What Is Your Successful Diet Story?

In My Humble Opinion
21

69 lbs in 12 months on WW. Unfortunately I’ve put about 15 back on in 1.5 years. That’s what happens when you get sloppy. So I’m back to counting points regularly and I’m slowly getting back down to my goal weight.

I would seriously be wary of any diet that include hormone injections to make your body think it’s pregnant. (Wouldn’t that increase your weight? You don’t see too many skinny pregnant women walking around.)

If WW doesn’t work for you, (and it doesn’t work for everyone!) there are plenty of less drastic alternatives. (Atkins, perhaps? I dunno, some people seem to have success on it.)

22

I’m doing Atkins, as is my husband. The first two weeks are a bit tough, but if you weren’t eating enough vegetables, that’s one reason it could be tougher than normal. Meat, eggs, cheese and vegetables. After that, we added strawberries, nuts, and some low carb breads. It’s an easy diet for us to maintain.

I’ve done it for 7 months now, and as I mentioned earlier, I’ve lost 35 lbs (hubby has lost 43). It’s a way of life for me now. I like not being hungry or craving food and still losing weight. And when I reach my goal weight, I’ll find it easy enough to maintain so long as I don’t fall back into a way of eating that involves Pringles, cookies, Wheat Thins and Cheez-its.

23

Jennifer Anniston did the Atkins and remains “in the zone” and it is her way of living now and that is how she stays so thin

Oy veh to be that thin once in a lifetime!

24

I’m not on any “official” diet (expect maybe the Scarsdale Diet: every time you try to open the refrigerator, Jean Harris shoots you!). I’m just eating less, and healthier, and I haaaaate it.

I lile things that are bad for me. I dislike things that are good for me. There is no way I will ever like salad or veggies or tofu or their ilk. I crave ice cream and Chinese food and pizza, and because of fat & cholesterol, *I can never eat them again. *

Damn. I don’t smoke or drink or take drugs or have sex—now, no good food. I better get really thin and gorgeous.

25

She also has a personal trainer, a naturally thin physique, frequent, athletic sex with Brad Pitt and—I suspect—a few nips and tucks done.

26

I miss my comfort foods. I literally drank 64 ounces of coke a day. It is no wonder I was gaining weight. Do you know how much sugar is in that? I swear I was addicted to it. I tried for like a month to quit and just coulnd’t do it.

I love pizza and fried chicken and chinese and Thai food.
Yummmm

I tried the toothbrush diet (that is where you brush your teeth everytime you are hungry) and eat nothing but fruits and vegtables but I was like over that in a week.

I hate dieting!

27

EAT LESS

MOVE MORE

28

I think you know what you need to do to lose and keep the weight off but aren’t happy with that realization.

In the beginning I thought it sucked and was grossly unfair that I couldn’t have all my favorite comfort foods and still be thin. But alas that’s the way life is and I chose to be healthier.

Granted right now I’m not all that thin but I am 6 months pregnant. And all the HCG coursing through my body combined with how I was eating before I got pregnant is not resulting in any miraculous weight loss… I’ve gained about 25 pounds thus far. :slight_smile:

29

I went from 220 to 150 in about nine weeks, by using amphetamines, getting lots of exercise, eating only on alternate days, and pretty much never sleeping except on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays.

Worked like a charm.

Of course, it also resulted in an amphetamine addiction I had to deal with.

Not sure I’d recommend it to the general public.

30

Who in the world is your doctor? You have a history of bulimia and he/she put you on a crash diet for morbidly obese people?

I really, really hope that there are a lot of supplements that go with this diet. One lovely aspect of pregnancy is that if you are not giving your body what the baby needs it will take it from whereever is handy. Not taking in enough calcium? Never mind–there’re plenty right here in Mom’s teeth.

31

That program the doctor has you on seems rather suspect. 800 calories a day is near-starvation level, and I wonder what excuse the doctor is giving to the insurance company, if you’re submitting, to explain your prescriptions? Seems a bit off to me.

