Weight Loss Ideas... - Belton,MO

I registered with sparkpeople.com a little over a week ago and have been tracking my food intake. It has helped a LOT and is very easy to use. I haven't weighed myself since I started, but I know I feel better. Good luck!

There is no magical answer that you might be looking for. The only way to lose weight is to eat right and exerise. However, you can still lose weight without exercising, but it will take longer. The best way to lose weight (and to keep it off) is to eat right and exercise. If you have portion control issues, join Weight Watchers, but it will always boil down to two things: eating right and exercising. Life is hard - there are no magical pills or shortcuts You just need to have portion control and self control. Good luck.

Drink more water and not so much on te fruit and juice... although better than soda there are still a lot of calories. Try flavored seltzer if you get tired of water. What also worked is making sure I had a slice of high fiber bread in the morning (typical breakfast was fat free yogurt and a slice of bread), that help keep me feeling full longer.

Good luck!

I got a pedometer (not expensive) and wear it on my belt - I try to take 10,000 steps a day. I park farther away from the store entrance, I walk all the aisles even if I don't need anything down that one, I take the stairs a lot. Eat 5 small meals a day - no not let yourself get hungry because you either overeat or your body's metabolism shuts down because it "thinks" it's starving.

Another thing I've done is register for the Livestrong website (that's Lance Armstrong's) - you can enter in everything you eat and everything you do for exercise on a section called "My Plate" - you can even enter in most brand name foods and it will calculate the calories for you. It also gives you a pie chart for how much of your day's food comes from fat, carbs & protein. You also enter in your # of glasses of water. If you are a "clueless snacker" like I am, it can make you very aware of what you eat!

Also, diet products that substitute chemical sweeteners (aspartame, sucralose or the brand names like Equal and Splenda) for sugars aren't very healthy alternatives - your body still thinks it's sugar. You can substitute stevia for no calories and no chemicals.

If you want to limit carbs and eat healthy fats, I think the South Beach diet is very easy to follow. There's also a new thing called the 17 day diet which is being touted by people like Dr. Phil - the idea is that it changes up the diet every 17 days so you aren't depriving yourself and so your body doesn't plateau.

I think most of the secret is changing the way we think about food.

I also use sparkpeople.com, but after reading these entries I might check out myfitnesspal.com instead. I'd like to be able to enter things on my phone and not have to write it down to remember to enter it.

A friend of mine orders her groceries online and has them delivered to her house for only $5. This prevents her from giving in to her temptations while at the grocery store. That would save me a ton of calories!

I've also known a few people who have lost weight doing weight watchers. If you need the accountability/motivation, it would probably be a good program to look into. My sister lost about 15-20lbs before she got pregnant using weight watchers and I just had a co-worker lose about 35lbs after her last pregnancy through WW. I've never seen her so slim, she looks great!

Best of luck!

I have lost 8 lbs in the last 30 days. Like someone else said Livestrong.com or Fitness pal are great resources. Write down everything that goes in your mouth thats a big eye opener. Drink lots and lots of water. And I limit my calories by eating a lot more protein (around 120 grams or more a day) I do work out too, but I worked out before I started really trying to lose weight, so what makes the difference for me is what goes in my mouth, not nec how much I work out. Good luck : )

I used to be on sparkpeople to track my food - liked it but now I use myfitnesspal and love it. For me, it's just easier and it's great to see what I'm putting in my body. It helps me make healthier choices without a lot of pressure. I also weigh myself daily (not necessarily the normal recommendation) because it helps keep me on track. If I see the scale slowly going down I know I'm doing well and if I see it going up it motivates me to step it up a notch. Just what works for me . . .

I agree with what Jubee said about journaling food and exercise, but honestly, I never had time to do it on paper or even online. I have a phone ap called "my fitnesspal" it is also a website. You tap, tap and boom there is your coffee calorie count, after my run at the gym, tap tap, the calories burned for that day.
It is sooo easy. What I really like is when you set it up, you tell the program how much you'd like to loose and in what time frame and it sets you calories per day for you!! It tracks and tells you if you are over the limit, etc.
So great!
Also, It completely opened my eyes to the true calorie count in items that we may think are "healthy" I have found myself seeking out alternatives for other foods and replacing some things on my typical diet (meatless for lunch, more veggies, less fruit, no sodas at all!!) seriously a great and easy tool!
OH - eye opening too, it what true servings really are. wow!

