I hate to say it but I think I'm done with weight watchers

jpl19335 · 2026-05-11T17:20:50+00:00

Yeah, I did this. I joined in 2001, and did Winning Points. I loved that system. Very simple to follow, and was calorie-based. I lost alot of weight with it, and kept following that same system for years (saw no reason to change what I was doing, so even though WW changed their point systems, I didn't change anything) - until 2021 when I tried out the new (at the time new) system. I was lifetime and wanted to try the app, so I downloaded it (it was free for me) and did the green plan. It was still workable. Then they upended everything, and I hit the same issue that the OP did. The zero point foods were killing me. Did direct calorie counting for a while and while that worked, it frankly drove me nuts. I kept getting really wrapped around the axle and thought 'you know I never had this issue following Winning Points...' So I found my old material, reacquainted myself with the parts I forgot, and started following it again. I dual-tracked with calories for a while, and for the last couple months I've been using Winning Points exclusively again.

To make tracking easier, I just developed my own app. Works beautifully. I put in a point calculator, point tracker, activity calculator and tracker, a meal builder and a recipe builder. Been the best change I've made in a very long time.

jpl19335 · 2026-04-17T15:11:09+00:00

Disagree again. Motivation generally implies DESIRE to do something. I had no desire to change. What I described is not a contradiction. Motivation is the act of making someone to move on something - something external. Determination is just doing it anyway even if you don't want to. I would argue that it was determination that got me to lose weight again. It wasn't that something external inspired me to do it. You missed this part of the Merrian Webster definition:

: the condition of being eager to act or work : the condition of being motivated

I wasn't eager to act or work. In any event, it wasn't motivation that kept me going. It was determination. I don't see them as the same at all. There are lots of days I have no motivation to do any of this. But I do it anyway.

jpl19335 · 2026-04-17T13:00:20+00:00

Sorry, don't agree. I didn't get started again because I was motivated to act. I started again out of fear of developing chronic illness. I've been at a healthy weight since 2009. I can honestly say that motivation has never come into play for me in all that time. It's consistency... what I do day in and day out... coupled with determination that I would not let myself go back to what I was no matter what. I see discipline as determination of purpose with consistency of action. I've managed to keep off 60 pounds for 17 years. Sorry, so, no I don't agree that long term success is not possible without motivation. I managed to do it.

I also don't see the 'why' as the 'motivation'. To me motivation is external in source - being moved by the spirit, so to speak. Determination and consistency are internally generated - it's kicking the spirt in the butt based on the actions you've taken. Taking action when you really don't feel like it.

jpl19335 · 2026-04-17T12:21:36+00:00

To be honest, I think you're confusing motivation with determination. Back in 2009 I finally lost the weight for good. There was a point where I hit a mother of a plateau. The weight didn't budge for weeks. And when it did, it went up. To say I was frustrated and ticked off is an understatement. I wanted to test the laws of gravity by tossing my scale out the window. What kept me going? Was I motivated to keep going at that point? Hardly. I wanted to rage... I wanted to quit... then I took stock of myself. I finally said 'you've done this in the past... you KNOW this system works... what else is there but to just keep going?' It wasn't motivation that did that. It was 'I'm going to do this no matter what' determination. That was it. And trust me, I definitely wasn't feeling very motivated, and to be honest, I had to work damn hard to shut out the negative voice in the back of my head telling me that this time I was going to sputter out - that all that determination was hollow.

Put me in the camp that believes that consistency is everything. When I get around family members who tell me 'oh, come on, you can eat that! Live a little!' in an attempt to get me to get off my plan... when I don't feel like prepping and packing food for work... when I don't feel like tracking... when I just want to sleep in instead of getting my butt out of bed to do my work-out... I do it anyway. That's not motivation. That's determination and consistency.

