My top tips for sustained weight loss

As I am often asked how I not only lost so much weight but kept it off, I’m sharing my top tips here. Hope they help you too

I lost four stone in lockdown and am now well into my fifth. I began my diet in September 2020 when Covid was raging and there wasn’t yet a vaccine. The news was pretty grim if you were obese, as I was. You only had a 50/50 chance of survival if you needed to be intubated. That for me was the trigger. It set me on a path of weight loss which I have managed to sustain.

I’m often asked how I did it. There is no great secret; no magic bullet. I know there are pills you can take now for weight loss and there is also surgery. But neither of these deal with the underlying issue of how we got so overweight in the first place. And it’s my contention you really do need to deal with that if you are going to sustain weight loss. I’m not judging those who take weight-loss drugs. For some it’s the only way to prevent Diabetes Type 2 and other chronic illnesses associated with being obese. And no one should feel guilt or shame if they went this route. It wasn’t the path I chose. And I’ve heard there is a very long waiting list for these drugs.

Change the way you look at food

To lose weight and keep it off you have to change the way you look at food. It’s no good going on a diet then stopping. Diets don’t work. We overweight people know that. Soon as you come off a diet you put it all back on. We’re like former smokers (of which I am one). We’ll never be non-smokers - only ex-smokers. Same as an alcoholic has to change their life and live in recovery, we have to change our lives and live in our version of recovery.

The fat cells are there always waiting to be filled again. We can’t get rid of them. We can only stop feeding them. That doesn’t mean a life of starvation and misery! Quite the opposite. Eating differently to enjoy food but lose weight and keep it off is a very positive way to live. We’re former fatties in recovery. See it that way, reframe it - as counsellors put it and you’re far more likely to succeed in keeping weight off. We can lose weight. We know that. But it’s the keeping it off that really matters for our health, well being and happiness.

Top ten tips

So here are my top ten tips not just for losing weight but keeping it off. I am not a doctor, scientist, nutritionist or dietitian. I’m just someone who has successfully lost weight and kept it off. If my way helps you, that’s great.

1) Exercise is good for you but it doesn’t shift the weight. Yes we do need to do some physical exercise because it’s good for us and makes us feel good. But unless you’re a top athlete or working out at a gym three or four hours a day it’s really not going to make that much difference. Do it for its own sake though. It will give you a nice warm buzz! Find something you enjoy. Don’t see it as a punishment. Try moving about more throughout the day so you incorporate exercise into your life in a natural barely-noticing-it kind of way.

2) The 5:2 diet works but is tough to follow. The 16:8 is much more gentle and portable to some extent. See it as a new way of eating not a diet. For me eating the 16:8 way has become a way of life.

3) Following on from 2) above, have your last meal of the day as early as you can stand it - mine is at 4.30. And have breakfast as late as you can - at weekends I last till 11 or even noon so skip breakfast entirely. I can only do that though because I don’t get up till about 9. Interestingly my lowest weights are at the weekend and on Monday mornings. So it really does work.

4) Cut down on carbs but especially bread and pasta. Potatoes and rice are not so bad. Maybe it’s because they come out the ground and aren’t processed as much as bread and pasta are. Also even if you don’t have a wheat intolerance it does tend to be associated with weight gain - perhaps because bread is so delicious and there’s so much wonderful choice in baked goods now. Have them if you like your baked goods but keep the quantity down.

5) Don’t have ANY low-fat products. Full fat is more filling, healthier and much better for you. Butter is your friend not your enemy

6) Cut out alcohol if you can. Or cut it down. Swap beer for wine and wine for spirits with sugar-free mixers.  

7) Do eat chocolate - the darker the better. It’s very good for you in small quantities (same as red wine is). The higher the cocoa content, the better. I eat only 85% cocoa solid chocolate. It has protein and fibre in it.

8) Have treats of some kind every day. It can be chocolate or the odd small piece of cake, cheese, crisps, wine, whatever you like best.

9) Don’t buy any diet books! You don’t need them. They just make money for the massive billion-pound diet industry. Follow a few rules and you’ll do fine. You don’t need books to tell you what you know you know. How many pages does it take to say move more, eat less?

10) Above all enjoy it. Do not do not do NOT see it as punishment. The key to dieting successfully and sustaining it is to embrace and enjoy it. We stick with what we enjoy.