What specific changes to your diet throughout your life have shown you the greatest success.

For me:

1. eliminating alcohol (periodically). Duh.
2. Eliminating wheat products. I read wheat belly and gave it a chance. Dropped 10 pounds in a month and had much more energy. I love beer and bread, so that isn't a long term option for me. But, it was pretty remarkable.

1. Switched to Paleo and lost 30lbs. With that came low carb, wheat, barely any sugar, etc.
2. Switched from Paleo to IIFYM on Jan 1 and have leaned up quite a bit in the past month and a half

Only thing that truly works is tracking calorie intake for me. That and eating the right calories mostly fat and protein instead of carbs.


I am always trying to diet but it isnt real unless I can make myself track which I have a hard time messing with.

Eating a diet higher in fat. Never was too big on sweets but focusing on fat and protein made it so I wasn't hungry all the time.

1. Eating small meals spaced out over the day.
2. Cutting out fried foods.

IIFYM, using the correct macros for my body and goals.

Cutting out cokes. I have an occasional mountain dew, but maybe only once a month.

Also, adding more protein to my diet. I wasn't getting nearly enough.

I've gone through periods where I did a low-carb diet and a Paleo type of diet. I never had too much success actually losing weight with the diets. But, the diets did teach me a lot about portions and that the average American diet has way too much sugar and too many carbs.

What finally allowed me to lose a lot of weight was combining that knowledge with increasing my running a lot, cutting way back on alcohol (not necessarily as a diet tool but because if I drink then I'm much less likely to get in my run the next day), and forcing myself to step on the scale every day.

For me, weighing in every day is very motivating. If I've lost weight then it motivates me to keep going, and if I've gained weight then it motivates me to do better.

Low carb - although in my experience, low carb turns into low calorie. Because once the novelty is over, it's tough to eat enough meat, cheese, and eggs to make up for all the calories you lose by not eating bread/pasta/potatoes, beer, sugar, and virtually any normal snack food. I've lost probably 40lbs overall. It's getting tougher now that I am in a normal BMI range, so been adding exercise to the mix.

Like others, mine is counting calories. If I'm going to be successful at all, I have found I have to keep myself accountable through counting calories and macros. If not, I will do an excellent job with my main meals, but I can snack with the best of them. I will absolutely graze myself out of any gains I could have from healthy eating.

Eliminating processed foods and sugars from my diet.

Another big thing is identifying the food groups, how many servings of each I needed to eat a day, and what constituted a serving. Just worked better for me as a way of calorie counting, though obviously not as precise.

Counting calories. Tedious but effective. Down about 60 lbs from my 30's over the last several years and I can maintain it ok but have to usually get back to tracking after football & holidays. I typically aim for 1600 cal/day (44 male BMI 31 mild to moderate exercise 6/7 days a week) for slow & steady weight loss, <2000 in general.

The other thing that is really easy for me is not eating breakfast. I'm just not very hungry at all in the mornings and have no issues waiting until lunch to eat (outside of coffee & water). I do love breakfast foods so I'll make them for brunch or dinner a few days a week.

1600 cal/day total? Or is that net after figuring cals burned during exercise?

I started typing the same thing and withheld... he must be really light is my best guess.

AgEng06 said:

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1600 cal/day total? Or is that net after figuring cals burned during exercise?

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1600 consumed. My net is usually -700 to -900 during weight loss phases per my tracking apps.

Damn man. I'm only ~155 lbs and I'd starve at 1600 cals/day. I count macros pretty meticulously and I'm right at 2450 cals/day.. and I have lost a few lbs of body fat over the past month.

What's your BMR?

RedlineAg08 said:

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What's your BMR?

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I had it tested recently and it falls within the average for my age & BMI. The pretty little printed chart estimated 1600-2000 for weight loss (2000-2600 for maintenance) assuming 230 cals of exercise daily. I typically hit 400ish a day with exercise per my HR monitor.

Of course I am not measuring grams of food daily with a scale or anything so some of the calorie counts can be off a bit, especially when I eat out or have meetings 1-2x a week.

Replacing soda with water was a big one for me.

Using MyFitnessPal to log everything I eat and consume the proportionate macros

Low carb for me. Some fasting. I lost 80lbs over a year and have kept it all of for almost 5 years. If I have a terrible eating weekend with massive overeating, I usually finish it with a 24 hr fast and that gets me back on track. Getting addicted to triathlon, obviously helped as well. I like low carb and it worked/works for me, but I really think it's as simple as calories in calories out. Find whatever diet works with your lifestyle and if you eat less than you burn you will lose weight.

effective with regards to what?

the most effective for me has been consuming the right amount of macros by tracking absolutely everything I eat every day. this has allowed me to lean out while gaining weight, increased energy, stamina, and strength
Its pretty awesome because it allows me to consume pretty much anything I want...there is not one particular food or type of food I have to completely cut out

Brad06ag said:

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Intermittent fasting is a huge help for me.

The other thing was learning to leave food on my plate. Its a mental barrier for many who were taught to clean your plate. Starting with just not taking that last bite and then moving to wear you are actually able to go out and eat correctly.

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Yes the clean plate syndrome is a HUGE problem for me as well. I was proud of myself for leaving steak on the plate on Monday when I took my son out for his 18th birthday.

Brad06ag said:

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Intermittent fasting is a huge help for me.

The other thing was learning to leave food on my plate. Its a mental barrier for many who were taught to clean your plate. Starting with just not taking that last bite and then moving to wear you are actually able to go out and eat correctly.

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yep, hardest part for me also. my wife only knows how to cook army sized proportions and i refuse to waste money by throwing away leftovers. i've started bring in leftovers to a buddy who's stationed with me, but not co-located with his family.

Began intermittent fasting a week or two into the new year. By far the most effective change in diet I have tried, and I don't view it as a "diet" so it is not hard to maintain

prepyag03 said:

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Brad06ag said:

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Intermittent fasting is a huge help for me.

The other thing was learning to leave food on my plate. Its a mental barrier for many who were taught to clean your plate. Starting with just not taking that last bite and then moving to wear you are actually able to go out and eat correctly.

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yep, hardest part for me also. my wife only knows how to cook army sized proportions and i refuse to waste money by throwing away leftovers. i've started bring in leftovers to a buddy who's stationed with me, but not co-located with his family.

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Why don't you just eat the leftovers?

Mine was a heavy dose of HIIT while cutting out Sodas and Beer. Went from 225 to 190 in a year.

I was looking for a Whole30 diet thread but this one came up first so I'll add my 10 cents here. I made a drastic change 2 months ago by using a non-militant flavor of the Whole30 diet plan and I have since lost 30+ pounds without working out. Best part is that I'm really not craving those foods I've given up anymore. It's crazy.

So my diet consists of the following:

No Sugar (which translates to very low sugar and no processed sugar)
No Dairy (which means no cheese, mayo, things like that)
No Grains (which means no bread, corn, beans, etc...)

Now I don't sit there and read all the labels but I've used the diet as a spring board to make better decisions and it's helped a ton. My friends who have done the diet to a "T" have seen even better results.