The whole weight loss thing has been a struggle, and one that has raged throughout my entire life. Yet, with my cessation of eating sweets in 2013, I have found a method that finally maintains my weight. Things have finally been in flat line for most of the year, for the first time in my life.
Now, what to do about that excess baggage? If I could just peel off 30 pounds or so, I feel like I finally have the ability to maintain it.
But how? Great question, and the key to the whole mess.
In the past five years, I've had five good buddies that took a pretty drastic step and lost 20+ pounds. And this was in their middle ages - tough duty indeed. Some did it for medical reasons, some because they just wanted to, but all because they were tired of carrying around the excess baggage.
It was possible. Now I just needed to understand how it was done.
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Last May I went on a diet and I lost 36 lbs. Here are some of my tips:
ReplyDelete1. The only way to lose weight is to reduce calories. I consumed between 1200-1500 calories throughout most of this period. I had a calorie distribution goal of 20-60-20 (fat-carb-protein) and tried to ingest as much protein as possible.
2. You need to track everything. Get a good phone app that can scan and has a good database of foods.
3. Track your weight each day at the same time, and occasionally measure during they day. You need to understand what is happening with your body.
4. Measure everything. Having a salad? What your eyes (and belly) think is 2oz of salad dressing (most of the calories) isn't 2oz of salad dressing. Measure.
5. Eat your calories across several small meals. Keep all of your meals under 500 cal, even if you are eating out.
6. If you go out to eat, scout the nutritional menu ahead of time. FInd the lowest cal item on the menu. It is like Christmas when you get there. Develop foods you can eat, even at fast foods because diet foods get boring. It is very doable and going to Subway becomes a major treat.
7. Think substitutions. If you crave a sandwich have a salad with ham/turkey. Candy bar - power bar. Sweets - Greek Yogurt.
8. Start dieting on a Saturday, instead of the usual Monday. Sure it will ruin your weekend, but at least you will not be sitting at work totally miserable. At home you can get out and take your mind off the food you are missing.
9. Study the weight loss plateau and figure out a strategy to overcome it. It will happen. Your body can get used to just about everything. The first 10-15 lbs wlll come off pretty easy if you are diligent. But then, even if you starve yourself, you simply will not lose an ounce. There are a lot fo strategies, some very sophisticated, to try to overcome this. My strategy was to change my diet/workout to have a burst then a fast. So, on day 1 I had a very low calorie day. Then on day 2 I combined my workout with a higher cal day, including a protein supplement. And then kept that rotation up. THere are other methods.
10. Your vices have to stop. I had to give up sugared soda. Others may have to give up beer. Missing out on sweets is hard, but you have already overcome that. Reducing or eliminating bread, pasta, and potatoes is very hard.
11. FOr workout, the most basic workout is simply walking. Do a 30 minute walk. Put on some headphones. I listened to audiobooks which made it something I wanted to do. FInd some nice routes to take. See the changes happening in your neighborhood. Do this everyday even if you are already working out.
12. Eventually move beyond just the walk. I would do a workout routine that had 30 minutes of cardio, some weight lifting, crunches, and then the 30 minute walk. Don't overdo it. Sustainability is more important. You aren't training for the Olympics and if the workouts are too hard they will be avoided. Even if you just start with 10 minutes on the elliptical, start with 10 minutes and build from there.
13. Maintaining is hard. The diet is not forever sustainable. Eventually you want to phase back to a higher calorie living and you will go through phases of bad habits. I gained 12 lbs back, and right now I am in process of losing them back again (down 9). But, I know I can do it.