I’m currently a lump of chocolate and cheese, but once the new year hits, I’m determined to make 2026 the year I finally get back to a healthy weight (I’ve lost about 20 pounds, with about 80-100 to go). I’m pretty good about exercising regularly, but, as they say, abs are made in the kitchen. Those who have successfully lost weight, is there anything you particularly recommend for maintaining a calorie deficit to lose the weight, and then avoiding gaining it back later on?

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[–] 85 points 10 months ago* (10 children)
  • Daily long walks.
  • Eat less.
  • Eat better. I quit stuffing myself with industrially processed food, best decision ever. Even better than quitting smoking (which I did some 20 years ago). BTW, eating better helps a lot in eating less.

Edit: some improvements made to my (severely) lacking English.

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  • [–] 52 points 10 months ago (5 children)

    These are all great suggestions, and I would just like to add: drink more water. If water gets boring, add some lemon / lime / fruit, have some herbal teas, or even some coffee (black). When I'm in ravenous eating mode and about to go for seconds, it's helpful if I can catch myself and have a glass of water first. Then wait 5 - 10 minutes and see if I actually want more food.

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  • [–] 18 points 10 months ago

    +1 to all you just said :)

    We quit drinking soda (and I quit alcohol, too). Now it's, water, pressed fresh fruits (but not too much), tea and infusions. Maybe once a year I will have a drink of wine (I'm French, I have an excuse ;)

    As for teas, my advice there would be to not cheap out on tea. quality teas, aka full leaves, are a thing of their own. Also I would encourage to get at least two tea posts (one for stronger teas and the other one for the lighter ones)

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  • [–] 8 points 10 months ago (2 children)

    Drinking calories is so bad.

    I only drink Coconut Unsweetened Silk and tap water outside of a zero cal soda now and then.

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  • [–] 4 points 10 months ago (1 child)

    Be weary of artificial sugar that can still trigger hunger by impacting your blood sugar levels due to insulin release. Your body can respond to the sudden influx of artificial sugar the same way it does to real sugar.

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  • [–] [S] 9 points 10 months ago (3 children)

    What do you like to eat that’s less processed? I’d like to do that, processed food unfortunately requires just so much less prep.

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  • [–] 21 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 child)

    Fresh veggies & fruits, a little quality meat (but not too much and not every day), no industrial bread (I live in Paris, we still have access to a few real artisanal bakeries where they make their own bread, but here too they're getting replaced by industrial ones, so we've planned on learning to make our own bread soon), no industrial sweets/treats and no soda.

    My spouse and I also learned to cook, instead of going out to a restaurant multiple times a week like we used. Saves us money and it's a fine moment we spend together too ;)

    As for the time it takes to cook fresh food: either we will make very simple meal, which takes minutes (plus we often have fun while cooking) or we will cook a meal that we will last us 2 or 3 days. So it's really not that much of an issue. And since eating better helps us feeling a lot less tired too, well... we think it's really worth it. The real effort is to be willing to change one's own habits, at least if I can relate to my own experience.

    Edit: maybe I should make it clear that the key change, and the very first step anyone should do is to stop eating those ready-made, over-processed and over-packaged shit food that we've learned to consider normal food. Sorry I this sound rude, even more so in the USA I would imagine, but this what I think they're worth (with all their sugar and salt, and conservatives and colorants) and how good I think they're for our health: barely a few weeks after I quite eating that I started getting better. To me, it's the same shit as the cigarettes and if we don't self-destroy in a nuclear holocaust (or ins ome ecological major crisis) before that I have little doubt this industrial food will end being an even worse scandal than tobacco ever was.

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  • [–] 4 points 10 months ago

    It is garbage food-like industrial waste, mostly. Read the nutrition information and it's mostly empty calories! And with a work schedule all over the map, it is challenging. But an air fryer and sweet/regular potatoes pack a lot of nutrients in with the denser calorie count and fiber!

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  • [–] 6 points 10 months ago

    Hi! Not the same person but I'm in the same process!

    Firstly, take it in steps, don't quit all processed food at once. I actually started with eating more veggies, both in the food and as a side salad.

    Then read on the products, not all processed foods are equal, and it depends on what more you have in the meal. On meat products I often look at the meat percentages, it can vary A LOT. A sausage with + 80% meat is a lot better than 30%...

    You can also look for E-numbers, concentrates, and other additives. How good or bad these are are still being discussed but I'm leaning towards bad, especially if it's a lot.

    For example a highly processed sausage with basmati rice and a decent amount of salad isn't the same as said sausage with just mac and cheese.

    --

    Some meals are easier to prep than others but more often than not I've found meals, especially the meat, to need time. Time to cook properly!

    • Fry meat in a pan, let it simmer in water for half an hour or so ( I rarely keep time ), make a sauce in the pan.

    • Or put a chunk of meat on a oven safe plate and trow it into the oven on 150-175°C for 1.5-3h or more depending on size and tenderness.

    • Or make a soup, just make sure it boils long enough for the meat! :)

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  • [–] 32 points 10 months ago*

    It's easier to use your will power to not buy snacks at the grocery store than it is to not eat them once they are at your home.

    Track your calories. Eventually you get skilled enough at it that you don't necessarily have to journal everything to have a good idea of how many calories you are taking in. If you can eat the same things day after day without getting bored, that helps a lot.

    Learn to cook well. Chicken breast doesn't have to be dry and bad. Veggies can be dressed up and made tasty without adding too many calories.

