Successful weight loss for women? page

[Sunnivara]

I am female and really want to lose about 30lbs. I got inspired reading through the before and after pics thread until I realized most successes were men. Most of the threads complaining about not losing weight seem to be from women. I always wanted to believe that "men can lose weight easily and women can't" was a bit of a myth, but it's looking like reality.
However, some women here have been quite successful. So, for the women who have successfully lost significant weight, what is your strategy? Do you do anything beyond eating primal? Do you take herbal supplements to balance hormones, boost adrenal function, etc? Do you have to eat lower carb? Count calories? Life weights more to build muscle mass? Do you have to fun marathons?

[Kakes]

Really? I've seen plenty of women's stories on there! My sister-in-law lost 25 pounds in her first 2 months. I've lost 14 (I'm within 5-10 of ultimate goal weight so I have to start pushing more). A friend of mine has lost 12 in a month. There are so many women on this forum who are dropping pounds/inches like crazy. The more you have to lose, the easier it is to lose them without working terribly hard for it. Start out just eating primal and forming good habits, then tweak as you find out what works for you. Learning to listen to your body and learn how to read signals is important.

[curlygirl]

The weight comes off just eating primal. I did shake up my normal workouts about the time I went primal and started bodyrocking. Many people here do crossfit workouts - but I have some disc injuries that won't let me do that. Bodyrocking is HIIT and uses your own body weight to build muscle. Muscle burns fat. You get a cardio workout and strength training all in one. I do also do low intensity aerobic to warm up or cool down. About 1hr of exercise 4 days a week. For a long time I only did 30min and still got results. BUT, started feeling so good with paleo and had so much energy, I increased the exercise a bit. It just feels good. Best of luck to you!

[Sunnivara]

Really? I've seen plenty of women's stories on there!

Well I did acknowledge there are many successful women stories. I just meant the successes seem to be skewed more toward men while the "failures" seem to be skewed more toward women. So I wanted to know if the successful women (compared to less successful women) had to go the "extra mile" to make it happen, and what that "extra mile" was.

[amdws1234]

NO extra mile here. Just sticking to the basics, no refeeds, no resets, no bulletproof coffee, no whole 30 or whatever. Lost 9 lbs in the first 3 weeks, lost 5 lbs in the last 5 weeks. I am about 2.5 lbs from my lowest adult weight. I feel great. Try it, even when I wasn't losing weight (I've had 2 little plateaus) I was getting smaller.

The beauty for me is how simple it was to transition. I was already eating organic, not lots of sugar, bread rarely. Not to have to worry about fat or calories is liberating. KISS (keep it simple stupid) has been my philosophy and it's working.

[jammies]

I follow a pretty basic primal blueprint with a few exceptions made for autoimmune disease. I think the common things that I have noticed for women not losing weight:

1. Eating dairy
2. Eating nuts
3. Being too rigid on the diet
4. Eating too many processed meats (bacon, lunch meats, etc)
5. Too many paleo substitutes (paleo pancakes, cookies, etc.)
6. Use of artificial sweeteners
7. Maybe the use of protein shakes.

Just my two cents

[jo]

I lost weight cutting carbs and increasing protein (while keeping my calories at maintenance level on Fitday). This was before I started MDA. Paleo has lead to no weight loss at all. I agree that women seem to be struggling with weight achievement more than men. Remember too, that those who do not achieve what they want will just move on. I suspect there are quite a few of those we never hear from.

One thing that concerns me is when people post here complaining that they are not losing weight they get told that they are not doing it good enough. Cut nuts, cut dairy, cut calories..... Is this really how PB is supposed to be? Restrictive? I think many people gain weight because they are missing nutrients and minerals from their diet and this advice to cut food intake further can make the situation worse. You shouldn't have to cut nutritional food from your diet to be healthy.

My advice is to read the book, follow Mark's advice, and if you still don't lose weight dig deeper into the issue of stress, sleep and mineral deficiencies.

[abstractpersona]

Female, started at 160lbs, now (I think, may be less) 145lbs, and loving my almost flat but lovingly squeezable tummy.
I have a very wide build (very large shoulders, hips, and bulky legs, even when I'm skinny), so I think 145lbs is good for me now, even though I could probably lose another 10 to 15 lbs
It seems I'm still losing fat, actually. *shrug*

What I did:
- Cheated a lot. Ice cream, pizza, snickers, kitkats, lots of cheating.
- Didn't exercise at all, in fact I spend a lot of time sitting down.

