Best way to lose weight?

Well the best way to lose weight that has worked for me has been calorie counting...it's not for everyone but as long as you eat healthily in general and stick to a calorie limit....it works! (I still ate treats every week but made sure I included them in my allowance)

I lost 4 stone by calorie counting (about 1,400 a day) and just did lots of walking and Zumba once/twice a week. I liked it because I wasn't depriving myself of anything,just ate less of things

Hi

The best way I have found to loose weight is by doing the slimming world plan its so good, you can wat so much and I never get hungry. You can basically eat as much lean meat and poultry, potatoes, rice, pasta, salad, veg and fruit. Anything dried such as pasta mug shots, savoury rices is classed as "free" along with most fat free yoghurts. You then have 2 extra choices a day (which you have to measure) know as healthy extras so your first is either milk or cheese and your second is bread (2 small slices but must be brown) or 2 weetabix/porriage oats or selected cereal or 2 alphen light cereal bars.

All you have to be is make sure at least 1/3 of your meal is veg/salad or fruit. You also have to be careful how you cook things so no oil or butter - use fry light spray and plan your meals and cook from scratch. You then have 15 syns a day to use on what you like so such as chocolate or i use mine for ketchup and salad dressings. Plus tea, coffee and diet coke or other diet drinks you can have as much as you like

I honestly never thought this diet would work as you eat so much but honestly it does. I started first week in January and have lost over 2 and 1/2 stone.

Worth a try

I don't think diet coke is the worst thing to be drinking it has zero calories and sugar?? I know the fizz can bloat the stomach but certainly better then drinking lots of fruit juice (very high in sugar) or tea and milky coffee, obviously water is the best option but I think if you cut out everything you like you might look for a fix elsewhere.

I lost 3 stone on diet chef programme and calorie counting.

Do not do a diet that will leave you feeling hungry 24/7.. it will just force you to snack!

Weight watchers is really good, my mum lost 4 stone in 5 months from following that diet. I lost a stone in 5 weeks too. Its really good as long as you record everything you eat. You can still eat crisps, biscuits, cans of coke etc.. you just need to make sure its within your daily points.

Try eat bigger filling portions for breakfast, lunch & dinner and then you shouldnt snack. Also if you follow weight watchers you will get so obsessed over your daily points you will learn to stop snacking because you'll see it as wasted points. I was the worlds worst for sitting at my desk scoffing my face with chocolate bars etc. Now I stick to 3 meals a day and have the odd treat at the weekend.

You are also allowed extra points every week (i dont always use them up) unless i am going on a night out with the girls or out for a nice meal.

With regards to exercise, get and dvd from jillian michaels. 30 day shred is amazing, very hard work but totally worth it. Its 20 mins a day and its in the comfort of your own home. She also has other ones on play.com that are good too and they all range around the £5 mark.

My brother and SIL lost 1 stone each after doing the dvd everyday for 30 days. I do spin, body attack and combat 2 - 3 times a week, but sometimes ill stay at home and do one 20 min session of the 30 day shred just to mix up my routine. Stops me from getting so bored!

Good luck, hope you find something that makes you feel better!

Thanks everyone, as im reading this i'm eating a big bowl of shreddies and an apple so hopefully that will keep me going till lunch. I have NO diet coke in the house so should be safe. I can drink water but have tried to replace my coke with robinsons fruit and barley, i can drink that all day!

Am hoping to go swimming tonight and hopefully that will kick start something.

I'm going on holiday next week with my mum and older sister and they dont snack and my mum is all for the three meals so that should help! Also they both always go on about the amount of diet coke i drink so hopefully i wont drink any for an easy life!

Losing weight is 75% diet and 25% exercise, you have to burn more calories than you eat/drink.

You said the exercise worked for you, can you not do something else that fits into your life, even if it's running round the garden for 10 mins a night or walking up the stairs at work.

Cut out the crap food too, have a load fruits/nuts/carrott or cucumber sticks handy and have those instead of a muffin or bag of crisps. If you haven't got the bad snacks in the house, then you can't eat them.

I've just hit my target weight of 10st it has taken me since the beginning of January and I started off at nearly 12stone, mostly piled on the pounds due to having my son 2 years ago and being to tired to diet/exercise! The only thing that has worked for me is calorie counting on My Fitness Pal and trying to sneak in some form of exercise which is hard with a toddler and the weather being crappy.

Even though I would like to get back to my pre pregnancy weight of 9 stone I'm not going to put any more pressure on now with my big day a month away, just going to try and maintain. Don't think I'd like to be as small as I used to be, I looked ghostly!

I've cut out all sugar apart from fruit (as these as obviously good sugars), swapped to wheat everything (from bread/pasta/cereal) I only really eat chicken and quorn mince and have half a plate of salad with everything. Snacking on nuts and dried fruit....YUM YUM lol x

I've tried loads of different things but I've got an app on my phone which calculates your calories and measurements etc. I have also been going to boot camp twice a week do ive lost pounds and inches! I wanted to loose another 3lbs by my hen party where we are flying to Spain on Monday! My partner is very slim and very fitness minded so he took me running the other day too!

