I stopped drinking alcohol and soda and drastically cut down my milkshake consumption. I’ve lost 50 pounds in the past year and still going down.
you were drinking like a 5 year old with no parental controls.
H-how much milkshake were you drinking originally??? My annual milkshake consumption totals maybe 500 calories per year
Worked night stock.
Counting calories. I used MyFitnessPal, but I’m sure there are other apps.
Figure out how many calories you need daily to maintain your current weight, depending on age/gender/height, and then subtract about 500 calories from that. This also depends on your stats; you don’t want to go below your minimum daily calories. You’ll be hungry and dizzy all the time, and your body will try to store extra fat because it thinks you’re starving.
You can eat whatever you want, as long as you stay under your daily calorie number. You might not be healthy (depending on your food choices), but you will lose weight.
Good luck!
I ate less
I started eating less and being more active. I went down to two meals a day and little to no snacking. One smaller meal in the late morning and one bigger in the late afternoon. Also started to commute by bike at least twice a week and go out hiking more often.
Weight goes down not too fast but at a steady pace.
Stress and Insomnia 😇
Wanna trade for a bit? Both make me eat more
By quitting drinking alcohol
Literally the only thing I changed about my life at that time and I went from 185 lbs to 165 lbs in 3 months
I was drinking a fifth per night of alcohol that was at least 100 proof, so I was a bit of an alcoholic at the time
I quit cold turkey and within just a few weeks I started feeling a lot better overall and by about 4 months after I quit the cravings stopped every time I smelt alcohol
I’ve been sober now for about 5 and a half years and the weight has stayed off the whole time. I’ve basically been 160±5 lbs since
Congratulations that’s awesome, I’m sober myself (just over 18 months) and it took me a lot of tries and many years to stop drinking so I can relate to that.
The one thing I would really caution people about is quitting cold turkey - alcohol withdrawal can be fatal. It’s also miserable even when done with medical help, I’ve done medical detox in the hospital and at rehab more times than I care to remember and each time serves as a huge reminder of what awaits me if I start drinking again. So please if anyone is considering stopping drinking and is drinking a lot, talk to a doctor about it and be honest. Seizures and strokes and DTs are not fun and can kill you.
That all said I also struggle with weight, and a few times after I stopped drinking I ate more and gained weight and it contributed to going back to drinking. This time I’ve been very conscious about calories in vs calories out because that has been something that works for me. Food scale and honesty tracking everything I eat and all my exercise.
And again, awesome job on 5 years, I love coming across sobriety out in the wild.
That’s amazing! Congrats on sobriety.
Thank you
It wasn’t my first attempt but my 4th to get sober. Getting sober wasn’t easy, and I think is a topic more people should talk about. You never seem to here people talking about how many attempts it took to achieve something like that, you only ever here that they did it.
And honestly this is the longest I’ve been sober since I was 12 years old
I wouldn’t give it up for the world, the quality of life improvements have been amazing and not just my physical health but my mental health as well. It’s amazing how much easier PTSD is to deal with while sober vs not.
You hear about it more in recovery groups. It’s pretty eye-opening.
Shit, you stole my exact answer
Except I’ve finally started to gain the weight back
I’ve seen a few people recommending calorie counting here but haven’t seen anyone mention Macrofactor, which seems weird considering how often I see people recommending Kagi. I draw the parallel because, while it’s a paid product, I find it significantly better than the competition.
I started using it at the start of the year and have had steady progress. Foremost, it is extremely snappy and easy to log food. The database is fairly expansive without having poor quality user submissions. The real win of the app is the feedback loop. Rather than estimating calories expended using formulas meant to be accurate across a population (but not necessarily accurate to each person), it uses your calorie intake data and your weight data to derive your expenditure.
This, to me, helps reduce the stress of tracking significantly. Reason being, if you habitually do not track something like small bites during cooking or condiments, the calculation will take it into account and reduce your calorie target accordingly.
It also doesn’t take into account data from activity trackers. Instead, your exercise is essentially smoothed over the following weeks. It helps psychologically to break from “I exercised so I get a treat” mentality, where you 1: immediately eat back whatever you’ve burned (or more) and 2: are telling yourself a reward for good behavior is calorie-dense food.
The website has a lot of data driven articles.
It also has a bunch of neat graphs. Anyway. Would recommend it. Obviously there’s a LOT of different ways to lose weight, but for me it starts with understanding what I’m putting in my body. Can’t outrun a bad diet.
Naltrexone and then became vegan. It’s AMAZING.
Edit; should clarify I am not taking naltrexone for weight loss, it’s for an anxiety disorder, and it’s a side effect. It made me loathe the taste of animal products and I have almost no appetite, but bitch is SKINNAY.
