When people ask what you did to lose...what do you say?

When people ask what you did to lose...what do you say?

At work I get asked this all the time after dropping 71 pounds in exactly 4 months. When I say I cut out the fried stuff, bacon, grease etc and excercise, they look at me like I'm lying.

It's surely you must be some secret fad diet etc. They seem so disappointed when I explain really I just eat less, drink water, eat right or closer to right, and go to the gym.

Do y'all get that sort of reaction?

yeah- if it's someone I know really well and they are sincerely interested, I'll give them details, but for the most part I say, "Oh, I just eat tons of salad and workout ALL THE TIME."  They don't want to know the truth, they want a magic secret.

A friend's girlfriend used diet pills to lose weight, so when I said it was diet and exercise, she wouldn't believe me.  Wanted to know which pills I was using and refused to believe you could lose weight without them. 

See, this is why we need calorie-count.com Business Cards.

"What did you do to lose your weight?"

Hold on one second *rustles through wallet, comes out with a card* I'm username hkellick there. Come on over and all your questions will be answered. ;D 

I shrug and say "diet and exercise."  They look at me like I'm crazy, 99% of the time.

i tell them i meticulously count my calories every day, and exercise when i can.

then they look at me like i'm an obsessive freak.

but then i think, who cares, i'm the one getting healthier and fitter, not you! 

Yes, they do look at me too, like I'm nuts, when I tell them that I count calories using a website.  There are questions about diets with names, but I cut the discussion short.  Hey, they asked me, I told them, end of story.

I say take all the credit! I tell people that I was able to meet my goals by eating healthier (I hate the word "diet") and exercising. I tell them that it took a lot of hard work and dedication and that I made it a priority in my life.

NOBODY wants to hear that but I think you are doing them a huge favor by keeping it real. People need to know that the only healthy way to lose weight is to eat right and exercise.  There are no "magic" pills or programs. Only self-control and thoughtful planning.

I took diet pills years ago and ended up in the hospital twice (don't know why I didn't stop after the first time.) Back then I believed it was the only way to lose weight. Now, I know that we are capable of whatever we put our minds to.  I wish everyone knew that...

My dad just asked me this over Thanksgiving Holiday. I told him diet exercise total life transformation. He looked at me and said good for you hunny you look Awesome! At least good ole dad didnt give me the ole evil eye like I sometimes get.........Oh well im not doing it for them and Im not the one asking so they definatly get what they ask for and if they cant understand it then haha to bad!

My generic answer is, "Eat less, move more, watch what I eat and get plenty of exercise."

The response is usually one of four things:

1. *blank stare*
2. "No, I mean, what did you DO?  Adkins?  South Beach?  Grapefruit?  Those belly fat pills?"
3. "But doesn't that kind of diet not work in the end?"
4. "Awesome!  I know that's what I should be doing, but (insert excuse here.)"

Aside from number four, I just smile and bow out of the conversation.  Number four, I'll offer a bit of encouragement and see what happens.

when my aunt told me it looked like I lost some weight I amswered, "yeah, I lost a bit." then she wanted to know how much "about 15 pounds or so." Then came the question how did you do it? "watching what I eat and excersising when I have the time" She looked at me like I had said I lost all the weight on my trip to pluto.  then she said "no, really what diet plan are you on?"

Then when we were eating at the resturant, I couldn't finish my meal (who can with those portions) I probably ate half and was super stuffed. and she actually commented, after cleaning her plate "you didn't eat anything. You have to eat, you are getting too skinny anyway."

Just minutes before she said I looked good. I was still 20 something lbs overweight, but because I couldn't finish the huge portion they brought me, I was starving myself? lol, yeah right. 

I have since gained a bunch of the weight back since and I am working on losing it again.

OMG I hear ya train. Last night at my jazz class one of the ladies asked how much I've lost, I told her about 18 pounds and they couldn't believe it, they kept saying really?? are u sure?? then they asked how, and i said the same as you all, Diet and Exercise, counting calories - they said "well what else do you do besides that? do you do other classes, or things at home?"  I said "no thats it."

I have gotten similar responses...and one fellow's face fell and he said, "Oh darn. I was hoping it was something I could buy for 29.99 for a 30-day supply."

i just say i went to sleep every night for months starving

I say just being conscious of what I put in my mouth and don't mindlessly eat without regard anymore. Some days I do horribly, but I KNOW how horribly I'm doing and am able to correct it. And of course fitting in some form of exercise at least three times a week.

Sadly, I've given up trying to tell people (I'm primarily referring to my family) what has worked for me--I know that they don't want to hear the truth.

i'm going to start telling people that i'm smoking crack...haha, at least then it would make sense for them to be dissapointed in me. 

I too have had people get angry/sad/disapointed, when I tell them, I go running and eat a little less.

I'm in a little different situation, because what I lost was just 20 lbs... including the last stubborn 10 everyone wants to lose. And the truth is, I had to do more htan simply cut out the fast food crap... I'd already done that two decades ago. My diet really only needed very minor tweaking.

So when people ask me, I tell them that the secret was getting back into running. Now that i'm in my 40s, I simply can't maintain my weight like I used to, without incorporating some vigorous exercise. I had become highly sedentary over the years due to some back problems and arthritis. So finding a way to gradually increase my activity level over the past 18 months, until I could run, was key for me.

As far as diet is concerned, my two major tweaks were:

1) Paying closer attention to carbs, and keeping them under control. The insulin resistance issues. Atkins? No way, nothing that extreme. If pressed for diet details, I refer people to Harvard's nutrition web site, which is what I follow.

2) Reducing the amount of wine I drink! Big one for me, cuz I like my wine. Now I drink spritzers instead.

3) Not skipping breakfast. This was also key for me. I am a notorious breakfast skipper, and it's still veryyyy easy for me to fall back into that bad habit (like today, I forgot to eat). When I skip, I end up overeating just enough to gain weight slowly over time.

Great post, I've been thinking about this for a while.

It depends on the person and why they ask, but my canned response is "making healthy food choices".  If they push a little more then I say "counting calories with the aid of a free website".  I'll go into more detail if they are genuinely interested.  A co-worker joked with me that I should be getting paid because I pimp this site so much.

I get the blank stares and dumbfounded looks as well - I think many people think I've secretly had surgery or doing some black magic. 

In total I have lost over 50 pounds. I was always a thinner person my whole life and when I put the weight on people thought I was expecting a baby or something. Now that I have taken it off... the healthy way through diet and exercise, people assume either A) I am just un-healthy and taking the weight off by not eating, or B) I am using some magic pill to melt the fat away.

My senior weight in High school was 114 lbs. I gained up to 165 lbs after graduating. Now 7 years later I weigh 113 lbs thanks to becoming more healthy with my life style. Weight loss is not an over night change, it is a life style change. It took me 2+ years to take off all the weight I had packed on. Now I am just looking to maintain.

I simply say "eat less and exercise".  I don't say "diet" because i'm not on a diet, I just eat less of what I normally eat and stop when i'm full.  I'm really fortunate I can do this now, and it's what works for me.

And yes, nobody wants to hear that answer.

I just tell the truth! Eat healthier and worked my ass off!! Literally!!!