Thread: I'm really frustrated with losing weight--Need Advice

I'm really frustrated right now with my weight loss. I've become overweight over the past 2 years, and I can lose about 10-15 lbs. Truth is, I hate dieting and never have really known how to properly do it. I started a gym membership and started to work out at least 2-3 times a week. Sometimes I'm not sure if losing weight should be my concern or toning up because I'd be fully content with a more sculpted, strong body than to see less on the scale. My problem is that I have love handles, more tummy than I'd like, and I'm a D cup (don't like it at all; I'd prefer to be a small C or less, and that's where the weight loss comes in). Then from the bottom down is not so bad, so I have an odd shape.

I'm really starting to hate my body. Anyone else have experience with this? Did you take supplements or nutritional shakes to help with your weight loss? Did you diet? What kind of diet or what didn't you eat? Did you exercise every single day or 3-4 times a week? I don't do Bellydance for fitness purposes, so that's not an option. Has nothing to do with dance, but I figured I'd ask my fellow Bhuzzers anyway!

I know everyone's body differs, but I'm not going to a dietian or getting a personal trainer. Just looking for some advice from people who've gone through this. I'd appreciate your input!


BDF

Hi! Sorry to hear you're struggling with this. I've seen you in person and think you look great.

Right now please try to tell your body "nice things" and not hate it. It does so many great things for you. :)

I feel strongly that weight loss/gain is about soooooooo much more than diet and exercise.

I lost about 15 pounds over 6 months by seriously decreasing stress levels (job change) and getting proper sleep. I started dancing more during that time, too, so I did increase cardio by practicing every night, but I swear my body responded more to the stress and sleep change than anything.

I try to stay aware of balancing things physically - nutrition, getting vitamin D from the sun, magnesium from Epsom salts baths, drinking lots of water, getting antioxidants, keeping blood sugar in check (just baked some cookies, though!), etc. However, I'm the type to also take it in a different direction, such as, "What does this weight represent to me? What am I holding on to? Why is it so difficult to let it go?"

Ultimately, I try to stick to the advice of, "Trust your body to know what it should weigh." If your food consumption is balanced and your exercise and strength training routine is moderate (and, of course, there's no other medical reason that slows your metabolism or something) then maybe this is just where your body needs to be for now.

I totally changed my eating habits and portion sizes - I try hard not to eat after 7 at night. I make sure that I have a whole grain cereal in the morning or an egg and toast (one slice, whole wheat). Supper is usually meat, salad and a vegetable. Sometimes I'll have one-half a baked potato or some rice (preferably brown). Lunch time is my difficult meal - I just never know what to have! I try to get to cardio classes three times a week plus I took a program at the local gym whereby I get a personal trainer all to myself for one hour each week for twelve weeks. That has been the biggest help to me of all. She has given me many exercises that I can do on my own to help get rid of my love handles and tone up my mid-section. It is a lot of hard work and there is no "easy fix" - I've tried the supplements, shakes and everything else but when it comes right down to it, it's really watching what and how much you eat and lots of cardio plus strength training!

I hear you about the D cup thing. I'm 5'2", so I tend to look topheavy. But, they come up okay on mammograms, which is the most important thing.

There is no magic answer. Just cutting down the portions and upping the exercise is the way. A few years back, I went to an ayurvedic retreat in NY state. One of the other people at the retreat owns a number of exercise clubs in NYC. So he was sitting at the table, giving this older lady advice on how to lose weight. He told her "this is the advice I give my clients and I charge them $200 an hour for this advice". So I'm sitting there, thinking I'm finally going to get the answer on how to lose weight. He was telling her to drink lots of water, smaller meals more often, if you want fruit have the fruit instead of fruit juice, etc. I'm so glad I didn't pay $200 for that info. Anyway, that told me there is no instant cure.

Besides the obvious exercise and changes in eating habits (I don't like the word "diet", too loaded, too inaccurate), start examining what in your life emotionally, mentally, intellectually may be getting in your way.

Sometimes addressing the non-physical aspect of transforming oneself is as important, if not more important, than the physical regimen. You need both to reach your goals in a healthy, well-rounded manner.

