- after discussion with your physician first, consider to start from a low carb diet. This is the most effective weight loss regimen for most people. When you are fed up with low carb meals, switch to balanced calorie controlled days, or rotating diet days, the choice is yours. My favourite schedule is to switch from low carb to watermelon-fruit day. All over suddenly all the "prohibited" sweet fruity treats are allowed without any penalty. My next day after fruit day would often be a vegetable or balanced diet day, followed by whatever comes to my mind.
- you are what you think you are. And you think about yourself exactly what you say about yourself to yourself and to others. "I like desserts, I can not stop eating, as soon as as I lose weight and go off diet, I gain my weight back". Show me a person who doesn't like food. Everyone loves to eat. Food and sex are the major real biological pleasures we have in this life, everything else is derivative. What kind of effect these words have on your believes? What is the purpose of saying such things? What about something like: "I have a sweet tooth but I really prefer juicy fresh fruits to fatty sticky processed cakes, I love food, but I like a taste, a bite only, and I hate overeating, I hate the sensation when I overdo with food, it is very easy for me to lose few pounds here and there, I just need to stop eating." Could it still sound like you? How do you think such words would affect your thinking? Why don't you say such things to everyone and to yourself in the first place?
- there is no such thing as neutral Family and Friends in weight loss fight, they are either supportive, or often counterproductive, seeing you as a "victim" of anorexia nervosa and offering you every treat that you are trying to avoid
- weigh yourself daily
- weigh or measure at least some of your food to get an idea about the portions size
- read food labels
- If labels are not available, consider looking it up on the internet
- do not eat at least 3 hours before sleep, set a deadline for any snacks or food, my schedule is that I do not put anything other than water in my mouth after 7 pm
- have 12 food-free hours/day (including 8 hours of sleep)
- if low carb diet does not work, make sure you restrict carbs properly, also consider rotating it periodically with healthy carb diets as in Rotating Diet Days to get an extra boost
- do not get fooled about carbs in general while not on a low carb diet. Only while on low carb diet carbs need to be avoided. If you are not on low carb diet Calories is the most important. As soon as you cross ketogenic carb threshold, restriction of good carbs has no benefits. Just acknowledge their calories and enjoy them. If you are not on a low carb diet, feel free to consume liberal amounts of healthy unprocessed carbs from fruits and vegetables, especially fresh, they should be a staple of a healthy balanced diet. Even bad carbs are not a poison, just acknowledge and consciously counteract their appetite stimulating effect
- avoid alcohol, especially on empty stomach. One drink is roughly 150 calories and should be counted as carbs, especially while on low carb diet. Alcohol is one of the easiest to digest sources of energy and is usually metabolized first. Beer is high in carbohydrates with glycemic index around 100 and should be avoided on low carb diets. Look at the labels at LCBO while buying wines, prefer low carb, below 10g/liter wines. Hard liquors are usually not weight loss friendly
- cheat day without weight gain - only one big whatever you like meal a day. Most meals are under 1500 calories and should be Ok. Make sure it is a controlled one portion meal that we are talking about, and not a "three hour all you can eat buffet" adventure. If you decide to go this route it should be one meal only with no snacks before and after, and your next meal should be no sooner than the morning next day. If you snack on such days, you are almost guaranteed to overdo it and gain weight. I would avoid one meal only being a party meal when you sit at the table with friends and especially with alcohol for hours and constantly snack on food and drinks, it is not a meal but a feast with potential for few thousands calories load in one seat consumed.
- I would prepare for big parties by stuffing your stomach full with low calorie high fiber food in advance, leafy or stem vegetables like spinach or broccoli would be perfect for such scenarios, while at party try to avoid starchy and fat food, motivate yourself to taste different treats instead of stuffing it, refusing to taste offered often ends up being counterproductive, so use your wisdom to navigate through these challenging environment.
- BBQ and party days could be ideal for low carb regimen if you are ready to stick mostly with meat or protein equivalents, try to control portions if you consume any alcohols since it sets off a low carb metabolism
- day after party might be an ideal for fruit-watermelon diet day
- try to keep your meal schedule outside of above cheat meals steady. If you skip a meal, consider some small snack before your next scheduled meal instead of moving the two regular meals closer
- it is Ok to be a little hungry but avoid extreme uncontrolled hunger by having snacks, as most people would predictable overeat at the end if they cross the invisible dangerous hunger threshold. I think ideally try to spread your calories throughout the day in 2-5 meals. But if you decide to go with snacks, they should be different for different diet days. On low carb days it could be proteins like mozzarella sticks, lean chicken, eggs. On nonlowcarb days try to have high water content, low calorie snacks (usually fruits or vegetables). Avoid using bread, pastries, high fat or high calorie food as snacks. Try to keep your meal schedule steady. If you skip a meal, consider some small snack before your next scheduled meal instead of moving the two regular meals closer
- If you decided to stay with hunger, one of the approaches is to overcome it and have your next meal no sooner than the next morning, somehow sleep usually resets the uncontrolled extreme food cravings back to "usual" level in the morning preventing overeating.
-when you feel that your appetite is out of control, low carb days for at least three days often help to reset the appetite
- healthy balanced appetite would help you to keep the weight steady. If additional weight loss is desired, some additional calorie restrictions are usually needed
- if you stay with calorie counting and it doesn't work, the first step is to be honest to yourself about counted consumed calories. The calories add up very easily. Try to make a mental mark about total calories every time you put anything in the mouth. You might be surprised how little energy your body actually needs to maintain the steady weight.
- make sure to drink at least 6 glasses of water a day or two glasses with each meal, check with your physician first if you have any medical condition or take any prescription medications
- what to do if there is no desired weight loss regardless of your best efforts? It happens universally to everyone. Few potential ways to try to move form a standstill are: "The Military Diet" - see in the links. In order to be effective it has to be followed exactly as described. Look at "Substitution" link on the website. In my experience, the more your deviate from a standard "Military Diet" recipe, the more risk for failure. No carb pure protein only three day diet is another potential option.
- Exercise. Not essential but extremely beneficial for weight management and good for your health in general.