I myself just started Atkins and I LOVE it. Giving up bread and starches is nowhere near the problem I thought it would be. I realize that I am a person who feels deprived if I can’t have butter and cream and mayonnaise, so the Atkins method of eating works for me. I have been on it since Monday afternoon and the scale has gone down 3 pounds. Yes, I am aware those are not all fat molecules - it’s water weight - but the psychological factor of seeing those numbers go down is a huge motivator. It has also made me aware of the incredible amount of sugar added to foods that you never would have thought contain sugar.

I also recommend Weight Watchers and have had good success on that too. But I think Atkins is a better plan for me because I was eating a protein-deficient diet and this is balancing that out.

32

on my second round of Atkins.

first round I lost 34lbs in 4 months.

Then I threw my back out, less exersize and started munching snacks, drinkin beer and gin/tonics.

Gained 15lbs back in 6 weeks.

Started cutting back on carbs again getting prepared for Atkins second round.

officially started Induction (3 weeks of 20 carbs or less per day) last week. Second week of induction almost over and i feel great.

Ive dropped 5lbs so far so 10 more and i will be back where i started.

Then its the long stretch to loose an additional 50lbs by Jan-04. Seems like a bit much but I was at least 80lbs overweight when i started Atkins in Jan-03.

I picked up most of this weight after a skiing accident in Feb-01. Severed ACL. Had to have complete knee reconstruction which laid me up for 6months out of work.

Atkins works for me because I can live without the breads and pastas (for the most part). I love the never hungry simplicity of it all. Also like not being in a food coma after eating. I actually get an energy burst after meals now.

33

I’ve posted this other places on this board, but since you asked: I wanted to do Atkins, but my urologist nixed it. Said it would make me grow kidney stones even faster than I already do!! So, I stopped (I mean stopped completely) eating refined sugar, white flour (including white pasta), white potatoes and white rice. I started drinking lots of water. I do 30 min. of cardio 2Xweek, followed by an hour of circuit weight training. Once a week I do an hour of yoga. I started this plan the first of the year. I’m 57 pounds down (58 to go), 8.5 inches off my waist, 6 inches off my hips, 3 inches off my bust. I love this diet (although I recognize it as a permanent lifestyle) because my sugar cravings are GONE! And, I’m never, ever hungry! If I’m hungry, I eat! (I do however, have a rule that I don’t eat when I’m not hungry). I don’t count fat or calories. I eat full fat everything (including whole milk). This helps me feel very satisfied.

Please, for the sake of your long-term health, get a second opinion. You might also consider some counseling to help you deal with your weight and food issues.

Best of luck!

34

I’ve lost 43 pounds (and still going) doing Weigh Down Workshop. WDW is faith-based and teaches you that all foods are okay, and that you can eat whatever you want provided you’re physically hungry, and provided that you stop when you’re full. And it also teaches you to go to God whenever you’re in a situation where you’d normally just pig out (angry, lonely, sad, etc.).

I love getting to the end of the day knowing that I waited till I was truly hungry each time. I eat maybe 1/3 of what I used to.

I will never, ever go back to counting calories/fat grams/etc
again!

In late April I began exercising because I was tired of huffing and puffing any time I went up a flight of stairs. The exercise has done almost nothing for my weight loss, but I’m in better shape now and I LOOK like I’ve lost more than I really have.

35

Allow me to chime in with another recommendation for Weight Watchers. They teach you how how to be aware of what you’re eating and how to lose weight safely and without feeling deprived.

A diet of 500 to 800 calories a day teaches you nothing but how to be miserable. When you go back to eating like a normal person, you’ll go right back to eating the same foods, in the same quantities, and for the same reasons. And so you will almost certainly gain the weight back. That’s if you’re “successful” at only eating enough to sustain a gerbil for however long you’re supposed to – if you can’t do that (and most people couldn’t), well, then you’ll have “failed” again. The whole things sounds like a set-up for failure, IMO.

What worked for me was being reasonably good about following the WW program; cutting out refined sugar (my rule – if sugar is one of the first four ingredients in anything, I don’t eat it); being sure to get at least 5 servings of fruit and veg a day; and exercising.

36

Previoius stats - 23 years old, 6’4", 400+ (only scale I had wouldn’t go over 400) 54" waist. Eat all the time when at home, and I was always at home except work. Never without some kind of food in my hand.