As a simple example, I started examining my habit of eating/overeating when I'm not hungry. I noticed that I will start to "crave" something when I'm tired. Having reached this awareness, I pay attention to if I'm really hungry or if I just need a nap. I'll take a short nap (15 minutes, maybe) and I wake up refreshed and not like I need to eat something.

I've made mental note of other instances when I "want" to eat something and made the connection that they have less to do with me actually being hungry than feeling a "lack" in other areas, hence not liking the "emptiness" and trying to stuff it with food.

Hi sweetie, sorry it's been hard...I'm there too though here is what has helped me recently: vitamin D supplements, sipping yerba mate' tea throughout the day to curb snacking, and overall eating less than usual. It's tricky because the mate' does have caffeine in it so it can disrupt your sleep if you drink it too late (I had a week of insomnia before I figured that out *headdesk*). I think I've dropped about ten pounds in two months, judging by how my clothes fit. I've not been worrying about losing weight to the point that I stay off the scales completely. When my husband mentions that I'm looking good he says 'I know, I know, don't even talk about it....' :)

Weight Watchers is a very good program and it did work for me but the intense focus it took backfired when I lost interest and went back to my usual eating habits. I lost 10 pounds on it though my best friend lost 95!!!

Works differently for different people.

Counting calories at the Daily Plate at LIVESTRONG.COM - Health, Fitness, Lifestyle , help me loose 20 pounds over a year. now I am mkore aware of what I eat and how much. make yourself aware of what you eat and how much plus excercise but don't stress yourself out. give yourself time to loose weight. I gave myself a year and it worked.
Azhia is right, I also like to eat when I am tired, to bad it's mostly at the afternoon at work, can't take a nap there...
be nice to yourself.

One of the biggest tricks to weight loss is eating the right number of calories. If you don't want to subscribe to a formal program, you don't have to. Most foods are labeled, and you can look up how many calories you should be eating, or ask your doctor for guidelines. I never bothered to use a program. I just kept meticulous track of what I ate: how many calories in a portion and how many portions I ate. (I actually used an Excel spreadsheet throughout the day to keep a running total.) Don't try to skip meals or deprive yourself of treats--you'll only get demoralized and hungry and give up.

Here are a few hints:

* Get a set of measuring cups and a food scale and measure what you eat. A couple of handfuls of chips are a lot of calories, but fifteen chips are 130 (or whatever the package says). Don't trust your eye (or your stomach) to know what a "serving" is. If you have to eat out of measuring cups to make yourself aware of this, do so when you can.

* Read labels on foods. The brand of margarine I like is lower calorie per serving in the "Calcium Enriched" version than the "Regular." I don't know why, but I can't taste the difference, and those little savings add up.

* Breakfast cereals are better sweet snacks than cookies or candy. If you want a chocolate fix, try a cup of Cocoa Puffs instead of a candy bar--it's about half the calories in many cases!

* Skip the spreads whenever you can. If your sandwich is too dry without something on it, try a fat-free salad dressing you like instead.

* Don't try to eat exactly the same thing every single day--it's boring and depressing. I eat oatmeal in the mornings, but I doctor it up in a continuously rotating assortment of flavors using different baking extracts, combinations of spices, sugar-free jam, and even those Splenda flavor packets that are designed for coffee.

* Substitute low for high. I love pasta, but I could eat a two days' worth of calories in one meal--or I can put my marinara sauce on two pounds of microwaved zucchini and eat until I'm stuffed for the same number of calories as a third of a cup of uncooked macaroni with sauce. Which brings me to...

* If you want to pig out, choose fresh fruits or vegetables over junk food!

Being a ballerina was really difficult for me because i constantly had to maintain a really low weight with constant scale measurements. I had a very hard time with this because my genetics are not naturally inclined towards pick-thin. While all the other girls were busy counting calories, I had no patience for that kind of stuff. So, there were a number of things i did back then that have stayed with me so that i am at a good and healthy weight now.

First off, stop thinking about the fact that you are dieting. My weight regulated after i quit ballet because i stopped thinking about the foods that i couldn't have. point being, if you know you can have them anytime you want, you won't crave them as much. Very mental, I know, but it worked for me.

