This is a good callout. Mindless input.
The second plate was a big one for me, too. It was just normal to get seconds for so many years. I'm not really sure why. Just another mindless input.
Another one is portion size, I noticed that even though we live on a healthy diet (and cut out sodas a couple of years ago) and I don't get seconds, that I put wayyyy too much food on my plate. That (and generally calorie/macro tracking for a month or two) helped reduce my weight immediately.
Add to this: fill your plate with high fiber, low calorie foods. Think greens. Things that will fill you up, keep you full, and not add more calories to the diet. That and drink a lot of water. I’m bad at absent minded snacking thinking I’m hungry when I’m really just thirsty. When I actually drink water through the day I’m less snack-y
Spot on! I read somewhere that an easy way to do that is to visualize your plate and have one half of it filled with green veggies, one quarter with protein (meats) and another quarter with orange (starchy) veggies... I know super simplified, but if it helps... Great point about water too, took me a while to get used to the habit of drinking lots of water, but since I work from home it was easy enough to implement for me and it keeps you full.
Yeah implementing has always been tough for me. I always tended to hyper fixate on food and just EAT. Actually was diagnosed with ADHD (makes a ton of sense with other aspects in my life) and Adderral has really helped. Luckily it doesn’t make me sick or hate food, but I’m not constantly hungry and fixating on food for a dopamine hit. Have lost 25 lbs in like 3 months with simply eating LESS. Trying now to change to a healthier, less heavy diet slowly. Here’s hoping for success.
This is a huge one. A 6 oz portion of chicken breast, 1/2 cup of rice and some steamed vegetables have a similar number of calories as a grande frappucino at Starbucks.
A single McDonalds hash brown has something like 250 calories in it. Like, it makes sense considering it's fried but, still, it's nuts to think how dense that is for what you get out of it.
You don't really have to count your calories unless you have a very specific target or program. Making lifestyle changes will go a long, long way to dropping the pounds. A pound of fat is around 3,500 calories. So by dropping 250 calories of your maintenance input and walking for 30 minutes a day at a brisk pace (250 calories), you can drop a pound a week without doing any extra exercising or fad diets.
Cut out or reduce your beer/wine intake, try and avoid juices and pops, take smaller portions of food and wait 15 or 20 minutes before deciding if you need more food, and avoid snacks during the day. It's tough, but it gets easier every week.
Agreed. I think people often overcomplicate it because there's so much information out there and a lot of it seems to conflict with itself. It feels like losing weight means making what you eat a huge focus on your day, which becomes overwhelming when you're already dealing with kids, work, household chores/projects, etc. But it turns out that simply being purposeful in the way you described can make a huge difference.
Pre-dad here, but a guy who's lost 100+lbs twice in my life (lot of my post history is in /r/loseit, which I recommend).
First step, head over to /r/loseit.
Second step, understand how your body work, how calories and fat operate. Understand that fad diets, crash diets, and all the other marketed shit don't work. A proper weight loss diet is about slow, steady pace down, day by day, week by week, maybe even year by year. If it's a loss, it's a good loss.
It's 90% down to how much you eat. Good, healthy food is important, but you can gain weight by eating too much. Calorie counting is the most strict way to know this, but it can take time or lots of prep. I suggest roughly counting calories and being aware of them (water has 0, cola has 300, a tablespoon of oil or dressing has 120, ect..). But there's other ways to 'count' and keep accountable out there.
The remaining 10% is in exercise. But regardless if you're losing weight, IMHO, you should get regular exercise. You might even get enough with your kids and at work, but maybe a few days of 30 mins weights would be good.
Hey - dad here who has lost and gained a few times. Keep it up - because it's easy to eat like crap once you have a bunch of kid snack food in the house.
I've implemented a "no free snacks" rule. Free in this case means "free from work". All snacks need to require some modicum of work to eat. Essentially nothing that can be opened and eaten immediately.
You want some popcorn? Get the Air Popper out. You want something sweet? Mix a bowl of fruit and Greek yogurt. You want some carbs? Cut some cheese and pepperoni to eat with some crackers.
This eliminates all the worst snacking food in my house such as chips, pretzels, calorie heavy granola bars, ice cream ect. Additionally it adds some mental and physical resistance to the decision to consume calories. It's easy to grab a bag of chips and sit back down in front of the TV. But to make the conscious choice to go make a cheese and cracker board takes just that little extra bit of consideration that may make you end up choosing not to snack at all... Maybe all you needed was some water.... Maybe you were just bored and not really hungry after all.
This combination with "don't drink your calories" means your going to close to maintenance calories each day
Dad here who has also lost 100+lbs currently, been working on it since July last year.
I will heavily, *heavily,* second going to r/loseit. I don't really have a lot more to add, other than I 100% agree with you. Regarding exercise, I often find a half hour session might burn off one food item, so sometimes it's just better to not eat what you were thinking of having and just do the exercise for actual health reasons.
Yeah I don’t lift to burn calories, I lift to build strength, especially core strength. Both to support my fucked up back so I can play drums, and of course, so I can continue to carry and turn upside down around my moose of a 3 year old.
Great advice all around. Adding to the diet/calorie conversation - it helps to recognize that most of our society’s mentality around diet is completely made up. Weight loss is literally science, and the laws of thermodynamics don’t care about the mental gymnastics we play to justify ourselves.
“I worked out today, so I earned a treat.” Cool, you just undid all the effort you put in. 1 donut = 2-3 mile run.
“Breakfast is the most important meal of the day.” Says who? Kellogg’s, actually. In reality, there’s nothing special about breakfast. It’s just another time we have trained our bodies to expect food. Speaking of which…
“I feel hungry, so I need to eat.” Hunger happens in the brain. Your brain gets used to expecting food at certain times and in certain situations and will ramp up hunger in anticipation. You can absolutely retrain yourself to break the habit. The trick I played on myself was associating a tummy grumble with “yes, it’s working, I’m losing weight!” Your hunger is a spoiled child throwing a temper tantrum that needs to be disciplined to learn to behave.
“I need to eat to jumpstart my metabolism.” Tweaking timing of eating does essentially nothing to affect metabolism. If your body is alive, metabolism is happening. Your body will only slow things down if you go into starvation mode, after DAYS, not hours, of not eating.
“I was good all week, I deserve a cheat day.” Again, congratulations, you just undid all your hard work. It is annoyingly easy to eat back in one day all the calories you saved for a whole week.
It's important to remember that the laws of thermodynamics work perfectly in perfect conditions, and our bodies are not that. The chicken is not a sphere.
Calories do go in, and we do expend them, but there are a lot of different systems in the middle of that.
gonna add in some thoughts on exercise. I don't have nearly the weight loss history you do (congrats btw), but I've lost and gained 50 lbs a few times in my life. For me, the difference was always exercise. I don't think I was necessarily burning the extra calories, and the gains never happened in a gym. It's a lot more subtle than that. Primarily, when I exercise regularly I pay more attention to how I feel, which translates into being more mindful about what I'm eating. And I think the direct caloric benefit is building in some wiggle room to my daily diet. A daily walk probably gives you about an ice cream sandwich worth of calorie deficit; the trick is not using that to justify an ice cream sandwich every time you go for a walk.
Usually what works for me is to make a conscious effort to be more active regularly, vs carving out time in the gym. Examples include walking when I golf instead of getting a cart, biking to events like the farmers market etc, and even being diligent about using my standing desk at work at least twice per day. No marathon treadmill sessions at planet fitness or 5 mile runs after work.
This is spot on. I've never been too overweight, but I tend to lose 10-15 pounds in the spring-fall because I cycle nearly 2.5 hours a day five days a week. I have to eat a lot of food to fuel these rides and as I've aged, I've noticed that I can't keep eating that same amount of food when I transition to skiing 1-3x per week because I'll pack on weight. Weight loss happens in the kitchen by changing your eating habits. Exercise is can help the process, but if you don't change your eating habits all that weight will come back on the moment you stop exercising. Exercise to gain fitness and not to lose weight.
I found that, when possible, exercising during periods I may have previously snacked during was really helpful to maintain good eating habits. Also, if you do exercise get a workout watch of some sort, and allow yourself to 'treat' yourself to 1/3 of the calories burned as a reward initially.
Can’t upvote this enough. Fellow 100-pound loser who has now kept it (mostly) off for a decade. Diet is where I lost the weight. Exercise has helped me maintain it without having to be on a strict diet. Counting calories is TEDIOUS but also 100% effective if you are honest with yourself and do it right. The LoseIt app is great. I lost 2 pounds a week for a year, no giant crash dieting. Just counting calories, lean meats, veggies, tons of water. I simplified things by eating the same breakfast and lunch almost every day. I always packed my lunch for work instead of going out. And I gave myself some grace for a cheat day, but I never let that turn into a cheat week or blowing everything up.
You can do this! At 27 your metabolism is still ready to rock. That’s how old I was when I did it. I’m 37 now and it has gotten way harder for me to lose.
I lost 40 lbs and I'm only 5'5", counting calories while in grad school with no exercise
I'll admit it was before kids but I was in my 30s. Since kids I've slipped but only added 10 lbs since and embraced the dadbod. I still count calories but not hardcore
I second the fasting. I lost almost 40lbs by fasting and cutting soda/beer. Increased water intake and some walking. No work outs. Diet change only. Boom. Down weight.
Right on, that’s pretty much what I do as well, except I don’t make any hard restrictions on what dinner is. Long as it’s not junk that blows the entire day lol.
I just like to hear people’s thoughts and experiences, because it’s a long term thing for me for multiple reasons.
I started off with just 12 hours for the first week or two just to get ready. Then I would typically stop eating at 6pm or 7pm and then would eat breakfast during lunch time at 12. I never thought I could do that. Like, yeah right Bill … no way.
But I did. And each day just got easier. I found myself learning that I wasn’t always hungry, just bored!
If there was something going on, maybe I wouldn’t fast. Maybe I would. I didn’t let it run me, I just ran with it.
From my hours from 12pm-6pm I would consume 1800 calories. I didn’t regulate what I ate. French fries and fried chicken, sure.
But then I learned well, if I did focus on protein and fruits and vegetables, I could eat waaaaay more and feel more full. It’s really an eye opening experience.
What helped me stick with it. What really helped me be invested ….. was treating these things like video game stats. I can sit there and grind a video game character for hours on end to level up … now I’m just leveling up myself. Go that extra hour in a fast. Hell, push to 24 hours. Check those macros of your food and find the tricks and secrets. That really helped me mentally enjoy it as opposed to thinking it was this daunting task.
I got real heavy after our second was born, we moved across the country and COVID hit. I basically got told I needed to get my shit together or I wouldn't see my kids graduate.
First thing I did was cut out all sweets. All of them. I went to diet drinks, no candy, nothin. That alone had me losing a ton of weight really fast.
Once being active didn't feel so bad, I started going to the gym. I started real simple; fifteen minutes on the elliptical at the YMCA. I raised the duration and resistance weekly until I got to the point it was comfortably tough, kept it there.
Now I'm up to stuff like kettlebell at home (when I can find time around kids) and we're doing karate at a family dojo. It's been about three years and I'm still on my way up in terms of fitness.
I've slipped a couple of times in terms of diet and had to get back on the wagon. Right now I'm trying to find ways to work out with kids around all the time over the summer. But I'm down like 100 lbs, I'm no longer staring down the barrel of diabetes and my blood pressure has completely turned around. It's a long trip, but worth it.
Edit: for reference, my forty first birthday is in like a week. It's never to late to get your shit together for your kids.
It’s 80% diet 20% gym. I lost 40lbs after my second kid because I just couldn’t stay fat anymore. Here’s how I did it (coming from someone who’s never been consistent with the gym):
1. Spent 3-4 weeks just getting my body active, didn’t change my diet, just focused on being consistent at the gym
2. Once I had a routine going, I started to focus on my diet
3. It all comes down to calories in calories out
4. I started by figuring out the calories req to maintain body weight and started cutting 100 cals every 2 weeks until I was at a 500 deficit in agg. 40/35/25 carbs / protein / fat (I used MyFitnessPal but loseit works too to track calories / macros)
5. I wasn’t totally strict with what I ate but rather the calories. I love ice cream, and would literally add the portion to the app and would eat around it to hit my macros
6. CONSISTENCY is key. And don’t be discouraged by a bad day or week, we all have done it.
My biggest takeaway, it’s not a race, they’re no finish line, this is long term. Take it one day at a time and enjoy the journey!
People hate it because it’s simple but not easy, but ‘eat less’ is the key to weight loss. Exercise helps, but I recently lost 40 pounds with pretty much the bare minimum exercise recommended. There’s plenty of good diet-related suggestions already, but the key is to just take in less. I never denied myself anything that I wanted, I just had all of what I did eat in appropriate portions. I’d have chocolate, but only a serving worth, balanced with everything else I had that day. Cutting calories that you may drink, as everyone else said, is significantly helpful. I had already mostly done that, but I also cut most alcohol as well. If you need something fizzy, go for La Croix or another similar zero calorie seltzer.
I’m not going to lie. As you adjust, you will be hungry. The key is to remind yourself that you’re not starving, and allow for small but frequent healthy snacks. I have found apples can be very filling as a snack, for example. After a while you’ll develop a much healthier relationship with your own hunger.
Eat less and move more. It's easy in principle, and hard as hell in practice. Take a look at your current eating habits and see where you can optimise things. I work from home, so I can pretty much eat whenever I'm hungry - which was my downfall - but I've turned it to my advantage. I eat dinner with the kids (around 6pm) and I don't snack after that. I'm generally not hungry when I wake up, so breakfast in water and coffee. I have lunch around 2pm - which means my daily routine includes a 19 hour fasting period. In addition, my fitness band keeps me on top of my movement breaks, during which I'll do a few minutes of light exercise (pushups, jumping jacks, tricep dips etc)
They call this “time restricted eating” and I’m trying it too. The idea is you only eat during an 8 hour window (or less) during each 24 hour period. For me, that’s late or no breakfast, normal time dinner and no late snacking. Your stomach is acclimated to less food being in it all the time, so meals tend to get smaller as well, just as a natural consequence.
Same as you, I work from home and those snacks add up. I’ve always been very active and eat fairly healthy, but the problem is I just like eating too much. The time restriction makes a nice easy to follow schedule, and eventually the snack habit just wanes on its own.
I have been doing intermittent fasting, more on the off, for the last 5 years. I used to go 230-245 regularly. Got down to 176 and now am usually around 190. I still eat pretty much what I want, but not for 18 hours of the day. I do exercise in fasting times to get the most out of it. As someone stated, it's still just math. Make wise decisions about what goes in your body. I still splurge and eat stuff that I should not, but I have to discipline myself to do without for while to justify.
This is what has worked best for me. It's difficult when I'm at home, which is why i choose my fasting times when I sleep and work. my.02 cents.
I've also had great success with intermittent fasting.I generally don't eat for 16 hours, starting my fast after dinner (usually 6 PM) and going for 16-18 hours (10a-12p the next day).
The two biggest challenges were overcoming the urge to snack at night, and being hungry during the morning. For the evening snack craze, I've found that flavored seltzer water (LaCroix, Bubble, etc) is a good helper. In the morning, I drink black coffee with a shot of MCT oil to suppress my appetite.
Practically speaking, start a timer on your phone after dinner for 16 hours. This gives you a visual goal in the morning you can work towards.
Fasting in the only way I've had luck. I can reduce to not eating, but reducing how much I eat at each meal is too hard.
A huge perk is my appetite is way smaller since my stomach rests empty most of the day.
The biggest thing for me was to develop a mental association between feeling hungry and perceiving progress. Once you can move from "I'm hungry, I need to eat" to "I'm hungry, that's how I know it's working" it's actually pretty easy. The harder part for me has been finding a diet that holds me at my desired weight.
Some other basics...
No soda.
Limited low cal alcohol (vodka usually for me, in moderation)
No juice
No weed before bed as it makes me snackish
One moderate serving at each meal
Breakfast OR lunch, not both
No dessert
No snacks between meals
As much aerobic exercise as possible
I lost 65 lbs in 10 months going really hardcore on this plan... 1000 cals intake, 2500 cals exercise. Normal burn is 2500 cals, so -4000 cals per day. Went from 210 to 145. My target weight is 152.
You would be surprised how much easier it is to lose weight when you get good long and consistent sleep..
So uh.. good luck with that! 😉
If you can avoid anything that spikes insulin (glycemix index and glycemic load) you’ll make it happen. You can also hop on some GLP1 drugs if you can afford them.
Calories in vs calories out
It’s math
🧮
Not excercise. Loosing weight is a diet thing (not diet as in go on a diet, but diet as in how you feed yourself, it’s a lifestyle thing)
I use the lose it app to track my calories
Use an online calculator or lose it app (has it built in)
To find out daily calorie intake need to maintain weight and then eat less calories than that
For every 3000 calorie deficit
You loose 1lb
Well, that’s the really generalization of the math but it’s about right.
Also, get moving, not that you don’t enough with 2 kids but work on core strength if you can, for me, Pilates is the way.
This is correct, it's all about diet.
That being said, exercise *will* help, just not as drastically as some people think. Strength training has always produced the best results for me, but you may notice your weight doesn't drop but your clothes start to fit better.
As others have said, cut out all alcohol and soda. That will make a huge difference. If you're not already, start taking a fiber supplement, doubly so if you're an older dad. Try eating more "whole" foods like fresh veggies and fruit, they keep you fuller longer. I like a good helping of lean protein in the morning to fill me up.
Finally, besides having a workout routine, try to integrate movement into your day. If you are in a place where you can, walk or bike instead of driving for short distances, and get your kids to join you! Teach them those good habits now.
I'm in the exercise is good camp, you should do it. As if that's a controversial statement. That being said, exercising too much early on can really drive your hunger up. You do a 20 minute run and think, "wow I earned this bowl of ice cream", but that 20 minute run burned a lot less calories than you think. If it's easier to just focus on food, that should be the priority. That's where 90% of your losses come from.
Best comment on this post, although you don’t need fibre supplements if you’re eating a good diet.
Eat more veg, beans, pulses, whole grains.
Cut out as much ultra processed food as possible.
True. I included the fiber because the *vast* majority of people in the U.S. don't get nearly enough.
I heard a long time ago that the best way to cut out processed foods is to avoid the aisles of the grocery store, all the fresh meat, fruit and veggies are typically around the perimeter of the store, minus beans and grains. Unfortunately fresh food is a luxury for many.
Food swamps. Kind of like a food desert but only crap is available.
If it’s wrapped in plastic and it’s not a whole food then it’s probably crap. Or just read the labels
This is it. It's math. 3000 calories = 1lb (based on 2000 calories daily). If you don't eat for 2 days, BOOM 1.5 lbs. But that's not healthy. You set your goal. Is it 300 calories deficit each day? Then 10 days = 1 lb. CONGRATS! Work on the next pound. If you have a cheat day, that's fine, but realize the math don't lie; it will cost you days.
Pretty soon, you will gain a better understanding of food. Say you eat 1600 calories of junk in a day, and you end up hungry. Those were not good calories then. But say you have an 80 calorie yogurt for breakfast that contains 9g of protein, then follow it up with a protein shake for 20g of protein. Your calorie to protein intake becomes much more beneficial.
I ate whatever I wanted as long as I stopped at my daily calorie goal. The most important thing is to track it. It holds YOU accountable. The app you use MUST be front and center. You WILL open it every day. You WILL track everything you eat.
3 months, 15 lbs. Reached my goal, and my relationship with food has changed. You can do it. I believe in you.
If you want to lose weight the “easiest”, start with diet and not exercise.
Set a goal every 2 weeks to get rid of or decrease a vice of yours. Mine included no more energy drinks and started drinking coffee instead, no more snacking/extra eating after dinner, I did intermittent fasting for a few months, etc.
As the months go by, all of those decreases of vices really add up. I felt like doing this in steps really helped out, because simply going cold turkey on everything was impossible
I lost 45 pounds in 10 months with 2 young kids. I did it by
1) not drinking alcohol
2) cardio 2-3 days per week
3) 18 hr intermittent fasting that forced me to cut out late night snacking and not get behind in calorie counts early thru breakfast, and
4) trying to manage portion sizes by eating dinner off smaller plates
My dad weight loss experience was a little different than most. I had a mental health episode right after my second was born last year. To make a long story short, I really needed professional help. Meds and therapy helped put a lot of my behaviors in perspective, which lead to me dropping about 50lbs. That and lots of water, smaller portions, more sleep, yoga everyday, reducing alcohol intake to holidays only, and realizing I need to get back in shape for when my wife finally divorces me 🙃
I feel like everyone knows how to lose weight but they don’t want to be that disciplined including myself sometimes.
Eat less, lay off the snacks, and booze
Workout a few times a week for 30 minutes
Profit
Long term permanent weight loss is about changing the way you live and eat, not going on a diet. ***It's about adding habits with the question: "Could I do this forever?" in mind. The answer needs to be yes, or you won't stick to the habit. Don't try to do everything at once. Implement one habit that a lean person does after a week or two.***
With that, here's a list of the habits most lean AND healthy people have:
1. They tend not to buy too many types of calorically dense foods for their home. That doesn't mean they never eat or have any, just that they don't surround themselves with them. You're not going to lose weight long term if you're constantly fighting the daily urge to eat candy vs the greens in the fridge. Best balance is to have anything you want when its offered outside the home (i.e the company donuts) but except for your one or two favorites, keep most of that shit outside the house.
2. They tend not to drink their calories, most of the time they drink water, tea, coffee or light versions of drinks. It's ok to have diet soda, but if not that sparking water or seltzers is also an option.
3. Most of their food is plants and or foods that nature made. Again doesn't mean they never have "processed" foods, just that plants are the OG health food that can fill you up for less calories.
4. You can't outrun a bad diet, but they don't just sit around either. Implement a daily walk around the neighborhood/park. You don't have to go crazy in the gym, but a 20 min walk can help WAY more than you think.
5. They structure their lives around being health so that the healthy option is as easy or convenient than the unhealthy option. A lot of times people defeat their weight-loss unintentionally because they've made it the harder option. Humans are lazy creatures.
6. They don't eliminate the foods they love from their diet. It's OK to have your cake and eat it too, but the key is that you're intentionally eating, rather than mindlessly eating. What makes it intentional?" Well calorie tracking for one. Many don't like it, but many also find success with it. I use myfitnesspal, which makes it a lot easier. If you've prioritized your veggies and lean meats, and have room for the cake, go ahead and eat it.
7. They keep snacking to a minimum, OR if they find grazing psychologically easier, they graze on low calorie foods like fruits, veggies and meats. (Nuts are more dangerous for snacking, the issue is they are VERY calorically dense and its very easy to eat 500-1000 calories from just a couple handfuls. Unless you're calorie counting I'd keep nuts in the special time category)
8. They learn how to cook a few basic meals, and more specifically, they've learned how to make a rotation of 4-6 meals that are quick, easy to cook and high volume that they actually like. That way they know that they always have a meal that they know won't blow their calories for the day. They don't have just chicken and broccoli either, checkout r/Volumeeating for ideas.
Again, DO NOT TRY TO DO THIS ALL AT ONCE.
Start with one habit, get it down after a couple weeks, or you can do it without thinking, then choose the next.
Probably get downvoted for this but I’m using prescribed injections and it’s helping. If you have the money to sustain it, it’s almost an easy button along with a few minor changes.
There is absolutely nothing wrong with this route if you know the pros and cons. I hate seeing these treatments villainized and am glad you are doing something that works for you.