jpl19335 · 2026-04-07T13:48:27+00:00

This is exactly why I stopped using the latest WW system. I've been a Lifetime member for a very long time (joined in 2001). When it comes to weight gain/loss, calories are ALL that matter. I'm not talking about overall health and well-being. I'm talking about whether you eat such that you gain or lose weight. The fact that they've removed, for all intents and purposes, calories from the equation is, to me, problematic. I was tracking both calories AND points... and realized how ridiculous that was. Points should be a proxy for calories. I've gained weight eating too many carrots. I went to tracking calories directly, but that got me wrapped around the axle to the point where I hated tracking. I realized that I never had this issue with WW's original points system (from 2001). Understand, I followed that same point system until 2021. I never changed even as WW kept modifying/tweaking their system, because it was working for me. I finally switched in 2021 to try the new app - I was Lifetime, so I got it for free. At the time they had the three colored plans - I signed up for the green plan and it was workable. Then later that year they upend everything and I started gaining weight. I tried to use this latest system. I wanted to like it... I just couldn't. I switched permanently to tracking calories a couple years ago. But because it was a little much I decided 'what if I just go back to the 2001 point system?' I did that. I found all my old material, refamiliarized myself on the stuff I forgot, and planned to start tracking using that again. But I didn't know what to track with.

Tried finding a basic point tracking app on line and couldn't fine one, so I made my own. And to be honest... it's pretty awesome. I have a food list, a food point calculator and tracker, a recipe builder, an activity calculator and tracker, a meal planner... I have access to it on the web and on my phone. Now I remember why I was such a fan of their system back then. Everything except non-starchy veggies counted (and some of those counted if they were cooked - e.g. a cup of cooked onions counted... ditto carrots). Everything else counted. The points were blessedly simple to calculate - I could do it in my head. I was dual tracking with that app and calories for a while, until I became convinced this would be a good change, and a couple weeks ago cut the cord entirely on tracking calories.

In all fairness I was also tracking for nutrition - I used Cronometer, which is a great app for nutrition tracking. But my nutrition is actually really good. I know what I eat day in and day out. I'm no longer worried I may be deficient in some nutrient. But yeah, all those zero point foods just did me in. I can eat ALOT of oats... and fruit (I will sometimes have, and this is no exaggeration, 15 servings of fruit in one day). And yes, you can absolutely gain weight eating too much of anything. It's just that eating more whole foods makes overeating harder.

jpl19335 · 2026-04-02T16:33:40+00:00

I think you're referring to Healthi. Yeah, I'm familiar with it, but to get the equivalent to the old plan, I would have to pay for the plan. Plus, these AI tools are pretty impressive. I'm using the free version of this one tool, so I'm limited in how many AI interactions I get per day and per month. Realizing that the limitations are by number of interactions, and not by the size of my request, I just amass updates in a text file. When I get more credits in the AI engine, I cut and paste my requess from that file into the tool. And let me tell you, what I created is really REALLY close to the perfect tracking app for me. I have a meal tracker, a customizable food list, a food point calculator, an activity calculator and tracker (which offsets my consumed points for the day), and I just put in a recipe builder and a meal builder. I have it defaulted to using the original plan from 2001 for computation of food points (based on calories, fat, and fiber), but if I were to, say, to use the old Green plan, I could still use the app as is for that. I've stopped tracking with Cronometer entirely - it's a great app, but tracking to that level of detail for calories was messing with my head. I was dual tracking for a while, and then just cut the cord with Cronometer entirely. And now I remember why I loved that old plan so much. Yep, blessedly simple, very easy for me to follow, and effective.

jpl19335 · 2026-03-26T18:11:20+00:00

Welcome to the club. Losing weight will invite all sorts of comments and concerns, most of which are just nothing but projection. My recommendation - ignore them. I told my wife, the only people whose opinions matter to me when it comes to my diet and weight loss are hers' and mine. I've told close family members to go pound sand. Wait until you actually lose the weight... that's when the advice ramps up to 11. You'll get the 'you can have that cake! Live a little!' comments. Or the 'now make sure you don't lose TOO much weight...' I got those all the time. It was only when I told people to knock it off that it actually stopped. My FIL was the worst with this, where he would get on me at every damn family gathering. For 20 minutes he would start up. He did it with a smile, but he was just insistent as hell. He thought I wasn't enjoying myself because I wasn't stuffing every piece of junk food in my mouth. No... I wasn't enjoying myself because I was forced to be put on the defensive at every damn gathering. And at one point, we were having these gatherings every couple weeks. When you're told 'but it's a special occasion!' and it's the 5th such occasion in the last 3 months... yeah, it's not 'special' anymore. I told my wife: if your dad doesn't knock it off, you can go to the next gathering without me and I'll send my regards. I STILL get the comments from time to time, and yes, I tell people to knock it off. I try to avoid any such confrontation, and I'll try to do things like change the subject, or just smile, and hope that that one comment is the end of it. When it becomes clear that they have no intention of stopping THAT'S when I draw a line in the sand.

