Thread: nothing works! :(

What is your diet, lifestyle, activity level right now? How tall are you, what do you weigh? Is your family overweight? How old are you?
Basically, we need a lot of background to be able to give you good advice.

you need to remember its calories in vs calories out/burned. Like sourpuss asked what is your diet and life style like family history? Do you sit alot at work. Diets many times don't work b/c people look at them as diets instead of saying I wanna live a healthy life style. Best advice I can give you is start a food journal. EVERYTIME you go to eat or DRINK ANYTHING *bc many drinks have fat and cals to* jot it down in the food journal along with how much fat is in the food the calories and how much fiber. I know it sounds like alot of work its not bad I promise you by the third day of doing it you'll master it. I guarantee if nothing else you will start making healthier decisions about what you are eating. Good luck

second what sally said. Keeping track of what you eat is key. And definitely don't diet. Diet usually means 'short term' or 'quick fix'. Like sally said, healthy lifestyle.

Also another thing I thought of is I'm not sure if you cook your own meals or not but you should keep some Weight Watchers cook books in your house. They even have on called fast and easy *which is one my fav cook books* that are perfect on heckdic nights when you may have worked late or anything else that may make sometimes sticking to a healthy life style more difficult. And the other thing I wanted to mention is potion size portion size portion size. We live in a super sized world were people feel if they don't get a bucket of soda and mound of food they are being jipped. If you don't have get some measuring cups, spoons, and ladels.
It may sound like I am asking you to spend spend but you can go to almost any dollar store or walmart and find these items on the cheap. Measuring your food to the correct amount on the package will start to teach you how much you Should be eating at a meal. *I just made myself 3/4cup banana nut cheerios cause that is the serving size on the box. Now at first yes you won't be able to believe how small the portions look, but the secret is to double up on the GREEN salad and veggi sides. I really hope this helps and we will always give you the support you need.
P.s. keep a small-med apple in your purse it helps

I was just like you! I did everything I could think of. Then I found the Elite WeightLoss Program. I lost 16 pounds in 2 months! I learned how to eat good fats that can speed up fat loss.

Number 1 mistake : Dieting
Number 2 mistake: Diet Pills

As the others said, keep a food log for a while. Track every bite you eat and every drink you drink. Get in tune with what's going into your body.
Working out shouldn't be a "I have to do it to lose weight" type of thing...it should be a "I have to do it to feel good and be healthy" type of thing. It's something to incorporate in your daily life in some form.

You can do this. I believe that. How tall are you? How much do you weigh? Tell us a little more about yourself.

It's hard to give specific advice since I don't know much about your eating style and lifestyle, but I can tell you what worked for me: healthy eating and regular workout. And not just dieting for a while but making a radical, longlasting change in the way I eat. Going on a diet just for a few weeks is not worth, it simply doesn't bring you the results you're looking for: maybe you'll lose some pounds, but what will happen when you stop dieting? You'll get back all the pounds you lost, maybe more! That's what happened to me until I understood that making more responsible eating choices, giving up all my crazy eating habits, learning balanced nutrition and making it a daily routine were the only key to an effective and safe weight loss. Following a mediterranean-style eating has been a good help. I lost 10 pounds in about one month just by eating more healthily: whole grains, fruits, vegetables, legumes, fish and a small intake of meat and dairy. The plan I've followed is a pretty varied and complete eating style and I'm still sticking to it in order to maintain the weight I reached: I eat a bit of everything so I don't feel deprived of food and staying on track (resisting the temptations!) is easier. Here are some suggestions you may find helpful: subdivide your daily food intake into 5 small sittings, so you won't get really hungry between meals and you won't feel like eating snacks all day; whenever you crave a candy, eat fruits and veggies instead (I always keep some raw vegetables in the fridge, just to have something healthy to crunch when I feel like snacking!); at least 3-4 times a week eat “all-in-one-meals” like pasta with vegetables (zucchini, artichokes) or pasta with legumes (beans, peas, lentils), they are quite nourishing, so you'll feel satiated as you would be after a three-course meal but with a lower intake of calories; prefer white meats because they are less fatty than red ones. And, of course, try to avoid junk food and precooked foods: home made meals help you better control what you're eating and are much healthier than those ready-cooked foods you find in the stores! If you wish to take a look at my plan you can find it on the web, its name is Italiandiet, it's a personalized diet based on your weight, lifestyle and weight loss goal and provided by a team of italian nutritionists. It could help you get a clearer sense of balanced nutrition (sample meals and recipes, key foods and nutrients, guidelines for healthy eating). Also, try to combine healthy eating with some work out: in my experience, aquafitness is a pretty good method both to burn calories and tone your body but I guess any sport is ok so far as you exercise regularly! Hope you'll find my tips useful! Be strong willed and work hard and I'm sure you'll manage to get back in shape soon! Good luck!