    Sugar snap peas are a tasty, crunchy snack and you can eat a lot of them without blowing out your daily calorie limit.

    If you drink alcohol, stop, at least mostly. Even a shot of vodka with no mix is ~60 calories. In fact, try not to drink calories in general.

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  • [–] 23 points 10 months ago (4 children)

    In the past, I have found crippling levels of poverty to be quite helpful.

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  • [–] 5 points 10 months ago (3 children)

    I've got a mysterious health problem that's causing near constant nausea and have lost over 50lbs this year without even trying.

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  • [–] 1 point 10 months ago (2 children)

    What kind of test have you got done? Does medicine to stop the nausea help?

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  • [–] 2 points 10 months ago (1 child)

    I've had bloodwork, stool samples, xray, CT, and upper/lower scope. I've got a hernia, and some intestinal ulcers, but insurance won't approve the meds, so I'm still looking for a diagnosis they like.

    It's also likely to have an element of autonomic dysfunction too, since they've found bone spurs in my neck that are pushing on my spinal cord, but there's not much I can do about that. It's possible that overusing painkillers for my neck is whats causing the ulcers.

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  • [–] 18 points 10 months ago (3 children)

    I once lost some weight not by focusing on what not to eat, but by making myself eat a large salad for lunch. I forget what order things went in, but at one point I was eating a lot of home made fermented vegetables (cabbage mostly with others things in the mix, so basically kraut) mixed with romaine to dilute the sourness. At another point I would buy the sort of thing I previously ate for lunch (like a sandwich) and eat only half of it, chopping it up and mixing it with my salad. I ate whatever for dinner.

    I wasn't trying to lose as much weight as you, I realize. But I think for some people, not focusing of deprivation / but focusing on something I like "I will eat this quantity of these vegetables" and letting the fullness from that reduce the amount of more caloric stuff you eat, can work better.

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  • [–] 3 points 10 months ago (2 children)

    I love fermented veggies! I never thought to make them at home. What's the process like?

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  • [–] 3 points 10 months ago (1 child)

    Basically stuff chopped cabbage (I like to add some carrot, onion, maybe some herbs... garlic, ginger and chillis can make a kimchee-like flavor) and salt into a jar or crock and leave it for a few days. It will naturally ferment and acidify. The salt favors desirable beasties, as does the acidic pH that will develop.

    The only tricky bit is you need to keep the veggies submerged in liquid to keep things anaerobic. The salt will usually draw enough liquid from the cabbage, but you can add water if necessary. There are various devices people use to keep air out: glass weights to put on top, airlocks like used in beer brewing. IMO the easiest thing is a fido jar: the kind of thing with a gasket and metal clamp on the lid. The fermentation produces CO2 and that will force the O2 out through the gasket, and a blanket of CO2 will keep the veggies safely anaerobic.

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  • [–] 16 points 10 months ago

    I've lost more than 70lbs of fat and have not kept it off for about 4 years. I've previously lost more than 50lbs, but then regained the weight later. What is different this time is I have a much better understanding of the forces at work and have made fundamental, sustainable lifestyle changes that will help keep me fit over the long term.

    The saying is that "you'll never out exercise a bad diet," which is completely true, but even if the calorie burn isn't sufficient to put you in a calorie deficit, there is tremendous value in exercising. Muscle is an endocrine organ, and exercise helps produce things like brain-derived neurotrophic factor a protein that is vital for the functioning of your brain. Muscle is also a huge chunk of your metabolic overhead, so maintaining or increasing muscle mass makes it easier to manage your caloric intake and not be in surplus, adding fat. Something like 90% of people who lose weight gain it all back and then some, and among those able to keep it off, nearly all of them have adapted their lifestyle to increase their baseline level of physical activity. I've done it by using a bicycle for nearly all of my local transportation. I live in a warm climate and my city is fairly bikable (though there is definitely room for improvement!) This one change adds ~ 6-7 hours of additional cardio to my week.

    When it comes to eating, whatever you do has to be sustainable. You can "go on a diet", but if you revert to your former norms once you've lost the weight, you're just going to gain it all back. Worse, if you didn't take care to boost your protein and do resistance training to maintain muscle mass while in a calorie deficit, you'll have lost substantial muscle mass as well, and you'll likely end up fatter and in a worse position when all is said and done. With strict caloric restriction without boosting protein or doing resistance training, about 40% of your weight loss will be muscle mass. Minimize the loss of muscle by boosting protein intake to around 1g of protein per lb of lean body mass, and doing some form of resistance training. Weight training in a gym is preferable, but you can do a lot with simply bodyweight fitness at home. Joe Delaney's beginner gym workout program is a useful starting point, and is what I'm doing now. However, I started with a basic bodyweight fitness program I put together from the info at reddit's r/bodyweightfitness, and it helped me a lot. Point is, something is better than nothing in this regard, and you need to do it as a matter of habit, like brushing your teeth.

    As far as diet goes, there are lots of opinions out there and you have to find what works for you. If you have a lot of fat to lose, the ketogenic diet is helpful but restrictive. I did this for a while, and transitioned into what is more or less a Mediterranean diet. I eat whole foods, minimize highly processed foods, exclude highly processed foods with added sugars, and emphasize lean meats for protein and also fiber intake. I shoot for 160g of protein per day and 50-100g of fiber. If I consume carbohydrates, they have to come with fiber. Whatever dietary regime you choose, calorie tracking with a tool like myfitnesspal is vital. It is so easy to overlook consumption that if you don't strictly measure and log everything that goes into your mouth, you really have no idea where you're at with respect to being in a calorie deficit. After you've done it long enough you end up with a good grasp on your calorie intake and can relax the burden. No matter what dietary regime you select, it has to be a sustainable part of your life or the results will only be temporary.

