I seriously wish I could have back on all the diets I've paid to be on... Weight Watchers, $40/month Jenny Craig, Nutrisystem, over $300/month Medifast, about $360/month These programs all worked for me -- for a while. Then, after I lost about 25 or 30 pounds, I got tired of these plans and went back to my old ways, putting the weight back on and then some. What a colossal waste of money. Thankfully, there are now a number of free apps that can help you lose weight. My favorite is MyFitnessPal, but I know other people who use Sparkpeople and LoseIt. Hmm, free or hundreds of dollars a month? Not a hard choice! But the thing that really, really worked for me for Food Addicts Anonymous. Their simple program (not a diet) calls for you to give up sugar, flour, and wheat. At first I thought it was crazy, that I could never give up those things, but I gave it a try, and honestly, I've never felt better. I do give them a few dollars here and there to keep their wonderful program going, but there is no charge for membership. I listen to one of their phone meetings daily, and it is a huge help to me. I've lost 30 pounds so far, and I have no desire to quit! I found out that once I stopped eating things like Twinkies and Doritos, my desire to eat them just went away. Who knew? And the last thing I've discovered is Pact. They actually pay me for working out and writing down what I eat on MyFitnessPal. I've been using it for three weeks, and already I've made over $7. Be careful with this one though and be sure to start slow. If you miss a day, they will charge you $5 (or more). Pretty powerful motivation to take a daily walk, if you ask me.
Wow! These are great suggestions you shared here. I must try that app as well. I went for fasting and low calorie diet last year but gained back the lost pounds. I'm gonna give this a go.
I'm trying to lose weight as a part of my plan to become healthier. I was originally thinking of availing a weight loss program, but after reading this, I decided not to! Thank you for sharing this!
Well I don't think the programs are the problem with here. But yeah I agree, they're pretty much a waste of time. I think the best way for you maintain your healthy physique is to, no not exercise nor diet, self discipline. If you can discipline yourself to avoid eating and doing the things that will make you gain weight then you don't need anything to help you out.
The only weight loss program you need is the internet. I based all of my workouts including my diets on videos on YouTube. They actually even go into depth on why a person should go on a certain diet and what group of people they are trying to reach out too.
Honestly I can't afford to avail weight loss programs and I don't think I will even I have a budget for it. I've seen my former office mates went from one program to another. It worked for a while but they can't maintain the weight after stopping the program so I'm pretty sure it will happen to me too. Though I did try a few diet pills that supposed to curb one's appetite or burns fat, etc... and it did work but only for a time. Now I maintain my weight by doing light jogs and brisk walking. I'm not on a strict diet but I do watch what I eat, except on Sundays . Now I know that maintaining one's weight should be a part of your lifestyle like bathing or studying, etc.. And only you can do something about it to make it really work.
I agree. I was able to lose weight myself without joining a single program or gym and thus was able to achieve it for free. The only thing I did was to change my eating habits wherein I eat smaller portions of what I usually eat so that I could still taste them and thus won't feel too deprived, I still eat chips and drink sodas, just not as obsessively as I once did, and now I swim and jog a bit more.