- Ate high fat cuts of meat, fish, coconut milk, eggs.
- And vegetables, in the summer and autumn it was a lot of low carb vegetables, but now in winter it's a lot of potatoes, carrots, parsnips, etc, very high-carb things..
- Cooked all my protein and vegetables on LOTS of fat like butter, bacon greases or marrow from beef bones.

- Ate breakfast and lunch, no dinner and more often than not, no snacks (this was not planned, it just happened that I was not hungry)

I think if I bothered to eat better (not cheat) and actually got off my ass and exercise, I'd lose a lot more fat.


BUT
I ate super healthy most of my life, I grew up with great fresh food (pretty much Primal). it was only about 6 years of my life that I ate Standard American Diet.

ALSO
I never did any diets before in my life, I thought they were silly. I am and have always been realistic about my weight, something most women aren't. I'm doing Primal so I can be healthy again.

So maybe my body is not as messed up as most women here. Someone like my sister who ate crap all her life and dieted a lot probably would need to be a lot more careful with her diet and exercise.

Also... keep in mind... one of the reasons there are more pics of men than women on the before/after thread is because most men love to show off, but I would imagine most women would be reluctant to share their picture. Most, not all. I know men may also feel this way but probably not to the extent women do. I think most women would always feel like "Oh, I'm not skinny enough yet (I don't look like a supermodel) so I can't post my picture"

[abstractpersona]

You might like these threads:
http://www.marksdailyapple.com/forum/thread43603.html
http://www.marksdailyapple.com/forum/thread31940.html
http://www.marksdailyapple.com/forum/thread32041.html
http://www.marksdailyapple.com/forum/thread45274.html

Just sharing in case you haven't seen them (which I assume you haven't since you posted a new thread)

[Apex Predator]

Female, started at 160lbs, now (I think, may be less) 145lbs, and loving my almost flat but lovingly squeezable tummy.
I have a very wide build (very large shoulders, hips, and bulky legs, even when I'm skinny), so I think 145lbs is good for me now, even though I could probably lose another 10 to 15 lbs
It seems I'm still losing fat, actually. *shrug*

What I did:
- Cheated a lot. Ice cream, pizza, snickers, kitkats, lots of cheating.
- Didn't exercise at all, in fact I spend a lot of time sitting down.

- Ate high fat cuts of meat, fish, coconut milk, eggs.
- And vegetables, in the summer and autumn it was a lot of low carb vegetables, but now in winter it's a lot of potatoes, carrots, parsnips, etc, very high-carb things..
- Cooked all my protein and vegetables on LOTS of fat like butter, bacon greases or marrow from beef bones.

- Ate breakfast and lunch, no dinner and more often than not, no snacks (this was not planned, it just happened that I was not hungry)

I think if I bothered to eat better (not cheat) and actually got off my ass and exercise, I'd lose a lot more fat.


BUT
I ate super healthy most of my life, I grew up with great fresh food (pretty much Primal). it was only about 6 years of my life that I ate Standard American Diet.

ALSO
I never did any diets before in my life, I thought they were silly. I am and have always been realistic about my weight, something most women aren't. I'm doing Primal so I can be healthy again.

So maybe my body is not as messed up as most women here. Someone like my sister who ate crap all her life and dieted a lot probably would need to be a lot more careful with her diet and exercise.

Also... keep in mind... one of the reasons there are more pics of men than women on the before/after thread is because most men love to show off, but I would imagine most women would be reluctant to share their picture. Most, not all. I know men may also feel this way but probably not to the extent women do. I think most women would always feel like "Oh, I'm not skinny enough yet (I don't look like a supermodel) so I can't post my picture"

This. Plus women are more likely to ask for help.

I'm sure there is a gender disparity, but the above facts make it look bigger than it is.

Going by the journals here, men are likely to exercise in a way that optimizes weight loss, and to cheat more efficiently. They also have way more realistic goals and body perceptions.

While it may not be fair, the most useful thing to do is see if any of the male tendacies help.