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Last Updated on May 27, 2022 by Latrice
My weight loss journey technically started when I was 14-years-old.
Since then I’ve lost weight, gained weight, lost the weight I’ve gained and gained the weight I’ve lost.
It’s been a rollercoaster to say the least.
Struggling with finding a diet that works, being consistent, being self-disciplined, and knowing what foods actually worked to help me lose weight.
So I am all too familiar with weight loss challenges and struggles.
Through it all, I’ve lost a total of 75-lbs with 45 of them lost in 4 months with keto intermittent fasting.
Below are the top 10 tips I have for women going through it, that have tried a thousand times to lose weight, and are looking for some weight loss wisdom from a veteran.
Tip 1: You don’t have to starve or suffer from cravings while losing weight
When I first started losing weight, I used to struggle with this big time.
I’d try all types of diets that either had me starving or gave me cravings so strong that it was hard for me to focus on my work.
The eternal chatter to eat something would be so “loud” that I’d have to eat something to focus on my work which made it very hard to stick to the diet.
Later, I found a lot of these diets didn’t support weight loss and were counterproductive.
They required restricting calories and eating low fat, but had foods in them that increased cravings and appetite. It was torturous.
When I started eating a diet of real foods, getting enough fat and protein, and limiting my carbs to support weight loss, I started seeing weight loss that didn’t require starving.
I felt well-fed and the cravings weren’t a problem anymore. It was cool.
This taught me starving and cravings weren’t a requirement while losing weight. And was actually what made weight loss way more challenging than it already is.
Focus on eating real foods and eating enough real foods. Soon, you won’t need to snack because your appetite will become regulated. You’ll get to a point where your body will naturally need less food.
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Tip 2: Caloric restriction is much easier on a high fat, low carb diet
When you’re eating a diet high in fat and low in carbs, you’re supporting your body’s natural ability to tap into its own body fat.
If the body is able to “eat” from what it has stored, you’ll naturally fall into needing less food. Or if you do deliberately restrict your calories, it’ll be MUCH EASIER to do so.
A diet high in fat and low in carbs supports easier caloric restriction because you’re training your body to depend less on glucose and more on fat including its own fat.
The standard American diet has our bodies depending more on glucose which makes us hungrier, in need of more food than our bodies can burn, and with increased cravings.
When we try to lose weight with a low-fat, everything-in-moderation standard American diet approach, we continue to eat the foods that actually increase carbs, cravings, appetite, and glucose in our bodies and makes it hard for us to lose weight.
This is what makes caloric restriction super hard to do and why many of us give up. We’re eating a diet that does not support how the body loses weight by tapping into fat stores.
We actually make ourselves hungrier on these diets while trying to restrict calories. Issa set up sis!
There are other diets like this too. Fat-free, high-fruit, juice fasts and master cleanses also give you lots of carbs and implements caloric restriction, but doesn’t support the body’s natural ability to burn fat. Torturing you in the process.
When my body got used to eating a high fat, low carb diet, I lost 45 pounds effortlessly with keto intermittent fasting. And I used to be someone that thought I’d be hungry for the rest of my life.
I mean, I actually forget to eat sometimes. That’s huge for me!
Read:
- How I lost 6 pounds in 5 days – starting the weight loss routine strong
- Keto diet food list: for those looking to lose weight QUICK
Tip 3: Focusing on eating all real foods and 3 meals a day is a great first step towards a successful weight loss journey
If you’re just starting out on your weight loss routine and wonder what the heck you should be eating, start with all real foods.
Don’t worry about calories, macros, or any of that jazz. Just focus on eating real foods and limiting your meals to 3 meals a day.
You might start out needing snacks (of real foods) as you learn how much food you need to eat to feel satiated, but eventually you’ll get to a point where you’re eating enough food in each meal to not need snacks.
Once you feel yourself needing to eat less, you can even incorporate some easy intermittent fasting by not eating within a few hours before bed.
To take it up a notch, cut out sweet potatoes, potatoes, and any other starchy vegetable, limit your amount of fruit, and portion nuts and nut butters.
Focus on eating dark leafy greens, low-carb veggies, and getting enough fatty protein.
This is how you can transition to a real foods diet for weight loss without torturing yourself with sugar withdrawals and caloric restrictions your body isn’t ready for.
When I first started with the paleo diet 6 years ago, I just focused on eating real foods. I didn’t trip about macros or calories. I just ate.
I lost 35 pounds in 3 months. It was pretty cool to feel so liberated.