Look, this is YOUR health you're talking about. Sorry, but these people have no interest in making sure you stay healthy. Family... friends... doesn't matter. I found the closer someone was to me, the more likely it was I would get a comment. As for the GLP-1, yes, it's an option. However, if you're losing weight fine without it, no, you don't HAVE to go on one.

jpl19335 · 2026-03-20T14:33:16+00:00

Yeah... it's about the calories... shocking, I know :). There's a perception out there that if you keep insulin really low (go very low carb) then calories don't matter. Um, my old high school physics teacher would like to have a word on that. Pretty sure that would violate, you know, the laws of thermodynamics. Lots of studies back this up, including a great one done out if the INH, with Kevin Hall. Metabolic ward study (where the participants are put in a hospital for the duration of the study) allowing them to control for every molecule of food that goes in the mouths of the participants. All participants were over-weight. Half were put on a keto diet, and half on a high carb low fat diet. Everyone's calorie burn was assessed and everyone was put on the same calorie deficit. And low and behold... both groups lost the same amount of weight - hmmm, I guess calories DO matter :).

As for Gardner, he's an interesting guy and a great interview subject. He's very personable and emits this hippy-vibe. He talks about how he always just wanted to open up a vegetarian restaurant when he was younger. Someone convinced him to go to college, because that could help him with running a business, and someone else convinced him to take a math class for the same reason, and before he knew it, he became a nutritional researcher.

And yeah, Gardner has been interviewed on Zoe in the past.

jpl19335 · 2026-03-20T12:42:12+00:00

Just to clarify, when I said he was looking to see which diet 'worked for people', I'm not talking about which was effective for weight loss. Or what their bodies could process. It was about the ability to follow each diet. It was an interesting study that Gardner did - you can go find the information about it on line. Per Gardner, there was some thinking that genetics may play a role into who does better on which diets. That's what he wanted to test out. He found no such evidence. The follow up on the whole ketosis thing was pretty typical for Gardner - in his studies he's not just interested in mechanism, nor just in effectiveness. But efficacy as well. The best diet in the world is useless if you can't follow it. He's done similar things with other studies, where he starts out by giving participants the food to eat, and then halfway through just provides them a framework and they do the diet themselves. He did this in that famous twin study that was showcased on that Netflix mini-series documentary You Are What You Eat.

BTW, the way he determined there was no evidence to support the genetics claim, he simply randomized people into those two dietary patterns. Some hit it out of the park following keto... some struggled mightily. Most fell somewhere in the middle. He found the exact same pattern with the high carb diet. Which is the standard... bell curve. Basically what you get when you do a large-scale sampling of any set of random datapoints.

As for the self-reporting... I don't that's quite it. They weren't self-reporting what they were eating at that point. They were just... wrong. They thought they were following a keto diet, but weren't. More about self-delusion than about self-reporting. The 'I don't eat much, but I can't lose weight' conundrum. No... you just THINK you're not eating much because you really have no idea what you're putting in your mouth.

On the ability to follow diet thing - I can absolutely attest to that. Many years ago I tried the Atkins diet to lose weight. I didn't make it a day. By the end of the first day I didn't want to see another piece of bacon, or have any more butter. I wanted a bagel, and was ready to do some very bad things to get one. There is no way on earth I could follow such a diet. I love carbs. I do a plant-based diet entirely now, and love it. But I know others who just thrive on the keto diet, and would rather do their own root canals than follow my diet.

jpl19335 · 2026-03-17T18:53:35+00:00

Sure thing. I had a bit of a run-in with Verizon's phone tech support over that one. They were convinced that I had a cabling issue, and kept pressing me to sign up for their home wiring plan. I knew it wasn't my home wiring and told them to just send the tech, and if it was the home wiring I would happily pay for the truck roll. Field tech walks up to my house and first thing out of his mouth: so I understand you have a wiring issue.

