Back when I was in college, I lost 130 lbs. using Weight Watchers. Even though I stopped going to the weekly meetings about ten years ago, I still use the old Weight Watchers plan that gives you a daily points allotment and every food you eat has a certain number of points. It's basically a system of calorie counting. Even though it worked extremely well for me, there are tons of ways to lose weight out there, so try whatever you want!
Here are some tips to losing weight that I've picked up along the way:
- Don't weigh yourself every day. Your weight fluctuates a lot in a given day and you'll go crazy if you constantly deal with the ups and downs. Pick a time once a week and weigh yourself at the same time every week to give yourself a more accurate idea of your progress.
- Diet matters more than exercise. Exercise absolutely helps you shed pounds faster, but unless you're an Olympic-level athlete, it's not going to give you an excuse to constantly eat junk food.
- Use a food scale. The serving size of most food products is laughably small. Weigh your food before you eat it to know exactly how many calories you're consuming.
- Cook your own food. It allows you to exactly control what goes into your body.
- It's a marathon, not a sprint. Everyone loses weight at their own pace and there are a ton of different factors that go into how quickly you shed pounds. Having a bad week does not mean you should just give up.
Time for me to step on that scale...
Starting weight: 224.6 lbs
My goal is to get below 200 lbs. I'm hoping to reach that goal in 3 months, which would mean an average weekly weight loss of 1.9 lbs.
Good luck, everyone!