How to lose weight

[Amos Malone]

My opinion is start by fixing your diet. Cut out sugars and gluten, reduce sizes.
When you've lost enough weight to be close to your BMI, start training.

What's your opinion? Is any diet good?

 

[TenereMark]

To say "go on a diet" is wrong. You are already on a diet. What you eat everyday is your diet.
To say "change your diet" is right. Do that. Either temporarily or permanently.
Put down the chainsaw, pick up the axe. Hop off the ride-on, get out the push mower. Our ancestors weren't fat for a reason.
Oh, disclaimer time. Don't hate me, I'm still overweight.

 

[Amos Malone]

I went on a diet (before Covid) and lost over 20 kilos in six months.
For the first two months I went on "no added sugar" diet (no sugar substitutes etc. No "diet" or "sugar free" drinks). If there was mentioning of sugar in the contents list, or any of the more than 50 different names manufacturers use to try to trick you, I didn't eat it. Most people don't realize how powerful drug sugar is. I felt withdrawal symptoms and everything, especially the first week. That took care of over 10 kilos, while eating as much as I wanted, with no training. This was followed by four months on Keto with same rules, eating as much as I wanted, no training. Although I did try to reduce the size of meals a little by buying smaller plates.
Man it felt good to lose that weight. Blood pressure dropped, I was much fresher in the mornings, needed less sleep, didn't get hungry, clothes were not restricting anymore, didn't feel cold as much.
Then I went on a trip back home, got into some bad food, and took some back with me. Unfortunately I've found again half the weight I lost.

I'm against aerobic training for weight loss. Aerobic Training causes the readily available fuel in your body to drop. Then your body creates subconscious cravings for high energy food, i.e.. with sugars. Which leads to you "rewarding yourself" with an energy bar, protein drink or something. Which ruins the gains you made in hour of training. Lifting weights build a little bit of muscles (less than most think) so your weight loss is slower and the wish to "reward yourself" is just as strong.
I'm all for training to get into shape. Start slowly, make sure you don't overdo it. Begin with walks followed by stretches. After a while a "couch to 5K" program can be rewarding.

There was a guy who said "Your diet controls your weight. Your training controls your health. Don't get these confused." So far I've seen nothing to disprove this KISS statement.

 

[woods]

Put down the fork and exercise.

 

[DJ_MI]

Weight gain/loss/mainenance is actually very simple. It's simply about energy. Obviously food contains calories. Our bodies burn calories for energy. Consume less than you burn and you lose weight; consume a surplus and you gain weight. The tricky part is determining how many calories you actually burn in a day.

Excercise is for fitness not weight loss. Sure it helps, but weight loss comes primarily from controlling calorie intake. The gimmick diets and gym memberships are distractions. No one is going to make money by telling us to simply eat less. Walking one mile will burn around 100 calories. There's something like 1,250 calories in a Big Mac meal. You can consume in a couple of minutes what takes ~4 hours of walking to burn.

 

[Amos Malone]

It's not only how many calories you eat, it's also what you eat. Certain food types, while not containing lot of calories themselves, put the body into "energy preservation" mode so it burns less calories. You get tired easier. Gluten is one of those. Like sugar it's mostly calories, with very little nutrients. So it gives you energy, but not the capability of burning said calories off. That makes your body just store the energy in fat cells. Pretty soon you body will have to expand to have a place to put all those new homeless fat cells. It needs to build extra waist inches and add another chin.
"Put down the fork and exercise" is very bad for you if you are not eating healthy. Healthy diet is the basis that allows you to exercise.
One of the main reasons you shouldn't exercise a lot if you are severely obese is that you risk damaging your joints. Another is that most fat people have high blood pressure and have increased risk of stroke or heart attack when exercising.

 

[DJ_MI]

Focusing purely on diet will lead to weight loss, no doubt about it. If a thinner body without concern for improved fitness is the desired outcome, it's the way to go. There's nothing wrong with that, and many people prefer that approach.

I mentioned walking as a low intensity activity for people attempting to lose weight that may not be capable of anything more strenuous. Humans are very efficient walkers, so it's obviously not a great activity for burning calories.

As with weight loss, improving fitness offers a variety of benefits. I believe a combination of the two is better than focusing on either at the exclusion of the other.

I absolutely agree and I regret that I gave the impression that I don't think that proper excercise and activity is important to fitness. I got caught up in my point that a person's weight is dictated solely on calorie deficit/balance/surplus. Theoretically a person could be completely sedentary while eating only Big Mac meals and still lose weight if they run a calorie deficit but that clearly isn't healthy.

And for the record, I'm far from some ideal physical specimen. I struggle with the discipline to always control what I eat and do.

 

[2whlrcr]

My BMI is 22.6. Hope this helps...

 

[Yard Sale]

I decided to change my diet last Thanksgiving when my size 38 pants were getting too tight. I probably weighed over 190 pounds. (I didn't have a scale.) I was down to 160 in a couple months, then 150, and I've been holding at 145 for a while. Pants down to 34.

