Hellobee Boards

I exercise 5-6 days/week (cardio 6x and heavy weight training 4x/week) and calorie/macronutrient count. 1700 calories/day, a 40/20/20 breakdown for me (as close as I can get, anyways). It's been really effective--I currently have 12 weeks of data to show for it, lol.

I track my weight, waist measurement, and body fat every week with a caliper so that I have a good grasp on what my body *composition* is doing as the weeks progress.

eta: i basically read a book about how bodybuilders get lean and implemented all of those things.

There are only two times I have lost a lot of weight. The first is when I am under extreme stress (like a bad break-up) and the second was when I cut dairy when P was little. I lost 15lbs in 6 weeks. Basically, I stopped eating crap since everything that is processed seems to have some kind of dairy in it.

clean eating for wt loss, working out for toning (not losing lbs on scale).

weight watchers

Ugh, the only time I ever lost a good amount of weight was when I was half anorexic (800 calories a day). Obviously when I started eating again I gained it all back!

DH has been counting his calories on MFP, and without doing anything else, just being aware of how much he's actually eating, he's lost 15 pounds in 2 months. That's probably what I'll start with after having the baby.

The only way I've ever been able to lose more than 5 lbs at a time is through weight watchers! I used the online version and lost 25 lbs in 6 months. That was before babies, though, and now I have to lose again. I don't want to pay, so I'm using myfitnesspal instead. Just started up again and doing well so far... 2.5 lbs lost in just over a week.

A lot of running so I can still eat what I want....!

I usually do better with diet than exercise. I prefer walking for my exercise, for a variety of health-related reasons.

I usually start with Weight Watchers or a calorie tracker like My Fitness Pal just to get a handle on my portion sizes. I try to cut my carbs (i.e. most grains) and just stick to carby vegetables like sweet potatoes, white potatoes, sweet squashes, etc. I eat a lot of veggies and low-sugar fruit like berries and apples, and a lot of entree salads. Generally, dieting is easier for me in warm weather because the produce is so good and simple meals taste SO good off the grill.

Also, I do better with fat in my diet. Meat with fat/skin on it, healthy oils like butter and olive oil, and cheese keep me much more satisfied for a longer period of time. So I try to balance that in my calorie count instead of saving all my calories for carbs. I try to eat a small but calorie dense portion of meat/fat with a huge amount of vegetables for volume and fruit for sweets.

Go to meals are things like chicken Caesar salad, grilled steak with veggies and sweet potato oven fries baked in coconut oil, and omelets made with whole eggs, meat and veggies.

@lovehoneybee: I wonder this too! I also feel like my metabolism changed as I got older and post baby... Used to be so easy to drop five or ten lbs. Now... Not so easy -.-

I've lost the most weight (25 lbs) when I reduced my calorie intake like crazy and did cardio 3-4 times per wk.

Right now, I'm logging all my food intake into a journal and trying to exercise consistently. I suck at self discipline

What has worked for me in the past is cutting out carbs almost completely. I don't really want to do that anymore though. Currently I am trying to eat mostly only whole/unprocessed foods and starting to exercise with more focus on strength training as opposed to lots of cardio (which takes up too much time for me to do consistently)

To lose weight, diet works best for me. I gradually shifted from a diet full of processed foods and lots of wheat/carbs to one that has alot more veggies, fruits, nuts, healthy fats in general. We still eat pastas, sandwiches, etc, but I am more likely to load them up with veggies now. I also walk close to 3 miles every day (I walk to work) and I think that helps.

Diet. Cut down on carbs, and have a small dinner and no snacking after dinner. Exercise (cardio) always made me really hungry and I'd just eat the calories burned and then some, so I rarely lost weight from exercising.

I'm following along with this...weight is my biggest problem right now. I'm so unhappy with the way I look. Good question!

@blackbird: what book was it?

To lose the baby weight I cut out processed sugar and if I had sweeteners it was raw honey or coconut sugar which is healthier, but still in limited amounts. I cut out most grains (still allowed quinoa (a seed, actually), millet, barley, buckwheat) and focused primarily on produce with meat as a side dish.

A day of meals would look like this:
Green smoothie (that has 2 full cups of kale/spinach, plus healthy fats from coconut milk)
paleo muffin/bread OR eggs with sausage

Lunch: large salad with ham/turkey, avocado, cukes, tomatoes, peppers, and a few TBS of bolthouse ranch dressing

Dinner: lemon artichoke chicken and ginger garlic roasted broccoli (cooked in coconut oil)

So a lot of clean eating is pretty key.

I do workout but I'm not "good at it" meaning I'm really bad at knowing what to do at the gym. Lately I've been running, but before I used to do a ton of the group fitness classes.

I cut out soda, desserts, treats, etc. and exercise more. I like to be fairly active so as long as I'm participating in some kind of sport then I am usually good on the exercise side and can focus on cleaning up my diet.

I lost most of my baby weight through paleo, then shifted the last few pounds with Whole 30. I'm not an exerciser, but am trying to change my ways

@Beebug: basically.

I'm very honest with myself. I know I am a miserable bitch when I don't eat what I wanna eat, so I don't do that. I just workout A LOT to make up for it. It isn't for everyone, but I actually enjoy it so, it works for me. Cardio, baby.