I want to lose 40 pounds

How I did it: After I lost the weight, I typed up an account of what helped and what didn't help me, so that maybe I could help out some of my overweight friends. I'll share it with you.

Lessons & tips: The secret to weight loss is not what you eat... it's how often you eat what you eat.


How NOT to lose weight:

• Weight loss programs are scams. You may have heard of Nutrisystem; their advertisements boast promises of "eat whatever you want" and they support these promises with lots of big and important-sounding words. The way that program works is, you pay them hundreds of dollars for a "subscription" to packages of meals they send you every month. Now, while the idea behind this is somewhat similar to my secret, it's a scam. The meals you're sent are small portions of foods that you can just go buy at the grocery store, but much more expensive than groceries. I've never tried this before myself, but I honestly don't see it as working, given the fact that these numerous tiny portions you're sent are the only thing you're allowed to eat. Because of this factor, I personally can't picture a person who's having trouble controlling their appetite wait patiently for their next package to arrive without giving in to the temptation of going to a fast food place and getting a couple of burgers.

• Weight loss supplements can cause more harm than good. I actually tried the weight loss supplement Slim Fast for a short while. The idea behind this is, you substitute one of your regular daily meals for one can of Slim Fast, which not only supposedly supplies you with more nutrients than your real meal would have, but also curbs your appetite so you won't be tempted to eat as much later on in the day. Now, while I honestly don't know whether anyone's had success with Slim Fast, I didn't personally. From what I can tell from my experience with it, the explanation boasted by Slim Fast advertisements appears to be false, and the real principle behind the rapid weight loss you will experience while using Slim Fast is that it's an excellent laxative.

• Diet pills cause many extra problems that you didn't need (that, or they don't even do anything). I've never tried any sort of diet pills, but I talked to an actual pharmacist about them. Currently, there are two types of diet pills that can be obtained by a prescription. One type claims to destroy the fat inside your body, and make it so that the foods you eat won't allow you to collect much of the fat you may obtain in the future; this type has a major side effect to it (think Slim Fast). The other type involves tweaking the chemicals in your brain to make you think that you're full when you're not, but can also have various other psychiatric effects. Other than that, numerous over the counter diet pills exist (such as the ones advertised in your email spam). These pills boast marketing words like "herbal" and "natural", but the pharmacist I talked to said that out of the many customers she had talked with who had tried these pills, none of them claimed to have had any luck with using these.

• "Nutritional facts" are really "myths". Don't be a fanatic about counting calories, carbs, or any other possible nutritional aspects of the foods you consume, because not only will this drive you insane, but many of these "nutritional facts" are also entirely irrelevant to anything at all; for example, there have been studies that prove that cholesterol isn't a key factor for anything good or bad... look it up yourself.

• Weight loss surgeries are expensive, painful, and full of consequences. Consider the fact that you will have to pay thousands of dollars out of pocket to cover the surgery in question and everything related to it, unless you are morbidly obese to the point that your weight is severely affecting your health, in which case an insurance company may cover all or most of the costs. Also consider the long recovery period you will go through, during which you can't resume your normal daily activities and you will be in alot of pain. Additionally, with any operation comes possible consequences, such as stomach bands or other implants coming loose (or being rejected by your body), wounds from incisions becoming terribly infected to a possible life-threatening point (considering the fact that the incisions lead directly to your internal organs, so a severe infection may form if you don't constantly and carefully care for the wounds afterward), and any possible adverse effect that you could possibly get from anesthesia or any medications related to the operation.

• "Fasting" is a fancy word for "anorexia". "Fasting" consists of going without food, and there are three major types... "juice fasting" which means that you only drink water and juice (the pure kind, also no sodas or other drinks; there's probably a variation of this to include teas), "water fasting" which means you only drink water, and "dry fasting" means that you don't eat or drink anything at all (which is the same exact definition that "anorexia" uses).