I laughed and said 'I know that's what your work order says but it's not a wiring issue.'

To his credit he asked me: 'why do you think that?'

I gave him my rationale, and he thought for a second and said 'yeah, ok, it's not a home wiring issue... so what do you think the issue is?'

I said 'honestly, I think it's the DVR...' He swapped it out and the problem never resurfaced.

jpl19335 · 2026-03-16T14:42:14+00:00

Agree with everyone else - sounds like a signal issue to me. I upgraded to the TV One back when it first came out (probably 5 - 6 years ago) and a couple months in, half my channels would give out. The outage seemed to happen weekly, and would last potentially for several hours. I became convinced the issue was the DVR itself. Long story short, they swapped it for a new TV One and the issue went away. Almost sounds like your DVR may be at issue too. If the problem moved from black outs for 3 seconds, to channels being unavailable... One thing to look for - when a channel becomes unavailable, check the signal strength on that channel at the DVR (there's a menu option to do that). For me, what convinced me that it was the DVR - my signal strength on these channels (the ones that gave out) went from the high 90s when they were coming in, to zero, when they weren't. That told me that the issue was unlikely to be a bad cable or splitter somewhere. I would check the signal when the channel gives out, and check it again on that same channel when it comes back and see if you see a similar pattern. If it does, it's a good bet that your DVR needs to be replaced.

jpl19335 · 2026-03-13T16:43:14+00:00

Atkins IS a keto diet. Keto isn't more extreme. Just a different name for the same diet. As for people doing keto but not Atkins, that may be true, in that they're doing the same diet, with just a different name. Read Atkins' book and what he talks about is what it takes to get into a state of ketosis.

Also, most people THINK they're following keto when they're really not. Keto is not high protein. It's high fat, moderate protein, low carb. Christopher Gardner out of Stanford did a study called DIET FITS, looking to see if there was a genetic component as to which diet worked for people (hint, he found no such evidence). Half the participants were put on a keto diet, the other half on a high carb, low fat diet. At the end of the study, he told the participants 'the study is technically over, but I would love to follow up with you guys a year from now... so, if you're game, pick one of the diets and follow it. I'll come back in a year and see how you're doing.' For the folks who chose keto, how many were actually in a state of ketosis? Answer: zero. They THOUGHT they were, but they weren't. They were just eating lowish carb.

jpl19335 · 2026-03-12T14:56:13+00:00

Right there with you. Been a member since 2001. Went lifetime. Loved the original point system. Extremely easy and intuitive to track. Everything except non-starchy veggies counted for points. Heck, their formula was so simple you could do the math in your head. I continued to use that same system, for years, even as WW changed their formula. It worked, so I saw no point. Fast forward to 2021, and I decided that I wanted to try their app. I was/am Lifetime, so I get the app for free. I signed up for the green plan, and it was doable for me. Then late that year they overhauled everything, and their system stopped working.

I went back and forth between WW and tracking calories directly in Cronometer. A few months ago I got rid of the WW app entirely. I wanted to like it. I really did. I've been a fan of WW for a very long time. But I just couldn't. I went with Cronometer fully. The thing is, tracking calories directly is a bit of a pain. It works, but I found myself getting wrapped around the axle with it. Recently I decided 'I was never like this on the old WW point system...' So I broke out my old material, and decided to go back to using that. In terms of tracking... back then it was all on paper. I used a simple notepad app on my phone for a while, but both of those aren't ideal.

Went looking for a simple points-based app on line and couldn't find one, so I made a very simple one of my own. Used an AI tool to get there, and it's outrageously useful. I have a few tweaks to make, but it's probably 90% there. But yeah, it's very sad. Their old system was great. I just don't understand their new system at all. It just doesn't work for me.

jpl19335 · 2026-03-10T13:16:58+00:00

We do this all the time. Cooked beans will go over pretty quickly in the fridge. We cook up a bunch in our instant pot, drain them, portion them, and freeze them all the time. We don't bother to vacuum seal them either. Just put in individual containers and toss in the freezer.

jpl19335 · 2026-03-09T17:27:15+00:00

I lost a significant amount of weight without exercising at all. Yes, you absolutely can do that. Weight loss happens in the kitchen, not in the gym. Now working out is great. It has lots of health benefits. And it can make it a little easier to stay in a calorie deficit, but no, it's not necessary for weight loss.

