I need to lose weight a bit (15 lbs), what are some good ways?
Calorie deficit. Exercise of your choice
Weight loss is very simple. Eat better and exercise more. You canât go wrong if you follow that formula. There is no miracle solution.
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Something Iâve said so many times over the years I should probably have got it tattooed on my foreheadâŚ
There is only one way to lose body fat (I made the assumption youâre looking to lose fat not organs etc). Burn more calories than you consume. This means you have to a) count the calories of the food you eat and b) track how many calories youâre burning. Then do the maths.
Thatâs it. Follow that and you can lose weight eating cheese and crisps whilst drinking nothing but butter (you wonât live long though).
I personally think the best way to do this is understand where the specific issues are in the first place so you can target something.
Get a tracker like MyFitnessPal. Log everything you normally eat, and every bit of activity you do. Look at the data after a week or two and see where you can make simple changes.
Were those chips really worth it? Boiled potatoes would have saved 100kcal⌠finding adequate substitutions can really help cut down bad eating.
Doing too much change in one go will be difficult to adopt longer term. Start small.
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All the people who are saying âeat fewer calories than you burnâ are technically correct but missing out huge parts of the social and psychological factors of weight loss. You may as well say the best way to stop smoking is to have fewer cigarettes.
Iâm a big advocate in working out what works for you. Personally, for me I have found the following have helped: having therapy, having supportive friends and family, giving myself positive praise and incentives (e.g. âwell done for choosing salad, you are going to look great at X partyâ; not âif you eat that youâll be fat foreverâ).
Personally, I have found slimming world helpful for providing a framework for the healthy swaps @anon83334443 suggests. Itâs not a recommendation or endorsement, simply that it has helped me.
In a nutshell, you can eat as much lean meat or meat substitute as you like (trim all visible fat off things like bacon or chicken thighs. Avoid lamb or pork joints or youâll be cutting the fat off forever), as many eggs, vegetables (raw) fruit, beans, pulses, potatoes, spices, sugar-free seasonings, things like vinegar or hot sauce, as you like.
Limit your cheese, milk or diary substitutes to 120 calories. Limit your bread or cereals to whole grain only, also 120 calories.
Eat up to 300 calories of anything you like. A small amount of chocolate, wine or beer. Or string them out and eat a larger amount of something less calorie dense.
The benefit of allowing yourself unlimited amounts of certain foods is that it prevents negative thought cycles and obsessive calorie counting.
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Itâs essentially a fat and sugar-free diet, with limited exceptions. The rules make eating out and convenience food impossible, but thatâs sort of the point. You lose a lot of weight cooking from scratch.
As I said, do what works for you, but for the record, itâs not strict once you are used to it. This week I had chicken tikka masala, spaghetti carbonara (I forgot a whole food group 
dried pasta and rice is ok), chow mein, fajitas.
As some one that does bodybuilding competition on a national level, especially with the lockdown, and no training, I have just switched to keto diet. 10 times easier to maintain weightâŚor lose body fat
Once gyms open, will introduce a bit of carbs, but I usually keep the carbs very low so can lose weight easily while maintaining muscle mass
I hear intermittent fasting paired with healthier foods works well for weight loss .
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Iâd suggest just eating like you would normally for a week but log everything in MyFitnessPal or LifeSum apps. Youâd be surprised how many calories are in some things.
Then youâll naturally adjust what you eat to lower the calorie intake to something thatâs slightly less than 2500 (men), 2000 (women).
Obviously a bit of exercise helps. Start small if youâve never exercised much but make it a habit. A few pushups every morning or a short walk each day for example.
A lot of people seem to do drastic, immediate changes and those sort of things donât tend to stick. Gotta make it more of a lifestyle change and doing something small is easier to be consistent with.
100% this.
I am constantly shocked at the calorie and sugar and salt content of many things I eat or drink and it was by recording it that it forced me to start really looking at it.
I believe a good old fashioned way to do things is to burn 500 more or eat 500 calories less per day than the amount your body requires for a safe and manageable weight loss. Anything crazy and your body conversely starts to store fat and you donât lose weight.
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Intermittent fasting. Iâm a fan of combining two different types:
- Eat only during an 8-hour window each day - for example noon until 8pm. Nothing outside those times, apart from water and milkless tea and coffee
- On 2-3 days per week, restrict calorie intake to 600. Eat sensibly on the remaining days
While doing both of these, keep up at least some physical exercise, so your metabolism doesnât slow.
Itâs basic, calories in and calories out. Add a bit of fat burners⌠Thatâs a bonus⌠But not recommended. But still cut carbs out⌠Big differenceâŚ
Another +1 for MyFitnessPal itâs really easy to use one youâve got it set up adding foods and meal plans is a breeze.
Youâll soon see what the issues with not losing weight are as those calories get logged to the app, I lost 10 kilo just by not eating junk food anymore and then it plateaued around lockdown time so Iâm making sure I use the app to stop any sneaky eating that isnât required or just cutting down the portion sizes
A post was merged into an existing topic: Removed Posts - June 2020
What about all those ads for diet pills?
The diet pills are a waste of time. Only companies making money. They will have caffeine, green tea extract etc. Complete waste of money and time. Only things like ephedrine, clenbutrol, t3 etc works⌠But they are prescription only
In 2018, I lost about 40Kg using a combination of Slimfast, âproper dinnersâ from Musclefood and gradually building up to 1 hour on the treadmill per day (watching stuff on my laptop whilst doing so). However, since August last year things have gone a bit to hell for me and I suspect Iâve put it all back on (comfort eating and for a few months only having the option of grabbing quick drive-thru style meals/take-aways 
I went from âhigh end obeseâ to around just under midway of my BMI recommended weight for my height).
I did find Slimfastâs bars, shakes and snack-bars handy for when I was âshort on timeâ and the Musclefood prepared high-protein meals keeps for months in a cupboard and takes just a few minutes in the microwave (I also got plenty of meat etc from them as well to cook when I could: if you are a veggie/vegan, just make sure you get your protein from some other source - I believe the body under âcalorie shortage conditionsâ tries to âburnâ muscle over âold fatâ first and a high protein intake helps reduce this.
My advice is to take things slow and steady, use an app to record things (I used, and still use - when Iâm hopefully get things back together in June, âLost It!â on Android), a cheapo fitness tracker - I got the Letscom one which is currently retailing for ÂŁ25 for recording steps etc when on the treadmill, donât get disheartened when your weight appears to be going up (could be replacing fat with muscle mass, water retention etc etc), eat a balanced diet (I was aiming for 25% protein, 50% carbs and 25% fat per day), weigh yourself at the same time of day (but only mentally take the âweekly averageâ) and good luck!
I lost 2 stone a year ago after realising I was on the verge of being medically obese. Now Iâm at the high end of normal weight.
I swapped one meal out for a green leave salad with some lentils and things and olive oil.
Cut down evening portions by buying smaller plates (weird, but this actually works)
No snacks at all, nibbles and things.
Cut out all soft drinks, replacing with tea or coffee.
Cut out the beer drinking except for one night a week.
Joined the Gym and did 45min sessions x 3 a week.
Lost all the weight in 6 months. Doesnât take much. Just cut down portion sizes and cut out one large meal for something else while using excersize to up your overall fitness and thatâs it.