Webinar: Weight Loss: 5 Behavioral Strategies for Success

Hi, I am already eating healthy food and with minimum quantities, little sugar, though i am not losing weight and very easily gaining.
what do you suggest for my case?

Hi Iman, The Q&A with the Mayo experts is now closed. Other Connect members may respond with their strategies.

@akaivo102 Let me add two more potential sources of hunger to your excellent (food for thought) list. One would be anxiety or overeating due to stress. And the second one is a subcategory of the first one, it's emotional distress, e.g. rejection, break-up of a relationship. In such case people often go for comfort food (sweet, fatty, salty) - a tub of salted caramel ice cream fits the bill perfectly, later keeping the cardiovascular surgeons busy.

I lost the same 45 pounds 7 years apart on WW. Began a no red meat, no dairy diet at the request of my cardiologist. No attendant weight loss. Went back to WW unsuccessfully. I am currently doing Intermittent Fasting. Same food as always just with a break from 5:00 pm to 8:00 am. And am losing the 1 pound a week that I used to lose on WW without changing my food.
Best of luck to you. I recommend reading The Obesity Code.

Hi, I share your concern, there are many more triggers to overeating than just those listed above, one of my personal triggers that I struggle to overcome is working out and afterwards feeling like I deserve a treat. Of course, the treat completely negates my exercise. An even bigger trigger is losing all the weight you hoped to lose. Then thinking you are fixed, cured, or you needn't keep trying you revert back to old eating habits and gain it all back. I wish I had the answer you're looking for but weight management is and has been, for me, a lifelong struggle. One that you can't quit or you will suffer even more.

It’s surely a challenge every day but you can do it! 😉 I have lost 40 lbs. (197 to 157) in the last 18 months. How? When I am famished I drink a protein drink or home-made smoothie, gorge on berries or melon or veggies and low fat hummus or dip and move every day (do stairs, walk a bit, lift free weights, line dance or yoga every day)…just 20 minutes. Rest when you are tired, if you can (read a book, watch an uplifting movie or show, pray/close your eyes for awhile, have some nice tea, write a note or call a friend.
Take it easy on yourself…day by day❤️

It has been a lifelong struggle for me also, even when young. Now at 82, it has become almost impossible to lose more than a couple pounds. I'm wondering if the best seniors can do is maintain, rather than lose?

You have a few years on me as I'm 1953 however I can tell you that twice in my life I lost over 100 pounds, the first time I was young only 33 and while quite heavy I was still fairly athletic, the second time I was 64 and not so athletic. I needed to lose the weight for knee surgery, however I couldn't do it like I did when I was younger, I needed help. At that time Mayo was using the HMR diet and it was just what I needed, it monitored my diet by making sure I had enough protein and then introduced fruits and vegetables to supplement. My guess, since I'm not a doctor and can only say what seems to have worked for me, is that once proteins, carbohydrates, and fats get out of balance our bodies will make us eat until it gets what it needs. If I didn't get enough protein, I would overeat but if that still didn't give me the proteins my body needed, it wouldn't use them and just stored them away. I'd have to keep eating until my body finally got what it needed. The trick is figuring out just what your body needs and give it only that. Yup, I'm still working on it.

This is great. I will try it, as I think it's probably the only way. After all, each body is different.

I appreciated the chain of events that can make dieting difficult.
I especially liked the comment that this chain can be averted by “disrupting” the chain with a healthy alternative choice.
Don’t let prior behaviour dictate future outcomes.