weight loss success?? Has anyone lost weight by just decreasing their caloric intake?

Question

Did it work? Have you kept it off? For how long so far? please share you story

Answer 1

One loses weight only by decreasing the net caloric intake.

Let's start by clarifying a couple of things:
1. weight is not the best indicator of your health (because muscle weighs more than fat, two people of the same height can weigh the same and be drastically different in terms of health).
2. Body fat percentage is a true indicator.
3. Fat is burned by reducing overall caloric value.
4. If you burn more than you consume, you will lose fat (lower body fat percentage)
5. If you exercise and strength train, you can burn more calories and replace fat with muscle which will allow you to burn calories even when you rest.

If you are trying to lower your body fat percentage there are literally hundreds of ideas out there. In my opinion, the best way, which has been proven time and time again, is a two part method: Eat right and exercise. First, exercise is a no-brainer. You have to burn more calories than you take in for exercise to be considered exercise. How you do it is worth another answer all to itself. So, that brings us to the Eating Right part. If you understand how your body works, you've got a head start on the world. Food is fuel for the body. Once you've accepted that concept as more important than the idea that food is entertainment, then the rest will be relatively easy. If you are American, and I assume you are, the Nutrition Facts label that you find on all foods bought in the U.S. are the next thing you need to understand. Go grab something from your kitchen (i.e. jar of peanut butter or a bag of chips...anything with a nutrition label). OK, yeah you need vitamins and minerals and all that. But focus on these three items: FAT, PROTEIN, and CARBOHYDRATES.
Let's take these one at a time:

FAT is basically divided into good fats and bad fats. The body needs good fats (mono- and poly-unsaturateds). You'll find these in stuff like olives and avocados where the bad fat is minimal if not nonexistent. The bad fats are your saturated and trans fats that you'll find in meats and oils. If you are trying to lose weight, keep these to an absolute minimum. My suggestion (based on a 1500-2000 calorie diet) is to limit yourself to no more than 15g of saturated fat per day. This is hard to do if you're used to eating fast food. It's also hard to do if you drink whole milk, eat cheese (even the 2% variety), and eat fried foods. All of these are high in bad fats. The good news is that you can substitute your diet to eat the very things you like to eat but with better ingredients. If you eat cheese, buy fat free. If you drink milk, buy skim. Slowly take yourself down from whole milk or 2% to 1% before going skim/fat free if the transition is too radical to do all at once. If you eat a lot of ground beef, use the extra lean variety (96% fat free/4% fat), or substitute lean ground turkey instead. Do whatever you have to do to get the bad fat grams down to less than 15 per day.

PROTEIN: The building block of nutrition (aside from your vitamins and minerals) is protein. You need it strengthen your muscles and it will be essential with your exercise routine. Without protein, you can't build muscle tone or lean body mass. And guess what? Just having lean body mass (muscles) allows your body to burn more calories even when you are sleeping. Therefore, you are able to lose weight (bad weight, that is) just by sleeping. But, you have to exercise!! Don't forget that. You can find foods that are high in protein but also high in saturated fat, so be careful. Stick to poultry (chicken, turkey), fish (tuna is a great source), and beans. Don't fry your meats because if you do, you just added a bunch of bad fat to your otherwise healthy protein filled meal. Instead, grill, broil, or bake. You can do this! Don't forget to exercise to exponentially reap the rewards of consuming protein.

CARBS. In my opinion, the no-carb diet is crap, because you need carbs for energy, especially because you are exercising! That's right, you can't forget you are supposed to be exercising. The trick is choosing the good carbs. You'll see on your nutrition label Total Carbohydrates and Sugars. Sugars should be kept to a minimum and should be avoided within hours of going to sleep. The calories associated with them get stored (for energy) but are not easily burned when it comes time to burn them. Therefore, it's harder to lose the weight associated with them. That's why it's not good to eat lots of candy, cookies, and ice cream that have a lot of sugar. The other kinds of carbs (complex carbohydrates) are essential. You can get these from grains and potatoes. Good stuff!!