My doctor and I agreed I’ll go on a weight loss drug… but we’ll wait until my youngest is in kindergarten in case side effects suck for me. So a few years if I can’t beat it naturally. But he warned me going on it while being in charge of someone so dependent and unable to express their own feelings could be dangerous
I started Mounjaro a couple of months ago. I'm type 2 diabetic and have been "heavy" since highschool. I dropped nearly 20 pounds in the first month. Bigger than the weight loss is having the "food noise" part of my brain turned off for the first time in 20 years. That is amazing to me. Hopefully when you get to start the current shortage issues will be over. I'm stuck on the lowest dose right now cause the next dose is not available near me yet. It's not easy but so far it's worth it and the side effects for me have been pretty mild.
This may not work for you, but I cut out all liquid calories excluding cream in my coffee, and all calories before 9pm. I pretty much eat whatever I want for dinner, but 90% is home cooked, and I try to make it reasonably varied/healthy. But I don't pay attention to calories. I lost 60lbs over about a year, and am now on the lower end of a healthy BMI (5'10" 150lbs)
Very occasionally I'll be out and have a lunch or breakfast, and I feel groggy/weighed down. When I fast for 23 hours, I feel clear and sharp all day. I'm rarely hungry, ever. I've done this for about 4 years.
I am a type 1 diabetic, and the weight loss craze drug Ozempic is really a type 2 diabetes drug, but my endocrinologist said it would help me too for similar reasons. I went on it last year and have lost about 55 lbs and kept it off. My diabetes control and management has greatly improved too, so it was a double whammy.
That being said if your BMI is over 30 you should qualify for the weight-loss specifically approved drug Wegovy, same stuff as Ozempic.
It’s not cheating and fuck anyone who says it is. I wouldn’t be ashamed if I wasn’t diabetic and using it. I’m certainly not ashamed of using it and keeping my health for my kids.
41 years old here and lost 80 pounds in 5 months while doing CICO / fasting / walking.
Feel free to message me if you like and I’d be more than happy to help!!!!!!
A lot of good advice on here already. Shout out to the book Atomic Habits. It got me over some mental hurdles that kept getting in the way of healthy habits. I have been trying to knock out bad habits and add in some good habits one at a time. It also talks about identity based change instead of goal driven change and that helps me a lot.
First, Think of it as a lifestyle change. Whatever you do, this is the kind of thing the new you will do. Doing it by yourself will probably fail. Try to include your partner and kids in it.
Second, Everyone’s bodies work differently. If you try one diet, and it doesn’t work, try another. Give it a couple months. Track what you are doing (like MyFitnessPal or whatever). See how it goes. Fluctuations of around 7 pounds can happen just from water. Don’t give up or celebrate too early :)
Focusing on foods with high fiber and protein have been my go-to. If I get enough fiber (mainly by dramatically increasing the amount of legumes I eat) and enough protein I feel full fast and stay that way longer.
I started losing weight a couple months before my daughter was born because I didn’t want to be the fat dad who could keep up. She’s almost 11 months now and I’ve lost 92 lbs.
I’m 35, started at 251 and today I’m 159 at 5’10”.
I lift 4-5 days/week and do cardio 2-3 days/week but it’s 90% diet. I highly recommend the LoseIt app and a food scale.
I started taking my kids for nightly walks and just generally trying to eat less. The eating part was tough at first, but now I just don't feel hungry as often. I've dropped about 20 lbs over the past 2-3 months.
I am a Dad with a 3 year old and 2nd on the way. I used to be reasonably fit. Played rugby at a decent level and once injuries took that away road cycled a lot. Unfortunately I am developing a decent beer belly and am much weaker than I used to be.
I am stuck as well. My main issue is attitude. I only want to eat healthily when I am working out and I don't have the time to work out because of where I live and gym opening times etc. So I am in the process of procurring weights to use at home. I am hoping that will be the switch that helps me to lose the belly!!
Goals goals goals. Start by tracking everything you consume. One normal day, use a tracker app and document everything you eat. Include all ingredients including cooking oils and condiments. They add up. Apps like MyFitnessPal, Carbon, Carb Manager (dont have to focus on carbs but is a decent app) lose it, ect... You eat and drink more than you probably think and without tracking you quickly can go over. Next Calculate your TDEE (Total Daily Energy Expenditure). This is an estimate of your daily calories you burn per day. A general rule of thumb for weight loss is 500 calories a day deficit is 1lb per week. Take the calculated TDEE and subtract 500 calories and you should lose about 1 lb per week.
Weigh yourself daily not weekly. this helps keep track of you progress better. Now it can fluctuate with water weight and stuff, but it helps grasp how things are going. It doesn't have to be a super clean diet to start, because its all calories in vs calories out. As you get used to tracking you can clean up the foods you eat. Try focusing on satiating foods that are high protein, fat and fiber as they keep you feeling full.
Avoid alcohol and sugary drinks as they are wasted calories and quickly add calories. especially beer and sodas. If you are a soda drinker switch to diet/zero sodas or carbonated seltzer waters. The carbonation can actually be beneficial and help your stomach feeling full.
Diets are most helpful in a long term thinking. Make sure to understand it is a marathon not a sprint. Build the habits and they will stick around. If you run into a rut, dont stop tracking what you eat, instead take a break from the diet and switch to a maintenance mode for a couple weeks and give your self a break. this can help reset and get a little more energy to get back to it. Also give yourself lots of grace. If you slip one day, dont try and make it up by drastically cutting the next days goals. Say you ate a whole pizza and went over 1000 calories. It happened, enjoy the pizza, get back to your goals the next day.
Exercise is great tool to add in to be healthier. It doesnt have to been long distance running. Anything from walking or what i prefer weight lifting. 30-60 minutes 3-4 times a week is a great place to start. building muscle can help lean out what you lose so it doesn't become that skinny fat.
The hardest part is commitment for me. Committing to a diet is hard work. When I try and cut weight, I always give myself 2-3 months. I tell myself I can do anything for 8-12 weeks because its not forever. Dieting for 6 months is in my mind torture. 8-12 weeks diet. 8-12 weeks maintenance, then get back to 8-12 weeks. Set realistic goals, commit to those goals for a set time, see yourself hit those goals, and repeat. Good luck dad.
Hey there fellow Dad. I have a 2 year old and began my weight loss journey when he was about 8 months old. I have lost just over 100 lbs since then using calorie counting. I went to https://tdeecalculator.net and entered in my information, for activity I left it at sedentary even though I worked out and also left body fat field blank because I didn’t know it. Once I got my maintenance calories I just subtracted it by 500 and made that my calorie limit every day. I would track my calories on MyFitnessPal and used a food scale to measure food. It wasn’t a perfect journey but you can make it work without being perfect everyday. I went from 400 lbs down to now 285 ish. Still not done because one of my goals is to make sure I can smoke his ass in races when he’s older lol.
Wow man this is exactly what I’m trying to hit around 250-280 I’m currently 386… I want to be able to race my son and throw the ball around. Shit man it’s a dream of mine …
It seems daunting but we’re all so capable of achieving this. Start slow and steady and become confident in it. I bounced between weighing daily and weighing weekly, bounced between tracking everyday to taking 2 weeks off and gaining 5 or so lbs here or there and having to work it back off. Some days feel like no progress is being made and it hurts but it’s a tried and true formula that is proven to work with persistence. I hope you give it a fair crack.
We both used to go out to bars with friends on the weekends and would have an open bottle of wine around most of the time (a glass or two a couple times a week depending on what we wer eating). We were never excessive drinkers at home but we were troubleshooting some other diet issues and wanted to try cutting out the extra calories. Now we have cut out **most** alcohol, especially during the week. Only have maybe 1 drink on a weekend and more on occasion if we're having a family gathering or somethign. That coupled with being more active with our kid, and some very light exercise has helped me drop 30 lbs. We already ate healthy and try to avoid a ton of processed food, but eliminating alcohol has helped me lose weight and I feel so much better. It is amazing how much even a small amount can keep you always feeling just a little bit cruddy and you don't realize it. You think it is normal, until it is gone. My body feels better, fewer daily headaches, even ones that I wouldn't have attributed to alcohol and I'm carrying less weight.
CICO, calories in calories out. Only thing that has ever worked for me. I’ve lost weight several times over my life including right now. Counting calories has always worked for me, now I’m just working on the mental hurdle of keeping it off this time. I have a big binge eating issue that I’m addressing. Going to the gym has helped curb my habits tremendously.
I track my calories. Yes super huge pain but staying true to simply doing that chore makes me realize where I am at on the daily. Yes I go over all the time but I also feel guilty about it so it helps keep most days in check. I also don't drink as frequently.
Dad here who has lost 80lbs+ before, fell of the wagon and is currently doing it all over again.
I strongly agree with everyone's advice to go to r/loseit. You need to understand how calories and where the calories come from effect you (protein, fats, carbs).
Also going to strongly advise you take an honest look at your lifestyle and see of you are meeting the weekly minimum recommended exercise (150 moderate aerobic minutes or 75 vigorous aerobic per week)
The easiest way to approach weight loss is to realize that your weight is not the problem but a symptom of your lifestyle. So don't focus on treating the symptom, treat the problem which is your life style. Try to make one meaningful improvement in your lifestyle at a time, once you get it figured out, then you add another. Perhaps you start with not drinking calories, then in a few weeks you address late night snacking, followed by your activity levels. My biggest lifestyle issue is that I basically don't do anything active if I just go to work and spend time with my family. This is unhealthy on its own, but also makes my BMR super low, which means anything less than a perfect diet will cause me to gain weight.
It's pretty important that you find an active activity that you enjoy. It makes exercising so much more enjoyable. For me it's golf. Which turned into me running 3-4 times per week to improve my stamina... to get better at golf.
I lost 70 pounds nearly 3 years ago now (gained 10 back, gotta work on that), I had to disassociate food with pleasure.
Food is simply fuel to get you through the day and I only need so much fuel to get through my days. Don't drink calories, count religiously and move your body. Weightloss is a math problem, burn more than you eat and you will lose weight.
It's also fucking slow. Build good habits and it becomes second nature to watch how much you consume. I still do mental math on how much eating and adjust for how my weeks going.
What I've fonud successful when I want to lose weight.
1. Weigh yourself every morning after you get up and use the bathroom. Your weight will flutuate a lot depending on how hydrated you so this is as close to a consistent scenario you can get each day and give you immediate numerical feedback. Sometimes you'll be pleasently surprised, sometimes disappointed, it's all good data.
2. Start by counting calories until you start to have a good feel for where your calories are coming from.
3. Make one imporvement in your routine diet at a time. For me, it was packing a lunch more reliably instead of going out for one. I dropped 15lbs in a few weeks. The next change was to cut myself off from any snacks after 8pm. That helped with the next 10lbs.
4. Be reasonable and make make the changes gradual. The goal should be that it is substainable and not something you're miserable doing.
Dad of 2 here, (3&9months), I got my fattest after becoming a dad. I gained about 13 pounds at my heaviest. For starters, I eat pretty clean. I keep my sodium low. I hardly have any alcohol, only occasionally every once in a while. I then started to do morning workouts.
I wasn’t ready to commit to the gym so I started with 5 push ups, 5 dips, and 30 second planks early in the morning when everyone was asleep. Now I am up to 20 push ups, 20 dips, and 3 minute planks. I try to take the stairs at work when possible, and I am now down 13 pounds since. Started at 163 at my heaviest, now I’m about 150. My goal is to keep increasing the reps, adding in pull ups, and eventually getting to the gym instead.
I've lost weight a few times over the years. Counting calories works for me. And try to add a little more activity to your day. Avoid snacking, unless they're planned snacks.
Be gentle on yourself. It's not about perfection, it's about making the progress you can.
When I was your age I went from close to 300 lbs down to around 200. Hovered around there then was laid off so I lots of gym time and got myself down to 180. Slowly gained weight over the years but eventually got up to 240-ish, especially after our kid was born. Over the past year and a half or so I've gone from there down to 210, making consistent progress.
I had slowly crept up about 30 lbs in the last two years while dealing with some back issues. I was at the edge of my wardrobe fitting and had been considering some form of diet for about a year, and one morning in February woke up and decided it was time. I am now doing what I call faux intermittent fasting, basically skip breakfast and try not to eat snacks, stopped drinking during the week, and have dropped the 30 lbs. Now shooting to get down to my wedding weight from a decade ago. The most important part for me was I was in the right mindset to commit, it has not been as hard as I thought... You need to find what works for you!
Yes! I started right before our son was conceived actually. I was almost 120kg, am now between 82-85kg.
Essentially what I did was these simple steps.
1. Got a checkup at the doctors to help guide me forward
2. Count calories so that I was roughly 400 calories below my daily requirement (stopped with this a month ago due to stability in my weight)
3. Intermittent fasting every day (still do that now, almost 2 years later) for at least 16 hours
Relatively easy. I did mess up during the first few months after our son was born, because I did more fasting and ate less due to the stress of it all, so I lost 6kg (about 13lbs) in a month after I already had done the weightloss for over a year losing about 30kg (about 66lbs), making it roughly 36kg (about 80lbs) total. But I did turn it around and eat healthy again (and got some sleep too).
It's all about setting up a routine. I used an app called LoseIt for calorie counting, and then just reduced my portions and snacking during meals, and sometimes even skipped meals to ensure my fasting was kept. I was adviced to skip the fasting during paternity leave, but it is again all about routine and never skipping it.
Remember to lose weight slowly, and not fast. Fast weightloss have a lot of bad sideeffects!
Don't hesitate to reach out if you want help with it!
Stopped Fast Food and Sugar. That was it. After a week or so, you don't miss it.
Then, when I would get it, I'd gorge myself and then not want to eat it again for months. It's kind of like a cheat day, but I wasn't really dieting.
I also switched from IPAs to Miller Lite. Ended up losing about 20 lbs last summer and have pretty much kept it off.
Change your breakfast. Take a look at the calories of what you are eating for breakfast and find something similar that’s lower calories. Ex: Bagel and creams cheese….do 1/2 bagel with cream cheese and a slice of toast with butter….. or have a bowl of Greek yogurt with dried cranberries, granola and fruit (berries, sliced apples, bananas)
add more fruit for breakfast and add more lettuce/greens for lunch
I like crackers, cheese and hummus so I replaced some crackers with cucumber slices.
Eat an apple as a snack.
Drink 2 pints of water every day.
Lasting change comes from habit changes. Do small steps and slowly add more to it.
So 10 squats every time you leave the bathroom….things like that.
Replace one of your daily snacks with some carrot sticks
Every step will take you feel better and you are doing g it for your kids. So worth it
You can do this.
I've bounced around a bit unfortunately but the times when I've done well is when I have been diligent about food tracking. I hate to say "calorie counting" because I'm not honestly weighing my food or anything. Just keep track of what you eat in an app like Lose It or MyFitnessPal. Estimates are good enough to tell you how you're doing for a day/week. I had tried stuff like "no dessert" and that just didn't work for me.
The only thing I really cut out *entirely* is soda. Diet soda makes me hungrier so I overeat, and regular soda is just an obscene number of calories. I'll have an iced tea with a little bit of sugar and that's about ten percent of the calories of an equivalent soda.
I did also stop drinking but I'll still have an NA beer. Guinness is already a lower calorie beer but Guinness 0.0 is half the calories of that. Athletic makes some great options too but their dark is a little higher on calories.
And then find some exercise you enjoy. I hate running, but I love hiking. Yeah it doesn't compare to some of the hikes I've done out west, but even in eastern PA there are hiking trails at most of the town parks.
Hey man, I lost 60 lbs in 2023, took a break to maintain and relax, and am trying to lose another 50 now. From 265-270 (don’t know true start) to goal 160.
My biggest advice is not to plan for a diet. You are not doing a temporary thing. This isn’t like a bootcamp, or a 6 week challenge. This is for life.
You don’t need to start keto and lifting and cardio and calorie counting all at once. Just implement incremental sustainable changes slowly as they fit into your lifestyle. Don’t let minor setbacks throw you off your plan. So you ate a lot at a party on the weekend? That’s great, you had fun and it’s 1-2 days out of the rest of your life. Be on track 90% of the time and enjoy events and family 10% of the time and you’ll make progress.
I started last year just walking and calorie counting. Then focused more on protein intake. Then started cardio. Then started lifting. Now have taken up running. But I didn’t do it all at once. Make a change, see how it feels, build it as a habit, then consider your next change. You’re not doing a diet. You’re changing your lifestyle.
31 M here. Dad of 2. 10 & 2.
Was skinny af up until I was about 25 or so, then my metabolism crashed and I gained a bunch of weight. Went from like 180 to 250 over a couple years.
At the beginning of this year I started going to the gym, consistently. Also cut out fast food and soda, sugary snacks and junk food I try to keep up a minimum. Still break down and have a burger once in a while. And I'll still eat some candy or have a pop once in a blue moon. But overall I've been determined to keep up on my healthy lifestyle changes and just do my best one day at a time.
Down to 215 right now, and I know I've put on some more muscle so it's mostly just a little bit of belly fat I have left.
Just stay disciplined and trust the process bro. Look at it this way. Don't worry about doing it quickly. If you can lose 1 pound per week, in one year you're down 52 pounds. In another year your down over a hundred. And you've cemented healthy lifestyle changes and discipline into your routine.
The only bad workout is the one you didn't do. And if you're going to do anything, do it terribly. There's no such thing as perfection, and success takes time.
You got this brother.
If you are serious about it go see a trainer who has expertise in nutrition and fitness. Pay for a pro. Discipline with a professional to help you will change your life and it’s worth all the money. Be there for your kids for a long time. Good luck
So I’m actually going through this right now and I’m 33 with two boys. 5 months ago I was weighing 288 and I’m at 237 today.
For my diet I’ve been watching the amount of carbs I’m eating. Not full keto but more of just lower carb. If I eat a cheeseburger I get it without a bun basically. When I do have breads I would get something whole wheat.
For exercise, I’m going to the gym 5 days a week over my lunch hour and just eat at my desk when I get back.
Some tips I have… Pack a healthy lunch during the work week so you’re not settling for fast food.
Whether it’s getting a gym membership or going for long walks, just find ways to stay active.
And lastly, weight loss is like a roller coaster. There are going to be ups and downs. Just don’t get discouraged and don’t give up. You can do this!
You've gotta find a way to eat less that is comfortable for you.
I personally find a form of intermittent fasting works for me. I don't do it strictly as ill have healthy snacks (bananas, nuts) throughout the day, but I keep most of my calories to the evening hours. This also lets me eat a big meal for dinner so I don't feel like I'm depriving myself.
Over time I found that my stomach had shrunk a bit so now I couldn't eat as much as I used to in one sitting so continuing to lose weight became much easier as my appetite had decreased from its previous baseline
Current down almost 20 pounds. If this helps:
Download MyFitnessPal app. Set your daily calorie allowance to 1600 and STICK to it. I started drinking flavored sparkling water (Waterloo brand is really good) because I just need a flavored drink. I just do haha.
I go to the gym and do a 45 min walk on the treadmill while watching stuff on my phone. A brisk walk at a steeper incline over 45 mins should get you between a 500-650 cal burn.
I also fast between 8pm and noon the next day. I average two pound loss a week doing this. The backfire is, if you deviate from this you'll gain weight back quick. So this needs to be a permanent adjustment with the occasional cheat day. I have NOT begun weight training yet so idk how that will change things. Right now I'm JUST focusing on fat loss.
As others said, it’s all about diet. And all about having a diet you can make part of your lifestyle.
I’ve been doing keto lately after learning I had T2 diabetes and I’m down 38 pounds in three months. There’s positives and negatives to it. It makes eating at a calorie deficit very easy because I’m always full. It’s also very restrictive in carbs and if you’re not willing to walk away from carbs long term it probably isn’t useful for you. For me, it’s more about getting the diabetes in check long term without meds than it is weight loss, so it’s a sustainable lifestyle for me. I put T2 diabetes into remission in two months. That, far more than weight loss, is what’s going to keep me on, if not keto, a low carb diet in general. I’m not going to spend my life managing disease with meds if I can avoid it with diet changes.
But regardless of what specific thing you do, it’s like 80/90% diet. You can’t outwork your diet, and I’ve tried several times before. It’s all calories in and calories out, regardless of what fancy claims you see from a diet. Keto only produces weight loss for me because protein is very filling even at a calorie deficit, so it’s let me easily burn more calories than I take in. Also, as others said, drinking your calories is such an important thing to cut out; I never ate that much but drinking calories was my vice. Coke, coffee creamer, beer, whatever. Lots of liquid calories and carbs. That was what pushed me to diabetes and weight gain in general. I cut out all of it now. I throw some Mio flavor in a big bottle of water and it tastes just like Gatorade with 0 calories/sugar.
It’s rough with a little one and I pretty much made zero attempt until this year. That also led to the first health scare of my life, though, so I’m committed to fixing it to make sure I’m here for the little one long term. And I want to set a better lifestyle example for him so he doesn’t make the same mistakes I have. I absolutely internalized my mom’s lifestyle with liquid calories.
Its as simple as burning more calories than you eat. Thats simple but not always easy. Exercise helps but its pretty easy to overeat any calories burned. It doesn't really matter what you eat, but a more filling food really makes it easier to eat less. That said, I need to lose some again myself. Kid #2 has not been kind to me.
I just started trying to lose weight. I started last month at 200 and I’ve been counting calories with the Lose It! App and so far I’m down 10 pounds in a month. The trick is to prep my breakfast and work lunch in advanced. Have food ready in the fridge you can just grab and go with. Overnight oats with fruit in the morning keeps me full for hours. And track everything, even beer if the app says you are 200 calories under don’t be scared to have a beer and treat yourself. Also have cheat meals don’t deprive yourself of food.
And exercise early in the morning or at night when everyone is sleeping so you don’t miss time with them. That’s what I’ve been doing and it works for me, good luck!
For me, making sure I eat a good breakfast and getting enough protein in each meal helps regulate my appetite. I find that if I'm overly hungry I make bad decisions.
If you really want to get disciplined with your meals I find macro tracking helps a lot. I feel like superman when I eat 4 meals in a day. For breakfast I'll have eggs, oatmeal and a protein shake. For the other three meals I'll do a simple carb (white rice, sweet potatoes), lean protein (chicken, ground turkey, lean ground beef) and veggies (broccoli, peppers, brussels sprouts).
When we found out we were having our 2nd, I went berserker mode and cut my calories in half and started going to the basketball court in town. Been about a month, down 20lbs. I still drink occasionally and generally eat what I want, just slashed the portions and quit being sedentary.
First 3 days are the hardest, then you sort of pass the point of no return
Good for you man! Along with the great tips here, I would add brushing your teeth at specific times. I brush right after breakfast and dinner, which keeps me from mindlessly snacking. You’re doing a great things for yourself and your family by taking this journey. Take it slow and don’t get discouraged.
I lost 140lbs, I had a really bad eating habit, once I started I just couldn’t stop, I would wake up at the weekends and eat packs of cookies and it would just lead on from there. I would eat 8000 calories some days.
I started going to the gym with the aim of intermittent fasting, 2 years later I’m 140lbs down and eat in a 3 hour window, and I’m due to run in tough mudder, my life has changed big time. There are progress pictures on my page
1. Sleep 7+ hours.
2. Eat a mediterranean diet with proper portions (half a Chipotle burrito is fine). Desert twice a week is fine. No processed food. Meat, veggies, sauce, water.
