Diets That Work! - Henderson,NV

The best thing to do is not to diet at all, but to make several small changes you can live with for life. Like week one cut out soda, then week two work on adding in more fruit and veggie servings daily. Since you make the changes slowly you have time to make each one habit before moving on to the next thing, and you never give up anything you will miss, life is too short to miss out on things you love. Like most things in life the key is moderation.

... my Husband lost weight.
That was not his goal.
His goal was just to eat healthier.
Meaning, more fresh fruits and veggies and whole grains. And he is very disciplined about it. And he grazes throughout the day, takes home lunch to work, and feels better.
And by doing so, he lost weight. Which was a nice side benefit to his healthier eating goal.
And, his acid reflux stopped and his other stomach ills.

All diets work - it's us that don't work. Fond one that you think is comfortable for you to stick to and STICK TO IT. Good luck - it's so hard!!!

Yes, Weight Watchers works. I lost 60 pounds in about a year. But you have to be committed to it. It is something that you have to do for life. You can't do any diet, lose weight, and then go back to doing what you did before and not gain back the weight.

Weight Watchers is not a "diet" but is instead a life style change. They teach you how to make changes in what you eat and how you eat without having to totally eliminate things from your diet. In the year that I lost my weight I still was able to eat cheesecake, ice cream, french fries, etc. The difference was that I didn't eat it as often, and I didn't eat as much. Portion control is a huge part of losing weight.

So is being active. You don't necessarily have to spend an hour at a gym doing heavy duty workouts either. You just need to be more active throughout the day. I didn't "workout" when I lost my weight. I went for walks and made a conscious effort to walk more throughout the day.

It wasn't easy, but it was attainable. I strongly recommend going to the meetings and not just doing WW online. I learn a lot from others at the meetings, get moral support, and have a greater sense of commitment when I go to the meetings. Counting points can be overwhelming, but they now have a Quick Start that gives you two weeks of meals that you don't have to count points for. They also have the Simply Filling plan that doesn't require counting points. If you attend meetings the leader will be able to answer all of your questions and help you to get started.

Losing weight and keeping it off is not easy, but the benefits make it worth it. I know at least three women, all over the age of 50, through WW who have taken off 100+ pounds and kept it off for years. Once you build the good habits, it just becomes a part of your life and it doesn't seem like work. Good luck!

One of the biggest things you have to realize is that you need to quit thinking of a diet as a "quick fix" ...... to sustain weight loss, you need to think of this as a lifestyle change.

You can go on just about any "diet", and lose weight, but when you go back to your old eating habits, the weight will go back on.....

A diet may help you get started, but you do need to realize that for long term weight loss, you need to change the way you eat, and the way you look at food.

I lost about 15 lbs last spring with a diet, and continued to use the same recipes, but gradually went back to the bad habits of eating lots of carbs... that is what does it in for me.... and yes, I gained back the weight I lost.

Good luck!

I have two things that work for me. I am 5'1" and weight 117 (I have weighed this for at least 15-20 years except for pregnancy)...I try to eat low carb all the time (only one slice of bread for a sandwich - eat it open faced), no chips or crackers, I substitute carrots for chips with sandwiches etc.

The other thing that works for me is to only eat half of what other people eat. for example, at restaurants, I ALWAYS take half the meal home. At home, I only eat half of a portion for dinner and eat the other half for lunch the next day. Just think how many calories you would save if you only ate half. EAT SLOW...you will fill up faster. I drink water with my meal. Take a bite, then drink water...you really will eat much less.

I walk 2 miles a day...I know you work, but I walk at a local mall in the evening while I listen to talk radio or a pod cast on my phone...it's really very relaxing to have this time for myself.

If I want something sweet, I suck on a lollipop...don't bite it...it will last long enough for the craving to pass. The other thing I do is chew sugarless gum. It's hard to eat when you already have something in your mouth.

It seems that to really have something work, it needs to be a lifestyle change, not a "diet". I think that some programs can give you a good boost and CAN teach you some great things about healthy eating though. It really comes to educating yourself and finding healthy food that tastes good and keeps you satisfied! Who wants to eat cardboard-like food and be hungry all the time?

I have some "Walk Away the Pounds" videos. When I did them regularly they did make a difference. It was not a ton of weight in a short period of time, though. It was subtle and it took time to see a change. I FELT better, though. I think they are great for a small space. No treadmill needed!

Beware of any fad. If it seems too easy, it probably is. Friends that I have that have lost significant amounts of weight say there is no secret, or magic. It is just hard work And a commitment. I have one friend that did surgery, lost over 100 pounds, and not has it all back on. She did not stay committed :( It makes me sad for her health.

