Every person who has lost a significant amount of weight and kept it off gets asked the same question over and over again: "what's your secret?"
No one ever wants to hear the answer to this question, because the answer is simple: there is no secret. Move more, eat less is about as simple as it gets, but of course simple isn't always easy.
However, there are some dirty little secrets about permanent weight loss that "they" - the processed "diet" food makers, fitness & lifestyle magazine publishers, pill pushers, fad diet creators - don't want you to know about.
Calories count, but nutritional value matters more. If you can't immediately point out where major nutrients are coming from in any diet plan (i.,e. calcium, fiber, iron, potassium, antioxidants like vitamin A & C, B vitamins), beware. If a health plan restricts you to specific meal plans with no wiggle room or substitutions, question why. Many nutrition plans used by successful losers play looser with calories but are quite rigid with the kind and quality of food consumed. This is not to say you can take in more calories than you burn, but it is more nutritious to skip the croutons and cheese on your salad and make up those calories and flavor by making a healthy olive oil-based dressing. Those healthy fat calories are more useful to the body overall.
You will have to give up many of the foods you love. There. It has been said. All of those magazine articles where they recommend having a "nibble" or a "small slice" of your favorite foods in order to keep cravings at bay - they lie. When was the last time you ate a third of a Starbucks muffin or split a package of Peanut M&Ms into 100-calorie servings (hint: a vending machine-sized bag of Peanut M&Ms is 2.5 100-calorie servings)? Most food we claim to "love" has been processed, engineered for "mouth feel" and has little to no nutritional value. Blueberries are not at the top of the ingredient list in that Starbucks muffin (it's white flour). Having a "treat" instead of real food leads to hunger and overeating, the mortal enemies of weight loss.
Many favorite foods double as trigger foods; like Pringles, "Once you pop, you can't stop." One small slice ends up being half, one Timbit turns into a three-at-a-time morning binge.
That being said, the flip side of the coin is that you can plan to eat your favorite foods. So long as you work your "cheat" or "treat" into your food plan for a specific day, eating a favorite food or indulging in dessert won't break your willpower. Success with this hinges on balancing calories with hunger. Planning to eat a huge dessert but severely restricting calories before and after is a recipe for binge eating. Cutting a few calories at each meal (about 50) and choosing foods that are rich in fiber, protein and healthy fats will keep your liver and brain from signalling starvation so that chocolate torte is a nice end to a meal rather than the reward for a growling belly.
No amount of exercise can atone for bad eating habits. If it were this easy, we'd all eat like Henry the Eighth, run like Chris McDougall and look like Ryan Kwanten. Alas, nutrition composes about 80% of a successful weight loss endeavor, with exercise making up the other 20%. You spend a lot more time eating, because you're using your time wisely at the gym, right? It makes sense.
You will have to learn to say no. To food. To happy hours. To your grandmere's sweet potato pie. Even more important, you will have to learn to say no to the people and situations in your life that cause you stress and lead you to negativity and overeating. Cut them loose if you need to - their toxic personalities will poison you eventually. Skip your book club when the group busybody is leading the discussion. You may have to hurt your grandmere's feelings by refusing her pie. Give her a hug instead.
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