• "Vegetarianism" and "Veganism" are two extremely uninformed subcultures. Humans are omnivores like many other animals; that means that we require meat in our diet along with plant products in order to be healthy. The "vegetarian" diet isn't healthy at all, and you should only follow this if you happen to either strongly dislike meat or if you're allergic to meat. The "vegan" diet is even more unhealthy; it consists of the "vegetarian" diet with the added factor of not eating any foods that come from animals, such as eggs and dairy products... once again, don't do this unless your reasoning for not eating these foods is due to allergies or personal preferences. What many self-proclaimed "vegetarians" and "vegans" don't realize that some animal had to be killed in order to make many of the foods they still eat; there are trace amounts of animal bi-products in things that aren't even advertised as such, including types of animal greases that desserts such as snack cakes were cooked in. Even items that contain gelatin (the main ingredient for Jello and an ingredient used in many other "chewy" snacks and candies) is a bi-product that is made from boiled animal parts, such as bones and hide.

• Stupid ideas that I won't even really get into include... forcing yourself to vomit (aka "bulimia"), chewing your food up but spitting it out rather than swallowing it, constantly taking laxative pills (if that's your thing, you might as well go with Slim Fast), and purposely contracting a parasite (if you can find someone offering the "tapeworm diet", it consists of one pill that puts a tapeworm in your system and another pill that kills the tapeworm when you've reached your target weight; this is highly expensive, idiotic, and ILLEGAL).

How to ACTUALLY lose weight:

Common sense comes into play here pretty often. I used these methods starting in January of 2009, when I weighed the most that I have ever weighed in my life, 207 pounds. In July of 2009, I weighed myself at 167 pounds; a 40 pound difference.

• First, don't set a "target weight", set a "target appearance", and keep it reasonable. Meaning, don't go by anything you see in any sort of mainstream media. Advertisements in publications such as magazines consist of numerous edited photos of models. There is no "perfect" human; everyone has physical flaws. Try to shoot for "average"... it's more attractive than being "overweight" but not as unhealthy in appearance as being "skinny". Due to the factors of your body type and current weight, I can't say exactly how many pounds you will need to lose; just lose as many pounds as it takes until you feel the most satisfied with your body.

The first step after you've set your "target appearance" is to practice alot of self-control, and this can be difficult, but this is only a small part of the weight loss secret, and it gets easier as time goes by. You're going to have to train yourself in order to curb your constant cravings for certain foods, or food in general. Follow these guidelines...

• Eat only when you need to. I'm confused as to why our modern society has certain ideas for how things "should" be... what makes such things so "right"? It's commonly accepted that you should eat three meals a day, consisting of a breakfast, lunch, and supper... but some people also throw in that there should be a "lunch", or an "afternoon snack" or "midnight snack" is acceptable, and sometimes the word "brunch" (between breakfast and lunch) comes into play; who came up with those words? They seem rather silly to me. Who came up with the idea that you have to eat at "these" certain times in order for our society to be "correct", regardless of how you feel at that time as in individual? Why does it seem to be traditionally accepted for the parents to call the kids and any other members of the household all to the table together to eat at the same time? Depending on their individual schedules, they may not all be hungry at the same time... so why make it seem like something's "wrong" if someone doesn't want to eat? Don't follow the herd... if you don't feel hungry, then don't eat; it only matters what you think, not what everyone else tells you how it should be. Simple as that.

• Don't monitor how many times you've eaten during your day. While this somewhat goes into my previous point, I wanted to add on to that idea that, if you wake up kinda late like I do sometimes, and it starts getting dark outside and then you realize "hey I haven't eaten anything yet!"... ask yourself this, are you really hungry? If you are, then eat. I shouldn't have to instruct you on how to tell if you're hungry or not; that's a basic human instinct.

• Try to avoid making the decision to eat when something reminds you of food, if you're not even hungry. If you happen to see some kind of cooking show, or advertisement for food, and it causes you to think "man that looks good, I wish I could eat that" and it starts to lead to further thoughts of what foods would taste good that you have available right now, STOP right there. If you are actually hungry, then eat. If you're not, then don't. Another little reminder that people have that they tend to use as an excuse for eating something is when their stomach growls. If your stomach growls, it doesn't just mean you need to eat. You stomach can growl after you just ate as part of a normal digestive process. Your stomach can growl when you're sick with some sort of digestive problem such as an upset stomach. You're not hungry then, are you?

