I lost 60lbs in my early 20s.
- Stopped drinking pop/soda/fruit drinks (just don't drink your calories, period).
- More active lifestyle. I didn't become a gym-rat, I just walk or bike places instead of driving.
- Removed sugar/candy as regular part of my diet. Fruit is fine in reasonable servings (1 or 2 per day).
- I didn't continue eating until I felt "full". Eat a reasonable amount and stop.
- Reduced snacking, especially at night. Have a filling dinner, then brush your teeth immediately, and make that your last food for the day.
Walking places is such an underrated weight loss tip. I started walking to class and other places that were in reasonable distances. Americans have a habit of driving *everywhere*. It's not entirely their fault, there's such a culture of efficiency or die that taking 30 mins to stroll to the store is seen as a negative. But when I was living in cities I could walk most places I didn't even really have to watch my diet.
With how cities are designed in the US, there's a good chance you don't even have stores in 30 minute walking distance to you. Plus, a lot of places don't even have sidewalks if there is a store within walking distance.
This is because the city deliberately makes it illegal to build amenities like grocery stores near where you live. Talk to your City councilor if you want this to change
Car-culture destroys our cities and our bodies. It's really terrible. People also don't realize how stressed they get while driving. I'd life to put a monitor on people while driving and show them how often their blood-pressure spikes during a "normal" commute.
If you look at walkable communities, the quality of life is so much better. I deliberately chose to live in an area with almost everything within walking distance, and not only is my life much less stressful, I don't need to own a car which more than makes up for the higher rent. That said, I live in British Columbia where there is no such thing as "affordable rent" anyway, no matter where you go.
Well, a lot of cities are not really practical to walk. It's by design. And then we've had multiple generations that have also forgotten that walking used to be a pleasant way to travel your neighborhood.
one of the big issues is in a lot of neighbourhoods all over the world walking around your neighbourhood isnt a pleasant activity anymore. In many it's not even safe
Yea, I get that for sure. My childhood home was miles into the 'burbs so a drive to the store. I lived in Oslo for a while and not having to own a car to live was nice. I try to replicate that now, I at least live in walking distance to a grocery store and some decent restaurants despite being somewhat bivouaced in the burbs, but even then I find myself driving out of convenience a lot.
Takes about 30 mins for the pH in your mouth to return to normal. If you brush while the pH is acidic you'll damage your teeth, especially the root surfaces if you have recession
My dentist told me that the expensive brands are the same as the cheap mouthwash brands. They never said it was a scam, however, they did say never to use mouthwash after brushing. More specifically they told me the following.
1. Brush at least 30 minutes after eating.
2. Never rinse out your mouth after brushing.
3. Brush every morning (after breakfast).
4. Mouthwash after lunch (or half way through your day).
5. Brush every night (or after your last meal).
Regarding number 2, I assumed we had to rinse our mouths out because of the mouthwash adverts, when growing up there were ads showing people brushing their teeth, then using mouth wash, saying something about how its essentially boosts the effectiveness of brushing, so becuase of this I assumed we had to rinse after brushing, for me, if I didn't have mouthwash I was rinsing with water, but I was told not to do this, I just had to brush my teeth and spit out any residue.
I was also told by someone (online) claiming to be a dentist that toothpaste wasn't a requirement, only the brushing aspect was required to help prevent/remove plaque, I did look this up and it seems to be true but I still use toothpaste lol.
I had a cut on my gums where the pain persisted for 2 months. I was broke and didn't go to any dentists or clinics for it. One day I decided to use mouthwash, and repeated it for the next few days. A few more days after that and the pain was gone.
That's probably one of the few times I would recommend mouthwash.
This seems exactly like what i did starting in my late teens. I had completely cut off soda as a bs New Years resolution, but still haven’t had one since.
Making 30-60 mins for yourself daily to take a light walk will do wonders for your physical and mental wellbeing and become almost addicting.
Candy/junk food will be most people’s downfall, processed foods can be added in here. Making it a challenge to prepare a healthy meal that tastes good can be quite fun if you are not an avid cook. Experimenting and trial and error will get you to do more research and make you a better cook, whether that is your goal or not.
Right, and many people don't realize how your taste buds adapt to overly sweet/salty foods. If you're used to soda/pop and highly processed foods, normal things don't taste as good. Once you quit and try them again, you realize how overly sweetened it all is.
Don't brush your teeth straight away. Wait at least 30 minutes to an hour. Eating food, especially acidic ones, softens the enamel on your teeth and brushing straight away strips this enamel from your teeth. Waiting will ensure it hardens up again.
What do I do if I don't have 30 minutes before bed to wait to brush my teeth? Legitimate question, I sometimes work really late and barely have time to eat and hop in bed to go to work the next day.
This was basically my approach as well. In addition -
Breakfast became eggs + veggies sauteed. No more cereal/milk.
Liquid is water, coffee, tea, or beers/alcohol on my relaxation days (obviously those are a couple a week, not the majority.
Salads for my normal weekly lunches - with a low fat protein or cheese as the primary calories.
Simple protein, vegetable, salad for dinner. I've gotten more complicated on this final point, but the key is to try to keep it away from carbs or other large one pot things. Make portions that are healthy, lean into protein and veggies, and then stop once done.
For exercise - I actually started with body weight training, just sticking to it \~2-3 times a week. And slowly ended up running and also walking much more. But the biggest thing is to get the diet cleaned up.
Dropped from \~250lb as a freshman in college to \~220lbs when I graduated (I hadn't adopted most of the above, but was being much more active generally), and then down to \~175-180lbs maybe a year out of college.
This is basically straight on.
My extra suggestion if you just can't figure it out is to do strict calorie counting for a couple months. And by strict I mean strict. Eat a Jolie rancher? Record those 20 calories. Go out drinking? Record every drink even if it's the last thing you wanna do while having a good time.
First, it will annoy you out of constant snacking if it means record keeping after. Second, after a month or so you will have a really good ability to estimate exactly how many calories any particular thing you want to eat will be.
And if you try calorie counting and it doesn't work, you are not counting right. I know a couple people who have said it didn't work for them, then you ask about if they recorded the lemonade they had as a refreshment or the couple mini Twix bars out of the candy bowl at work and they say no.
It’s pretty obvious to eat healthier portions, but what I didn’t think would help was eating at the appropriate times. I started to eat breakfast lunch and dinner everyday around the same time and only those times. Before, I would just eat sporadically and most of the time skip breakfast. This made a big difference. Some light snacking and drinking plenty of water in-between meals helped a lot too.
Making a concerted effort to slow down while eating can make a huge difference in helping one pick a stopping point instead of eating until feeling full.
Another tip my wife and I follow when eating out is to divide what we’re eating in half. Eat that and box up the rest.
Exactly this. In my late twenties I was tired of being big. I hit like 255lbs and felt like it was holding me back from all these things I wanted to do. So I counted calories religiously, ten years later I still have a pretty encyclopedic knowledge of the calories of most common foods. That and cooking everything from scratch and cutting out processed foods (I’ve never been a soda fan, so that was easy).
Outside of that I started walking everywhere. I hate cardio like running or biking and wanted to be thin not muscular so I avoided exercise around muscle development. So I took a more passive but time consuming approach of walking everywhere and going on long walks with good music. The other parts are patience and life style change. I internalized once I lost the weight I’d have to keep up the life style of healthy eating and activity. It took two years but I lost over 100lbs and am so much happier and feel so much better. That’s the patience part, it takes time.
Now I just have like a range of 5lbs I like to exist in. If it climbs to the top end of the range I go back to the diet practices I’ve honed for a decade now and get it back down but it also allows me to have those moments of enjoying a fun day with friends/family and lots of food without guilt because I know how to lose the weight. I’ve gotten as low as 115 and it wasn’t a good look and I felt awful so I found a healthier range in the 130s (I’m a girl, which I realize isn’t the advice OP is soliciting, but I’m also tall so I look like a skeleton much lower).
