Hello all,

I posted an introduction a few days ago, and NOBODY ANSWERED ME!

I am 63, 5'8", 231#, relatively active (walk, bicycle), and gained about 30 pounds when I started menopause (old, last year).

I have dieted successfully on Medifast, but when I tried it this year I just could not stick with it. It took me 6 months to lose 10 pounds, but I admit I wasn't doing it right. then I gained it all back on vacation.

I am now doing Atkins and I have been on it for 7 weeks, but I have only lost 7 pounds so far (started 238).

I am desperate to find something that works for me. I am taking a statistics class right now, and since I had to design a survey, I thought I would try a weight loss survey for who lost or gained in 2013. I admit it was a selfish choice, because i wanted see what is working for whom. I could only ask four questions on the survey, so it doesn't have some things on it i thought would be good to know, like starting weight and ending weight, or a greater choice of diets to comment on.

Well, hello again! Would anyone reading here please complete my survey?

http://www.statcrunch.com/5.0/survey...053&code=NGJRB

If you don't want to do that, can you tell me what DID work for you by answering this post?

If I don't start losing soon on Atkins, I don't know what I am going to do. I have been eating ON PLAN, and my husband is losing but I am not! HELP!

I've been doing the slow carb/4 hr diet. I think it works well. In a nutshell, no fruit, milk or cheese. I eat protein, beans, nuts and veggies. I've only lost 7 lbs also in about 4 weeks. I think I could have lost more but I went away and was slightly off plan.
This plan allows 1 cheat day per week but I take mine less often. I often make a list during the week of things that I'm craving and I'll eat them on the cheat day after my regular high protein breakfast.
Good luck and just keep sticking to some diet, drink lots of water and walk.

Long story, short.

Branded diets often do not work. You need to pick and mix to find lifestyle choices (i.e. diet and exercise) that work for you.

If a branded diet works for you, then great.

But what I do, probably won't work for you or anyone else.

If you'd like to try what I do nevertheless then good luck:

Run 4 miles before breakfast.

Eat 2 cans of fish and a bowl of steelcut oats with honey, flaxseed milk, chili powder, tabasco sauce, cinammon, vanilla, dried figs and dried apricots for breakfast.

Do one hour weight training before lunch.

For lunch eat 4 cans of fish with mixed greens, hummus, kim chi, red onion, dried figs and dried apricots, balsamic vinegar, honey cappings, chili powder, 3 quails eggs and tabasaco sauce.

Rinse and repeat.

One-size-does-not-fit-all.

I walk 3 miles a day at least 5 days a week. The other days I ride my bike. I have double knee replacements (2009) and I am unable to do high impact like running.

What does your weight training involve? There is a gym in my town similar to Golds, and I was thinking of going there when the weather stops me from my outdoor activities this fall/winter.

I agree I could not eat what you are eating. Honestly, it sounds really horrible.

Since I lost weight on Medifast in the past, I may give that one more go, at least to break this weight loss stall I am in!

INaTIZZY:
What is the slow carb/4 hr diet? I have never heard of it?

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU to whomever just answered my survey.

In about a week, I will have some numbers about which plan of those I listed seems to have the best results, or at least the most people on it. If you GAINED weight in 2013, just enter your "weight loss" as a negative number (i.e. -10).

I agree. So find foods that work for you. Your exercise regime sounds good. Play around with the diet.

Doing what other people do based on a survey may not cut it for you. Intellectually interesting...yes...but I am not sure this will be an effective strategy for a specific individual.

4hr diet- just google it. There's a book but like I said above-no fruit, milk or cheese. Protein, eggs, nuts and veggies. No weighing or measuring. It's easy to follow as I don't like fruit.
It's similar to Paleo, except you can eat nuts.

I guess I am supposed to have 25 posts before I can post a survey? I'm not sure why, because it did post the first time.

This is totally anonymous and strictly for my personal use in the statistics class I am taking. That class is HARD and I have to take it to get into a masters program I am applying for next year. I'm 63, and going back to school is pretty weird.

