Diets that worked for you

[TriggerUnhappy]

Has anyone had a diet that worked really well? I was recently at the doctor and she wanted me to lose 30 lbs. I currently weigh 235 lbs. and I have been trying really hard to lose weight and it just doesn't seem to work. I have been working out, better choices and smaller portions, but the weight just doesn't go away.

If what you've been doing isn't working, then you need to go all out, not give in to some lame diet. Clean up your entire diet, sticking mainly to lean meats, veggies, fruits, etc., drinking water, and eating 6 small meals throughout the day instead of 3 large ones. (in other words, snack throughout the day) Along with your workouts, you should include cardio, preferably HIIT. (back and forth between fast and slow, speeds up heart rate for rest of day; this could be sprinting for 30 seconds then resting for 30, or just fast walking to slow walking, depends on your level of fitness)

Overall though, I wouldn't recommend basing your entire weight loss based on some fad diet, because even if you lose it, you're likely to gain it right back once you drop the diet. If you're looking for continued weight loss, then you need lifestyle change, not just a short-term solution. Best of luck.

 

[Lord Beautiful]

Diets are only handy for some quick weight loss, in the long run it just creates a yo-yo effect, which is completely worthless. What you need is a permanent change in your eating habits. You know what's the easiest and how I lost about 15 kg's?

[HEADING=1]EAT. LESS.[/HEADING]​

Preferably with some more exercise as well. Really that's all there is too it. It isn't pretty or fun and it doesn't happen in the blink of an eye, but that's all you need to loose weight; burn more calories than you eat each day.

All I did was just eat a lot less crap and smaller portions during regular meals. Add some extra biking to that and voila; 15 kg's gone in about 6 months. Pretty proud of myself. Fast forward another 6 months including gym training and I cut down my fat percentage almost 10% (from about 25% to 17%) and added a lot more muscle. It's only going better ever since.

Loosing weight isn't complicated, staying healthy isn't either.

This, a thousand times. It works and it works well. Eat three meals a day (no junk food, small portions) and exercise.

EDIT: Omitted the unnecessary details. I didn't notice additional details revealed by the OP later in the thread. Big whoopsy.

 

[Knusper]

In spite of being 16, my metabolic rate is really slow. However, I'm still in not bad shape even though I do hardly any exercise (walking 4km to school and back and a 1 hour tennis lesson every week and cycling 1km to my piano lesson up a hill) and I definitely do't diet - my portions are rather hefty, but the food I eat is never fast food and always home-made with organic produce.

So my advice is... eat well but make sure it's healthy.

 

[El Gostro]

Good sound advice

Pretty much like my case!
the4 years ago I had stopped going to then gym for 5 years,started drinking everyday,smoking,doing other stuff and eating junk food all day, after 8 months of this I decided I was a fucking tragedy,so I got hardcore and imposed on myself to recover something of what I used to be.

Cardio everyday (running),at first I could barely do 5 minutes. & months afterwards I was running 30 min.A year afterwards I had lost all the 15 kg I had gained plus some.
A year ago I started jumping the rope again,last week I reached a record of 2 hours 10 minutes.
Now I'm doing more weights because my gym mates are worried I might dissapear or something.

Bottom line:
Eat well,eat in time,SWEAT, check calories fat and carbohydrates and sodium in the nutrition facts on food labels,rest at least once a week.

Oh and like Cowabungaa said, ADOPT IT AS A PERMANENT LIFESTYLE.

Sedentarism is as bad as (and often leads to) cancer

 

[LittleChone]

Gluten/Casein Free.
Kinda sucks at first, but you get used to it.

