, but I consider that separate from my weight loss. I do it to elevate my mood and improve my health; any weight loss I get from it is a happy side effect.

[sept15lija]

I have to second the kitchen scale and measuring cups, I weigh and measure everything unless it's pre-portioned...it just so easy to eat more than you think you are eating.

[carter]

Calorie counting here, too. The key for me has been a great deal of planning coupled with a dose of discipline. I plan all my meals and snacks. At the beginning of each day I know what I will be eating that day. Even when I go out to dinner, I know ahead of time (roughly) what I am going to order, whether I am going to order a drink, and so on. Then I stick to that plan.

Some of that requires taking action ahead of time to make sure it is easy to stick to my plan. For example, I know that I am too tired and lazy to do a lot of cooking on weeknights, so I tend to cook extra protein portions on the weekends (chicken, fish, lentils, etc) and have planned leftovers. Then when I get home from work all I have to do is cook up a vegetable and in 10 minutes I have a complete, tasty, on-plan dinner.

I exercise 4-5 days a week - weight lifting 2-3 days a week, which I think is wonderful - but I think getting one's eating under control is more important than exercise, at least when you are first getting started.

I haven't yet lost 100 pounds. I've been at it for 21 months. By the time I get to 100 pounds I'll have been at it for somewhere between 2 years and 27 months.

Please read the above paragraph again. Not everyone loses 100 pounds in 10 months or whatever. Slow loss is still success.