How I Lost 20 Pounds

Posted on 09.01.06. Tagged with , All

In May right after partying for 3 days at Florida Music Festival I had hit an all-time high of 163 lbs.

3 months later, without a lot of effort, I weigh 20 lbs less. None of this is revolutionary, but I wanted to share anyway..

1) Say No To Juice - I love all kinds of juice and used to drink multiple glasses a day. I never looked at things as how many calories it had, just whether it was considered 'healthy' or not. Juice is loaded with calories, so cutting that down to the occasional, small glass in the morning helped a lot.

2) Eat Cereal - Okay, so I got this 'idea' from the damn Special K boxes that tell you to eat cereal twice a day and lose weight. Well it works. You don't have to do it all the time, but choosing cereal for dinner a night or two a week saves you hundreds (maybe thousands) of calories. No, it doesn't have to be Special K, but do make it something healthy-ish. I like Cheerios and Grape-nuts.

3) Work Out - Another "duh". But the thing is, it doesn't even need to be hardcore. I run whenever I feel like it (generally shoot for 3 times a week for like half an hour, if that).

4) Consider Calories - So you don't have to be all calorie-nazi and count and track every calorie you consume but do look at the nutritional information of things you eat. You might be surprised about what you read on some things. If you just cut 500 calories a day out of your diet, you will lose a pound of fat a week.

5) Drink (And Don't) - I've never been a heavy drinker (alcohol), but drinking once or twice a week can be thousands of calories. I cut it down to about once a month. If you must drink soda, do go the diet route. You'll get used to it (or maybe you'll hate it so much you'll drink more water). If you drink 2 sodas a day and change to diet, there is your 500 calories!

I'm happy with the results of this summer and hopefully will keep it off.

6 Comments

Robert
05:09 PM on 09.01.06

I did something similar a few years ago.

After peaking at nearly 220 lbs (I'm 6'5", so it's not that crazy) I cut meal sizes by roughly a third and removed cookies, cakes and candy almost entirely from my diet. Last summer I weighed in at about 173 lbs, and now I'm at a more healthy 180 lbs.

Good tips in general, I'd say, but dedicated work out is overrated in my eyes. The payoff is not good enough, considering I hate it. Substitute car with bike/walk and elevators with stairs. Keep to a sane diet.

It's actually a lot easier to lose weight that one imagine. It just takes some persistence and character, I'd say.

JEESUN SHIN
08:39 PM on 09.01.06

FAT ASS

Elisabeth
12:34 PM on 09.04.06

Good common sense tips. I've always been slim (5'9" around 125), but a few months ago I noticed how much snugger my jeans were fitting- and a check of the scale confirmed I'd climbed to 140 without realizing it. No crash dieting, no drastic changes, no gym memberships. Instead, I managed to make changes that I thought I could maintain- and that have yielded results: indeed, less juice- more water; watch portion size; eat until I'm not hungry- not until I'm full; don't eat after about 7 or 8pm (about 3-4 hours before bed); always eat breakfast... and I'm right back into my skinny jeans again :-)

Lis
10:05 AM on 09.05.06

Thanks for the great tips! It's nice to hear suggestions from real people :-P

Chirag
11:35 PM on 09.05.06

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Kitta
07:31 AM on 09.15.06

My friend is on the DDR diet. It involves junk food and a ton of DDR.


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