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  • [–] 15 points 10 months ago

    Estimate your total daily energy expenditure:

    https://tdeecalculator.net/

    Eat in a caloric deficit. You will need to weigh your food and track calories, at least for a while.

    Weigh yourself and see if the weight is going in the right direction and not losing too fast either. Adjust calories as needed.

    It's way harder than just these steps but this is the foundation. Personally I found the food weighing and calorie counting massively stressful but I got a good sense of how much to eat from doing it from a few weeks. Now I check the scale and log weight and make sure it's going the way I want it.

    Also talk to a therapist. I needed one to get over certain mental barriers and to re-evaluate my relationship to food and my body image.

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  • [–] 13 points 10 months ago

    Last time I got serious about weight loss, I just counted calories really aggressively. It worked.

    But my diet was boring and eventually I got tired of depriving myself, so I stopped. I gained back some of the weight, but not all of it, so that's nice.

    It also helps to not be constantly depressed and stress-eating through the fall of democracy.

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  • [–] 24 points 10 months ago* (6 children)

    I know Lemmy thinks everyone that avoids carbs must be carnivore, but you can use your head and avoid sugar/starches and lose a lot of weight. Fruit is tough to drop but apart from a few blueberries or something, fruit is pure sugar, and juice is as bad as pop. Don't think because something is "healthy" that it's not loaded with sugar.

    By the time you get full eating things like pasta, you've eaten way, way too much. Fats will make you feel full. I used to eat a 16 oz steak with potatoes and vege and still want dessert, and now 6 oz of something fatty like brisket with some broccoli or brussel sprouts will fill me up.

    And you can't outrun a bad diet. Exercise will tone you, but you can't exercise enough to work off a cup of mashed potatoes without giving up the rest of your free time.

    Start by cleaning the house out of that shit, don't bring it back in, and use something like Carb Manager to figure out the sleepers that are putting weight on you.

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  • [–] 12 points 10 months ago (2 children)

    Strawberries and raspberries are very low in sugar.

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  • [–] 17 points 10 months ago

    Not only that but many fruits are full of fiber and water. Pretty sure it's not eating too much fruit that causes weight loss/gain issues, unless it's all being blended into easily consumed drinks.

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  • [–] 1 point 10 months ago (1 child)

    i was raised on SAD...been trying to break to the habit but goddamn is it hard.

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  • [–] 3 points 10 months ago

    I used Carb Manager to monitor my diet completely and break the habits, but my wife couldn't manage that, she just went full carnivore. But we farm, hunt, make sausage and jerky, so it's not hard to get meat. I can see where that would be damn expensive for others though.

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  • [–] -1 points 10 months ago

    Eating fats to stay thin when you are young will lead to cardiovascular challenges when you older.

    It does work a treat for a few decades. High Cholesterol helps build testosterone and suppress appetite. It’s just long term bad.

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  • [–] 12 points 10 months ago

    Count your calories and see what isn't worth it. Usually the best thing to cut first is liquid calories, when I realized I could basically have another meal a day if I quit soda, it made things a lot easier.

    I guess the most important thing would be to focus on lifestyle changes. You can have a super strict diet for months and lose tons of weight, but if you don't incorporate that as a permanent change, it can be easy to gain it back while not in "diet mode." Smaller changes that you stick with perpetually are better in the long run, even a 100 calorie daily deficit will eventually see results.

    Also perhaps get a kitchen scale for portion control, this kinda ties in with counting your calories, but after I started measuring meals it was also easier to not overeat.

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  • [–] 11 points 10 months ago (7 children)

    Intermittent fasting worked for me. By setting a limit on the number of hours I can only eat, it effectively put me into a calorie deficit. There’s only so much you can eat within several hours.

    The great part is I didn’t have to be selective with what I eat. I just needed to quit eating before my daily eating window closed. No need for overly complicated diets.

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  • [–] [S] 2 points 10 months ago (6 children)

    I’ve tried intermittent fasting before and didn’t have much luck. I’d reach my eating window and be so hungry that I’d blow through my calorie limit for the day

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  • [–] 3 points 10 months ago

    How long did you try it? It took me around 2 weeks to get used to it and it was pretty difficult having to deal with the hunger in the first few days. I just had to power through it. Nowadays I can go up to 18 hours without eating.

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  • [–] -1 points 10 months ago (4 children)

    This kind of behavior tells me you have little to no hope on any plan without a major change in your psychology. You will just find a loophole and fail.

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  • [–] [S] 2 points 10 months ago (3 children)

    That’s a lot to assume based on two sentences about something I did eight years ago

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  • [–] -1 points 10 months ago (2 children)

    Everyone thinks they are a unique case, but when you've seen enough examples, it's not a lot to assume. There is a lot of other evidence within your initial post, other responses and how you wrote about it, such as speed eating versus siblings carrying into current day, coupled with depression issues... It's many factors and I've seen it 1000's of times. Be prepared to suffer, being hungry, and eating a lot less. There are no secrets, but you will fail if you don't get your mind right, as you will find loopholes and excuses forever.

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  • [–] [S] 2 points 10 months ago (1 child)

    I don’t think I’m a unique case, and respectfully, you don’t know me. Certainly not based only on the information contained in this post. If you just want to discourage me, rather than provide actual advice, don’t bother.

