Tired of diets!
 

I worked long and hard against my fat, people advised me to take diet pills but I am afraid because I have heard bad things about this method. Let me know if someone has a diet and if you have had good results, because I've done it all and instead I think I gained more.

The best results I ever got were from plain old restricting calories (I eat around 1500 a day, but somedays I eat more, somedays I eat less) and eating healthy food rather than junk combined with daily exercise. The simplest (not the easiest), is often the most effective method. I've reduced my simple sugar intake while upping my fruit and veggie intake significantly and that seems to help me lose weight faster. Weight lifting and cardio is, so far, really helping me to lose inches. So far I've lost 29 lbs, 4inches off my waist and 4 inches off my hips, 1.5 inches off each thigh, and i've lost significant inches elsewhere as well since april/march. consistency and persistence will lead to your greatest success.

It is always very important that you see a real doctor and not anyone who can pass off as such and you just pills. To my opinion is really bad to take diet pills or any other form abrupt weight loss. Since it may gain weight again after some time.

My experience after having dropped 25 kilos, I can say that it is far from being pumped up and completely committed to wanting to lose weight slowly. It is then the only way to maintain your weight ideal.

My advice is a good diet, never stop eating, but eating healthy and at least six times a day. And fundamental is that apart from exercising helps you lose weight your body to release stress.

But visit a good doctor.

I don't recommend diet pills at all, they are expensive and typically speaking they are an unhealthy crutch and don't work anyway. It seems like I've tried most of them, and from experience I can honestly say they don't work nearly as well as willpower. I hate to say it, but the best way to lose weight is to eat healthy foods, watch your calories and make sure that you're burning a good bit more more than you take in. Which means you need to exercise almost daily. I also recommend you get a pedometer. I have one and I use it to make sure I've moved enough in a given day. Fitday is a pretty good tool to use for figuring out your calories in and out, but it's just a tool and only as good as the operator (hint hint). Hydration also seems to be pretty critical in weight loss, so drink lots of water, like 64oz baseline plus another 8oz per 10 pounds you want to lose. Oh and be warned the first 6-8 weeks will be especially brutal, your body will crave all the junk you took away from it, so prepare yourself for some rough days, and also a plan for self forgiveness cause chances are you're gonna cheat at least once in a while. After the first couple of months it gets easier, although it's still not a walk in the park.

I see and hear this all the time---eat 5 or 6 times per day. But what does that really mean?

I mean, what are you eating---especially for those non traiditional times/snacks? I would be indebted if you just provided a 1 day sample of what you eating so I can just get a mental picture to gauge what I need to do for myself.

Thanks in advance, I sure hope you can repsond. This question really has me confused, and probably shouldnt but I just dont get it!

It can mean a variety of things, but it's usually one of two:

1. Cutting portions of the "big three" and splitting them between two meals each - two small breakfasts, lunches, and dinners, spaced about two hours apart, so you're eating every 2-3 hours.

2. Eating slightly smaller "big three" meals, and spacing them with snacks like nuts, yogurt, jerky, fruit, etc. so that you're eating something every 2-3 hours.

A lot of people say that it helps keep your metabolism revved up. I'll add that it also helps psychologically - you end up eating a lot less than you would if you binged at a few meals, but you're brain thinks you've had a lot, so you reduce the frequency of random cravings.

Well for me this means eating breakfast, lunch and dinner plus a mid-morning snack and an afternoon snack. It does not mean grazing constantly. My daily calorie budget is 1,300-1,500 calories/day, so I try to have 500 calories total for breakfast and my mid morning snack, 300 calories for lunch, 200 calories for my afternoon snack and 400-500 for dinner. Here's a typical menu for the day:

Breakfast:
2 pieces 35 calorie toast with 1/2 cup cottage cheese (150 calories)
1 small banana (72 calories)
1/2 scoop protein powder, 1/4 cup almond milk in my coffee (65 calories)