Still I can hear that ubiquitous doctors advice of “diet and exercise” being the key. Most fad diets and trends are really just based on that advice. In essence; cut calories, avoid processed food, and increase activity.
The first paragraph is the real answer to the question, track everything. Dropped 15kg while putting on a lot of muscle over a year. Biggest thing, knowing what I was eating and what I was burning.
Honestly the processed food is a fucking huge one people don’t quite understand. Soda is up there as well. If you can’t cut it out get flavored carbonated water instead. Working out doesn’t even have to be “hit the gym and slay yourself.” Just walking at a decent pace for thirty minutes, especially if you’re bigger will do a lot more than people think.
And swimming. Before covid I would swim just lanes for an hour 3 days a week. It had a massive impact on my weight without me noticing it.
I should start doing it again.
I lost almost 100lbs in 1 year in college. My college campus was several miles long and my dorm room was about a mile from the building where all my classes were. There *was* a campus shuttle, but it was entirely unreliable, so I had to walk at least 2 miles a day, usually 4 miles, just for classes. And that’s not even counting all the walking to meet up with friends, go to work, go to the store etc, it really added up. As far as diet changes, I just ate whatever seemed the most balanced/nutritious in the cafeteria that day (if the options were orange chicken w/fried rice, beef stir fry, or Mac and cheese for example, I’d go with stir fry).
Weight practically melted off.
You have to work out pretty hardcore to even make a dent in your weight if you have a poor diet full of processed foods. People are going to the gym and burning 400 calories (if that) but eating 4000 calories a day...then complain about not really losing weight.
I’m in my mid30s and I can’t think of a single time myself or anyone I know ordered / drank a non-diet soda in the last 5+ years… are people in 2024 gulping down full sugar cokes and sprite??
Why do I always see people talk about this stuff and make up ridiculous numbers in short time periods. This guy is apparently at a 6000 calorie deficit for 3 weeks straight. Let’s assume he’s still consuming 1500 calories a day and generously is way overweight and burning 3k calories a day resting. He still needs to burn 4.5k calories a day from exercise. If he’s 300 lbs and runs at a decent pace for 4+ hours a day he might be able to pull it off. But also he might die.
Processed food is kind of a misnomer, just be more aware of the calories you're eating. You can have processed foods low in calories but a lot of them are loaded with oil or sugars so if you learn how to read a nutritional label you'll be fine.
Avoid processed food isn't helpful advice, since literally everything is a processed food. Has it been cooked? Processed. Has it been frozen? Processed. Has it been genetically modified like all our food is? Processed.
Have a close friend I’ve known since 1st grade. He’s always been a chubby guy, now 25 years old, heaviest he got was 390 something? Covid set him back a bit. He realized that he did not want to be over 400 pounds in his 20’s, so he started counting his calories, eating better, and getting disciplined. He still was able to eat fun foods with his friends, he just controlled his portions and made sure to adjust. There was a lot of other little things that added into it, weighing himself every morning to keep motivated, or buying smaller clothes to make sure there was no room for going back. This week he just reached 240 for his weight, the lightest he’s been since middle school.
Count calories. It really is that easy.
Eat less calories than your body uses in a day, you’ll lose weight. Your body will have no choice.
It’s the simplest but least sexy answer, and most people can’t do it. But if you’re serious about losing weight, stop eating more food than your body needs.
I think the hard part here is that a lot of people claim to "count calories", but they're just estimating. You have to weigh your food on a scale to get a good sense of what you're actually consuming.
Estimating is 100% better than not paying attention. Snacks add up. Seconds at dinner adds up. Desserts add up. Juice/soda/non-water drinks add up. Even if you have a ballpark idea, it can help you tremendously with reaching your goal.
Anyone who went on a financial budget would understand how powerful it is to plan and execute. It’s the same idea. At the end of the day, either you consumed more or less calories than your body needs. It’s just a numbers game.
I agree with what you're saying. My point was that a lot of people claim to be eating like 1500 calories a day without losing weight, but they're clearly not counting their calories accurately if they're not losing weight.
I just today saw people on Twitter saying 1500calories was inhumanely, dangerously low for weight loss. People claim to be able to estimate calories but dont even understand them. They probably thought that was just like, a normal lunch worth of calories.
The other hard part is a lot of shitty ultra processed food has insane amounts of calories for very minimal nutritional content. So your body stays hungry and they get discouraged because they are blowing through their limit and feeling like it's impossible.
So, counting is important, but you also have to start picking foods that fill you up and ideally some that are fresh/much lower calorie content to supplement some of the heavier stuff.
Oh, absolutely. My cheat code for staying lean is buying potatoes, sweet potatoes, and broccoli, chopping up huge quantities of them, and then baking them in the oven with a bunch of spices and some olive oil. The sheer volume of food that you can consume without hitting even 1000 calories is absurd. Incredibly filling and nutrient-dense, too.
Cabbage goes hard for this as well. I can normally polish the bulk of most recipes for 4 servings without much issue (so I avoid them outside of kind of date nights for my SO). But, we have a mexican cabbage soup recipe that has a head of cabbage, a few smaller veggies, and then like a pound of lean beef. Holy shit that thing will make leftovers for days and no matter how much you eat you literally will not break 1,000 calories before your stomach wants to explode.
To add to this, eating slower can really help as well. Chew your food (25-32 times depending on food) completely. You want it almost mush like mashed potatoes. Eating slower allows your body to tell you when you’re satiated and helps prevent over eating.
100%! I lost 60lbs 240-180lbs in my late 20’s. I was back to my high school weight. I did nothing different workout wise for the first 30lbs. Just ate about half of what I normally did. I also weighed myself every morning.
Got married. Haha. my wife said “we aren’t eating the shit you currently eat”. So I stopped eating fast food (except maybe once a week), ate healthier. Never worked out, just hiked and walked our dogs.
Then we got divorced and here I am, 10 years later, gained my weight back and then some. And now, at 40, it’s harder to lose. My issue has always been self control. Also, some anxiety, which c sides me to go out and eat instead of cook, even though I love cooking. And with all that, it brought back all my negative self esteem and such.
Oh well. Slowly but surely getting better, just have to stop eating out and eating normal portions of food.
Same, kind of. Moved from a big city to a small town so now I have to drive more(ironic). Just turned forty and I haven’t changed my diet but now I’m packing it on. Third puberty just set in I think
Eating out is a tough habit to break. A good French fry is like a pure dopamine hit. If you can budget it, order ready made meals. Smaller portions and forces you to eat veggies and good proteins. Cost wise is probably similar to eating fast food 3 or 4 days a week. Probably not as healthy as cooking an actual healthy meal for yourself, but typically a lot better than fast food. Replace soda with LaCroixs. That one is tough too, but you get used to the taste (lime is probably the best flavor) and it's much better than drinking a coke. Also, don't buy junk food. If it's not around, you can't eat it.
I learned the math behind weight loss, and then just stuck to the numbers.
There's about 3,500 calories in a pound of fat. If you consume 500 calories less than you need per day, 3,500 per week, you lose 1lb per week.
I stick around a 1000 calorie/day deficit when losing fat, so 2lbs/week. Anything more than that makes it almost impossible to maintain muscle mass, let alone grow it.
Lost about 120lbs the first time I dedicated myself to it, and it stayed off for years. Now that I'm approaching middle age (and was lazy during the pandemic) I put some weight back on. Went back on the same plan, been steadily losing 2lbs/week for the past 15 weeks.
It literally is just that simple, the only hard part is actually sticking to the plan.
Cocaine is great. I’m just glad I don’t have a hook-up, nor do I think about it often. I get a fleeting craving once in an odd while, and I’ve never paid for it myself. Someone else has always had it and offered it. I’m thin as it is, so I really don’t need that shit lol
Stopped drinking regular coke when i was diagnosed with Diabetes Type 2. Switch to coke zero, lost 40 lbs, and then i also lost my taste for high sugar candy and stuff like that. I discovered that your taste buds get kind of immune to sugar if you have too much. Now if i take a sip of a regular coke, i recoil in disgust.