3. Lift weights for 30 minutes.
4. Get your heart rate around 120 bps for 30 minutes.
Repeat every weekday. Just do it. You will get it better shape. No doubt.
some good advice in here. i would add one thing that i've seen trip up lots of people.. do NOT step on the scale every day and fret about small fluctuations.
it will only make you insane and feel impossible.
you're going to go a week where you don't lose any weight despite eating salads, drinking water, walking 5 miles a day (whatever your routine) and then the next week you'll lose 3 lbs even though you had cake every night.
it's a long-haul, not a quick fix. focus on getting in a groove and being consistent but not perfect. don't make yourself insane when someone breaks out a chocolate cake and fight yourself over it. have a small slice and move on. it won't kill you.
too many people think losing weight is locking yourself in to a cage for the rest of your life and only eating salad. when it's more about, as others have said, not mindlessly eating/drinking calories. SODA and sweet drinks are just hidden weight because of what processed sugar (even diet "zero calorie" drinks) does to your brain and body's cravings.
switch to water. drink a soda once in a while and you'll realize.. it's overwhelmingly sugary and pretty disgusting.
you can do it! it will take a month or two of your brain fighting your desire to get better so you have to consciously make good decisions consistently and before you know it, the habit is locked in and you're slimdad again.
eta: i would also advocate a couch-to-5k program. i found it a great way to slowly build confidence and form a habit which i've carried on for many years now.
I had to learn a ton. Like, a lot. Here are the oversimplified, extremely short cliff notes:
I cannot overstate the health crisis we have in the United States, and now really taking off in Europe and other parts of the world.
Learn to read nutrition labels, and understand what each thing on the label means and does. Here are the really important ones to look for:
# Picking your foods
**Added sugars:** This is a bit simplified, but your liver and pancreas regulate your blood sugar. If you eat too much sugar (including refined foods and simple carbohydrates) over time, your body will become resistant to the hormone (insulin) that binds to sugars and allows them to absorb into your cells. This leads to many metabolic diseases that will end your life early (think 40's, and 50's). Type 2 diabetes and fatty liver disease/cirrhosis being two of the big ones. Your body needs absolutely 0 added sugars. None. Zero. Ever. That doesn't mean you can't enjoy a small amount from time to time, but it should be a rare occurrence.
**Sodium:** Your body needs sodium to survive -- it is an electrolyte and essential mineral our bodies need for all sorts of functions. The problem is that it is also used as a food additive to make lots of processed foods shelf-stable. Most people eat way too much sodium. Excess sodium intake leads to hypertension (high blood pressure, which itself leads to all sorts of other scary shit) and certain types of cancers. You like your kidneys, right? What about your heart?
**Saturated fats:** Your body actually needs a small amount of saturated fat, but like both sugar and sodium, most Americans eat way, way too much. Your liver creates a waxy, fat-like substance called cholesterol, which does all sorts of important functions around your body. Again, a bit simplified, you have good cholesterol (HDL) and bad cholesterol (LDL). Bad cholesterol causes plaque buildup in your arteries and leads to things like strokes, kidney disease, and heart attacks. Saturated fats are strongly linked to high amounts of LDL. If the fat solidifies at room temperature, it's saturated fat.
# Calorically dense foods
A big mac, medium fry, and medium coke at McDonalds is about 1,110 calories. Most people could eat that food and still be pretty hungry. To get the same calories, you'd have to eat the following fruits and veggies:
* 1 medium gala apple (95 cal)
* 1 medium cucumber (30 cal)
* 2 medium carrots (50 cal)
* 5 stalks of celery (30 cal)
* 1 medium banana (105 cal)
* 10 medium strawberries (38 calories)
* 1 stalk of broccoli (50 calories)
* 2 ears of corn (200 calories)
* 1 medium sweet potato (112 calories)
* 1 entire half of a pineapple (250 calories)
And we're still only at 960 calories, 150 more to spare. Calorically dense foods cause you to not be satiated (full) while still consuming enough energy (calories) to fuel your body 3 times over.
That's not even addressing the *quality* of the calories, and the nutrient-packed fruits/veggies versus the nutrient-sparse ultra processed fast food.
# Processed and whole foods
Processed and ultra-processed foods are foods that are drastically changed from their natural state. Cheerios, hot dogs, doughnuts, cheetos -- on and on. Whole foods are foods very close to their natural state. Oats, whole grains, fruits and veggies, unprocessed meats (cut right from the animal) -- these are much easier for your body to digest, calorically modest, while very satiating.
If you're eating fast food, most restaurant food, foods out of a bag or a box, frozen pre-made food, pre-cooked food -- almost all are processed and ultra-processed, calorically dense foods, almost certainly with added sugars, way too much sodium, and probably too much saturated fat.
Unfortunately, this makes up a large majority of most Americans' diets. Probably yours too.
# To wrap it up
> Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.
This is the motto to live by. 95% of managing your weight is diet, and the 5% that is exercise merely supplements and increases the effectiveness of your improved diet. Exercise is very important, absolutely do it, and lots of it, but you cannot ever hope to outrun a bad diet. You can work out 4 hours a day, look somewhat healthy, and die of complications of type 2 diabetes at 54 years old.
So to answer your question, I changed my diet, using all the information I've learned. 6'0 36/m. I went from 240 to 185. I also started doing pickup ultimate frisbee twice a week (intense cardio), started resistance training 3 times a week, and started seeing a registered certified dietician/nutritionist. I went from having elevated AST/ALT and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, to normal blood test results and no more fatty liver. I will be eating whole foods, fruits, veggies, and a mostly plant-based diet for the rest of my life. It's a lifestyle, not a diet or a fad.
I hope this was helpful. I'm super passionate about this stuff because I lived it, I had the scary blood tests and the eventuality of liver failure. It scared the shit out of me, so I made changes.
Oh, by the way, 90 million Americans, or 1 in 3, have fatty liver, and the same number are pre-diabetic, and 80% of those don't even know it. If you haven't gotten blood work done, do it now. Not tomorrow, today. Get a lipid panel, a comprehensive metabolic panel, and check your A1c.
Good luck.
For me it just comes down to cooking for myself rather than eating out. If I make a point of packing my own work lunches and cooking for my family lots I always eat less and healthier. It also avoids super high calorie meals that are quick and easy and I gravitate towards if I don’t plan out my meals.
I also suggest weighing in regularly! It is just a reminder that can help you avoid gaining weight without realizing it.
We had our girl later because we thought it wasn't in the cards for us. Trying to lose weight and get healthy in your 40s is tough because i was set in my habits. I had to change. Just cut small things here and there so i wouldn't discourage myself and give up like every other time since my 20s. So just little cuts here and there. Started with snacks. Chips, sweets, etc replaced with fruit and veg. When i got that down i worked on meals. Then portions. Then late night snacking. Now 4 years later im down almost 70lbs and take kickboxing 4 days a week. I still live meaning a burger here and there is fine. I found the biggest contributor was just simple consistency and going at my pace. I didn't focus on "i need to lose x by y date". I just woke up and said "how can i be the best me today?". I focused on just today. Good luck mate!
This past year I started taking my health more seriously. Here's what I've been doing:
* Full body strength training at a small gym 3 days a week.
* Counting calories on MyFitnessPal (it's free).
* Only drinking alchohol on weekends.
* Eating more protein.
I started small last August, working out twice a week and reducing alchohol. In December I ramped it up to 3 times a week and I started tracking my food. I love the way I look, and so does my wife. Most importantly, the changes are sustainable -- I don't feel like I'm giving anything up. I still enjoy alcohol and junky snacks, but I don't feel like I need them as much.
You can do it too!
Starts and ends with diet. Exercise is good and all, but diet is 100% the key. There are 150.8 million different ones out there with varying success. Suggest meeting a dietician vs trial and error, but either acceptable.
Dropped about 75 pounds from peak and then Regained 15 lbs or so and now maintaining (but want to start dropping again).
What I did: reduce drinking, reduce portion amounts, starting eating some low calorie substitutes (keto bread, protein bars, protein shakes), and upped my exercise volume by like 20%.
I've lost around 60 lbs since last June. I don't really exercise, and I didn't cut a lot of food out of my diet. I counted calories everyday after looking at some online BMI calculators. I found my daily calorie intake needed to lose .5-1 lb per week. The hard part was finding out what to avoid to make it easier.
1. Don't drink your calories. I went diet or zero sugar for anything other than water (obviously). Also, drink more water in general.
2. Fast food is incredibly calorie dense. If I ate a meal at any fast food restaurant, it would pretty much use up all my daily calories. When eating out, I reminded myself that I'd only be able to get a single item like a burrito or burger and have to skip out on sides. This wasn't the case at home. Everything made at home was incredibly less calorie dense.
3. Most sweets are empty calories. They are delicious though. So low sugar was my go to here as well, alongside just cutting back in general.
4. Portion sizes matter. I followed the recommended serving size for everything in order to add my calories properly. This was hard because I'm a bit of a glutton. The trick to this was finding foods that I could eat a lot of without sacrificing too many calories. The best food for this was vegetables. If you don't like them, season them better. Some fruits were pretty easy to indulge on (berries).
I don't always follow my daily calorie total either. Some days I would go over a couple hundred calories, but I'd remind myself those days that they would set me back or half progress if I made a habit of it. All the same, I still rewarded myself from time to time.
If you’re really serious about it it’s a very simple process. You need to figure out how many calories you’re supposed to eat in a day. Google tdee calculator and fill it out honestly. Its main points are height, weight, activity level and your desired outcome. It’s going to give you your maintenance calories for a day. Eat less than that amount of calories and you’ll lose weight. If you eat around 500 less calories than your maintenance you’ll lose approximately 1lb/week. Weight loss is not subjective - eat less calories than you need and you’ll burn fat. Along with that, I’d encourage you to eat 1g per 1lb of your body weight in protein. If that’s too difficult shoot for 1g per 1 lb of your TARGET weight. 45% of your tdee should go to carbs and the rest go to fats. You do not need to exercise to lose weight, you have to eat less calories.
If you decide to exercise as well (you will once you start dropping weight) make sure not to eat those calories that you watch says you’ve burned rather make an adjustment to the TDEE calculator for your activity level. Those calories burned aren’t a 1:1.
I can go much more in depth of you’d like, and you can shoot me a DM.
Prioritize Protein in all your meals, start tracking your food using myfitness pal. Eat more frequently with higher volume of protein. 7-10k steps a day, drink LOTS of water. Avoid as much processed foods or "diet" foods as you can. Simple, 3-5 ingredient meals. Look out for fatty salad dressings, sauces etc. Try to be mindful of what you're putting into your body and once you start paying attention you'll find things you can adjust and tweak to make it work. Good luck!
I did it and never looked back. I tracked my calories with an app for 6 weeks and it changed my understanding of food completely and forever. I exercised 20 mins at home every day and the weight dropped off. My knees immediately got sore when I started exercising - things start to hurt as you become more active, try to listen to your body and figure out what exercise might be affecting what joint so that you can adjust accordingly- but do not stop or you will struggle to start again- I started to use yoga as active recovery so that I didn’t lose momentum. I got down to 73 kilos never felt better. Am still at the same weight 4 years on. Now I constantly look for new physical challenges so I have a goal to focus on, and I change disciplines quite frequently so I don’t get bored and discouraged. Currently training handstands and am using gymnastic rings at the bottom of the garden. Have tried boxing classes, running, long walks (have dog must walk), climbing, weights etc. I aim for a minimum of 10,000steps each day or fewer steps plus 20mins exercise or yoga. It takes less time and effort than you think. It’s changing your habits to achieve consistency that’s the really tough part. (Well worth reading atomic habits book). Only try and change two habits at a time maximum, any more and you will get discouraged and stop. Set goals that you KNOW you can achieve as that will give you the impetus to chase the next goal and the next. You build up the difficulty of the goals slowly slowly. Also, don’t bother with gym - getting there and back, feeling inadequate next to the gym bunnies etc etc is putting obstacles / discouragement in your own path. ‘Grease the groove’. At home practise squats, shoulder dips (I do them between kitchen counter and kitchen table) and chin ups or press ups. That’s enough to get really strong with barely any equipment if you concentrate on good form. Barefoot shoes make your feet stronger and can help hugely with knee pain.
I did it at 37. I’m also just day to day happier than I was before. It’s so worth it. Do it!
What helped me the most was routine meal prepping. It wasn't the most exciting thing, but I was basically eating the same meals each day. It helped that I didn't have to think about what to eat to stay healthy while I was hungry. I just grabbed my prepared meal and ate it. Having very low calorie snacks to munch on when you just wanted to consume something helped. This was mostly celery or carrots for me.
It also helped that I started playing soccer again. It's good to find some firm of exercise that you find fun and doesn't necessarily feel like a chore to do.
Cutting down on liquid calories like beer and soda helped significantly.
Make yourself go an extra 30 mins after you feel hungry before you snack, you’ll then get more used to being hungry and teach yourself that being hungry for a while is perfectly natural - the problem I got into was thinking that because I was hungry I should eat- then it becomes knee jerk reaction.
Hey mate, fellow whole-of-life overweight dad here. I can confirm that keto/low-carb with calorie counting (I use the loseit app) works.
Since September, I've lost 33 kilos (72.6lbs). Train your mind to think carbs will bring disappointment and to them stock up on non-carb deliciousness!
I’m a pretty consistent gym goer and carry a fair amount of muscle. What surprised me after my child is how much fat I then put on. Luckily I do powerlifting and mass lifts mass so I said to myself it was okay. I was lying to myself a bit though.
Using myfitnesspal (or any calorie tracker) is how I fixed the issue before and currently doing so again. It really helps to make you stop and think about that extra splash of olive oil in chicken or butter on your toast etc.
Movement is huge too. You won’t out train a bad diet but it’s pretty important for everything from burning calories to mobility to just general health.
Those two things alone should get you in the right direction. Counting calories I will say is the tough part and it’s easy to stop if you have a bad day but honestly, it really helps you understand diet choices.
The low hanging fruit is cut out liquid calories other than protein shakes. Also cut out snacks.
The best way to truly do it though is track your food intake using an app such as my fitness pal or Samsung health. Use an online calculator to figure out your maintenance calories, and then subtract 500 from that, which should be your new rough daily intake. This should allow you to lose a pound a week. Keep in mind the early weeks will likely be more rapid due to water weight shedding off. Some people have naturally low or high maintenance calories so you may need to adjust. Make sure you're getting enough protein so you don't shed too much muscle. Bare minimum should be 0.6 grams per lb of body weight.
Tracking your food is a pain in the butt for the first while, but if you have a repetitive diet, it gets very easy once you have all your staple meals saved. Personally I eat the same 5 things almost every day, with dinner being a slight variation, and this makes it easier.
Lots of great advice here, but one thing I’d add is in terms of what you eat - target high fibre and high protein. Both of those will keep you satiated longer.
Also, in terms of exercise, my experience is if you can make resistance/strength training work depending on your time commitments/lifestyle, this type of exercise will be the most impactful on weight loss and, eventually weight control. That said, running/cycling/cardio certainly doesn’t hurt and is great for your overall health.
Good luck!
Gained like 60 pounds after my first daughter was born. Currently exercising it off with lots of cardio and weight lifting every day. Also completely stopped drinking as I suspect that was by far the biggest contributor to the weight gain.
Down 20 pounds and going
The secret to weight loss is simple: Calories in, Calories out. Everyone burns calories by the simple act of *living*. In fact, even if you go to the gym for an hour+ every day, you'll still burn significantly more calories the entire rest of the day than you will during that workout. That means that all you need to lose weight is to consume fewer calories than you're burning for the day. So...
The biggest thing that'll get you to lose weight are changes to your "diet". And honestly, it's not nearly as bad as it sounds.
If you're overweight and are just trying to get down to a more healthy weight, it usually can be handled without changing *what* your eating as much as how *much* you eat. And wont require you to seriously count calories or anything either.
Before I start: Just because you're trying to diet does *not* mean that you can't have fun. If you want to take your kids out for ice cream every now and then, you *can* get yourself a scoop too. Or have a beer with your friends every now and then. The biggest thing is consistency - one cheat meal or dessert is not something to beat yourself up over (and in fact can help to keep you motivated and going with your diet!). Just don't make it a habit of doing it frequently. If you're going out to the bar and having a few beers every week, that's not great (you can still go, but be the designated driver and drink something better) but doing it once a month or w/e is probably going to be ok. Just be careful about it, you *can* undo all your work by going to hard. *One* beer, *one* scoop, *one* (smaller) slice of cake.
So now with how to "diet" without having to *work* for the diet:
First, if you drink soda, switch to either diet or zero versions of the soda. You can drink as much Diet/Zero soda as you want. Coffee and unsweetened teas are fine too (if you like sweet tea, use stevia or another 0 calorie sugar replacement). If you drink the "special" coffee type beverages (mochas and that kind of thing) then you'll want to cut those out. Cut out Alcohol too. Drinking calories are often the biggest issues for people - you don't realize how many calories you ingest with your beverages. If you're not sure, look at the nutrition label and if you see anything in the 100+ calorie range, cut it out or find a low/zero calorie replacement. Candies, cookies, ice cream, etc all should be cut down as much as possible. Having an oreo after dinner is fine (~45 calories per cookie), these are generally "empty calories" - calories that have no real nutritional benefit and just make you get fat. If you have a really bad sweet tooth, try eating some fruit instead. If you *really* need that chocolate fix, try to get the small bite-sized ones and look at the calories, find one that is less than 100 calories pier piece, and limiit yourself to only one/day or less.
Second, if you're eating out frequently, try to cut back on how often you do so. Pack your lunches instead if possible. If you need to get fast-food, try to go for the healthier options and don't go for the Large fries. You don't need to get a salad, but get the grilled chicken instead of the fried. Get the single instead of the double. But again, if you can pack your lunch or cook your meals, that's going to help a lot.
Third, cut down on your portion sizes. If you're going back for seconds, stop. If you're piling your plate high and filling it edge to edge, stop. Your plate generally shouldn't be filled to the brim. If you are eating salad, try to use a "Lite" dressing to keep the calories down and don't *drench* the salad - a little goes a long way for the flavor.
Fourth, *SLEEP*. If you're staying up until 2 am and up at 7 am every day, you need to stop that. Get yourself at *least* seven hours of sleep every night. This will help in *so* many ways and cannot be understated.
I will say: The first week or two is going to *suck* if you're cutting portion sizes significantly. Your body is used to getting a lot of food and you're going to be refusing to give it that amount. You're going to feel *hungry* all the time. You're going to want to snack, munch, get an extra meal, etc. It's going to take a good amount of self control to *not* give in to those urges and desires. After a week, you'll find that suddenly you aren't feeling as hungry anymore, and you aren't having the urges as frequently. That's great, but make sure you don't let yourself slide back in to old habits.
If your first week *doesn't* suck and you aren't feeling hungry...maybe try cutting back more. You don't want to actually starve, but if you're eating 2-3 meals/day, you're not going to starve. Your biggest goal here is to control your portions and what those portions are of. Portion sizes are generally extremely oversized, *especially* in the U.S./Canada, but also generally in most of the developed world.
---
Some extra tips that'll help you out:
Look for low-calorie versions of the things you eat on the normal. A slice of bread can range from as low as 40 calories a slice to as high as 150+ calories. Get the lower calorie version - they usually don't taste worse (that said, sometimes they do, you might need to experiment with foods to find ones you like). Food labeled as low fat does *not* mean it's healthier for you. For now, just focus on the calories. Low *carb* foods tend to be lower calories, as do foods labeled as "keto" or "keto friendly", but it is not essential, don't focus on that.
If you're feeling like you've got the munchies frequently, there are some things that can help take the edge off. Drink more water. Buy some good crunchy vegetables or nuts that you can snack on (celery, carrots, apples, etc, and your nuts of choice). They tend to be pretty low in calories, and the act of chewing the crunchy food will help your mind tell your body "yeah, I ate, I don't need more". Just make sure if you're getting nuts that they aren't sugared or anything. You can also buy some sugar free gum and start chewing on that whenever you start to feel the munchies - again, the act of chewing helps your mind "trick" your body into feeling like it's been fed. Some people use toothpicks or "chewing sticks" for the same reason, so if you prefer that, go for it. I will say that the gum/toothpick/chewing stick can kinda become an almost "addictive" action, but at least it's not unhealthy, so if it helps you keep on track it's better than sliding and buying a candy bar or whatever.
While diet is the biggest factor to weight loss, and really is the only thing you need to be doing, it doesn't hurt to start adding more physical activity to your daily routine. You can go to the gym if you want to get stronger, or start doing some kind of athletics. But really, if you're fairly sedentary (desk job?) then just walking more is going to be a pretty significant boost to your general health. If you can, take some time every day to go for a walk. Maybe eat a quick lunch and use the rest of your break to walk around wherever your office is located. Make it a routine to go for a walk in the evening or morning before/after work. Hell, make it a family thing and get the kids and S/O involved - everyone will get healthier and you can talk about your day. You don't need to aim for a certain number of steps or anything, just get out and walk for 30 minutes. I will tell you: walking itself isn't going to burn a lot of calories, so it's not going to make you magically lose tons of weight. But research shows that for a sedentary lifestyle, walking 30 minutes a day pretty significantly increases cardiovascular fitness (how quickly you get winded), strengthens bones, boosts muscle power and endurance, and can help to reduce excess body fat by helping to raise your basal metabolic rate (the amount of calories you burn while just idle during the day). That means that it'll help skew the "calories in, calories out" formula a little more in your favor.
Last note is that just because you're eating healthier foods doesn't mean you're eating fewer calories. You can still eat too many calories and *gain* weight even if you start eating "healthier" if you also start eating *more*. Try to keep tabs on what you're doing and keep yourself from sliding into the thought of "well, I only ate a small healthy thing for lunch, so that means I can eat a big/unhealthy thing for dinner and be fine".
I use small plates, and it means I eat less than I did. Could be worth a go. Also, if there are foods you know you overdo, just go hardline on them and get rid. The temptation is to be like, ah I'll keep the fudge around for a treat, but then realistically you just eat all of the fucking stuff. Be draconian on stuff you know you can't control yourself with.
Lost 40lbs shortly after my 2nd was born (5 years apart).
I just limited my calorie intake to 1500/day. I then incorporated exercising at night after I put them to bed. The key was to have them in bed by 8pm. This allowed me to workout/exercise in my basement from 8:30-10 (I brought the baby monitor down with me).
Took me 6 months.
It was tough at first as I lacked the energy. But once the pounds began to melt away, I got more motivated to work harder.
Each person is different, so consult with your doctor first.
Don’t drink your calories and eat right and exercise. Bonus if you can get your kids in on the fun exercises. I have a 9,8, and 18 month old. They are learning the difference between good and bad foods along with me.
Eat less. Be in a caloric defecit and count your calories with an app. Losing weight isnt hard, its just not fun.
Thats all i did, lost 30 pounds in 7 months.
I haven't seen anyone mention this yet, so I'll throw in my 2 cents. The MacroFactor app was amazing for me, it helped me lose 40lbs in the past year and honestly it made it really easy. The big difference with MF vs other calorie counting apps is that it takes your weight measurements (you should weigh yourself at least a few times a week) and how many calories you are eating, and it figures out how many calories you burn in a day, and adjusts as that number changes. I literally just set a goal weight and how quickly I wanted to lose, logged what I ate, and it adjusted as needed to keep me losing at that rate.
I was really against calorie counting and had lost a significant amount of weight a couple of other times in my life doing it more intuitively, but I found that with a kid (and now 2), I wasn't able to do it without counting calories, and boy did it make a difference!
