Just curious how many of you are dieting.

I recently tried the no wheat diet. I'll admit, I lost 5 pounds in 3 days. But I LOVE carbs. So, no pasta or bread? Doesn't work for my family and I.

I'm beginning to cut out my caffeine and alcohol intake. I'm down to a 24oz soda, plus 32+ ounces of water/Gatorade. I used to drink about 70oz of soda a day.

Thanks to pinterest, I have a load of at home work outs I can do also. Helps with my schedule.

What other foods have you cut out of your meals and what exercise routines do you do?

A weight loss of 5lbs in 3 days is a bit too quick and your body would probably put it back on once the diet was over.

I agree with Aiure. It's the little healthy lifestyle adjustments over the long term that are most effective. Replacing soda or juice (both very high in sugar) with water, cutting out salt and sugar intake, eating a piece of fruit when you crave something sweet, eating complex carbs and protein to help you feeling full for longer. And eat breakfast!

I think diets where you cut out staples that you love (e.g. bread) are doomed to fail. The less we're allowed to have something, the more we think about it and want it and eventually cave! Eating healthy should be more than just a temporary thing - it should be a lifestyle change.

Im actually pretty good at cutting out things like sweets, fried food, etc because i don't like to feel like crap after I eat. Ive kept off the 5 pounds, even after going back to wheats and such. My biggest problem is not eating enough calories because my body is almost trained to not eat a lot, thanks to being poor in my college days lol.

I don't eat out hardly ever because I literally feel like my stomach is twisting for hours after I eat - unless it's a salad.

I don't diet, but I do watch what I eat. I'm not completely into the "Primal" diet, but I do generally try to eat as little wheat as possible because even though my ancestors ate grains, their diet did NOT subsists of mostly grains (and fillers) the way our diets do now. I make sure that meat and any bread/pasta products are a side, and not a main course. Actually, we very rarely have a "main course" these days. A normal meal consists of some kind of starchy vegetable (potatoes, carrots, beets), a raw or quick-cooked vegetable (don't want to lose nutrients in cooking!), and a fruit or meat or "grain" side (husband can't have wheat so it is usually quinoa which is actually a seed, so it is more nutritious than most grains). So I guess we do avoid a lot of grains but I don't believe in restricting myself from anything, it's more about moderation.

My body can't really handle caffeine, I get severe stomach aches with just the tiniest bit too much. Since I don't restrict myself anything, I do have a bit of caffeine once or twice a week (sometimes more, sometimes less). I grew up an athlete, so I wasn't allowed to drink soda, luckily that took care of that craving, I probably only drink soda once a month.

I don't cut out certain foods so much as certain ingredients. I eat VERY little "high fructose corn syrup" which also appears as "corn syrup" on ingredients labels. I rarely cook with salt, instead I add a bit of salt to my plate at the table. I don't eat corn-fed beef, as it is higher in fat than grass-fed. I prefer not to eat animal products that have been treated with hormones and/or antibiotics because you really just don't know how those things affect you down the line. I don't eat most things that I cannot read what they are/ are obviously of chemical origin because our bodies evolved breaking down natural elements, not manmade ones.

That said, I love dark, heavy beer. I have at least one per week. I also love butter and cook with it often (but I don't use a ton!). I also eat meat, occasionally eat dairy, and grain too. It is all about figuring out how much works for your body. My husband and I have such different body types, if I ate as much meat as he does, I would feel ill. If he ate as little meat as I do, he would feel ill. It is a very personal thing, what kinds of nutrients your body needs.

As far as exercise, I live in a place where I can walk everywhere and that takes care of most of my exercise needs. Before I moved here, I would go out dancing 2-3 times a week (we're talking really dancing, flailing appendages, breaking a sweat, moving nonstop for at least 2 hours) and that kept me in good enough shape. I also used to do 20 minutes of yoga 3-5 times per week before I hurt my back. The key is finding something you really like doing. I hate going to a gym, I hate being on a treadmill, those things never worked for me. Lots of people I know do things like rafting or mountain biking or rock climbing and that obviously keeps them in shape. I'm not really into those things but I have managed to find that walking to the grocery store and riding my bike downtown and yoga/stretching are things that make me feel good and things I actually consider doing when I am bored, not just when I am feeling guilty about my weight/lack of exercise.

But what I always push on people is small, frequent meals. When I first became aware of what I was eating/how I treated my body, I started eating 5 meals per day and 2 snacks. I lost 15 pounds without exercising AT ALL. I have a very slow metabolism so that gave me the jump I needed.

Im gonna start the cabbage soup diet. Then on my off weeks, its no soda, alcohol, nor bread. Its gonna be hard b.c I loveeee bread!

That's exactly why I couldn't give up wheat.. My entire diet IS practically wheat. I am incorporating more fruits and veggies though, which is good... and I'm stopping us from eating so much garbage - like hamburger helper. We can make our OWN "hamburger helper" that's not full of junk that we don't need.

Cutting back on sodium is one of the smartest things you can do, and it will help you lose weight when you adjust other areas of your lifestyle. Most North Americans eat more than twice as much as their recommended daily intake, and the recommendations are ridiculously high in the first place. When I first started regulating my sodium, I realized I was eating upwards of 2500mg a day. I've since cut it down to about 1000-1500mg (recommended intake in Canada for adults is 1500mg), and I still eat a lot of processed foods.