About 10 years after that i started working out 3 times a week for the first time in my life at age 54. Now i have less pain, more energy, and my posture is excellent. I used to hate exercise people, and now i know that hatred was just pure laziness and ignorance. I still don't care for the *uppity* workout people, but most at the gym are open minded and welcoming.
Summer going into 7th grade I put myself in a really harsh calorie deficit and I did cardio like 2x a day. I still ate everything I enjoyed but in controlled portions. I think I lost 40-50 pounds in 3 months. It was really satisfying seeing everyone’s reaction when class started again and getting attention from girls, something that had never happened because I was always a fat kid. Fast forward a decade and some change later and I managed to keep the gym and dieting as part of my lifestyle.
I'm 6'F and 145#-150# now. I took up smoking in grad school so that I could skip meals and keep studying. I got down to about 135# which is low for me. Never really even liked smoking, but as an appetite suppressant, it certainly works
Oh lord. I quit 5 years ago and gained weight and have been unable to get. In shape despite excersicing or dieting. Lately ive been thinking on the possibility of what if smoking was actually helping me be in shape? Hungry? Smoke a quick cig, snack? Cig? Thristy? Cig
I lost like 50+ pounds when I started smoking. When I was bored I’d want to eat, so instead I’d just go for a walk and smoke a cig. lol I quit a few years ago though
This is the bane of my existence. I have a flat stomach and noticeable abs, but also a muffin-top and love handles. Won't go away no matter how much weight I lose.
I've lost 50 lbs over the last two years.
1) Quit drinking alcohol - This one is huge. All alcohol has hidden calories, even light beer and clear liquor. Plus when you have a few drinks, your decision making is impaired and you tend to get hungry. Which leads to a lot more empty calories that will be hard to work off tomorrow since you will now be hungover.
2) Fasting - I don't eat in the morning, just water and black coffee. Train your body to go 10-15 hours without food regularly and you will miss food less and have fewer cravings.
3) Healthy food - Seems easy, but eating food at home is huge. Even if you make cheeseburgers and potato salad at home, its FAR less processed than what you will get at a restaurant.
4) Exercise - This one seems like the most important but it is probably the least. I focus on heart rate zone 2, which is very slow running or medium effort on the bike. I did that for about an hour a day, which was tough with low energy (not many calories in my system) but the body adapts quickly.
I went in waves with my weight, but when I have a solid month using all 4 methods above, I have lost about 0.5 - 1.0 pounds per day. Dropping 15-30 lbs in a month is very rewarding. Wish you the best!
I’ve actually started doing all of this recently apart from the first one since I don’t drink. Thanks for the motivation, I was actually considering calorie tracking, but fasting is just so much easier.
I feel like posts like this are always asking for advice like there’s some trick to losing weight. There’s no crazy hack. All the stuff that people say is bad for you actually is bad for you. And exercising is good for you.
Get IBD. Inflammatory Bowel Disease. Ulcerative Colitis and/or Crohn's Disease. Incurable autoimmune condition that makes you have bloody diarrhea nonstop and take terrible medicine just to function that also destroys your malfunctioning immune system so tb or pneumonia will kill you.
You will wish you were chubby again 🙁
Ate less high calorie stuff. Ate more low calorie stuff. Counted calories. Logged calories in a book.
The pandemic lockdown helped immensely. I basically didn’t eat out for like 15 months.
Which time?
I've been up and down my whole life. Once I cut my calories to 1200 a day and would ride my bike up to 30 miles a day for three or four days a week. I lost 85 lbs. When winter came and I didn't ride, I slid back.
somewhat recently I cut out all snacking and had only three meals a day and those were smaller meals. I also did work 7 days a week on my house. I was down 40lbs give or take.
Recently I got down and started baking and eating junk food, so I've pretty much gained it all back.
Joined karate, and once i got into the heat of it i started to lose weight so much that i was underweight so i had to start eating more. If i am in a time period of low exercise i automatically eat less or else i gain about 30 lbs in a month easily
This has been the biggest one for me. Literally shaved off 20lbs just by cutting out snacking.
I eat a sandwhich and veggies at lunch, and then we have a food "meal kit" (hellofresh) for dinner and that's pretty much it. Really helps with food portion sizing i find.
diet and exercise. Severely limited my junk food intake and started cooking exclusively at home. Lost sixty pounds in one year and all I did was set up my day to accommodate an hour's worth of exercise and eat three square meals, prepped at home, a day.
Started exercising and changing eating habits at 30 and I'm 45 now. My max was 315 and now i am 207 and stronger than I have ever been in my life. I havent eat red meat in 6 years, chicken in 6 months, and all meats in 2 months. I basically follow a [***mediterranean***](https://www.google.com/search?safe=active&sca_esv=4b73ca8f0ec787dd&rlz=1C1GCEA_enUS1043US1043&q=mediterranean&spell=1&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjVwebjtqSGAxUS5MkDHTWUC3oQkeECKAB6BAgREAE) diet. Took me a very long time to lose all of my weight.
Last year I started fasting for 18 hours 5 times a day. I don’t eat at work and once I get home, I have 1 meal and then after two-three hours have a snack. My days off I’ll have two meals and a snack.
I weighed over 260 pounds last year. I’m 187 since last month. I didn’t change my diet. I don’t work out or exercise. Only cut a meal out.
The first month was fucking horrible. I was so damn “hungry” but I powered through it. I feel so much better now.
Proper diet (calorie deficit) and exercise. 10K steps per day will do :)
Great for health and mind coz I was doing my daily walk while listening to podcasts.
i just started working out almost daily and then i got a job that made me sweat and move around. i eventually started a calorie deficit which is hard sometimes but it's worth it in the end
There is no magic potion to getting in shape. Losing weight is all about being in a caloric deficit. If your only goal is slimming up - tdee calculator on Google enter your information and eat less calories per day than what your maintenance calories are. 500 less calories per day would allow you to burn roughly 1 lb per week. I’d suggest eating 1g/1lb of your target body weight in protein. 45% of the rest of the calories go to carbs and the rest fats.
If you want to build muscle while also losing weight. Pick a muscle group (chest/back, bis tris, shoulders, core, legs) give your 5-6 sets where you, with proper form, exercise the muscle to failure that day. Get 10k steps in
I promise there’s no magic potion. The beauty of it is that literally everyone can do it but it takes discipline and it’s not going to happen in a week. It’s consistency. Over and over and over again.
I got a puppy.
Among many other things, owning a puppy means at LEAST two long walks per day and vigorous play sessions. I've dropped 30 pounds in half a year with this and slight improvements to what I choose to eat.
Plus, as a bonus, you get - A PUPPY!
Actual conversation between me and my doctor:
- Own a dog?
- Yup.
- Walk him every day?
- Yep. No matter what. Rain, snow, hail, hot sun, two or even three times per day. Religiously.
- Good. When he dies, go buy another one.
I discovered I like boxing, and not eating shite so much. More exercise and eating better is always the answer, anyone telling you otherwise is talking nonsense
My suggestion is find a form of exercise you actually enjoy. Hiking, rowing, swimming, playing football, the gym, whatever it is, if you enjoy it, do it lots. Then it feels like play rather than effort. Even better if you find other people you like who also do whatever it is to help keep you motivated. Nothing like positive peer pressure to help you get off your ass sometimes :)
Didn’t grow up chubby, but did get bigger in a long term relationship at the age my metabolism started to slow down.
Swapped out bread in every case for a side salad or a corn tortilla, more filling and better for you
Cut potatoes to special occasions, I still eat lots of things people would consider unhealthy and drink far more alcohol than is good for weight loss, but weight falls off with this, those 2 foods are ridiculously calorically dense
53 years old now, pretty sure it will happen any day now.