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  • [–] 0 points 10 months ago

    This is actual advice. You need mental support before you will be successful with changing your diet habits, and all the reasons for that are really apparent in this thread, and you're dismissing that's the case as a defensive mechanism.

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  • [–] 10 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

    Preperation. If my house is full of healthy food, I'm much less likely to impulsively order delivery food or head to 7/11. You have to learn how to cook without using highly processed foods too.

    Edit: This includes flour btw, it's as bad as refined sugar, basically! There's nuance sure, but tell it to the ghosts of my flab rolls!

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  • [–] 9 points 10 months ago (1 child)

    I personally use a calorie counting app, like Waistline, and when I start getting into that routine of eating less naturally without actively counting, I stop using the app.

    When I fall off, I go back to it for a bit until I'm back in the rhythm.

    I also exercise a few times a week and try to do at least one walk a day. 

    Wearables like Garmin also do great calculations of calories burned. If you don't like the idea of your data being sold, which you shouldn't, Garmins are often compatible with this FOSS app: https://f-droid.org/packages/nodomain.freeyourgadget.gadgetbridge

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  • [–] 2 points 10 months ago

    One key trick I did was be completely honest with my calorie counting app.

    Lying to it only lied to myself.

    After about a month, I started getting "lazy" by documenting it by not eating certain things. I knew adding cookies would add 200 calories, and I didn't feel like opening up the app. So I didn't eat it.

    And My cheat days suddenly felt real. I ate a whole pizza and watched those calorie numbers go higher. When cheat day came around again, I "cheated" by picking healthier things.

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  • [–] 9 points 10 months ago

    I never buy snacks or treats in my usual weekly shop - once in while I treat myself such as buying a box of stollen for Christmas... and even then I share with my family. Switching to unsalted/flavoured nuts and fruit after meals helped a lot.

    Another thing is getting into the habit of intermittent fasting. At least three days a week, I only eat dinner in a 24hr period. This definitely isn't for everyone - I only happened to get back into it noticing I was putting on weight working from home through COVID however there are other versions like 16/8

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  • [–] 8 points 10 months ago

    I like to binge snacks (doesn't matter if healthy or not) out from my house, so it sometimes feels hard to stay in specific calorie amount. What helps me with that is to either make snacking a process where I need to prepare it each time I want them or not to buy any from stores.

    Also just generally preparing food yourself instead of just ordering/buying food helps with getting less calories. Not always possible due to time/energy/money, but it has helped me a lot.

    Good luck with your plans!

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  • [–] 8 points 10 months ago*

    I just finished maintaining a calorie deficit for about 8 months and losing a little over 50 lbs, so here's a few things I can think of:

    • when you make food, you'll probably eat it all, so keep that in mind when you're making it. Or, box some of it up for later and put it in the fridge before you start eating.
    • don't keep much or any snack food around the house.
    • or, keeping a few small sweet snacks around can be good for handling it when your sweet tooth is bugging you. I kept fudgsicles in the freezer (40 calories) and sparkling flavored water (5 calories) for when I wanted something sweet.
    • working out 6 days a week was what I needed to make a habit out of it. I'd done 4 or 5 days a week in the past, but when I started doing 6 per week it only took like a month before I started feeling uncomfortable about not working out on my break day.
    • For keeping it off, I'm gonna try to keep on counting calories for a year but just setting my app to maintaining my weight. Meeting that calorie goal is super easy compared to what I was doing.
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  • [–] 15 points 10 months ago (1 child)

    Don't just stop: swap.

    Cutting things out leads to cravings and causes the entire process to be a constant fight. Instead, make small swaps over time that build habits.

    I have a burrito every day. I swapped the tortilla for a high fiber one (get more fiber). It saved 50 calories a day and is still delicious. I swapped my side of chips for protein chips (when I can get them on sale). Lower cal, high protein, still crunchy and taste like cool ranch.

    Think about what you can ADD to your meal. Having stew? Add beans and extra peppers. A sandwich? Add spinach. You'll end up eating less of the calorie sense stuff. You'll also get more fiber.

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  • [–] 15 points 10 months ago* (1 child)

    In my experience, there's an impulse to eat that can be curbed if you aim for foods you can chew on without outpacing your calorie count.

    The classic is celery. Carrots, apples, and other crunchy foods all work pretty well, too. I can nosh and sate the raw impulse to eat without feeling like I need to starve myself at actual meal times. Just having vegetables you enjoy on hand to indulge in is a good for you generally speaking, even when you're not aiming to lose pounds.

    For bigger meals, soup is a favorite dish. Lots of fluids leave you full. You can have the flavors you enjoy without housing an entire slab of meat or a bunch of carbs. I also try to avoid sauces (which often means avoiding eating out generally speaking). All that stuff is packed with sugar, which makes everything more expensive to consume. Dry fried meat and veggies, spices and rubs for flavor, and grilled food rather than fried or stewed keeps me away from excess junk.

    For my sweet tooth, Japanese candy tends to have less sugar than the American stuff. Mochi is better than a candy bar. Pocky is better than a box of popcorn.

    I straight up cut soda and beer out of my diet when I'm focused on losing weight. (Really, just ditch soda entirely, or go to the flavored seltzer water - it's awful for you).

    After that, it really does help to count the calories. When you know what you're eating, your logical "is this worth it" brain can temper the base impulses of the "I just want it in my mouth" animal brain. I hate counting calories, because it's annoying. But making the things that are hard to count annoying to keep track of also helps to focus my diet back onto foods I've got memorized and are low calorie.