• Don't take every chance you get to eat. If someone offers you something to eat, your first instinct is probably going to be "hey free food!"... but ask yourself first if you really are hungry, and if the food you're being offered is even good for you. If you tell the person that either you're not hungry or that you're on a diet, they will understand. If the person insists that you eat the food, for all you know they might even be trying to poison you.

• Don't eat just for the sake of occupying your mouth. This is a huge mistake that overweight and obese people tend to make that prevents them from wanting to lose weight. Alot of self-control comes into place here; you have to just not do it. If you absolutely have to have something to occupy your mouth, you could try hard candies or even better, chew on something. It doesn't necessarily have to be gum either (but if you're going to chew gum, you don't have to chew the "sugar free" garbage, in fact I'd recommend against that because sugar substitutes are worse for you than real sugar). Another good thing to chew on would be the wax that comes with certain types of candies, or the wax from a honeycomb if you have it available. You could even chew on a wad of paper (just don't swallow it). For smokers, smoke a cigarette; for nonsmokers, don't even try it... that just creates an entirely different problem.

• Don't be a glutton. Gluttony is considered to be a "sin" by many different standards because well, it's NOT a good thing to do, especially if you're trying to lose weight. Just look at people participating in "eating contests"... in the middle of shoving their face with whatever food they're trying to eat the most of, they often get sick and vomit and have to drop out of the "contest"; if that's not one of the most disgusting and disgraceful displays of humanity I've ever heard of, I don't know what is. According to some peoples' beliefs, it's impolite to not eat everything on your plate, regardless of whether you were even the one who put the food on your plate to begin with. And don't let that bit about "starving children in third world countries" get to you... unfortunately, those children will never have the chance to see a scrap of the food you don't eat because well, THEY DON'T LIVE IN YOUR COUNTRY. Any food that you don't eat will just end up in a local garbage dump. And while this is definately considered a waste, it can't be helped. If you're like I am and feel bad for not being able to eat all of something you cooked, you just have to learn not to cook as much next time. Every human has something that quite a few animals don't have... the sense that tells them that they feel "full", so they shouldn't eat anymore. Think about it... if you kept feeding your cat or dog all the food that you had for them, they wouldn't stop until they got sick, and if it continued on, you'd have a very obese pet; if you did this do a goldfish, it would just die from overeating. Use your sense of fullness to your advantage... you know if you've ever gone to a buffet, there's way more food than you could ever eat during your short visit to the restaurant, so you start trying to eat everything you can to get the best out of the money you paid to eat there, and you start to feel sick after awhile. That means you've exceeded to the limit of your "stopping point". Use your "stopping point" as an advantage to help you lose weight; when you feel full, STOP EATING. If you practice this enough, over time you won't need to eat quite as much food to feel full as you used to.

• Don't purposefully cut anything unhealthy that you previously liked out of your diet, but don't eat it as often. While I stress on eating the healthiest foods, that doesn't mean that you have to completely stop eating something that you've really loved before forever, or even for the sake of this weight loss plan. For very unhealthy foods, make them a reward for your weight loss, but don't go overboard with it. If you consider yourself to be very overweight, go grab some fast food for every 10 or 20 pounds that you lose; don't try to eat everything on the menu, just eat until you reach your "stopping point". After you do this for the first time, you may be tempted into making fast food a regular habit, but don't. You want to use this as motivation for losing even more weight. On the other hand, if part of your daily activity involves having to eat fast food for a meal everyday (such as some jobs), remember to eat as healthy as possible. That actually goes into my next point.