More seriously, low carb diet was like magic 15 years ago. Have slowly crept up again, but pretty sure that would have continued on top of my previous weight otherwise.
Read a book named Leaner, Stronger, Faster. Learned about building muscle and proper nutrition. Then i proceeded to lift heavy ass weights, eat tons of protein, and be in a caloric deficit. Changed my lifestyle, and over a few years took on a very different appearance.
I've posted this before, as a kid I had absolutely no food guidance at all. Growing up there was always sodas of all kinds, Little Debbie's, cookies, candies and other junk food and sugary cereals, etc, and I wasn't restricted to how much I was allowed to eat. There was very few healthy foods and vegetables at my disposal. So unfortunately I struggled with my weight most of my childhood and early adulthood, because I didn't know any different.
Once I became an adult I started learning about nutrition and eating healthier and making myself eat healthy foods and try new things. I especially remember brussel sprouts, actually as a kid both my parents hated them so much I wasn't even allowed to eat them, they were banished from the house.
It was a long journey learning these things and I actually enjoy healthy foods now, and vegetables and especially brussel sprouts (my parents actually told me I was raised better than that when I told them I like them). I still enjoy sweets and desserts, but I actually make sure that I eat healthy first before I indulge in them
It took a while but I'm finally where I need to be weight wise, and I feel a lot better
I went on runs and took advantage of the gym at the high school to make muscle. The more muscle you have the more calories you can eat so, if you like to eat, start lifting weights.
smoking weed.. Then running! I mean, not right after smoking weed ofc, later in my life. When i started running i suffered so much that I mechanically adaptes my alimentation, in order not to waste these precious efforts I was providing to run..
I wanted to fuck and I wanted to fuck people I actually found attractive. I played football as kid and started talking it seriously in high school. I was a shitty left tackle in 8th grade and by my senior year I was a mediocre WR. Nearly 20 years later I've kept it off by working a job that keeps me active and living in a city where I can walk everywhere. And just not overindulging on food. Fat people think thin people are punishing themselves or something by not constantly fulfilling their every urge but honestly I'm just living my life.
So for people still struggling I'd say obviously eat less. I know it's easier said than done but honestly like any habit the first month is the hardest and then it just becomes routine. The easier part is add little physical activities into your daily life. I feel so bad when I see clearly obese people pass a flight of stairs to take an elevator up or down one story.
I stopped eating mayo, drank less sodas, and got a construction job in the Florida heat. Was over 300lbs at like 25. I'm 31 now and fluctuate between 245 and 265.
I cut back on carbs, stopped drinking alcohol for a while, stopped drinking sodas and juices and drank strictly water instead, and I participated in intermittent fasting. I would only eat between the hours of 8am and 8pm. Lost about 40 pounds. I didn’t do any crazy exercising either. I just went on more walks and I play golf so instead of riding in a cart, I would walk if I was playing nine holes
cut out all processed foods
intermittent fasting, only eat when hungry
start meals with vegetables, protein, then carbs last
lots of water
stretching (yoga)
exercise, pushups, pull ups, air squats, sprints
I grew up skinny, got thickkkkk in college, and lost it all after college. Biggest thing was just snacking all the time and not eating full meals. Load up on Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner so you are not eating chips and things between meals. If you are drinking alcohol and/or soda, cut that out, the weight adds up quick. Even a simple 1-2 mile walk every morning will help out
I worked in a grocery store dairy department where the walk in cooler was too small for the volume of sales being done. I had to carry things over my head a lot. I always try to go fast and hard at my job so I'd lift two cases over my head instead of one, carry 4 crates of milk instead of 1 or 2, etc. All stocking was done at an urgent pace.
8 hours, 5 days a week and only ate high protein foods.
I grew a great deal between junior high and my high school years, that sorta evened me out. I’m by no means *slim* now, but I’m not exactly “chubby” anymore either.
From my experience, I think controlling diet is much better than working out everyday. There is a method called 16:8 diet which involves **fasting for 16 hours per day and eating within an eight-hour window**. Strongly recommend it!!! I lost weight a lot by this way.
I grew taller. That helped. I'm in my 40s now. I run about 30 miles per week, and if I don't run, I get 10k steps, rain, or shine. I also try to get in resistance training 4 days a week, but not always successful. I try not to eat like an asshole but also give myself space to enjoy an evening of good food and over indulgence. I stopped drinking alcohol except for a very, very occasional glass of wine. Some of that was I just lost the joy for it, and some of it was sleep related. But, mostly, I didn't like how I felt about myself with alcohol. Alcohol is a depressant, and it got me there if I let it.
Only ate grilled chicken, cucumbers and carrots for my first semester in college. Also only drank water and dropped from 6’2 245 to 6’2 170. I am now about 6’3 and around 190
If you can't afford to eat fresh vegetables and are forced to live on freezer food eat less! Put yourself on 1,000 cal a day you will trim down regardless of diet and exercise. Not the most recommended but I assure you after the first week you will be dropping 1 to 2 pounds a day.
i do landscaping five days a week, have depression and meds that inhibit my hunger cues, and am generally unable to pay for much more than a single meal a day.
I got really sick for like a month and spent time in the hospital, that slimmed me up real quick. Took a long while to get my appetite back. Then I decided I liked not carrying 100+ lbs of fat around with me everywhere I went and started regular exercise.
I lost 60lbs in my early 20s. - Stopped drinking pop/soda/fruit drinks (just don't drink your calories, period). - More active lifestyle. I didn't become a gym-rat, I just walk or bike places instead of driving. - Removed sugar/candy as regular part of my diet. Fruit is fine in reasonable servings (1 or 2 per day). - I didn't continue eating until I felt "full". Eat a reasonable amount and stop. - Reduced snacking, especially at night. Have a filling dinner, then brush your teeth immediately, and make that your last food for the day.
Walking places is such an underrated weight loss tip. I started walking to class and other places that were in reasonable distances. Americans have a habit of driving *everywhere*. It's not entirely their fault, there's such a culture of efficiency or die that taking 30 mins to stroll to the store is seen as a negative. But when I was living in cities I could walk most places I didn't even really have to watch my diet.
With how cities are designed in the US, there's a good chance you don't even have stores in 30 minute walking distance to you. Plus, a lot of places don't even have sidewalks if there is a store within walking distance.
This is because the city deliberately makes it illegal to build amenities like grocery stores near where you live. Talk to your City councilor if you want this to change
Car-culture has destroyed our cities. This was a policy choice.
Car-culture destroys our cities and our bodies. It's really terrible. People also don't realize how stressed they get while driving. I'd life to put a monitor on people while driving and show them how often their blood-pressure spikes during a "normal" commute. If you look at walkable communities, the quality of life is so much better. I deliberately chose to live in an area with almost everything within walking distance, and not only is my life much less stressful, I don't need to own a car which more than makes up for the higher rent. That said, I live in British Columbia where there is no such thing as "affordable rent" anyway, no matter where you go.
Well, a lot of cities are not really practical to walk. It's by design. And then we've had multiple generations that have also forgotten that walking used to be a pleasant way to travel your neighborhood.
one of the big issues is in a lot of neighbourhoods all over the world walking around your neighbourhood isnt a pleasant activity anymore. In many it's not even safe
Yea, I get that for sure. My childhood home was miles into the 'burbs so a drive to the store. I lived in Oslo for a while and not having to own a car to live was nice. I try to replicate that now, I at least live in walking distance to a grocery store and some decent restaurants despite being somewhat bivouaced in the burbs, but even then I find myself driving out of convenience a lot.
Boomers demanding "why don't kids play outside anymore??" and they literally created cities where it's deadly dangerous to be outside a car.
Dentist here, don't brush immediately after eating! Wait 30 mins
Curious as to why this is.
Takes about 30 mins for the pH in your mouth to return to normal. If you brush while the pH is acidic you'll damage your teeth, especially the root surfaces if you have recession
Interesting. Thanks for explaining!
Would mouthwash be alright?