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  • [–] 7 points 10 months ago
    • Eat better food.
    • Proteins get about 15% calorie discount due to processing.
    • Track everything.
    • Get a good kitchen scale, because mass is the ONLY good way to track.
    • Find a few things you love that you can eat on repeat, so it is easy to eat and easy to track.

    The way out comes but once; be steadfast.

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  • [–] 7 points 10 months ago (1 child)

    You're obviously getting a lot of specific nutritional advice regarding what to eat, avoid, and how to behave.

    My biggest recommendation is to find support in creating a healthy relationship with food. No individual or category of food is "bad" but our behaviors and views can support or sabotage our progress.

    I highly recommend the podcasts In Moderation and Showing Up Anyway with Coach Adam. Also social media - I know they have accounts across platforms but on YouTube look for The Plant Slant, ScottyKFitness, Adam Wright Fitness, and Hybrid Calisthenics.

    Most people can force themselves into a box and create a habit for a period of time, but making long term changes stick needs healthy support and education.

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  • [–] 12 points 10 months ago (1 child)

    I'm going to answer this as a physiologist: First, eliminate processed foods as they do make you over eat Next, start exercising. Any amount is fine as long as you do something at least 6 days a week. Don't get obsessive; just do something To maintain the proper deficit, you need to measure and plan your meals. Keeping to a mostly consistent calorie total is important. It doesn't have to be exact every day, but you need to stick to a weekly total. This should be about 200-400 calories less than your total caloric needs by day. Too much and your body will fight back and your metabolism will drop to match this new level and you'll stop losing weight. To find the right amount, you're going to need to see a nutritionist and a weight loss expert with a real degree. They'll be able to fill in the details. Any specialty diet only works short term. An active lifestyle with healthy foods will make the biggest impact. And you need to be think long term: losing more than 1 pound per week will cause your body to fight back. You need to very slowly nudge it to where you want it to be, but also realize where your genetics put you. There are so many things to consider, so you need to connect with a specialist.

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  • [–] 3 points 10 months ago

    Saying "Don't get obsessive" while stating you need to do something 6 days a week is an insane starting point.. I agree excersie helps with weight loss, but being in a calorie deficit is enough to loose weight. Dont set the goal too high or else no one will be able to stick to it...

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  • [–] 6 points 10 months ago

    Yeah, because I am poor, AuDHD and depressed, so I very often go an entire day without eating.

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  • [–] 6 points 10 months ago

    I've only crossed the "slight overweight" line now. But in the past 15 years I have monitored my weight while trying gentle changes: eat healthier, no added sugar, more exercise, build a small amount of muscle. Nothing has made a difference. I was gaining weight slowly, year by year.

    Now I'm finally doing what I wanted to avoid for 15 years: stop eating while still slightly hungry. It was a psychological exercise: To focus on the feeling of hunger so I stay aware of it, so I don't automatically walk into the kitchen. To convince myself that I'm okay with it, this is how it has feel, no need to panic. There was some resistance, but in the end it was easier than expected. I mostly do this towards the evening, and not every day, and when I'm more than just a bit hungry I still eat.

    The effect on my weight was almost a shock after the non-effect of all my previous attempts. I feel like I can keep this up easily. In fact I had to dial it back, losing weight faster than I intended. And I did keep my healthy habits from earlier: especially I try to be active one hour each day, and if I wasn't I usually go for a late walk.

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  • [–] 5 points 10 months ago

    Avoiding nearly all sugars + mental conditioning to be ok with mild hunger

    Ill drink water if I’m hungry or have a hard boiled egg and then just…deal with being hungry 🤷‍♀️ if I really need a snack I try to make it something very small and high fat/protein but ultimately there’s no avoiding having to mentally endure some hunger

    I also switched to smaller bowls and plates because psychologically the mind is indeed somewhat fooled by finishing 1 plate of food, even if it’s a smaller plate

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  • [–] 5 points 10 months ago*

    Hey, so I dropped weight casually and all I did was:

    • Limit snacks. Best to zero, but minimum to one a week.
    • Your food portion? Cut it in half. Fat folk tend to eat big portions, I know I did, cut it in half.
    • Don't eat constantly, predefine 3 times you are gonna eat, that's it. For me it's breakfast, second breakfast (at work) and dinner.
    • Drink water when hunger is too big.

    You will be hungry, a lot for some time but shortly it will stabilise and you'd mainly feel hunger around food time.

    After time, my body stabilised around 15kg lower than I were when I began, and that's with me breaking it quite often xD

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  • [–] 5 points 10 months ago

    I found cutting carbs to be a big help. I eat massive amounts of protein and little to no carb and I've been losing a lot of weight that way

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  • [–] 5 points 10 months ago

    I really recomend checking out a weight loss clinic, the one i went with was not a chain and didnt accept insurance, its run by an obesity M.D. doctor, and their spouse a professional dietician. There they prescribed me a flexible diet that has me going to the grocery store and cooking in the kitchen and an excersize plan that has me going regularly to the gym (in the beginning with a personal trainer) and weekly tirzeptide injections and some specific supplements after taking blood work.

    I've lost over 100 lbs, sustainably at about 2lbs/week, and i feel better than I ever have.