Second, up the ante on fruits and vegetables. There are great ways to prepare them that won't feel like dieting. I'm a vegetarian and i hate eating fruits and veggies. I don't eat salad a lot, which i know a lot of dieters think is the end all and be all of food. You just end up hungry and thinking about the things you could have had for lunch and didn't.

Third, carbs are not the enemy. Empty carbs are. Back in the day, whole grain pasta tasted like cardboard on a dirt stick. Nowadays, it's actually tastier than regular pasta. I can't live without pasta, so this tasty version really helps. Stick with marinara rather than cream sauces instead.

Fourthly, when craving desert or something sweet, go for nuts and raisins, even chocolate covered raisins (better than chocolate cake). You get the protein and sense of fullness from nuts, plus they are good for you and you get the satisfaction of sweet from the raisins. Also, another hearty snack mix option is banana chips. They give you the crunch you need.

Fifth, curb your snacking habits. Rather, eat well proportioned meals that fill you up so you don't think about food. Lunch, rather than dinner should be the biggest meal of your day. This way, your body has the chance to burn off the calories of your meal, rather than your body struggling to burn calories off while you sleep. As was mentioned earlier, snacking often means we are bored. Studies show that people tend to snack more when they are inactive, in front of the tv or computer. I know all those food commercials make me hungry.....

Portion control is also important. Studies show that people tend to eat twice to three times as much when their meal is not portion controlled. Dole out however much food you think will fill you up and try not to go for seconds. If you do need seconds, choose to go for the extra veggies rather than a second helping of lasagna.

If you feel the need to snack, pop your own popcorn (not the butter laden supermarket stuff but just kernels on a pan with a little oil and salt). Satisfies the urge to snack, feels like a guilty pleasure.

Then there's the common sense stuff like don't buy full fat products, try to eat more whole grains rather than processed stuff, take the stairs instead of the elevator, etc.

The most important advice i can give is to not stress the diet part too much - it can drive you crazy. i lost more weight when i quit "dieting" than i ever did while i was intensely watching my weight. What i did was make simple changes that didn't feel like changes and i was able to trick my body into losing the weight and keeping it off without thinking that it was missing out on anything.

Don't forget, belly dancing around your living room for half an hour is technically considered a workout, so indulge.....


P.S. Also, try to eat fiber rich foods. Not only does it help clean out your system, but it also helps with the digestion of other foods.

If you have a real sweet tooth that needs to be appeased, bake your own oatmeal cookies. Oats are good for you and you can control the amount of sugar that goes in them. Skip sugar and replace it with honey and for extra flavor and sweetness be sure to add raisins, cinnamon and nutmeg. You still get cookies but not just flour and chocolate chips. it's all about fooling the mind so that the body will follow.

I'm a big believer that if you want ice cream you should have ice cream. Because if you deny yourself and eat celery you will still want ice cream and then will wander the house eating things that aren't ice cream until you give in and have ice cream (and totally binge because you've been fighting it for too long) plus all those other calories you consumed.

Portion yourself out sensible amounts of the things you want but keep them in moderation.

I love dark chocolate and I keep high quality dark chocolate (with chillis in it yum!!) in my freezer, when I'm craving it I eat a piece and really enjoy that piece I'm eating. It's more satisfying then cramming food in my mouth unseen because it's "forbidden"

I try to balance the rest of my meals and I eat protien with every meal. A little protien goes a long way to help you feel full.

Also I threw away my scale, I don't know how much I weigh but I know how my pants fit, and when my costumes get too big. Measurements are a better indicator of body composition and size, my weight may fluctuate up to 6 lbs from the beginning to the end of the day. Also when I did own a scale, if I stepped on it and the number was up, you can bet your entire bank account that I had a crappy day all because of a stupid number.

in addition to the above wisdom, you might want to try hoodia to curb the snack monster, until your body gets used to your new eating habits. hoodia is also great for the once-a-month snack monster.

Originally Posted by _Tanya_

I'm a big believer that if you want ice cream you should have ice cream. Because if you deny yourself and eat celery you will still want ice cream and then will wander the house eating things that aren't ice cream until you give in and have ice cream (and totally binge because you've been fighting it for too long) plus all those other calories you consumed.

Portion yourself out sensible amounts of the things you want but keep them in moderation.

