I don't really know where to post this but just wanted somewhere to write out my thoughts really.
For the last 10 years I've slowly put on weight. I'm not obese but I'm a little chubbier with every passing year.
I've always thought I should do something about it. But I like eating, and I don't like exercise, and everyone says it's such a chore to lose weight so I never really bothered and just shrugged off the weight gain as, "oh well, it's not that bad and I cba fixing it".
I have always kept track of my weight though. I use an app to record the trend over time, just for my own nerdery. And six months ago I hit 95kg and decided that I didn't want to creep any closer to 100kg, which felt like some tipping point where it's no longer something I can ignore.
I don't like the idea of doing some huge "diet" or regime or life overhaul. Those are not sustainable. I don't want some one weird trick to lose 50kg in 3 days. I don't want to significantly change my diet. I'm not going to stick to some intense exercise or gym plan. So I figured, I'll informally just make some subtle, easy, sustainable changes and see how that goes. So for the last 6 months, when I make myself food, for example pasta or cereal or rice or chips (fries for muricans), I measure out how much I would normally eat, then I put a little bit back into the bag before I cook the portion. Just slightly reducing my portion size. I've also been consciously pushing myself to go out on walks around the local streets, and on cycles which I actually quite enjoy. There's no structure to when, how, or where I go out; I just make an effort to get myself out a few times a week for at least around an hour. I used to eat a LOT of chocolate, biscuits, etc, so I've made a conscious effort to cut that back a little. How much? I don't know. I didn't go cold turkey; I didn't give myself a ration; I've just been a little more conscious of trying to eat less crap, and when I do eat crap I try to eat a smaller amount. I haven't changed my diet at all (which is still terrible) - all I did was reduce my portion sizes, eat a little less crap outside of meals, and push myself to get out of the house a little more by walking and cycling.
My results have been quite pleasing. I'm down from 95kg to 89kg in six months. I'm really, really happy with that. If the trend continues I'll be below 85kg by the end of the year, which will be great for me. Mainly I'm pleased that I'm making sustainable progress with an easy mindset that doesn't take a huge effort or structure.
Was it always that easy?
Turns out it really is just all about calories in and calories out. All I really did was decide to be a bit more aware/conscious about my eating and exercise instead of just doing whatever and never thinking about it. I spent no money; I followed no plan; I did not have to exert willpower or make myself miserable. By not expecting any extreme change overnight I was able to put in next to zero effort and get some quite positive and sustainable results.
I've always read/heard about how hard it is and how you have to make a plan and stick to it, and override your natural urges with extreme willpower, and overhaul your diet and get a personal trainer and commit X hours a week to the gym, and on and on. It sounded exhausting and impossible. So maybe someone needs to hear this: it's not impossible, it's easy, as long as you don't expect your entire body to magically change in a short time and make small, achievable, sustainable changes.
Crazy strict diets or massive dietary changes are also generally very stressful, which in turn makes those changes pretty useless for losing weight. Raising your cortisol levels just makes your body hold onto fat stores, as a cautionary measure, which obviously means you wont be losing much weight.
Really if people want to lose weight they should focus on tweaking their diet, as OP is describing, but perhaps in a bit more educated fashion.
For me, I know my old dietary habits were bad for my gut health, centered around addiction to sugar and salt, and didnt feature enough variety of nutrients. So for me, improving my diet meant a few different things:
For my gut health, the most amazing difference came from drinking live kombucha. Way better probiotic content than taking a probiotic supplement. I never realized how bad off my gut was until I started drinking it regularly, and it made a massive difference both in my gut and in my brain (not enough people know how intensely the brain is ruled by the gut). Without a healthy gut, your body thinks its in crisis, and it holds onto fat stores, not to mention the impact it has on your mood and general sense of wellbeing.
Getting away from sugar and salt was the hardest part, and it mostly came down to simply not buying certain foods anymore (other than on occasion). Potato chips I basically quit eating entirely. Snack cakes. Anything with an insane amount of sugar or salt in a highly processed food item, you just have to stop buying it regularly. Treat yourself now and again, listen to your body. But dont listen to your body when its being a crackhead for dopamine triggers like salt and sugar. If you eat processed meals, like freezer section stuff, stop eating that crap. Learn to cook fresh prepared food faster, and dont eat a frozen meal of any kind more than once a week at most. I still cave for a pizza now and again, but primarily I have a rotation of meals I really enjoy making and eating that I can accomplish in exactly 1 hour. If you find that you cook or flavor with too much salt, consider getting into making spicy food. I really enjoy spicy food, and its a dopamine trigger that is relatively healthy in comparison to sugar or salt. Spicing your food heavily also masks the lack of salt if you crave salt. Either way though, just avoiding highly processed foods that are loaded with salt is far better than adding a significant amount of salt to your own food. Salt you add yourself is much easier to taste than the amounts of salt they pack into a lot of processed items.
A lack of nutritional value is a bit more easily resolved. Of course you can always take a multivitamin, but personally I find most of them upset my stomach a lot. So I prefer to find foods that pack a lot of nutritional value in a small package, and try to diversify my food portfolio so to speak. I eat a 12oz bag of unshelled pistachios about every week, as they have an insanely high amount of nutritional content compared to most snackable items. They do have a lot of fat, but it is a relatively healthy profile of fat compared to the fat content of processed foods. Another I would say is acorn squash, just an incredible amount and variety of nutrients despite not being my favorite vegetable. Avocado is good, although I eat it less frequently. I primarily cook with avocado oil though now rather than olive oil, both because it has a higher heat degradation point (less carcinogenic) and a better nutritional profile. I dont usually snack, but when I do it is fruit, cheese, and nuts like 80% of the time. Its the little things like that which will make a big difference in the long run. Eat what you enjoy, but dont only eat what you crave. Try to find ways to incorporate new healthier foods into the meals or snacks you already enjoy.
Overall, a lot of these things are more expensive in the world of fresh foods. Everyone knows pistachios, avocado, and good kombucha arent cheap. But in comparison, dollar per pound or whatever, to the boxed quick-and-easy shit most people have come to rely on as food sources, it is actually far cheaper. Sure you have to spend time cooking, and you might have to buy groceries more frequently to avoid waste, but at the end of the day you have a much healthier diet, better quality food, and way way way less unnatural preservatives, sugar, salt, and all the other shit you really dont want to be eating because it fucks with your body and mind.
Ive been practicing this type of “diet” for 3-4 years now, and while I havent really lost any weight I also dont gain any weight and my ratios of fat/muscle/water whatever are most likely much better (im not enough of a health nut to actually check, but by eye at least), and overall I am significantly healthier and feel way better than I ever did before I slowly figured this shit out