Mid-Morning snack:
1/2 scoop protein powder, 1/4 cup almond milk in my coffee (65 calories)
1 deviled egg (90 calories)

Lunch:
Taco salad with lettuce, tomato, green peppers, chicken, salsa, ff sour cream (300 calories)

Afternoon snack:
1 container of Greek yogurt (90 calories)
3/4 cup frozen blueberries stirred into the yogurt (60 calories)

Dinner:
4 oz chicken breast (200 calories)
1 cup steamed broccoli (30 calories)
1 cup steamed cauliflower (25 calories)
1 cup baked butternut squash (80 calories)

I don't eat exactly the same things every day, so this is just an example of what a day with 5 meals might look like. I also plan my day a little lighter than my budget, because at some point I'm probably going to cheat and I need a few wiggle calories for that.

Great job on the menu for one day. You can't get no easier than that. Love your term "wiggle" calories :D I have to go off the wagon ever now and then myself.

I love Tandoorichicken's 3 rules:

"1) eat real food - more vegetables, moderate meat, moderate fruits, less grains, less sugar, less vegetable oils.
"2) exercise - moderate intensity cardio, sprinting, heavy lifting, dedicated stretching and mobility.
"3) live - relax, de-stress, meditate."

So you don't need a "diet." By entering your foods in FitDay you can see what you're getting from the foods you eat and then make incremental changes to be more healthy.

FitDay shows you the amount of calories it takes to maintain your current weight based on your lifestyle, and as long as you take in fewer calories than that you will lose weight over the long haul.

I don't know...

For me, the basic 3 squares really work best. I may have an afternoon snack, rarely a morning snack beyond a cup of coffee or tea. I just have a nice healthy breakfast, lunch and dinner. When I'm reducing calories that comes up to 1100 to 1200 cals, when I'm maintaining it is around 1900 cals. And I have been pretty sucessful losing 30 lbs in 3 months maintaining for 6 weeks and about to start to lose the last 10.

The problem I have had in the past is that the 5 or 6 "small meals" turn into 5 or 6 kind-of regular sized meals. Or I try to take a regular meal and eat it over 2 or 3 eating periods and just find myself feeling deprived.

I know all the gobbldy-gook about wanting to maintain blood sugar, but if you don't have any preexisting metabolic issues like diabetes, and you eat a nice balanced meal low in simple sugars in the first place, your body is built to handle the mild ups and downs of blood sugar.

BTW, I do not mean to diss those who have found that eating every 2,3 or 4 hours really helps, believe me. This is all about finding out what works for you. But just letting folks know that I'm one who hasn't found that to be very helpful, and there may be others like me (although I have be told that I am an oddity... that's a compliment, isn't it?? :D)

Pam

I'm pretty sure eating 5-6 small meals boosting your metabolism is a myth. It's amazing for your psychological well being though. I prefer not having to wait 4-5 hours in-between meals. I actually eat well over 5-6 small meals, I eat more like 8-9, but I eat small things throughout the day.

3 meals a day with 2 snacks is pretty decent too.

Losing weight is all about finding what works for YOU. No one is the same.

@MarkOsborn
Here is a day in the life. Note that I am cutting. This includes supplements and workout information. Also I understand most people would be hard pressed to follow this routine. I've been doing it for about 2 1/2 months. I get a steady 2 lbs a week loss with this. YMMV.

5:00 - Power bar - 2 eggs
5:30 - 2 mile run (Tue, Thu)
weight training - 30 mins (Mon, Wed, Fri)
5 mile run (Sat)
7:00 - 1 1/4 cup of shredded wheat with 3/4 cup %2 Lactaid Milk
1 capsule GNC Ginsa Gold (Ginseng)
8:00 - HIIT - (various) 10 mins
8:30 - 2 Scoops Optimum Nutrition - Pro Complex Protein Powder
10:00 - 1 package Quaker Low Sugar Oatmeal
12:00 - Dinner - 2 Tuna Sandwiches on Whole Wheat (Something with no HFC)
GNC Maximum Greens Ultra Mega Green Vitamin/Mineral supplement
2:00 - Yoplait Yogurt
3:30 - HIIT - (various) 10 mins
4:00 - Fruit Snack
1 tblspn Peanut butter
1 capsule GNC Ginsa Gold (Ginseng)
6:00 - Supper - Spaghetti
9:00 - 1 Scoop - Optimum Nutrition - 100% Casein Protein

