I had gone on an extensive trip and managed to maintain my weight loss, but when I cam home something just snapped in my head and went back to my old ways. GAH so frustrating. At any rate, I'm back.
Before I counted calories, and it seemed to work fine, but what in your experience has been the most successful AND healthy?
For me, counting calories has been great. Flexible. Easy. Free. You can make it as "healthy" as you'd like. And that way you can make sure you're eating in a deficit. Then when you get to the point where you're ready to maintain, you really don't have to change a thing except adjusting calories to maintenance. You can work in indulgences, special days like birthdays or holidays, and not have to constantly worry about what you're "allowed" to eat. That's why I like it anyway.
Now, that's what has worked for ME over the course of the last year that I've lost the weight. I've tried other things, but I like calorie counting the best.
Many people find great success going about things much differently than I do. And it's trial and error sometimes!
You're going to get a large variety of answers to this question.
A caloric deficit is how fat loss happens. How to create that deficit is up to you.
In my opinion, if you're not an athlete in training, the easiest way to lose fat is to go low carb. I'm a fan of counting calories but if you didn't want to count calories following the rules of strict paleo will certainly get the job done.
For me, counting calories has been great. Flexible. Easy. Free. You can make it as "healthy" as you'd like. And that way you can make sure you're eating in a deficit. Then when you get to the point where you're ready to maintain, you really don't have to change a thing except adjusting calories to maintenance. You can work in indulgences, special days like birthdays or holidays, and not have to constantly worry about what you're "allowed" to eat. That's why I like it anyway.
Now, that's what has worked for ME over the course of the last year that I've lost the weight. I've tried other things, but I like calorie counting the best.
Many people find great success going about things much differently than I do. And it's trial and error sometimes!
I do like the flexibility. I guess my issue is I want to see a big loss, even if it's just one big loss, to show my motivation whose boss lol.
Quote:
Originally Posted by JohnP
You're going to get a large variety of answers to this question.
A caloric deficit is how fat loss happens. How to create that deficit is up to you.
In my opinion, if you're not an athlete in training, the easiest way to lose fat is to go low carb. I'm a fan of counting calories but if you didn't want to count calories following the rules of strict paleo will certainly get the job done.
I'll have to look into low carb. That'll be a tough one for me but I'm sure it'll be successful. I wonder If I did that for a few weeks to kick start and then go back to calorie counting ?
I have been able to lose a lot of weight fast doing low carb. The first, with old school Atkins (not the most current) I felt terribly unhealthy. It was basically NO carb. I lost a lot, and as soon as I started eating normally again I gained it all back. I was a kid, so I'm sure I wasn't making the greatest choices when I got to goal and started eating carbs again.
The second time I followed South Beach and had great sucess, and felt extremely healthy. SB was much easier to work into my life. I was able to maintain my loss for quite a while before getting pregnant.
Right now, I'm calorie counting and keeping carbs moderate, usually between 80-100g. I feel fantastic. I have a much more comprehensive understanding of nutrition now, and I am staying at 1400 calories a day and not feeling a bit deprived because I'm choosing my food carefully.
At this point in my life, calorie counting is what works best. I'm a busy, full time working married mom of two and calorie counting doesn't involve as much planning and thought, and I don't have to cook seperate meals for myself and my very picky family.
My husband, daughter and I went out to lunch at Mellow Mushroom today (awesome pizza place) and I was able to stay on plan no problem. A small Greek salad that was amazing for 290 and a slice of their pizza for 360.
So much of what is going to work most efficiently for you depends on your personality and your schedule and the other people in your life that you are responsible for feeding and sharing a refrigerator with.
I get slightly obsessive when I'm focused on losing weight and I very rarely go off plan. But, in the past when I did, I felt like going off plan when I was doing low carb set me back a lot more than going off plan when doing low calorie.
I also know that my body doesn't lose efficiently if I eat excess carbs, so keeping an eye on those helps me. It's so much trial and error, but since you have been here before you probably already know what does and doesn't work for you.
I am finally done having babies and I went into this knowing it was for life. That also factored into my choosing to count calories - it's the easiest thing for me, personally, to maintain.
I count calories and it works wonderfully for me, so long as I don't let myself cheat too much (by cheat I mean go over my daily limit). And I agree with LockItUp, you can make it as "healthy" as you like, or indulge in junk food if you want, so long as you're within your calorie budget.
I'm on Weight Watchers and it's working we'll for me so far. I've tried calorie counting in the past and could never stick to it but for some reason I can stick to WW even though I have to count points.
However, you have to figure out what is going to work for you. We are all different.
Whatever you choose, I feel that you need to journal/track/weigh in and then use the info to help you make better choices moving forward. There is no failure, only feedback!
And it needs to be a lifestyle you can live with, that is most of the time being on plan, but allows for flexibility. No one can be perfect every day!
I count calories and keep track on MFP, I also do cardio and strength training 5 days a week. I did this before and fell off the wagon for a while after a vacation. I kept looking for things to get me stated again and one day I realized I just needed to do it and stop not doing it because I couldn't get started. I know calorie counting and working out works because I've lost doing it before so I am sticking with it.
I have a different way of counting though, I don't believe in wasting calories on junk and I won't drink my calories with sodas or juices. I drink water sometimes with crystal light in it, have my coffee in the mornings. I eat as clean as possible and if my family goes out to eat on the weekends then I enjoy myself without worry because its only one day.
I really believe working out is a huge part of my success but also Ii know that I could work out every day if I wanted to but if I'm not concentrating on what I put in m body it's not going to work as fast as I want it to and it won't stay off.
Look for something you can stay with long term, you gotta be able to live with it for the rest of your life or you will always fall off the wagon.
I had gone on an extensive trip and managed to maintain my weight loss, but when I cam home something just snapped in my head and went back to my old ways. GAH so frustrating. At any rate, I'm back.
Before I counted calories, and it seemed to work fine, but what in your experience has been the most successful AND healthy?
Thanks!
Well currently I don't have a wagon to fall off of, but in the past I have also had success counting calories. I still think it's probably the easiest to follow, particularly with all the online tools and apps now available. And I had no problems staying on it even while traveling.
Angelic Fruitcake, I'm just the opposite! For some reason I simply cannot count points, but have no problem with the calories. Which seems a little strange, because it's quite similar. Just shows how different things work for different people!
I've combined WW's with low carb. WW's has been incredibly successful for me in the past and I love it's flexibility, but I lose really slow if I just stick to point counting. My Dr. told me to stop eating sugar, bread, and alcohol, so I cut those out. I keep my carbs from 20-60g every day with a once a week high carb day in moderation. Most of my carbs come from veggies.
I've done Atkins and South Beach, and I lost really fast on Atkins but it's not a plan I can stay on indefinitely. South Beach worked pretty good too but I don't really consider it low carb. I tried Paleo, but I don't live in an area that makes it very easy to stick too as we have no free range anything available. We do have a good supply of year round home grown veggies and fruit though.
Really, it all boils down to the fact that it's calorie counting no matter what label I put on it. If I stick to it and stop derailing myself on vacations and pending b-day's, I'd probably lose faster.
Fell off the wagon! what diet do you use?