On the surface, weight loss is simple. The same amount of ENERGY IN (calories consumed) and ENERGY OUT (calories burned) over time = weight stays the same More IN than OUT over time = weight gain More OUT than IN over time = weight loss If you're just wanting to lose weight, that's all you need to know. What you eat and how you expend those calories shouldn't matter, if you just want to lose weight. Let's say Tammy is a 30-year-old woman who is 5'5" tall and weighs 140 pounds. She has a sedentary job that keeps her sitting at a desk all day. Her RMR (resting metabolic rate, or how much energy she uses just going about her regular day) is 1,627 calories. If she eats nothing but an entire box of Twinkies (12 Twinkies) every day and nothing else at all (about 1620 calories), her weight should stay the same. If she wants to lose 1 pound per week, all she has to do is eat 3500 calories less, since 1 pound equals 3500 calories. If a Twinkie is 135 calories, that means she should eat 26 fewer Twinkies a week, about 4 fewer Twinkies per day. There you have it -- Tammy's special personalized weight loss plan! Eight Twinkies a day and in five weeks, she'll lose five pounds! Okay, that sounds awful to me, but in theory it works. (Incidentally, if you don't want to do all the math, the free MyFitnessPal app will do it for you, as well as a plethora of other apps and websites.) There are a lot of problems with Tammy's Twinkie Diet, even though Tammy is at least theoretically losing weight. The biggest problem is Tammy is not likely to adhere to such a diet. Twinkies are specially made to make you want to eat more. Think for a minute about how fast and easy it is to eat a Twinkie. Do you feel full? Do you feel satisfied, like you've had a meal after you've eaten your Twinkies? Of course not. You're starving for nutrition. Twinkies have lots of calories and no nutrition. [video=youtube_share;4cpdb78pWl4]http://youtu.be/4cpdb78pWl4[/video] So just to expand on what deathbyprayer is saying, there's not enough self-discipline in the world to keep me (and lots of other people) from OD'ing on Twinkies once I've started going down that road. The self-discipline has to kick in a lot sooner than that -- as in I just have to stay away from the Twinkies altogether. And the Cheetos, Ho-Hos, and everything else that's more chemicals than food. And when you've been eating these processed foods for a long time, it's not easy to give them up. Believe me. That's why it's important to find some kind of a support group. And there are a lot of them you don't have to pay for. Don't contribute to the 20-billion-dollar-a-year scam that is the diet industry when all the tools you need are free!
Paying for a weight loss program is a big waste of time and money. I think one should try to reduce weight by natural methods, that is by walking or doing yoga. Trying to do any kind of diet will only cause more trouble for the health and lead to many other problems. By exercising on a regular basis one can definitely think about reducing a lot of weight over a period of time.
Energy in vs energy out is a biggie for everyone, but it's not all there is too it. I take in more energy than I work off. Most people do, big or thin. If you are truly eating less than you're burning, you'll probably be one of those people who gain ten lbs if you eat a doughnut on cheat day. I think the health and fitness industry is jam packed with misinformation. And the medical industry and the supplement industry and the food industry. Weight loss is so frigging simple once you get past the addiction. But addiction is addiction which is THE reason people don't lose weight or keep it off once they do. Once you get past the addiction, we all know eating real food is the only true, healthy way. I agree with cutting out flour and sugar etc, although I still eat sugars, just not refined sugars. It's the hardest part, but you'll feel lighter and healthier right away. I think anyone on a roller coaster, should look at combating the addiction first. Or at the very least, make sure you look at it that way.. it will help when you look at why things aren't working and how you'll work through it. The fact that these weight loss programs are so expensive (even the cheap ones are too much) goes to show just how addicted you are.. they know and they're taking advantage. Please stop thinking people who charge you money are looking out for your best interest. Eat right. It's not rocket science. Learn how if you're unsure. Which most people are. These places are disgusting for taking your money and I feel for you
I would personally like to get a diet that fattens me up a little I am horribly skinny at the moment, well not horrible but lets just say that I have some stomach health problems and ion the past year I've gone from 80 something kilograms to 73kg, so a whole 10 something kg which is quite a lot. I looked really bad at one point and now I am slowly recovering but my diet is really screwed up and I can't wait to get a proper treatment and be able to eat normally sometime when I will be healthy again.
I absolutely agree with you, in that you should never pay to lose weight. If anything, losing weight should save you money, because you will be eating less food! I tried to lose weight a lot when I was younger by trying out all sorts of things, but was never successful at it until I was 20, when I managed to lose 10st which was half of my body weight at the time. I didn't pay for expensive gym memberships or diet foods - I simply started making better choices, and having smaller portions at mealtimes. I used MyFitnessPal to log my calories for food and exercise, and found it ridiculously simple. For exercise, I went outside my front door and walked until the weight was all off, and I still walk regularly now. It took me two years, and I have also managed to maintain the lower weight for two years, which I am very pleased about as that's the part that people tend to struggle with a little bit more.