Weight Watchers has worked for me in the past and friends have had great success with it. They have the online version and as long as you track everything, you can do really well. One thing that really helped me was finding out the points of something and when they were high for some foods, made me rethink if I really wanted that. Most of the time I didn't. I will confess that I did not deny myself a treat now and then but I did keep it small. One suggestion ( I recently did this in my house) look at your plates. How big are they? I switched out 10 inch dinner plates for 8 inch. It looks like you are eating a lot of food but the portion is actually smaller.

Hi! Last year, right before x-mas, my husband and I overhauled our diet, to a more "paleo" way of eating. I was a vegetarian my whole life, and we ate a lot of pasta, bread, etc. We cut out the pasta, bread, and sugar, and added lean turkey, chicken, eggs, fresh veggies, apples! I also bought a treadmill on craigslist, and put it right in the middle of my son's playroom! I try to walk an hour every day - - at work, I walk over my noon hour. My husband and I both lost about 30-pounds, and have kept it off for a year! Good luck!

What works for me is to not pick a diet. But to drink only water (of if you like coffee or tea do not use sugar). Don't buy or have any junk foods or bad for you foods in your house. Eat all fresh foods and homemade foods. Eat lots of veggies and greens and lots of protein. When you do eat grains make sure the portions are smaller and that they are only whole grains. And make your portions smaller for all meals...just a little smaller. Don't starve yourself! Fat is fine. Sugar, starches (like potatoes) and breads are your enemies! And to help with motivation/energy do some kind of exercise...walk, swim, bike, yoga, or weights every day. Take a long walk daily. Start at a mile or two and work up to longer distances. Good luck!!

I think you are confusing things....

You need a "diet" not to be on a diet. You need to figure out why you use food as comfort. A planned meal is a diet. What you consume is a diet. Many call it "intake", but a diet is what you consume. To BE ON A DIET is different...

This is about LIFESTYLE changes. Talk to a nutritionist. You need to start making healthier decisions.

1. Pay attention to what you eat.
a. are you eating enough protein? Chicken, pork?
b. are you eating enough vegetables?
c. are you eating enough fruits?

2. How much water do you drink a day?
a. if your urine is dark or bright yellow - you aren't drinking enough water.
b. cut sodas out of your life. your body does NOT process carbonated drinks well - causing inflammation, acid reflux, etc.

3. How much exercise are you doing a day?
a. you need to walk - start out slow. Walk around your block. Then progress further...challenging yourself daily.
b. don't park close the store...park in the back of the lot and walk to the store...if you live close enough to walk - walk to the store - get one of those carts and put your groceries in that.

I have a friend who has tried Plexus Slim and she's losing weight. BUT she's also changing her eating habits. Which is what most people fail to do in diets...

Look into Adkins. Seriously talk to a nutritionist. Stop making excuses. I know I was really good at making excuses...I've lost 20lbs now...not as much as I want nor as fast as I want. but I realize the weight didn't get there overnight...it won't come off overnight. This is about lifestyle changes.

You work at 830? Then get up earlier to exercise BEFORE you go to work. Walk at lunch.

Tomato sauces cause heart burn for me. So I have had to cut things like that out of my diet. Please keep in mind and understand a "DIET" is NOT a fad. It's a lifestyle change...you can do programs like Nutrisystem - but eventually you have to go back to preparing and eating your own food. That's why people have had success with Weight Watchers...it's food you prepare...

Start bringing your lunch to work. Use lettuce instead of bread - that will cut out bad carbs. NOT ALL CARBS are bad. Your body needs them like a car needs gas to go.

Talk with your doctor - get a full blood workup done. Make sure your thyroid is not messed up. That can cause weight loss and weight gain. Hormones an mess it up as well. Insulin Resistance - that has an affect on weight as well...so get your blood sugar tested...ask for an A1C test...if your blood sugar is high - you won't be losing weight.

Good luck!

Skip all the fab stuff and do WW if you feel you have to shell out money to do something. Of course you can do it on your own and save your money for something important (like some new smaller size clothes) by making a few changes. If you drink soda or diet soda stop and change over to water with lemon. Diet soda makes you hold weight and regular soda is empty calories. Try to take out as much processed food as you can and aim for at least 5 servings of fruit and veggies a day.

Why get a treadmill for the house? It's boring to walk inside and you'll lose interest pretty fast. Instead pop over to youtube and search for exercise videos free on line. Or stop in at Goodwill and pick up exercise dvds. Or go to the library and see if they have some you can take out and try. If you find 1 or 2 you really like you search them out and buy a copy.If you don't like it then you bring it back and it's cost you ZERO.