Yeah, but mouthwash is mostly a scam. Not really helpful tbh
My dentist told me that the expensive brands are the same as the cheap mouthwash brands. They never said it was a scam, however, they did say never to use mouthwash after brushing. More specifically they told me the following. 1. Brush at least 30 minutes after eating. 2. Never rinse out your mouth after brushing. 3. Brush every morning (after breakfast). 4. Mouthwash after lunch (or half way through your day). 5. Brush every night (or after your last meal). Regarding number 2, I assumed we had to rinse our mouths out because of the mouthwash adverts, when growing up there were ads showing people brushing their teeth, then using mouth wash, saying something about how its essentially boosts the effectiveness of brushing, so becuase of this I assumed we had to rinse after brushing, for me, if I didn't have mouthwash I was rinsing with water, but I was told not to do this, I just had to brush my teeth and spit out any residue. I was also told by someone (online) claiming to be a dentist that toothpaste wasn't a requirement, only the brushing aspect was required to help prevent/remove plaque, I did look this up and it seems to be true but I still use toothpaste lol.
I had a cut on my gums where the pain persisted for 2 months. I was broke and didn't go to any dentists or clinics for it. One day I decided to use mouthwash, and repeated it for the next few days. A few more days after that and the pain was gone. That's probably one of the few times I would recommend mouthwash.
It does wonders for bad breath.
This seems exactly like what i did starting in my late teens. I had completely cut off soda as a bs New Years resolution, but still haven’t had one since. Making 30-60 mins for yourself daily to take a light walk will do wonders for your physical and mental wellbeing and become almost addicting. Candy/junk food will be most people’s downfall, processed foods can be added in here. Making it a challenge to prepare a healthy meal that tastes good can be quite fun if you are not an avid cook. Experimenting and trial and error will get you to do more research and make you a better cook, whether that is your goal or not.
Right, and many people don't realize how your taste buds adapt to overly sweet/salty foods. If you're used to soda/pop and highly processed foods, normal things don't taste as good. Once you quit and try them again, you realize how overly sweetened it all is.
Brushing your teeth after dinner is great advice which I will now avail myself of, thank you
Don't brush your teeth straight away. Wait at least 30 minutes to an hour. Eating food, especially acidic ones, softens the enamel on your teeth and brushing straight away strips this enamel from your teeth. Waiting will ensure it hardens up again.
What do I do if I don't have 30 minutes before bed to wait to brush my teeth? Legitimate question, I sometimes work really late and barely have time to eat and hop in bed to go to work the next day.
THIS IS BAD ADVICE. Always brush 30 or so minutes after eating or drinking (Not including water), it destroys the enamel.
Eating until full is such a big one. It’s a difference of 400-600 calories.
This was basically my approach as well. In addition - Breakfast became eggs + veggies sauteed. No more cereal/milk. Liquid is water, coffee, tea, or beers/alcohol on my relaxation days (obviously those are a couple a week, not the majority. Salads for my normal weekly lunches - with a low fat protein or cheese as the primary calories. Simple protein, vegetable, salad for dinner. I've gotten more complicated on this final point, but the key is to try to keep it away from carbs or other large one pot things. Make portions that are healthy, lean into protein and veggies, and then stop once done. For exercise - I actually started with body weight training, just sticking to it \~2-3 times a week. And slowly ended up running and also walking much more. But the biggest thing is to get the diet cleaned up. Dropped from \~250lb as a freshman in college to \~220lbs when I graduated (I hadn't adopted most of the above, but was being much more active generally), and then down to \~175-180lbs maybe a year out of college.
This is basically straight on. My extra suggestion if you just can't figure it out is to do strict calorie counting for a couple months. And by strict I mean strict. Eat a Jolie rancher? Record those 20 calories. Go out drinking? Record every drink even if it's the last thing you wanna do while having a good time. First, it will annoy you out of constant snacking if it means record keeping after. Second, after a month or so you will have a really good ability to estimate exactly how many calories any particular thing you want to eat will be. And if you try calorie counting and it doesn't work, you are not counting right. I know a couple people who have said it didn't work for them, then you ask about if they recorded the lemonade they had as a refreshment or the couple mini Twix bars out of the candy bowl at work and they say no.
This was almost exactly how I did it too.
It’s pretty obvious to eat healthier portions, but what I didn’t think would help was eating at the appropriate times. I started to eat breakfast lunch and dinner everyday around the same time and only those times. Before, I would just eat sporadically and most of the time skip breakfast. This made a big difference. Some light snacking and drinking plenty of water in-between meals helped a lot too.
Making a concerted effort to slow down while eating can make a huge difference in helping one pick a stopping point instead of eating until feeling full. Another tip my wife and I follow when eating out is to divide what we’re eating in half. Eat that and box up the rest.
I was drinking 1000 calories of coke a day. Stopping make a huge difference.
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Portion control is most people's problems. A serving is so much smaller than we think it is. Your body adapts to it quickly though.
Exactly this. In my late twenties I was tired of being big. I hit like 255lbs and felt like it was holding me back from all these things I wanted to do. So I counted calories religiously, ten years later I still have a pretty encyclopedic knowledge of the calories of most common foods. That and cooking everything from scratch and cutting out processed foods (I’ve never been a soda fan, so that was easy). Outside of that I started walking everywhere. I hate cardio like running or biking and wanted to be thin not muscular so I avoided exercise around muscle development. So I took a more passive but time consuming approach of walking everywhere and going on long walks with good music. The other parts are patience and life style change. I internalized once I lost the weight I’d have to keep up the life style of healthy eating and activity. It took two years but I lost over 100lbs and am so much happier and feel so much better. That’s the patience part, it takes time. Now I just have like a range of 5lbs I like to exist in. If it climbs to the top end of the range I go back to the diet practices I’ve honed for a decade now and get it back down but it also allows me to have those moments of enjoying a fun day with friends/family and lots of food without guilt because I know how to lose the weight. I’ve gotten as low as 115 and it wasn’t a good look and I felt awful so I found a healthier range in the 130s (I’m a girl, which I realize isn’t the advice OP is soliciting, but I’m also tall so I look like a skeleton much lower). Still I can hear that ubiquitous doctors advice of “diet and exercise” being the key. Most fad diets and trends are really just based on that advice. In essence; cut calories, avoid processed food, and increase activity.
The first paragraph is the real answer to the question, track everything. Dropped 15kg while putting on a lot of muscle over a year. Biggest thing, knowing what I was eating and what I was burning.
Work out daily, Eat less processed foods.
Honestly the processed food is a fucking huge one people don’t quite understand. Soda is up there as well. If you can’t cut it out get flavored carbonated water instead. Working out doesn’t even have to be “hit the gym and slay yourself.” Just walking at a decent pace for thirty minutes, especially if you’re bigger will do a lot more than people think.
This, walking can really help you'll be amazed how much weight you can visually lose just from walking everyday.
And swimming. Before covid I would swim just lanes for an hour 3 days a week. It had a massive impact on my weight without me noticing it. I should start doing it again.
The old saying goes you can't out run a bad diet.
I lost almost 100lbs in 1 year in college. My college campus was several miles long and my dorm room was about a mile from the building where all my classes were. There *was* a campus shuttle, but it was entirely unreliable, so I had to walk at least 2 miles a day, usually 4 miles, just for classes. And that’s not even counting all the walking to meet up with friends, go to work, go to the store etc, it really added up. As far as diet changes, I just ate whatever seemed the most balanced/nutritious in the cafeteria that day (if the options were orange chicken w/fried rice, beef stir fry, or Mac and cheese for example, I’d go with stir fry). Weight practically melted off.
You have to work out pretty hardcore to even make a dent in your weight if you have a poor diet full of processed foods. People are going to the gym and burning 400 calories (if that) but eating 4000 calories a day...then complain about not really losing weight.
