Last October 2019, I weighed 172 pounds, and here I am in April 2020, maintaining a weight of ~161-164 pounds for the past couple of months.

You might be asking what I did to lose that weight. Did I go on an extreme diet or exercise like crazy? All I did was watch my portion control and use MyFitnessPal to track all of my calories (intake and expenditures) with the help of my personal trainer. I also focused on exercise and making sure I expended more calories than I ate.

So my personal trainer is, from what I’ve been told by others, tough. But since I’ve lost 10 pounds, something she’s doing must be right…right? For 1 month, she had me take a picture of everything I put in my mouth and send it to her – from breakfast to any snack. She critiqued it by telling me that I was eating too much or that I shouldn’t be eating this or that.

After that 1 month, I was then told to take a picture of my scale and my body fat monitor which I’m still doing since she wants me to get down to 150# by July 2020 (I’m 5’8″). I have an Omron device, but I don’t think they’re being manufactured anymore. Here’s a similar one at Walmart. I learned that the “smart” scales are usually incorrect when it measures body fat, so I suggest getting handheld device. If you can’t, just ignore the number and keep track that things are trending downward.

95% of the time when we’re not losing weight, it’s what we’re eating and drinking (or not!). That’s why my trainer had me focus a lot on my nutrition and diet.

Here’s what worked for me:

Diet

• Drink lots of water. Goal: 80 oz a day. Water helps keep your poop moist, which makes you go more smoothly.
• Lay off salty things as the salt sucks up all of the water you drink = stiff poop = constipation. Mrs. Dash seasoning is your friend.
• Have a net calorie deficit of 500 calories/day since it takes 3500 calories to lose 1 pound. From MyFitnessPal, my caloric intake should be 1800 so I need to expend 2300 calories.
  • Protein: 4 calories/gram
  • Carbohydrates: 4 calories/gram
  • Fat: 9 calories/gram (why yummy foods add up *sob*)
• Limit bread. If I do eat anything bread-like, I eat it for breakfast in the morning. I normally ate lavash bread (flat bread), a high carb tortilla or my low carb bread.
• Log everything in MyFitnessPal. I sucked it up and purchased the pro version. It came out to ~$5/month.
• YMMV, but here are my macros:
  • Protein~ 100-125 grams
  • Carbohydrates < 150 grams. I try to target 100-110 grams. I try to eat good carbs from fruits, oatmeal, etc.
  • Fats < 50 grams. I try to eat good fats like avocado, egg yolks, fish, etc.
  • Fiber > 25 grams
• Focus on fiber: Fiber + water = poop = less weight.
  • Have as many fruits as I’d like before 4pm.
  • Have as many vegetables as I’d like. Opt for watery veggies.
• When eating protein, always have lots of fibrous veggies to help with pooping.
• Meats: 5 oz chicken breast, ground turkey (not thighs – too much fat = 9 grams/cal, remember?), fish.
• Veggies: Eat as many veggies as you can. Keep it colorful with sweet baby peppers (red, orange, yellow), kale, asparagus, celery, etc.

Exercise

• Exercise consists of personal training 2x a week.
• Lots of walking. I aim for 10,000 steps or 5 miles/day
  • When I don’t have training, I take a 20-minute walk at noon, at 3pm and then at 5pm.
  • If I’m crunched for time, I do an exercise video instead of walk.
• Upon waking up, I do yoga for ~15 minutes. There are lots of good apps out there.
• Always use a heart rate monitor to keep track of your heartrate.

That’s all I can think of for right now. Note that this is still very much a work in progress. I’m hoping to hit the 150s soon.

I never felt like I was deprived of good food and I learned how to cook better. Cheat meals were still a thing, but I made sure that I’m making healthy choices and really mind my portion sizes!

What about you? If you’ve lost weight, what helped you lose it?