I started off last year the heaviest I've ever been including when I was pregnant with twins. And in your 50's it's hard to drop the weight. But small changes built over the course of the year and I ended the year 14 lbs lighter. This year I hope to do the same. Not a quick fix but then, of course, it's not like I woke up 1 morning weighing 35 lbs more than when I went to bed the night before.

It's not a race. It's a commitment to be healthier and stronger for yourself and your family. Make yourself a priority in your and plug away at a healthier you. The funny thing? Once you start eating better quality food you will feel much better. The first week you might feel crappy as the unhealthy stuff works it's way out of your system but after that you feel better, sleep better. etc. Although I only lost 14 lbs my joint pain decreased a lot and my asthma went away. When I cut out wheat the sinus headaches I had at least twice a month stopped completely. I would have never believed it if it hadn't happened to me but spending money of good for you food stopped me from having to spend money on drugs to treat chronic medical stuff.

YOU CAN DO IT!!!

I've had friends who had great results with Weight Watchers. It basically teaches you proper portion control. Once you get the hang of it (and stick with it) you'll see pounds melt off. But you do have to stick with it. Once you learn how, and see results, you won't care to go back.

I joined online and ignored it (couldn't figure out the apps/online system) and couldn't make it to meetings. So it didn't work for me to join, at all, because I wasn't following the program. The whole thing overwhelmed me.

I started doing portion control on my own 4 years ago and I did lose weight.

Treadmill: try Craigslist for a used one or try Freecycle. It's a yahoo group where people post things they are giving away for free. Maybe someone in your area just wants it out of their garage for good.

Weight watchers. My brothers gfriend went from a size 18 to 6 in the last two years. They will teach you how to have a better relationship with food.

SO what has worked for me. Weight watchers.. You eat your own food, Restaurant food You eat in moderation.

Paleo- No processed foods, no dairy or grains.

GLuten free- for me worked, only by chance. We went Gluten free for my son and I lost over 20 lbs with out trying.

Fad diets do not work .Any diet that you can keep with healthy eating. Ie WW, GF and Paleo are usually the best. It is not a diet it is a lifestyle change.

Excercise is awesome, walking, hiking, bowling.. active life is also good excercise. Make the partk eqipment an obsticle course.. play basket ball wit the kids..etc.. You do not need a gym.

Good luck

99% of all diet aids stimulate the central nervous system, rev up the metabolism, have a lot of caffeine, and create more problems that they solve. The rate of heart palpitations even from those energy drinks is horrifying - ask any paramedic how many calls they have related to too much caffeine. And the "crash" from these products really works over your body.

Weight Watchers is about counting calories, basically - but it's simplified in giving a point value to foods so that you eat more of certain ones and less of others. But a lot of doctors (David Perlmutter is one) who is questioning all the advice that we've been given over the past 20 years about low fat and tons of fruit/vegetables. He looks at the effect on the cells of stored sugars (such as in root vegetables we've been told are "healthy" and "unlimited"). Others question carbs - same thing, with carbs going to sugar. Others note that we have thrown out fats, and in the process given up all the healthy fats that we need. After decades of "low fat, high vegetable" diets we are still fatter and more unhealthy, with higher rates of diabetes and metabolic syndrome and cancer.

Others say that the reliance on processed foods is a huge problem - and that includes the prepared meals from NutriSystem and Jenny Craig and those companies. They're expensive. Yes, the celebrity spokespeople lose weight, but so would you if you had food delivered to you and had a personal consultant and could afford a trainer and they paid you $50,000 to follow it, right? They do help with portion control but they are not cheap. If you can't afford a treadmill, you can't afford these meals or any diet aids.

And most of the time, diets put your body into starvation mode, so the metabolism slows down and food is stored as fat - it's an evolutionary response that prepared our ancestors for periods of famine.

As to "do you have to stay on them for life"? - well, what got each of us into our weight/illness situation? And why would we go back to it?

Everyone seems to agree though - it's not about "diet" as a temporary fix. It's about a lifestyle change.

It sounds like you have a weight problem, a stress problem, a lack of activity problem, and some clear issues such as reflux. That tells me, as a professional, that you aren't getting effective use out of the foods you are eating. It's not about the "blame game" either - remember that most of our foods are far more nutrient deficient than they were a few decades ago. Depleted soils, mass growing techniques, food processing, and the preponderance of genetically modified foods have wreaked havoc on our food supply. A peach in 1950 had as much Vitamin A as 22 peaches today - and panels of doctors and nutritionists have calculated that, just to get the nutrients we really need, we'd have to eat 5000-6000 calories a day! So we're really starving for nutrients but we eat and eat and don't get them. Food is stripped of its nutrient value so that it has a longer shelf life, produce is gassed so it lasts on its journey rom the other side of the world to our table without rotting, and we're feeding an inappropriate diet to our food animals (cattle and pigs are eating corn - but that's not what they should be eating!). Try finding a loaf of bread that doesn't list "enriched flour" as its first ingredient - that's wheat that's been stripped of everything, and then a couple of stray vitamins thrown back in - it's not what grew in the fields in our grandparents' time. And the info on GMO foods is alarming. But the big money is in big production and price supports and subsidies for the agribusinesses that get food to use cheaper.

