Weight Loss Advice from Users on LoseIt!

Matthew Gates http://notetoservices.com 15m 3,779 #loseit

The views of this article are the perspective of the author and may not be reflective of Confessions of the Professions.

Lose Weight With Advice from LostIt! Members!

This is solely my opinion and my writing and does not reflect the opinions of LoseIt! I have chosen to write this to advocate a healthy lifestyle and weight loss for everyday people. All information offered in this article was meant to help those who are struggling to lose weight. The information below was provided by people who have contributed their knowledge from experience, but who are not certified to provide medical information. It is important that if you are uncertain about the accuracy of a specific piece of information, you consult a doctor for professional advice.

As a big fan of LoseIt! and an active user for almost 15 years, I have logged religiously everyday, every meal, every workout, and even some notes that I often leave for myself in the future, in case I find myself looking back through my logs, such as a specific diet I was trying or how I was feeling that particular day that may have caused me to overeat or eat the wrong foods.

LoseIt! is a calorie counting or measurement application or food journal that has a huge database of food and allows for custom entries of food to be entered, enabling its users to be responsible and accountable for everything that goes into their mouth and gets counted as calories. Ultimately, LoseIt! is for people who want to lose weight, struggle to lose weight, or want to understand why they are having trouble losing weight.

LoseIt! takes into account all of your daily activities and determines how much you should eat and what calorie budget you should stay within. While regular members do not have access to as many features as LoseIt! Premium members, they can still log their daily activities, set goals, and get a general idea of how much they are eating.

LoseIt! Premium members can get a breakdown of macronutrient intake to sodium and fiber intake, insights into calories, food, nutrients, and meals, ability to sync with different fitness trackers, bar code scanning technology, email reports, forum access with many supportive people, challenges to help motivate you, and much more, including a feature called patterns, which helps determine what you are doing right and what you are doing wrong based on observations made from specific foods you eat.

The benefits of LoseIt! are notable when you need to discover your eating habits of the past, present, and future. For example, if you were losing weight a year ago, you can use the calendar feature in LoseIt! to determine what you eating at that time, and try to follow that same routine in order to lose weight again.

You can also use it to determine your bad eating habits of the past. You can plan meals into the future and try to stick to those healthy habits. The features of LoseIt! are extremely beneficial for assistance in losing weight.

Calories are what the human body uses as energy from food. It is how humans perform everyday functions and continue to rise for each new day every morning. Calories allow us to move our arms, legs, eyes, mouth, and every function and movement that are voluntary and involuntary.

Calories are what we need to live and survive. Unfortunately, calories are also responsible for weight gain, as consuming too many of them, can lead to excess fat storage in our bodies, however, this does not mean that we can avoid them completely, as we will go into starvation mode and could die from the lack of calories in our bodies.

Fortunately, the energy from calories can be manipulated and used to lose weight, maintain weight, build muscle, or even gain weight. Regardless of what you put into your mouth, your body already has a stored amount of calories. Once the calories you put into your mouth are burned up, your body is a natural fat burning machine and in order to continue to function, it will seek out energy from all parts of your body, specifically wherever those calories are stored, usually as fat. The body will then proceed to burn those calories, and cause weight loss.

The formula is quite simple: Your body burns a certain amount of calories a day, usually from 1800 to 3000 calories per day, depending on your height, weight, metabolism, and body structure.

• Weight Loss: Consume less calories than what your body burns each day by incorporating exercise into your daily routine, and you will lose weight.
• Weight Maintenance: Consume exactly what your body burns and you will maintain weight.
• Weight Gain: Consume more than what your body is able to burn each day, and you will gain weight.

There are, of course, some factors that may come into play, such as eating more calories, going to the gym, and lifting weights to build muscle. Muscle weighs more than fat, and therefore, you will gain weight, but it is more weight from muscle than fat.

Everyone has a different body type and is after a certain way they want their body to look. Some prefer to be skinny, while others prefer to be firm, and others may prefer a muscular look. Others may just care about the benefits of eating healthy or weighing less. No matter what you want to look like or where you want to be with your weight, it all comes down to the original source: Calories.

If you are serious about losing weight, you have probably already started searching the Internet for a lot of different ways to lose weight. You obviously want to find the easiest and quickest way to lose weight, and believe it or not, it is possible. No back breaking work, no sacrificing hours at the gym, just a few minutes a day of exercise, and eating right, and you could lose the weight you want.  Having the body you want, however, may require shaping and toning up at the gym.

