have you achieved near permanent weight loss via changes in your diet?

And not portion control? That is, do you feel full, but simply eat a lot better and this resulted in long term weight loss?

Wed. Apr 18, 1:32pm

No; in my experience, you have to exercise portion control. What I found, though, was that through portion control (really, calorie counting), I found out what kinds of foods would make and keep me full. Foods that are higher in fat and protein make me full and keep me full; foods that are full of simple carbs, well, I could eat forever and not be full. So now I stay away from those, or have them as a small side dish.

But, in response to your question, kind of yes. After spending a good amount of time seriously regulating what I eat and how much, now, I am full from a much smaller quantity of food!

I think one problem with "just eating healthier," and not watching portion size, is that you may look for lower calorie foods and consider them "healthy," but they won't fill you up unless you eat many portions, so you end up eating way more calories than if you just had a normal-sized portion of something that had more calories per serving.

Wednesday, April 18, 2007, 1:41 PM

I lost my first 30-40lbs by going from eating "whatever/whenever" to a primarily vegan diet/natural diet (strict vegan first 2 months and then gave that up and ate fish/poultry and some dairy products when I found it too hard to continue). I didn't count calories, or portion things outright-instead I ate whole, natural, unprocessed (or lightly processed) foods-lots of fresh fruit and veggies, nuts, grains, and soy. Perhaps I also gave myself slightly smaller portions, but between eating a much cleaner diet and exercising at least 5 days a week, these have become permanent changes.

I have now lost 73 lbs (about 5 more to go!)-and eating as natural as possible is something I can do always (as opposed to a fad diet) but you need to find something that works for you, something that you can stick with long term. If you don't like what you are eating, you are not going to stick with it! good luck!

Wednesday, April 18, 2007, 10:31 PM

Yes.

I didn't control portions of normal meals and I can't bear to count calories (too big a pain). I did use a little gimmick when it came to sweets (my weakness). I took 1/4 my typical serving and allowed myself seconds. Which meant in the end I ate half what was typical for me. A form of portion control, yes, but not what we normally mean when we talk about portion control.

I cut back on milk (from 8 cups or so a day to around 3), which made a huge difference.

I lost 35 pounds and kept it off for over two years. An extremely protracted season of stress and grief gave some of it back to me, but I've gotten rid of some of that now.

Wednesday, April 18, 2007, 10:58 PM

Not with changes to diet alone - no. But add some exercise and yes. I can eat pretty much any of the foods I enjoy and do so in portions that I find satisfying. I definitely had to clean up my diet (cut waaaay back on processed foods, fats and sauces) and I honestly find I no longer even enjoy many of the foods that used to be staples, but I simply enjoy eating larger portions so the pounds would creep back on - a couple here, a couple there until I had 10 pounds to lose again. I added regular exercise and the weight stays off, I can enjoy the portions I want to eat, and I look and feel better. I suppose I could do it with diet alone, but not without considerable vigilance.

Thursday, April 19, 2007, 12:15 AM

YES

Feel free to check out my blog. If you look at the links on the right hand side, you will see one that says "How I lost the first 80 pounds" and I have a lot of tips there.

Kate (kissmekate02)

Link

Thursday, April 19, 2007, 7:50 PM

Personally, no. I love to eat. I love to eat A LOT. I love carbs, even the healthy ones. I could eat a jar of peanut butter in like three sittings. I could easily eat a bag of granola every day. I gained about 15 pounds when I became vegan because I went crazy eating all sorts of healthy foods - whole grains, brown rice, soy, nuts, olive oil...all good for me, all bad for my waistline. I didn't lose weight until I really started to control my portions.

Thursday, April 19, 2007, 11:22 PM

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