How Did You Lose a Lot of Weight? People Shared Their Stories.

Listen up, folks!

Because if there’s one thing that a lot of people out there could use right about now, it’s some solid advice about how to lose some weight.

And these AskReddit users were nice enough to share how they managed to do it.

Check out what they had to say.

Their words might give you some good ideas about how to get in shape!

“Ate less, ate healthier, and exercised.

I didn’t make a lot of big changes at once either. First thing I did was cut sodas out of my diet.

Then a couple of weeks later, I started leaving cheese off my burgers & hot dogs.

Couple of weeks after that started ordering small meals at fast food places instead of large ones.

Then I started eating cucumber slices instead of chips/fries.

Then instead of eating s**t like candy bars, I switched to chocolate covered fruit, and eventually to just regular fruit.

Stuff like that.

As for exercise, again, nothing major. First change was walking once around the block I lived on. For weeks that was it.

Then I started adding in bicep curls. Then situps. Then pushups. Then light stretches.

Over a 6 month period I went from 345 and walking a half mile leaving me breathless & with chest pains to 267 and walking several miles at a time.”

“I worked two high-intensity jobs (fast food and retail total of about 14 hours 6 days a week) and walked about five miles total commute for said jobs (another hour and a half on my feet).

I was also still not making enough money to eat well, so… My whole body ached, and I was malnourished, but I managed to drop from 235 to 160 in just a few months.”

“Small changes are definitely key.

Early on when I started trying to lose weight it was hard to motivate myself because my goal was “lose x pounds”, which is great but hard to work towards and hard to see that I was doing anything towards it.

So I started just stopped focusing on that all the time and started making easy small goals I could get to in a week, instead just like “walk around the block” or “don’t eat x” which was easy enough for me to do and I could feel accomplished every week lol.

Then, when that got too easy I could just keep pushing it a little bit more like that and over a year later, things like going to the gym 3x-4x a week and running a few miles a week are now part of my normal routine.”

“People don’t realize how many additional calories they’re often consuming when they drink beyond the al**hol itself.

Pregaming for the party tonight, better eat a heavy, carb rich dinner. Now I’m hammered and donuts sound really good. Now it’s the next day and I’m hungover so I’m going to eat a greasy breakfast.

You stop drinking, a lot of those bad eating habits disappear too.”

“I’ve lost about 60lbs using some of those meal kits.

They’re expensive, but I find that they help in forcing portion control and ensuring that I don’t eat things that fall outside of my diet.”

“Daily 30-minute walks, limiting sugary soda (substituted plain carbonated water made with SodaStream), moderation of food intake.”

“Finally something I can help with around here. Got diagnosed with NAFLD (Non al**holic fatty liver disease) scared the s**t outta me.

Smartwatch with fitness tracking.

At least 15,000 steps a day. I go for what I jokingly call a “Wog”. Walk most of the way, jog on the way back. Started over 300lbs. Down to 270 now. Its hard to jog when youre that heavy, but I’m trying.

Mediterranean Diet. Scary at first, awesome now that I’ve learned about it. Chickpea pasta, red bean pasta, all instead of wheat. Breads and sugar are out the window. Fresh salads, salmon, and best news for me is I can still use my smoker and eat plenty of meats.

Food journal that I can track steps, weight, sleep, mood, fruit, veggies, and calories in. The one I bought is by a company called “Clever Fox” bought it on Amazon. I fill it out every day and look forward to doing so.

Smart scale. I weigh myself once a week, not every day. Every day can be depressing because your weight goes up and down several times a week depending on when you weigh, what you eat etc.

Water. Bought a Yeti water bottle that holds… 26 fl oz I believe. I fill it twice a day, 52 oz. Then I get the rest of my water from coffee, sparkling water, etc. 64 oz of water a day.

16 hr fasting schedule. I only eat after 12pm, and before 8 pm. Never before, never after.

No drinking. Easy for me but I was never into it. It’s just bad for you.

Its been working great for me and I’m not going to stop until I’m 210lbs or under.”

“What worked for me:

I wanted to do it. I had a very real scare that I’d never be able to walk without pain. I started going to PT and realized they could only do so much in the 3 hours I saw them a week and that I needed to start making some changes.

Cut down al**hol – Went from drinking excessively like 5 days a week to once a month – and only socially.

Daily walks – these started at doing a half mile a few times a day and worked up to a 3-4 mile route once a day.

Gamification – I got a bluetooth scale (renpho) and a Fitbit and a blood pressure monitor so I could see different changes. Day to day changes weren’t telling, but I recorded my weight and blood pressure basically as soon as I rolled out of bed or took care of business.

Week over week I saw the bad things go down, month over month I saw the bad things plummet. Weight went down, blood pressure went down, resting heart rate went down, sleep score got better. Having a Fitbit on your wrist is akin to having a WWJD wristband.

Two meals a day + all the raw veggies and fruit I wanted. Generally this was a piece of sourdough toast and egg and butter for a late breakfast and then a pack of cheap ramen with some peas and corn tossed in for dinner.

A lot of times, if I was hungry I’d drink a glass of ice water, then wait a few minutes or take a walk and see if I was still hungry. I would also socially cheat around once a week.

I had some real weird? days where I’d do a chore or watch an episode of a show and then walk a half mile- so by the end of the day I’d walked 8 miles. This happened several times. Got nothing to do? Take a walk. Ate dinner? Take a walk.

At the end of the day, you have to learn to live with being some combination of hungrier and sweatier than you usually are and understand that’s kind of a penance for the life choices you made that brought you to that point.”

At the end of the day, just be safe if you want to lose the weight.

Be kind to yourself, fam.