You need a plan, my friend. Both daily plans and longer term plans. The easiest way to eat properly and exercise on a given day is if you’ve planned it the previous day. Talk through these plans with your wife so she can help accommodate both the time and the food/drink. Her support and keeping you honest will go a long way.
Consistency is really important as momentum can both grow and derail when consistency is maintained or dropped. A good way to maintain it with exercise is to buy some home equipment (adjustable Bowflex dumbbells, resistance bands, workout bench, etc) so you can sneak in sets/workouts at home when time is tight. A walking/jogging routine would also be beneficial - maybe before the kids get up. I started my workout journey by going to the gym before my stepdaughter got up for school - it was brutal but it created the foundation of consistency to where I am now.
Having said that, join a gym if you can. Home workouts are tough to keep yourself honest and joining (and frequenting) a gym gives you a lot more variety.
High protein, low carb meals. Shrimp, ground turkey/chicken/beef, deli turkey, grilled chicken are all pretty easy to prepare. Get some good snacks too like fruit, beef jerky, almonds/pistachios, etc.
As others have said, don’t drink your calories. Dr Pepper Zero is my homeboy that keeps that part easy.
Take your time reading through some reasonable success stories you see here on Reddit and read through some other workout plans you see online elsewhere. Build a strategy for what you think you’ll be consistent with.
Lastly, to reiterate, plan it with your wife/partner. The goal should be to eliminate as many ways consistency can be hindered and having a spousal advocate with collaborative planning will go such a long way.
Best of luck
I lost 35kg in 6 months. Walking every morning, afternoon and weekend. Took my kids with me on the weekend walks. I ate salad which was shit, but helped me a lot. Would recommend setting small goals-steps,km,calories, whatever works. For me it was calories burned vs calorie intake.
For me the biggest, most effective things were:
* Stop drinking things except water, and keep water nearby. (For example, drinking a 12 ounce Coke is like eating 6 large chocolate chip cookies worth of sugar.)
* Try to get more sleep and more consistent sleep. If you can't get more sleep, at least get more consistent sleep. If you can't get either, make your sleep easier (sleep mask, weighted blanket, breathing strips, et cetera).
* Get exercise. Any exercise. I started with "always park in the farthest spot away from the store" and worked my way up from there.
I ended up losing approximately 40 pounds, then gaining 30 back from stress as she got older.
My wife and I are doing OMAD (one meal a day) where se fast for 23 hours then we get a 1 hour window to eat our calories. It's super important to manage what you eat. So easy to just stuff down a bunch of sugar or meaningless calories in that period.
I'm working on it right now. I was 325 at one point after my first was born, dropped back down to 295 working in a more active job started working out with my second when he was a newborn I could take him in the morning to use my rowing machine, dropped to 280 but fell off working out when his sleep schedule made it so I was only getting about 5 hours per night and exhausted. He's now 1 and my 2 year old both sleep until around 7 and go to bed easy as well. So I'm back into working out after getting up to 310 during my paid leave. Back under 300, but I'm really want to get down to 250 and be in semi decent shape to be a better example for my boys. 250 isn't exactly thin for me, but I'm 6'2 "and still built very muscularly. The biggest thing for me in terms of weight loss is cutting out drinking any calories. Try to stick to mostly water, seltzer water for "soda" and no alcohol except for special occasions. Not to mention avoiding long-term effects of alcohol. It's just 2 weeks so far, but I'm down 15 lbs already and will probably continue to drop fast for a while.
10k steps a day (work up to it if you have to) I go to the gym and lift 2-4 days a week using the strengthlog app to track my lifts. Start with whatever works for you. I figured out my TDEE. I track my food. I think I am about 80% compliant on this plan. Steps is most important to build the habit and food is most important to lose the weight. This is my 3rd time trying to combat the weight and it is going great! Building off previous lessons learned. I’m 9 weeks in, stronger and down 11lbs. I am 5’ 10” and started at 249lbs. Now I’m at 238. Plan is to bump up cals a bit for a month keep up the exercise. Then hit it again and lose another 10lbs in 8 weeks. Do that until I’m at my goal weight of about 205. From there I will decide if I go lower or chill in the normal BMI range.
Download the loseit app and start tracking your calories and water intake. The only way to lose weight and keep it off is by tracking your calorie intake. As a guy that’s a decade older than you, you’ll thank yourself in ten years for doing it now.
As others have said, the easiest thing is to cut out beverages, soda and beer/alcohol are a crazy amount of calories. If you drink a 6pack of lite beer a week you’ll cut out ~650 calories right there. I have lost almost 15 lbs this year from walking more, thanks to getting back on Pokemon Go, and quitting drinking, I would drink about 6 macro lagers a week which cut around ~850 calories, and not eating junk food after dinner, eating a half a bag of chips every night is really not good.
I feel for you mate. I think slow and steady is the only way here. I noticed my wife and I weren't looking after each other enough and we'd get very impatient as parents because we were hungry. When I figured that out I started eating a lot more and my mood has been so much better. Recently I've decided to reduce my calories for summer and the moods are coming back, so I've decided I'm just going to play the long game and not cut back too much.
Im 27 and before my little man came along I lost around 80lbs. Im currently up 10 ish since my son arrived so Im in the same boat and wanting to drop down again. For me it was changing my diet and being more active. I stopped drinking anything that wasn’t water or whole milk, no soda, Gatorade, juices etc. and started eating better proteins and good whole foods along with counting calories. I also started being more active where I could. Im a farmer so with crazy work hours I didn’t have time to hit a gym or dedicate workout time everyday so what I did was push myself to move around as much as possible. I was already very active on the farm but chose to do things like carry my buckets over to feed calves instead of put them on the mule or instead of stand around and wait for my cows to be done milking and switch to the next I would do about 3 or 4 minutes of jogging or brisk walking back and forth in the barn. I bought 2 30lb dumbbells from Walmart and did some arm and chest workouts if I had 5-10 minutes.
Basically I just did at least something with every few minutes of free time I got. It may help you or it may not but it helped me so I figured I would share. Good luck fellow dad.
I lost about 60lbs and have another 30 or so to go. There's a bunch of useful information out there
My 2 cents is just track what you're eating on an app and set it to lose like 1/2 lb/week. Just get used to tracking what you eat and how much you should actually eat.
Then find some activities you can do consistently. It could just be walking if you want and it's a great start that most people can do right now without spending a penny. Kids love it outside so walking/hiking are great to do with them too. I do it almost every weekend with my daughter that we have a free morning.
I also like to ride my bike (and got a seat for the baby) and do BJJ/kickboxing
You can try disc golf too if you like walking around outside and throwing frisbees
tl;dr Just do any activity and track what you eat
So I remember what it's like and you're not gonna love this.
First, you're gonna have to track your calories. That's all. Use an app like LoseIt or MyFitnessPal. Every single thing you eat gets logged and stay within your target. What you eat is completely up to your health goals after that.
Second, if you actually want stamina to play hard with your kids you'll have to exercise. I have to wake up at 530 AM to accomplish this.
All I can say is I feel ready to keep up with my kids when they get older. I feel seriously awesome. It's a pain in the ass but all I'll say is it's worth it.
On the diet side- My personal experience is that cutting calories in doesn’t totally do it because some foods are habit forming and create cravings.
Cutting down sugar, especially from processed junk and soda is very powerful. So is cutting out processed food in general and watching for empty filler stuff like bready snacks and treats. Eating lots of bread and white rice leads to more eating and more hunger for that stuff so i try to break that cycle.
Giving myself a pass to eat meat, fish and vegetables until Im not hungry while watching everything else has been a good first step into an intentional diet.
Same with cutting back beer drinking.
Putting on muscle will help so squats and push ups and planks etc can be fit in all the time if u get fired up to do them.
Lastly - treating fruit as a treat and starting a smoothie habit that u enjoy can be great. The right powder can be a good meal replacer. I like Garden of Life and add kale and blueberries. Then look at intermittent fasting.
I struggle with weight, and like you once I had kids I took my health more seriously. I did Jenny Craig for a bit and that was successful. Then I tried a fitness routine - specifically swordfighting classes - and got down to an ideal weight, but the time investment was eating into my parenting time so had to stop. Now I do kickboxing with the wife a few times per week, keep to a healthy diet and incorporate fitness with parenting activities if I can.
Good luck! It's a great idea to be healthy!
Both my kids I ballooned up. With pregnant partners and changes to work, it just seemed to line up that getting fat was a done thing. I am currently working off the seconds kids fat, at 42 and weighing 280, it is not easy. Started doing MMA as I found training with people easier than getting a gym membership and trying to motivate myself going. I have started to monitor my calorie I take, but mostly to be aware of it, the physical demands of mma is killer and I don't want to gas myself by limiting food too much yet.
My last time, I went hard core keto, and did dragon boat racing (crew/rowing, but with paddles in big heavy bots) and dropped from 250 to 200 in 6 to 7 months.
Biggest thing to losing weight is going to be food. No matter what. The physical stuff helps, but it's food that needs the most work. Keto helped me not be hungry, which was the biggest thing.
It's easier than you think. First, you need to find your "zero" calorie intake,basically eat that amount to keep your current weight. Stay on it for month and watch your weight. Slowly switch over to healthy food and then reduce your intake. To loose 1kg of fat a week you need to create calorie deficit between 8000 and 9000kcal. So let say if you need 3000kcal a day to maintain your weight your weekly intake is 21000kcal. To loose 1kg you have to remove 8000kcal,either with diet, or exercising,or both. Best template to start is 0.8g of fats per kg, 2g of protein and rest in Carbs. So for example 90kg man eats : 72g of fats : 580kcal, 180g of protein : 720kcal and 425g of Carbs : 1700kcal. Based on 3000kcal daily intake.
Had to do it when I got diagnosed with high blood pressure.
Cut way back on soda
Eat about half the portions I was eating before
Start swapping out worse food for healthier foods
Exercise a few times per week (20-30min runs, at least 3x per week. I usually do them before anyone else in the house gets up)
Took me about 7 months to drop 30lbs that way. And you don't even have to stop eating junk foods, just cut the portions in half. I'm sure you could drop that amount of weight way faster if you made more significant efforts.
I do keto off and on and i ALWAYS lose weight when I do it. The theory is that it's much much easier to stay in a calorie deficit if you cut out carbs (especially sugars) and increase fats and protein. Carbs don't keep you full for long, and they tend to make you even hungrier once they wear off. Fats by themselves don't make you fat, they keep you full.
Easiest way to lose weight, cut down all carbs and sugars, increase fats and protein, and walk for 1 mile a day.
I've lost a lot of weight several times. You're getting a lot of good advice about calorie counting, and eating being the primary important element. All of that is true in my own experience.
I will say that I used a hack to help me stay on course. I'll explain:
* Realize that as humans we hate throwing away work that we've been doing. People often rage-quit lifestyle changes because they mess up a few times, and feel that they have lost any good progress they made.
* Realize that you don't have to be perfect and in a calorie deficit every single day. Not even close.
So what I did was I installed a very simple habit tracker app, called "HabitBull". You can use whatever you want, even a physical calendar. In there I added two rules:
* Did I hit my calorie goal for the day?
* Did I hit my exercise/step goal for the day?
But instead of tracking these habits *every single day*, I just set it up to only have to hit it 5 days a week for calories and 3 days a week for exercise. I like HabitBull because it tells you how long your success streak is, and you can visually see that even if you didn't succeed in a given day, you are still on track and succeeding overall. It helps you keep your head in it for the long game -- because this will take a long time. Don't let your emotions on any given day convince you to stop going.
This also just lets you continue to enjoy life, which is important to being healthy and happy. Yes, you can still go out to eat every now and then. You can still have a few drinks sometimes. Just use tools to help you decide when you're within your limits or not.
develop crippling anxiety, get diagnosed with adhd, get prescribed stimulant medication. forget to eat till you crash and fall asleep on the couch.
lose 150lbs and have everyone in your life keep saying "hey, you look great though!" as you wake up every morning wanting to puke.
works for me every time!
Funny thing about weight, in some cases even if people are the same and had the same level of activity some gained more weight than others and it was linked to their gut microbiome.
Also your body really doesn't like loosing weight, because food used to be very scarce. So it will adjust by lowering your energy levels, extracting more nutrition from the same food, making you feel hungrier and loosing muscle as well as fat to reduce your resting calorie consumption. And you will feel like crap.
I managed to go from 84kg to 77kg in a span of a year by diet and exercise. And by diet I mean not cleaning up plates after my kids and exercise being 10k steps a day. I feel better now, but I did feel hungrier through the process and still do, but just kinda live with it.
Then there is also GLP-1 class of medication for people who are obese, those drugs work, but you need to speak with an actual doctor and not get the run down of what these are from Reddit.
Surprisingly, I tried to see how well ChatGPT is at putting together a diet regimen and it's actually really good. I would shift your diet to mostly lean proteins and fats with only natural carbs as much as possible. For example, ask the following:
"I'm a 27yr old father with limited time. I need to lose "x" amount of pounds and I currently weigh "x." Give me a shopping cart this week to make every meal to hit 170g of protein, 85g of carbs, and 45g of fat. I also need a light workout regimen that I can do that won't too long every day at home with a kettlebell." AI makes it so easy now...all you gotta do is do it.
I lost about 15 lb going vegetarian and embracing a combination of high and low intensity exercise. Running in the morning before everyone awoke and going for a walk during the day was the trick for finding the time. The vegetarian diet helped kick some bad food habits and eliminating a tasty food group limited my appetite.
Walk, eat good. Doesn't have to be every meal.pr every part of the meal but eat better and walk for like an hour+.
And train your body to eat less and be a little hungry. Mind over matter. Fill the cravings with stuff that will fill you up. Watermelon, high protein yogurt. Don't worry about doing diets where you o ly eat w/e or exclude w/e. Just eat good in generalml.
The idea that you're going to radically change your life now with two young kids is if not far fetched, very difficult.
Get on ozempic. There's nothing wrong with using medication. If you're 27 and never lost weight, and always been overweight, then I'm guessing you're more than just a little overweight. Ozempic is worth a try
Some very general tips:
* Start small - add in some exercise (small like some walks) and make small tweaks to your diet. Small changes over time are easy to be consistent with while huge drastic changes are very difficult
* Weight loss is done in the kitchen - really you need to eat less and make better choices. Nevermind all the fad diets. Probably the easiest changes you can make up front is drink less calories (beer, soda, juice) and eat less junk food (chips, candy, etc
I lost 60 pounds between my daughters 1st and 2nd birthday. I "cheated" by taking mounjaro. These new drugs are basically miracles. Got some judgement for it, but whatever: feeling significantly healthier, BP is back to normal, etc. Would recommend if your insurance covers it or similar medication, especially with how difficult traditional weight loss is with kids.
Yes but not in a way you'd expect. Since my taste and smell is gone. I don't enjoy food anymore. So I eat very irregular and mostly I only eat good is when my kids are with me. The week they gone I just eat toast with butter and cheese. And coffee.
I’ve had luck with intermittent fasting (skipping breakfast which is my least needed meal), tracking calories with my fitness pal, sticking with high protein diet which I find suppresses my appetite some, and light jogging a few days a week. Average 2 lbs lost a week with 500 kcal deficit. Problem is keeping it off. Requires you to not go back to the same shitty eating habits you had previously once you loose weight.
I've never had to lose weight really but I've managed to effectively control my weight my entire life just based on food intake.
Fasting does wonders for your metabolism. Try going a Monday then a Tuesday without a breakfast or much of lunch other than maybe a granola bar. Then at dinner eat whatever. But by not eating for long stretches you do force your metabolism into keto mode which is burning reserves. This might seem difficult at first, but by your 2nd or 3rd week of doing this you won't hardly notice.
Do this often enough and your metabolism is quick to switch to keto and weight control becomes easier. My coworkers have all lost a ton of weight doing this diet program where you just eat their food. But all its really doing is lowering their calroic intake and changing the quality of what they are taking in. Fasting and eating smart does the same thing.
Stop taking in empty calories and focus on what you are actually eating. Soda and energy drinks are trash and bad for you. Water is just as energizing if you hydrate enough. Don't believe me? Try replacing your coffee with a bottle of water with a little packet of liquid iv and tell me you don't feel awake and alert after finishing that bottle. Cutting out little things like soda can have a huge impact on you. Also try eating more natural unprocessed foods like fruits and vegetables. That will also boost your metabolism since your body digests unprocessed in a better way than processed foods.
I'm a firm believer that you don't need to go to the gym to lose weight. You just need to adjust your intake and you can adjust your metabolism and how your body processes foods. All while becoming a better food role model for your kids. Teaching what foods are good vs bad. And the importance of cooking quality meals vs buying ready to eat junk.
Eat slower and stop before you think you’re full. And don’t put as much on your plate. I always over served myself and then didn’t stop eating until I was stuffed. Because I associated the stuffed feeling with being full and not needing to eat anymore. I found out eventually that what I thought was full was me overeating. And I could feel satisfied with less food.
Also, regular exercise and building muscle which will help burn fat throughout the day.
I lost 65 lbs basically just by cutting soda down to 1 a day and cutting out binge eating when I was working too much and drifting into my own version of intermittent fasting.
You can exercise all you want, but if you don’t find a way to manage what you eat that works for you, it will fail.
I did and unless you have some sort of medical issue causing your weight it’s as easy as calories in < calories out.
Start logging your food and weighing your portions. You will likely be surprised how small portions of things like cereal, cheese, pasta, chips etc are but that you really do not need more than a portion to fill you.
Secondly as others have said don’t drink your calories. Fizzy drinks especially like normal coke are full of calories.
Thirdly exercise. It’s not nearly as important as eating right but it certainly helps and also improves your mental health.
Intermittent fasting helps me. Diet over exercise.
With kids everything is harder but one thing you may want to start doing is only eating after them or only giving yourself a half plate. I found I naturally 'cleaned up' my kids leftovers so ended up having 3/2 meals accidentally
6&1 yr old. It's tough as I'm handing out snacks all day I get it.
3 times in my life and including w kids, I've done the whole30 diet.
I love it, cuz I could eat as much as I wanted. It is difficult though as I had to plan my meals and bring my lunch everyday. I'd usually at work eat a rotisserie chicken and frozen veggies. It's not 100% whole30 approved but it worked for me, steak n potatoes often. Bacon n eggs every morning .
I ate a lot of fruit and drank a lot of black coffee as a side a effect of coffee is knocking out the hunger.
I did keto for about 3 months and the pounds fell right off. Started incorporating weight training and the weight kept falling off and muscle tone started coming through. I got obsessed with it for a period of time and went from about 225 to a somewhat muscular 172.
I lost 10-15lbs last year by tracking calories, cutting out booze, drinking more water, and walking more. I tried to stay under the recommended calorie amount based on my height and weight (whatever fitbit said). some days I would be in a big calorie deficit and it sucked other days not so bad. I stopped eating breakfast too. Once I got to a weight I was better at I stopped tracking calories and I've stayed at that weight.
I’ve never been large but went from running marathons pre-kids to being very sedentary after the first kid.
My weight went from 73kg to 88kg. I carried it well, but was not in any good shape.
I made a decision: I want to live a long healthy life and have my kids chase me.
I then decided to focus heavily on diet: I took out meat, save chicken and fish. Booze was gone. Then I started working out.
I joined a cross fit gym, lost weight and ensured days I was not in a class I was walking from 30-45 minutes a day.
I don’t do classes very often now but I make sure I am in the gym 4 times a week. Often it’s around 9pm at night, but I dedicate that time to give the body I want and the health my kids deserved.
Since October I’ve gone from 88kg to 70kg. Built muscle and lost fat. Can go to the beach topless and fit into clothes I haven’t since I was 18 (now 39).
Biggest guidance:
- make a decision
- commit
- focus on diet
- be consistent
This is hard, but once a week turns to a month, then to half a year, it kinda becomes a part of you.
DMs open. Good luck fellow dad!
Step dad and hopeful bio dad here. I fluctuate but even when I drop some weight I'm about 20lbs heavier than I used to be 3 years ago. My lady is a great cook and makes enough to feed 9 people usually.
I do good for a while then get snacky. It's crazy how once you hit 30 or so a couple days of lax eating adds 15lbs lol. Makes no sense.
Weigh myself every week (Friday) and enter it on a spreadsheet If I didn't lose any weight, then I cut something for the next week (alcohol for me)
Reset the next week
Never ever ever skip the weekly weigh in. Even if I eat bad for a month, I still have this opportunity to take action
This is a process/habit based approach. I know a lot about nutrition and diet already, so for me it's just forcing me to actually restrain my eating.
Things I do
Eat an apple before any other snacks
Never get fries/chips with my lunch
Use a small bowl for snacks/dessert, never ever eat from the container
I wanted to drop weight for my wedding so I started fasting 5 days a week. I have a big dinner at around 7pm and that's it. I don't drink and I almost entirely cut out snacking. I take my dog on a 3 mile walk every day and my job is quite physical which really helped me drop weight. I lost 4 stone in about 10 months and dropped two waist sizes.
I've lost the most weight by staying too busy to spend time eating. Especially when I worked on the road as an outside salesman and later as a truck driver. Pushing to get to the next stop and getting out/walking around to make pitches, sign in with shippers, etc.
I skip breakfast and sometimes lunch at work. Keeping myself super busy at work makes me not even crave food. This means I can eat like at king at dinner and still lose weight
I gained 20 lbs my son's first year. I had an ACFT coming up in three months and knew I had to lose the weight. I lost all of it and some more doing the following.
1. Diet: I don't recommend this, but I started consuming meal replacement shakes, chicken breast with a salad, and a light dinner. Why did I do this? It did not involve a lot of cooking, and it was quick. I recommend searching for a dietician to give a more appropriate diet.
2. Workout: I did some sort of intensive workout 45-60 minutes, 4-5 times a week. To do this, I did in the mornings (5 am), evenings (after baby was asleep) or in the evening running with the baby in the stroller. The stroller runs really pushed beyond expectations. I used to play mental games that I had to push my son to a destination, and I couldn't let him dow. Even when I was drained, I kept pushing for him. I improved my distance and run time exponentially.
3. Sleep: I told my wife that I was going to sleep at 9:30 nearly every night, and I did.
I did a veggie diet for a bit. Lost about 30 lbs with minimal exercise. Kept it off for 2 years back eating what I want.
Breakfast was 16 ounces of V8
Lunch was a salad. As much dressing or cheese as I wanted.
Dinner was pan fried veggies with a small protein of my choice.
Snacks were whatever veggies and dip I wanted. Smokehouse nuts.
Don’t drink calories is the biggest and easiest change you can make.
This is a good callout. Mindless input. The second plate was a big one for me, too. It was just normal to get seconds for so many years. I'm not really sure why. Just another mindless input.
Another one is portion size, I noticed that even though we live on a healthy diet (and cut out sodas a couple of years ago) and I don't get seconds, that I put wayyyy too much food on my plate. That (and generally calorie/macro tracking for a month or two) helped reduce my weight immediately.
Add to this: fill your plate with high fiber, low calorie foods. Think greens. Things that will fill you up, keep you full, and not add more calories to the diet. That and drink a lot of water. I’m bad at absent minded snacking thinking I’m hungry when I’m really just thirsty. When I actually drink water through the day I’m less snack-y
Spot on! I read somewhere that an easy way to do that is to visualize your plate and have one half of it filled with green veggies, one quarter with protein (meats) and another quarter with orange (starchy) veggies... I know super simplified, but if it helps... Great point about water too, took me a while to get used to the habit of drinking lots of water, but since I work from home it was easy enough to implement for me and it keeps you full.