Cutting sodium, general caloric intake, and drinking more water has really helped me. I've lost a total of 25lbs. in two years by making tiny adjustments and not worrying myself silly over actual diets.

I think most diets have the same theories behind them, and my friend Kari has her own "theory".. "ELMM"
Eat Less Move More. Adjust your portions. Eat good meats that are lean, lots of veggies and fruit. Stay away from Soda or Juice, its nothing but sugar and the stuff in diet soda is NOT good for you. And of course, move more. Walk, jog, run, join a dance class, or something to keep you active.. and if you're seriously overweight, it probably didn't happen over night (for me, it was the course of pregnancies over the last few years) and it won't come off overnight.

A lot of people go on a diet to lose weight and then go off of it once they've lost their weight and gain it all right back. Staying healthy is a lifestyle change, not just a diet. :)

Stephanie is right; it's a lifestyle change. Some fad diets these days are so unbalanced that they're unhealthy. Then there are others that are so restrictuve that people gain the weight right back.

It's very important to eat well balanced meals, drink more water, and exercise.

Sandi Richard has a series of really good cookbooks called "Cooking for the Rushed." Instead of just individual recipes, she has planned entire (5 day) weeks of full menus of balanced meals. It's not perfect, as she does incorporate the occasional can of cream of chicken soup, but it's very good for people who aren't used to preparing healthful meals.

I've tried several fad diets. The Atkins diet, Beach Body diet, jello-only diet (really stupid when I was back in high school) to name a few.
There is a diet that I'm on right now. It's not really a diet, per se. It's more of a lifestyle thing. It's called the primal diet. It's very similar to a paleo diet. You basically eat the diet of your ancestors, like a hunter/gatherer. Lots of meat and veggies, no grain at all. There's some info on the internet that grain isn't that great for you and believe me, I thought it was impossible to give up grain because I love my bread. We make our own bread now with almond flour - the bread turns out great.
Some things I've noticed since going Primal: knee issues that I've had since high school virtually disappeared, steady weight, acne went away (it comes back when I eat grain though. My knee also starts aching again when I start to eat heaps of grain -- usually when we have family over or when we're visiting family), not hungry as often and the meals we eat are very filling, a lot more energy in the day, and no more stinky farts.

Just going by calories (I use the My Fitness Pal app!) I've lost ten pounds in the last two weeks. Along with not eating after 11pm when I work (10pm when I'm not - I get off work at 10pm and like a sandwich or something light after)! It's helped tremendously.

I've found with diets, by denying yourself something it only makes it harder and more likely for you to fail. I give myself a cheat day every week. So instead of saying 'I can't have this' I tell myself 'You can eat that on Wednesday'. I don't let myself go very far above my calorie goal on cheat days, but I do let myself eat something I don't eat during the rest of the week. (fast food, a restaurant, etc.)

I'm also in love with Crystal Lite lemonades. Pink and Regular. It's helped me cut down (down, not out!) my soda intake. I still let myself have a little can of soda if I start getting caffeine headaches (which I'm prone to). I mean ideally I wouldn't drink any soda. But I know for me that isn't a reality. I will have sodas when I get tired and crabby.


One thing I've found to help my portion control, is to use a smaller plate. It sounds so minuscule, but it does help! I was raised to always finish what was on my plate, and we always got full plates. It's a hard habit to break. When I use smaller plates, it's okay to fill it up ;D

I do much the same thing with unhealthy snacks and pop - I save them for my days off, as a reward for a hard-worked week.

I'm an over weight person and have been trying to loose weight for about a year and a half and I have cut out pasta..bread.. junk food. sugars..sodas. Its more of a life style change than anything. I don't look at it as a diet anymore because it gets a little discouraging when you are trying to eat right and exercise regularly and then when you go for the weigh in or when you don't notice changes in your body its a little heartbreaking. Try looking at it in a more positive way. Ever since I did that and didn't even weigh my self I noticed a difference. Your outlook in my opinion has a lot to do with it to. You have to tell yourself to do it and motivate yourself.. My doctor told me to eat Whole Wheat if we needed to eat bread or a whole grain pasta if we decided to still eat it. Instead of friend foods its either baked or grilled. I have changed pretty much everything in our cabinets and I check the content on the back of the boxes when I go grocery shopping. But I think A healthy lifestyle, regular exercise and moderation/proportion is the way to go. I also think its the safest way to go (:.

Not dieting as such, but giving myself a healthy diet and also doing the 30 day shred and some strength exercises. Oh, and taking photos of all my meals and posting in Tumblr - according to the 4 Hour Body, that's more effective than counting calories, because the visual evidence makes you more mindful of what you eat. Not sure how true that is, but for me, it's certainly more fun than counting calories, and motivates me to make my meals pretty! Am counting calories too, on MyFitnessPal - quite a novelty for me. And definitely having one day a week where I feast on whatever food I like, and go way over my calories - according to the 4 Hour Body, that is actually more effective for weightloss be ause it keeps your metabolism on its toes, stopping it slowing down. I've lost a bit of weight, maybe half a stone in the past few weeks, and feeling healthier and stronger in general.