Successful long-term weight loss people: What SMALL change did you make that made a big difference?

[Anonymous]

Intermittent fasting. It doesn't seem like a big change anymore, but my weight has stabilized and I have been a size 4 for a few years now...and before making this change I was anywhere between 4-14 since puberty. Good luck OP!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Stop snacking.

This! You can be pretty liberal with what you eat at meals as long as you aren’t scarfing restaurant food and portions. 3 normal sized meals of various nutritious food groups, no snacks in between. Including the very hard to resist after dinner late night snacks! Drink herbal tea

[Anonymous]

All the posts here have a consistent theme. Be intentional about your intake. Drop liquid calories. Start with water. Do real exercise and strength training to help change body composition. These are all small changes that add up over time. Once you get to a healthy equilibrium you won’t enjoy not doing it for more than a few days.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I may get attacked for this, but.....

I don't eat before noon, ever.

You won’t get attacked, but that’s hardly a small change. Intermittent fasting is a big change.

No it's not. Please. For most of your fasting window you're asleep - it's not hard at all. If you can't control yourself until noon (11am in my case), then I don't know what to say.

[Anonymous]

Back when I was 19yrs old and carrying an extra 30lbs more than I wanted (now 56), I was traveling through Italy and France and noticed a few things that I decided to implement once I got back to the states. They were actually really easy to implement, but the changes were significant and long lasting.

1) Eat really slowly, slower than you would think. when I was in Italy I noticed how everyone would just linger at the table. it would take forever just to finish their "normal sized" bowl of pasta, or small steak and salad. And often they wouldn't finish because they realized they were full. This brings me to #2.

2) STOP eating when you're no longer hungry, way before you get that full, stuffed feeling.

These two changes, which are now just part of me and how I eat, helped me shed 30+lbs although the weight loss was slow (and steady). It took a full year. I have yet to gain any of it back. And I have been easily able to maintain my weight without dieting just by doing these two things.

[Anonymous]

I am a slightly overweight binge eater. I actually look normal weight for my age. I have been a binge eater since my later teens, now mid 40s. I can’t stop. I am so desperate. Multiple doctors have not even believed me because they say I don’t look overweight! The only reason is I exercise obsessively, even when injured. It is so embarrassing. I wish I never even told the doctors. Does anyone else have this problem? It is so exhausting and embarrassing. I hate it and I have no self control. I am under so much stress right now it is just out of control.

Sorry not really on topic, but reading all these small changes brings it to the front of my mind.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am a slightly overweight binge eater. I actually look normal weight for my age. I have been a binge eater since my later teens, now mid 40s. I can’t stop. I am so desperate. Multiple doctors have not even believed me because they say I don’t look overweight! The only reason is I exercise obsessively, even when injured. It is so embarrassing. I wish I never even told the doctors. Does anyone else have this problem? It is so exhausting and embarrassing. I hate it and I have no self control. I am under so much stress right now it is just out of control.

Sorry not really on topic, but reading all these small changes brings it to the front of my mind.

Sorry to hear about your struggle PP. Have you ever tried CBT?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I may get attacked for this, but.....

I don't eat before noon, ever.

You won’t get attacked, but that’s hardly a small change. Intermittent fasting is a big change.

No it's not. Please. For most of your fasting window you're asleep - it's not hard at all. If you can't control yourself until noon (11am in my case), then I don't know what to say.

Not everything works for everybody. I could easily tell you intermittent fasting is just masking the real problem of what you are eating. Lots of people out there are doing this fasting because they refuse to stop eating junk. I know a dozen of them. And their metabolic panel is probably also garbage.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am a slightly overweight binge eater. I actually look normal weight for my age. I have been a binge eater since my later teens, now mid 40s. I can’t stop. I am so desperate. Multiple doctors have not even believed me because they say I don’t look overweight! The only reason is I exercise obsessively, even when injured. It is so embarrassing. I wish I never even told the doctors. Does anyone else have this problem? It is so exhausting and embarrassing. I hate it and I have no self control. I am under so much stress right now it is just out of control.

Sorry not really on topic, but reading all these small changes brings it to the front of my mind.

I take vyvanse for this. It helps me daytime but at night when it wears off, I still snack/binge. At least I’m controlled daytime so I’ve lost weight.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yo i WISH someone told me how important strength training is. And should be incorporated as much, if not more, then cardio.

It took me over a year to finally start using weights. And stop being afraid of the strength part of the gym.

Seriously, lift those weights friends. Cardio is great, but you will notice a difference more quickly and noticeably with strength training

YES. I focused on cardio in my 20s and 30s but now in my 40s, I lift heavy weights for much better results!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am a slightly overweight binge eater. I actually look normal weight for my age. I have been a binge eater since my later teens, now mid 40s. I can’t stop. I am so desperate. Multiple doctors have not even believed me because they say I don’t look overweight! The only reason is I exercise obsessively, even when injured. It is so embarrassing. I wish I never even told the doctors. Does anyone else have this problem? It is so exhausting and embarrassing. I hate it and I have no self control. I am under so much stress right now it is just out of control.

Sorry not really on topic, but reading all these small changes brings it to the front of my mind.

Sorry to hear about your struggle PP. Have you ever tried CBT?

Pp, I hate that your doctor isn’t believing you. Agree with the suggestion to talk to a therapist. The over exercising is problematic too. Please take care of yourself. I am cheering for you.

[Anonymous]

I saw a VERY DEPRESSING HBO documentary about weight (I think called the Weight of the Nation).

Here's the fact: If you have been overweight, even if you REACH your goal weight, you will not be able to eat as many calories as someone who was always at that goal weight (assume same gender, height).

You will forever have to eat less calories. They say that for 2 women the same height and weight, the woman who used to be overweight will have to eat 20% less calories to maintain the same weight. And they think this is not temporary. It doesn't go away. Your body forever wants to go back to the old weight.

I was overweight and I feel like this is true. I just have to eat less and do more exercise...forever. I can't ever just be relaxed like a normally thin person. The reason I think formerly fat people think all the time about food is that they literally are hungrier...for good reason!

[Anonymous]

gastric bypass even if you are moderately obese

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:gastric bypass even if you are moderately obese

Surgery is not a small change.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, can you tell us, in excruciating detail, HOW to store these cut up vegetables so they don't get limp or lose their crunch? No detail is too small. Thank you in advance.

Not the OP but I use tupperware fridgesmart containers and they work really really well.