For me, based on my work and seminars I've attended for years, the answer seems to be in cellular nutrition: getting non-GMO foods in a highly absorbable form right to the cells, ensuring optimal nutrition and all ingredients together (rather than vitamins isolated and taken here and there, without their essential "partners" that allow them to actually work), and looking at the emerging and very promising science of epigenetics that allows us, using food, to repair our mis-firing genes and let our bodies heal. That's been my focus, and I've seen tremendous results with weight, cholesterol, food sensitivities, allergies, illnesses, and so on. It's billed as the nutritional breakthrough of the century and there are no side effects. I've saved a fortune because I never need the doctor, I've gotten off 4 prescriptions, my lab work is awesome, I have more energy to exercise, and I never even spend money on tissues and cough medicines and pain relievers for fever or headaches.

But whatever you do, don't go for a diet fad - you'll probably cause more harm than good, and waste your money.

They don't work. Walk. Find an indoor track somewhere close to you and go. Walk an hour a day. It will take 3 weeks to build up to where you are not compleatly exhausted after you finish. Keep doing it. This weight didn't come on in months and I'll not go off in months. You have to find something you can do habitually. these things work for me.

Replace one fatty meal at a time. Change it. Small changes add up. Give up rolls, flour tortillas, biscuits, anything not whole grain. Substitute whole grains, English muffins, corn tortillas or cornbread.
Fruit for fiber. Apples, whole oranges, berries.
Substitute a few chocolate chips for sweets. don't bring them into your house. Turn down any sweet that's not homemade.
Eat an egg and English muffin for breakfast.

Have your thyroid checked. Have it checked again. Again. It took yrs for them to find what I knew was true. Low thyroid function.
Fix you acid reflux. There are great meds now that are really cheap generics. Sometimes with reflux, you eat in order for the burning to go away. Bad idea.

If these ideas seem overwhelming, you are not ready to lose weight. You will loose when you are sick of being fat and can change.
No judgement, I've been there.

You don't really need a diet system if you do several things...

Cut out soda, especially diet soda...nothing with carbonation.

Do not eat anything that is pre-packaged. Buy real cuts of meat that you have to cook. Buy raw fruits and veggies that you have to wash, prepare and then eat.

Read your labels any product that has chemicals or additives to it...don't buy it.

Eat real food...and if you can cut out grains (if only wheat/gluten, fine) but they can play havoc with your body.

For instance...instead of buying a jar of spaghetti sauce (even the "low fat" or "sugar free" ones). Mince some fresh garlic, saute it for about 30 seconds in olive oil, add crushed tomatoes and let it simmer for a while 15 to 20 minutes then toss in some fresh basil (or dried if you don't have fresh) and serve it over spaghetti squash (slice the squash in half, scrape the seeds out, put it face down in a Pyrex dish with a 1/4 cup water and seal it with cling wrap, microwave for 10 to 12 minutes check for doneness, add time in the microwave as needed). If you have time make some meatballs or put some ground meat in the sauce to make it heartier. There a whole meal of fresh food in 30 to 40 minutes.

Look it is hard getting used to cooking every night, and it is very very hard to give up those chips or soft drinks or favorite candy bar or snack food...they are designed to make it hard to give them up...scientists are hired to make them desirable and addictive.

Just cleaning up your food alone will really really help then if you can fit in some exercise then you are even better off.

sweetie, there is ONE diet that is guaranteed to work for you, and that is whatever diet you like enough to stick to.
and no one can really say what that is. frustrating, i know.
my husband did great on nutrisystem. it worked less well for me. erm.....of course that's because, like almost all diets, i cheated.
but what IS working for me, albeit slowly, is adding lots of leafy greens to my diet, being careful about sugar, and adding weights to my cardio regimen.
i would so love for there to be a magic pill. i was a fen-phen girl, and devastated when it went off the market. when we're trying to lose weight we get a little nuts. my heart was at risk but DAMN i looked good!
what you need to find is something that you CAN do for life, without it feeling like a life sentence. anything that's onerous, boring or miserable will cause you to rebound. it's such a non-exciting answer, but the best thing you can do is incorporate one small positive change at a time and stick with them.
when i can eliminate my beloved late-night snacking i might actually reach my goal in this lifetime.
good luck! i'm rooting for ya!
ETA i find running (slowly! or walking) outside to be WAY less boring than a treadmill in the house. i only use the machines in our breezeway when the weather makes it difficult to get in an outdoors workout. but if you prefer to be in front of the tv, do that! just figure out what works for you.
khairete
S.

