I'm one of those people "doing my own thing".
And it worked and it continues to work.
I'm not an expert by any means, but learned a thing or two about eating and being active. and also about aging and eating.
I have to put a disclaimer that it works for ME. But I believe everyone is different sand has to come up with their own plan. But I also believe t's possible for everyone to figure out what works best for them.
So please read on if you are interested.
About 2+ years ago I lost about 25 pounds by doing 2 things: counting calories burn on Fitbit and logging what I eat on Iphone (MyFitnesPal app).
I am able to keep that weight level since then.
I had been working out before, but maybe less diligently.
But more drastic improvement came from tracking how much I eat and what I eat.
It takes a bit of time to log in your foods - yes, but it's worth it and you get used to it. The benefits of doing it are huge: first of all, once you see how much you eat and what you eat, you imediataely realize what the problem is. Having data empowers you. You actualy can act upon it.
For example when I first started logging in food, and saw how much sugar I actually consume during the day - it really was a shocker.
Then I started making adjustments - decreased sugar intake, carbs intake. We are talking dramatically, not just 20-30% less - what I had to do was like 3 times less of that staff. And I'm still having a little too much sugar, but at least not 3 times the norm.
Then over a few weeks I sort of deviced my own food plan, a combination of things I like with least sugar/carbs, but still with some. At the same time I increased intake of green salad/arugula etc. by about as much - 3 times.
I started agrresively with the calories intake budget of 1200 calories per day - was doing it for two weeks and working out at the same time. Lost weight dramatically - 10-12 pounds right away.
But then realized I was really sort of a bit hungry. I bumped up my limit to 1500 per day. This felt about right. and it still does.
The benefit of having a daily food calories budget is that it forces you to make choices.
For example Iused to like having bagegl for breakfast, prety regularly.
NOw that I know that a bagel is anywhere from 300 to as much as 450 calories (like a bagel with cinnamon or assiago) - well, it's a big chunk of my 1500 limit. And of course I would have it with cream cheese, so that's another, say 100-120 calories. And a coffe with cream and sugar can be another 100.
So it's a 400-600 calories breakfast at a minimum. I can have it but what is left for me is about 1000 calories for the rest of the day.
Or I would have a muffin. Now muffin by itself is about 500 calories. It's 30% of my daily food. I have to ask myself - do I really like muffins THAT MUCH? To spend a third of all I can eat on it?
It turns out that I don't like it that much. Same goes for donuts. I used to have it, but it's more like a habit.
So basically if I only give myself 1500 budget per day - I don;t really have room for a muffin - it takes way too much of my daily calories. and is it really that filling? - yes, but for a chort time.
Another example is a choice of having a cereal in the morning vs. an egg with turkey breast.
CHeck out the portion sixe of a cereal - it's about 1/2 a cup, or 28-32 grams - one once. and it's at least 120 calories, or 140-150 of it has some sugar in it.
Take your time to measure it - see how much cereal is in one once - it's nothing! Can you get full with it? No, I need at least two or three portions of it, so it's again about 500 calories right there.
Now consider have an egg (about 75-80 calories) and 2 onces of turkey breast (about 50 calories).
That 130 calories breakfast will actually fill me up comfortably until lunch.
So these are the choices I learned to make.
So for about 2+ years now I eat about 1500 calories and I burn about 4000, on an average day, on a good day over 5000, on extremely active day over 6000 calories (that's total count - my active count plus passive count - BMR - calories burned during 24 day from breathing, heart beat, digesting etc.)
I try to stay at this level since then and for most days - I do. My weight stays constant more or less - doesn't drop, as you would imagine from above numbers. I'm pretty active, can play tennis for a long time, outrunning many of my partners. In fact it's a challeng for me to find someone who can really play a long match. Many people can't do it.
Important byproduct of my adjustments: all my health issues got resolved: digestive issues, chronic coughing - all gone pretty much without a trace. I also get sick (regular colds etc.) very rearly now.
I also have much less, almost no seasonal allergies. Before I was mowing the grass in spring, all sneezing etc. Now - almost no reaction to it.
Note that I didn't really eliminate any food from my diet, so technically I'm not on a diet. I just have less of everything, but some of it I have significantly less.
I'm nearing my 50, not too young. And another thing I realized - when you get older you can't keep eating as much as you used to when you are 20. I useed to drink a lot of milk, I liked it and keep liking it. I could drink sa much as over hal;f a gallonm at a time - no problem. Now with age I still can have it, but not half a gallon, I can have 6-8 onces glass - if I don;t want any digestion problems.
So my theory is that a 20 year old healthy active person can eat 2000-3000 calories a day and have no problems.
Once you get to 40s, this 2000 benchmark is probaby not good anymore: your metabolic processes are changing - you don't need that many calories any more.
How do you know?
Well, one way of looking at it is checking your BMR estimate - it's based on your profile input (age, gender, weight etc.).
It showes you how much calories you burn by doing nothing active.
Mine is about 1400. I figured if I eat 2000 calories, it looks like I would be having an excess calories.
Now for a 20 year old BMR is closer to 2000, therefore 2000 based daily calories diet is more appropriate.
My 2+ of experience is just for me. I think everyone has to do something a bit different for him/herself.
But it is possible.
