What have you found that has helped you loose weight and keep it off.

I am at 293 and probably need to be down to at least 220-230. Becoming affraid that I am never going to loose this weight.

Hi,

I've been doing well at regular exercise. I ride my bike to work almost everyday instead of driving. It actually saves me time as I get cleaned up at the office instead of at home. Takes about the same amount of time as driving as well. So if you can work something in to replace another activity like driving to work it will help.

Count your cals...and don't stop...

Cut the meat....eat more veggies and fruit before hitting the meat. If you have a choice, choose lean meats before anything else.

Enjoy yourself once in a while...have a couple beer every other week... just practice moderation.

Don't worry about not being able to loose weight...just realize it will take time... and remember you are not dieting...you are changing your lifestyle and choosing to be healthier...losing weight is just an added benifit to that change.

Rob

Rob,

Just joined the Male Calorie Counter group, I'm a member of the 300+ group, starting weight 340, down to 327 in the last few. How did I do it? You got it right on the nose brother, I'm looking for small changes and little things to do to enhance our natural ability to lose weight.

Started by cutting out the soda, huge benefits there. Any of you suffering from gastrointestinal issues? How about roids? Stop the soda guys, toss the weight and feel better. Drink water, and lots of it, stop whining, you can do that, if that was the toughest thing in life we'd be lucky.

Next, got off my ass every once and awhile, preferrably three times a week a minimum of a 20 minute walk up the street and back, with the occassional "push myself" walk to downtown to get something and walk back to work.

Two simple measly little things and the pounds are starting to drop. I'm building my house and eventually will have a work out room, the tread and bike are buried under crap until then. I'll just keep walking for now.

One other thing I'm doing as this process continues...I'm educating myself. I have never counted calories before, I've never checked what I eat before...ahhhh, scratch that, I used to check my food this way...yummy? eat it!

Now I'm becoming more aware of what causes high calorie counts and what they look like, which in turn will help me to choose better in the future. Putting the good data in my head will eventually lead to even subconscious decisions that will be better for me.

I'm sure I'll lapse, but it is small longer lasting changes that I can see taking me to the end goal in the long run.

cwboytop,

Doesn't it feel good to come in and chat with people that are trying to get to your current weight? My current goal is 325 by October 1st, I'm confident that I will beat that. We all started somewhere brother, you can do it.

If you aren't the type to be a "gym junkie" (not meant as derogatory), start by just being aware of what you are doing (or not doing) and what you are eating (or not eating). Just start there, no big diet plans, no big exercise plans, just take the time to become aware of where you are at and what got you to where you are.

Then baby steps, baby baby steps in fact.

I know that if I want to rapidly lose the 100 pounds I've set as my goal, I would need to radically change the way I eat...and my exercise. Sorry, not that kind of guy...I'm the locomotive kind of guy, start off slow and build momentum until I'm pretty much unstoppable. I know that I will reach this goal, I know, that you can too.

I would agree with everything said so far and just emphasize that it really should be a gradual process. I've tried every diet out there over the years (Adkins, Scarsdale, WW) and everytime I've lost weight, but gained it right back after I quit.  This time I'm just counting and exercising more and trying to stay satisfied with 1-2 pounds a week.  And I still have the things I really want, I just work it into a day where I'm doing great.

Good luck, you can do it!

thanks guys!

I do work out 4 to 5 days a week and have for the last 30 years....at times I was in great shape. Not so any more.

I really need to start counting calories but I dont/cant cook and eat out a lot. Try to make healthy choices and stick with salads, fish, some meat, and avoid carbs, desert etc. Problem is, how do you count calories when you eat out? I guess I could just do a ball park estimate.

I'm 5ft 11 and   I've started with 231 lbs with currently 203 lbs  and my goal is to be  176 lbs  in middle of November. My dieting rules are:

1. Avoid carbohydrates. This is the hardest part as I really love sweets.

2. Eat a lot of protein.

3. Its beneficial to eat something you like (without counting) once in a few days. Just accept that you'll occasionally cheat a little bit so eat your sweets and continue with your diet afterward.

And the most important one :

Weight loss is marathon not a sprint, all those super fast diets are just yo-yo crap. Lose a pound gain 2  back.

Today I'm starting to count calories but I'm not sure that it will do much good as long as I'm avoiding sugars.I don't do much exercise except that I really like walking, so I walk to work and back about 1 hour a day. 

Original Post by cwboytop:

Problem is, how do you count calories when you eat out?

I only cook on the weekends so I eat out pretty much every day. As a meal I recommend you to order meat (chicken or turkey white meat, fish fillet or low fat red meat)  with salad ONLY.  Avoid anything like toppings, sauces, bread  and pretty much everything they serve with. Just pure grilled meat and salads.

I'm a long haul trucker out for a month at a time so I have no choice but to eat out all the time...at least I used to eat out all the time. What I've started doing was when I was home, I'd make several healthy meals, like chicken, pot roast, healthy chili that I make by draining the fat from the hamburger and rinsing, then adding lots of vegatables like corn, zucchini, black beans, pinto beans etc, and then I divide them in individual servings and throw them in the freezer of my truck and now I dont have to eat out all the time even though I'm rarely home. Maybe you could do something like that. There's tons of info on the internet about "freezer cooking" or OAMC "once a month cooking" or bulk cooking. It real easy, you just take out of the freezer and just pop it in the microwave and you have a satisfying meal.

Original Post by cwboytop:

Problem is, how do you count calories when you eat out? I guess I could just do a ball park estimate.

