Trying to find the best diet
 

Hi everyone! Today I weighed myself and realized I am 200 lbs! This was such a shock that I've gotten this big so fast. I used to weigh 130 around December 2013, slowly gaining weight in 2014 and then I was 171 in October and had reached 190 in January, reaching 200 now. I want to go back down to 135, a healthy weight for my height 5'6), and eventually reach 115. Right now my biggest issue is that none of my clothes fit and I don't want to be shopping for clothes that match my current weight and get comfortable in it.

I thought that maybe I should start with a 10 day liquid cleanse (if I start today, it will be over at the end of this month). I've done one of these before in 2010 without a weight loss goal. It's not supposed to be a "fix" for me, but I was hoping that it would put me in the same healthy mindset I had at that time. In the mean time, I'm trying to find the best diet for me. I think just regular portion control would be better than suddenly going on any special diet like a keto diet. I have to do my research.

I'm going to be updating this thread everyday for the next 10 days...just to serve as some external accountability so I don't keep putting it off and then hopefully I'll be able to practice that internal responsibility to myself once again!

Way to go!!! It might take a while to find a diet plan that works for you, every body is different after all. Don't be afraid to alter any plans you read to suit you, and I agree on the portion control bit. Changing habits is better temporary extreme eating! Good luck :)

I think is liquid cleanses are something you've done before and that worked well for you, that could be a good way to get started. And I second the portion control. As time goes on, you may make other changes to test things out, but portion control is simple and effective, and often isn't as overwhelming as researching a whole new diet.

Good luck with everything! And congrats on getting started!

Hmm. I think I would ditch the "cleanse" thing. That is over rated. I really do not get the "cleanse" thing. If we all got that backed up, we'd all "BLOW UP" at some point in time! That does not happen!:p

You do NOT need a diet!:dizzy::?::devil:

What you need is a healthy, sustainable lifestyle, and a reasonable approach, to what you can sustain for the rest of your life.:hug:

Welcome and best on what WOE you choose.

I know this isn't what you are asking, but it stuck out to me. Is 115 lbs a healthy and sustainable weight for someone your height?

135 sounds good, but I don't know that I would aim for any lower.

In any case, I think different diets work for different people, but what works for me is increasing protein, veggies and berries, and decreasing sugar and non-complex carbs (bread, pasta, etc.). It gives me more energy and helps me build muscle more quickly.

Thanks everyone for the lovely responses! I didn't update this as I said I would but I did stick to a liquid diet. It wasn't so much a fast because I did have some soups, but today I weighed in at 195.2! It's a little less of a weight loss than I have experienced at other 10 day cleanses before, but I'm pretty satisfied because I managed to have energy throughout it and maintain daily life productivity.

I haven't figured out a good diet, but as some of you mentioned, the best approach is the simple increase of protein, veggies, etc to make sure I'm getting all the needed vitamins, minerals, iron, etc and not having much sugar and breads & pastas. I am going to try to go gluten-free though just to reduce inflammation in my body. I'll make sure to update this thread at least once a week for some progress reports!

Congrats on your weight-loss. Whenever I cut out sugars and bread/pasta/etc. I always lose a few more lbs of inflammation/water weight. Hopefully that will help you continue to lose consistently.

I know people hate it here when you prescibe a diet as one-size-does-not-fit-all. But screw it. Here, in my experience is the best diet.

Take virtually every reasonable hypothesis from the past fifty years on weightloss/healthy diet and fold them all into one. Minimize salt content and maximize fiber; eat plenty of good fats (monounsaturated and omega 3s) and minimize bad fats (saturated fats and trans fats); eat plenty of olive oil and fish, and little red meat, butter, lard and dairy products. When meat is consumed, keep it lean, which keeps saturated fat content down and reduces energy density and thus calories. Dairy is low fat or no fat. Eat plenty of nuts and legumes and good carbs, which are those with copious vitamins, minerals, antioxidants and fiber (vegetables, fruits and unrefined grains) but few bad carbs (highly refined and sugars).

Welcome! Personally I like going for a healthy diet in the fairly obvious sense, such as the comment above, and we all know that vegetables are healthier than doughnuts. Don't cut out major food groups without a good reason just yet. Try figuring out a sensible calorie allowance for your height, and aim for 1/2 lb - 1 lb a week weight loss. Then stick with that for a while, see how it goes, and you can make further adjustments from there. You may not need to do anything that radical, you know, and you certainly don't want dieting to be miserable. It needs to be something you can sustain happily for as long as it takes, and then forever with a different calorie allowance for maintaining.

With a few personal variations, this is pretty close to what I do.The variations, are personal for me. I'm lucky, I have 100 acres, and can garden and grow tons of my own food!

I try, to keep my diet as clean as possible, which means, I COOK! I chop, slop, slice, dice, etc.