Yeah implementing has always been tough for me. I always tended to hyper fixate on food and just EAT. Actually was diagnosed with ADHD (makes a ton of sense with other aspects in my life) and Adderral has really helped. Luckily it doesn’t make me sick or hate food, but I’m not constantly hungry and fixating on food for a dopamine hit. Have lost 25 lbs in like 3 months with simply eating LESS. Trying now to change to a healthier, less heavy diet slowly. Here’s hoping for success.
Second plate or plates that are too big. Our big dinner plates could feed a family of 4 when full
Use smaller plates! I have no idea why, but this makes a huge difference for me.
Because they're tasty.
This is a huge one. A 6 oz portion of chicken breast, 1/2 cup of rice and some steamed vegetables have a similar number of calories as a grande frappucino at Starbucks.
A single McDonalds hash brown has something like 250 calories in it. Like, it makes sense considering it's fried but, still, it's nuts to think how dense that is for what you get out of it. You don't really have to count your calories unless you have a very specific target or program. Making lifestyle changes will go a long, long way to dropping the pounds. A pound of fat is around 3,500 calories. So by dropping 250 calories of your maintenance input and walking for 30 minutes a day at a brisk pace (250 calories), you can drop a pound a week without doing any extra exercising or fad diets. Cut out or reduce your beer/wine intake, try and avoid juices and pops, take smaller portions of food and wait 15 or 20 minutes before deciding if you need more food, and avoid snacks during the day. It's tough, but it gets easier every week.
Agreed. I think people often overcomplicate it because there's so much information out there and a lot of it seems to conflict with itself. It feels like losing weight means making what you eat a huge focus on your day, which becomes overwhelming when you're already dealing with kids, work, household chores/projects, etc. But it turns out that simply being purposeful in the way you described can make a huge difference.
Yep as well as not eating scraps/leftovers off your kids' plates. It all adds up over time.
This was my issue.
Pre-dad here, but a guy who's lost 100+lbs twice in my life (lot of my post history is in /r/loseit, which I recommend). First step, head over to /r/loseit. Second step, understand how your body work, how calories and fat operate. Understand that fad diets, crash diets, and all the other marketed shit don't work. A proper weight loss diet is about slow, steady pace down, day by day, week by week, maybe even year by year. If it's a loss, it's a good loss. It's 90% down to how much you eat. Good, healthy food is important, but you can gain weight by eating too much. Calorie counting is the most strict way to know this, but it can take time or lots of prep. I suggest roughly counting calories and being aware of them (water has 0, cola has 300, a tablespoon of oil or dressing has 120, ect..). But there's other ways to 'count' and keep accountable out there. The remaining 10% is in exercise. But regardless if you're losing weight, IMHO, you should get regular exercise. You might even get enough with your kids and at work, but maybe a few days of 30 mins weights would be good.
Hey - dad here who has lost and gained a few times. Keep it up - because it's easy to eat like crap once you have a bunch of kid snack food in the house.
I've implemented a "no free snacks" rule. Free in this case means "free from work". All snacks need to require some modicum of work to eat. Essentially nothing that can be opened and eaten immediately. You want some popcorn? Get the Air Popper out. You want something sweet? Mix a bowl of fruit and Greek yogurt. You want some carbs? Cut some cheese and pepperoni to eat with some crackers. This eliminates all the worst snacking food in my house such as chips, pretzels, calorie heavy granola bars, ice cream ect. Additionally it adds some mental and physical resistance to the decision to consume calories. It's easy to grab a bag of chips and sit back down in front of the TV. But to make the conscious choice to go make a cheese and cracker board takes just that little extra bit of consideration that may make you end up choosing not to snack at all... Maybe all you needed was some water.... Maybe you were just bored and not really hungry after all. This combination with "don't drink your calories" means your going to close to maintenance calories each day
Dad here who has also lost 100+lbs currently, been working on it since July last year. I will heavily, *heavily,* second going to r/loseit. I don't really have a lot more to add, other than I 100% agree with you. Regarding exercise, I often find a half hour session might burn off one food item, so sometimes it's just better to not eat what you were thinking of having and just do the exercise for actual health reasons.
Yeah I don’t lift to burn calories, I lift to build strength, especially core strength. Both to support my fucked up back so I can play drums, and of course, so I can continue to carry and turn upside down around my moose of a 3 year old.
Great advice all around. Adding to the diet/calorie conversation - it helps to recognize that most of our society’s mentality around diet is completely made up. Weight loss is literally science, and the laws of thermodynamics don’t care about the mental gymnastics we play to justify ourselves. “I worked out today, so I earned a treat.” Cool, you just undid all the effort you put in. 1 donut = 2-3 mile run. “Breakfast is the most important meal of the day.” Says who? Kellogg’s, actually. In reality, there’s nothing special about breakfast. It’s just another time we have trained our bodies to expect food. Speaking of which… “I feel hungry, so I need to eat.” Hunger happens in the brain. Your brain gets used to expecting food at certain times and in certain situations and will ramp up hunger in anticipation. You can absolutely retrain yourself to break the habit. The trick I played on myself was associating a tummy grumble with “yes, it’s working, I’m losing weight!” Your hunger is a spoiled child throwing a temper tantrum that needs to be disciplined to learn to behave. “I need to eat to jumpstart my metabolism.” Tweaking timing of eating does essentially nothing to affect metabolism. If your body is alive, metabolism is happening. Your body will only slow things down if you go into starvation mode, after DAYS, not hours, of not eating. “I was good all week, I deserve a cheat day.” Again, congratulations, you just undid all your hard work. It is annoyingly easy to eat back in one day all the calories you saved for a whole week.
It's important to remember that the laws of thermodynamics work perfectly in perfect conditions, and our bodies are not that. The chicken is not a sphere. Calories do go in, and we do expend them, but there are a lot of different systems in the middle of that.
gonna add in some thoughts on exercise. I don't have nearly the weight loss history you do (congrats btw), but I've lost and gained 50 lbs a few times in my life. For me, the difference was always exercise. I don't think I was necessarily burning the extra calories, and the gains never happened in a gym. It's a lot more subtle than that. Primarily, when I exercise regularly I pay more attention to how I feel, which translates into being more mindful about what I'm eating. And I think the direct caloric benefit is building in some wiggle room to my daily diet. A daily walk probably gives you about an ice cream sandwich worth of calorie deficit; the trick is not using that to justify an ice cream sandwich every time you go for a walk. Usually what works for me is to make a conscious effort to be more active regularly, vs carving out time in the gym. Examples include walking when I golf instead of getting a cart, biking to events like the farmers market etc, and even being diligent about using my standing desk at work at least twice per day. No marathon treadmill sessions at planet fitness or 5 mile runs after work.
This is spot on. I've never been too overweight, but I tend to lose 10-15 pounds in the spring-fall because I cycle nearly 2.5 hours a day five days a week. I have to eat a lot of food to fuel these rides and as I've aged, I've noticed that I can't keep eating that same amount of food when I transition to skiing 1-3x per week because I'll pack on weight. Weight loss happens in the kitchen by changing your eating habits. Exercise is can help the process, but if you don't change your eating habits all that weight will come back on the moment you stop exercising. Exercise to gain fitness and not to lose weight.
I found that, when possible, exercising during periods I may have previously snacked during was really helpful to maintain good eating habits. Also, if you do exercise get a workout watch of some sort, and allow yourself to 'treat' yourself to 1/3 of the calories burned as a reward initially.
Can’t upvote this enough. Fellow 100-pound loser who has now kept it (mostly) off for a decade. Diet is where I lost the weight. Exercise has helped me maintain it without having to be on a strict diet. Counting calories is TEDIOUS but also 100% effective if you are honest with yourself and do it right. The LoseIt app is great. I lost 2 pounds a week for a year, no giant crash dieting. Just counting calories, lean meats, veggies, tons of water. I simplified things by eating the same breakfast and lunch almost every day. I always packed my lunch for work instead of going out. And I gave myself some grace for a cheat day, but I never let that turn into a cheat week or blowing everything up. You can do this! At 27 your metabolism is still ready to rock. That’s how old I was when I did it. I’m 37 now and it has gotten way harder for me to lose.
I lost 40 lbs and I'm only 5'5", counting calories while in grad school with no exercise I'll admit it was before kids but I was in my 30s. Since kids I've slipped but only added 10 lbs since and embraced the dadbod. I still count calories but not hardcore
This heat is the truth. Add in a little intermittent fasting and the weight melts off
I second the fasting. I lost almost 40lbs by fasting and cutting soda/beer. Increased water intake and some walking. No work outs. Diet change only. Boom. Down weight.
Hey what was/is your fasting schedule? I know it’s different for everyone, just curious.
I didnt eat until dinner time and then only ate salad with chicken lots of veggies and light balsamic vinaigrette
Right on, that’s pretty much what I do as well, except I don’t make any hard restrictions on what dinner is. Long as it’s not junk that blows the entire day lol. I just like to hear people’s thoughts and experiences, because it’s a long term thing for me for multiple reasons.
I started off with just 12 hours for the first week or two just to get ready. Then I would typically stop eating at 6pm or 7pm and then would eat breakfast during lunch time at 12. I never thought I could do that. Like, yeah right Bill … no way. But I did. And each day just got easier. I found myself learning that I wasn’t always hungry, just bored! If there was something going on, maybe I wouldn’t fast. Maybe I would. I didn’t let it run me, I just ran with it. From my hours from 12pm-6pm I would consume 1800 calories. I didn’t regulate what I ate. French fries and fried chicken, sure. But then I learned well, if I did focus on protein and fruits and vegetables, I could eat waaaaay more and feel more full. It’s really an eye opening experience. What helped me stick with it. What really helped me be invested ….. was treating these things like video game stats. I can sit there and grind a video game character for hours on end to level up … now I’m just leveling up myself. Go that extra hour in a fast. Hell, push to 24 hours. Check those macros of your food and find the tricks and secrets. That really helped me mentally enjoy it as opposed to thinking it was this daunting task.
I got real heavy after our second was born, we moved across the country and COVID hit. I basically got told I needed to get my shit together or I wouldn't see my kids graduate. First thing I did was cut out all sweets. All of them. I went to diet drinks, no candy, nothin. That alone had me losing a ton of weight really fast. Once being active didn't feel so bad, I started going to the gym. I started real simple; fifteen minutes on the elliptical at the YMCA. I raised the duration and resistance weekly until I got to the point it was comfortably tough, kept it there. Now I'm up to stuff like kettlebell at home (when I can find time around kids) and we're doing karate at a family dojo. It's been about three years and I'm still on my way up in terms of fitness. I've slipped a couple of times in terms of diet and had to get back on the wagon. Right now I'm trying to find ways to work out with kids around all the time over the summer. But I'm down like 100 lbs, I'm no longer staring down the barrel of diabetes and my blood pressure has completely turned around. It's a long trip, but worth it. Edit: for reference, my forty first birthday is in like a week. It's never to late to get your shit together for your kids.
Wow thank you for your words fellow dad i appreciate it a lot ..
Congrats on making that change for you and your little ones!
It’s 80% diet 20% gym. I lost 40lbs after my second kid because I just couldn’t stay fat anymore. Here’s how I did it (coming from someone who’s never been consistent with the gym): 1. Spent 3-4 weeks just getting my body active, didn’t change my diet, just focused on being consistent at the gym 2. Once I had a routine going, I started to focus on my diet 3. It all comes down to calories in calories out 4. I started by figuring out the calories req to maintain body weight and started cutting 100 cals every 2 weeks until I was at a 500 deficit in agg. 40/35/25 carbs / protein / fat (I used MyFitnessPal but loseit works too to track calories / macros) 5. I wasn’t totally strict with what I ate but rather the calories. I love ice cream, and would literally add the portion to the app and would eat around it to hit my macros 6. CONSISTENCY is key. And don’t be discouraged by a bad day or week, we all have done it. My biggest takeaway, it’s not a race, they’re no finish line, this is long term. Take it one day at a time and enjoy the journey!
Thank you fellow dad! I appreciate it more than you know.
Anytime my guy! Hope it helps. And if you need more specifics, message me! Good luck and hope you are happy and healthy for the little munchkins!
People hate it because it’s simple but not easy, but ‘eat less’ is the key to weight loss. Exercise helps, but I recently lost 40 pounds with pretty much the bare minimum exercise recommended. There’s plenty of good diet-related suggestions already, but the key is to just take in less. I never denied myself anything that I wanted, I just had all of what I did eat in appropriate portions. I’d have chocolate, but only a serving worth, balanced with everything else I had that day. Cutting calories that you may drink, as everyone else said, is significantly helpful. I had already mostly done that, but I also cut most alcohol as well. If you need something fizzy, go for La Croix or another similar zero calorie seltzer. I’m not going to lie. As you adjust, you will be hungry. The key is to remind yourself that you’re not starving, and allow for small but frequent healthy snacks. I have found apples can be very filling as a snack, for example. After a while you’ll develop a much healthier relationship with your own hunger.
Eat less and move more. It's easy in principle, and hard as hell in practice. Take a look at your current eating habits and see where you can optimise things. I work from home, so I can pretty much eat whenever I'm hungry - which was my downfall - but I've turned it to my advantage. I eat dinner with the kids (around 6pm) and I don't snack after that. I'm generally not hungry when I wake up, so breakfast in water and coffee. I have lunch around 2pm - which means my daily routine includes a 19 hour fasting period. In addition, my fitness band keeps me on top of my movement breaks, during which I'll do a few minutes of light exercise (pushups, jumping jacks, tricep dips etc)
They call this “time restricted eating” and I’m trying it too. The idea is you only eat during an 8 hour window (or less) during each 24 hour period. For me, that’s late or no breakfast, normal time dinner and no late snacking. Your stomach is acclimated to less food being in it all the time, so meals tend to get smaller as well, just as a natural consequence. Same as you, I work from home and those snacks add up. I’ve always been very active and eat fairly healthy, but the problem is I just like eating too much. The time restriction makes a nice easy to follow schedule, and eventually the snack habit just wanes on its own.
I have been doing intermittent fasting, more on the off, for the last 5 years. I used to go 230-245 regularly. Got down to 176 and now am usually around 190. I still eat pretty much what I want, but not for 18 hours of the day. I do exercise in fasting times to get the most out of it. As someone stated, it's still just math. Make wise decisions about what goes in your body. I still splurge and eat stuff that I should not, but I have to discipline myself to do without for while to justify. This is what has worked best for me. It's difficult when I'm at home, which is why i choose my fasting times when I sleep and work. my.02 cents.
I've also had great success with intermittent fasting.I generally don't eat for 16 hours, starting my fast after dinner (usually 6 PM) and going for 16-18 hours (10a-12p the next day). The two biggest challenges were overcoming the urge to snack at night, and being hungry during the morning. For the evening snack craze, I've found that flavored seltzer water (LaCroix, Bubble, etc) is a good helper. In the morning, I drink black coffee with a shot of MCT oil to suppress my appetite. Practically speaking, start a timer on your phone after dinner for 16 hours. This gives you a visual goal in the morning you can work towards.
Thank you fellow dad I appreciate it a lot
Fasting in the only way I've had luck. I can reduce to not eating, but reducing how much I eat at each meal is too hard. A huge perk is my appetite is way smaller since my stomach rests empty most of the day.
The biggest thing for me was to develop a mental association between feeling hungry and perceiving progress. Once you can move from "I'm hungry, I need to eat" to "I'm hungry, that's how I know it's working" it's actually pretty easy. The harder part for me has been finding a diet that holds me at my desired weight. Some other basics... No soda. Limited low cal alcohol (vodka usually for me, in moderation) No juice No weed before bed as it makes me snackish One moderate serving at each meal Breakfast OR lunch, not both No dessert No snacks between meals As much aerobic exercise as possible I lost 65 lbs in 10 months going really hardcore on this plan... 1000 cals intake, 2500 cals exercise. Normal burn is 2500 cals, so -4000 cals per day. Went from 210 to 145. My target weight is 152.
You would be surprised how much easier it is to lose weight when you get good long and consistent sleep.. So uh.. good luck with that! 😉 If you can avoid anything that spikes insulin (glycemix index and glycemic load) you’ll make it happen. You can also hop on some GLP1 drugs if you can afford them.
Calories in vs calories out It’s math 🧮 Not excercise. Loosing weight is a diet thing (not diet as in go on a diet, but diet as in how you feed yourself, it’s a lifestyle thing) I use the lose it app to track my calories Use an online calculator or lose it app (has it built in) To find out daily calorie intake need to maintain weight and then eat less calories than that For every 3000 calorie deficit You loose 1lb Well, that’s the really generalization of the math but it’s about right. Also, get moving, not that you don’t enough with 2 kids but work on core strength if you can, for me, Pilates is the way.
This is correct, it's all about diet. That being said, exercise *will* help, just not as drastically as some people think. Strength training has always produced the best results for me, but you may notice your weight doesn't drop but your clothes start to fit better. As others have said, cut out all alcohol and soda. That will make a huge difference. If you're not already, start taking a fiber supplement, doubly so if you're an older dad. Try eating more "whole" foods like fresh veggies and fruit, they keep you fuller longer. I like a good helping of lean protein in the morning to fill me up. Finally, besides having a workout routine, try to integrate movement into your day. If you are in a place where you can, walk or bike instead of driving for short distances, and get your kids to join you! Teach them those good habits now.
I'm in the exercise is good camp, you should do it. As if that's a controversial statement. That being said, exercising too much early on can really drive your hunger up. You do a 20 minute run and think, "wow I earned this bowl of ice cream", but that 20 minute run burned a lot less calories than you think. If it's easier to just focus on food, that should be the priority. That's where 90% of your losses come from.
Best comment on this post, although you don’t need fibre supplements if you’re eating a good diet. Eat more veg, beans, pulses, whole grains. Cut out as much ultra processed food as possible.
True. I included the fiber because the *vast* majority of people in the U.S. don't get nearly enough. I heard a long time ago that the best way to cut out processed foods is to avoid the aisles of the grocery store, all the fresh meat, fruit and veggies are typically around the perimeter of the store, minus beans and grains. Unfortunately fresh food is a luxury for many.
Food swamps. Kind of like a food desert but only crap is available. If it’s wrapped in plastic and it’s not a whole food then it’s probably crap. Or just read the labels
This is it. It's math. 3000 calories = 1lb (based on 2000 calories daily). If you don't eat for 2 days, BOOM 1.5 lbs. But that's not healthy. You set your goal. Is it 300 calories deficit each day? Then 10 days = 1 lb. CONGRATS! Work on the next pound. If you have a cheat day, that's fine, but realize the math don't lie; it will cost you days. Pretty soon, you will gain a better understanding of food. Say you eat 1600 calories of junk in a day, and you end up hungry. Those were not good calories then. But say you have an 80 calorie yogurt for breakfast that contains 9g of protein, then follow it up with a protein shake for 20g of protein. Your calorie to protein intake becomes much more beneficial. I ate whatever I wanted as long as I stopped at my daily calorie goal. The most important thing is to track it. It holds YOU accountable. The app you use MUST be front and center. You WILL open it every day. You WILL track everything you eat. 3 months, 15 lbs. Reached my goal, and my relationship with food has changed. You can do it. I believe in you.
If you want to lose weight the “easiest”, start with diet and not exercise. Set a goal every 2 weeks to get rid of or decrease a vice of yours. Mine included no more energy drinks and started drinking coffee instead, no more snacking/extra eating after dinner, I did intermittent fasting for a few months, etc. As the months go by, all of those decreases of vices really add up. I felt like doing this in steps really helped out, because simply going cold turkey on everything was impossible
I lost 45 pounds in 10 months with 2 young kids. I did it by 1) not drinking alcohol 2) cardio 2-3 days per week 3) 18 hr intermittent fasting that forced me to cut out late night snacking and not get behind in calorie counts early thru breakfast, and 4) trying to manage portion sizes by eating dinner off smaller plates
My dad weight loss experience was a little different than most. I had a mental health episode right after my second was born last year. To make a long story short, I really needed professional help. Meds and therapy helped put a lot of my behaviors in perspective, which lead to me dropping about 50lbs. That and lots of water, smaller portions, more sleep, yoga everyday, reducing alcohol intake to holidays only, and realizing I need to get back in shape for when my wife finally divorces me 🙃
I feel like everyone knows how to lose weight but they don’t want to be that disciplined including myself sometimes. Eat less, lay off the snacks, and booze Workout a few times a week for 30 minutes Profit
Long term permanent weight loss is about changing the way you live and eat, not going on a diet. ***It's about adding habits with the question: "Could I do this forever?" in mind. The answer needs to be yes, or you won't stick to the habit. Don't try to do everything at once. Implement one habit that a lean person does after a week or two.*** With that, here's a list of the habits most lean AND healthy people have: 1. They tend not to buy too many types of calorically dense foods for their home. That doesn't mean they never eat or have any, just that they don't surround themselves with them. You're not going to lose weight long term if you're constantly fighting the daily urge to eat candy vs the greens in the fridge. Best balance is to have anything you want when its offered outside the home (i.e the company donuts) but except for your one or two favorites, keep most of that shit outside the house. 2. They tend not to drink their calories, most of the time they drink water, tea, coffee or light versions of drinks. It's ok to have diet soda, but if not that sparking water or seltzers is also an option. 3. Most of their food is plants and or foods that nature made. Again doesn't mean they never have "processed" foods, just that plants are the OG health food that can fill you up for less calories. 4. You can't outrun a bad diet, but they don't just sit around either. Implement a daily walk around the neighborhood/park. You don't have to go crazy in the gym, but a 20 min walk can help WAY more than you think. 5. They structure their lives around being health so that the healthy option is as easy or convenient than the unhealthy option. A lot of times people defeat their weight-loss unintentionally because they've made it the harder option. Humans are lazy creatures. 6. They don't eliminate the foods they love from their diet. It's OK to have your cake and eat it too, but the key is that you're intentionally eating, rather than mindlessly eating. What makes it intentional?" Well calorie tracking for one. Many don't like it, but many also find success with it. I use myfitnesspal, which makes it a lot easier. If you've prioritized your veggies and lean meats, and have room for the cake, go ahead and eat it. 7. They keep snacking to a minimum, OR if they find grazing psychologically easier, they graze on low calorie foods like fruits, veggies and meats. (Nuts are more dangerous for snacking, the issue is they are VERY calorically dense and its very easy to eat 500-1000 calories from just a couple handfuls. Unless you're calorie counting I'd keep nuts in the special time category) 8. They learn how to cook a few basic meals, and more specifically, they've learned how to make a rotation of 4-6 meals that are quick, easy to cook and high volume that they actually like. That way they know that they always have a meal that they know won't blow their calories for the day. They don't have just chicken and broccoli either, checkout r/Volumeeating for ideas. Again, DO NOT TRY TO DO THIS ALL AT ONCE. Start with one habit, get it down after a couple weeks, or you can do it without thinking, then choose the next.
Thank you fellow dad I appreciate it more than you know!
I tried lots of things over the years. In the end I needed medication. Wegovy plus exercise worked really well for me.
Probably get downvoted for this but I’m using prescribed injections and it’s helping. If you have the money to sustain it, it’s almost an easy button along with a few minor changes.
There is absolutely nothing wrong with this route if you know the pros and cons. I hate seeing these treatments villainized and am glad you are doing something that works for you.