I just started going to Zumba classes. They are actually a lot of fun and not to expensive!

What really helps me is journaling my food and exercise. You don't need to count calories, just write down everything that you are eating and drinking along with the amount you ate.

Start reading labels to find out what exactly is the portion size per calories of the food. Take cereal as an example. For some cereals, one portion is one cup. For other cereals, it's 3/4 of a cup. Those extra portions add up.

I also read an interesting statement the other day concerning exercise. The last 4 Presidents exercised nearly every day they were in office for at least 30 minutes. They could find the time to do it. Are you busier than the President of the United States? For me, I just need to be more organized and get off the computer so I can exercise.

Good luck - you can do it!

Yes, I too am looking for the right diet. One thing I learned is don't deprive yourself. I'm just trying to make better choices when I eat and incorporate excercise. It's consistantcy and time...it doesn't happen overnight. Good luck.............

Small changes go a long way, and diet is 80% of weight loss.

Swap out your normal snacks for things like veggies with salsa, rice cakes w/ peanut butter, or a slice of turkey rolled up with low fat cheese.

Add flavor to your sandwiches with vegetables, salt/pepper and different mustards. All of those are little to no calories and add great taste. Ditch mayo as much as possible (although light mayo isn't *horrible* if you have to have it).

Most of all, pay attention to serving size. We, as a country, are terribly overserved, and portions that we get in restaurants (and what we eat at home, considering normal) are often 2-3x the actual serving size. That's how you unintentionally double and triple your calorie intake everyday.

And of course, find an exercise regimen that you like and do that regularly.

Good luck!

I am more likely to stick to a fitness program if I have a goal, so I am training for a triathlon in June. I could stand to lose anywhere from 50-75 lbs so by no means am I trim or terribly fit, but my training program starts out easy and builds up over 16 weeks. I figure that if I track what I eat (I use Sparkpeople) and stick to my training schedule, there's no way I won't lose some weight. Maybe register for an early summer 5K so that you have a specific fitness goal. If you do that, tell the whole world about it. I've been posting workouts on dailymile and they link to FB and the feedback motivates me, and there's no way I'm not going to do the tri because everyone knows I'm doing it lol. That alone was enough to get me out of bed at 5:15 AM today so that I could get to my 5:45 spin class!

Good luck!

My friend has used the B-Slim program and has lost 18 pounds in just a month as well as dropped 6 sizes. She is so excited that now she is exercising more and has also dropped off some of her medications!

It is five all natural products that you can easily integrate into your lifestyle and even continue to eat the foods you like, in moderation of course! haha

Let me know if you want some more info on it and good luck!

Portion control. I actually ordered from Seattle Sutton at first to get use to the portions and to visibily see how much I should be eating (and I also taught myself about carbs, nutrition, etc). One thing from SS that I learned, she never used pork (so for breakfast it would be those veggie patties that pretend to be meat) or beef, just turkey or chicken. Lots of veggies, half a cup of pasta, etc.

When I walk the stairs consistantly at work I can loose 2lbs a week but I am not consistant. The building has 10 floors so When I do it I walk down from the 6th and back up to the 10th. I think doing the stairs really can work it is super tiring when you first do it but as you continue is will get easier like running.

if your kidos are little, a peice of home excersise equiptment. Also Gillian Micheals does a video called 30 day shred ( intense 20 min work outs). For me I don't have big blocks of time to excersise with babies so 15 min on the elliptical and a 20 min circuit train are about the best I can do for excersise. Feeling really good about that and as always, calorie counting. Calorieking.com is a great way to quickly look up calories. I recommend a paper journal to track your daily eating (not on line, takes forever to get your figures down each day).

I have not ever done it, but I have witnessed many success stories with weight watchers. I know people who have done it and gone to the meetings and everything and also people who just follow the points system which you can do on your own. Here's a link for the online calculator.
http://www.webmilhouse.com/pointcalc.php
I think the thing about weight watchers is that it is the only diet I've ever seen that is really sustainable because its more about a lifestyle change, meaning nothing is off limits, but if you have something decadent then you have to make other changes throughout the day with what you choose. My aunt recently lost like 50 pounds and I have a friend who started about 2 months ago and she's lost 10 pounds. It really seems like its a do-able program. You do have to be dedicated to counting your points though. Good luck and enjoy getting healthier, its about the process and the finish line.