    It costs me about 500$/month for the service - cheaper exists - but the support from the professionals along with the guided plan has worked wonders, now that im approaching my goal the conversation has evolved into safely tapering off tirzeptide, how to avoid rebound weight gain (like i have in the past weight loss journeys), technical talk about how ghreline and leptin work and can override will power and how to avoid and deal with that scenario, etc

    The pros know how to focus and train you for genuine lifestyle change as well as the turbulence between changes, not just weight loss

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  • [–] 5 points 10 months ago

    Figure out what diet you can actually maintain in the long run. All of them work if you stick to them. You can't out excercise a bad diet but at some point a stricter diet becomes harder than a bit of exercise.

    What works for me is replacing carbs with meat , cheese and vegetables. Tastes good and at a slight deficit I'll still mange to not raid the fridge after dinner.

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  • [–] 4 points 10 months ago

    What have been working for me until the cold weather and the scale ran out of batteries is to weight every meal and count all the calories I consume. I eat whatever I want as long it fits inside the 2300kcal daily budget, the weight loss was slow but steady since summer. I could get faster results by exercising more and/or setting a tighter budget but I'm happy enough with the current rate.

    This week I bought new batteries, so I'm good to go again.

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  • [–] 4 points 10 months ago (2 children)

    I switched to one meal a day for blood sugar management. I fast all day eat dinner then normally have a snack before bed. you learn to deal with minor hunger and it does not effect you anymore. Food is also better in general. Delayed gratification etc

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  • [–] 2 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

    Yeah I do a similar thing with intermittent fasting. I allow myself to eat as much as I want, but only after around 1600 (4pm for the temporally confused friends) or roughly the time the kid gets home from school and either has a small snack or we eat dinner straight away around that time. Couldn’t skip that, because I do need to show example too, since they, as many kids do, struggle to eat enough, sometimes just nibbling on stuff. Even if they’ve been very active with hobbies and friends and walking to and from school (around 4km total) and they really need the energy and the nutrients to build back and heal the body after all that, not to mention usual growing stuff. And as they often do, especially the salad sides are difficult without someone body doubling the experience, or if we’re doing something different, unusual food to slightly expand their comfort zone progressively. So I can’t really fast beyond that. But I’ve found I don’t really need to. I’ve lost around 10kg in a year just by this small fasting period. No other changes. I wasn’t obese before, just a bit overweight, but I have been back in the day, on the obese side even. I got back from that with keto diet, and luckily never let it slip back too much, but that isn’t an option anymore, for largely the same reasons; have to lead by example, show healthy eating habits (when they are there) and have diverse, nutritious food. Can’t do keto like that.

    I’m not doing this for weight reasons though; my blood sugar is on the high side, almost pre-diabetic, and the docs tell me if I don’t get it sorted, I’ll eventually just slip over the line and that’s not something you get back from apparently. I also have vascular fat (or whatever it’s called in English, the inner fat) that I’d need to get rid of to get my liver values back to healthy bounds. Already gave up drinking some years back, even if it was occasional even then, and it wasn’t enough, so I have to try and get the fat off too. Keto would’ve been perfect for this, back in the day I lost crazy amount of that inner fat especially on it, but apparently this intermittent fasting is doing good things there too, although not nearly as effectively.

    But the surprising thing to me is, I didn’t cut off any foods or food types, generally I’ve tried to keep the short carbs a bit lower than usual, but haven’t gone entirely off. And it still works. I haven’t been on the blood controls yet for either of the reasons, but my scale tells me about 2-3kg of that 10kg has been inner fat.

    And even through Christmas and a lot of carbs, the weight didn’t seem to sway back almost at all, even with delayed monitoring.

    Which is all to say, it seems easier to cut on the calories if you only consume them less than half a day, time-wise, even if you ate unhealthy food and generally not very diet-y. In the limited timespan it might just be impossible to get to similar amounts of calories vs. if you ate regularly throughout all day, if you like me have trouble regulating and tend to overeat fairly consistently (I have adhd so the dopamine rush gets me too excited every time and I guess I lose most of my sense of moderation for a while there).

    Sorry for the weird digression. Just wanted to hop in with my experiences.

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  • [–] 4 points 10 months ago

    Don't focus on what you can take out. Focus on what you can add. So like if you live instant ramen. Make a half pack and add bok choy and a soy egg or something. Kylie Sakaida on YouTube (actual dietician, dunno all her credentials) focuses a lot on this and gives examples. Changed my life and lost maybe 30 lbs just by following that train of thought.

    For me meal prepping is big too. Make a bunch of something on Sunday when I have time and divvy it up throughout the week. My wife can't eat the same stuff as much so I freeze some now and pull something out from a previous week. If you plan it out right you start building variety of your favorite stuff in the freezer for easy meals you just throw in oven.

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  • [–] 4 points 10 months ago

    In my late 20's, I managed to cut to probably the lowest body fat percentage of my life.

    I learned which foods I found to be satisfying despite a lower calorie count, and vice versa. In my case, it's water, fiber, and protein that are important for feeling full even when I'm not eating a lot of calories. That means lots of soups, lots of green vegetables, lots of lean meats and cheeses, and some member of the legume family in almost every meal (beans and lentils, and also things like green beans, peas, peanuts). It also meant a dramatic reduction in sugars, especially in beverages, and a big reduction in alcohol consumption.

    I started running a lot. Some people say you can't outrun a bad diet, but running 25 miles (40km) per week goes a really, really long way and buys you a big buffer that allows you a few high calorie meals here and there.

    I stopped keeping snacks on hand. Almost everything in my house required some degree of prep or cooking to eat.