I think you need to find what ever option is best for you because different things work for different people! In total I prob want to loose another 8 lbs I won't be as slim as I used to be but I think il be happier as when I look at pictures I think I don't look healthy!

I think the main thing to be is healthy and forget about the past and focus on now!

I rate Slimming World! No messing around weighing food or point counting, and you can eat loads!

The worst thing you could do is a restrictive diet, even things like slimming world that let you eat 'as much .... as you want', because when you reach your goal weight you'll just rebound unless you continue on that plan for the rest of your life!! If you go restrictive, it's best to phase slowly out at the end, but unfortunately you won't have learned the lessons of proper portion control and understanding of calories!

So, the best way is to practice portion control to limit your calorie intake per day. Combining a slightly lower calorie count with gym a few days a week is the best way.

Also, you should to strength training at least twice a week. If you don't have a gym membership, you can do body weight exercises like press-ups and crunches, though it might be a good idea to purchase a couple sizes of dumbells for added weight. Increasing your lean body mass will make you burn a lot more calories in a day even without increasing your cardio. More muscle means you will use more enegery just to put away the dishes or do the ironing!

Yes, building muscle means that your weight might actually increase at first, or at least decrease more slowly, but that's because muscle weighs more than fat. A better way to judge weight loss is through measuring body fat percentage, or by using waist/hip/thigh/arm measurements instead. Or just by how your clothing fits!!

There's no easy way to lose weight, I've found. You really do need to change your whole lifestyle. If you're only a few lbs over, it might be as simple and 30 minutes of cardio 3 times a week and no food changes, or just cutting out sugary drinks and most alcohol. If you're quite a bit over your goal weight, you will have to overhaul your whole life, insert exercise 5 times a week and start keeping a food journal so you can understand just how much you eat in a day.

Good luck!

Make sure you don't deprive yourself. OK you want coke and a muffin - so just have it. But then make sure you exercise and eat healthily for the rest of the week/day/whatever works for you. I did the jillian shred dvd for a while and also made sure I had treats too, but just in smaller amounts, and it worked. I dropped 6lb in about 5-6 weeks.

Then I had a long hen weekend away and spent time eating, drinking and no exercise. I totally got out of the routine of regular exercise when I got back, and had a fair few weekends immediately after of partying, combined with hardly any exercise, and lots of take away and eating out and 'treat' eating. I made the mistake of thinking because the scales were still OK I could carry on eating whatever I wanted like I was still on holiday. Now the weight has crept back on and it is bloody hard work to shift any of it. I am exercising every day but not losing weight or inches, so I regret letting my good habits slip. I think I have learned from my mistake - everything in moderation and balance.

Sew your mouth up lol!?

I can't say im really putting effort in to the whole losing weight thing but ive had to pretty much do just that and stop just going for a jaffa when i fancy, someone else posted about not depriving yourself though and that the best thing hold off but if you treat yourself every now and then you'll be able to keep cravings at bay.

I get bored REALLY easy so the gym is a no no for me, I dont like to feel like im working out. I've done pole dancing and swimming and when the popped tyre on my bike if fixed ill start riding that but i've just started doing areial hoops and its so much fun and omg it gives you a work out! maybe trying something fun would get you motivated again.

I second that

I joined SW 4 weeks ago, and have lost 10lbs up to now. I love it, as said previously, I'm never hungry. It's, at the end of the day, sensible, healthy eating and it's defintley working for me.

I tried both WW and MFP and failed miserably, I was always hungry.

They also have a fantastic app and website to help you on your way...

They have an app? Why have I never seen this?? lol

Hello, havent read all the replies so sorry if repeating but I can't sing the praises of myfitnesspal high enough. You can do it on your phone or online, you just set up and account and enter your stats, inc current weight and target weight. You put in how much you want to loose a week and then it tells you how many cals to eat a day. You enter everything you eat, by searching for the item on their database and putting in how much you have eaten (you have to put in the butter on your toast, sugar/milk in your tea etc). It adds it up for you and then tells you how much you will weigh in 5 weeks if you eat the same every day. Best thing is tins of diet coke are only 1 cal so you can have as many as you like! The reason I love it so much is that its not restrictive, if you want to eat loads/rubbish in the morning you can but then you just have a light dinner later. Also, it really makes you stop and think about what you are eating. I thought it was all the carbs I ate that were the worst for me but its the butter, cheese and chocolate. The numbers are scary!

I'm doing well on it and am so glad I found it as it suits me perfectly. I'm really greedy and have never managed a diet in my life but this genuinly hasn't been a hardship. I have set up a brides weight loss group if you are interested, we have just started a weekly weigh in etc. Good for morale! x