 

[The_ModeRazor]

None.
But I've been going to the gym 3 times a week for 3 months, and 4 times a week for 2 months. I didn't really lose weight, but I look much better. So that's my advice to you.
(actually, I'm still trying to lose some weight - what I do apart from gym is: eat less, with more protein, drink more water, and go for a run each day that consists of running for 50 meters, doing push-ups, running another 50 meters and doing sit-ups; this is done 25 times)

Exactly. My plan is pretty similar. Why lose twenty pounds, all fat, if you can instead swap 20 lbs of fat for ten of muscle? Eventually, you crest and weight just starts flying off. Congratulations, BTW.

Thanks, I guess.

 

[TheRightToArmBears]

The obvious 'eat healthier food, do more excercise' is unbeatable.

 

[Ampersand]

Try vegetarian.
Also weight lifting is good for weight loss..... interestingly.

 

[StBishop]

And I drink copious amounts of water (about 4-5 litres a day) and green tea (about 1-2 litres a day) with a teaspoon of honey) Green tea tastes damn good, helps make me feel full, and boosts my metabolism. The caffeine is about half of what coffee has.

Excellent advice.

Drink as much water and green tea as you can.

Both of which will make you feel full.

Green tea is chock full of antioxidents which stimulate catabolism (chemical digestion) and water makes your stomach swell (due to being full) which reduces your apetite.

I went on the Atkins Diet when my mum wanted to lose weight (the whole family had to do it) I didn't lose weight (I was a 14 year old boy) but my fat percentage dropped and my muscle mass went up. Keep in mind I was cycling for 20 mins two times a day and doing judo training 3 times a week fof an hour and a half each time and working as a trolly boy for 8 hours on weekends pushing trollys uphill and walking/jogging all day.

Seriously though, my dad had an office job and only swam like 20 laps of our pool (total of about 300m) a day and lost about 15 Kilos in 3 months. It didn't drop quickly to start with but eventually it just dropped and dropped. Then he hit a pretty healthy weight and it stayed consistent. We did the phase in carbs plan and ended up eating a pretty normal diet with limited potato, bread and pasta.

In retrospect, with the knowledge of how the human body reacts to exercise that I've gained through school and uni I really shouldn't have cut carbs out of my diet considering how much exercise I was doing.

Summary, Drink a lot of water and tea, do the Atkins diet properly, unless you have money then get a professional to draw up a food plan for you and EXERCISE.

I tried diets to gain weight, but apparently my body is unable to save energy. When I eat alot sugar I just can't sleep. When I eat fat nothing happens, same with proteines.

My psychic powers tell me that your age is <22 and you're probably male.

[...] where my muscle was fat has replaced.

That doesn't happen. It's physically impossible for muscle to become fat.

Your muscles atrophied (Shrunk) and fat built up around them. Most likely though, your muscle mass is still there, it's just weak so it doesn't contract like it use to.

[...]my basic metabolic rate[...]

The term you're looking for is Basal Metabolic Rate.

Pronounced the same way that films lead me to believe that Americans pronounce Basil. (Bay-zil)

 

[instantbenz]

in the summer times i have more time to concentrate on my body slowly decaying into flub, sitting round doing school projects doesn't really keep a person motivated.

getting an exercise regiment started just to have it dashed by waking up early for school is crappy. in the summer i can be outside more plus playing hacky sack along with waking up for pilates to stay flexible has worked quite well for me.

food wise is tough for me in the winter as i'm limited with time and money. in the summer i can fall back to small portions of rice and more water instead of so much coffee and burgers.

also, i've seen the energy drink craze make quite a problem for peers. long nights of graphic design binges sort of needs a lot of energy and those nights can overlap for a week sometimes. ugh i just sorta get sick thinking of how many gallons of monster or amp i've drank.

good luck

 

[Grayjack]

The sit at home playing videogames and forget to eat diet.

 

[StBishop]

preferably HIIT. (back and forth between fast and slow, speeds up heart rate for rest of day; this could be sprinting for 30 seconds then resting for 30,

This is High-Intensity Interval Training.

or just fast walking to slow walking, depends on your level of fitness)

This is generally known as Fartlek training

Try vegetarian.
Also weight lifting is good for weight loss..... interestingly.

