What plan did you use to lose weight and how much did you lose?
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What plan did you use to lose weight and how much did you lose? I'm determined to lose weight and maintain it.
South Beach Diet. I "started" in May at 260, but I wasn't really serious (i.e. cheated a lot) until August when I think I weighed about 250. Now I weigh 210 and find the diet VERY easy, I've been losing 10 pounds a month August, Sept, Oct, Nov. I have also been able to add exercise and have gone from a 22W (with muffin top) to a 14W or 16 or 14 (depending on the brand) with NO muffin top pants/jeans.
I'm not at goal yet, but I'm a calorie counter and I work out 30-60 minutes (cardio + strength) 6 days a week (i just walk on rest days). So far I've lost about 40lbs.
ETA: Started "dieting" in May, but didn't really get serious until August when I started counting my calories.
Started on Atkins 8/2008, lost over 100 lbs, then switched to The Metabolism Miracle (low carb, low fat) and am still losing. I've lost over 150 lbs in 15 months on low carb.
I use the Weight Watchers "Winning Points" system but I'm not attending meetings. I'm trying to avoid sugars and white flour as well and I stopped eating anything fried.
I've lost 32 lbs thus far, but have a fair amount left to go.
Counting calories and exercising 4-5 days a week for at least 30 minutes to 1.5 hours. I alternate my exercise days to look like the following:
Mon - 1.5 h
Tue - 1 h
Wed - 30 min
Thur - 1.5 h
Fri - 1 h
Sat - rest
Sun - rest
To determine my daily caloric intake, I went to freedieting.com and thedailyplate.com. I put in "sedentary" for activity level and got a range of calories. At first, I went with the highest caloric range and found that worked for the first 5 lbs, then I had to drop 200 cals to see the same weight loss and after another 5, had to drop it another 200 cals. Determining your caloric needs is quasi-scientific as it needs a lot of tweaking to find a plan that suits your needs. Experiment with the numbers, give yourself a week with each range you set for yourself and see whether you gain or lose. Adjust accordingly.
Another helpful hint is to keep in mind that all these actions are for the rest of your life not just the next 2-3 months. That said, I think it's best to start slowly by incorporating one change at a time. If you eat fast food everyday, cut it down to 5 days a week, then 4, then 3 until you eliminate fast food from your diet. Then work on eating more veggies and lean protein. Take small steps and in a few months you will adopt a new lifestyle that you can maintain instead of jumping in all at once and burning out soon after...Although this does work for some people...
The entire weight loss journey is so personalized that it would be impossible to take one person's plan and superimpose it on someone else's life. That's why you start with a plan you think is the most feasible for you and tweak it accordingly.
You can do it!!! :hug:
I love math so I'm a calorie counter :P I like to add up my BMR and calories burned through exercise and subtract my calories eaten and play with it to see how much i should lose that week haha. It's my bizarre guilty pleasure at the end of each day. However, reading this thread, I'm impressed with how successful people have been with the low carb thing! I hated Atkins because I love veggies but I'll have to look into South Beach!