The reason calorie-counting is a hard way to lose weight and the fact 90%+ people gain the weight back should be a primary concern in your diet plan. If you can't stick to it you're screwed, you have to do it all over again.
I'm doing LCHF right now, like after I type this I'm going to buy some cheese at discount grocery.
I've read a lot about Atkins who was the original legitimizer of this way before mainstream docs accepted it.
Anyway, what I've been doing for a few weeks and is working
I'm over 50, so losing weight is quite difficult for me. I must be precise, but if I do my system right it works.
My goal is to ride bikes in the mountains, so I'm not real concerned with muscle mass, I lift weights only about 1-2 x per week for about 5 sets to try to retain muscle, but I think I'm losing a (very) little muscle anyway. My increased definition and reducing gut are more than compensating judging from female looks I get. I ride a bike an average of 1.5 hours per day usually pretty low intensity. My goal is to never be really exhausted, when I am super tired I take a good 2-3 hour nap. I can sleep enough because I don't work very much. I make my own schedule.
In my experience I can lose weight quickly easily, but it leads to a sense of desperation that knocks me off my diet somehow, although I won't think of it that way at the time, I'll think of it like "I'm going crazy I've got to eat something to calm down.
For that reason I am deliberately losing weight very slowly, making sure I never feel deprived. I'm losing about 1/3 -1/2 lb per week. I think that is critical, I feel like I could stay on this diet happily indefinitely.
This leads to another problem, determining "am I losing weight at all" through the water noise from day to day.
I dealt with that in another little-read post here dealing with moving averages.
1) Enough fats helps prevents the above meltdowns.
2) Research ( I lost the article) indicates that variety is bad in diets. People who eat more different stuff don't lose weight as well. It's too easy to kid yourself about the total calories that you are eating when you keep changing shit. "Oh, I'll try this new cheese/this doughnut doesn't have THAT many carbs....etc."
3) This conflicts with the idea that you need some variety or your diet will be unhealthy.
So what I've done is found a combination that :
a) I THINK gets just about everything, at least for the period that I need to be on it.
b) I find enjoyable. I like all the items I eat.
c) Has a very strict list of items I can eat.
d) Never leaves me feeling desperate with low blood sugar.
e) Keeps me HYDRATED
I haven't eaten red meat in over 30 years, I just don't like it, chicken and fish sometimes
I eat:
--MetRX protein powder (Whey plus Casein) with Trader Joe Almond milk ( almost no carbs, low calories)
3-4x per day. I also add Trader Joes "Very Green" algae/other stuff powder to help overcome the limited variety in my diet.
--one of : (Greens, broccoli florets, green beans) 2x daily with about 25 garbanzo beans per serving for fiber/carbs/minerals
Frozen Broccoli and green beans I prepare by:
Steam for 15 min with 1.5 teaspoons of Curry powder( lowers rate of Alzheimers), 1 tbsp butter, 1 tsp olive oil, salt to taste
--Hard cheese ( not cottage or munster) 4-8 oz most days. This is very satisfying and keeps me from going off diet.
-- About once a week, 1000 calories of nuts ( walnuts are best quality fats, followed by almonds or peanuts)
I love nuts but it's too easy to scarf down 1000 calories in an hour to eat them every day for me.
-- Multivite, Fish Oil capsules 2-5, B12-Folic capsule ( heart health) Vit E, Zinc,
right now I am also on a small dose of blood pressure medicatiion which disgusts me, is why I am losing weight,
and I hope to taper off of it once I am really slim.
Dieting itself is not real rocket science-- caliries in calories out-- but the whole system including the psychology of monitoring it and understanding the satiation-variety-satiety-exercise-information feedback realtionships IS complex.
I've also thought a lot about motivation-food relationship.
I'm doing LCHF right now, like after I type this I'm going to buy some cheese at discount grocery.
I've read a lot about Atkins who was the original legitimizer of this way before mainstream docs accepted it.
Anyway, what I've been doing for a few weeks and is working
I'm over 50, so losing weight is quite difficult for me. I must be precise, but if I do my system right it works.
My goal is to ride bikes in the mountains, so I'm not real concerned with muscle mass, I lift weights only about 1-2 x per week for about 5 sets to try to retain muscle, but I think I'm losing a (very) little muscle anyway. My increased definition and reducing gut are more than compensating judging from female looks I get. I ride a bike an average of 1.5 hours per day usually pretty low intensity. My goal is to never be really exhausted, when I am super tired I take a good 2-3 hour nap. I can sleep enough because I don't work very much. I make my own schedule.
In my experience I can lose weight quickly easily, but it leads to a sense of desperation that knocks me off my diet somehow, although I won't think of it that way at the time, I'll think of it like "I'm going crazy I've got to eat something to calm down.
For that reason I am deliberately losing weight very slowly, making sure I never feel deprived. I'm losing about 1/3 -1/2 lb per week. I think that is critical, I feel like I could stay on this diet happily indefinitely.
This leads to another problem, determining "am I losing weight at all" through the water noise from day to day.
I dealt with that in another little-read post here dealing with moving averages.
1) Enough fats helps prevents the above meltdowns.
2) Research ( I lost the article) indicates that variety is bad in diets. People who eat more different stuff don't lose weight as well. It's too easy to kid yourself about the total calories that you are eating when you keep changing shit. "Oh, I'll try this new cheese/this doughnut doesn't have THAT many carbs....etc."
3) This conflicts with the idea that you need some variety or your diet will be unhealthy.
So what I've done is found a combination that :
a) I THINK gets just about everything, at least for the period that I need to be on it.
b) I find enjoyable. I like all the items I eat.
c) Has a very strict list of items I can eat.
d) Never leaves me feeling desperate with low blood sugar.
e) Keeps me HYDRATED
I haven't eaten red meat in over 30 years, I just don't like it, chicken and fish sometimes
I eat:
--MetRX protein powder (Whey plus Casein) with Trader Joe Almond milk ( almost no carbs, low calories)
3-4x per day. I also add Trader Joes "Very Green" algae/other stuff powder to help overcome the limited variety in my diet.
--one of : (Greens, broccoli florets, green beans) 2x daily with about 25 garbanzo beans per serving for fiber/carbs/minerals
Frozen Broccoli and green beans I prepare by:
Steam for 15 min with 1.5 teaspoons of Curry powder( lowers rate of Alzheimers), 1 tbsp butter, 1 tsp olive oil, salt to taste
--Hard cheese ( not cottage or munster) 4-8 oz most days. This is very satisfying and keeps me from going off diet.
-- About once a week, 1000 calories of nuts ( walnuts are best quality fats, followed by almonds or peanuts)
I love nuts but it's too easy to scarf down 1000 calories in an hour to eat them every day for me.
-- Multivite, Fish Oil capsules 2-5, B12-Folic capsule ( heart health) Vit E, Zinc,
right now I am also on a small dose of blood pressure medicatiion which disgusts me, is why I am losing weight,
and I hope to taper off of it once I am really slim.
Dieting itself is not real rocket science-- caliries in calories out-- but the whole system including the psychology of monitoring it and understanding the satiation-variety-satiety-exercise-information feedback realtionships IS complex.
I've also thought a lot about motivation-food relationship.