If the message board removes my link, would any of you please answer the following questions, and I can fill them in myself:

Survey of On-Line Weight Loss Forum Dieters Who Dieted in 2013

1. What is your gender? (Circle one answer)
a. Male
b. Female

2. What is your age in years?
Enter whole number: _______

3. How much weight did you lose in 2013?
Enter whole number in pounds: _______ (or gain?)

4. What weight loss plan did you follow? (Circle one answer)
a. Weight Watchers
b. Atkins
c. MediFast
d. Jenny Craig
e. NutriSystem
f. South Beach Diet
g. Other *

Other.

If one diet worked, we'd be all on it.

Apologies for being a pain in the @rse, but I am quite passionate about this.

No, you are not a pain in the arse, not at all!

You are exactly who I want to hear from. I need to get realistic about how to take off my weight. Earlier this year, I started a combination of Medifast and calories, keeping them under 1200 a day, all while doing my walking and biking. It took 6 months for me to lose 10 pounds. Then my son got married and I went off my diet for a couple of weeks (but I did NOT pig out) and gained ALL of it back.

Every time I go on a diet and go off plan even a couple of days, my weight balloons back up. I think all I accomplish is dropping my metabolic rate to starvation mode, so ANY food increase makes the weight return!

OK, well remember that we all have off-plan days and after those days your weight does tend to jump a lot because of sodium and water retention and not fat. So the trick is to take a deep breath, accept the gain, go back on plan and your weight tends to fall back very, very quickly in the day or two after.

If you simply give up because the scale jumps up a lot the following day or two after an off-plan episode then all bets are off.

Read the book The Overfed Head

^^This!!

Honestly it's taken me years to find the right diet and it turns out it's not a diet at all. I've gone through WW, Atkins, low carb, low fat, paleo, you name it. I have lost weight on ALL of these diets. I have kept the weight off on NONE of them. I've learned a lot about nutrition and exercise along the way and you'd think that would suffice in keeping it off but it has not. I literally know all there is to know about weightloss and yet I can't make it work. I literally have an overfed head lol.

So I am focused on Intuitive Eating now, really listening to my body's needs, eating all the foods I love, mending my horrible relationship with food and healing my self esteem and body image. Since February I have lost 19lbs on this non-diet and have kept it off. More importantly my binges have drastically reduced, nearly ended. I feel really confident that none of the weight I've lost will come back and I know that I will continue to lose. Slowly, but surely.

I agree with Ian, it's better to make lifestyle changes that work for you rather than following this or that diet, especially if you have trouble following diet plans.

I can offer general eating advice, such as avoiding sugary foods with empty calories, refined carbohydrates like white bread and pasta, and any packaged foods with weird ingredients. Focus on whole, homemade meals, and eat vegetables at every meal. Drink plenty of water. Avoid sugary drinks like fruit juice, soda pop, and even fake "healthy" energy/workout drinks.

It seems you're being pretty active, so I wouldn't change anything unless you feel you'd like to.

One eating plan you might consider trying is intermittent fasting—have you heard of it? All you have to do is alternate feast and famine days. On a feast day you eat normally, and the next day is famine day, where you eat 500 calories or less. A lot of people have had success with this method, and it's easily to implement and follow. It's still important to eat clean and stay active though.

Really, it's all about experimenting and seeing what works for you. Everyone is different and different diets will work for different people. That's another reason why brand diets don't work for some people. I trust this advice helped

I'm in the "other category" as well. Calorie counting is the only way I've ever been successful. I tried Atkins and it was a horrible mistake on my part. Works for some, but was not healthy for me and my Doctor advised me to not be on it.

1) I once did pills... bad idea.
2) Bulimia... Definitely a bad idea and no one should ever ever ever do this. It's more self hate than a weight loss model.
3) Richard Simmons Deal a Meal... LOL! OMG! That actually worked really well for me. Very similar to calorie counting. I can't find the deal a meal package anymore, so I just moved over to basic calorie counting.
4) I once tried This crazy fish and whole grain "diet." It was more a set meal plan for the rest of your life eating the same 1200 calories each day. Yeah... not sustainable, but I did lose a ton of weight at the time.

I'm kind of like Wannabeskinny now. I learned a lot about nutrition, about food, about my body and what it can and can not handle, about exercise, about life choices. I now do what works for me and try to remember weight loss is slow. But I'll get there one day.