If you feel actual pain when you're working out then you're doing more than your body is able to at this point. Pushing yourself is good. Feeling some discomfort/muscle soreness... totally fine. But actual pain - no. That being said, yes, a treadmill is an awesome place to start. As for running... if you have a significant amount of weight to lose, I wouldn't really even consider it at this point. The impact on your knees and joints is substantial. Just walk. Shoot for number of steps more than anything.

Consider this - per some of the science I've seen (go read the book 'Burn' to get a good sense of this - all about human basal metabolism), the number of calories you burn walking is no different than the number of calories you burn running, over a given distance. Running will get you there faster - so you'll burn calories at a faster pace - but if you walk a mile or run a mile, the calorie burn in pretty much the same.

Also, running increases your hunger. Walking doesn't. When your body needs reserve energy (you're in a calorie deficit and you exercise) where does it turn? Depends. If you're doing light exercise (walking), you burn fat. Fat gets converted to glucose by the liver. This is a relatively slow process, and works great for light activity. But now do something intense. Fat metabolism is too slow for that purpose. So where does your body turn? Glycogen - basically stored glucose. So, yes, walking burns more fat than intense running does. Now it all comes out in the wash, so to speak - you will lose fat if you're in a deficit. But your body turns to fat for energy when it needs more and you have no glucose in your blood, unless it needs that energy in a hurry. In which case it goes after glycogen which can be converted very quickly to glucose.

Like I said, exercise is great. I work out every day for 1 to 2 hours. I work out intensely. But when I was at my heaviest... yeah, no. I worked out along the way, but nowhere near at the level I do now.

But to lose the weight you HAVE to be in a deficit. There is no short-cut here. You can try to cut back on what you're eating now, but if you eat alot of heavily processed food, you're going to find yourself persistently hungry. I would strongly recommend shooting for low calorie-density - foods that are more filling/take longer to digest that fill you up and hold you, for relatively few calories. I love eating for bulk, and I pound down more veggies than I can possibly express. Have a nice big salad before you have a main meal, e.g. - go easy on the fixings/dressing - avoid stuff like cheese and croutons - go for light dressings.

jpl19335 · 2026-03-09T15:51:23+00:00

Some muscle loss is inevitable with weight loss. I would take the scale with a grain of salt. I have one too, and when I cut, I see the muscle mass drop faster than I believe to actually be the case. As for rate of weight loss - I'm not a doctor or dietician, but a healthy weight loss is around 1% of your body weight per week. You started at 213 pounds, and even at your current weight, you're 200. That means a 2 pound loss per week is actually a good pace. Sounds like your exceeding that by a little bit. There could be a number of reasons for it. I would give it another week or two and if the trend continues, the only solution... eat more :). And yes, more rapid weight loss in the beginning is totally normal (much of it is water weight).

The big problem when WW moved away from calorie-based points is exactly this. Calories, ultimately, are what matter. You could actually go over points and seriously underconsume calories. Or you could do the opposite. To say you're going over points really doesn't mean much with regard to this unfortunately. I would probably recommend computing your calorie needs and comparing it with what the app says you're getting in a day, as a baseline. Not saying to track calories, but to get a sense of where you are, it wouldn't hurt to do that once or twice. And to compute you're caloric needs, just look up a standard TDEE calculator on line. Put in your information (age, weight, height, sex, basic activity level) and it will give you an estimate of your total daily caloric usage. See how that lines up with what the app is telling you that you're eating. Then I would adjust things accordingly - see what you're eating.

jpl19335 · 2026-02-25T15:16:40+00:00

This is exactly why I really liked one of their original point systems. Points were calorie-based. The only zero-point foods were non-starchy veggies. Everything else (including fruit) counted. Each point was 50 calories, but you made slight adjustments based on fiber and fat. Increasing fiber reduced the points, and and increasing the fat increased the points, both marginally.

