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Originally Posted by inavalan
A few things that helped me lose weight, and then maintain it:
- eat something every time I feel hungry, which for me is every couple of hours
- write down everything I eat and drink, with its caloric value, so I always know my current calorie intake at any time of the day
- weigh myself every day, at the same time (e.g. morning after working out and showering), and write it down, to see if I'm on track
- do 10-15 minutes dumbbell workout every morning, on an empty stomach, plus warm up and stretches; more recently I added 3 minutes of high intensity interval exercise
- do 20-30 minutes brisk walking most days, in the afternoon
- by keeping track of my calorie intake and my weight, I figured out my daily calorie need to maintain weight: 2,300 calories when I walk, 2,000 when I don't. When I restricted my calorie intake to lose weight I averaged 1,400 calories a day, which resulted in an average weekly loss of 2 lb (about 1 kg), which verified the formula 3,500 calories = 1 lb of fat. I maintained that restriction until I reached my normal weight, which it took about an year. I maintained normal weight for 16+ years
I've attached the graph of my weight loss for the first 9 months. I eventually reached (April 1st 2003), and maintained (16+ years) ~160 lb.
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That's very interesting. The calorie restriction looks very severe, but I think it is suitable for someone heading toward 300 lbs, and losing 1% of body weight per week like a safe line, so the initial rate of 2lbs off 290 is well within range. Your maintenance calories must have been dropping as the weight came off, so but I'm not seeing that in the graph curve. I expect rapid loss at the beginning and then a tapering off toward the end. The curve looks like a constant rate, faster toward the end if anything. Incredible loss of 100lbs in a year, which is like 45 kilos - an average of 875 grams a week over the long haul. This seems like a reasonable but aggressive weight cut to me... and your tracking was amazeballs - with, like, graphs and everything! I like the math (because body composition comes down to math), and you're rockin' calculus level.
My approach is to start with becoming conscious of everything eaten, like use the apps I suggest, or in your case, write it down - but know every morsel, so to me, that's how you started out on the right foot.
You managed hunger in a way that worked for you - whereas someone else might thrive on another strategy... but the thing is, you had a hunger regulation strategy, so another part of the success.
I also believe in weighing in every day first thing in the morning, not so you know your weight every day, but so you get a good weekly average and mitigate water weight fluctuations. Your graph shows a trend line, so same effect.
Doing exercise activity is also a good point. I lean toward resistance training more than you do, and less toward cardio, because I consider preserving muscle mass important, but you did some resistance with cardio, which is the optimum combination.
The best thing of all is, you somehow altered your long term eating habits, so you retained a reasonable body composition for the very long term, which will be life long (and developed an amicable relationship with exercise). How did you actually transform your relationship with food from disfunctional to harmonious?