• Take the healthier alternative. This is extremely important! While I'm against vegetarianism, if you can take the healthy alternative to something and that alternative involves vegetables, do it for awhile, at first. I discovered over time that I actually prefer vegetable pizza toppings over meat pizza toppings. If chicken or other poultry products are an alternative and you want that instead, go for it. Just make sure to substitute vegetables, then chicken/poultry, then red meats in that order. When you find yourself starting to reach your "stopping point" faster than you used to, you can lessen up on the vegetables (but still eat them as you want them) and poultry, and add in other meats (while continuing to take poultry as the alternative when you can), but with any sort of meat, you don't need fried anything; actually I discovered that I personally prefer a grilled chicken sandwich over a sandwich with fried chicken. That's another major part of it; as you start trying to lose weight using these methods, you will discover that you like things that aren't necessarily the "norm" better than things that "everyone else" likes... and that's ok. I found out that I'm that weird person who likes vanilla better than chocolate, but that's who I really am... I'm not everyone else, and you shouldn't try to act like someone you're not either.

• Weigh yourself as often as you feel it helps. When I let it be known that I was starting to try to lose weight, I had a few people tell me "only weigh yourself once a month so that you will be able to see a bigger difference". I don't know who came up with this, but if you ask me, it doesn't help at all. If anything, you'll just find yourself being stressed out over whether or not you actually are losing weight at all (because the first 10 pounds or so you lose aren't even physically obvious). Weigh yourself at least once every 2 or 3 days. If it makes you feel better, weigh yourself several times a day every day... just as often as it takes. Wouldn't you rather have a joyful moment every time you see a pound drop rather than a worried moment once a month wondering whether you really did lose any weight or not that can, at best, result in a sigh of relief?

• What you drink is important too. Liquids do contribute somewhat to your weight; for instance, if you were to weigh yourself on scales that display ounces during the morning, afternoon, evening, and night of the same day while eating as you normally do, you'd notice a shift that occurs during these different points of the day attributed to "water weight", which is the factor that liquids play in your body's weight; not only the things you drink but also liquids from certain foods. "Water weight" isn't a particularly significant aspect of your body weight as food is (not counting your organs, which attribute to their own weight too). However, note that some things you drink are healthier for certain aspects of your body than others. I personally drink sodas on occasion, and I used to be a heavy coffee drinker but I've cut back; both sodas and coffee have lots of caffeine that isn't too particularly healthy. Healthier drinks include juices (particularly "pure" types of juice rather than odd mixed juice products), definately water (but whichever standard claiming that a certain number of glasses of water a day is incorrect; you can "overdose" on water and make yourself sick from drinking too much), and sometimes teas (but quite a few teas also contain caffeine). Also, drinks that contain lots of milk such as milkshakes and eggnog are closer to food than drink in the aspect of how they contribute to your weight.

• After you have reached your "target appearance", don't get back into your old habits. You can stop trying to lose weight, but that doesn't mean you should take every chance you can to eat unhealthy foods as possible. Be reasonable and when you're given the choice to eat chicken or red meats, you don't have to choose to eat chicken now if you don't want to, but if you do want to, then feel free to do so... it's all about what you really prefer.

• "Exercise" is only a part of it. Once you've experienced a significant amount of weight loss, you will notice that you still have lots of "extra skin" (not really fat) and that's expected, and it doesn't necessarily require surgery. If this factor lowers your self-esteem too much, just don't allow yourself to be lazy. If you find yourself sitting in the same spot for at least an hour (assuming it doesn't have anything to do with school or a job), and there are other things that involve moving that need to be done, do them. I'm personally not into the whole "exercise routine" deal, but if you'd like to go for it, then do it; if you don't care for that, then don't. The idea behind this weight loss secret is that it's not about forcing you to do something that you really don't want to do or denying yourself of things that you once enjoyed, it's about trying to discover in yourself what efforts you're willing to put forth in order to better yourself as an individual.

After reading this, you may be thinking "well I could have thought of that"... well, you didn't, so I thought of it for you.

Resources: My own self-control.

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Oct 01, 06:09PM PDT | 1 comment | 2 cheers