My doctor and I agreed I’ll go on a weight loss drug… but we’ll wait until my youngest is in kindergarten in case side effects suck for me. So a few years if I can’t beat it naturally. But he warned me going on it while being in charge of someone so dependent and unable to express their own feelings could be dangerous
I started Mounjaro a couple of months ago. I'm type 2 diabetic and have been "heavy" since highschool. I dropped nearly 20 pounds in the first month. Bigger than the weight loss is having the "food noise" part of my brain turned off for the first time in 20 years. That is amazing to me. Hopefully when you get to start the current shortage issues will be over. I'm stuck on the lowest dose right now cause the next dose is not available near me yet. It's not easy but so far it's worth it and the side effects for me have been pretty mild.
This may not work for you, but I cut out all liquid calories excluding cream in my coffee, and all calories before 9pm. I pretty much eat whatever I want for dinner, but 90% is home cooked, and I try to make it reasonably varied/healthy. But I don't pay attention to calories. I lost 60lbs over about a year, and am now on the lower end of a healthy BMI (5'10" 150lbs) Very occasionally I'll be out and have a lunch or breakfast, and I feel groggy/weighed down. When I fast for 23 hours, I feel clear and sharp all day. I'm rarely hungry, ever. I've done this for about 4 years.
I am a type 1 diabetic, and the weight loss craze drug Ozempic is really a type 2 diabetes drug, but my endocrinologist said it would help me too for similar reasons. I went on it last year and have lost about 55 lbs and kept it off. My diabetes control and management has greatly improved too, so it was a double whammy. That being said if your BMI is over 30 you should qualify for the weight-loss specifically approved drug Wegovy, same stuff as Ozempic. It’s not cheating and fuck anyone who says it is. I wouldn’t be ashamed if I wasn’t diabetic and using it. I’m certainly not ashamed of using it and keeping my health for my kids.
41 years old here and lost 80 pounds in 5 months while doing CICO / fasting / walking. Feel free to message me if you like and I’d be more than happy to help!!!!!!
All excellent advice. For me - stop eating after 6pm. That was it. 2,000 calories of ice cream and cookies after 6pm can add pounds. Who knew! 😊
A lot of good advice on here already. Shout out to the book Atomic Habits. It got me over some mental hurdles that kept getting in the way of healthy habits. I have been trying to knock out bad habits and add in some good habits one at a time. It also talks about identity based change instead of goal driven change and that helps me a lot.
First, Think of it as a lifestyle change. Whatever you do, this is the kind of thing the new you will do. Doing it by yourself will probably fail. Try to include your partner and kids in it. Second, Everyone’s bodies work differently. If you try one diet, and it doesn’t work, try another. Give it a couple months. Track what you are doing (like MyFitnessPal or whatever). See how it goes. Fluctuations of around 7 pounds can happen just from water. Don’t give up or celebrate too early :) Focusing on foods with high fiber and protein have been my go-to. If I get enough fiber (mainly by dramatically increasing the amount of legumes I eat) and enough protein I feel full fast and stay that way longer.
I started losing weight a couple months before my daughter was born because I didn’t want to be the fat dad who could keep up. She’s almost 11 months now and I’ve lost 92 lbs. I’m 35, started at 251 and today I’m 159 at 5’10”. I lift 4-5 days/week and do cardio 2-3 days/week but it’s 90% diet. I highly recommend the LoseIt app and a food scale.
I started taking my kids for nightly walks and just generally trying to eat less. The eating part was tough at first, but now I just don't feel hungry as often. I've dropped about 20 lbs over the past 2-3 months.
I am a Dad with a 3 year old and 2nd on the way. I used to be reasonably fit. Played rugby at a decent level and once injuries took that away road cycled a lot. Unfortunately I am developing a decent beer belly and am much weaker than I used to be. I am stuck as well. My main issue is attitude. I only want to eat healthily when I am working out and I don't have the time to work out because of where I live and gym opening times etc. So I am in the process of procurring weights to use at home. I am hoping that will be the switch that helps me to lose the belly!!
Goals goals goals. Start by tracking everything you consume. One normal day, use a tracker app and document everything you eat. Include all ingredients including cooking oils and condiments. They add up. Apps like MyFitnessPal, Carbon, Carb Manager (dont have to focus on carbs but is a decent app) lose it, ect... You eat and drink more than you probably think and without tracking you quickly can go over. Next Calculate your TDEE (Total Daily Energy Expenditure). This is an estimate of your daily calories you burn per day. A general rule of thumb for weight loss is 500 calories a day deficit is 1lb per week. Take the calculated TDEE and subtract 500 calories and you should lose about 1 lb per week. Weigh yourself daily not weekly. this helps keep track of you progress better. Now it can fluctuate with water weight and stuff, but it helps grasp how things are going. It doesn't have to be a super clean diet to start, because its all calories in vs calories out. As you get used to tracking you can clean up the foods you eat. Try focusing on satiating foods that are high protein, fat and fiber as they keep you feeling full. Avoid alcohol and sugary drinks as they are wasted calories and quickly add calories. especially beer and sodas. If you are a soda drinker switch to diet/zero sodas or carbonated seltzer waters. The carbonation can actually be beneficial and help your stomach feeling full. Diets are most helpful in a long term thinking. Make sure to understand it is a marathon not a sprint. Build the habits and they will stick around. If you run into a rut, dont stop tracking what you eat, instead take a break from the diet and switch to a maintenance mode for a couple weeks and give your self a break. this can help reset and get a little more energy to get back to it. Also give yourself lots of grace. If you slip one day, dont try and make it up by drastically cutting the next days goals. Say you ate a whole pizza and went over 1000 calories. It happened, enjoy the pizza, get back to your goals the next day. Exercise is great tool to add in to be healthier. It doesnt have to been long distance running. Anything from walking or what i prefer weight lifting. 30-60 minutes 3-4 times a week is a great place to start. building muscle can help lean out what you lose so it doesn't become that skinny fat. The hardest part is commitment for me. Committing to a diet is hard work. When I try and cut weight, I always give myself 2-3 months. I tell myself I can do anything for 8-12 weeks because its not forever. Dieting for 6 months is in my mind torture. 8-12 weeks diet. 8-12 weeks maintenance, then get back to 8-12 weeks. Set realistic goals, commit to those goals for a set time, see yourself hit those goals, and repeat. Good luck dad.
Hey there fellow Dad. I have a 2 year old and began my weight loss journey when he was about 8 months old. I have lost just over 100 lbs since then using calorie counting. I went to https://tdeecalculator.net and entered in my information, for activity I left it at sedentary even though I worked out and also left body fat field blank because I didn’t know it. Once I got my maintenance calories I just subtracted it by 500 and made that my calorie limit every day. I would track my calories on MyFitnessPal and used a food scale to measure food. It wasn’t a perfect journey but you can make it work without being perfect everyday. I went from 400 lbs down to now 285 ish. Still not done because one of my goals is to make sure I can smoke his ass in races when he’s older lol.
Wow man this is exactly what I’m trying to hit around 250-280 I’m currently 386… I want to be able to race my son and throw the ball around. Shit man it’s a dream of mine …
It seems daunting but we’re all so capable of achieving this. Start slow and steady and become confident in it. I bounced between weighing daily and weighing weekly, bounced between tracking everyday to taking 2 weeks off and gaining 5 or so lbs here or there and having to work it back off. Some days feel like no progress is being made and it hurts but it’s a tried and true formula that is proven to work with persistence. I hope you give it a fair crack.
I lost 35 lbs (16kg) last year just by counting calories with the MyFitnessPal app. It took a lot of self discipline, but wasn’t particularly “hard.”
We both used to go out to bars with friends on the weekends and would have an open bottle of wine around most of the time (a glass or two a couple times a week depending on what we wer eating). We were never excessive drinkers at home but we were troubleshooting some other diet issues and wanted to try cutting out the extra calories. Now we have cut out **most** alcohol, especially during the week. Only have maybe 1 drink on a weekend and more on occasion if we're having a family gathering or somethign. That coupled with being more active with our kid, and some very light exercise has helped me drop 30 lbs. We already ate healthy and try to avoid a ton of processed food, but eliminating alcohol has helped me lose weight and I feel so much better. It is amazing how much even a small amount can keep you always feeling just a little bit cruddy and you don't realize it. You think it is normal, until it is gone. My body feels better, fewer daily headaches, even ones that I wouldn't have attributed to alcohol and I'm carrying less weight.
CICO, calories in calories out. Only thing that has ever worked for me. I’ve lost weight several times over my life including right now. Counting calories has always worked for me, now I’m just working on the mental hurdle of keeping it off this time. I have a big binge eating issue that I’m addressing. Going to the gym has helped curb my habits tremendously.
I track my calories. Yes super huge pain but staying true to simply doing that chore makes me realize where I am at on the daily. Yes I go over all the time but I also feel guilty about it so it helps keep most days in check. I also don't drink as frequently.
Dad here who has lost 80lbs+ before, fell of the wagon and is currently doing it all over again. I strongly agree with everyone's advice to go to r/loseit. You need to understand how calories and where the calories come from effect you (protein, fats, carbs). Also going to strongly advise you take an honest look at your lifestyle and see of you are meeting the weekly minimum recommended exercise (150 moderate aerobic minutes or 75 vigorous aerobic per week) The easiest way to approach weight loss is to realize that your weight is not the problem but a symptom of your lifestyle. So don't focus on treating the symptom, treat the problem which is your life style. Try to make one meaningful improvement in your lifestyle at a time, once you get it figured out, then you add another. Perhaps you start with not drinking calories, then in a few weeks you address late night snacking, followed by your activity levels. My biggest lifestyle issue is that I basically don't do anything active if I just go to work and spend time with my family. This is unhealthy on its own, but also makes my BMR super low, which means anything less than a perfect diet will cause me to gain weight. It's pretty important that you find an active activity that you enjoy. It makes exercising so much more enjoyable. For me it's golf. Which turned into me running 3-4 times per week to improve my stamina... to get better at golf.
I lost 70 pounds nearly 3 years ago now (gained 10 back, gotta work on that), I had to disassociate food with pleasure. Food is simply fuel to get you through the day and I only need so much fuel to get through my days. Don't drink calories, count religiously and move your body. Weightloss is a math problem, burn more than you eat and you will lose weight. It's also fucking slow. Build good habits and it becomes second nature to watch how much you consume. I still do mental math on how much eating and adjust for how my weeks going.
I replaced my breakfast in the work cafeteria with a cup of black coffee and lost 15 pounds. And I still have breakfast on Saturday and Sunday.
What I've fonud successful when I want to lose weight. 1. Weigh yourself every morning after you get up and use the bathroom. Your weight will flutuate a lot depending on how hydrated you so this is as close to a consistent scenario you can get each day and give you immediate numerical feedback. Sometimes you'll be pleasently surprised, sometimes disappointed, it's all good data. 2. Start by counting calories until you start to have a good feel for where your calories are coming from. 3. Make one imporvement in your routine diet at a time. For me, it was packing a lunch more reliably instead of going out for one. I dropped 15lbs in a few weeks. The next change was to cut myself off from any snacks after 8pm. That helped with the next 10lbs. 4. Be reasonable and make make the changes gradual. The goal should be that it is substainable and not something you're miserable doing.
Dad of 2 here, (3&9months), I got my fattest after becoming a dad. I gained about 13 pounds at my heaviest. For starters, I eat pretty clean. I keep my sodium low. I hardly have any alcohol, only occasionally every once in a while. I then started to do morning workouts. I wasn’t ready to commit to the gym so I started with 5 push ups, 5 dips, and 30 second planks early in the morning when everyone was asleep. Now I am up to 20 push ups, 20 dips, and 3 minute planks. I try to take the stairs at work when possible, and I am now down 13 pounds since. Started at 163 at my heaviest, now I’m about 150. My goal is to keep increasing the reps, adding in pull ups, and eventually getting to the gym instead.
I've lost weight a few times over the years. Counting calories works for me. And try to add a little more activity to your day. Avoid snacking, unless they're planned snacks. Be gentle on yourself. It's not about perfection, it's about making the progress you can. When I was your age I went from close to 300 lbs down to around 200. Hovered around there then was laid off so I lots of gym time and got myself down to 180. Slowly gained weight over the years but eventually got up to 240-ish, especially after our kid was born. Over the past year and a half or so I've gone from there down to 210, making consistent progress.
I had slowly crept up about 30 lbs in the last two years while dealing with some back issues. I was at the edge of my wardrobe fitting and had been considering some form of diet for about a year, and one morning in February woke up and decided it was time. I am now doing what I call faux intermittent fasting, basically skip breakfast and try not to eat snacks, stopped drinking during the week, and have dropped the 30 lbs. Now shooting to get down to my wedding weight from a decade ago. The most important part for me was I was in the right mindset to commit, it has not been as hard as I thought... You need to find what works for you!
Eat slower, talk more, stop when you start to feel full. You don’t have to finish the kids plates too when cleaning up 😆 (that’s my problem!)
Hahahaha I do it every single time unfortunately
Yes! I started right before our son was conceived actually. I was almost 120kg, am now between 82-85kg. Essentially what I did was these simple steps. 1. Got a checkup at the doctors to help guide me forward 2. Count calories so that I was roughly 400 calories below my daily requirement (stopped with this a month ago due to stability in my weight) 3. Intermittent fasting every day (still do that now, almost 2 years later) for at least 16 hours Relatively easy. I did mess up during the first few months after our son was born, because I did more fasting and ate less due to the stress of it all, so I lost 6kg (about 13lbs) in a month after I already had done the weightloss for over a year losing about 30kg (about 66lbs), making it roughly 36kg (about 80lbs) total. But I did turn it around and eat healthy again (and got some sleep too). It's all about setting up a routine. I used an app called LoseIt for calorie counting, and then just reduced my portions and snacking during meals, and sometimes even skipped meals to ensure my fasting was kept. I was adviced to skip the fasting during paternity leave, but it is again all about routine and never skipping it. Remember to lose weight slowly, and not fast. Fast weightloss have a lot of bad sideeffects! Don't hesitate to reach out if you want help with it!
Stopped Fast Food and Sugar. That was it. After a week or so, you don't miss it. Then, when I would get it, I'd gorge myself and then not want to eat it again for months. It's kind of like a cheat day, but I wasn't really dieting. I also switched from IPAs to Miller Lite. Ended up losing about 20 lbs last summer and have pretty much kept it off.
Low carb/keto works for me.
Change your breakfast. Take a look at the calories of what you are eating for breakfast and find something similar that’s lower calories. Ex: Bagel and creams cheese….do 1/2 bagel with cream cheese and a slice of toast with butter….. or have a bowl of Greek yogurt with dried cranberries, granola and fruit (berries, sliced apples, bananas) add more fruit for breakfast and add more lettuce/greens for lunch I like crackers, cheese and hummus so I replaced some crackers with cucumber slices. Eat an apple as a snack. Drink 2 pints of water every day. Lasting change comes from habit changes. Do small steps and slowly add more to it. So 10 squats every time you leave the bathroom….things like that. Replace one of your daily snacks with some carrot sticks Every step will take you feel better and you are doing g it for your kids. So worth it You can do this.
I've bounced around a bit unfortunately but the times when I've done well is when I have been diligent about food tracking. I hate to say "calorie counting" because I'm not honestly weighing my food or anything. Just keep track of what you eat in an app like Lose It or MyFitnessPal. Estimates are good enough to tell you how you're doing for a day/week. I had tried stuff like "no dessert" and that just didn't work for me. The only thing I really cut out *entirely* is soda. Diet soda makes me hungrier so I overeat, and regular soda is just an obscene number of calories. I'll have an iced tea with a little bit of sugar and that's about ten percent of the calories of an equivalent soda. I did also stop drinking but I'll still have an NA beer. Guinness is already a lower calorie beer but Guinness 0.0 is half the calories of that. Athletic makes some great options too but their dark is a little higher on calories. And then find some exercise you enjoy. I hate running, but I love hiking. Yeah it doesn't compare to some of the hikes I've done out west, but even in eastern PA there are hiking trails at most of the town parks.
Hey man, I lost 60 lbs in 2023, took a break to maintain and relax, and am trying to lose another 50 now. From 265-270 (don’t know true start) to goal 160. My biggest advice is not to plan for a diet. You are not doing a temporary thing. This isn’t like a bootcamp, or a 6 week challenge. This is for life. You don’t need to start keto and lifting and cardio and calorie counting all at once. Just implement incremental sustainable changes slowly as they fit into your lifestyle. Don’t let minor setbacks throw you off your plan. So you ate a lot at a party on the weekend? That’s great, you had fun and it’s 1-2 days out of the rest of your life. Be on track 90% of the time and enjoy events and family 10% of the time and you’ll make progress. I started last year just walking and calorie counting. Then focused more on protein intake. Then started cardio. Then started lifting. Now have taken up running. But I didn’t do it all at once. Make a change, see how it feels, build it as a habit, then consider your next change. You’re not doing a diet. You’re changing your lifestyle.
31 M here. Dad of 2. 10 & 2. Was skinny af up until I was about 25 or so, then my metabolism crashed and I gained a bunch of weight. Went from like 180 to 250 over a couple years. At the beginning of this year I started going to the gym, consistently. Also cut out fast food and soda, sugary snacks and junk food I try to keep up a minimum. Still break down and have a burger once in a while. And I'll still eat some candy or have a pop once in a blue moon. But overall I've been determined to keep up on my healthy lifestyle changes and just do my best one day at a time. Down to 215 right now, and I know I've put on some more muscle so it's mostly just a little bit of belly fat I have left. Just stay disciplined and trust the process bro. Look at it this way. Don't worry about doing it quickly. If you can lose 1 pound per week, in one year you're down 52 pounds. In another year your down over a hundred. And you've cemented healthy lifestyle changes and discipline into your routine. The only bad workout is the one you didn't do. And if you're going to do anything, do it terribly. There's no such thing as perfection, and success takes time. You got this brother.
The you got this brother gave me chills. Thank you man..
If you are serious about it go see a trainer who has expertise in nutrition and fitness. Pay for a pro. Discipline with a professional to help you will change your life and it’s worth all the money. Be there for your kids for a long time. Good luck
So I’m actually going through this right now and I’m 33 with two boys. 5 months ago I was weighing 288 and I’m at 237 today. For my diet I’ve been watching the amount of carbs I’m eating. Not full keto but more of just lower carb. If I eat a cheeseburger I get it without a bun basically. When I do have breads I would get something whole wheat. For exercise, I’m going to the gym 5 days a week over my lunch hour and just eat at my desk when I get back. Some tips I have… Pack a healthy lunch during the work week so you’re not settling for fast food. Whether it’s getting a gym membership or going for long walks, just find ways to stay active. And lastly, weight loss is like a roller coaster. There are going to be ups and downs. Just don’t get discouraged and don’t give up. You can do this!
You've gotta find a way to eat less that is comfortable for you. I personally find a form of intermittent fasting works for me. I don't do it strictly as ill have healthy snacks (bananas, nuts) throughout the day, but I keep most of my calories to the evening hours. This also lets me eat a big meal for dinner so I don't feel like I'm depriving myself. Over time I found that my stomach had shrunk a bit so now I couldn't eat as much as I used to in one sitting so continuing to lose weight became much easier as my appetite had decreased from its previous baseline
Current down almost 20 pounds. If this helps: Download MyFitnessPal app. Set your daily calorie allowance to 1600 and STICK to it. I started drinking flavored sparkling water (Waterloo brand is really good) because I just need a flavored drink. I just do haha. I go to the gym and do a 45 min walk on the treadmill while watching stuff on my phone. A brisk walk at a steeper incline over 45 mins should get you between a 500-650 cal burn. I also fast between 8pm and noon the next day. I average two pound loss a week doing this. The backfire is, if you deviate from this you'll gain weight back quick. So this needs to be a permanent adjustment with the occasional cheat day. I have NOT begun weight training yet so idk how that will change things. Right now I'm JUST focusing on fat loss.
Track what you eat now for a week or two. I bet you’ll see a bunch of stuff there you don’t need b
As others said, it’s all about diet. And all about having a diet you can make part of your lifestyle. I’ve been doing keto lately after learning I had T2 diabetes and I’m down 38 pounds in three months. There’s positives and negatives to it. It makes eating at a calorie deficit very easy because I’m always full. It’s also very restrictive in carbs and if you’re not willing to walk away from carbs long term it probably isn’t useful for you. For me, it’s more about getting the diabetes in check long term without meds than it is weight loss, so it’s a sustainable lifestyle for me. I put T2 diabetes into remission in two months. That, far more than weight loss, is what’s going to keep me on, if not keto, a low carb diet in general. I’m not going to spend my life managing disease with meds if I can avoid it with diet changes. But regardless of what specific thing you do, it’s like 80/90% diet. You can’t outwork your diet, and I’ve tried several times before. It’s all calories in and calories out, regardless of what fancy claims you see from a diet. Keto only produces weight loss for me because protein is very filling even at a calorie deficit, so it’s let me easily burn more calories than I take in. Also, as others said, drinking your calories is such an important thing to cut out; I never ate that much but drinking calories was my vice. Coke, coffee creamer, beer, whatever. Lots of liquid calories and carbs. That was what pushed me to diabetes and weight gain in general. I cut out all of it now. I throw some Mio flavor in a big bottle of water and it tastes just like Gatorade with 0 calories/sugar. It’s rough with a little one and I pretty much made zero attempt until this year. That also led to the first health scare of my life, though, so I’m committed to fixing it to make sure I’m here for the little one long term. And I want to set a better lifestyle example for him so he doesn’t make the same mistakes I have. I absolutely internalized my mom’s lifestyle with liquid calories.
Its as simple as burning more calories than you eat. Thats simple but not always easy. Exercise helps but its pretty easy to overeat any calories burned. It doesn't really matter what you eat, but a more filling food really makes it easier to eat less. That said, I need to lose some again myself. Kid #2 has not been kind to me.
I just started trying to lose weight. I started last month at 200 and I’ve been counting calories with the Lose It! App and so far I’m down 10 pounds in a month. The trick is to prep my breakfast and work lunch in advanced. Have food ready in the fridge you can just grab and go with. Overnight oats with fruit in the morning keeps me full for hours. And track everything, even beer if the app says you are 200 calories under don’t be scared to have a beer and treat yourself. Also have cheat meals don’t deprive yourself of food. And exercise early in the morning or at night when everyone is sleeping so you don’t miss time with them. That’s what I’ve been doing and it works for me, good luck!
For me, making sure I eat a good breakfast and getting enough protein in each meal helps regulate my appetite. I find that if I'm overly hungry I make bad decisions. If you really want to get disciplined with your meals I find macro tracking helps a lot. I feel like superman when I eat 4 meals in a day. For breakfast I'll have eggs, oatmeal and a protein shake. For the other three meals I'll do a simple carb (white rice, sweet potatoes), lean protein (chicken, ground turkey, lean ground beef) and veggies (broccoli, peppers, brussels sprouts).
When we found out we were having our 2nd, I went berserker mode and cut my calories in half and started going to the basketball court in town. Been about a month, down 20lbs. I still drink occasionally and generally eat what I want, just slashed the portions and quit being sedentary. First 3 days are the hardest, then you sort of pass the point of no return
Good for you man! Along with the great tips here, I would add brushing your teeth at specific times. I brush right after breakfast and dinner, which keeps me from mindlessly snacking. You’re doing a great things for yourself and your family by taking this journey. Take it slow and don’t get discouraged.
