Diet Fatigue

[Daisy-oliviaWentcher]

Has anyone been on diet after diet only for it leave you kind of jaded? I have lost weight, put it on, lost it. Obviously when I get older, it gets a lot harder to lose it and keep it off, but I want to know how people have managed to overcome their disappointments in diets and managed to keep it off for good?

I'd love to hear some success stories.

[d0nnivain]

It can't be about dieting which is all about a scarcity mentality -- what you can't do, what you can't eat etc. 

You need to make live style changes:  better nutrition & more exercise.  It's all about calories in v calories out.  You must expend more calories than you consume.  It helps if they are good for you nutritious calories but you can eat junk & still lose weight as long as you don't eat too much of it.  Portion size is key & American portions are grossly gigantic.  Since we eat with our eyes, it's a problem. 

[Love Yourself First]

I had a personal trainer tell me this once: If your not motivated to lose weight, you are not aware of how people are really looking at you.

First off, you have to figure out your BMR, or the amount of calories your body requires to sustain its current body weight, so you figure out what your BMR is, then you consume that many calories and weigh yourself, see if you gain or lose weight and adjust based on gains or losses; without being aware of your BMR, you are not actually dieting, so when your ready to take weight loss seriously, you can begin there.

The reason why you want your BMR is because ideally you want to lose about 1% of your total body weight per week, anything more than 1% is more than likely going to cause a loss of lean muscle, which takes time to build and is much heavier than fat and will trick you into thinking your losing a ton of fat if your scale watching.

So if I weigh 200 pound, I'm gonna lose about 2 pound a week and that amount will slowly decrease each week, those last little bits of fat will take the longest to shred for this reason.

[Interstellar]

intermittent fasting worked for me, as a result I  find that deprivation works for me too. Find what works for you psychologically.

what worked for me may not work for you.

[Love Yourself First]

24 minutes ago, Interstellar said:

intermittent fasting worked for me, as a result I  find that deprivation works for me too. Find what works for you psychologically.

what worked for me may not work for you.

Managing cravings is something that really isn't talked about all that much which is a shame because... 

For those who don't know, your BMR or Basal Metabolic Rate is set to a certain amount of calories based on your eating habits and it takes about a month of consistent calorie eating to set it... So if you diet for a month, get your BMR fairly low, but then start to have cravings, any calories that climb past your current BMR are basically stored fat, since your BMR is low, a single day of cravings unchecked can set you back weeks if you give in or even if you cheat a bit here and there once your BMR is set.

Rule #1: Do not spike your insulin by eating a ton of carbs all at once and once your insulin is spiked, the cravings hit like a freight train; those who have been on Keto know what I'm talking about. Having a bunch of carbs early in the morning means your gonna be dealing with cravings all day, so try to put off the carb/sugar till days end.

For me, Fiber is #1, you have to eat a ton of Fiber because it's gonna keep you full, as well, you want to have a snack that is going to take a bit of time for you to eat, so your brain can catch up to your stomach and it should have a lot of Fiber, which makes Pop Corn the perfect dieting snack, compare 250 g of Pop Corn to 250 g of pretty much anything, Pop Corn is gonna look like a much bigger portion, especially against like rice or oatmeal. Personally I eat around 70g of Carbs between 2 oatmeal packets in the morning and it won't spike my insulin.

Supplement wise, almost everyone who is planning to be in a calorie deficit should be using Biotin which boosts your metabolism (Biotin deficiency happens when you consume raw eggs, if you consume raw eggs you NEED biotin, it is water soluble so you basically can't overdose on it, body takes what it needs and passes rest) as well as Chromium, which boosts your Glucose Metabolism; Probably doesn't make a huge difference but it'll help. 

Ive been on the fence about Multi Vitamins for awhile now.

Edited July 31, 2021 by Love Yourself First

[Andy_K]

Diets don't work, because once you call it a diet, you view it as a temporary sacrifice designed to achieve a goal. And 95% of people will either give up on it when the goal doesn't come quickly enough, lose all the ground as soon as they stop doing it, or tell themselves they 'failed' as soon as they break a rule and bail out.

Permanent lifestyle change is the only way. You are not on a diet, you are just someone who hardly eats foods with refined sugar in any more (for example). Make small changes you can live with forever, and slowly keep making more of them until you get where you want to be. You don't need any strict rules, and no food needs to be off-limits. Just in moderation.

[OneLov]

Unless you are blessed with genetics, you are likely going to have to make a permanent change to your eating habits to see the results you desire.  If you eat the same way that you did pre-diet, you are going to return to the same state that will necessitate another diet.  The ultimate question is what is your goal and what are you willing to do to achieve said goal?  If you want to look like a bodybuilder but do not want to give up booze or the occasional junk, then you must accept that you are not willing to do what it takes.  There is nothing wrong with that, but adjust your expectations accordingly.

[introverted1]

On 7/30/2021 at 11:12 AM, Love Yourself First said:

I had a personal trainer tell me this once: If your not motivated to lose weight, you are not aware of how people are really looking at you.

First off, you have to figure out your BMR, or the amount of calories your body requires to sustain its current body weight, so you figure out what your BMR is, then you consume that many calories and weigh yourself, see if you gain or lose weight and adjust based on gains or losses; without being aware of your BMR, you are not actually dieting, so when your ready to take weight loss seriously, you can begin there.

You are confusing BMR with TDEE. BMR is the calories your body would need to maintain your weight if you did nothing but sleep all day.  Or were in a coma.

Your BMR is adjusted by your activity level to arrive at your TDEE - total daily energy expenditure - where energy = calories.  So TDEE is how many calories you need to maintain your current weight. TDEE is guesstimated by multiplying your BMR by your activity level:  1.2 if you are sedentary and as high as 1.9 if you are a lumberjack chopping down trees all day.

To really get an accurate TDEE value, you need to weigh and measure everything you eat or drink and then work out the calories.  Once you know what it takes to maintain your weight, you can make lower calories substitutions and/or add in activity.