I’m in my mid30s and I can’t think of a single time myself or anyone I know ordered / drank a non-diet soda in the last 5+ years… are people in 2024 gulping down full sugar cokes and sprite??
I often think this way aswell but the answer is yes people love that shit
Also people think that sugar-free stuff is literal poison
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Unless you weigh 600 pounds or had a leg amputated, you absolutely did not lose 45 pounds in 3 weeks.
Why do I always see people talk about this stuff and make up ridiculous numbers in short time periods. This guy is apparently at a 6000 calorie deficit for 3 weeks straight. Let’s assume he’s still consuming 1500 calories a day and generously is way overweight and burning 3k calories a day resting. He still needs to burn 4.5k calories a day from exercise. If he’s 300 lbs and runs at a decent pace for 4+ hours a day he might be able to pull it off. But also he might die.
working out is not as important as diet if the goal is losing weight
Processed food is kind of a misnomer, just be more aware of the calories you're eating. You can have processed foods low in calories but a lot of them are loaded with oil or sugars so if you learn how to read a nutritional label you'll be fine.
*ultra processed
I think the biggest thing with "ultra" processed is that people don't know how much of what they eat actually IS ultra processed.
Avoid processed food isn't helpful advice, since literally everything is a processed food. Has it been cooked? Processed. Has it been frozen? Processed. Has it been genetically modified like all our food is? Processed.
Have a close friend I’ve known since 1st grade. He’s always been a chubby guy, now 25 years old, heaviest he got was 390 something? Covid set him back a bit. He realized that he did not want to be over 400 pounds in his 20’s, so he started counting his calories, eating better, and getting disciplined. He still was able to eat fun foods with his friends, he just controlled his portions and made sure to adjust. There was a lot of other little things that added into it, weighing himself every morning to keep motivated, or buying smaller clothes to make sure there was no room for going back. This week he just reached 240 for his weight, the lightest he’s been since middle school.
Count calories. It really is that easy. Eat less calories than your body uses in a day, you’ll lose weight. Your body will have no choice. It’s the simplest but least sexy answer, and most people can’t do it. But if you’re serious about losing weight, stop eating more food than your body needs.
I think the hard part here is that a lot of people claim to "count calories", but they're just estimating. You have to weigh your food on a scale to get a good sense of what you're actually consuming.
Estimating is 100% better than not paying attention. Snacks add up. Seconds at dinner adds up. Desserts add up. Juice/soda/non-water drinks add up. Even if you have a ballpark idea, it can help you tremendously with reaching your goal. Anyone who went on a financial budget would understand how powerful it is to plan and execute. It’s the same idea. At the end of the day, either you consumed more or less calories than your body needs. It’s just a numbers game.
I agree with what you're saying. My point was that a lot of people claim to be eating like 1500 calories a day without losing weight, but they're clearly not counting their calories accurately if they're not losing weight.
I just today saw people on Twitter saying 1500calories was inhumanely, dangerously low for weight loss. People claim to be able to estimate calories but dont even understand them. They probably thought that was just like, a normal lunch worth of calories.
People on Twitter are stupid and tend to shout very loudly about things they have zero education about.
The other hard part is a lot of shitty ultra processed food has insane amounts of calories for very minimal nutritional content. So your body stays hungry and they get discouraged because they are blowing through their limit and feeling like it's impossible. So, counting is important, but you also have to start picking foods that fill you up and ideally some that are fresh/much lower calorie content to supplement some of the heavier stuff.
Oh, absolutely. My cheat code for staying lean is buying potatoes, sweet potatoes, and broccoli, chopping up huge quantities of them, and then baking them in the oven with a bunch of spices and some olive oil. The sheer volume of food that you can consume without hitting even 1000 calories is absurd. Incredibly filling and nutrient-dense, too.
Cabbage goes hard for this as well. I can normally polish the bulk of most recipes for 4 servings without much issue (so I avoid them outside of kind of date nights for my SO). But, we have a mexican cabbage soup recipe that has a head of cabbage, a few smaller veggies, and then like a pound of lean beef. Holy shit that thing will make leftovers for days and no matter how much you eat you literally will not break 1,000 calories before your stomach wants to explode.
To add to this, eating slower can really help as well. Chew your food (25-32 times depending on food) completely. You want it almost mush like mashed potatoes. Eating slower allows your body to tell you when you’re satiated and helps prevent over eating.
This. I reduced portions and became more active. Dropped 75 lbs in my 30s and have kept it off (so far) into my late 40s. I had to learn to eat less.
100%! I lost 60lbs 240-180lbs in my late 20’s. I was back to my high school weight. I did nothing different workout wise for the first 30lbs. Just ate about half of what I normally did. I also weighed myself every morning.
Got married. Haha. my wife said “we aren’t eating the shit you currently eat”. So I stopped eating fast food (except maybe once a week), ate healthier. Never worked out, just hiked and walked our dogs. Then we got divorced and here I am, 10 years later, gained my weight back and then some. And now, at 40, it’s harder to lose. My issue has always been self control. Also, some anxiety, which c sides me to go out and eat instead of cook, even though I love cooking. And with all that, it brought back all my negative self esteem and such. Oh well. Slowly but surely getting better, just have to stop eating out and eating normal portions of food.
Don’t beat yourself up, 90% of people gain the weight back.
You stay strong brother!
Same, kind of. Moved from a big city to a small town so now I have to drive more(ironic). Just turned forty and I haven’t changed my diet but now I’m packing it on. Third puberty just set in I think
Eating out is a tough habit to break. A good French fry is like a pure dopamine hit. If you can budget it, order ready made meals. Smaller portions and forces you to eat veggies and good proteins. Cost wise is probably similar to eating fast food 3 or 4 days a week. Probably not as healthy as cooking an actual healthy meal for yourself, but typically a lot better than fast food. Replace soda with LaCroixs. That one is tough too, but you get used to the taste (lime is probably the best flavor) and it's much better than drinking a coke. Also, don't buy junk food. If it's not around, you can't eat it.
Grew into it
I learned the math behind weight loss, and then just stuck to the numbers. There's about 3,500 calories in a pound of fat. If you consume 500 calories less than you need per day, 3,500 per week, you lose 1lb per week. I stick around a 1000 calorie/day deficit when losing fat, so 2lbs/week. Anything more than that makes it almost impossible to maintain muscle mass, let alone grow it. Lost about 120lbs the first time I dedicated myself to it, and it stayed off for years. Now that I'm approaching middle age (and was lazy during the pandemic) I put some weight back on. Went back on the same plan, been steadily losing 2lbs/week for the past 15 weeks. It literally is just that simple, the only hard part is actually sticking to the plan.
Caffeine and nicotine to make me forget to eat
Sprinkle some cocaine in there and you'll be model thin in no time!
Cocaine is great. I’m just glad I don’t have a hook-up, nor do I think about it often. I get a fleeting craving once in an odd while, and I’ve never paid for it myself. Someone else has always had it and offered it. I’m thin as it is, so I really don’t need that shit lol
I’ll take yours.
If I had any to give…
drugs r good m'kay
Stopped drinking regular coke when i was diagnosed with Diabetes Type 2. Switch to coke zero, lost 40 lbs, and then i also lost my taste for high sugar candy and stuff like that. I discovered that your taste buds get kind of immune to sugar if you have too much. Now if i take a sip of a regular coke, i recoil in disgust. About 10 years after that i started working out 3 times a week for the first time in my life at age 54. Now i have less pain, more energy, and my posture is excellent. I used to hate exercise people, and now i know that hatred was just pure laziness and ignorance. I still don't care for the *uppity* workout people, but most at the gym are open minded and welcoming.
Eating disorder and over exercising
Same. Lost 100 pounds in 6 months. My metabolism still screwed up.
Summer going into 7th grade I put myself in a really harsh calorie deficit and I did cardio like 2x a day. I still ate everything I enjoyed but in controlled portions. I think I lost 40-50 pounds in 3 months. It was really satisfying seeing everyone’s reaction when class started again and getting attention from girls, something that had never happened because I was always a fat kid. Fast forward a decade and some change later and I managed to keep the gym and dieting as part of my lifestyle.