Nothing works until you get your head into the right place, and then... almost anything will work. Changing your lifestyle starts in the mind. You have to 1. Believe you are worth it 2. Believe you will succeed, no matter how long it takes.

Once you make the commitment to believe in those 2 principles... the rest will be a breeze. If you are very overweight, the change isn't going to happen overnight... but it will happen, patience and patting yourself on the back for every step you take towards your new being will be what gets you to the finish line.

When I was very overweight, I didn't think it mattered anymore. I figured, I was fine being the fattest of my friends, it was my role. Though I secretly wished I wasn't ... I had settled into a role and thought, well this is my life. No, life is what you make it... and you don't HAVE to reside in any body you don't want. You are capable of transformation its all in the attitude.

If you believe nothing works, nothing will... if you beat yourself up and think it will take too long to reach your goals then you will never see them.

I woke up one morning and looked at myself in the mirror, really looked... for so long I had just glanced and turned away because what I had become wasn't me and I didn't want to see. Denial. I'd wear the stretch pants so I wouldn't have to see what size i'd become... denial. But I woke up one morning and looked at myself, really looked. Looked at a face I didn't recognize, at a body I didn't know, but could only feel... weighing me down.

I watched a program on tv, these people on vacation in hawaii, running around in bikini's and I had a revelation. Life was passing me by, and its the only life we have that we know of for certain. I could spend it in my room watching other people live it on tv... or I could live it, make the most out of it, myself.

I realized with as overweight as I was that it would take a year, reasonably before I ever lost enough weight for it to matter. But I realized, one year later was going to come, whether i stayed fat or worked on getting thin. So I could do nothing and next calender year be exactly where I was... or I could work on this goal, this long term goal and when next year came... be a new me.

It was that staying grounded in reality of how long it would take that prepared me for the fight. I wasn't looking for a quick fix.

I detoxed my body on a nutirionally sound, doctor supervised liquid diet for 3 months. It taught me how to be hungry/full.. and to know the difference. It cleansed my palette of cravings for junk. I learned that water was my friend and to indulge.

After that I started adding vegetables, after being on liquids for months... asparagus tasted like chocolate cake and was such a treat... slowly but surely i phased out my liquid meals and replaced them with calorie controlled nutricious ones.

I kept my diet vegetarian and gave up candy, fried foods and eating before bed. I made sure to eat breakfast every single morning to kick start my metabolism.

When I started to excercise I could only walk 10 minutes a day. Now I can hit a treadmill jogging for an hour. Babysteps. Start with any kind of activity your body can handle and work up from there. Be sure to check with a doctor on what they think is best for your body.

5 years ago I thought my life was over, that nothing would work, that I'd never lose the weight. 4 years ago I reached my goal weight , a healthy weight for my body. 3 years ago I surpassed my 'just being healthy' weight and hit my 'i've never been in such awesome shape in my life weight'. And for the last 2 years I've been maintaining and fine-tuning that.

Believe in yourself. Be patient. Never give up. Forgive yourself when you fall off the wagon. Don't let one mistake turn into a weekends worth of "I'll start monday, I already blew it". No, if you make a mistake, forgive yourself and start over that very moment. Know it can be done. Whichever method you choose, be healthy about it. Get a nutrionist or doctor to guide you through the process so that you are going about losing way the safest way possible. Good luck to you hun, you can do whatever you want to do... you just have to believe you can.