csrpenfab

After topping out at a way too fat 344lbs 1/15/18, I started the medically supervised "HMR" diet through my local St. Jude hospital. It's a program run by HMR throughout the US. You can also buy their food/shakes online or at Amazon. Basically I eat around 1400 calories a day and do a lot of exercise (2,000 calories a week is their minimum but I routinely hit 6,000+). One year in today, and I'm down 102 pounds and feeling fantastic. I got back on the bike when I started and now routinely riding 150 miles a week on a good week. It's work, but it works. The diet is critical and "you can't out ride your fork!". I'm going for another 25lbs and then I'll go onto their maintenance plan. I've learned a lot, but most of all I've learned that I don't ever want to be carrying around that extra 100lbs again!

cobalt123

I'm down to 317 from 350, and dropping. The big things for me were:
1) kill the REALLY bad stuff: no fast foods, etc.
2) Add in serious fiber - beans and lentils were huge here. Fiber helps you feel satiated.
3) Exercise

My work offers a program called Omada for weight loss. It's really good - I recommend it. The weekly lessons are short, simple and valuable. The goal is small habit changes over time. The structure of it helps me without being over constraining (no counting calories, etc. - but you do make a judgement about your meals - small/medium/large and mostly healthy/some healthy/not very healthy). It really works for me. I feel like I've made changes I can live with in the long term.

YankeeRider

Weekday breakfast favorites are unsweetened oatmeal, with a smattering of frozen wild blueberries or sliced banana for variety and extra nutrition; All Bran Buds or Shredded Wheat n Bran with ultrafiltered skim milk (they take some of the water out, which increases protein and makes makes it taste creamier). Weekends, I usually have a couple of fried eggs on Fiber One multigrain bread, or natural peanut butter sandwich on the same bread.

https://hood.com/products/simply-smart-fat-free-milk/

YankeeRider

Weekday lunch favorites are salads. Sometimes Trader Joe's leafy salads, often with skinless chicken breast. Other times it's Cedar's Bean salads - chickpea, edamame, black bean, lentils. Weekend lunches often soup, or hard boiled egg or natural peanut butter on Fiber One multigrain bread.

https://www.cedarsfoods.com/aegean-edamame-salad

YankeeRider

If you are pressed for time during the week, nowadays there are nutritionally sound frozen dinners around 350 calories that you don't need to be on an expensive "plan" to find, they are right at the supermarket. About the only thing you can quibble about nutritionally is they are still high in sodium. Two examples are:

Healthy Choice ****ake Chicken Power Bowl:
https://www.healthychoice.com/power-...iitake-chicken

Trader Joe's Sriracha Shrimp Bowl:
https://www.traderjoes.com/digin/pos...ha-shrimp-bowl

MontgomeryMeigs

I would like to suggest the Dash Diet. No counting calories (which I loathe), and in following the outline of the plan I've rarely felt hungry. The book contains quite a number of recipes, and even if you can't cook you can use the recipes to get an idea of what types of foods are better for you to eat.

I would also suggest combining this with a plan called the 52 Day Fitness Challenge. One sets personal goals, fitness/exercise goals, and establishes a goal for 'clean eating'. The duration of 52 days helps establish new habits.

The structure of the plan for clean eating particularly helps with success. Too many diets seem to emphasize if you have one slice of pizza, you're off the diet and a failure. The 52 Day Challenge is structured with the recognition that humans are imperfect, and that if you 'fall off' the plan for one meal one can correct on the next meal, and still continue toward your goals.

In short, I think both approaches allow a considerable degree of latitude and personal freedom, with the advantages of developing better habits while losing weight and improving fitness.

YankeeRider

There are lots of ways that various people succeed in losing weight, but for the goal of best overall health, a lifestyle / maintenance diet, the DASH Diet and Mediterranean Diet get the most love from the medical community. They are not the same, and there is different language used to describe them, but there is nutritionally still a lot of overlap between the two - emphasis on whole foods, lots of a wide variety of fresh fruits and vegetables, healthy oils (like olive, avocado and walnutoils) and healthy nuts, high fiber whole grains and beans, fish and poultry.

HIPCHIP

My doc put me on the Atkins diet. Buy the book and get it going, you'll lose quickly.

csrpenfab

Rollfast

On the other hand, I lost 50 pounds after my old medicine tried to shut my kidneys down in 2007 and when I woke up, Bam! it was gone.

Do not try this at home, professional stupid man.

cobalt123

I did atkins once. Lost a ton of weight fast. gained it back with AMAZING rapidity. It wasn't working for my family and transitioning off it was not well done. I quickly bounced back to more than my starting point. I hope you find a good way to manage the transition off atkins or are able to stay on it long term.

daoswald

I lost 35 by following the super complicated plan of riding enough to offset what I eat to create a calorie deficit. Seven months of that did it.

Occasionally I ate too much and couldn't ride enough on a given day. But in a given week I never missed creating a deficit sufficient for 0.5 to 1.5 pounds off.