I'm going to tell you what worked for me. Bear in mind, I've tried to lose weight many times over the years, however this is the first time where I've actually seen steady progress. I'll try to keep this short and sweet, so here is what I decided to do in 2016:

  1. I used MyFitnessPal and recorded EVERYTHING I ate. After the initial setup, MFP gave me a goal of 1500 calories per day in order to lose 2lbs per week. I have mostly stuck to this goal (within 100 kcals) bar a couple of cheat days. This has probably been the biggest element of my success.
  2. No chocolate, sweets or crisps.
  3. No takeways, bar the cheat days.
  4. Only allowing myself cheat days AFTER seeing a few pounds of weight loss.
  5. Gym 3 times a week for 30 minutes - only burning about 220-240 kcals each time which allows me to have a larger dinner or more snacks 3 times a week.
  6. Weighing myself and updating DietBet, Every. Single. Day. Some days my weight would increase but I know that this is normal. I actually weighed myself every morning and night at roughly the same time. It was great being able to see 0.3lbs down from the previous day, knowing that your hard work was paying off. I kept DietBet open on my laptop at all times so I could easlily update it.

 

I had done one or two of these things trying to lose weight in the past, but never all of them at once. That's why this time I'm actually loosing weight and am currently 0.3lbs away from my goal with a week left to go.

If I lose another 2lbs in the next week, I'll have another cheat day and then I'll enter into next months DietBet and do it all again :).

If you are reading this having struggled with weight loss, then give this method a shot. It may not work for you but you won't know until you try.

Cormac