Well, simply cutting meat out of your diet is no more likely to improve your fitness or health than cutting out junk food (lollies, sweets, chips, crisps, chocolate, softdrink/soda, etc) and keeping meat in your diet. In fact it's less likely.

Please explain what you mean about weight lifting. If you mean that weight training is better than nothing, sure. Duh.
But if you're suggesting that it is superior, in terms of weight loss, to cardovascular exercise, then no. It's not.

 

[StBishop]

preferably HIIT. (back and forth between fast and slow, speeds up heart rate for rest of day; this could be sprinting for 30 seconds then resting for 30,

This is High-Intensity Interval Training

or just fast walking to slow walking, depends on your level of fitness)

This is actually Fartlek training.

Subtle difference.

 

[3AM]

It's not so much a change of diet you need, it's a change of lifestyle.

A thread like this will probably just get comments saying you should eat less or do exercise, but it's a bit more than that. You have to make a conscious effort, for yourself and not just because some doctor or whatever told you, to take on a different way of life. The mental shift in that is more important than you'd think.

It's not all mental motivation mumbo jumbo though. It's hard work. There's a reason we look up to fit people. It takes effort to be just that. Start the day of with some light exercise to get the blood flowing. It's quite ideal to start the day that way, because not only does it wake you the fuck up, the morning shower afterwards takes care of the sweat you might have worked up (and you better have worked it up).

Eating less? Depends on what you eat, really. Lay off the snacks. Not all the time, of course. You're human, a snack every now and again is fine. Get a balanced diet going. Try and look up information about nutrition and follow it. Soda? The less the better. That's actually the worst thing most people indulge in, especially considering how frequently they do so. The best choice of drink is water. Drink it frequently. It cleanses your body. Besides that, milk and malted soy drinks tend to be good as well. Not to say you can't have the odd soda every now and again, but not all the damn time like most people drink it. You know how people say you drink stuff like water when you drink it frequently, right? It's because you're supposed to be doing that with water.

Go out more. Get a bit of an active lifestyle going. I don't care how. Go for walks. Nature hikes. Bicycle routes. Jogging. Mug an old lady. Just go out and do things.

It might sound like a hassle, but it's going to power you up. After a while of this, you'll notice you'll feel more tired when you don't go for that quick dash or did the routine exercise in the morning.

Most importantly: shift into this gradually. Don't fucking jump into it in one go. You'll never be able to hold onto it and you'll find yourself demotivated before you know it. As much as your brain craves it and advertisers promote it, good lasting changes are never made instantly.

This is really excellent advice, and more informative than what I was originally going to say (burn more calories than you consume). It is a lifestyle change and one that will likely be hard to begin with. Once you see and feel the results it will become a bit easier though. Once you've achieved your goal maintenance is not so hard. Just keep up the exercise and I've found the eating takes care of itself, even allowing for a reasonable amount of treats. And don't forget to sleep enough - it's amazing what you can do on a good night's sleep and how even a little sleep deprivation can sap your strength both physical and mental. Oh, 1 more thing - change up your exercise too. Your muscles will get used to your routines and you'll see a drop in your weight loss. Good luck - you can do this!

 

[MassiveGeek]

As mentioned, it's not the quantity, but the quality that matters. My family started a method, where we ate GOOD fats(like the fat in meat such as bacon and pork, also fat that is in butter and milk) and cut down on carbohydrates as well as sugar and all that other nasty stuff. This worked well for us, because if you eat something like, say, porkchops with a nice cream sauce., maybe some vegetables on the side... you won't be hungry, so unhealthy snacks won't be very attractive to you.

Of course, you have to exercise as well, all people have to get off the couch once in a while. It doesn't have to be much, but start with something, like take a walk, do some sit-ups, just let your body work, so you'll work out he energy and feel better. You can elevate, maybe start at the gym or take boxing classes, if you want to.