And How Did You Lose Weight?

Perhaps an interesting question; perhaps not.

DIET: an ugly word?

Most every one of us have been on a (ewww) diet at one point, perhaps even several, in our lives.

But what is a diet and how effective is it?

There is one common feeling about diets among many who have been on one: it is something which has a definite end.

Is that not a problem in and of itself? If a diet is suppose to be effective, should it not be something applicable to the rest of our lives?

For a diet to be something more sustainable than a way to shed a few pounds then revert back to the way we were eating it needs to be either something that provides healthy eating habits we can incorporate into our regular habits when we have reached our target weights, or it needs to be a lifestyle in and of itself.

The last few years of high school for me was one of putting on quite a few pounds. I tried to be oblivious to it, but it seemed nobody else was as blind as I was. I had gone to the doctor to provide a weight loss program (I guess if the doctor put me on it, it would apparently feel more…uh…official) which was nothing more than a list of approved foods and a checkmark beside the recommended daily calorie intake for me to lose weight. Needless to say, I didn’t stick with it too long.

I had bought one of these purse books (okay, let’s stop it with the comments, guys) which were small books you find at the checkouts in grocery stores. It was a small book on the calorie content of foods, and in it was a recommended weight loss system.

This system was not one size fits all. It used a calculation based upon your sex (not frequency!!!) and your target weight. Essentially it was determining your daily caloric intake based on the weight you wanted to reach.

What was so effective about this system? When you reached your target weight, you were simply then eating a normal diet that would supply the calories to maintain that weight and were not ending a diet.

I still would take in fewer calories than what was recommended, but when I wanted to splurge I could either adjust the next days caloric intake, or simply meet the next days caloric intake as I was often eating less than that anyway.

I dropped 70 lbs on this system; actually a little more than my intended weight loss, but I then had a system I could apply to every day eating to maintain my weight.

I don’t count calories anymore, and, for a while, I had fallen off any sensible eating habits and gained quite a bit of weight which I had not gained in years (drastic life changes, stress, depression, etc.).

I, for quite a while, and successfully, simply maintained a healthy weight by simply knowing what I was eating and food combining. I am trying to get back into that. I have lost quite a bit of weight and beginning to fit into some of my clothes again (good, because I can’t afford new ones).

What are some of the ways in which you have lost weight?

Have you been able to maintain it?

Is the diet you chose something you were able to live with, or was it primarily for reaching a target weight?

This is a guest post by Menard