Soup, is amazing, done correctly! Taco's can be healthy! It's all about finding the balance! Ian eats a lot more fish than I do, but, "Ian" correct me if I'm wrong, he lives where fresh is more available, if not, his taste is different than mine. That's ok.

Through this journey, it's been amazing to take food, some I know, and some I don't, and roll with it. Some times, it works out, sometimes it does not, but, I learn! Carry on!:D

Nice shcirerf . It is a pretty good diet, isn't it? I find it is really hard to gain fat on it. Even if I eat a lot. So it's like a ratchet diet. Eat a little to lose. Eat too much, no big deal.

Regarding fish, I do eat a lot. Fresh. Canned. Frozen. For me, it does it all and it does not really matter which.

I could (and in a pinch would) replace it with any lean protein (e.g. chicken, eggs, tofu). But some fish have the magic omega 3s which I swear by from a health (not necessarily weightloss) perspective. They keep my joints going for a start...

Mostly, I just find the foods that I like and that work with my body from a health and weightloss perspective and eat (a lot of) them. Learn your body. And exercise as much as you can.

Tea is also healthy diet for whom who want to Loos hig Weight. So Taking daily exercise with healthy diet can give you slim look and make your life healthy and happy

Diet Plan Tips
 

Take healthy meal plan that includes proteins, carbohydrates, vitamins. Avoid fat rich and salty food and do regular workout. Hiring a personal trainer is best option to stay fit. He/she would give you a diet plan along with workout plan according to your body requirement and lifestyle.

Cleanses and pills and keto and all that seem like weight loss games to me, not serious plans that can carry you through the long journey of losing weight.

That stuff is fine for thin girls who like to play around with gaining and losing the same five pounds.

If I were you, I'd take a good, hard look at whether I wanted to lose the weight. If you find that you do, start working on a serious plan. See a dietitian, figure out how to do it for real, without the games.

It's a long, hard road. You cannot starve off sixty pounds. Unless you take it seriously, you will fail. And if you aren't serious, then why even bother.

Be serious. Learn to eat and cook healthy food, not how to have a short-term liquid diet.

Good luck!

I love Ian's suggestion, except that I would recommended sticking with full-fat dairy products. I've read that they are better for you, because they are natural foods, and your body processes and utilizes them more easily/efficiently. High fat dairy is actually associated with a lower risk of obesity:

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/201...y-keep-us-lean

http://time.com/3734033/whole-milk-dairy-fat/

You're going for the gold, with a BMI goal of 18.6. That's a medically-accepted safe BMI. Best of luck - I'm trying to get there myself! ;)

I agree with full-fat dairy, it has way less sugar in it and keeps you full much longer. For me, fat isn't the enemy, sugar is. Sugar makes me feel awful and really stalls weight loss, which is why I try to only consume sugar from fruits, vegetables and small amounts from dairy (like whole milk). But like I said, diets are different for everyone.

As far as the keto diet, which was mentioned as one of those diets that doesn't render permanent weightloss, I did that diet a while back for over a year as a way to control my epilepsy, and it's what got me off of sugar, and helped me realize that sugar was what my body was responding negatively to (it also helped decrease my seizures significantly). Again, I am not saying it will work for everyone, but for me -- I did the hardcore keto diet, and then gradually transitioned to a more forgiving low sugar/ moderately low carb diet and I kept all of that weight off (until I got pregnant) without any trouble. I think it's the transition out of eating keto-style and into a more manageable diet that trips people up, because it has to be a really slow transition with a heavy focus on increasing vegetables, adding fruit back in, and then gradually adding beans, nuts, etc. I was monitored by a doctor since my diet was not explicitly for weight loss, so I definitely had more at stake and having that medical monitoring and someone telling me exactly what percentages (fat/protein/carbs) to aim for each week was a huge benefit to keeping my weight and overall health stable.

Best diet for you depends on your goals. Are you looking to maximize your weight loss in a specific period of time? Are you looking for gradual life changes that you want to sustain beyond your goal weight? Are you looking to get your diet more in line with a personal philosophy? Do you have specific medical conditions that you should/must consider? All four examples will have 4 different "perfect diets".

Bottom line is that studies show that quick weight loss just as effective for permanent weight loss as is slow weight loss:

http://www.medicaldaily.com/theres-n...t-be-it-slow-o
r-fast-its-maintaining-weight-loss-over-307250

http://www.bariatricnews.net/?q=news...al-weight-loss

The key is in maintenance, not in speed of weight loss. Some studies show that it's easier to bootcamp it for a period of time then switch to maintenance for some dieters than it is to go long term as slow weight loss can be a significant demotivator. Others prefer to make minor changes and accept a slow rate of weight loss and still stick to their plan.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/scie...ets-claim.html

Determine your weight loss goals (not goal weight, but how you want to lose it) and go from there. But ultimate success depends on a life-time weight management strategy.