Ballpark estimates can be misleading because we men have a tendency to underestimate the calories, fat, cholesterol, sodium, etc.   A lot of national-chain restaurants have nutrition information on-line now, so you can actually plan your menu before even going there.

My wife and I went to Longhorn Steakhouse for dinner Friday night, and we did exactly that.  Their Web site lists their menu and all the nutrition information for the items, so we assembled our menus at home, wrote it down, then went out.

I'll tell you what it looked like from the outside, before explaining what we were really going for.

We sat down, both ordered 25 oz. Sam Adams each, and asked for no bread.  We ordered -- she had the garlic grilled shrimp, with a salad (no cheese, no croutons) with oil & vinegar dressing.  Her side item was the mixed veggies.

I ordered the 8 oz. sirloin medium rare, with asparagus.  My salad (also no cheese, no crouton) had Italian dressing.  I ate half my steak and she ate half her shrimp.  We got a box for both.

We spent probably a half-hour on Longhorn's Web site, figuring out what we wanted.  We wrote it down on notebook paper.  I had targeted 500 calories for dinner, which would allow me the caloric room for the beer (Sam Adams at 25 oz. is approximately 320 calories).

Not bad, huh?  Steak, beer, salad....and nobody would have known I was counting calories had I not said anything!

It just takes a little bit of advanced thinking, like packing one's lunch the night before.  It's not an easy habit to get into, but if you can, it's worth it!

I have a good friend who uses these 2 strategies:

1) he brushes his teeth right after dinner when he wants to prevent himself from snacking on something naughty after dinner. 

2) try eating a piece of cake in front of a mirror ...  naked. He's too ridden with guilt to take a single bite. 

1) For me, counting calories has made the major difference.  I put together a spreadsheet and enter my daily weight and calorie intake.  I average it out at the end of the week.

2) Reporting results here keeps me accountable.  I benefit from reading the success others are having, I want to be able to report success as well.  It keeps us all going. If I'm hungry and wanting to splurge, I know that others here are too, so I don't.

3) Exercise.  It doesn't do that much for losing weight but it sure gives a lot of energy, both mentally and physically. It feels great to be totally on top of the day instead of struggling to get off the couch.

4) Most important: stay with it.  In the early phase I went off my plan a lot. Get right back on and keep going. The brain/body is used to overeating, until it gets used to the new plan it will regress and revert.  Keep going forward, no matter what, no matter if you fall off the horse, get right back on.  Kick your spurs into it and take off flying again.

5) Be super positive about it.  Any kind of negative feelings will slow you down and even stop you.  Affirm your choice, get behind it fully, be excited about it, happy, enthused.  Say; "It's going to happen, I can do this, this feels great, I feel great for doing this, who knows what other self-development will happen as a result, I'm changing my future".  Affirm the positives, eliminate the negatives. 

Yee haw!!

John

Thanks for all the posts and the support, guys. One thing I've not seen mentioned here is redefining how I'm thinking. For example, what is my definition of success. Sure, we all want to lose weight (I have just about 100 lbs. to go) but that is so far off it can feel endless. I reorganized my thinking to more "one day at a time." Now my measure of success is this: "How did I do today with eating and exercise?" If I can say I followed my plan, I'm successful that day. If not, I got a "flat tire." Time to change the tire and get back on the road. It's a day-by-day pat on the back. Also, I don't dwell on the future: "When I get to fill in date I'll look a certain way, weight a certain weight." For me, that's a trap. If I make it, I want to eat and if I don't make it, I feel like crap and want to eat. So now when I catch myself thinking "out there" in the future, I reel in my thoughts and ask myself, "What are you doing today, to get to where you want to go." There is no tomorrow, there is no yesterday. There is only what I'm doing here today. Finally, I have a mantra (pardon my language) "F#*k the feelings." Because some days I don't feel like exercising. Or I feel like I'm going to freak if I can't have XXX to eat. That's my own BS thinking/feeling. How I feel is not so important as what I do, so I developed my little mantra to give myself a kick in the pants to get on with it. It's all working.

I see a lot of posts about eating out or being on the road a lot and doing the "grab and go" meals.

I suck at entering in my calories on a regular basis, but here is something that I HAVE found...just by entering in calories when I can, even if I write it down and enter it in later...I have found that I am starting to at least get a "feel" for my caloric intake and I am even beginning to remember the no-no's and the "okay to eat as much as I want" items.

I guess over time I will be able to judge what are higher calorie items versus lower calorie items, or "safe bets" to eat.

I find that the more I'm learing about caloric values, when I have time to, the more empowering it is when I go out to eat and haven't done the pre-planning, and still be able to pick the right things to eat.

So just use the calorie counter here as much as you can, when you can, and you will find that over time, no matter the situation, you will feel confident in your food choices.

I started my journey about 18 months ago at 191 lbs, age 25.  I started eating healthily, exercising a minimum of three times a week, and learned the calorie content of almost all my food I'd ever eat.

I put myself on a limit, set short term goals (five pounds at a time) and it worked!

Stick with it!

I started at 170 in January 2009 and made it down to 154 about 6 weeks later. I'm doing maintenance now. It's harder than I thought, the weight it touchy touchy. Yet, I like dieting and am glad it will be my friend from now on. I didn't like my previous "no plan" approach, I'd just eat anything anytime I wanted. No limits. No direction. I'd eat then get lethargic so nothing got done.  Apart from the lack of energy, it lacked the depth and reward of saying "no", of building the power of delaying gratification. 

Now, at the end of the day I feel like I actually did something. That feeling of accomplishment enables me to accomplish other things, it's a real source of power for all of life.  Attack the diet and the rest of your problems start getting solved too.  It's very powerful.

John