I am in my mid-thirties and reached a high of near 320lbs around 2 years ago. I am now at 215 and I am 5'11" and male. My goal is to get somewhere near 190 and I have no specific time in mind. I generally have 5 and 10lb goals and do not put pressure on myself timewise.
So how did I lose the weight? The major components were 1) a determination to lose weight and have healthier eating and living habits. The habit thing is important since I found from research that 'diets' per se don't really work. But changing how you relate to food and exercise does work. 2) Drinking lots of water. 3) Doing exercise, important Cardio AND strength. 4)Eating slower and smaller portions. 5)Making better food choices including cutting out a lot of fast food. 6) Finding healthy food choices that taste great and are good for me.
I have done a bit of research on the web and I can gaurantee you that those 6 areas are the best and ultimately the only way to lose weight. You do not have to join weight watchers (you can if you like, I have no problem with that), or go on any fad diet but if you work with those 6 areas you will lose weight.
I will go into a little bit of detail on each of the areas for me.
1) I went from 320 to 280 in about a year and a few months, as I wasn't fully committed to losing weight. I made some changes but I didn't have losing weight as a priority. Then this March I really made it a priority and great things started to happen. What worked for me was I started thinking about my excess weight as a 70 or 80lb backpack that I had to wear 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Who would want to do that? Not me. So I made an ironclad internal promise to myself to lose weight and make changes. No one can tell you about making this promise, or when you get to a stage where making such a promise is right for you, but it was important to me. Off course you can lose weight without this, but it did help me.
2)Water. The great news is tap water is just fine and its free and afterawhile it tastes great. New studies show tap water has a good bacteria count, some bottled water is better but other bottled water is much worse. Water has so many positives to it and at first I had to force myself to drink 8 cups, now I make 8 cups easy.
3)Exercise is very important. Strength training is beginning to be recgonized for its importance in losing weight. The simple explantion is that muscle cells burn more calories then other types of cells. So when you increase muscle, you increase your metabolism for the whole day. And even though I am male, women should not be afraid of strength training. It is very, very hard to get bulky when doing weights. You are much more likely to get firm and toned first, then bulky, and strength training gets you a lot more confident in your appearence. Cardio..my best tip is a cliche but its important the best cardio is the one you do. No need to argue about running versus biking versus walking if you do it, its good. BTW for my strength training I use a 100 dollar piece of equipment called a bullworker which I love dearly. You can find out more at thebullworker.com and no I do not have a connection with them.
4)Slowing down has done wonders for me. There is an awareness of something called mindful eating. It simply means paying attention to what and how you eat. It seems obvious but not a lot of people do it. But eating slow lets your body let you know your full before you eat too much. I now get full on a 6inch subway sandwhich where before I eat a footlong. Mindful eating is also about food choices. Using subway again, I don't get mayonise or oil on my sandwhiches anymore, I choose baked chips, and drink a diet soda. So I get a healthy meal. I also do get the cheese, a little fat is ok, and its healthy not to deny yourself too much as long as your overall habits are healthy.
5)Better food choices which I touched on above. Fast food had a lot to do with getting me to 320, along with not getting enough exercise, and turning 30. It was easy to cut out a lot of my fast food. I have been eating hamburgers and fries constantly since I was 5 or 6 but I mostly have cut them out and its been fine. I still have fries and hamburgers from time to time, again that is ok, but
6)I also have a lot of grilled chicken sandwhiches (no mayonise) and veggie burgers. The key is to experiment. The first veggie burgers I tried were horrible and awful but I tried other brands and some where ok. I also tried Soy Delicious icecream and it rocks. I can not tell its not dairy icecream and it is much healthier for you. Just go to a health food store or something like a Trader Joe's and experiement. Another example, I use seasoned Japense rice vingear or other low cal dressing for salads now. And they taste good, the key for me was I found low call low fat dressings that are naturally that way. The fat free ranch and such taste horrible generally because they need the fat to taste right. But there are many naturally zero fat or fat free dressings that tast much better if you look around.
So that is how I have been losing weight. I truly am not on a diet. There is no point wher I am going to go back to eating a lot of fast food, or pouring manyonise on things. I enjoy food every bit as much as I use to, it just took a little effort to change my ways. But, truly, not that much effort. Just cut down your calories gradaully, keep some treats and never, EVER try and lose weight by changing food choices alone. You HAVE to do diet changes AND exercise. Do these things and you don't need any expsensive pills or groups or anything, you will lose weight and feel great.
Sorry for the length of this post, it is my first one, and I simply wanted to share what was working for me. Good luck.