@SeiferWar
I don't know about boosting your metabolism but there is a study which proposes your body goes into a catebolic state after about 4 hours. Eating more frequently is suppose to keep this from happening.

I'm pretty sure that your body goes catabolic only after a high-carb meal. Carbs are absorbed relatively quickly, so you find yourself hungry only a few hours after, say, a cheese panini, versus a comparably sized bowl of hearty meat chili, which is slowed down in the GI by all the protein and fiber. I'd propose that the frequency of your eating is determined by what it is exactly that you're eating.

There are good diets out there. The Paleo, the New Atkins, Weight Watchers, etc... and you can always find someone that has had success and others that haven't. I believe the key is to stop looking for a 'diet' as something you do to you reach your weight goal.

I prefer to approach the process as a lifestyle change to become a healthier (and lighter) person. The changes that I have made I intend to continue for the rest of my life. That means exercising on a regular basis, eating healthier (more fruits & vegetables, less simple carbs, and less processed food) and restricting my calories.

The problem with the diet or the pill solutions is that you have only treated the symptoms of the problems that were caused by eating poorly and not exercising. As soon as you go off the diet or pills the reasons you became overweight return, as does the weight.

Instead educate yourself on how fat, carbs and protein are utilized by your body and when you need them. Develop a long term goal for weight loss that is based on a 500-700 calorie deficit per day. Acheive your calorie deficit with a combination of restricting the food you eat and exercise. If you have a favorite unhealthy food (or 2 or 20, lol) don't tell yourself you can never eat them again. Instead understand the nutritional baggage those foods carry and make adjustments to the rest of your intake to compensate. You can't have them all in the same week but you can have them.

As far as diet pills go, I have tried them in the past and not had success (of course I was still eating badly). All I got was shakey from the stimulants. I believe the caffeine from the 2-3 cups of coffee I drink a day is more effective.

I honestly have never dieted. Diets are meant to be temporary, due to changing the way you eat very drastically, and therefore, any results you see are usually lost when you go off them (and make no mistake, most people do).

Now, this isn't to say I don't eat healthy, because I do. I did a complete overhaul of the way I eat, but I did so in a way that I like what I'm eating now, and my body learned to crave the healthy stuff rather than sweets. Small, sustainable lifestyle changes are the way to go.

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Regardless of what diet your on or what you eat, you still have to restrict calories. My guess would be that even weight watchers..behind all its points use that basic concept or something similar. Google Calorie Calculator and you will get a bunch of results. Find your daily calorie needs and based on a few different diets you can adjust it to see how many grams of protein, carbs and fats you need each day. A diet that i have seen trully work for alot of people goes by the name of "shaklee cinch loss plan" it utilizes this same concept. You can package dieting as a name but in the end its calorie restriction. And most fad diets such as atkins will leave your body screaming for energy and deficient in nutrients not provided by the foods allowed. Dieting sucks, that's all there is too it, i suggest not trying to diet or excercise to loose weight or look good. Either for health or find an activity thats sport related that you really enjoy, it will encourage you to work out more to get better, excercise has to be fun and motivational.

If you spend just ONE WEEK of your life (make it a week, even though it seems tedious) measuring every single thing you eat and put in your mouth, then entering it into fitday, getting the totals for a day, you will have a tremendously valuable education in what makes you feel satisfied, what puts on weight (a lot of calories, over and above what your body needs given your level of activity) and what you can reasonably change and feel comfortable with.

Even seen a 4 oz piece of grilled chicken?