I have put on the pounds back off with my fair share of cheese fries, ice cream and gas station fare. And before you think I am making a typo or have some wonder supplement to put in front of you for sale, I don’t. For all that I lead a sedentary existence and have the sort of ADHD that precludes any complicated regimen, I made it happen without imposing a joyless, rigid meal plan on myself. So if “eating clean” has ever struck you as an exercise in futility, read on.

On social media one is led to believe weight loss is all about your quinoa and kale in a perfectly composed bowl, green smoothies and not a gram of sugar. Most people don’t live like that and neither do I. The way I did it was by keeping it simple and understanding how calories work and what my body would do in response.

The Junk Food Has to Answer to Calories Too

Nobody is going to tell you this but it is a numbers game, calories in and out. Not that you can get away with an endless supply of junk, but a cookie will not scupper your efforts provided it is within your daily allotment. I was at 1400 a day, easy enough, but then I hit a wall. My body would have none of it, progress ground to a halt and I found myself with odd balance issues just standing there.

Up my intake to 1580 and the balance returned along with the progress. It was a lesson in itself: under-eating does things to your body that are not worth it, whereas an occasional bad meal is no disaster. Be smart about the figures and you can lose weight without being fastidious over what you put on your plate.

Why Simple is Better

If you have any ADHD in you, you know a good plan will unravel in short order. Don’t bother with the seven-day preps or color-coding your macros or doing away with whole food groups; a brain that is prone to being overwhelmed won’t have it. I track my calories and come in around the number I want and leave it at that.

There is a vogue these days for optimization, for five apps and an influencer’s elaborate menu and tracking every macro to the gram. Some may be able to make that work but if it is too much, forgo it. In my view, you are better off in the long run than with a system so involved you will be done with it in a fortnight.

A Sedentary Disposition is No Death Sentence

To be frank, marathons are not in my future. I am as sedentary as anyone who is desk bound or has health matters to contend with. But you don’t need to put in hard workouts to see results so long as your calorie intake is in order. Movement is fine, it is not the only option. Fitness circles would have you think otherwise with their talk of brutal training, but many a person has lost weight with some modest movement and an eye on their food and no added stress from it. A Case for Adjusting, Not Restricting: Lessons from GERD and Food Sensitivities

You can’t help but alter your eating habits when you have GERD. Some foods will set off a flare up; it was a matter of trial and error to put a name to them. Yet I have come to see that one does not have to do away with the pleasantries in one’s diet to be on top of a health issue. Rather than letting fear dictate what is put on the plate, it is a question of being mindful and altering the timing or size of a portion.

The same holds true for the notion of “eating badly”. You learn quickly enough if pizza is going to be an issue at an ungodly hour or whether it is no problem earlier in the day. That is good to know. There is no point in adhering to a rulebook that pays no heed to your experience when you can simply work with your body’s cues.

Then there is the “All or Nothing” mentality that is de rigueur these days. Put in some time on fitness sites and you are met with two kinds of people: those putting down impossibly pristine meals and those who make much of having no structure and eating “what they like”. Most of us don’t live at either extreme. The middle is where you will find any weight loss plan to be sustainable.

I have made room for ice cream and fries and pizza while in the process of losing weight, fare you won’t find on a clean eating Instagram feed. But I did so without regarding any one food as off limits, keeping my overall numbers in view. It was a change of mind that took a lot of the stress out of it.

Don’t Let the Trend Cycle Have the Last Word

Social media is awash with the latest diet every few months, be it carnivore or some form of extreme fasting or doing without a macronutrient altogether. They are quick to come and go and for the most part anyone who gets on board is burnt out in a matter of weeks. I found more staying power in heeding my own body. Under-eating left me dizzy and at a standstill; a modest increase in calories put right what was wrong. A trend wouldn’t have told me that, only my own doing would. If the goal is to put in the work and still enjoy what you eat, your personal response is of far more import than what is in vogue this month.

Long Term Viability

To lose weight and not have food become an anxiety, you need a modicum of structure. For me it has been a case of:

• • Not obsessing over calorie counts
  • When I sense a lack of balance, making an adjustment to intake
  • Steering clear of meal plans too convoluted for my brain to follow
  • Being attuned to how I am feeling, GERD being what it is
  • Recognising movement need not be strenuous to see results

Perfection was never called for, which is why it has worked. You don’t sustain weight loss by way of rigid rules and self punishment, you do it by knowing your patterns and putting in place something you can stick with.

Those who say you must forsake all that is fun to make progress are only telling half of it. I am evidence of that. Be guided by your body and your calories, keep it simple where a more involved system is not to your liking and don’t fret over anything a diet influencer might frown upon. Consistency with what is important is all that is needed for progress.