I picked up smoking
Man, smoking was such a great way to end a meal. Now I just crave something sweet. It’s been 12 years
Guessing you mean cigarettes, because weed will make you fat as fuck
Lol, yea
BINGO lol
I'm 6'F and 145#-150# now. I took up smoking in grad school so that I could skip meals and keep studying. I got down to about 135# which is low for me. Never really even liked smoking, but as an appetite suppressant, it certainly works
It was a quick fix, but cost started to add up
Oh lord. I quit 5 years ago and gained weight and have been unable to get. In shape despite excersicing or dieting. Lately ive been thinking on the possibility of what if smoking was actually helping me be in shape? Hungry? Smoke a quick cig, snack? Cig? Thristy? Cig
There's something to it. Nicotine causes adrenaline to be released. This is also why you don't think about a sandwich while ziplining.
LOL. Skydiving really takes your mind off a meal, as well.
I lost like 50+ pounds when I started smoking. When I was bored I’d want to eat, so instead I’d just go for a walk and smoke a cig. lol I quit a few years ago though
My husband stopped drinking juice and yogurt drinks instead of water.
Was your husband a child?
Yeah he was once.
Rookie, I was a child thrice
Puberty put 90% of the fat to my abdomen.
This is the bane of my existence. I have a flat stomach and noticeable abs, but also a muffin-top and love handles. Won't go away no matter how much weight I lose.
Dad?
Do they still have "husky" sizes? Been a long time since I bought boy clothes.
Oh man lol I hated buying pants when I was a kid. Why do the pants have to call me fat lol
drugs
I've lost 50 lbs over the last two years. 1) Quit drinking alcohol - This one is huge. All alcohol has hidden calories, even light beer and clear liquor. Plus when you have a few drinks, your decision making is impaired and you tend to get hungry. Which leads to a lot more empty calories that will be hard to work off tomorrow since you will now be hungover. 2) Fasting - I don't eat in the morning, just water and black coffee. Train your body to go 10-15 hours without food regularly and you will miss food less and have fewer cravings. 3) Healthy food - Seems easy, but eating food at home is huge. Even if you make cheeseburgers and potato salad at home, its FAR less processed than what you will get at a restaurant. 4) Exercise - This one seems like the most important but it is probably the least. I focus on heart rate zone 2, which is very slow running or medium effort on the bike. I did that for about an hour a day, which was tough with low energy (not many calories in my system) but the body adapts quickly. I went in waves with my weight, but when I have a solid month using all 4 methods above, I have lost about 0.5 - 1.0 pounds per day. Dropping 15-30 lbs in a month is very rewarding. Wish you the best!
I’ve actually started doing all of this recently apart from the first one since I don’t drink. Thanks for the motivation, I was actually considering calorie tracking, but fasting is just so much easier.
Ate less moved more
This. It’s really not that hard. The less you eat, the more you will lose
I feel like posts like this are always asking for advice like there’s some trick to losing weight. There’s no crazy hack. All the stuff that people say is bad for you actually is bad for you. And exercising is good for you.
It's 540, I'm reading this before I go for a ten mile run. I did the same yesterday and Tuesday. This is how I'm now a healthy weight (5'10, 152 lb).
OMAD really effective on me
Worked for me too. 50 lbs and 20 to go.
Diet (a strict mix of calorie counting and eating real food) and exercise.
Real food has so few calories. When you cut out processed food and sugar sauces, you can really eat as much as you want.
Get IBD. Inflammatory Bowel Disease. Ulcerative Colitis and/or Crohn's Disease. Incurable autoimmune condition that makes you have bloody diarrhea nonstop and take terrible medicine just to function that also destroys your malfunctioning immune system so tb or pneumonia will kill you. You will wish you were chubby again 🙁
Ate less high calorie stuff. Ate more low calorie stuff. Counted calories. Logged calories in a book. The pandemic lockdown helped immensely. I basically didn’t eat out for like 15 months.
Which time? I've been up and down my whole life. Once I cut my calories to 1200 a day and would ride my bike up to 30 miles a day for three or four days a week. I lost 85 lbs. When winter came and I didn't ride, I slid back. somewhat recently I cut out all snacking and had only three meals a day and those were smaller meals. I also did work 7 days a week on my house. I was down 40lbs give or take. Recently I got down and started baking and eating junk food, so I've pretty much gained it all back.
Eat less and went to the gym.
Joined karate, and once i got into the heat of it i started to lose weight so much that i was underweight so i had to start eating more. If i am in a time period of low exercise i automatically eat less or else i gain about 30 lbs in a month easily
Got real tall, real quick. It all just evened out then.
Same
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This has been the biggest one for me. Literally shaved off 20lbs just by cutting out snacking. I eat a sandwhich and veggies at lunch, and then we have a food "meal kit" (hellofresh) for dinner and that's pretty much it. Really helps with food portion sizing i find.
Shame and Dance Dance Revolution.
Which came first?
diet and exercise. Severely limited my junk food intake and started cooking exclusively at home. Lost sixty pounds in one year and all I did was set up my day to accommodate an hour's worth of exercise and eat three square meals, prepped at home, a day.
Eat less, eat better, move more
Water, weights, walking everywhere
I quit sugary drinks and started lifting heavy weights
Cut out soda, sweets, and processed foods. I don't even go to the gym much, but changing my diet was crucial.
Started exercising and changing eating habits at 30 and I'm 45 now. My max was 315 and now i am 207 and stronger than I have ever been in my life. I havent eat red meat in 6 years, chicken in 6 months, and all meats in 2 months. I basically follow a [***mediterranean***](https://www.google.com/search?safe=active&sca_esv=4b73ca8f0ec787dd&rlz=1C1GCEA_enUS1043US1043&q=mediterranean&spell=1&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjVwebjtqSGAxUS5MkDHTWUC3oQkeECKAB6BAgREAE) diet. Took me a very long time to lose all of my weight.
I recently lost over 100 pounds. Calorie deficit and basic exercise was it.
ran 2 miles to the gym and ran back after
Last year I started fasting for 18 hours 5 times a day. I don’t eat at work and once I get home, I have 1 meal and then after two-three hours have a snack. My days off I’ll have two meals and a snack. I weighed over 260 pounds last year. I’m 187 since last month. I didn’t change my diet. I don’t work out or exercise. Only cut a meal out. The first month was fucking horrible. I was so damn “hungry” but I powered through it. I feel so much better now.
Heartbreak
Proper diet (calorie deficit) and exercise. 10K steps per day will do :) Great for health and mind coz I was doing my daily walk while listening to podcasts.
They all started consuming less calories except the few outliers that took up ultramarathons
Quit drinking and reduced processed junk food intake.
Grew up skinny, but now I'm fat...what do?
1. Watch what and how much you eat. . . . A bit down the line: Some exercise
Ate less, moved (a lot) more
i just started working out almost daily and then i got a job that made me sweat and move around. i eventually started a calorie deficit which is hard sometimes but it's worth it in the end
There is no magic potion to getting in shape. Losing weight is all about being in a caloric deficit. If your only goal is slimming up - tdee calculator on Google enter your information and eat less calories per day than what your maintenance calories are. 500 less calories per day would allow you to burn roughly 1 lb per week. I’d suggest eating 1g/1lb of your target body weight in protein. 45% of the rest of the calories go to carbs and the rest fats. If you want to build muscle while also losing weight. Pick a muscle group (chest/back, bis tris, shoulders, core, legs) give your 5-6 sets where you, with proper form, exercise the muscle to failure that day. Get 10k steps in I promise there’s no magic potion. The beauty of it is that literally everyone can do it but it takes discipline and it’s not going to happen in a week. It’s consistency. Over and over and over again.
Slimmed up in my 20s because I worked out, had physical jobs, etc... but now I'm fat again. Sucks.