I love dark chocolate and I keep high quality dark chocolate (with chillis in it yum!!) in my freezer, when I'm craving it I eat a piece and really enjoy that piece I'm eating. It's more satisfying then cramming food in my mouth unseen because it's "forbidden"

I try to balance the rest of my meals and I eat protien with every meal. A little protien goes a long way to help you feel full.

Also I threw away my scale, I don't know how much I weigh but I know how my pants fit, and when my costumes get too big. Measurements are a better indicator of body composition and size, my weight may fluctuate up to 6 lbs from the beginning to the end of the day. Also when I did own a scale, if I stepped on it and the number was up, you can bet your entire bank account that I had a crappy day all because of a stupid number.

Golf clapping!!! I don't believe in depriving yourself. If I want ice cream, I eat a kid size cone (though some of them of still too much and I lop half of it off). I also buy quality chocolate, LOVE, LOVE dark chocolate. If I eat a little piece every day I am satisfied since it is a small piece (think a quarter of the hershey bar) it isn't a lot of calories. If I want pizza I eat it, but pair it up with a healthy salad so I don't eat as much pizza. I go by how my waistband feels rather than looking at a scale.

Abhore the word "diet". Dredges up images of torture chambers and hot pokers.

If I want a specific food, then I am going to have it. No substitutions allowed.

Kitchen tips~ Grab the garbage can & go through the cabinets and refrigerator. Throw out expired items and true junk food (alcohol, candy, donuts, soda, cookies...), then don't buy it or allow it back into the house until you are strong enough to with stand the temptation.

Keep the good stuff~ fruits, vegetables, chocolate, real ice cream, lean meats, pasta and bread.

Chocolate~ does not equal candy bar. Purchase as dark chocolate percent you can tolerate. Keep in refrigerator. Eat a couple of small squares and put the rest back for another day.

Ice cream~ put in a small tea cup not a bowl. A tea cup is one cup & bowl can hold up to three cups of ice cream. Put the rest back into the freezer for another day.

When eating chocolate or ice cream focus on eating, savoring, enjoy it. If you multitask it is gone in a blink and you wonder where it went. Then go get more. The point is you had a sweet craving & it was satisfied, no diet here.

When fixing meals try to make enough for left overs. If there is real food available you are less likely to reach for slop. Mix up a big filling stir fry of vegetables. Or pasta with lean meat, or a combination. Don't return for seconds. The rest goes in the fridge for later.

Always return for desert. There's always room for desert. Fill a glass container with mixed berries. Grab a mixer and blend milk until it looks like whip cream, pour on top and enjoy. Goes with any dvd available on the market.

When going out with friends or family eat a little something (half an apple, orange, a slice of bread) to keep from being ravenous when you arrive. Restaurants are not your dietician. The servings for one is really a meal for two or three people. Or two or three meals for you, get take out boxes.

When you see someone eating an item you fiercely want and it's swimming in grease, sugar, and calories or awesome combination of grease, sugar, and calories...ask for a bite. Or remind yourself~ as Royalty you are "too good" for that. Royalty requires real food, sustenance, and quality. The rest is just slop.

Keep that perspective long enough Thanksgiving & Christmas dinner is a crime scene. My brain just screams. Reach for the salad plate, smile nicely, this too shall pass.

Cardio~ 30 seconds sprints followed by 30 seconds walks. Work up to three miles.

Belly dance~ practice, practice, practice.

The gym~ a luxury. If you can afford to spoil yourself, savor it.

Easy rule for food~ If you can't name every ingredient in food you are about to eat, don't eat it. It's a trick!
................

A Funny~ When family comes to visit they normally don't stay long and give the spouse and children the speech, "Now, their food is a little...um, different." (Like it has eight legs & you have to catch it first.)

After company left we were clearing away the junk food & the kids came over before we were finished. The soda bottle on the counter shocked them. They were pointing & looking at me! Adamantly denied it was mine; like I had been caught with an illegal substance. Explained company had just left. Kids, "Oooooh."