A very awesome post--I salute you! There really is no magic pill is there? There's nothing like good old fashioned hard work and common sense! Job well done!!
I am still struck by what the vast majority of 'diets' that work have in common. Basically, lots of water, exercise, and a healthy diet.
Of course a 'healthy diet' has a lot of variations. But even here this is a commoness. A healthy diet is a balanced diet, moderate in portion size and 'balanced' in food groups. Fat isn't bad per se, protien is not bad, carbs are not, a non-balanced diet is bad.
Add commitment to water, a good diet, and exercise...and away anyone goes on weight loss.
Yes, I agree.. A HEALTHY WOE (whatever your body type responds to) and selecting the correct food choices AND IMPLEMENTING EXCERCISE ( Anything that will boost YOUR metabolism) Walk, Run, Treadmill, ANYTHING THAT WILL OFFER ADDITIONAL DAILY EXCERTION !
WE ALL KNOW THAT NO MATTER WHAT THE WOE PLAN IS...IMPLEMENTING EXERCISE WILL OFFER US THE CHANCE TO LOOOSE!
Who else has been successful? I know that I have. And I have not had to spend a fortune. I have to admit that before buying into "The" play, I want proof! Cause-.Anyone who wants to succeed in weight loss will..........
#1--Have a Determination -As in we don't? (your words)
#2--Water~We all know that is a major KEY to weight loss succes
#3--Excercise--Another Unspoken needed to help us obtain our goal
#4--Smaller Portions--HELLO! Reduced portions will always mean reduced calories.
#5--Reduce fast food---Okay--Making better food choices. This is not a part of MOST weight reduction advice?
#6--Healthy Food Choices--I think it's covered in #'s 1 thru 6
So, what are you telling us Diamond George that we've not heard before.?
Mamaj it never hurts to give good advice. How many times should the common sense, healthy advice about losing weight the healthy way be repeated? Probably forever. I know from these boards there is a lot of whacky advice. I think it bears repeating ad infinitium the advice I have given. And I wanted to give a statement that this is what I did and it worked, in a very healthy way. Its all good to read about what you should do, but having someone say they did it and it worked is important also.
Also,I am not a 'george'. The geog refers to geography. I am proud graduate student in geography. But good try.
I understand MamaJ, I always come to these sites hoping someone will say 'if you lean to the left at a 17.3 degree angle, standing on your right foot, kiss your elbow and hop around in a circle counterclockwise, you will be thin... and rich' but so far no one has Darn it!!
So we repeat and repeat, but the stories are good to hear! Thanks for the story, DG (first thing that popped in my head - Looney Toons with the Abominable Snowman and Bugs Bunny 'I will love him and hug him and squeeze him and call him George'. heehee)
I for one, enjoyed reading of your success. Good job!! I agree with all your comments. However I myself attend WW meetings for I enjoy the exchange of encouragement, hints, etc. and also the social contact. Maybe that's a female thing! Thanks for sharing your story.
I think your post was great and inspirational. We all know there is no gimmicky way to lose weight, just basically eating less and moving more. I have lost 90 pounds over the last 2 years but have also put 20 back on. I still want to lose those 20 pounds but was becoming very disheartened as I felt that what worked for me before (counting calories and going to the gym) wouldn't work this time. This was totally irrational and reading your post helped me put things into perspective. If I make good choices with eating, and keep exercising then the weight will come off.
Hello everyone, I have not posted for some time, so I thought I would let you know how I have been doing. Before as I told you , I was doing the Living Well program, and was and did great. I lost 20 lbs. But for the last 2 months I have just been yoyoing, ( you know, up one day and down the next) and I haven't lost any more weight. Last week I found out about herbalife, and I signed up to be a distributor as well as do the program, and in 7 days I have lost 6 lbs. Needless to say I am very happy about that. I feel great and have more energy than I have had in a long time. I'll keep you posted on my progress, until next time, See ya......
Yo-yoing and reaching a plateau are very common. Yo-yoing is probably easier to deal with. You have to stick with good habits. Logically and physiologically the only way anyone would go back up is if they start changing their good habits or some freak of metabolism. I am still going down, but I found that I stopped drinking 8 plus cups of water and working out a bit and it started to show a little. So I am back doing that. BTW plateaus are a very, very hard part of weight loss. Aside from patience I think drinking water, eating some sort of breakfast and doing strength training are the best ways to deal with plateaus. The reason being all 3 help keep your metabolism going and eventually if your metabolism is going strong you will break through plateaus with patience and keeping good diet and exercise habits.
My weight loss success
Thanks for sharing your story.
weight loss