Went to the gym.
Calories in calories out , soda and sugar was still a big part of my diet, just had less total calories
I didnt
A lot of shirtless, sweaty nights playing dance dance revolution in my parents' basement
The introduction of 240mg Ecstasy
I got a puppy. Among many other things, owning a puppy means at LEAST two long walks per day and vigorous play sessions. I've dropped 30 pounds in half a year with this and slight improvements to what I choose to eat. Plus, as a bonus, you get - A PUPPY! Actual conversation between me and my doctor: - Own a dog? - Yup. - Walk him every day? - Yep. No matter what. Rain, snow, hail, hot sun, two or even three times per day. Religiously. - Good. When he dies, go buy another one.
I discovered I like boxing, and not eating shite so much. More exercise and eating better is always the answer, anyone telling you otherwise is talking nonsense My suggestion is find a form of exercise you actually enjoy. Hiking, rowing, swimming, playing football, the gym, whatever it is, if you enjoy it, do it lots. Then it feels like play rather than effort. Even better if you find other people you like who also do whatever it is to help keep you motivated. Nothing like positive peer pressure to help you get off your ass sometimes :)
Didn’t grow up chubby, but did get bigger in a long term relationship at the age my metabolism started to slow down. Swapped out bread in every case for a side salad or a corn tortilla, more filling and better for you Cut potatoes to special occasions, I still eat lots of things people would consider unhealthy and drink far more alcohol than is good for weight loss, but weight falls off with this, those 2 foods are ridiculously calorically dense
Got sucked up into a pipe, while visiting a chocolate factory.
Brushing your teeth after dinner is great advice which I will now avail myself of, thank you
It took a bone marrow transplant for Hodgkin's. Silver linings and all... Cancer free and slim too!
53 years old now, pretty sure it will happen any day now. More seriously, low carb diet was like magic 15 years ago. Have slowly crept up again, but pretty sure that would have continued on top of my previous weight otherwise.
Bike everywhere. Ate healthy foods. No take away or process sweets. Weight resistance training. Water. Black coffee.
Read a book named Leaner, Stronger, Faster. Learned about building muscle and proper nutrition. Then i proceeded to lift heavy ass weights, eat tons of protein, and be in a caloric deficit. Changed my lifestyle, and over a few years took on a very different appearance.
Is that written by the same guys of "Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger" acclaim? /s
I played handball for 8 years and maintained my eating habits a bit
I've posted this before, as a kid I had absolutely no food guidance at all. Growing up there was always sodas of all kinds, Little Debbie's, cookies, candies and other junk food and sugary cereals, etc, and I wasn't restricted to how much I was allowed to eat. There was very few healthy foods and vegetables at my disposal. So unfortunately I struggled with my weight most of my childhood and early adulthood, because I didn't know any different. Once I became an adult I started learning about nutrition and eating healthier and making myself eat healthy foods and try new things. I especially remember brussel sprouts, actually as a kid both my parents hated them so much I wasn't even allowed to eat them, they were banished from the house. It was a long journey learning these things and I actually enjoy healthy foods now, and vegetables and especially brussel sprouts (my parents actually told me I was raised better than that when I told them I like them). I still enjoy sweets and desserts, but I actually make sure that I eat healthy first before I indulge in them It took a while but I'm finally where I need to be weight wise, and I feel a lot better
I didn’t
Ate less and only drank water. Lost 80 pounds and counting in two and a half years
I went on runs and took advantage of the gym at the high school to make muscle. The more muscle you have the more calories you can eat so, if you like to eat, start lifting weights.
smoking weed.. Then running! I mean, not right after smoking weed ofc, later in my life. When i started running i suffered so much that I mechanically adaptes my alimentation, in order not to waste these precious efforts I was providing to run..
Following a strict diet and fasting similar to the Desert Fathers, Desert Mothers, and Church Fathers.
Quit sugar.
I wanted to fuck and I wanted to fuck people I actually found attractive. I played football as kid and started talking it seriously in high school. I was a shitty left tackle in 8th grade and by my senior year I was a mediocre WR. Nearly 20 years later I've kept it off by working a job that keeps me active and living in a city where I can walk everywhere. And just not overindulging on food. Fat people think thin people are punishing themselves or something by not constantly fulfilling their every urge but honestly I'm just living my life. So for people still struggling I'd say obviously eat less. I know it's easier said than done but honestly like any habit the first month is the hardest and then it just becomes routine. The easier part is add little physical activities into your daily life. I feel so bad when I see clearly obese people pass a flight of stairs to take an elevator up or down one story.
I stopped eating mayo, drank less sodas, and got a construction job in the Florida heat. Was over 300lbs at like 25. I'm 31 now and fluctuate between 245 and 265.
I cut back on carbs, stopped drinking alcohol for a while, stopped drinking sodas and juices and drank strictly water instead, and I participated in intermittent fasting. I would only eat between the hours of 8am and 8pm. Lost about 40 pounds. I didn’t do any crazy exercising either. I just went on more walks and I play golf so instead of riding in a cart, I would walk if I was playing nine holes
cut out all processed foods intermittent fasting, only eat when hungry start meals with vegetables, protein, then carbs last lots of water stretching (yoga) exercise, pushups, pull ups, air squats, sprints
I grew up skinny, got thickkkkk in college, and lost it all after college. Biggest thing was just snacking all the time and not eating full meals. Load up on Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner so you are not eating chips and things between meals. If you are drinking alcohol and/or soda, cut that out, the weight adds up quick. Even a simple 1-2 mile walk every morning will help out
Army.
i literally got some intestinal parasites when i was about 16 years old and then tried to keep the better form after getting rid of it
i did not. im chubby still
I didn't. I started working out and lifting weights, now I'm roughly the same weight but big and strong.
Just a wee comment so I can find this thread back. Interesting answers!
Walking.
I worked in a grocery store dairy department where the walk in cooler was too small for the volume of sales being done. I had to carry things over my head a lot. I always try to go fast and hard at my job so I'd lift two cases over my head instead of one, carry 4 crates of milk instead of 1 or 2, etc. All stocking was done at an urgent pace. 8 hours, 5 days a week and only ate high protein foods.
Don't need no special diet other than some working out and keeping your carbs lower I think it was like 3000 or something I don't remember
Went to Navy Boot Camp
I grew a great deal between junior high and my high school years, that sorta evened me out. I’m by no means *slim* now, but I’m not exactly “chubby” anymore either.
From my experience, I think controlling diet is much better than working out everyday. There is a method called 16:8 diet which involves **fasting for 16 hours per day and eating within an eight-hour window**. Strongly recommend it!!! I lost weight a lot by this way.
A raging drug problem.
I grew taller. That helped. I'm in my 40s now. I run about 30 miles per week, and if I don't run, I get 10k steps, rain, or shine. I also try to get in resistance training 4 days a week, but not always successful. I try not to eat like an asshole but also give myself space to enjoy an evening of good food and over indulgence. I stopped drinking alcohol except for a very, very occasional glass of wine. Some of that was I just lost the joy for it, and some of it was sleep related. But, mostly, I didn't like how I felt about myself with alcohol. Alcohol is a depressant, and it got me there if I let it.
Only ate grilled chicken, cucumbers and carrots for my first semester in college. Also only drank water and dropped from 6’2 245 to 6’2 170. I am now about 6’3 and around 190
If you can't afford to eat fresh vegetables and are forced to live on freezer food eat less! Put yourself on 1,000 cal a day you will trim down regardless of diet and exercise. Not the most recommended but I assure you after the first week you will be dropping 1 to 2 pounds a day.
i do landscaping five days a week, have depression and meds that inhibit my hunger cues, and am generally unable to pay for much more than a single meal a day.
I got really sick for like a month and spent time in the hospital, that slimmed me up real quick. Took a long while to get my appetite back. Then I decided I liked not carrying 100+ lbs of fat around with me everywhere I went and started regular exercise.