Use it and LoseIt! LoseIt! may just be the program for you, through the Internet, Android, and the iPhone App. You will will wonder how you ever lived without it.  LoseIt! is free to use with limited but very useful features, or available through a LoseIt! Premium membership. Consider purchasing the premium version, and think of it as your fat tax until you lose all the weight. It is one of the most useful tools you will have in your life and even after you lose all the weight you want, you may just want to keep it around forever.

Being an avid fan and user of LoseIt!, and having lost over 70 pounds in less than 2 years, through much experimentation with different diets, eating habits, and eating styles, but always holding myself accountable by recording what I put into my mouth through LoseIt!, I scoured through the message boards to figure out what other people were doing to lose weight, and what advice they had for people looking to lose weight.

My own personal advice for how I lost weight is for another confession, but I was curious to find out what others from LoseIt! were doing to lose weight. Some of the advice offered may contradict other advice, but this advice comes from multiple people, and may be paraphrased, though all paraphrases will be kept close to the original statement. This information is neither right nor wrong, but is information that worked for real people and has been provided by real people.

• Make LoseIt! a part of your life
• Drink lots of water
• Beware of soda
• If you fall or fail, don’t give up
• Count calories
• Eating out will cause you to underestimate how much you are actually eating
• Samples at the grocery store could add up
• Exercise
• Don’t go hungry
• If you hog it, log it
• If you eat too much one day, start the next day with a healthy diet and get back on track
• You are eating more than you think
• Exercise is not free reign to overeat
• You are NOT going on a diet, but making a lifestyle change
• Slow and steady wins the race
• Calories in vs. Calories out is for sure, but keep in mine that some calories have more value then others.
• Get a good body scale, food scale, and heart rate monitor
• Figure out the exact numbers of your BMR, BMI, body weight, body fat, etc.
• Do take other measurements besides your weight including neck, chest, arms, forearms, thighs, buttocks, legs, ankles, etc. and make a log of your progress
• Measure everything you eat
• Figure out exactly what you are consuming
• Do not stop eating the food you like
• Weight loss is trial and error
• Cut back on the carbs
• Eat more protein
• No one is perfect and everyone has a slip day
• Eat your vegetables
• Learn how to cook
• Be kind to yourself
• Ignore advice that is not working for you
• Experiment with weight loss
• What works today may not work tomorrow
• Plan your meals in advance
• Eat fat does not make you fat
• Beware of packaged foods
• Beware of low-fat foods
• Sugar is usually the replacement for low-fat
• Fat is important
• Focus more on health than your size and weight loss
• You can lose weight on calorie restriction alone, but you might just be thin and unhealthy
• Do what works for you as an individual
• Give your new diet a chance – don’t expect it to work overnight or even within a week
• Don’t weigh yourself everyday; you will drive yourself nuts
• Housework and shopping does not constitute exercise
• Eat from a smaller plate
• Eat slower
• Treat yourself to the things you enjoy every so often
• Set small goals and reward yourself
• Forget negative people
• Embrace compliments
• Review and adjust goals
• Review and adjust eating habits
• Change up your exercise routine every so often to avoid plateauing
• Push yourself a little harder each day
• Be strict on yourself and have discipline until you reach your goals
• LoseIt! is a tool designed to give you a starting point … tweak the numbers for the results you desire
• Use music to help bring out the workout beast in you
• Find famous quotes of wisdom
• Read motivating literature
• How bad do you want to lose weight? Only you know the answer and only you can do it
• If you find certain foods triggering you to overeat, give them up
• Have healthy and diet-friendly snacks around your home and office
• If you are going to an event or party, decide in advance what you are going to eat
• Have a meal schedule and stick to it
• If you are just starting out, add the list of foods to the LoseIt! database that you normally eat everyday
• Don’t try to do too much too soon as it can be overwhelming
• Do not get discouraged
• If you are going out to eat, go online and look at the restaurant menu in advance for low-calorie options; and upon arrival, do not look at the menu, just order what you already know is the healthy choice
• 5 or 6 cups of water is plenty
• Weighing yourself everyday will keep you motivated
• Expect fluctuations in weight
• Change your life, not your diet
• Make changes to your diet, based on where you are now
• Exercise does not entitle you to eat sweets afterwards
• Log teaspoons, tablespoons, pieces, crumbs, etc., log every bite!
• Don’t log housecleaning, shopping, yardwork, etc.
• Don’t assume weight gain is muscle
• You determine whether your are successful or not
• You are responsible for what you put into your mouth
• Sodas and fruit juice are very bad for you