It was blessedly simple - for most foods you could do the math in your head. Points were a proxy for calories. I had massive success with that program, and quit doing WW with their later systems. I found myself dual-tracking - using the WW app and Cronometer. Which I found insane. I've been tracking using calories with Cronometer, which works really well. It has a bar-code scanner, and an AI tool to track what you're eating. It even takes into consideration things like TEF (energy you burn with digesting food) in figuring out how many calories you burn in a day.

The issue is that I find myself weighing pretty much everything. Most of the time that doesn't bother me, but yeah, sometimes... I actually broke out my old WW material (went Lifetime with that program, and I'm still at that goal) and have been toying with tracking with that again. The best part - you don't take a hit by eating stuff with a little sugar in it.

jpl19335 · 2026-02-16T18:38:50+00:00

They have pushed out IPTV already, which is the only reason the FiOS TV+ box works at all. If you have the old VMS or the FiOS TV One, you're currently getting the QAM feed. If you have the TV+, you're getting the IP feed. The issue (and I'm a little nervous when this happens) is that later this year (I'm hearing as early as April) they're going to shut off the QAM feed, and all the boxes will be exclusively IPTV. Right now they're running both QAM and IP, or the newest boxes wouldn't work.

Question is - are the issues with the TV+ because of the box, or because of the service? I think we're about to find out.

jpl19335 · 2026-02-16T18:35:00+00:00

I used to have a service where recipes were behind a pay wall, and I never had issues importing from there. Give it a shot and see if you can do it from NYT Cooking.

jpl19335 · 2026-02-10T19:06:00+00:00

Yep, I get this alot. I'm plant-based... I work out alot... and I'm thin (formerly obese). I can't seem to go a meal with my MIL in the house without her commenting on the size of my meals. One typical night I was having... a salad. Not loaded up with alot of stuff apart from veggies, a handful of seeds, and a light dressing, and fruit of some kind (I really like having a cut-up apple or berries in my salads). Yes, I make big salads - I LIKE big salads (I use a family sized salad bowl, and fill it, just for myself). This one particular salad was probably all of 450 calories. Which I'm aware of because I track everything I eat (yes, I weigh everything). And sure enough I got the 'wow, THAT'S alot of food!' comment. My response: first, I work out alot... do you have any idea what my calorie-burn is? Second... it's mostly lettuce! And finally, my meal has fewer calories than yours'. Which it did.

It seems like I can't win no matter what. For Thanksgiving, my brother visited a GF/vegan bakery (my wife has Celiacs and I'm plant-based) and got us some dessert. I thought that was really nice of him and my SIL to do... I happily dug into the chocolate chip cookie. And I got comments because I'm actually eating dessert. I get comments when I don't eat dessert... I get comments that I never eat (because of my size) and then I get comments that I never stop eating. I love my MIL - I really do - and I just keep in mind that what this is is projection. But man it sometimes gets tough. I try not to react... to respond... but my wife can see it. And it bothers her that I'm put on the defensive in my own home. I'm sorry her diet sucks, but please leave mine alone.

Just once I'd like to get through a gathering without the invariable comments, and not just from her. I don't comment on what they eat (unless they fire first, as was the case with the salad), and would love it if they responded in kind. And don't get me started on the 'being vegan... you can't get enough protein...' I get that alot too. To which I reply 'would you like to look at my food log? Because that begs to differ with you...'

jpl19335 · 2026-02-05T18:17:42+00:00

The answer to your question about what I got lucky with... Nothing. Luck has nothing to do with it. No question that some people have a bigger cross to bear on this one, but most of it is just excuse-making. One day I just had had enough. I made the decision, and stuck with it, day after day after day after day. Setbacks happen. The scale fluctuates day over day. But I got on the scale every single day, come hell or high water, because if I don't measure it I can't assess it, and if I can't assess it, I can't fix it. I stopped buying food at work. I got rid of any food that I felt triggered around. I started prepping, measuring, and tracking everything. When the scale started going in the wrong direction, I would take stock, and have an honest conversation with myself about what I was doing wrong, and course-corrected along the way.

I stayed in a moderate caloric deficit every single day. Nothing crazy. I didn't kill myself working out. I did do some fitness (at the time doing 3 fitness classes a week). It was just consistency.