Read:
- How to simply lose weight if you weigh 200 lbs or more
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- How to lose 100+ pounds with a simple and satisfying diet
Tip 4: Exercising too hard or too soon can make you too hungry to be consistent on your weight loss routine
We pretty much know exercising increases appetite right? The more you workout, the hungrier you will be.
So imagine being fresh on a diet that is a change for your body so causes increased appetite and cravings, then coupling that with exercises that also increase appetite and cravings.
It’s like stacking hungry on top of hungry making it really challenging to stick to your weight loss routine. Challenging in ways that not even will-power or self-discipline can handle.
Your body is just too hungry and you’ll fight it into fat loss submission. Often times then not, we lose and end up beating ourselves up over our lack of consistency.
In these instances, it’s not you boo, it’s that you’re exercising too hard and, or too soon.
Instead, if you’re fresh on a diet, give your body time to adjust to that diet. Give it about 2 to 4 weeks to withdraw from sugar, get used to eating real foods, and having a normal appetite.
Then slowly began to incorporate exercises like light weight lifting and HIIT cardio. Determine if you’re doing a safe amount of exercise for you by keeping note of your appetite.
If your appetite and cravings increase, you’re exercising too hard. If they don’t increase, you’re doing just fine.
Tip 5: Eating too much fruit can increase cravings and snacking
I’ve seen so many people post fruit bowls as their breakfast in Facebook weight loss groups and then post about how they’re struggling with cravings and snacking between meals.
If only I had the courage to tell these people their fruit-bowl breakfasts were highly likely linked to their cravings and snacking habits.
I didn’t know this either until I learned the truth about sugar in fruit and quit eating so much fruit.
Fruit has sugar. Some fruit more than others. And if you eat too much fruit, you will increase your cravings and need to snack.
And truth be told, a lot of the fruits we have today are bred to be super sweet and more accessible than our ancient bodies are used to.
So although fruit is considered “healthy,” it isn’t a food our bodies are used to having at the amount we’re able to have them. Our bodies aren’t used to how sweet these fruits are.
But our bodies still react in ancient ways by wanting more of it in case we’re not able to find more fruit later. It’s an evolutionary reaction to sweets. Our bodies evolved to get it when it can.
Unfortunately, we keep getting it to the tune of having full fruit bowls for meals and eating fruits all day. Or having fruit smoothies and juices.
Our fruits are also way sweeter with more carbs in them.
This increases our cravings, appetites, and blood sugar levels.
Limit fruits ESPECIALLY if you’re someone that struggles with strong cravings and feeling hungry “all” the time.
I used to believe I was just naturally a hungrier person that would have to spend my life carrying snacks so I could keep my mood and blood sugar in check.
Then I quit eating as much fruit. Changed the game forever.
Read:
33 healthy real foods I avoided to lose 45 pounds
Tip 6: Low fat foods actually increase cravings and increase appetite
Highly processed, low fat foods are disgusting without the fat so what food manufacturers do to improve the taste and make it palatable is add sugars which increases carbs.
More sugar and more carbs means increased cravings and increased appetite.
Check it out next time for yourself. Check the amount of sugar and carbs in low-fat, highly processed foods.
These people think they’re slick, but it is that extra sugar they’ve added for taste that will make you fat. Them removing the fat from the food doesn’t help one lick if the sugar content is a mess.
If you try to lose weight with low-fat foods, you risk increasing your cravings and appetite and getting entirely too much sugar.
Instead, stick to eating full-fat real foods.
And if you are currently trying to lose weight with low-fat foods, and have been struggling with cravings and a monstrous appetite, it’s highly likely those low-fat packaged foods working against your efforts.
Save yourself the trouble and ditch ‘em.
Read:
8 keto diet meal ideas for weight loss that helped me lose 45 lbs.
Tip 7: Cheat meals can stall your weight loss progress
Yea, yea, I know. Life can get boring without the occasional pizza or decadent piece of chocolate, but hear me out here.
If you’re struggling with cravings and are working to regulate your appetite, reintroducing foods that cause increased cravings and appetite can be what’s holding you up.
It can be these foods that are making you hungry on your diet during the week and it can be these foods that are making it hard for you to stick to your weight loss routine.
Eating them once a week can make it hard for your body to regulate blood sugar. Regulated blood sugar means less cravings and an in check appetite.
But if you’re eating a cheat meal that throws your blood sugar into the air once a week, you put your body back at a stage that it needs to deal with the sugars and regulating again.
This only keeps your cravings and appetite high instead of letting your healthy routine do its job of regulating your appetite and cutting cravings.
(That’s if you’re on a real foods diet that will actually eliminate cravings and regulate appetite. If your diet is already a bit funky, that cheat meal just makes it even yuckier.)