Carbs and sugar.

 

[nmroadrunner]

Turn off the television/computer.
Walk.
No special equipment required.
If motivation is needed, get a dog...they love it!
Combine with light strength training for best results.
Read food content labeling with fervor...many processed foods contain frightening percentages of sodium, trans fats, and sugar.

 

[woods]

Several years back I did the no bread/carb thing for a couple months. I swear I lost something like twenty pounds in two weeks.

 

[Oldtrix]

everything is laced with high fructose corn syrup. Eliminate that from your diet and you've won half the battle.

 

[MVI]

Has anyone tried the boiled potato diet? A single item diet like that'd be hard for me, but it works for some people to drop weight. I'd imagine it's tough to change back to a more varied diet without gaining it back.

So much for cutting carbs

 

[Shinyribs]

everything is laced with high fructose corn syrup. Eliminate that from your diet and you've won half the battle.

It's crazy how much that stuff gets used. And sugar in general.

Had a can of just normal corn recently that I open. Tasted very sweet. Looked at the label.

Ingredients: Corn, water, sugar

WTF. Why? Why are you dumping sugar in canned vegetables?

I stopped drinking sodas 12+ years ago. 99% of what I eat gets cooked in my own kitchen. Once you get away from all the stuff they call food, and your taste buds get recalibrated to actual food, it's surprisingly gross what most premade food tastes like. I don't know how some people live off the things they eat. I carry canteens of my own water to work. A stainless steel bottle I paid $8 for 15 yrs ago. I see people going through case after case of bottled water. Bottled water tastes of chlorine and plastic, there's nothing good for you there.

I have to be very hungry/thirty to eat/drink away from home.

 

[Amos Malone]

Potato diet might work. The Atkins diet (or Keto) is probably the "least bad" single item temporary diet. Vegetarian/vegan diet works just as well for some.
As has been said. You shouldn't go on a diet. You should change your diet. If you don't change your det your weight will bounce back when you go back to your regular diet.
Long term health lies in healthy diet, without added chemicals, sugars, and keeping other bad stuff to minimum.
If you have a lot of weight to lose it might be beneficial to go from one diet to another every month or so. Training, especially weight training, should come later but it can be beneficial to take walks, do stretches and balance training.

I keep this video in my YouTube favorites.

 

[Amos Malone]

It's crazy how much that stuff gets used. And sugar in general.

Had a can of just normal corn recently that I open. Tasted very sweet. Looked at the label.

Ingredients: Corn, water, sugar

WTF. Why? Why are you dumping sugar in canned vegetables?

I stopped drinking sodas 12+ years ago. 99% of what I eat gets cooked in my own kitchen. Once you get away from all the stuff they call food, and your taste buds get recalibrated to actual food, it's surprisingly gross what most premade food tastes like. I don't know how some people live off the things they eat. I carry canteens of my own water to work. A stainless steel bottle I paid $8 for 15 yrs ago. I see people going through case after case of bottled water. Bottled water tastes of chlorine and plastic, there's nothing good for you there.

I have to be very hungry/thirty to eat/drink away from home.

This is so true. Lately I've started to purchase milk, eggs and meat directly from a farmer. It tastes completely different and I can see the difference when cooking. The meat gives up less water and shrinks less on the pan.
I also take my own water to work. And coffee. It has the added benefit that thusly I monitor how much I drink per day, making sure I don't get dehydrated.

 

[Oldtrix]

When covid became the latest social craze, the wife and I decided to go keto. That's when you start looking at all the labels and realize that virtually everything has sugar in it. I managed to lose 47 lbs. over the course of a year, and we now continue with a no sugar, very low carb diet. I stopped drinking beer, switched to bourbon and tequila, gave up spuds, most breads and starches, and it has improved my overall health and general sense of well-being. Just adopt a new food lifestyle and stick with it.

 

[MVI]

Everyone says to eat more fresh fish, so that is what I did all last week

 

[Shinyribs]

That's shark food. And that makes you shark food.

My ass ain't got flippers, so I stay in the mountains where I belong. Zero shark attacks up here 😁

 

[Shinyribs]

This is so true. Lately I've started to purchase milk, eggs and meat directly from a farmer. It tastes completely different and I can see the difference when cooking. The meat gives up less water and shrinks less on the pan.
I also take my own water to work. And coffee. It has the added benefit that thusly I monitor how much I drink per day, making sure I don't get dehydrated.

I'm not one for the organic craze as a fad. But if you've never had a fresh egg vs a store bought egg it can be eye opening. The yolks are so much darker and richer. They might have a little poo on them, but they'll last months without refrigeration as well. Once you wash em they can start to spoil.

Yeah, there's a lot of fat on grocery store meat. It's been years since I've seen a pack of bacon worth buying that didn't look like it was just slabs of white fat.