    Many of those I've kept up in the 20 years since, but I've re-added whole grains and fruit into my previously low carb diet because they have a good satiety to calorie ratio (probably because of the fiber). And I've stopped running but also tolerate a higher body fat percentage and higher overall weight in support of a significantly more muscular build (and a lot more measurable strength). Finally, I do keep certain ready to eat foods in the house, but mainly because I have kids and need to feed them without spending all my time on that task.

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  • [–] 4 points 10 months ago (2 children)

    A big thing is don't buy junk food. Its much easier to not buy that bag of chips then to resist eating them at 2am...

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  • [–] [S] 4 points 10 months ago (1 child)

    I try not to. My wife likes buy snacks, she just has more self discipline than me haha

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  • [–] 4 points 10 months ago

    This is the hardest thing in a house with multiple people. Especially young people who are active and have no problem with weight. I can only do so much when I control one quarter of the food strategy. And the coupe of times I've brought it up to my spouse it is like I am attacking them, which is it's own problem, I know.

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  • [–] 12 points 10 months ago (8 children)

    Eat until you're not hungry, not when you're full. That may require eating more slowly. It will be an adjustment for sure.

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  • [–] [S] 12 points 10 months ago (7 children)

    That’s definitely a challenge for me. I grew up with a bunch of siblings, so if you didn’t eat fast, you’d be stuck with leftovers. Inhaling my food is an unfortunate habit I’ve held onto.

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  • [–] 12 points 10 months ago (4 children)

    You can get out in front of it by estimating how much food will get you to satisfied but not full and only place that much in front of you.

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  • [–] 7 points 10 months ago (2 children)

    And wait about 10 minutes before going back for seconds. For some reason when I still feel hungry after eating, if I wait a bit before seconds, I don't feel hungry anymore.

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  • [–] 8 points 10 months ago (1 child)

    It gives your body time to start digesting, and once digesting it is like "I got to work on this food, don't need any more just yet." If you eat fast enough that the digestion doesn't kick in then you still feel as hungry as you did initially and you have to fill your stomach before that feeling kicks in.

    Source: vague recollection of some nutritional information from years ago

    For me the big problem is that as a kid I would eat something for breakfast and then one big meal a day after playing outside constantly, so my eating pattern is wolfing down food until I feel like I could burst. That doesn't work well when life changed to have three scheduled meals a day, but it did take a decade or two and a desk job to really catch up with me. Still a struggle not to over eat, especially with people around me encouraging me to eat more.

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  • [–] 2 points 10 months ago

    Still a struggle not to over eat, especially with people around me encouraging me to eat more.

    I can relate, and also not wanting to seem rude and turn down overly processed food/sugar laden cookies/pies, etc. I love sweets, I just don't want them in excess, or hfcs/beet sugar, or really much cane sugar, especially white, and other things that are my own peculiarities.

    Also yes, it seems I remember something about digestion kicking in, now that you mention it, thanks!

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  • [–] 5 points 10 months ago*

    A weird way I learned to eat more normal portions was to buy frozen meals. Sure they are super processed but when looking at the ingredients it looks like completely normal homemade food so it can't be that bad. We ate that for a couple of weeks before we got tired of it. But that was enough to learn

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  • [–] 3 points 10 months ago

    For me it helped to focus on small changes. If I just cut my calorie intake in half, upped my exercise, and other large changes all at once, it would overload my brain and I'd back slide. I started making oatmeal in the morning. One cup of oats, one cup of frozen blueberries, and a little [too much] sugar. The next was understanding what hunger means. Your level of hunger indicates how soon you should eat. Not how much. Start making a conscious decision to only have one helping for a meal. Try drinking a lot of water before meals. Like straight chug water until you feel like you'll burst. You can trick your stomach into feeling full quicker if water takes up some space as you start to eat.

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  • [–] 3 points 10 months ago

    You could try intermittent fasting.

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  • [–] 3 points 10 months ago

    The last time I decided to lose weight, I basically cut out all sweet things after meals and avoided regular snacking. It took a while to get used to not having those things (he said, with enormous understatement) but nowhere near as long as it did to lose the weight, so the good habits did lock in for a while, and the weight did eventually come off.

    I allowed myself low calorie drinks whenever. The more water in them, the better. Tea with sweetener not sugar is my usual poison, but I switch it up with squash depending on mood and time of day.

    A change in medication and slow fall back into old habits has got the BMI back over 25 again, so I intend to employ the same tactics again in the new year. Once all the Christmas snacks I've been bought are gone, anyway. *cough*

    If I wasn't snacking and still needed to lose weight, I'd probably try reducing my portion sizes. One less potato. Smaller chops. One less sausage. etc. but I can't vouch for that because I've never needed to go that far.

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  • [–] 3 points 10 months ago (1 child)

    Depression and poverty are really good for losing weight. I've lost 10 lbs in the last few months.

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  • [–] 3 points 10 months ago

    I started on this path a year ago. I homebrew beer and it's pretty yummy. Years of drinking a couple of beers a night got me over 100kg. That was my trigger. 1x beer about same as a Mars bar in calories. Stopped drinking weekdays. Only vape weed as a wind down now. Switched to whisky ginger ale on weekends. Buy less snacks Drink more water and tea and stopped having sugar in tea.10x teas a day is a lot of unnecessary sugar. Stopped eating lunch, have miso soup sachets. Breakfast is toast and marmite Dinner is full normal meal My stomach stopped complaining it was hungry, though it helped to have awareness that the hungry feeling is a good feeling and to embrace it as a sign of success. I don't beat myself up for a stumble. Sometimes I snack, sometimes I go out for midweek beers though rarely.