If you’re struggling with cravings and a whacky appetite on your current weight loss routine, and do have a weekly cheat meal, try going 30 days without the cheat meal.
It might change your life.
Cheat meals used to cause me all types of issues during the week. I cut them out and started being able to stick to my diet long enough to actually see weight loss.
Read:
How to break stalled weight loss on the ketogenic diet
Tip 8: Alcohol makes weight loss hard
Simply put, alcohol is sugar. Even the low-carb, keto-friendly, diet-friendly drinks.
Through my experience, they do trigger increased cravings.
Also, I don’t know about you, but when I drink, I like to eat and the last thing I’m looking to eat is something healthy.
I want fries, a sloppy burger with bacon on it, and a fat slice of something sweet and cakey. Maybe even a chunky milk shake. Oo, or pizza.
And I want them at the worst times. Late at night or super early in the morning after the club.
So what I did was cut out the drinking… for now. I might allow myself wine once I reach my goal, but we’ll see.
My weight came right off and sticking to my diet got much easier without alcohol in the picture.
Read:
Tip 9: Implementing a daily mindset alignment practice can greatly improve your consistency and self-discipline thus improve your weight loss results
I recently polled my Instagram followers about their weight loss struggles and most said they struggled with consistency and self-discipline.
I can so relate.
Being self-disciplined enough to be consistent with my diet is definitely something I’ve found challenging and is still something I work on every morning.
It is a mindset thing. Even with the best and most supportive diet, our mindsets do have to be aligned.
You can tell your mindset isn’t aligned if you struggle with inconsistency on your diet and self-discipline.
What I have done to improve my consistency and self-discipline is work on my mindset every morning by journaling my goals, meditating, and reading my list of goals daily. I also script how it’ll feel to achieve my weight loss routine.
So far, this method has made me remember my goals in times when I’d be tempted to cheat on my diet. I actually say “no” quicker than I can contemplate saying “yes” to something I know I shouldn’t be eating.
I’ve even skipped popcorn at the movies. That’s huge.
Having a routine that changes your mindset can be the major change you need to stick to your diet.
Read:
How I lost 6 pounds in 5 days – starting the weight loss routine strong
Tip 10: Keto intermittent fasting has been one of the best methods for lasting weight loss
I’ve tried ALL TYPES of diets.
I’ve done low fat, vegan, vegetarian, all raw foods, juice fasts, liver cleanses, master cleanses, metabolic typing diets, eating one grapefruit a day, drinking smoothies all day, green eggs and ham say no to Sam, everything.
Well, it sure does feel like everything.
Those diets left me hungry, craving, moody, and was straight up torturous in my opinion. They sucked to stick to which made them hard to stick to.
These are the diets that had me believing I was just going to have to live with being a hungry person needing snacks every few hours to survive and keep my mood in check.
Then I found paleo and it helped. Big time.
And when I learned about keto, I decided to give it a try.
That’s when my appetite and cravings changed so much that I actually started forgetting to eat sometimes.
Like, I’ve had times where I actually wondered why my stomach was hurting and then remembered I hadn’t eaten yet.
That’s nuts for someone that used to watch the clock for her next meal because she was super hungry although just eating.
With a changed appetite, I started intermittent fasting naturally. I just didn’t need much food and could only eat once or twice a day.
That weight seemed to come off effortlessly.
For me, keto and intermittent fasting changed the game big time.
It transformed how I eat and how much food I need.
Liberating to say the least.
Read:
How I lost 45 lbs in 4 months on effortless intermittent fasting
Roundup
Tip 1: You don’t have to starve or suffer with cravings to lose weight
Tip 2: Caloric restriction is much easier on a high fat, low carb diet
Tip 3: Focusing on eating all real foods and 3 meals a day is a great first step towards a successful weight loss journey
Tip 4: Exercising too hard or too soon can make you too hungry to be consistent on your weight loss routine
Tip 5: Eating too much fruit can increase cravings and snacking
Tip 6: Low-fat foods actually increase cravings and increase appetite
Tip 7: Cheat meals can stall your weight loss progress
Tip 8: Alcohol makes weight loss hard
Tip 9: Implementing a daily mindset alignment practice can greatly improve your consistency and self-discipline thus improve your weight loss results
Tip 10: Keto intermittent fasting has been one of the best methods for lasting weight loss
Conclusion
These are 10 major tips I have to give from my very own weight loss transformation.
I first started losing weight when I was 14-years-old and weighing 245 lbs.
Over the last 18 years, I’ve learned so much about health, wellness, and weight loss learning about what is healthy eating and how to make weight loss work.
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