Better eating habits. More physical activity. There are no magic tricks.
Keto definitely felt like a magic trick to me.
It’s not, it’s a tool to help you have better eating habits, which is the first thing mentioned in the comment you replied to.
Carnivore. Went from 275 to 150 in a year of as close to zero carbs as possible.
By quitting drinking alcohol
Literally the only thing I changed about my life at that time and I went from 185 lbs to 165 lbs in 3 months
I was drinking a fifth per night of alcohol that was at least 100 proof, so I was a bit of an alcoholic at the time
I quit cold turkey and within just a few weeks I started feeling a lot better overall and by about 4 months after I quit the cravings stopped every time I smelt alcohol
I’ve been sober now for about 5 and a half years and the weight has stayed off the whole time. I’ve basically been 160±5 lbs since
That’s amazing! Congrats on sobriety.
Thank you
It wasn’t my first attempt but my 4th to get sober. Getting sober wasn’t easy, and I think is a topic more people should talk about. You never seem to here people talking about how many attempts it took to achieve something like that, you only ever here that they did it.
And honestly this is the longest I’ve been sober since I was 12 years old
I wouldn’t give it up for the world, the quality of life improvements have been amazing and not just my physical health but my mental health as well. It’s amazing how much easier PTSD is to deal with while sober vs not.
You hear about it more in recovery groups. It’s pretty eye-opening.
Shit, you stole my exact answer
Except I’ve finally started to gain the weight back
Congratulations that’s awesome, I’m sober myself (just over 18 months) and it took me a lot of tries and many years to stop drinking so I can relate to that.
The one thing I would really caution people about is quitting cold turkey - alcohol withdrawal can be fatal. It’s also miserable even when done with medical help, I’ve done medical detox in the hospital and at rehab more times than I care to remember and each time serves as a huge reminder of what awaits me if I start drinking again. So please if anyone is considering stopping drinking and is drinking a lot, talk to a doctor about it and be honest. Seizures and strokes and DTs are not fun and can kill you.
That all said I also struggle with weight, and a few times after I stopped drinking I ate more and gained weight and it contributed to going back to drinking. This time I’ve been very conscious about calories in vs calories out because that has been something that works for me. Food scale and honesty tracking everything I eat and all my exercise.
And again, awesome job on 5 years, I love coming across sobriety out in the wild.
Counting calories. I used MyFitnessPal, but I’m sure there are other apps.
Figure out how many calories you need daily to maintain your current weight, depending on age/gender/height, and then subtract about 500 calories from that. This also depends on your stats; you don’t want to go below your minimum daily calories. You’ll be hungry and dizzy all the time, and your body will try to store extra fat because it thinks you’re starving.
You can eat whatever you want, as long as you stay under your daily calorie number. You might not be healthy (depending on your food choices), but you will lose weight.
Good luck!
I follow a simple diet called “half”. I eat a half portion of whatever I’d like. I don’t eat any better or worse, just less of it. Did you know a frozen burrito has 300+ calories? Eat one, not two. Portion controls are essential, don’t get a tub of ice cream, get a box of little ice creams, and then eat one instead of gobbling two or more. Giant bowl of pasta? Half now, half goes in the fridge for tomorrow, instead of packing my gut full.
I probably cheat enough that I’m getting 2/3 or 3/4 of my full calorie intake, but it’s good enough that I’ve lost 30 lbs in a couple years, I’m not putting it back on, and it’s required no real hardship.
I went from 217->173 and have stayed in that range for 4 years. I’m 5’10” / M / 43years
Short answer: high protein / adequate fat keto with skipping breakfast (aka 16:8 intermittent fasting)
I tried it for weightloss, and immediately had health benefits within 36 hours of switching over. I’m never going back. I feel 10 years younger. Brain fog lifted, joint pain gone, more energy to move and do things, more patience and clarity at work and home. Hunger is a signal now and I’m never hangry.
It’s also just not that hard. I eat a ton of awesome meals full of chicken and roasted veg, bbq meats I smoke, steaks, omelets, huge salads. Life is good and I feel good.
From 2013 to 2017 I lost 60 pounds and I’ve kept it off since.
I tried everything to lose that fat.
I’ve tried at different times: keto, calorie counting, intermittent fasting, low fat, low carb, Soylent, cutting alcohol, high fiber, if it fits your macros, power lifting, CrossFit, running, vegan, vegetarian, carnivore, and Renaissance periodization.
What’s actually worked consistently for losing and keeping it off? Simple. Intermittent fasting 20/4 with low carb during the week, free cheat weekends, and no alcohol ever. With that protocol I can control my weight to the pound, consistently, and I’ve held it there for over 5 years.
It’s such a great feeling to be totally in control of it.
In 2012 I went from 245 to 170 in about 6 months using keto. Straight up keeping net carbs below 20 was enough to get me to 200 where I plateaued for a few weeks. After that I started calorie restriction to 1800 (as a 30ish M) and that got me to 170. My 30ish wife had to restrict to 1400 calories to hit 140 on keto. We allowed ourselves up to 1 low carb drink a day and that seemed to help keeping water weight off and avoiding plateaus.