My original post was too long, so I am dividing it into two parts

PART ONE

The Mind
What Kiyaana said about saying "nice things" to your body is so important. I am not sure if you are familiar with the work by Masaru Emoto called "The Hidden Messages in Water". He studied the ice crystals that water formed after being subjected to different words. The crystals that formed from water that had been exposed to love and gratitude were incredibly beautiful and symmetrical; whereas the crystals formed by water that had been exposed to words of anger and hate were random, damaged and sometimes even rather ugly. What does this have to do with you or any of us? Well, we are mostly made up of water. If you are sending hate messages to your body, your body is listening!
So, how do you change how you feel? I spent a week at a Jack Canfield retreat (he is a co-author in the Chicken Soup for the Soul series), and he had us all commit to doing a mirror exercise for a month straight. Basically at the end of the day, look in the mirror and talk to yourself out loud about what you did well that day and lavish yourself with praise. Finish by saying to yourself, "I love you." It might sound hokey, but it really is a good thing to do. Most of us (I know this has been true of me) are harder on ourselves than anyone else. Doing this exercise helps instill a sense of appreciation and care for ourselves that is enriching.
If you want to take this to the next level, you can do the "naked mirror exercise". You stand in front of the mirror and address all parts of your body with gratitude. So if you are hating your stomach, you might first start by saying, "Thank you stomach for being there. I really appreciate that you are there because you allow me eat, and eating sustains my life. You also join my upper and lower half, so without you I wouldn't be complete." Goofy, yes, but you are finding a reason why you appreciate every part of your body, even when you might not openly think that you *do* appreciate that part of your body. If you have a mindset that is against your body, chances are you will not be successful in turning your situation around.

PART TWO

Exercise
--Exercise is *so* important. Bellydance is great, but I don't think it is particularly strenuous, so I have always thought that other types of exercise need to be in my regimen. I think an important rule of thumb is to keep it varied. Bodies get used to the same thing day in and day out, so if you are doing a variety of different things, it will challenge you more. Another thing is to try to find types of exercise that you like. The more fun it is, the more likely you will keep doing it.

Portion Control
--As others have said, track what you are eating. Recently I gained a couple pounds, and I was a bit frustrated because I have been exercising regularly and eating well - or so I thought. Then I decided that I would write down everything that I was eating. When I started to do that, I became aware of how much I had been snacking. I just didn't realize that I was consuming as many calories as I was.

Types of Food
--What your are eating makes a big difference. The saying, "You are what you eat" is really true. Raw food is the best, but in our society, we have access to so much easy, processed, cheap food that it makes up the bulk of what a lot of us eat. I started to have issues with auto-immune disorders, but I have done a few juice fast cleanse/detox procedures and have tried to incorporate more fruits and vegetables and raw foods into my diet. Since I did my first detox, I have not had a recurrence with the auto-immune issue that had been plaguing me for a year and for which my doctor could only prescribe Prednisone. Thank god! If you are gaining weight that just doesn't make sense, it is possible that you might be eating something that your body just can't tolerate. I think that food sensitivities are a lot more prevalent than we realize.

Chocolate - the Food of the Gods
--Chocolate - as in cacao - is one of the best things for you on the planet. Now by chocolate, I do not mean Hershey's chocolate, which is overly processed and has a low cacao content, and I don't mean milk chocolate. There is a book called "Naked Chocolate" by David Wolfe that goes into depth about why the cacao bean is one of the best things for humans on the planet. In addition to the nutrients, cacao also is a hunger supressant, which is why it's pretty much always included in meal plans like Nutrisystem and Jenny Craig. They throw it in their marketing like it's an indulgent perk, but the reality is that it's just good nutrition.

Originally Posted by tink

Easy rule for food~ If you can't name every ingredient in food you are about to eat, don't eat it. It's a trick!

I loved your whole post, but this is super important!!

Tina! Great post. So true about the crystals. i did this as a science project in like second or fourth grade. somewhere in there. the crystals that were subjected to negativity were indeed smaller and less interesting to look at than the ones that were positively influenced. it;s funny how that truly works. if it works on crystals, who's to say that it doesn't work on us too.

Also, good point on the juices being a fast cleanser. Fresh-squeezed juices are also a great way to get the nutrients you need. you can only eat so much fruit a day. it is so much easier to drink it.

Originally Posted by Zobeida

Also, good point on the juices being a fast cleanser. Fresh-squeezed juices are also a great way to get the nutrients you need. you can only eat so much fruit a day. it is so much easier to drink it.

