Tried and True Weight Watchers recipes

[nesser1981]

Anything you think would be helpful!

I'm the heaviest I've ever been, and it's time to do something.

I just saw a friend I haven't seen in a few months, she started in February and has lost 42 lbs! I'm hoping her success helps motivate me, I've never actually met someone IRL that has had that much success.

[Penny Springmann]

You have to check-out Skinnytaste. She has the BEST WW recipes. Everything I've made from Gina's site has been delish (well, except for the broccoli cheese soup - but some recipes can't be lightened up THAT much..hehe).

Her Thai Peanut chicken, roasted red pepper soup, Cajun chicken, Carnitas, etc. Have all become standards here.

[Robin Carlton]

I've lost 136 lbs! I started with WW but I don't have any recipes for you because I still make everything I used to make I just eat SOOOO much less than I used to. WW really helped me come to terms with how MUCH I was eating when I was at my heaviest even though I didn't think I was eating that much.

So for example, I love and make burritos ALLL the time. I used to make and eat two burritos no problem, now I cant even finish one most of the time. Portion size is HUGE. Eat half of what you normally would serve yourself and you'll be golden and still get to eat some of the things you love.

Hamburger helper.. love the stuff, used to think that a box was good for 2 servings... now I make one box for our entire family. A little goes a long way.

My primary thought when you're trying to lose a significant amount of weight is "It's ok to be hungry" - it WILL go away as your stomach shrinks. If youve been overeating for a long time, youve stretched your stomach so that it holds more. That's why gastric bypass works. If you have the discipline to eat less, the body is an amazing thing and your stomach will shrink on its own so it takes less to fill you up than it used to. I hate the whole "eat a bunch of carrots to fill up on healthy snacks" - you don't need to fill up anymore, drink water, take vitamins, eat less, be patient and you will be successful!

You can do it!

[nesser1981]

Thanks Penny!

WOW Robin, that's amazing! I'd love to loose about 60 to 70 pounds, I'd probably need to loose like 90 to be in my desired weight range. I've gained so much since I got out of the Air Force. The last 2 times I started with weight watchers, Keira was diagnosed with cancer after I lost like 10 pounds. I lost 20 lbs after I had Harper and gained it all back and like 4 more pounds. I think I'm finally ready.

[Lyd]

I lost 65 lbs doing weight watchers in 2012. It definitely works if you stick to it. I did some emotional/rebellious eating around the new year this year and I'm working on taking off a few extra pounds that I put back on.

In general, I didn't change the meals that I cooked at home, I just ate smaller portions. The only things that I definitely didn't cook was Pioneer Woman lasagna. That stuff is yummy, but soooo fattening.

Good luck, V. You can do it!!

[luckyme]

I'm down 28 lbs and counting (since February). I'm not using WW this time though -- I used it years ago, but then they changed all the points and everything and it was so complicated that I felt demotivated to learn it all over again. So, I ended up using MyFitnessPal which has the advantage of being free anyway. I love using it for calorie counting and their food database has never failed me yet. When I eat at a deficit (under the calorie max set for me), then I consistently lose. The app is fabulous and I love the charts and graphs (I like to measure stuff!).

I also use a FitBit pedometer. It automatically syncs with MyFitnessPal so my exercise level is factored into my calorie max for the day -- the more I move, the more calories I can have and still lose weight.

I echo what everybody said above -- I'm eating mostly the same food, just in smaller quantity. I generally try to eat until I'm 80% full - sort of like I could keep going, but I stop and wait, drink some water... generally after 10 minutes, I"m not hungry at all.

Good luck!! You can totally do it!

[rach3975]

Originally Posted by Robin Carlton

My primary thought when you're trying to lose a significant amount of weight is "It's ok to be hungry" - it WILL go away as your stomach shrinks. If youve been overeating for a long time, youve stretched your stomach so that it holds more. That's why gastric bypass works. If you have the discipline to eat less, the body is an amazing thing and your stomach will shrink on its own so it takes less to fill you up than it used to. I hate the whole "eat a bunch of carrots to fill up on healthy snacks" - you don't need to fill up anymore, drink water, take vitamins, eat less, be patient and you will be successful!

You can do it!

I read this earlier today, and it has been on my mind all day. Thinking about it, when I've succeeded in losing weight in the past, I did it like this, eating the same foods in smaller quantities. But about 4 years ago I changed my eating habits. I wanted to lose weight, but I was also realizing that I didn't eat enough produce and needed to change how I was eating to get more in. Now I eat lots of big servings of vegetables every day.

Since then there have been times I was tracking calories and actively trying to lose and times I wasn't. But through the entire time, I've continued to eat big servings of vegetables. When I track carefully and try to lose, I lose very slowly (1/2 lb a week) and can't stay motivated. But cutting my calories further (below about 1600 a day) feels so restrictive that I can't keep it up. I've been blaming my slow loss on age and metabolism (thyroid problems run in my family). But now I'm wondering if being used to the high volumes that I've been eating (albeit high volumes of produce) are part of why I start feeling deprived when I cut calories further, as I clearly need to do if I'm going to lose weight. I've been in a weight loss slump lately since it's so hard to stay motivated with such small losses. So thanks for the motivation--I'm going to try cutting back on volume from all sources first. Then in a few weeks I'll start back tracking calories and see if it makes things easier.

[Robin Carlton]

Go Rachel! You can do it! Seriously, you will be hungry, but that's ok! Just do your best to ignore it and it wont take long for your body to adjust. We still go out to eat all the time too because I honestly love food, but we'll split a meal three ways and it works for us. Sometimes servers will give us a look because we're only buying 2 meals for a family of 5, but it's better on our pocket book and our waistline to eat much smaller portions. I think we're conditioned in this country to eat a lot and it's just not needed.