The nice thing about keto is hunger is much weaker without carbs driving the insulin cycle.
After losing all that, I stopped counting calories but kept my carbs at or below 30 net a day and maintained my weight no problem. I also started biking and got down to 158 which was too low for my frame so I upped protein and started lifting. That got me leveled off around 175 and looking good.
I held that for 8 years until 2020. I started night school, moved states, and got a new job and went back to standard diet due to stress and time constraints. I gained ten pounds a year even trying to limit calories and finally said enough is enough and got back on Keto this month. Losing weight again no problem, I plan to be back below 180 by my camping trip on Memorial Day.
I used to struggle majorly with weight. Went on a pretty strict 20gm keto cut in about 2016 and dropped form 200lbs to 155lbs. Since then I’ve just settled around 160-170lbs. Whenever I notice I’m getting a bit heavy I just go back on Keto for 6 weeks or so and I’ll be back down. Keto for me has a real appetite suppressing effect, so I’ll usually only eat dinner and nothing else except a couple of coffees through the day. This all sounds very difficult to someone who hasn’t done it, but I was shocked how easy it became after a week or two. You cut a lot of bloat and water weight in the first few weeks, so it’s really rewarding looking at the scales day after day. Once you’ve done it and realise how easy it is, I find there’s a lot less anxiety around weight.
Keto is good if you actually eat good unsaturated fats. And it’s definitely not a long term thing unless your doctor approves it.
I’m curious, why do you say it’s not long term sustainable?
Because it’s hell on your arteries
That is new data for me, what causes it to be hell on the arteries?
Saturated fats cause cholesterols to build up in your arteries
There is a lot of debate ongoing in the literature about increased lipid markers and long term cardiovascular health in the context of a lchf (keto) diet.
I hope to see definitive studies in the future.
I’m just going by what my doctor told me. I trust him over some randoms on the internet.
100% calorie counting, NO ‘extra’ exercise. Lost 30 lb in 30 weeks just by being ~500 cal negative every day.
Don’t drink calories, skip breakfast, and cutting out obvious ‘junk’ made it rather easy once I got past the first 4 weeks of willpower & adjustment.
that’s it, nothing fancy. (40yr old male)
Went vegan.
Lost 10kg, was pretty worried, got 8 back
Stopped eating breakfast. No eating after 8 pm. Ate 4 ounces of meat, a cup of veggies and a 1/4 cup of some kind of nuts for lunch and dinner every day except Saturdays. On those days, ate whatever I wanted from 4:30-8 pm which motivated me to get back on diet the next day.
Walk or ran an hour a day. At first during the evenings, then woke up an hour early and did it in peace. Started causing me to go to bed earlier, a good thing.
Lost 70 pounds from March to October of last year. Stopped dieting and gained 40 back to date. Started back on diet this week. We just had our cheat meal and I could already tell the difference in where it felt more special than eating badly all the time. Going to shoot for 80 pounds total.
Not eating breakfast is bad advice for many who need to be productive in the morning. You need to start your metabolism early and keep it running through the day. Lots of small healthy snacks all day keeps your metabolism running. And your brain needs energy from food in the morning unless your job doesn’t require any critical thinking.
Made an update to my post.
That’s not how metabolism works. You’d need to get into a starvation state before the number of calories getting burned changes significantly - and that takes a long time.
If you actually need constant snacks throughout the day, you should get checked for diabetes.
Telling someone to get checked for diabetes is rude. There are nicer ways to talk about glycogen stores getting exhausted every 2-3 hours resulting in the modern snack culture.
I’m… concerned they are prediabetic.
You can keep your internet diagnoses to yourself. My doctor told me that eating small portions throughout the day is a healthy habit to keep the gastrointestinal system working throughout the day, and ends up helping you lose weight.
I’ve had the opposite experience, I feel sharper in the morning with just some coffee/tea, than after a breakfast.
Though everyone reacts differently, so if something is working for you keep at it!
Stopped drinking soda, started walking daily. 60 lbs over the course of a year a few years ago, haven’t gained any back
Cutting snacking, calorie dense foods, and counting caloiries.
Calories in/calories out is the only thing that works long term. You dont go on a diet, you change how you eat permanently.
I keep bread in the freezer so i dont snack on it. I only have a small desert. Measure portions until you have a good eye for it, etc.
Working out to burn calories is unsustainable for the majority of people.
Stop drinking soda and alcohol at random. They are loaded with empty calories. You can easily drink 600-1000 calories a day with soda if you have a couple of glasses with meals and snacks.
When I started wfh, I started eating more snacks, smaller meals (or not finishing after I was full), walking a lot while listening to podcasts (I had given up driving for taking rides hares before that was suddenly a danger).
Today, I live in a place that doesn’t have a lot of natural beauty (downtown of my city) so walking sucks. I have a car again. And I work in the office 2-3 days per week. I have regained the weight.
