I have elected to check in. My observation is there is no single "one size fits all" approach to weight loss. I have observed some trends.
FWIW I am a 27 year RN. As a new grad I was the only male RN many of my colleagues had ever seen. I recall (with some auld lang syne) my colleagues smoking at the nurse's station and tipping their ashes into ashtrays with hospital logos engraved in the bottom of the bowl while maintaining spotless white clothing. Non filtered Pall Malls were quite popular back in the day, with non-filtered Camel a close second. They (we) used to measure our coffee consumption in pots daily rather than cups daily. We have come a long way for sure, I recall telling my neighborhood watch captain that I needed to resign from regular patrols for nursing school and he took the time to ascertain I was going to be a male nurse at the end of my schooling. I know more about the monthly female cycle and more about childbirth than any man should ever be subjected to. I surpassed my lifetime limit for baby shower attendance around Y2K, but have been cleaning up on the office pools for when the new baby will actually arrive for about 10 years now. Not enough to buy a nice boat, but I can take my wife to dinner a couple times annually on my winnings.
So here is what I know/ have observed:
1. If you elect and follow a life style change that will eventually shed the pounds, and then just live the new lifestyle, the pounds will come off. If you are totally sedentary and start walking say one mile a day five nights per week and want to weigh 135# , you can look up the daily calories you need, limit your self to those calories, put the steps in 5 nights per week, and you will weigh 135# eventually, with the well established good habits you need to keep the pounds off.
2. Whatever diet you choose to follow, if "The Diet" cuts out all processed food you have a fighting chance.
3. There is no "One Plan to Rule Them All". Some folks can keep going to fast food five nights per week and lose the pounds by going to the gym. Some folks can start eating organic vegan, skip the gym, and lose the pounds. Most of the people I know that have succeeded got there by doing some of both.
4. There is no working shortcut that I know of. If you go on the broccoli/water/cheese/quinoa diet planning to drop
30# in two months it might work, but those 30# are going to bring friends with them when they go back on during month three.
5. Having an accountability partner is clearly a key component for many folks. They just can't do it themselves, but when Katie is in competition with Kathy to stick to whatever plan, often they both do well.
6. If you look, you can easily find people that lost weight while eating keto/vegan/pescatarian blah blah. The only useful data in the set is that individuals (you are one of those) have to find the food plan that works for themselves/ yourself.
7. If you get short of breath (or have meaningful joint pain) walking down your driveway to check your mailbox, you should initiate a weight loss plan under the supervision of your medical provider.
8. If you just can't figure it out yourself, among the various commercial products I ( no financial relationship) am mostly a fan of the weight watchers brand approach. #1 vegetables are "free," zero points. If you don't want to be a frequent flyer at your local hospital, the top two things you can do are to stop smoking and start eating vegetables, lots of vegetables. #2 The other good thing I observe about the WW organization is the support group aspect. When my charge nurse checked the ER census this afternoon at 4 PM we had three frequent flyers in the ER as potential admits to our floor, with their various primary complaints as 'same old, same old.'
Lifestyle change is hard. Most people benefit from being around folks going through the same lifestyle hurdles. As a nursing student I had to go to three support groups, and one of those had to be AA. I came home from my AA meeting feeling like the regulars had substituted coffee, talking and cigarettes in place of alcohol, but it was a net benefit for them in their situations. The memorable one for me was an evening meeting for kids with juvenile diabetes, the "sugar free gang." The JD kids played basketball together for about 45 minutes at the beginning of the meeting, just like regular kids. Then they all sat down at a big table and they all checked their blood sugar levels. Instead of being freaks, they were all checking their blood sugars together like it was a normal thing to do, then they started comparing to see who got the lowest number. These were 9-14 years old each, I remember one kid shouting "36 mg/dL" and I sharted a little bit. He was asymptomatic and was clearly relishing the soda pop he needed in the moment, but I said a little prayer of thanks to King Jesus in the moment I was wearing blue jeans instead of nursing whites.
You can do this. It is not easy. Good luck and best wishes.