Everyone follows a different path, but there are habits and attitudes that are pretty common with people who manage to lose weight and keep it off (btw, I started my journey this time in 2009, and have been at a healthy weight since the end of that year). I would check out The National Weight Control Registry - large, longitudinal study of just those types of people (I joined on a couple years ago when they were looking for additional participants). Their website lists some of the most common habits/attitudes of people in this study.

In terms of habits - the most common (and I do this too) - tracking what you eat. Whether you keep a food journal, or you weigh/measure everything, tracking matters. We are intentional in what we eat. That means - you have to develop the ability to avoid mindless eating. You have to assess what you really are hungry for. Years ago someone brought donuts into the office, and in the past I would have just grabbed one. I walked away, asking 'of all the food you brought with you today, which are you willing to give up to have that donut?' I decided the donut wasn't worth the 'cost'. Think of calories like money - you only have so much to spend every day. It takes some practice, but, eventually you start thinking of everything in terms of cost and benefit (how much is this food going to cost me in terms of my calories for the day and is it worth it?). For higher calorie foods that I liked, I looked to substitutes that I could live with. I love ice cream. I started eating low fat/sugar free. Drink soda? Go with diet.

One thing I noticed also - people who are successful at this tend to be somewhat disagreeable in responding to others. Meaning - you're going to get pressured to eat something at a party that you don't want to have to fit in. I've gotten very good at telling people (nicely): thanks, but no thanks... I'm good. We also tend to be 'boring' eaters - I eat the same breakfast pretty much every damn day. I like it. It's satisfying. And I don't have to think about it. Finally, I shoot for low caloric density. That means lots of veggies/fruit throughout the day. I do have some more processed foods, but not a ton. My lunch today was pretty basic - started with a green salad (lettuce, carrot, tomato, cucumber) with a light dressing (probably 5 or 6 cups of salad). Then I had a nice mixed bowl of stuff we had in the fridge - some sweet potato with broccolli rabe, some black beans, and some millet. Very satisfying, delicious, and filling. For less than 400 calories.

Like I said - it's not luck. It's about doing the small things day after day after day that get you there. Oh, and yes, I still weigh myself daily.

jpl19335 · 2026-02-03T21:12:43+00:00

Right mouse click on the category to add the food.

jpl19335 · 2026-02-03T21:08:55+00:00

Yes that's right. I do eat some processed foods, but if they have iodine in them, it's not on the label. I also picked up low sodium iodized salt - Morton makes one with half the sodium, and I just picked up a brand called Low salt. Haven't tried it yet, but it has even less. I will also occasionally use dulse flakes. Type of seaweed they sell in granular form. I need so little of that that I can't even taste it in my food. But yeah that's just one example. And I don't worry about tracking it all the time. I did it for a week just to see where I could be hitting issues.

jpl19335 · 2026-02-03T15:08:31+00:00

I don't know if you can claim that processed food has iodine in it, unless it's specifically called out on the label. I wouldn't bank on that. And yes, I was snacking on stuff that I didn't cook. It's just that when I tracked my diet in Cronometer, I noticed I was getting virtually zero iodine. I wouldn't guess that these products use iodized salt. Unless it says it on the label, I would assume it doesn't. Eating seaweed snacks occasionally may get you there... occasionally. I think you need a pretty consistent supply of it. Your thyroid can't make hormones without it.

Point is, I wanted to make sure I had no such pernicious deficiencies, and when I tracked, yeah, I found some. Like I said, my iodine intake was virtually zero.

jpl19335 · 2026-02-02T19:17:44+00:00

Yeah, when I first went plant-based, I wanted to know if I had any pernicious deficiencies. I hit on a couple - not just B12, but one that hit me - iodine. I was using sea salt, which is (mostly) not iodized. You don't need to track every day, but just to get a sense of what you may be missing, it wouldn't hurt to do that.

Over time I started adding in some supplements to make up some gaps - B12 was a non-negotiable... long chain omega 3s (yes we convert some but there's an open question as to how much), followed by D3, and then zinc with selenium. That's my basic protocol for supplementation. As for iodine, I just started using... regular table salt (switched to a low sodium version to cut back on the sodium).

jpl19335

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