In March I went to a computer gaming convention here in Vegas (Everquest Fan Faire for you EQ junkies). I spent 4 days down there, and ate half a plate of food on the second day. I was having too much fun to notice I wasn’t eating. I also met a gorgous lady there that plays EQ.

When I went to get ready for work on Monday I noticed that my pants were very loose. It was then that I realized I hadn’t had anything to eat sense Thursday. Couple days later, someone I met a fan faire emailed me some photos he took. I looked at myself standing next to that gorgous lady, and realized I was FAT! not just overweight but fat. I decided then to start a diet. I wanted to impress that gorgous lady. Started out slow, just started by eating 3 meals a day. Same amount I used to eat at a meal, but just stoped all the munching I did between. Went to only drinking water. I never used any condiments before, and still don’t. Never used salt, or sugar either so no issue there.

I found that I was really bored if I wasn’t eating. Started walking around that block the first week of the diet just to have somthing to do. I also noticed that after the first week, that the meals were too big.

I am not following any diet plan, just eating reagular portions. I still eat steak and potatoes, but smaller portions than I used too. When July 4th weekend came around I had been on my diet for several months, and decided that with the big barbeque weekend I would just drop my diet for a couple days then get back on it. For the 4th I ate like I used to before the diet. You know what? I felt like shit for the rest of the weekend. My stomach hurt from eating way to much. I learned my lesson and went back to my new eating style.

Last month I got a weight set, and started working on that. Now I work on weights in the morning before work, and then walk for 20 minutes after dinner.

I can’t wait to see the lady I met at the fan faire again. (See lives 1500 miles away:( ) She probably won’t recognize me. As of now I have lost 80+ lbs (now weigh 318), and lost 10" from my waist. I went from 5XL TShirts to a 2XL TShirt. Other things can’t be measured. I feel great, I’m proud of my weight loss. Still don’t think I can go around without a shirt without scaring people, but that will come. I found also that I am standing taller, or maybe my spine has stretched from the weight loss, but I am banging my head into things that once I could walk under.

My goal? I don’t have one. This isn’t really a diet, but a life style change. As I found out on the 4th I can’t just jump back to the way I was eating. I no longer crave food like I did the first few weeks. I can sit next to someone eating popcorn without feeling like I just have to have some. I can open the fridge, and get the water without caring that there was a soda sitting there too.

Warning for those of you attempting massive weight loss. It gets expensive. I don’t know how much I have spend in new jeans, and shirts because the old were too big. I’m trying to save for a trip to see this lady I met, but I keep having to buy new cloths. If I wasn’t trying to loose weight I would be pissed off at the money going out for cloths.

Thanks for reading. Everyone have good luck on their diets no matter what you try.

37

I lost about 60 lbs on the Atkins plan in 1999. I maintained the loss through spring of 2002, but regained about 10 lbs or so late last year after lots of personal stress resulted in me going back to some of my old eating habits, as well as reducing my activity level. This year hasn’t been much better so far (different stressors, mainly out of control migraines) so I still haven’t taken the weight I gained back off yet, but I haven’t gained anything else additional, either. So my net loss as of today is about 50 lbs. In 6 months I’m hoping it will be 65 lbs. Actually, I’m less concerned about the weight as long as I can get back in the leather skirt and the jeans in my closet the don’t zip right now. I’d also like to regain the muscle tone I lost since the migraines forced me to give up the weight training. I’m lucky if I can manage yoga once a week.

38

First of all, last year I’ve lost about 20 pounds on WW and I’m always wondering when people say they go hungry on that program. I never ate as much as when I was on the WW program, because before I tended to skip meals in the hope that would help. With WW, I just ate “zero points” food until I was satisfied.

Then again, I really like salad and fruit and could live off potatoes, so that’s maybe why I liked it - I would probably starve if I was on Atkins, because “You can eat all the meat and cheese you want” equals “None, thank you” to me. That and I’m wary of kidney problems.

Also, after I lost some weight, I started running. And since I was at it, I started running with a goal - I’m trying to run a marathon. Let me tell you, that will take the pounds right off you. Since I started training I have stopped losing weight, but lost 4 clothing sizes instead which leads me to believe the old “muscles weigh more than fat” seems actually to be true (who’d a thunk?)