• Don’t use special occasions as an excuse to overeat
• Don’t deprive yourself
• Watch your portion size
• At a party or event, pick out what you enjoy the most and stick to that, with portion control in mind
• The key is moderation and exercise!
• Make a plan and stick to it!
• Do different types of exercises and change the intensity to keep your body guessing!
• The largest meal of the day should be breakfast and the smallest meal should be dinner
• Get a dog to motivate you to walk
• The foods on the outside of the supermarket aisles have more nutritional value are are less calories than the frozen foods and other items in the middle of the store
• If you must binge, binge on berries
• Love yourself at every stage of your heath and fitness journey
• Carbs will make you crave carbs
• Buy groceries in bulk
• Allocate one day for cooking and the rest for eating
• If you dread going to the gym, don’t go, do something that you enjoy such as biking, swimming, hiking, basketball, football, etc.
• Add green tea and supplements to your day
• We eat too much
• Eat less and move more
• Just because you are eating below calories does not mean you will lose weight; the trick is to always be digesting food while you are awake to boost your metabolism and process foods faster
• LoseIt! is your accountability
• You only hurt yourself by cheating
• Once you log something, leave it alone
• Everyday is a new day
• Do not rely on exercise alone; eat within your calories
• Eat whatever you want, in moderation
• Don’t agonize over how many days you have left to eat this way; pretend it is the way eat now
• Eat soup and lots of them
• As you lose weight and need smaller sizes, immediately donate the old clothes; you will be less likely to want to go back to that size
• Take a before and after photo of you in your “fat clothes”
• Learn new eating habits
• Find an exercise you love to do
• If you don’t quit, you WILL succeed; if you quit, you CAN’T succeed
• It will take longer to succeed but you will eventually reach your goal
• Determine why you need to succeed
• Don’t let one day determine the rest of your life
• You are the one in control of what you eat
• Look at the numbers from week to week, rather than from day to day
• Don’t stop doing things you love, shift them into your path of success; for example, if you love playing video games, go work out for an hour, eat a healthy meal, and then reward yourself with a few hours of gameplay
• Don’t force yourself to jog or do exercises you hate
• Buy quality food with brand names
• If you are at-risk for anything, discuss your new diet or lifestyle with your doctor
• Don’t underestimate or overestimate calories
• Be honest
• Eat more often but don’t get full
• Be boring and develop the same routine
• Eat ONLY at the kitchen table
• Avoid watching television or getting distracted while eating
• Learn to love water
• Exercise for an hour a day
• Give up wheat completely; lose the wheat, lose the weight!
• You are more than just a number
• It all starts in your head
• Lose weight because of you and because of health, not for someone else and not for a special event; you deserve your dream body!
• Listen to your body; listen to your stomach
• The simplest things can be a lot of calories, such as mayonnaise or butter
• Eating healthy makes you look good in clothes; working out makes you look good naked
• Learn more about the dangers of eating processed foods
• Eat enough protein
• Consistency is key
• Never worry about a plateau, keep going!
• Get the LoseIt! book
• Don’t overeat, under-eat, overexercise, or under-exercise
• If something isn’t changing, then change something!
• Avoid eating at night as it leads to mindless and careless eating
• Body fat reduction begins in the kitchen, not in the gym or the track
• Use additional methods to measure your progress besides weight
• There are no rules, only tools when it comes to getting healthy!
• A lifestyle change is a lifetime change
• Stop eating in the dark
• Here is a relatively accurate chart to make sure you are not setting your budget too low. In general, if you need to lose:
  • 80+ pounds = 2 pounds per week
  • 30-80 pounds = 1.5 pounds per week
  • 10-30 pounds = 1 pound per week
  • <10 pounds = 0.5 pounds per week
• Eat the foods that you will eat forever
• Eliminate the foods that you will not miss
• Be patient: you didn’t gain weight overnight and you surely aren’t going to lose it overnight either
• If something works, stick with it
• You will be changing your eating habits forever
• Eat enough calories until you feel satisfied
• Chew your food, eat slowly, and wait for the feeling of fullness to overcome you
• Don’t eat until you are stuffed
• Earn what you burn
• Get LoseIt! on your smartphone
• Log your eating habits after every meal
• Make healthy choices for your calorie budget
• If you have exceeded your calorie budget and want to eat something, such as a piece of cake or pie, wait until tomorrow, when your budget starts back at zero
• Advice for women: don’t weigh yourself the week before and the week of your period
• Drink water when hungry to deal with cravings
• Do not eliminate any food, just reduce your portion sizes
• Half and Half or Heavy Cream in coffee instead of non-fat or regular dairy milk
• Eat dark… chocolate