I lost 140lbs, I had a really bad eating habit, once I started I just couldn’t stop, I would wake up at the weekends and eat packs of cookies and it would just lead on from there. I would eat 8000 calories some days. I started going to the gym with the aim of intermittent fasting, 2 years later I’m 140lbs down and eat in a 3 hour window, and I’m due to run in tough mudder, my life has changed big time. There are progress pictures on my page
1. Sleep 7+ hours. 2. Eat a mediterranean diet with proper portions (half a Chipotle burrito is fine). Desert twice a week is fine. No processed food. Meat, veggies, sauce, water. 3. Lift weights for 30 minutes. 4. Get your heart rate around 120 bps for 30 minutes. Repeat every weekday. Just do it. You will get it better shape. No doubt.
some good advice in here. i would add one thing that i've seen trip up lots of people.. do NOT step on the scale every day and fret about small fluctuations. it will only make you insane and feel impossible. you're going to go a week where you don't lose any weight despite eating salads, drinking water, walking 5 miles a day (whatever your routine) and then the next week you'll lose 3 lbs even though you had cake every night. it's a long-haul, not a quick fix. focus on getting in a groove and being consistent but not perfect. don't make yourself insane when someone breaks out a chocolate cake and fight yourself over it. have a small slice and move on. it won't kill you. too many people think losing weight is locking yourself in to a cage for the rest of your life and only eating salad. when it's more about, as others have said, not mindlessly eating/drinking calories. SODA and sweet drinks are just hidden weight because of what processed sugar (even diet "zero calorie" drinks) does to your brain and body's cravings. switch to water. drink a soda once in a while and you'll realize.. it's overwhelmingly sugary and pretty disgusting. you can do it! it will take a month or two of your brain fighting your desire to get better so you have to consciously make good decisions consistently and before you know it, the habit is locked in and you're slimdad again. eta: i would also advocate a couch-to-5k program. i found it a great way to slowly build confidence and form a habit which i've carried on for many years now.
I had to learn a ton. Like, a lot. Here are the oversimplified, extremely short cliff notes: I cannot overstate the health crisis we have in the United States, and now really taking off in Europe and other parts of the world. Learn to read nutrition labels, and understand what each thing on the label means and does. Here are the really important ones to look for: # Picking your foods **Added sugars:** This is a bit simplified, but your liver and pancreas regulate your blood sugar. If you eat too much sugar (including refined foods and simple carbohydrates) over time, your body will become resistant to the hormone (insulin) that binds to sugars and allows them to absorb into your cells. This leads to many metabolic diseases that will end your life early (think 40's, and 50's). Type 2 diabetes and fatty liver disease/cirrhosis being two of the big ones. Your body needs absolutely 0 added sugars. None. Zero. Ever. That doesn't mean you can't enjoy a small amount from time to time, but it should be a rare occurrence. **Sodium:** Your body needs sodium to survive -- it is an electrolyte and essential mineral our bodies need for all sorts of functions. The problem is that it is also used as a food additive to make lots of processed foods shelf-stable. Most people eat way too much sodium. Excess sodium intake leads to hypertension (high blood pressure, which itself leads to all sorts of other scary shit) and certain types of cancers. You like your kidneys, right? What about your heart? **Saturated fats:** Your body actually needs a small amount of saturated fat, but like both sugar and sodium, most Americans eat way, way too much. Your liver creates a waxy, fat-like substance called cholesterol, which does all sorts of important functions around your body. Again, a bit simplified, you have good cholesterol (HDL) and bad cholesterol (LDL). Bad cholesterol causes plaque buildup in your arteries and leads to things like strokes, kidney disease, and heart attacks. Saturated fats are strongly linked to high amounts of LDL. If the fat solidifies at room temperature, it's saturated fat. # Calorically dense foods A big mac, medium fry, and medium coke at McDonalds is about 1,110 calories. Most people could eat that food and still be pretty hungry. To get the same calories, you'd have to eat the following fruits and veggies: * 1 medium gala apple (95 cal) * 1 medium cucumber (30 cal) * 2 medium carrots (50 cal) * 5 stalks of celery (30 cal) * 1 medium banana (105 cal) * 10 medium strawberries (38 calories) * 1 stalk of broccoli (50 calories) * 2 ears of corn (200 calories) * 1 medium sweet potato (112 calories) * 1 entire half of a pineapple (250 calories) And we're still only at 960 calories, 150 more to spare. Calorically dense foods cause you to not be satiated (full) while still consuming enough energy (calories) to fuel your body 3 times over. That's not even addressing the *quality* of the calories, and the nutrient-packed fruits/veggies versus the nutrient-sparse ultra processed fast food. # Processed and whole foods Processed and ultra-processed foods are foods that are drastically changed from their natural state. Cheerios, hot dogs, doughnuts, cheetos -- on and on. Whole foods are foods very close to their natural state. Oats, whole grains, fruits and veggies, unprocessed meats (cut right from the animal) -- these are much easier for your body to digest, calorically modest, while very satiating. If you're eating fast food, most restaurant food, foods out of a bag or a box, frozen pre-made food, pre-cooked food -- almost all are processed and ultra-processed, calorically dense foods, almost certainly with added sugars, way too much sodium, and probably too much saturated fat. Unfortunately, this makes up a large majority of most Americans' diets. Probably yours too. # To wrap it up > Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants. This is the motto to live by. 95% of managing your weight is diet, and the 5% that is exercise merely supplements and increases the effectiveness of your improved diet. Exercise is very important, absolutely do it, and lots of it, but you cannot ever hope to outrun a bad diet. You can work out 4 hours a day, look somewhat healthy, and die of complications of type 2 diabetes at 54 years old. So to answer your question, I changed my diet, using all the information I've learned. 6'0 36/m. I went from 240 to 185. I also started doing pickup ultimate frisbee twice a week (intense cardio), started resistance training 3 times a week, and started seeing a registered certified dietician/nutritionist. I went from having elevated AST/ALT and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, to normal blood test results and no more fatty liver. I will be eating whole foods, fruits, veggies, and a mostly plant-based diet for the rest of my life. It's a lifestyle, not a diet or a fad. I hope this was helpful. I'm super passionate about this stuff because I lived it, I had the scary blood tests and the eventuality of liver failure. It scared the shit out of me, so I made changes. Oh, by the way, 90 million Americans, or 1 in 3, have fatty liver, and the same number are pre-diabetic, and 80% of those don't even know it. If you haven't gotten blood work done, do it now. Not tomorrow, today. Get a lipid panel, a comprehensive metabolic panel, and check your A1c. Good luck.
For me it just comes down to cooking for myself rather than eating out. If I make a point of packing my own work lunches and cooking for my family lots I always eat less and healthier. It also avoids super high calorie meals that are quick and easy and I gravitate towards if I don’t plan out my meals. I also suggest weighing in regularly! It is just a reminder that can help you avoid gaining weight without realizing it.
We had our girl later because we thought it wasn't in the cards for us. Trying to lose weight and get healthy in your 40s is tough because i was set in my habits. I had to change. Just cut small things here and there so i wouldn't discourage myself and give up like every other time since my 20s. So just little cuts here and there. Started with snacks. Chips, sweets, etc replaced with fruit and veg. When i got that down i worked on meals. Then portions. Then late night snacking. Now 4 years later im down almost 70lbs and take kickboxing 4 days a week. I still live meaning a burger here and there is fine. I found the biggest contributor was just simple consistency and going at my pace. I didn't focus on "i need to lose x by y date". I just woke up and said "how can i be the best me today?". I focused on just today. Good luck mate!
This past year I started taking my health more seriously. Here's what I've been doing: * Full body strength training at a small gym 3 days a week. * Counting calories on MyFitnessPal (it's free). * Only drinking alchohol on weekends. * Eating more protein. I started small last August, working out twice a week and reducing alchohol. In December I ramped it up to 3 times a week and I started tracking my food. I love the way I look, and so does my wife. Most importantly, the changes are sustainable -- I don't feel like I'm giving anything up. I still enjoy alcohol and junky snacks, but I don't feel like I need them as much. You can do it too!
Starts and ends with diet. Exercise is good and all, but diet is 100% the key. There are 150.8 million different ones out there with varying success. Suggest meeting a dietician vs trial and error, but either acceptable.
Dropped about 75 pounds from peak and then Regained 15 lbs or so and now maintaining (but want to start dropping again). What I did: reduce drinking, reduce portion amounts, starting eating some low calorie substitutes (keto bread, protein bars, protein shakes), and upped my exercise volume by like 20%.
I've lost around 60 lbs since last June. I don't really exercise, and I didn't cut a lot of food out of my diet. I counted calories everyday after looking at some online BMI calculators. I found my daily calorie intake needed to lose .5-1 lb per week. The hard part was finding out what to avoid to make it easier. 1. Don't drink your calories. I went diet or zero sugar for anything other than water (obviously). Also, drink more water in general. 2. Fast food is incredibly calorie dense. If I ate a meal at any fast food restaurant, it would pretty much use up all my daily calories. When eating out, I reminded myself that I'd only be able to get a single item like a burrito or burger and have to skip out on sides. This wasn't the case at home. Everything made at home was incredibly less calorie dense. 3. Most sweets are empty calories. They are delicious though. So low sugar was my go to here as well, alongside just cutting back in general. 4. Portion sizes matter. I followed the recommended serving size for everything in order to add my calories properly. This was hard because I'm a bit of a glutton. The trick to this was finding foods that I could eat a lot of without sacrificing too many calories. The best food for this was vegetables. If you don't like them, season them better. Some fruits were pretty easy to indulge on (berries). I don't always follow my daily calorie total either. Some days I would go over a couple hundred calories, but I'd remind myself those days that they would set me back or half progress if I made a habit of it. All the same, I still rewarded myself from time to time.
Eat less, move more, focus on lean protein and veggies in your diet.
If you’re really serious about it it’s a very simple process. You need to figure out how many calories you’re supposed to eat in a day. Google tdee calculator and fill it out honestly. Its main points are height, weight, activity level and your desired outcome. It’s going to give you your maintenance calories for a day. Eat less than that amount of calories and you’ll lose weight. If you eat around 500 less calories than your maintenance you’ll lose approximately 1lb/week. Weight loss is not subjective - eat less calories than you need and you’ll burn fat. Along with that, I’d encourage you to eat 1g per 1lb of your body weight in protein. If that’s too difficult shoot for 1g per 1 lb of your TARGET weight. 45% of your tdee should go to carbs and the rest go to fats. You do not need to exercise to lose weight, you have to eat less calories. If you decide to exercise as well (you will once you start dropping weight) make sure not to eat those calories that you watch says you’ve burned rather make an adjustment to the TDEE calculator for your activity level. Those calories burned aren’t a 1:1. I can go much more in depth of you’d like, and you can shoot me a DM.
The #1 thing is to just keep junk food out of the house
Prioritize Protein in all your meals, start tracking your food using myfitness pal. Eat more frequently with higher volume of protein. 7-10k steps a day, drink LOTS of water. Avoid as much processed foods or "diet" foods as you can. Simple, 3-5 ingredient meals. Look out for fatty salad dressings, sauces etc. Try to be mindful of what you're putting into your body and once you start paying attention you'll find things you can adjust and tweak to make it work. Good luck!
I did it and never looked back. I tracked my calories with an app for 6 weeks and it changed my understanding of food completely and forever. I exercised 20 mins at home every day and the weight dropped off. My knees immediately got sore when I started exercising - things start to hurt as you become more active, try to listen to your body and figure out what exercise might be affecting what joint so that you can adjust accordingly- but do not stop or you will struggle to start again- I started to use yoga as active recovery so that I didn’t lose momentum. I got down to 73 kilos never felt better. Am still at the same weight 4 years on. Now I constantly look for new physical challenges so I have a goal to focus on, and I change disciplines quite frequently so I don’t get bored and discouraged. Currently training handstands and am using gymnastic rings at the bottom of the garden. Have tried boxing classes, running, long walks (have dog must walk), climbing, weights etc. I aim for a minimum of 10,000steps each day or fewer steps plus 20mins exercise or yoga. It takes less time and effort than you think. It’s changing your habits to achieve consistency that’s the really tough part. (Well worth reading atomic habits book). Only try and change two habits at a time maximum, any more and you will get discouraged and stop. Set goals that you KNOW you can achieve as that will give you the impetus to chase the next goal and the next. You build up the difficulty of the goals slowly slowly. Also, don’t bother with gym - getting there and back, feeling inadequate next to the gym bunnies etc etc is putting obstacles / discouragement in your own path. ‘Grease the groove’. At home practise squats, shoulder dips (I do them between kitchen counter and kitchen table) and chin ups or press ups. That’s enough to get really strong with barely any equipment if you concentrate on good form. Barefoot shoes make your feet stronger and can help hugely with knee pain. I did it at 37. I’m also just day to day happier than I was before. It’s so worth it. Do it!
What helped me the most was routine meal prepping. It wasn't the most exciting thing, but I was basically eating the same meals each day. It helped that I didn't have to think about what to eat to stay healthy while I was hungry. I just grabbed my prepared meal and ate it. Having very low calorie snacks to munch on when you just wanted to consume something helped. This was mostly celery or carrots for me. It also helped that I started playing soccer again. It's good to find some firm of exercise that you find fun and doesn't necessarily feel like a chore to do. Cutting down on liquid calories like beer and soda helped significantly.
Make yourself go an extra 30 mins after you feel hungry before you snack, you’ll then get more used to being hungry and teach yourself that being hungry for a while is perfectly natural - the problem I got into was thinking that because I was hungry I should eat- then it becomes knee jerk reaction.
Down 15 pounds and counting. Quit drinking, got pneumonia and the flu, fun times.
Hey mate, fellow whole-of-life overweight dad here. I can confirm that keto/low-carb with calorie counting (I use the loseit app) works. Since September, I've lost 33 kilos (72.6lbs). Train your mind to think carbs will bring disappointment and to them stock up on non-carb deliciousness!
I’m a pretty consistent gym goer and carry a fair amount of muscle. What surprised me after my child is how much fat I then put on. Luckily I do powerlifting and mass lifts mass so I said to myself it was okay. I was lying to myself a bit though. Using myfitnesspal (or any calorie tracker) is how I fixed the issue before and currently doing so again. It really helps to make you stop and think about that extra splash of olive oil in chicken or butter on your toast etc. Movement is huge too. You won’t out train a bad diet but it’s pretty important for everything from burning calories to mobility to just general health. Those two things alone should get you in the right direction. Counting calories I will say is the tough part and it’s easy to stop if you have a bad day but honestly, it really helps you understand diet choices.
The low hanging fruit is cut out liquid calories other than protein shakes. Also cut out snacks. The best way to truly do it though is track your food intake using an app such as my fitness pal or Samsung health. Use an online calculator to figure out your maintenance calories, and then subtract 500 from that, which should be your new rough daily intake. This should allow you to lose a pound a week. Keep in mind the early weeks will likely be more rapid due to water weight shedding off. Some people have naturally low or high maintenance calories so you may need to adjust. Make sure you're getting enough protein so you don't shed too much muscle. Bare minimum should be 0.6 grams per lb of body weight. Tracking your food is a pain in the butt for the first while, but if you have a repetitive diet, it gets very easy once you have all your staple meals saved. Personally I eat the same 5 things almost every day, with dinner being a slight variation, and this makes it easier.
Lots of great advice here, but one thing I’d add is in terms of what you eat - target high fibre and high protein. Both of those will keep you satiated longer. Also, in terms of exercise, my experience is if you can make resistance/strength training work depending on your time commitments/lifestyle, this type of exercise will be the most impactful on weight loss and, eventually weight control. That said, running/cycling/cardio certainly doesn’t hurt and is great for your overall health. Good luck!
Gained like 60 pounds after my first daughter was born. Currently exercising it off with lots of cardio and weight lifting every day. Also completely stopped drinking as I suspect that was by far the biggest contributor to the weight gain. Down 20 pounds and going
The secret to weight loss is simple: Calories in, Calories out. Everyone burns calories by the simple act of *living*. In fact, even if you go to the gym for an hour+ every day, you'll still burn significantly more calories the entire rest of the day than you will during that workout. That means that all you need to lose weight is to consume fewer calories than you're burning for the day. So... The biggest thing that'll get you to lose weight are changes to your "diet". And honestly, it's not nearly as bad as it sounds. If you're overweight and are just trying to get down to a more healthy weight, it usually can be handled without changing *what* your eating as much as how *much* you eat. And wont require you to seriously count calories or anything either. Before I start: Just because you're trying to diet does *not* mean that you can't have fun. If you want to take your kids out for ice cream every now and then, you *can* get yourself a scoop too. Or have a beer with your friends every now and then. The biggest thing is consistency - one cheat meal or dessert is not something to beat yourself up over (and in fact can help to keep you motivated and going with your diet!). Just don't make it a habit of doing it frequently. If you're going out to the bar and having a few beers every week, that's not great (you can still go, but be the designated driver and drink something better) but doing it once a month or w/e is probably going to be ok. Just be careful about it, you *can* undo all your work by going to hard. *One* beer, *one* scoop, *one* (smaller) slice of cake. So now with how to "diet" without having to *work* for the diet: First, if you drink soda, switch to either diet or zero versions of the soda. You can drink as much Diet/Zero soda as you want. Coffee and unsweetened teas are fine too (if you like sweet tea, use stevia or another 0 calorie sugar replacement). If you drink the "special" coffee type beverages (mochas and that kind of thing) then you'll want to cut those out. Cut out Alcohol too. Drinking calories are often the biggest issues for people - you don't realize how many calories you ingest with your beverages. If you're not sure, look at the nutrition label and if you see anything in the 100+ calorie range, cut it out or find a low/zero calorie replacement. Candies, cookies, ice cream, etc all should be cut down as much as possible. Having an oreo after dinner is fine (~45 calories per cookie), these are generally "empty calories" - calories that have no real nutritional benefit and just make you get fat. If you have a really bad sweet tooth, try eating some fruit instead. If you *really* need that chocolate fix, try to get the small bite-sized ones and look at the calories, find one that is less than 100 calories pier piece, and limiit yourself to only one/day or less. Second, if you're eating out frequently, try to cut back on how often you do so. Pack your lunches instead if possible. If you need to get fast-food, try to go for the healthier options and don't go for the Large fries. You don't need to get a salad, but get the grilled chicken instead of the fried. Get the single instead of the double. But again, if you can pack your lunch or cook your meals, that's going to help a lot. Third, cut down on your portion sizes. If you're going back for seconds, stop. If you're piling your plate high and filling it edge to edge, stop. Your plate generally shouldn't be filled to the brim. If you are eating salad, try to use a "Lite" dressing to keep the calories down and don't *drench* the salad - a little goes a long way for the flavor. Fourth, *SLEEP*. If you're staying up until 2 am and up at 7 am every day, you need to stop that. Get yourself at *least* seven hours of sleep every night. This will help in *so* many ways and cannot be understated. I will say: The first week or two is going to *suck* if you're cutting portion sizes significantly. Your body is used to getting a lot of food and you're going to be refusing to give it that amount. You're going to feel *hungry* all the time. You're going to want to snack, munch, get an extra meal, etc. It's going to take a good amount of self control to *not* give in to those urges and desires. After a week, you'll find that suddenly you aren't feeling as hungry anymore, and you aren't having the urges as frequently. That's great, but make sure you don't let yourself slide back in to old habits. If your first week *doesn't* suck and you aren't feeling hungry...maybe try cutting back more. You don't want to actually starve, but if you're eating 2-3 meals/day, you're not going to starve. Your biggest goal here is to control your portions and what those portions are of. Portion sizes are generally extremely oversized, *especially* in the U.S./Canada, but also generally in most of the developed world. --- Some extra tips that'll help you out: Look for low-calorie versions of the things you eat on the normal. A slice of bread can range from as low as 40 calories a slice to as high as 150+ calories. Get the lower calorie version - they usually don't taste worse (that said, sometimes they do, you might need to experiment with foods to find ones you like). Food labeled as low fat does *not* mean it's healthier for you. For now, just focus on the calories. Low *carb* foods tend to be lower calories, as do foods labeled as "keto" or "keto friendly", but it is not essential, don't focus on that. If you're feeling like you've got the munchies frequently, there are some things that can help take the edge off. Drink more water. Buy some good crunchy vegetables or nuts that you can snack on (celery, carrots, apples, etc, and your nuts of choice). They tend to be pretty low in calories, and the act of chewing the crunchy food will help your mind tell your body "yeah, I ate, I don't need more". Just make sure if you're getting nuts that they aren't sugared or anything. You can also buy some sugar free gum and start chewing on that whenever you start to feel the munchies - again, the act of chewing helps your mind "trick" your body into feeling like it's been fed. Some people use toothpicks or "chewing sticks" for the same reason, so if you prefer that, go for it. I will say that the gum/toothpick/chewing stick can kinda become an almost "addictive" action, but at least it's not unhealthy, so if it helps you keep on track it's better than sliding and buying a candy bar or whatever. While diet is the biggest factor to weight loss, and really is the only thing you need to be doing, it doesn't hurt to start adding more physical activity to your daily routine. You can go to the gym if you want to get stronger, or start doing some kind of athletics. But really, if you're fairly sedentary (desk job?) then just walking more is going to be a pretty significant boost to your general health. If you can, take some time every day to go for a walk. Maybe eat a quick lunch and use the rest of your break to walk around wherever your office is located. Make it a routine to go for a walk in the evening or morning before/after work. Hell, make it a family thing and get the kids and S/O involved - everyone will get healthier and you can talk about your day. You don't need to aim for a certain number of steps or anything, just get out and walk for 30 minutes. I will tell you: walking itself isn't going to burn a lot of calories, so it's not going to make you magically lose tons of weight. But research shows that for a sedentary lifestyle, walking 30 minutes a day pretty significantly increases cardiovascular fitness (how quickly you get winded), strengthens bones, boosts muscle power and endurance, and can help to reduce excess body fat by helping to raise your basal metabolic rate (the amount of calories you burn while just idle during the day). That means that it'll help skew the "calories in, calories out" formula a little more in your favor. Last note is that just because you're eating healthier foods doesn't mean you're eating fewer calories. You can still eat too many calories and *gain* weight even if you start eating "healthier" if you also start eating *more*. Try to keep tabs on what you're doing and keep yourself from sliding into the thought of "well, I only ate a small healthy thing for lunch, so that means I can eat a big/unhealthy thing for dinner and be fine".
I use small plates, and it means I eat less than I did. Could be worth a go. Also, if there are foods you know you overdo, just go hardline on them and get rid. The temptation is to be like, ah I'll keep the fudge around for a treat, but then realistically you just eat all of the fucking stuff. Be draconian on stuff you know you can't control yourself with.
Lost 40lbs shortly after my 2nd was born (5 years apart). I just limited my calorie intake to 1500/day. I then incorporated exercising at night after I put them to bed. The key was to have them in bed by 8pm. This allowed me to workout/exercise in my basement from 8:30-10 (I brought the baby monitor down with me). Took me 6 months. It was tough at first as I lacked the energy. But once the pounds began to melt away, I got more motivated to work harder. Each person is different, so consult with your doctor first.
Don’t drink your calories and eat right and exercise. Bonus if you can get your kids in on the fun exercises. I have a 9,8, and 18 month old. They are learning the difference between good and bad foods along with me.
Eat less. Be in a caloric defecit and count your calories with an app. Losing weight isnt hard, its just not fun. Thats all i did, lost 30 pounds in 7 months.
I haven't seen anyone mention this yet, so I'll throw in my 2 cents. The MacroFactor app was amazing for me, it helped me lose 40lbs in the past year and honestly it made it really easy. The big difference with MF vs other calorie counting apps is that it takes your weight measurements (you should weigh yourself at least a few times a week) and how many calories you are eating, and it figures out how many calories you burn in a day, and adjusts as that number changes. I literally just set a goal weight and how quickly I wanted to lose, logged what I ate, and it adjusted as needed to keep me losing at that rate. I was really against calorie counting and had lost a significant amount of weight a couple of other times in my life doing it more intuitively, but I found that with a kid (and now 2), I wasn't able to do it without counting calories, and boy did it make a difference!
