I’ve been losing 2 pounds a week by avoiding non-olive oils. I simply don’t buy any product that contains any oil in the ingredients aside from olive (or coconut) oil.
Also, I don’t buy any package of food that contains more than 1,000 calories total (multiply calories per serving X servings in package).
It took me 30 years to figure this out. If you try it, let me know how it goes for you!
So reducing caloric intake?
Interesting and novel approach to weight reduction.
How long have you been doing this? Many diets appear to work in the phase where the dieter is very focused on following the diet and their menu has changed to something they are not used to, and then stops working once it’s a routine and they get used to the selection of foodstuff and eat more of it.
Do you also limit yourself to how quickly you finish a package?
My secret was to give up sweets. During Lent I gave up cookies, candy, ice cream, etc. If I craved something sweet, I would have fruit. I lost 10 lbs. Since then I’ve really cut back on sugary treats. I have maybe one per day.
3 weeks! I intend to make this a lifestyle, not just a diet. I’ll be happy to update you with my progress. Time will tell!
I only shop about once a week so that is my time limit for finishing a package.
Calorie reduction is only part of it. For more on the oils, read this: https://www.eatthis.com/vegetable-oil-dangers/
3 weeks is well within the time frame where many approaches to changing the diet will “work”. If this will help you maintain calorie restriction in the long term, good for you! But be aware of exactly how it’s restricting your intake, or it might “stop working” in a few weeks. For instance:
How do you decide how many calories your total basket is allowed to have? What’s going to keep you from adding another couple of sub 1k calorie packages to the total? There is obviously more to how this diet is working than “only packages with less than 1000 calories” since four different foodstuffs of 250 calories each will fill you up just as well as a single 1000 calorie one.
It’s actually ALL of it.
Without getting into a protracted debate of whether the cited article is factually correct on many of its claims, oil is oil and gram for gram contains the same amount of calories. Reducing how much highly processed food you consume (with added oils and sugars) is more important than the kind of oil you put in a pan or add to your salad. Of course, drowning your food in oil is not a good idea if you are reducing calories. But it does give you a better way to control when you add it yourself to raw ingredients rather than open a package of processed food.
Yes I’m aware that I could theoretically buy many packages of lower calorie foods, but I really don’t. It’s a guideline I use to limit my calories, and it’s working so far.
The road to renewed excess poundage is littered with the carcasses of miracle foods and diets that eliminate that one bad food.
The key is what I once heard a crabby ER doc tell a morbidly obese woman:
“You need to eat less.”
I lost over 50 pounds by breaking a femur and being subjected to execrable hospital food. The weight stays off, because something about the accident and recovery has radically suppressed my appetite. I can eat half portions of everything and be satisfied.
I do suspect specifically getting food with fewer calories is not in fact all of it. It’s also that oils that aren’t olive are common, so you’re limiting the amount of fatty foods you eat–and fatty foods tend to have higher calories.
I doubt the fats being olive oils matters all that much, especially since they usually remove all the bits that would make olive oil special. It’s just that this leaves out a lot of other foods.
As far as I’m concerned, whatever you need to trick you brain into letting you eat less is a good thing. I’m down with these diets that help you do it. My only objection is when they charge more than a minimal amount of money for the plan, or push you into buying their products.
Ultimately it’s always going to be consuming and/or digesting fewer calories that helps.
Many, many people have claimed to have the ‘secret’ to losing weight.
They usually retract after some months have gone by.
Here’s my suggestions:
I lost 30+ by having my jaw broken and my jaw wired. If only I’d known earlier how easy it was!
Over the next 10 years I gradually put it all back on again.
There is an interesting contrast with intermittent fasting. When I tried intermittent fasting, my mind played tricks on me. I’d walk through the kitchen, and then discover a piece of food in my hand. When my jaw was relocated and wired, eating was difficult and scary and frightening: it was to easy to chew badly, and too difficult to clear my throat and mouth. Food inhalation was only a moment of inattention. When I walked through the kitchen, I didn’t discover pieces of food in my hand.
You wild thing with your crazy advice.
I’ve struggled with my weight since puberty, which was kind of a long time ago. Things that really help me when I can manage to do them every day for a long time include (besides the above):
Use a smaller bowl (if you eat out of big bowls like I used to). Take a small reasonable helping, never put a big pile of anything in front of you. If you are truly hungry between meals eat something calorie-dense but small, like a quarter cup of nuts.
Notice when you are eating because you are sad, bored, thirsty, tired, agitated, or just to keep others company, and do something that is appropriate, instead of eating.
Don’t deprive yourself, it will boomerang against you. If you crave cake, eat a little slice.
Have a life-changing event that resets your world. Break a femur, for example. I didn’t do that, but some examples of mine are: getting married. Moving to a completely different environment. Being given a horse. Latest was my stable burning to the ground from a lightning strike, last month. I stopped eating for about a week, from stress. I still have a hard time even feeling hungry. This won’t last but I’m using it; last time this happened the effects lasted about three years, with careful attention.
So what you’re saying is: If it wasn’t for your horse…
The Knuckleduster Weight Loss Clinic.
Catchy.
The secret to weight loss is simple. It’s not easy, but it’s very simple. Eat a diet consisting of vegetables, lean proteins, and healthy fats. Cut out the rest of the stuff. That’s all there is to it. This diet has been “invented” many times, and goes by many names with a few different details. Atkins, Wahls, South Beach, Paleo, Keto, and many others. The problem isn’t trying to figure out some rare esoteric ingredient, or being super strict with what time of day you eat, or anything of that sort. The problem is sticking to this simple diet is extremely difficult.
The diet my mom uses has worked for her for a couple of decades now. She eats ten servings of fruits and vegetables per day, plus whatever else she wants. It’s flexible enough that she can stick to it, even on special occasions like Thanksgiving, and that “whatever else she wants” can accommodate things like that last slice of cake that’s calling to her. But after ten servings of fruits and veggies, she’s just not very hungry for much else.
Oh, I like that idea.
What I do currently is eat very sparingly during the week, then whatever I want on the weekends. It’s not too difficult to stick to, and even on my free days I tend not to go hog wild.