• Eat a handful of nuts, specifically almonds, macadamia, pistachios, or walnuts
• Eat whole eggs instead of just egg whites
• Eat full-fat salad dressings
• Eat avocados on sandwiches for extra flavor and nutrition
• Every little bit of movement, even house chores, does count
• Never ever let yourself feel like you are starving
• Log your drinks if they contain calories
• Logging into LoseIt! should be a daily routine
• Be wary of calories burned during exercise, as the machines are notorious for overestimating or underestimating calories
• Don’t buy foods that will lead you to temptation
• Eat what you can calculator in calories; avoid what you can’t
• Eat nutrient-dense foods
• Remove all snacks and bad stuff from your kitchen
• When you feel the need to binge, load up on protein and high-fiber foods
• Stay away from carbs after 5 PM
• Stop going weekly grocery shopping
• Don’t fall for the low-fat no-fat crap
• Is the satisfaction of food now worth the risks, sickness, and pain in the future?
• Change the way you view calories
• Counting Calories is a simple awareness of your food intake in order to make better choices
• Start a blog to hold yourself accountable and be an inspiration to your readers
• Embrace your love of food
• Commit to the whole process of losing weight
• Pace yourself and do not get discouraged
• Eat to live, don’t live to eat
• You are capable of going the distance
• Not only does your first loss show you that you’re capable of losing weight, but it also gives you motivation to keep losing weight
• When you realize you can lose weight, it will all seem so much easier
• Results are the best motivation
• Weight loss is a curvy cycle; up, down, curvy line, never a straight line; go with the cycle, never give up
• Working out and eating well is not a punishment for being fat; anyone who is healthy needs to do those things to continue to be healthy
• Always eat breakfast
• Try to drink your protein in the morning
• If you can’t live without ice cream measure a serving
• What works for you may not work for someone else
• What works for someone else may not work for you
• You may need to abstain from junk food and sweets completely if you have no self-control
• LoseIt! is not about having any bad days, but limiting the bad days and having more good ones
• Don’t assume that when you look at skinny, thinner, healthy people, that they haven’t already been through a great struggle and possibly still going through one
• Allow yourself a guilt-free day every so often or else you will drive yourself sick with guilt if you find yourself having too many guilt days
• Instead of putting the total weight you want to lose, do it in increments
• Putting in small goal increments is more reasonable and obtainable than larger increment goals
• Use LoseIt! badges for motivation and goal achievements
• Use LoseIt! challenges for motivation and goal achievements
• Use LoseIt! forums and LoseIt! friends for motivation and goal achievements
• Learn how to read the ingredients label
• Learn how to understand a serving size
• Learn how to calculate ounces, grams, pounds, etc.
• Making a lifestyle change or dieting is a process
• Set small goals to achieve for yourself if you are overeating; for example, if you are drinking 5 sodas a day, go down to 4 for a week or two, and then continue the cycle
• Figure out what is causing you to overeat
• Set your calorie limit within reason, no less than 1000 and no more than 1500
• Use and cook with Extra Virgin Olive Oil (EVOO) for everything
• When eating, don’t go overboard
• To succeed you must love the process
• The ones who succeed most are the ones who do not care what the scale says
• Take bi-weekly photos with the same outfit, same pose, same location, etc.
• This is not just a diet, but a way of life
• Overestimate your food calories, underestimate your workout calories
• Milk is not as good for you as you have been led to believe
• Saturated fats and animal products are not bad for you
• Whatever you eat, take a bite, close your eyes, chew slowly and most important of all, ENJOY!

To sum up the LostIt! members advice who have contributed above, this is a pledge from LostIt! member Sandra Brooke:

• Just for today, I will log ALL my food and beverages.
• Just for today, I will add vegetables to my meals and snacks.
• Just for today, I will drink 64 ounces of water.
• Just for today, I will avoid fast food.
• Just for today, I will walk or exercise for 30 minutes.
• Just for today, I will measure or weigh high fat food like seeds or cheese.
• Just for today, I will avoid sugary drinks and candy.
• Just for today, I will plan my meals and snacks.
• Just for today, I will research my choices before dining out.
• Just for today, I will encourage and support my friends.

Thank you LoseIt! members for contributing to this article. I am happy to spread your words of wisdom to the world on health and weight loss. I hope this has been helpful for anyone looking for a way and struggling to lose weight. May this advice guide you and let you know that you are not alone in your struggle to lose weight.

Try LoseIt! for free and if you like it, consider buying LoseIt! Premium! Today is the day to start your weight loss and health journey!

Source: http://forums.loseit.com/posts/list/22738.page

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