Want weight loss advice from people who have accomplished it? Here are 10 tips from people who have all lost at least 50 pounds.
Keep a Food Journal
While there were plenty of people who lost their weight simply by eating healthy, the vast majority of successful weight losers kept a food diary and counted calories. Journaling your food intake helps raise awareness about your eating patterns. Not only does it help you mange your energy balance, it can also uncover hidden relationships you have with food.
Move More, However Little It May Be
Getting more active is a common success principle for just about every fit person. However, among the people who lost more than 50lbs, the addition of more movement to their lives came in just about every form you can imagine.
There was strength training, walking, riding bikes to work, Zumba, dancing, and running. The ultimate emphasis was that doing something was better than nothing. Even 10 minutes of activity a day makes a difference in the long run.
Drink Water
If the majority of your day’s liquid intake isn’t water, you might want to reconsider that habit. Drinking water was the number 1 most submitted tip. Everyone agreed that eating your calories is much more effective than drinking them. Good old H2O does a body good.
Plan Everything
The difference between having a goal and accomplishing it is everything in between, and planning is what helps to successfully connect all the days together to get you to your goal.
Plan your meals. Plan your workouts. Have backup plans in place in case you’re not able to cook. Being prepared helps keep you on track so that you don’t reach for convenience food when life throws you a curve ball.
Love Yourself
Want to lose weight because you love your body, and not because you hate it. Lose weight for you, and not for other people. Get comfortable with seeing yourself naked, and start working on your body image.
These were all tips submitted by the community. Start working on loving yourself now. Changing how much you weigh is not going to change the way you feel about yourself. Work on improving your self worth from day 1.
Take It One Day At a Time
It might seem like there’s a long road ahead, and that’s because there is. But that’s OK. All you have to do is take things one step at a time. It’s the accumulation of many daily victories that carries you to the end of your weight loss journey. Don’t get overwhelmed.
Social Support
Surround yourself with people who support you. When we start a weight loss journey it’s very typical of the people close to you to question your lifestyle change. It can be discouraging to not have the support of friends and family.
Find someone to share the daily challenges with. That might mean finding a workout partner, joining a weight loss club, or hanging out in online support groups like blogs and forums. These people will understand your daily struggles and will keep you motivated towards your goal.
Change Your Attitude
Negative thoughts lead to negative results. Make you #1. Want a better lifestyle and your behaviors and habits change too. Have patience. All of the successful weight losers agreed that your attitude plays a major role in your success. Keep a positive mindset whether you slip up on your fitness program or not.
Moderation in All Things
You might be surprised that the 50lb success stories included testimony after testimony of how they reached their goals without depriving themselves of the things they love. If they wanted a treat, they had one. If exercise seemed like too much, they backed off a bit.
The key for them was choosing a diet and exercise program that was sustainable. They didn’t really have any foods that were off limits. Instead, portion control was the ideal that kept them free from excessive restriction. They also didn’t kill themselves with exercise – effectively using exercise to build them up instead of tear them down.
Never Give Up
If there’s one thing that was common amongst the weight losers, it’s that they all persevered in the face of uncertainty. They all “failed” at some point on their weight loss journey.
But they didn’t let this setback turn into something bigger. They accepted the situation and understood that the past could no longer be changed. Instead, they chalked up the mishap to a learning experience and got right back on track. In the end, they were a stronger person as a result of their failure.
These 10 weight loss tips came from real people with real daily struggles. If they can do it so can you.
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Great list! Having lost 50lbs myself I can say that everything in this article is true. I would also add to be patient. It took me a little more than a year to lose my weight. Seems most people expect that kind of weight loss in just a few months.
Congrats, Wendy! Patience is definitely key. it took more than a day to put the weight on and it will take more than a day to get it off. One day at a time.
Nice to see testimonial tips for what actually worked for people. Shared it on my weight loss support page.
Thanks for sharing, Michelle. Hopefully the tips help your support group.
I’ve lost over 100 pounds over the course of the last 2-3 years. It’s totally a lifestyle change. No more diets! That’s my contribution.
Wow. 100 pounds is an amazing transformation! That’s true about dieting. That was another popular tip sent in too – don’t diet, change your lifestyle. Thanks for the add.
God bless you Amanda.
Nice article Tony. I lost about 30 pounds a few years back. Not quite 50, but I’m a work in progress. Will be putting the tips to practice.
Keep at it James and you’ll eventually reach your goal. Glad you found the tips useful.
I have lost 44 pounds since November 2013. These tips are 100% accurate. It is a lifestyle change, not a diet. Glad to read an article with real life people with real life tips that work. Nice article!
I haven’t lost any weight over the last year however I have dropped 2 dress sizes, simply by watching what I eat and not depriving myself and exercising regularly. Losing weight is not the be-all as I have found that muscle weighs more than fat so I try not to weigh myself very often as this only discourages my goals and what I want to achieve.
You’re right, Lelia. You can definitely change your body composition for the better without losing much weight due to muscle’s higher density than fat.
Hi this is so reassuring that body composition is better than loosing weight. Is it true that muscle is heavier than fat??
Technically it isn’t. A pound of fat weighs the same as a pound of muscle. However, muscle is denser. That means 1 pound of muscle takes up less space than a pound of fat, therefore making you look “smaller”.
Interval training – short, intense workouts, and weight training.
I lost 155 pounds in a year and kept it off for the last 3, it is a total lifestyle change. You have to not only eat healthy you have to watch portion size and exercise. I was sick with high blood pressure and diabetes and had to take 14 medications. I do not have diabetes anymore, no more high blood pressure and no more medications. I never felt better! People even say I look younger!
Wow! Your post inspires me. I am tired of high blood pressure and diabetes too and now slowly trying to change my diet one day at a time and have started walking. Thank you for sharing your result!
Keeping the deficit small is key for me. If my deficit gets too large, I stop losing. I believe in the calories in calories out rule BUT the body doesn’t comply to that 100%. After doing a “refeed” at maintenance for a week, then utilizing calorie cycling with a 15% deficit from my TDEE, I broke through a plateau that’s been hounding me for as long as I can remember. My first weapon when I plateau is refeeding, then perhaps upping calories if my activity has increased lately. I have a VERY sensitive metabolism (a blessing and a curse)!
Thanks for sharing, Rachel. Like you, I have a very adaptable metabolism. Refeeds are a must 1-2 times a week for me.
I’ve lost 145 pounds over 2.5 years, through Weight Watchers. Unfortunately, it’s become a diet to me, so I’ve decided to transition to weighing in with my trainer once a week and working with an RD at my gym. It’s comforting to me to know that I’ve adopted the tips already…