It's actually much, much better to eat the fruit than it is to drink the juice. With juice, you lose out on the fiber, which both helps you feel full and helps maintain appropriate digestion and weight. While the juice does contain some nutrients, it's much closer to empty calories than whole fruit.

Originally Posted by GenevieveOfAtlanta

It's actually much, much better to eat the fruit than it is to drink the juice. With juice, you lose out on the fiber, which both helps you feel full and helps maintain appropriate digestion and weight. While the juice does contain some nutrients, it's much closer to empty calories than whole fruit.

true, you do lose out on the fiber and vitamins that are in the skin of the fruit because that comes off into the pulp. However, as a person who really doesn't like fruits and veggies, juicing really helped me. i felt like i was having a shake rather than eating yuck healthy stuff. Also, whole fruits tended to give me the effect of feeling hungry, for some reason especially after apples and pears so I'd end up noshing on an apple and then running for bread. This may be just me. Fruit juice filled me up much more and for longer amounts of time than fruit. Tit for tat. Fruit juices may be emptier calories than whole fruits but fresh squeezed juice is better than a milkshake.

Originally Posted by Zobeida

Fruit juices may be emptier calories than whole fruits but fresh squeezed juice is better than a milkshake.

Ha, true! Whatever works...everyone's different in the end. :)

I can definitely relate to your frustration. What has been working for me is to do weight watchers. I do the online version. The program has helped me better choices and control my portions size.

Also, I recently read Marathon by Jeff Galloway. It's a book with a program for marathon training but included in it is a section on nutrition and how to structure your exercise and meals to increase weight loss. I've been following his recommendations with positive results. He probably has some of this information on his website.

Good luck.

I lost almost 40 lbs and have kept it off for almost 2 yrs. I went from 165 at my heaviest to 125 over a period of about a year and a half.

I took a very quantitative approach and I'm a huge advocate of such. You need to know exactly how many calories you are burning each day and how many calories you are eating. This is not just for the obvious reason of insuring that you have a calorie deficit, but also for the perhaps not so obvious reason of insuring that your calorie deficit is not too large.

If you eat too many calories, you will not lose weight.
If you eat too few calories, you will very quickly become weak, depressed, irritable, fatigued, etc.
If your calorie deficit is there but too small, your "cheats" and measurement errors will swamp out the deficit.

For me, that balance is quite sensitive.

I used fitday.com to log all my food. I not only monitored calories, but protein intake, carbs, fat sources (mono & polyun sat vs. sat), fiber, calcium, and other vitamins and minerals.

I aim to eat about 40% of my calories from carbs (mostly low g.i.), 30% from fat (good fats), and 30% protein (various sources). This is the balance that works for me, not necessarily optimal for everyone. I am sensitive to carbs and the carb level was rather painstakingly worked out by trial and error. I take a fiber supplement and an omega 3 supplement.

I also do cardio workouts about 4X per week and 2-3 strength training workouts.

Originally Posted by GenevieveOfAtlanta

It's actually much, much better to eat the fruit than it is to drink the juice. With juice, you lose out on the fiber, which both helps you feel full and helps maintain appropriate digestion and weight. While the juice does contain some nutrients, it's much closer to empty calories than whole fruit.

I don't know that this is true. First, I am not talking about store-bought juice, but freshly juiced 100% pure juice. True about the fiber, but theory behind juicing is that you get to consume a lot more vitamins than you would if you were eating the whole fruit or vegetable. For example, my dinner juice consisted of 3 tomatos, a bell pepper, a cucumber, 3-4 celery sticks, 2-3 carrots, perhaps a handful of spinach, and a lime. It's more than I would be able to eat. I know that vegetable juices are better than fruit juices due to the sugar content. I felt absolutely great while doing the juices, but I did miss chewing and warm meals.
There are people who live on juicing their meals. Jack Lelanne is a big proponent, and that guy is old and healthy. From my experience, I believe it's *very* good for you. However, it is time consuming and hard to keep up.

here are my 2 cents:
before you start any meal/snack, have a bite of a protein (this could be nuts, meat, cheese, yoghurt, milk, fish, eggs). it activates a certain enzyme in your saliva that somehow boosts your metabolism and tricks it into burning more calories. just to be realistic, this will not get you skinny in a week, but it helps a bunch if you combine it with healthy portions of food.
also, when trying to lose weight it's best to avoid potatoes, pasta and white bread (or anything very starchy) because it messes with your insulin levels throughout the day
good luck with weight loss!
xx
Athena

This is my harsh reality. If I want to be thin, I have to be disciplined.

Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels.

I lost 20 pounds... a lonnnnng time ago. Did not gain it back.

Losing weight is 90% food, 10% sports. Don't lose more than 1-2 pounds a week.

Remember why you work out. It is not because you workout that you can allow yourself cheating. There are ALWAYS opportunities to cheat. Be strong :) You will feel the difference after a while when you eat well.

Food: VERY IMPORTANT. Carb are your friend lol. You need carbs, and fat. Realize your allowed to eat... because if you tried to cut all of these, chances are it won't work or your will crave it so much you will eat crazy quantities of it.

Combinations. Do not mix carbs and
fat.

Carb: fruits, bread, pastas, etc. ANYTHING with sugar...
Fat: cheese. nut, salmon, beef, ice cream, etc.

Do not mix these. If you do, try to do it before 3 pm or 30-45 minutes before a big workoout (i.e.: leg training).

After 3 p.m., try to eat lean protein: egg whites, tuna, chicken, etc with veggie :) You can even eat some rice with this.

That's enough info! When you eat, look at your portions and question yourself if it is really what you need, or if it is too much. Don't eat when your not hungry. Drink water (2-3 L) and, ideally, 1 green tea if you like it!

Good luck, send me a message if you want more info! or workouts, etc..

Just putting out a different perspective: I know so many people who have had great success with WW, dailyplate, etc. I admire them greatly for their strength and discipline. For me, tracking my food causes my obsessive nature to rear its loud and ugly head and it takes me to a dark place where I can only think about food in a very destructive way~ it causes a judgmental and cyclical feast and famine reaction in me. I stress about how many calories I have left for the day and worry about eating bc I don't want to use all the calories and then (usually) I overeat bc I'm so stressed and then I feel wretched, physically and emotionally, and I firmly resolve to not do the same thing the next day and yet it happens all over again. It took many years for me to accept that what has worked wonderfully for so many around me is not in my best interests.

In February, I became vegan for ethical reasons and gluten free for physical (I just feel better not eating wheat and its friends). I don't suggest this for everyone as it can be difficult, but I think one of the most important lessons I have learned in this time is to pay attention to what my body is craving. As my body has not been allowed to continue its addiction to highly processed foods, I find I crave healthy foods (this week's winner has been spinach). What I want varies and depends on what my body actually needs; I find myself more in tune with my dietary needs. It doesn't mean I don't have nights where I eat a whole bag of popcorn for dinner and/or half a container of So Delicious 'ice cream' but I know those times I am eating for emotional reasons. I accept it, wallow in it and then keep trudging.

IMHO, one of the more important pieces is allowing only a small portion of junk food in the home at a time. Like others who have already posted, if I tell myself I can't have something then I obsess and end up eating ridiculous amounts of it. Also, take it slow~ cut out one food item you don't find in your best interest every week or two.

Exercise...oy, I am still looking for the magical cure! I am currently on hiatus. It takes quite awhile for me to get into the routine of doing it 5 times a week and it is SO easy for the routine to break. And so the cycle goes... (and that's not a bicycle, either). ..l;,

Most important of all: BE GENTLE WITH YOURSELF. Give yourself 5 compliments a day (they don't all have to be about your body, either, thought that is a nice goal to have). You are a wonderful and miraculous person, glory and revel in yourself. {{{hugs}}}

The bottom line is, you have to push yourself if you want results with anything.. What you put into something, you most of the time get out.. I personally hate the gym, but wanted to lose my muffin top as well.. I went and bought one of those Randy Ross Stepper Bikes.. It's kind of like the elliptical except for your outside riding around.. I lost 8.5 pounds in 4 weeks.. It really just depends what your into.. The gym is great for a lot of people, but I dont like working out in the gyms where I live.. Way TOO many people.. They have lots of different ways to get back in shape. When it comes down to it. It's all up to you..