    Over a year I dropped 25kg A quarter of my body mass I'm 52 It helps I'm adhd lol and eating has always been an afterthought But the main weight loss came from significantly reducing alcohol Unfortunately I've not made any beer for two years.. so there is a downside lol Anyway.. just my 2c Good luck 👍

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  • [–] 3 points 10 months ago (1 child)

    Are you on any meds? If so, see if they're a problem. I had some anti anxiety meds that made me hungry all the time. I could maintain healthy weight before them.

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  • [–] 3 points 10 months ago

    I just skip breakfast and lunch when I'm trying to lose weight. Your body gets used to it after a few days and doesn't send the same hunger signals.

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  • [–] 3 points 10 months ago

    I'm on a flexitarian diet. Not intentionally, my tastes just change up periodically. So I eat a lot less meat and a lot more salad with evoo/vinegar and Italian seasonings for dressing. My bread intake is way down. Getting enough bioavailable B12 and protein without a supplement is challenging. I've been meaning to get nooch but every time I'm in a store that carries it, I forget, so I end up eating eggs, cheese and having whole milk and yogurt. And with unseasonably warm weather, I'm walking again, so the deficit is a lot easier.

    The great thing about salad and fruits is they fill you up, the downside is it doesn't stick as long.

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  • [–] 7 points 10 months ago

    Cut out soda entirely. Skip breakfast and lunch. Maybe eat a light snack at some point during the day if you need to (real food, not sugary crap). Train yourself to just deal with being hungry. When you do eat, focus on things that are nutritionally dense, filling, and slow to digest.

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  • [–] 5 points 10 months ago (6 children)

    There are a few different strategies I have used at different phases in life.

    Where I am at right now.

    Don’t eat processed foods. They make it easy to over way by design.

    Eat the recommended amount of sodium or less a day. Sodium makes food more palatable. You will find yourself eating less calories simply because the food isn’t as good.

    I’ve been eating the recommended amount if fiber on purpose. I eat oatmeal instead of rice/potatoes/bread. It’s filling and less ‘munchable’ if you think you are hungry put a bowl of oatmeal infront of yourself. I do season it with olive oil and spices.

    I restrict sugar and high fuctrose corn syrup for the same reason I restrict salt. Sugar makes food taste to good making it easy to eat more then you need to without realizing.

    These change help me eat the proper and filling portions of food without overeating. I eat till I’m full.

    I also only eat like this most of the time. But even then I’m giving myself leeway on the holidays. I just try to make more good decisions then bad.

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  • [–] 8 points 10 months ago (3 children)

    Sodium makes food more palatable. You will find yourself eating less calories simply because the food isn’t as good.

    Eh, I don't love this one. The idea of intentionally making food shittier so that you enjoy it less is never gonna work for me.

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  • [–] 1 point 10 months ago (2 children)

    You do you.

    It’s way easier to eat the right amount of food if you aren’t making it extra salty or extra sweet.

    Basically I need to eat foods that actually taste good as opposed to making them palatable.

    I have had to find different ways to season foods. I find I am more sensitive to salt and less salt makes me satisfied.

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  • [–] 1 point 10 months ago (1 child)

    As an example, I salt my salads fairly precisely. After all, the word "salad" itself derives from the Latin word for "salted."

    But there's also like literally no way that overeating a salad would be unhealthy for me, a person who doesn't have hypertension (and who sweats a lot of salt so that I need a higher than normal sodium intake). I'm going to salt my salads as I see fit, and use the right amount of acid and maybe a source of umami for flavor, as well. I want my salads to be delicious, because I have basically zero fear that I'll overeat them to the point of adverse health effects.

    For plenty of other foods, I'm basically controlling portions before I plate anyway. If I'm at a restaurant, the portions are tightly controlled and I control what portions I eat by simply controlling what portions I order. If I'm cooking at home, I'm not accidentally meal planning for the week but running out of food on Wednesday. Everything I eat should be delicious, and if there's a problem with overeating, it's because I failed to control portions before it was placed in front of me.

    To borrow an analogy from Homer's The Odyssey, I prefer Odysseus's strategy of tying himself to the mast and hearing the sirens anyway, over the crew plugging their ears and never hearing them in the first place.

    Everyone can take their own approaches, but my own strategies for portioning already make it so that making the food less delicious wouldn't do much for myself.

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  • [–] 1 point 10 months ago

    Great. Sounds like you have a strategy for you.

    I just eat till I feel full, not paying attention to portions.

    Even when I wasn’t watching what I eat at all I never salted a salad. Never found it necessary. I just like the way leafy greens taste.

    We have pretty different sets of tastes.

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  • [–] 4 points 10 months ago

    Good luck. You got this. OK so 100lb is quite a lot. And please stay above 100lb body weight. OK now then. I lost around 30lbs give or take. And here are some tips:

    • It's all about calories in and calories out. You'll probably have to adjust your diet every now and then. I say this because a big deficit is not sustainable. When I tried a deficit like this I didn't have the energy to exercise. So there's that.
    • exercise is a bit easier. specially when you body is new to the exercise. Just make sure to understand the routing or without.
    • please remove unhealthy foods specially instant noodles.
    • cook your meals when possible.
    • follow the service size.
    • if after a month you haven't lost another pound, consider a meal journal.
    • finally, gaining weight or losing weight is not easy. That's because the difference in calories for the target weight.
    • maybe try a intermittent fasting to get a feel for the fake hunger and real hunger.
    • serious make better diet. Make sure your diet is balanced and within your calorie limits.

    Good luck. You got this.

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