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?
- 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.
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.
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.
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!
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! :)
-
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.
Drinking calories is so bad.
I only drink Coconut Unsweetened Silk and tap water outside of a zero cal soda now and then.
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.
What do you mean when you say artificial sugars? The insulin response to different sweeteners vary a lot.
+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)
I still lightly sweeten my coffee most mornings, but that’s about it.
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.
When I cut out soda and other sweetened beverages for water, I lost 13 pounds in less than a month!
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!
Eat until you’re not hungry, not when you’re full. That may require eating more slowly. It will be an adjustment for sure.
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.
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.
This is important! These small habit changes all add up.
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.
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.
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!
Try using a smaller plate which forces you to take a smaller amount initially and consciously makes you aware of going back for more.
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
I think you’re on a good track. Some tips i’ve picked up though: Switch the milk you use with cereal/tea/coffee to soya milk, i found that it helps. Also don’t underestimate the power of a short stroll if you’ve been sitting down for a lot of the day - prompts the body to be in fat burning mode rrathee than fat building mode.
nicotine, caffeine, gum, not buying candy
Long-term, sustained weight loss is about lifestyle change. Don’t set a goal and implement dietary and/or exercise changes you have to force yourself to stick to; instead, you have to find a lower-calorie diet and exercise routine that you actually like. Some “dealing with hunger” may be necessary in the beginning if you’re used to frequent eating or large portions, but your body/brain should acclimate to your new diet in a few weeks. If you can, the best eating schedule is actually one with no meals, but around six healthy snacks throughout the day. This is because the frequent eating keeps your metabolism up throughout the day, which burns calories faster. You want to aim for no more than 2,000 calories a day if you’re counting them. I would also recommend taking a multivitamin (most people should be taking one anyway).
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
Fruit and veggies will fill your stomach up making it harder to eat anything else while being lower in calories, I drench them in steak fat, idc, about the extra calories gained there, if I dont eag vegetables I eat a ton of snacks, if my stomach is uncomfortably full I dont think about eating. It’s just expensive (in my case I have limited fast food options, just restaurants) if you dont cook to get healthier options but you can save hella calories. Like keto bread instead of regular for hotdogs/hamburgers save me at least 100 calories a burger, coke zero instead of coke saves me like 600 calories a day drinking 4 cans (ik I should drink less soda but ive done much much worse to my body being fat and abusing drugs, this is fine in comparison so im sticking to it)
You could always intermittent fast, eat like 4-8 hours of your day and the no food until the next 4-8 hour period, worked for me but I gained most of my weight back when I stopped, I wouldnt want to do it forever so its not viable for me. I lost like 90 lbs gained 70 back. Now I’ve been losing 10 a year but not gaining it back just trying to minimize calories through ingredients and less snacking.
For candy I swapped to stuff that last longer flavorwise and I get sick of faster like hichews over chocolate. ChocolateI can eat lbs of nonstop, once I start each bite just tastes better, so I try to avoid it or get a variety of minis, having a few small portions of different kinds is more satisfying than one extra large portion of one kind.
Throw out/donate junk food. Don’t buy more. Ask yourself if your actually hungry before getting a snack. Often times I’m just bored or procrastinating. But ive found the most success with HARD REASONABLE RULES.
Example : 2023 was the year of zero alcohol. I did it for a year and gave myself permission to drink again after the year’s end. I didn’t. Stopped caring about drinking after a few months without it. I can count the number of drinks on one hand I’ve had since then.
Example 2: 2024 was the no Candy and no ice cream year. Candy was defined as “anything you could find in a Halloween bag”
Ive found a lot of success with HARD reasonable clearly defined rules.
I did a keto diet for a bit back in the summer. It worked very well for me and I lost 10kg in about 7 weeks. The diet made me feel full for a long time so I was also on one meal a day and not snacking. It’s not something I think I could keep up long term, the variety in what you can eat isn’t enough for me, although since coming off the diet, I haven’t put any of the weight back on so my metabolism must have changed somehow as a result.
Not saying it’s for everyone, but I was surprised how well it worked for me.
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…
I try not to. My wife likes buy snacks, she just has more self discipline than me haha
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.
I wish you the best of luck!
Haven’t been fat but have been hugely pregnant and had to lose weight and even though people say you can’t outrun a diet, exercise has been the only thing that’s really made a difference for me. The more I exercise the less I weigh, the “out” part of calories in, calories out makes the bigger difference for my body.
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
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.
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 👍