Now that you have a brief understanding of these three nutrition components, time to get to it. Not as easy as it sounds? That's because, you're human. If you treat your body right (and I mean very right, by limiting your saturated and trans fats, limiting your sugar carbs, and eating plenty of protein), then you deserve a day when you can eat whatever you want. The body has cravings and you should be able to fulfill these cravings IF you can stand to wait until the end of the week. I call this one day of decadence your cheat day. After 12 weeks of exercising and eating right in this manner, you'll get to the point where you don't even crave the bad stuff anymore.

For more on this method, I encourage you to check out www.bodyforlife.com. The principals I wrote about are spelled out in greater detail there. Consult your doctor before drastically changing any diet or exercise routine. Good luck!

Answer 2

I lost 50 lbs in the last year. If you drink an 8 ounce glass of water before each meal you can cut your caloric intake by around 104 claories per meal. That's close to 30% for most people. Every time you think you are hungry drink an 8 ounce glass of water.

What most people don't realise is that they are probably thirsty between meals when they think they are hungry.

Depending on how much weight you have to lose, and what your physical limitations are right now, start with eating right. If you are unable to excercise do not let anyone bully you into doing something that you can not do.

Hope that helps.

Answer 3

I found the book to be very informative and easy to read.

I've lost 17 pounds in 12 days, I'm just concerned that I'm losing too much weight, too quickly. I will admit I haven't followed the guide exactly. I'm not sticking perfectly to the listed foods and meal plans (but mostly) and doing very little exercise, but the weight keeps flying off.

It clearly works and if I'd followed it exactly I think it would scare the living daylights out of me because of the amount that I'd lose. So thanks again for the information. I've never purchased anything like this before because they are usually full of trash, but 3WD has been a pleasant surprise.

Get started today!

Answer 4

I have, but what worked for me might not for you.

What I did was to aim for a target weight and multiply my caloric intake times 10. For me it was 200 lbs and I got there, but since then I have gained it all back and then some. It's good for a short while but I got bored and wandered away from the diet.

I am trying a new diet currently. I tend to be a muncher eater eating snaky things throughout the day and eating big meals. I cut down portions, eat more variety (I.E. one of meat vegi, fruits per meal) and I replace things like chips with carrots or even salad lettuce. Nothing satisfies me like a head of lettuce or a regular bag of Dole iceberg lettuce mix. I sometimes stray but usually I stay on course.

From what I hear your goal should be not much more then 2 lbs per week, anything more and either it is unhealthy or your body will go into starvation mode and try to keep the weight on for the next week after loosing alot of weight.

Answer 5

I found a great way to lose weight fast and keep it off. I do body cleansing. I lost 13 pounds in 9 days and then 28 pounds in less than a month. Cleansing will help the body get rid of toxins. Toxins come from a lot of things like fast food, pollution, food additives and preservatives etc. The toxins get stored in the fat in our body. To shrink the fat, we have to get rid of the toxins by cleansing. This made sense to me and I decided to try a cleanse program and it worked. The weight came off fast and this kept me motivated to keep going, not like other diets where the weight loss it too slow. To learn more call the toll free number 1-877-587-4647 or check out the website. Cleansing was good for me. Good luck whatever you decide to do!
http://diet4cleansing.com

Answer 6

Many patients ask me how they can slim down. I recommend that people eat right and exercise. However, if they would like a little "help", I suggest using natural Hoodia (it's important to note that not all Hoodia works well, even if the bottle says "pure" or "standard").

The Hoodia sold at http://www.alllsite.info/free-diet-pills.php is in my opinion the best Hoodia on the market. It's pure, has no side effects, and they give you a free 15 day sample (there is a $7.99 shipping and handling charge, but they also give you free recipe and diet guides). My patients have seen fantastic results with this particular Hoodia.

Answer 7

The formula for weight loss is simple: energy output has to be bigger than energy input. Burn more calories than you eat and you lose weight.
So of course you can lose weight by cutting down your calorie intake. Just because you lose weight, though, doesn't mean you're healthy. Regular physical activity plus healthy diet equals good health.

Answer 8

Eat 5 6 small meals a day instead of 3

Answer 9

Yes it worked, yes I kept it off for 3yrs. Good luck it does work. Try the Weight Watchers Diet.

Answer 10

It is possible actually. But if you want to lose weight faster then excercising is the way to go plus there are more than one benefit to excercising.