Why the marathon? It was just my way of dealing with things. If I don’t have a goal I tend to slack off. This way, I know that if I don’t go out and run now that in October I’ll be stuck halfway on the course. And it’s actually not that time-consuming - I’ll exercise about 30 minutes each day. 30 minutes is the time I spent flipping through channels looking for a decent program, I thought I might as well put it to better use. Don’t know if I’ll actually make it, but I did run a half-marathon two weeks ago and damn! that did make me feel proud and gave me an energy boost which I think is essential for all exercise / weightloss programs.

If you’re looking for a way of exercise that makes you lose the pounds quickly I’d highly recommend running. Or maybe walking if you have knee problems (though I had more knee problems at the start of my program than now, strangely enough). And believe me, I’ve tried them all - went to the gym like crazy doing Step Aerobics and stuff. Nothing worked like this did.

Back to the OP: Isabelle, I am agreeing with pretty much everybody else here that the injections and the low calories don’t really seem like a good idea to put it mildly. Please get a second opinion, you’re not doing your body a favour.

I am sorry to say it, but you seem to be looking for the magic diet that will have you snap your fingers and make your weight disappear. And you seem to be dropping in and out of extreme measures while you’re at it. Eating less doesn’t work? Try the baby food diet. If that doesn’t work quickly, Plan B is to vomit. Still no effect? How 'bout that toothbrush diet I read about. Still overweight? Hey, let’s try hormone injections.

I’ve been there (if not as extreme, I’d just go through one fad diet after another) and I’m telling you that you first need to evaluate yourself and your eating habits, because no matter what you do, it’s all coming back eventually and then some. Sit down and look at nutritional info, check out information about fad diets (I recommend nutriwatch.org)

Find out what you’re doing wrong, what approach would be best for you and only then decide what to do. Important: make the changes in your lifestyle. Don’t concentrate on food all the time, it just makes you obsessed.

Think: “I want to get fit.”
Think: “I want to get healthy.”
Don’t think: “I have 100 more calories now I can use them if I eat that but I’d rather eat this and boy do I miss this and what if I ate it anyway…ad infinitum”

39

(tried to post this yesterday, but the boards were too slow)

Out of curiosity have you tried WW? I don’t wanna sound too much like Fergie here, but you can eat all those things on the plan. A slice of Pizza is 9 points. (basically 1/3 of a day’s pts for me) A lot, yes, but do-able from time to time. (Not every day). You can’t have a pint of Ben & Jerry’s that often (mmm… chubby hubby…) cuz it’s proably a day’s worth of points or more, but 1/2 cup of ice cream for 4pts isn’t bad. (And there’s a boom in low-fat ice cream novelties recently. “Skinny Cow” flying saucers are great for 2pts, as is WW’s own Smart Ones sundae cones.)

Chinese food is problematic unless you make it yourself and don’t add much oil. But if you pick and choose and stay away from General Tso’s theres a bunch of low-point stuff even at a restaurant.

So yeah, you can’t binge on these things like we’d all love to but it doesn’t mean you can “never eat them again.” I tried “just cutting down” for a long time with no resutls before my doctor recommended WW. I don’t think I could’ve done it without that structure. “Cutting down” is so easy to think you’re doing without actually doing it.

40

I have to say some of the stories you folks have told here are INCREDIBLY inspiring. The power of the human will is amazing sometimes.

I’ve been holding the same 5-10 pounds above my ideal weight for years. Generally I’m at a healthy weight according to most charts and measures (BMI, for instance) but I still just feel and look heavy.

I’m not looking to do a crash diet like Slim-Fast, which I did my own damage with in high school and college, but would really rather just be more overall more fit and healthy. One problem is that I work a desk job that has me sitting 8-9 hours a day. Lately I’ve been trying to force my self to get up and walk around the office for a few minutes and especially use the stairs. We’re on the fifth level of our building and every day this week I’ve set my Outlook timer for every 2 hours and I go walk up and down the stairs once. It makes a HUGE difference not only my energy but also my mental alertness.