Live and let go? Equals success?
 

So, ive been not following a diet plan..Ive been simply watching calorie consumption slightly but not tracking. I decided just to eat healthy things and i havent really been doing anything, and yet ive been losing weight.
Ive been buying frozen entrees for dinner, eating yougurt and oatmeal for breaky and eating pita and hummus and veggies for lunch..and drinking soda..and still losing weight..so is the secret to success to stop thinking about it?? what do you think?

Well it's easier to lose weight when your heavier. When I first started the weight came off pretty fast without many changes but the closer you get the goal the more you need to do to get the weight down. The key to weightloss is consistency, focus, healthy and substaniable eating habits, making sure you are using more calories then you are consuming, and getting regular exercise. At least that's what it's about imho.

The secret to success is to do what works for you. For me I find calorie counting works best,

I agree with niafabo. The more you have to lose the "easier" it will be when you just cut out simple things like soda, fried food, etc. But as you get closer to goal you'll find that following an actual diet plan is what you'll need.

You know the basics of losing weight and implementing them. It is working for you right now and THAT IS AWESOME! Be proud of that! :-)

And even though I am not necessarily tracking what I eat daily, it is always on my mind! Always! I'm actually afraid NOT to think about it.

I don't think the secret is to stop thinking about it because I know if I ate how you are I wouldn't lose- my weight seems not only dependent on how many calories per day I eat but how much of that comes from carbs.

I think it also depends on what you started out weighing, what you were eating before (calorie or whatever you count-wise), and what you are eating now. IE if you ate 5,000 calories a day then cut down to 2,000 you'd definitely lose for a period of time :)

I think if what you are doing is working then that's great- ride it out until it slows or stops- then you have to once again re-adjust :)

The secret to success is establishing good sustainable dietary habits.

Losing weight is easy. Keeping it off is the difficult part.

As mentioned when you're heavy it is easier to lose weight because your caloric requirements to maintain your weight are much greater. If eating healthy without tracking is giving you results and you're happy with that then I'd say you're golden.

At a certain point your weight loss will stop based on the dietary habits you have established at at that time you can evaluate if you're happy with where you have ended up and decide from there what to do.

I would TOTALLY disagree with that the secret to success with weightloss is to quit thinking about it. Not thinking about is what got me to be 264 pounds. The only way that I weighed in at 183.2 this morning is because I think about it EVERY day. I think of what physical activity I will do today and I think about and reconsider EVERY item I consume. BUT- that is just my opinion. I answered without reading everyone elses but I would be surprised if ANYONE with any type of weightloss would agree with you.

[QUOTE=JohnP;3771652]Losing weight is easy. Keeping it off is the difficult part.

QUOTE]

I would disagree with this statement, too. Losing weight is NOT easy. Keeping it off is EVEN HARDER.

your cals seem like they could be low. soda is garbage and so are frozen dinners every night. you might be losing weight now, but it wont last.

[QUOTE=stacygee;3771711]If you think it is difficult than it is. I don't doubt that for some people losing any weight is a struggle for whatever reason. My point was simply that millions and millions of people have lost weight because diets work. It's maintaining weight that is difficult because so many people fail to understand that what you need to do is create healthy sustainable dietary habits for the long term.

I'm clearly in the minority but I believe obsessing over every last detail does no good. Yes the OP will hit a point where what she is doing will no longer work but the same can be said for all of us, at least in theory.

The more you obsess the more you stress. More stress is not good for weight loss or your health in general. Just relax and embrace the suck. Deiting sucks. So what? :D

I guess I'm in the minority because I really don't think dieting sucks that much. I mean every once in awhile it might make me sad that I can't pig out with everyone else or I might get cravings due to hormones but for the most part the eating low calorie doesn't bother me at all. It's the slowness of it, the need to consistantly make time to exercise, the frustration that fat doesn't come off where I want it to, the extra skin, my awkward appearence, my need to schedule my life around keeping everything on plan, and the occasional "plateau" that bothers me.

I could have written this. The eating better and less hasn't been an issue. Moving more, hasn't been an issue. I'm making a lifestyle change - not just losing weight. I'm trying to do things that will make it easier for me to keep the weight off forever. So, yes, it's being consistent day after day. Not feeling things are moving fast enough, and so on.

This is me too (except I haven't gotten to the extra skin part yet - it's still full of fat :) ). Making enough time to do things "right" every day is a struggle for me, and not seeing the weight come off as quickly as I'd like when I'm totally on plan can be discouraging. That's what makes losing weight feel difficult to me. Keeping tabs on everything I eat isn't difficult though, nor stressful, and I truly believe that paying attention to everything I consume is critical to my efforts to lose weight and develop a healthier lifestyle. That's what works for me, but YMMV.

I think a frustrating part is that daily calorie counting and diligence does not allow me to pick where the weight comes off first. My problem area is still a problem, nearly 70 lbs later. Now I've got about 36 lbs to go, and I'm wondering if it is all going to come off my jelly-belly, LOL!!!

I've just been hoping all you successful losers are right in saying "where you gain first, you lose last"...