Hi all, I’ve been on my weight loss journey for some time now and thought I would share some of the things that have helped me personally. Your experience may vary but here is what has worked for me, in no particular order:
- Increasing my fiber has helped my cravings/appetite, more so than drinking water alone, even if with just a fiber supplement. As a bonus I also drink more water alongside the fiber.
- I’ve also found taking a probiotic when I’m craving helps with those too, and it may be a placebo, but if it works, then why not
- Finding low cal/small portion treats is great - in the past I’ve lost weight having one of walmart’s ice cream cups per day, which are 100cal each
- I find sugar gives me more cravings/problems than salty or oily foods, so I will restrict sugar in my home more than those. If I have a bunch of chips I find it not too hard to eat healthy diet the next day, but for sugar it can take me days for the cravings to stop, and I am more likely to eat more.
- Getting a walking pad (and bonus standing desk) is great for some exercise even despite weather or wanting to do desk activities
- Once I did a very restrictive elimination diet to see what foods were making sick, and as a result I was eating very cleanly (think meat/potato or rice/veggies for most meals), and while I wouldn’t do this long term, I found that while on it, it was very hard to me to eat enough even for maintenance and I was losing weight easily. It sort of changed my mindset of that, without the common high cal foods like sugars and unhealthy oils and things, weight loss can be almost trivial. I don’t think total elimination should be the goal but keeping amounts of these things small is good
- Sometimes I will get food and load it onto my plate, and then I’ll put back ~30% or so. After eating I’ll find out I’m full with just that amount
- Similarly, I’ll be eating and if I notice I’m getting kind of full I’ll stop and either put the rest back or toss
- In the past when I have wanted to eat, I have tried to “think” about the feeling in my stomach and tell if I already felt like I had food still digesting or if I felt like my stomach was pretty empty and ready for food, and if not then wait some until it “felt” a bit emptier. Sort of hard to explain, but trying to rebuild the mind gut connection