My husband has had good luck with Weight Watchers. He didn't follow it exactly, but it helped him learn how to look at his meals differently and make healthier choices. He lost about 20 lbs over the summer with it, but the holidays and my pregnancy (and therefore less cooking from his wife due to really bad morning sickness, so more eating out) helped pack it back on. Now that my morning sickness is starting to abate (only took 5 months, woohoo) and the holidays are over, we're going to get back to healthier eating and he's going to go back to a point system.

He also has really bad acid reflux, so we have to work around it, which means unfortunately staying away from a lot of fruits he would otherwise like.

Have you tried your local freecycle for exercise equipment? I see people giving away exercise bikes and stuff on our local one, you might try it for a treadmill. It can't hurt to ask.

Look on Amazon for "Stop Counting Calories, Start Losing Weight" by Zoe Harcombe

Other than obtaining the book, there are no products to buy, no required memberships, no fake foods, shakes or pills to eat. The only thing required of you is determination and will.

It is a three step plan to follow. The first is very short, but the hardest. The second is weight loss. The third is a lifestyle change. By the time you get to the third, it will have already become a natural habit.

I have never had more than 15 or 20 to lose, but after three kids, I've had to "diet" a few times in my life. For me it always comes down to calories. Weight watchers is basically a calories based program (they call them points but thats just semantics), you limit your portions in a way that creates a calorie deficit without doing it to the point your body thinks its starving. But at the end of the day, the changes you make need to be permanent if you want to keep the weight off. Now this does not mean you tally and count the rest of your life. You do learn by sight how much food is enough to sustain the fit you vs. the fat you. So yes and no to your question "do you have to stay on them for life." With nutisystem, it takes the thinking out if the equation. And this I think is the blessing and the curse if the program because when you do inevitably return to your own cooking, you have not learned a thing about how to feed the fit you. I find when I limit my calories to my resting metabolism (for me about 1300 at my age), I'm not miserable and therefor able to sustain the diet for several months to reach my goal. I can also keep it up for months because I can still go out, eat cake at birthdays, just way more mindfully. But when you reach your goal, you still need to keep the portions small, not as small as when you are losing, but small enough to maintain. For me this maintenance phase just happens naturally because inevitably I plateou at about 135 lbs. Hopefully this becomes second nature to you so you are no longer on the "diet" but have made it a permanent lifestyle change. This worked for me, but I can tell you I've seen my own mother lose this way and gain it all back over and over again. In the end what worked best for her was a vegan diet.
I know others who have had wonderful success with permeant weight loss by going plant based. It seems extreme, but they don't restrict their portions. They eat heaps of food and loose weight eating this way.
I wish you all the success and wisdom to choose the right method for you.
But try to get out of the mind set of being on a diet to lose and then being off the diet when you're done. Think of yourself as an airplane who wanted to go to Los Angles from NY but accidentally got on course for Tijuana. You need to change your course by a few or several degrees and then stay the course- otherwise called a lifestyle change.

I have done WW in the past and it works if you really track what you eat. Now I use My Fitness Pal instead (free), it is a calorie counting system. Started in February and have lost 72 lbs. I didn't exercise right away and still lost weight. I would just walk outside if you can or do videos on demand. It is more about the eating than exercise anyway. You just have to commit to staying within your calorie range, it isn't always easy, but I have figured out many low cal snacks and meals so I can still snack. And I have had off days too, vacations, parties, etc. But still have lost weight overall. You have to be committed or it won't work. Start slow. Good luck!

We used a book called "the Formula 40-30-30" It is a based on a diabetic diet where everything you eat is balanced. Kind of like the Zone but I found this book much easier to understand and utilize! It helps you understand the premise behind it and I know a couple others who have used it as well. It also teaches you how to make a way of life change vs just a diet. I swear by it.

The original Weight Watchers Diet is the best. Did it 41 years ago. Lost 85 lbs. to date, only 15 pounds added. That's thru four pregnancies and menopause. It taught me how to eat. If you can find original try it. You also must be creative in your cooking. Boils down to less calories. Exercise. If you are truly ready to,do it for you and you only, you will be very successful. Good luck.