I tried to do a bunch of small things. No single thing was the key.
- started drinking my coffee black
- drink more water, and drink water instead of other things
- I take the stairs instead of elevator/escalator whenever possible
- I try not to eat seconds at dinner
- “Real” exercise (like running, rowing, etc.) every other day, but if I can squeeze in extra ones, (e.g., 2 days in a row), I go for it
- If I’m not up for real exercise, I’ll go for a walk
- intermittent fasting in the mornings, so often no breakfast, but not necessarily every day
- No snacking after 19:00
- At restaurants, if 2 options look good, go for the one with fewer calories
There are probably more, but those are the kinds of habits we’re talking about.
Also important: if you don’t stick to all habits, don’t beat yourself up about it.
With the above, I was able to get from a high of 235 lbs down to around 180. I’m a bit more than that right now, but pretty close still.
these sound like very good habits
I know people say you can’t lose weight with exercise, that diet controls your weight and exercise your health, but personally I guess I eat about the same amount all the time on average, because increasing activity (except for weight lifting) either on purpose or accidentally, has always been the factor most related to my wright. I’ll note that I haven’t been overweight so YMMV, but I have been hugely pregnant several times.
Weight lifting makes me gain weight but stay about the same size, which is also a good result. But anything else - walking to work instead of driving, jogging couple times a week, aerobic dance, those will drop my weight the most, the quickest, and without dieting (which isn’t good for me mentally).
Measured everything I ate and put it into a calorie counter app. Ate whatever I wanted, but if I wanted to eat (or drink) it, I had to measure it and put it in the app.
I tried not to go over the recommended calorie amount, and if I did, I did some exercise that the app would put me under the calorie amount for the day.
I had it set to the slowest weight loss amount (something like 0.5lbs per week?), but lost weight faster than that.
It helped me improve my diet, get a better understanding of what I was eating, helped me get better in tune with my “fullness”, and got me drinking more water.
I went from 217->173 and have stayed in that range for 4 years. I’m 5’10” / M / 43years
Short answer: high protein / adequate fat keto with skipping breakfast (aka 16:8 intermittent fasting)
I tried it for weightloss, and immediately had health benefits within 36 hours of switching over. I’m never going back. I feel 10 years younger. Brain fog lifted, joint pain gone, more energy to move and do things, more patience and clarity at work and home. Hunger is a signal now and I’m never hangry.
It’s also just not that hard. I eat a ton of awesome meals full of chicken and roasted veg, bbq meats I smoke, steaks, omelets, huge salads. Life is good and I feel good.
Overweight and obesity are extremely complex disorders, that combines genetic predisposition, changes in hormonal levels and horrible obesogenic environment that we have nowadays. There is no simple answer on how to lose weight as it depends on multiple factors too - your home and work environment, availability of stores with fresh products, your medical history, your goals in general. What is working well for one person, may not be ideal for others or even sometimes dangerous (depends on other comorbidities).
Most important part is not just to lose weight, but do it safely and maintain the weight loss. For that you need a whole lifestyle change, that is why it is so hard for many people. The major rule is: permanent dietary changes needed for a weight loss and regular exercises needed for maintaining the result.
My advise (if you are in the US) - find an obesity clinic with obesity board-certified physician, discuss all your concerns and develop a plan what will work specifically for you. It is pretty well covered by insurances and you will always have a specialist who can answer your questions and help to overcome any barriers in the future.
And remember we all are just internet strangers, take all our advices with healthy skepticism.
I follow a simple diet called “half”. I eat a half portion of whatever I’d like. I don’t eat any better or worse, just less of it. Did you know a frozen burrito has 300+ calories? Eat one, not two. Portion controls are essential, don’t get a tub of ice cream, get a box of little ice creams, and then eat one instead of gobbling two or more. Giant bowl of pasta? Half now, half goes in the fridge for tomorrow, instead of packing my gut full.
I probably cheat enough that I’m getting 2/3 or 3/4 of my full calorie intake, but it’s good enough that I’ve lost 30 lbs in a couple years, I’m not putting it back on, and it’s required no real hardship.
From 2013 to 2017 I lost 60 pounds and I’ve kept it off since.
I tried everything to lose that fat.
I’ve tried at different times: keto, calorie counting, intermittent fasting, low fat, low carb, Soylent, cutting alcohol, high fiber, if it fits your macros, power lifting, CrossFit, running, vegan, vegetarian, carnivore, and Renaissance periodization.
What’s actually worked consistently for losing and keeping it off? Simple. Intermittent fasting 20/4 with low carb during the week, free cheat weekends, and no alcohol ever. With that protocol I can control my weight to the pound, consistently, and I’ve held it there for over 5 years.
It’s such a great feeling to be totally in control of it.