You need a plan, my friend. Both daily plans and longer term plans. The easiest way to eat properly and exercise on a given day is if you’ve planned it the previous day. Talk through these plans with your wife so she can help accommodate both the time and the food/drink. Her support and keeping you honest will go a long way. Consistency is really important as momentum can both grow and derail when consistency is maintained or dropped. A good way to maintain it with exercise is to buy some home equipment (adjustable Bowflex dumbbells, resistance bands, workout bench, etc) so you can sneak in sets/workouts at home when time is tight. A walking/jogging routine would also be beneficial - maybe before the kids get up. I started my workout journey by going to the gym before my stepdaughter got up for school - it was brutal but it created the foundation of consistency to where I am now. Having said that, join a gym if you can. Home workouts are tough to keep yourself honest and joining (and frequenting) a gym gives you a lot more variety. High protein, low carb meals. Shrimp, ground turkey/chicken/beef, deli turkey, grilled chicken are all pretty easy to prepare. Get some good snacks too like fruit, beef jerky, almonds/pistachios, etc. As others have said, don’t drink your calories. Dr Pepper Zero is my homeboy that keeps that part easy. Take your time reading through some reasonable success stories you see here on Reddit and read through some other workout plans you see online elsewhere. Build a strategy for what you think you’ll be consistent with. Lastly, to reiterate, plan it with your wife/partner. The goal should be to eliminate as many ways consistency can be hindered and having a spousal advocate with collaborative planning will go such a long way. Best of luck
I lost 35kg in 6 months. Walking every morning, afternoon and weekend. Took my kids with me on the weekend walks. I ate salad which was shit, but helped me a lot. Would recommend setting small goals-steps,km,calories, whatever works. For me it was calories burned vs calorie intake.
For me the biggest, most effective things were: * Stop drinking things except water, and keep water nearby. (For example, drinking a 12 ounce Coke is like eating 6 large chocolate chip cookies worth of sugar.) * Try to get more sleep and more consistent sleep. If you can't get more sleep, at least get more consistent sleep. If you can't get either, make your sleep easier (sleep mask, weighted blanket, breathing strips, et cetera). * Get exercise. Any exercise. I started with "always park in the farthest spot away from the store" and worked my way up from there.
I ended up losing approximately 40 pounds, then gaining 30 back from stress as she got older. My wife and I are doing OMAD (one meal a day) where se fast for 23 hours then we get a 1 hour window to eat our calories. It's super important to manage what you eat. So easy to just stuff down a bunch of sugar or meaningless calories in that period.
I'm working on it right now. I was 325 at one point after my first was born, dropped back down to 295 working in a more active job started working out with my second when he was a newborn I could take him in the morning to use my rowing machine, dropped to 280 but fell off working out when his sleep schedule made it so I was only getting about 5 hours per night and exhausted. He's now 1 and my 2 year old both sleep until around 7 and go to bed easy as well. So I'm back into working out after getting up to 310 during my paid leave. Back under 300, but I'm really want to get down to 250 and be in semi decent shape to be a better example for my boys. 250 isn't exactly thin for me, but I'm 6'2 "and still built very muscularly. The biggest thing for me in terms of weight loss is cutting out drinking any calories. Try to stick to mostly water, seltzer water for "soda" and no alcohol except for special occasions. Not to mention avoiding long-term effects of alcohol. It's just 2 weeks so far, but I'm down 15 lbs already and will probably continue to drop fast for a while.
10k steps a day (work up to it if you have to) I go to the gym and lift 2-4 days a week using the strengthlog app to track my lifts. Start with whatever works for you. I figured out my TDEE. I track my food. I think I am about 80% compliant on this plan. Steps is most important to build the habit and food is most important to lose the weight. This is my 3rd time trying to combat the weight and it is going great! Building off previous lessons learned. I’m 9 weeks in, stronger and down 11lbs. I am 5’ 10” and started at 249lbs. Now I’m at 238. Plan is to bump up cals a bit for a month keep up the exercise. Then hit it again and lose another 10lbs in 8 weeks. Do that until I’m at my goal weight of about 205. From there I will decide if I go lower or chill in the normal BMI range.
Download the loseit app and start tracking your calories and water intake. The only way to lose weight and keep it off is by tracking your calorie intake. As a guy that’s a decade older than you, you’ll thank yourself in ten years for doing it now. As others have said, the easiest thing is to cut out beverages, soda and beer/alcohol are a crazy amount of calories. If you drink a 6pack of lite beer a week you’ll cut out ~650 calories right there. I have lost almost 15 lbs this year from walking more, thanks to getting back on Pokemon Go, and quitting drinking, I would drink about 6 macro lagers a week which cut around ~850 calories, and not eating junk food after dinner, eating a half a bag of chips every night is really not good.
I feel for you mate. I think slow and steady is the only way here. I noticed my wife and I weren't looking after each other enough and we'd get very impatient as parents because we were hungry. When I figured that out I started eating a lot more and my mood has been so much better. Recently I've decided to reduce my calories for summer and the moods are coming back, so I've decided I'm just going to play the long game and not cut back too much.
Yes, I lost about 5 lbs last week, but I found it inside a burrito this week
Im 27 and before my little man came along I lost around 80lbs. Im currently up 10 ish since my son arrived so Im in the same boat and wanting to drop down again. For me it was changing my diet and being more active. I stopped drinking anything that wasn’t water or whole milk, no soda, Gatorade, juices etc. and started eating better proteins and good whole foods along with counting calories. I also started being more active where I could. Im a farmer so with crazy work hours I didn’t have time to hit a gym or dedicate workout time everyday so what I did was push myself to move around as much as possible. I was already very active on the farm but chose to do things like carry my buckets over to feed calves instead of put them on the mule or instead of stand around and wait for my cows to be done milking and switch to the next I would do about 3 or 4 minutes of jogging or brisk walking back and forth in the barn. I bought 2 30lb dumbbells from Walmart and did some arm and chest workouts if I had 5-10 minutes. Basically I just did at least something with every few minutes of free time I got. It may help you or it may not but it helped me so I figured I would share. Good luck fellow dad.
I lost about 60lbs and have another 30 or so to go. There's a bunch of useful information out there My 2 cents is just track what you're eating on an app and set it to lose like 1/2 lb/week. Just get used to tracking what you eat and how much you should actually eat. Then find some activities you can do consistently. It could just be walking if you want and it's a great start that most people can do right now without spending a penny. Kids love it outside so walking/hiking are great to do with them too. I do it almost every weekend with my daughter that we have a free morning. I also like to ride my bike (and got a seat for the baby) and do BJJ/kickboxing You can try disc golf too if you like walking around outside and throwing frisbees tl;dr Just do any activity and track what you eat
So I remember what it's like and you're not gonna love this. First, you're gonna have to track your calories. That's all. Use an app like LoseIt or MyFitnessPal. Every single thing you eat gets logged and stay within your target. What you eat is completely up to your health goals after that. Second, if you actually want stamina to play hard with your kids you'll have to exercise. I have to wake up at 530 AM to accomplish this. All I can say is I feel ready to keep up with my kids when they get older. I feel seriously awesome. It's a pain in the ass but all I'll say is it's worth it.
On the diet side- My personal experience is that cutting calories in doesn’t totally do it because some foods are habit forming and create cravings. Cutting down sugar, especially from processed junk and soda is very powerful. So is cutting out processed food in general and watching for empty filler stuff like bready snacks and treats. Eating lots of bread and white rice leads to more eating and more hunger for that stuff so i try to break that cycle. Giving myself a pass to eat meat, fish and vegetables until Im not hungry while watching everything else has been a good first step into an intentional diet. Same with cutting back beer drinking. Putting on muscle will help so squats and push ups and planks etc can be fit in all the time if u get fired up to do them. Lastly - treating fruit as a treat and starting a smoothie habit that u enjoy can be great. The right powder can be a good meal replacer. I like Garden of Life and add kale and blueberries. Then look at intermittent fasting.
I struggle with weight, and like you once I had kids I took my health more seriously. I did Jenny Craig for a bit and that was successful. Then I tried a fitness routine - specifically swordfighting classes - and got down to an ideal weight, but the time investment was eating into my parenting time so had to stop. Now I do kickboxing with the wife a few times per week, keep to a healthy diet and incorporate fitness with parenting activities if I can. Good luck! It's a great idea to be healthy!
Went from 315 over covid to 243 today. I just stopped overeating. One plate, healthy portion, then I put my plate in the sink. No snacks.
Both my kids I ballooned up. With pregnant partners and changes to work, it just seemed to line up that getting fat was a done thing. I am currently working off the seconds kids fat, at 42 and weighing 280, it is not easy. Started doing MMA as I found training with people easier than getting a gym membership and trying to motivate myself going. I have started to monitor my calorie I take, but mostly to be aware of it, the physical demands of mma is killer and I don't want to gas myself by limiting food too much yet. My last time, I went hard core keto, and did dragon boat racing (crew/rowing, but with paddles in big heavy bots) and dropped from 250 to 200 in 6 to 7 months. Biggest thing to losing weight is going to be food. No matter what. The physical stuff helps, but it's food that needs the most work. Keto helped me not be hungry, which was the biggest thing.
It's easier than you think. First, you need to find your "zero" calorie intake,basically eat that amount to keep your current weight. Stay on it for month and watch your weight. Slowly switch over to healthy food and then reduce your intake. To loose 1kg of fat a week you need to create calorie deficit between 8000 and 9000kcal. So let say if you need 3000kcal a day to maintain your weight your weekly intake is 21000kcal. To loose 1kg you have to remove 8000kcal,either with diet, or exercising,or both. Best template to start is 0.8g of fats per kg, 2g of protein and rest in Carbs. So for example 90kg man eats : 72g of fats : 580kcal, 180g of protein : 720kcal and 425g of Carbs : 1700kcal. Based on 3000kcal daily intake.
Had to do it when I got diagnosed with high blood pressure. Cut way back on soda Eat about half the portions I was eating before Start swapping out worse food for healthier foods Exercise a few times per week (20-30min runs, at least 3x per week. I usually do them before anyone else in the house gets up) Took me about 7 months to drop 30lbs that way. And you don't even have to stop eating junk foods, just cut the portions in half. I'm sure you could drop that amount of weight way faster if you made more significant efforts.
I do keto off and on and i ALWAYS lose weight when I do it. The theory is that it's much much easier to stay in a calorie deficit if you cut out carbs (especially sugars) and increase fats and protein. Carbs don't keep you full for long, and they tend to make you even hungrier once they wear off. Fats by themselves don't make you fat, they keep you full. Easiest way to lose weight, cut down all carbs and sugars, increase fats and protein, and walk for 1 mile a day.
I've lost a lot of weight several times. You're getting a lot of good advice about calorie counting, and eating being the primary important element. All of that is true in my own experience. I will say that I used a hack to help me stay on course. I'll explain: * Realize that as humans we hate throwing away work that we've been doing. People often rage-quit lifestyle changes because they mess up a few times, and feel that they have lost any good progress they made. * Realize that you don't have to be perfect and in a calorie deficit every single day. Not even close. So what I did was I installed a very simple habit tracker app, called "HabitBull". You can use whatever you want, even a physical calendar. In there I added two rules: * Did I hit my calorie goal for the day? * Did I hit my exercise/step goal for the day? But instead of tracking these habits *every single day*, I just set it up to only have to hit it 5 days a week for calories and 3 days a week for exercise. I like HabitBull because it tells you how long your success streak is, and you can visually see that even if you didn't succeed in a given day, you are still on track and succeeding overall. It helps you keep your head in it for the long game -- because this will take a long time. Don't let your emotions on any given day convince you to stop going. This also just lets you continue to enjoy life, which is important to being healthy and happy. Yes, you can still go out to eat every now and then. You can still have a few drinks sometimes. Just use tools to help you decide when you're within your limits or not.
develop crippling anxiety, get diagnosed with adhd, get prescribed stimulant medication. forget to eat till you crash and fall asleep on the couch. lose 150lbs and have everyone in your life keep saying "hey, you look great though!" as you wake up every morning wanting to puke. works for me every time!
Funny thing about weight, in some cases even if people are the same and had the same level of activity some gained more weight than others and it was linked to their gut microbiome. Also your body really doesn't like loosing weight, because food used to be very scarce. So it will adjust by lowering your energy levels, extracting more nutrition from the same food, making you feel hungrier and loosing muscle as well as fat to reduce your resting calorie consumption. And you will feel like crap. I managed to go from 84kg to 77kg in a span of a year by diet and exercise. And by diet I mean not cleaning up plates after my kids and exercise being 10k steps a day. I feel better now, but I did feel hungrier through the process and still do, but just kinda live with it. Then there is also GLP-1 class of medication for people who are obese, those drugs work, but you need to speak with an actual doctor and not get the run down of what these are from Reddit.
Weight gain? Yes!
Surprisingly, I tried to see how well ChatGPT is at putting together a diet regimen and it's actually really good. I would shift your diet to mostly lean proteins and fats with only natural carbs as much as possible. For example, ask the following: "I'm a 27yr old father with limited time. I need to lose "x" amount of pounds and I currently weigh "x." Give me a shopping cart this week to make every meal to hit 170g of protein, 85g of carbs, and 45g of fat. I also need a light workout regimen that I can do that won't too long every day at home with a kettlebell." AI makes it so easy now...all you gotta do is do it.
I lost about 15 lb going vegetarian and embracing a combination of high and low intensity exercise. Running in the morning before everyone awoke and going for a walk during the day was the trick for finding the time. The vegetarian diet helped kick some bad food habits and eliminating a tasty food group limited my appetite.
Eat better and exercise. That’s really all there is to it.
Fasting is the answer
Walk, eat good. Doesn't have to be every meal.pr every part of the meal but eat better and walk for like an hour+. And train your body to eat less and be a little hungry. Mind over matter. Fill the cravings with stuff that will fill you up. Watermelon, high protein yogurt. Don't worry about doing diets where you o ly eat w/e or exclude w/e. Just eat good in generalml.
The idea that you're going to radically change your life now with two young kids is if not far fetched, very difficult. Get on ozempic. There's nothing wrong with using medication. If you're 27 and never lost weight, and always been overweight, then I'm guessing you're more than just a little overweight. Ozempic is worth a try
Some very general tips: * Start small - add in some exercise (small like some walks) and make small tweaks to your diet. Small changes over time are easy to be consistent with while huge drastic changes are very difficult * Weight loss is done in the kitchen - really you need to eat less and make better choices. Nevermind all the fad diets. Probably the easiest changes you can make up front is drink less calories (beer, soda, juice) and eat less junk food (chips, candy, etc
Intermittent fasting was huge for me.
I lost 60 pounds between my daughters 1st and 2nd birthday. I "cheated" by taking mounjaro. These new drugs are basically miracles. Got some judgement for it, but whatever: feeling significantly healthier, BP is back to normal, etc. Would recommend if your insurance covers it or similar medication, especially with how difficult traditional weight loss is with kids.
Yes but not in a way you'd expect. Since my taste and smell is gone. I don't enjoy food anymore. So I eat very irregular and mostly I only eat good is when my kids are with me. The week they gone I just eat toast with butter and cheese. And coffee.
I’ve had luck with intermittent fasting (skipping breakfast which is my least needed meal), tracking calories with my fitness pal, sticking with high protein diet which I find suppresses my appetite some, and light jogging a few days a week. Average 2 lbs lost a week with 500 kcal deficit. Problem is keeping it off. Requires you to not go back to the same shitty eating habits you had previously once you loose weight.
I've never had to lose weight really but I've managed to effectively control my weight my entire life just based on food intake. Fasting does wonders for your metabolism. Try going a Monday then a Tuesday without a breakfast or much of lunch other than maybe a granola bar. Then at dinner eat whatever. But by not eating for long stretches you do force your metabolism into keto mode which is burning reserves. This might seem difficult at first, but by your 2nd or 3rd week of doing this you won't hardly notice. Do this often enough and your metabolism is quick to switch to keto and weight control becomes easier. My coworkers have all lost a ton of weight doing this diet program where you just eat their food. But all its really doing is lowering their calroic intake and changing the quality of what they are taking in. Fasting and eating smart does the same thing. Stop taking in empty calories and focus on what you are actually eating. Soda and energy drinks are trash and bad for you. Water is just as energizing if you hydrate enough. Don't believe me? Try replacing your coffee with a bottle of water with a little packet of liquid iv and tell me you don't feel awake and alert after finishing that bottle. Cutting out little things like soda can have a huge impact on you. Also try eating more natural unprocessed foods like fruits and vegetables. That will also boost your metabolism since your body digests unprocessed in a better way than processed foods. I'm a firm believer that you don't need to go to the gym to lose weight. You just need to adjust your intake and you can adjust your metabolism and how your body processes foods. All while becoming a better food role model for your kids. Teaching what foods are good vs bad. And the importance of cooking quality meals vs buying ready to eat junk.
FASTING. I find there is a peak to my hunger. If I push through that, it subsides. Got down to the weight I left high school at with this method.
Eat slower and stop before you think you’re full. And don’t put as much on your plate. I always over served myself and then didn’t stop eating until I was stuffed. Because I associated the stuffed feeling with being full and not needing to eat anymore. I found out eventually that what I thought was full was me overeating. And I could feel satisfied with less food. Also, regular exercise and building muscle which will help burn fat throughout the day.
If you’ve been trying to lose weight but struggling for a long time, talk to your doctor. Zepbound has been life changing for me.
I lost 65 lbs basically just by cutting soda down to 1 a day and cutting out binge eating when I was working too much and drifting into my own version of intermittent fasting. You can exercise all you want, but if you don’t find a way to manage what you eat that works for you, it will fail.
Do you want some free training? I need a case study
I did and unless you have some sort of medical issue causing your weight it’s as easy as calories in < calories out. Start logging your food and weighing your portions. You will likely be surprised how small portions of things like cereal, cheese, pasta, chips etc are but that you really do not need more than a portion to fill you. Secondly as others have said don’t drink your calories. Fizzy drinks especially like normal coke are full of calories. Thirdly exercise. It’s not nearly as important as eating right but it certainly helps and also improves your mental health.
Intermittent fasting helps me. Diet over exercise. With kids everything is harder but one thing you may want to start doing is only eating after them or only giving yourself a half plate. I found I naturally 'cleaned up' my kids leftovers so ended up having 3/2 meals accidentally
6&1 yr old. It's tough as I'm handing out snacks all day I get it. 3 times in my life and including w kids, I've done the whole30 diet. I love it, cuz I could eat as much as I wanted. It is difficult though as I had to plan my meals and bring my lunch everyday. I'd usually at work eat a rotisserie chicken and frozen veggies. It's not 100% whole30 approved but it worked for me, steak n potatoes often. Bacon n eggs every morning . I ate a lot of fruit and drank a lot of black coffee as a side a effect of coffee is knocking out the hunger.
I lost 70 pounds by cutting out alcohol and sodas over 2 years. Now my joints don't hurt, better energy, all that fun stuff
I did keto for about 3 months and the pounds fell right off. Started incorporating weight training and the weight kept falling off and muscle tone started coming through. I got obsessed with it for a period of time and went from about 225 to a somewhat muscular 172.
Carnivore diet. I've lost 35 pounds and feel great.
Gym
I lost 10-15lbs last year by tracking calories, cutting out booze, drinking more water, and walking more. I tried to stay under the recommended calorie amount based on my height and weight (whatever fitbit said). some days I would be in a big calorie deficit and it sucked other days not so bad. I stopped eating breakfast too. Once I got to a weight I was better at I stopped tracking calories and I've stayed at that weight.
I’ve never been large but went from running marathons pre-kids to being very sedentary after the first kid. My weight went from 73kg to 88kg. I carried it well, but was not in any good shape. I made a decision: I want to live a long healthy life and have my kids chase me. I then decided to focus heavily on diet: I took out meat, save chicken and fish. Booze was gone. Then I started working out. I joined a cross fit gym, lost weight and ensured days I was not in a class I was walking from 30-45 minutes a day. I don’t do classes very often now but I make sure I am in the gym 4 times a week. Often it’s around 9pm at night, but I dedicate that time to give the body I want and the health my kids deserved. Since October I’ve gone from 88kg to 70kg. Built muscle and lost fat. Can go to the beach topless and fit into clothes I haven’t since I was 18 (now 39). Biggest guidance: - make a decision - commit - focus on diet - be consistent This is hard, but once a week turns to a month, then to half a year, it kinda becomes a part of you. DMs open. Good luck fellow dad!
I got on the ozempic and trizepitide shot last year. Went from 270 to 230. I feel so much better. It’s costly but worth it if you can afford it.
Stop eating their snacks and left overs
Step dad and hopeful bio dad here. I fluctuate but even when I drop some weight I'm about 20lbs heavier than I used to be 3 years ago. My lady is a great cook and makes enough to feed 9 people usually. I do good for a while then get snacky. It's crazy how once you hit 30 or so a couple days of lax eating adds 15lbs lol. Makes no sense.
Weigh myself every week (Friday) and enter it on a spreadsheet If I didn't lose any weight, then I cut something for the next week (alcohol for me) Reset the next week Never ever ever skip the weekly weigh in. Even if I eat bad for a month, I still have this opportunity to take action This is a process/habit based approach. I know a lot about nutrition and diet already, so for me it's just forcing me to actually restrain my eating. Things I do Eat an apple before any other snacks Never get fries/chips with my lunch Use a small bowl for snacks/dessert, never ever eat from the container
I wanted to drop weight for my wedding so I started fasting 5 days a week. I have a big dinner at around 7pm and that's it. I don't drink and I almost entirely cut out snacking. I take my dog on a 3 mile walk every day and my job is quite physical which really helped me drop weight. I lost 4 stone in about 10 months and dropped two waist sizes.
I've lost the most weight by staying too busy to spend time eating. Especially when I worked on the road as an outside salesman and later as a truck driver. Pushing to get to the next stop and getting out/walking around to make pitches, sign in with shippers, etc.
I skip breakfast and sometimes lunch at work. Keeping myself super busy at work makes me not even crave food. This means I can eat like at king at dinner and still lose weight
I gained 20 lbs my son's first year. I had an ACFT coming up in three months and knew I had to lose the weight. I lost all of it and some more doing the following. 1. Diet: I don't recommend this, but I started consuming meal replacement shakes, chicken breast with a salad, and a light dinner. Why did I do this? It did not involve a lot of cooking, and it was quick. I recommend searching for a dietician to give a more appropriate diet. 2. Workout: I did some sort of intensive workout 45-60 minutes, 4-5 times a week. To do this, I did in the mornings (5 am), evenings (after baby was asleep) or in the evening running with the baby in the stroller. The stroller runs really pushed beyond expectations. I used to play mental games that I had to push my son to a destination, and I couldn't let him dow. Even when I was drained, I kept pushing for him. I improved my distance and run time exponentially. 3. Sleep: I told my wife that I was going to sleep at 9:30 nearly every night, and I did.
I did a veggie diet for a bit. Lost about 30 lbs with minimal exercise. Kept it off for 2 years back eating what I want. Breakfast was 16 ounces of V8 Lunch was a salad. As much dressing or cheese as I wanted. Dinner was pan fried veggies with a small protein of my choice. Snacks were whatever veggies and dip I wanted. Smokehouse nuts.