Another fan of Weight Watchers-based diet here. I had to shift some serious poundage a few years ago and joined WW online. I had tried a more intuitive approach, i.e. more "listening to my body" type stuff. I definitely feel that can work. But after years of being on a typical US diet with typical US portions, one can lose track of what a healthy portion should be. What WW did for me was help me recalibrate expectations by measuring and recording all food. Besides getting a handle on distorted portions, it made me see my own personal patterns, like that ice cream or cookies for lunch may not be a disaster calorie-wise, but somehow leaves me ravenously hungry in midafternoon. Once I go back to measuring and recording for a while I can listen to my body but know enough to ignore it when it says it wants half a wheel of brie.

For what it's worth, Weight Watchers has never allowed me what I consider enough food to keep body and soul together. And also, not enough "good" fats-- another observation based on tracking food. I slowly but surely lost weight while eating at least half again what they recommended for a person my size; I just kept measuring and recording. I did go to restaurants less when in the active phase of losing, but once there allowed myself a decent meal, and wine.

I haven't started a diet, per se, just doing the following:

YourPalWill wrote:Another tip that I found helpful is eating "whole foods". By that I mean minimally processed meats, fruits and veggies. Chop up those veggies yourself, buy fresh chicken or fish versus frozen, forget soda exists and avoid prepackaged crap food that is sold for convenience rather than flavor.

In our house, we eat almost zero premade things. Part of this is due to being a bit broke of late - "Hm, can't afford to buy tortillas from the store, guess I'll learn to make them from scratch" - and part of it is just that we don't care to eat things with ingredient lists that are full of things we can't pronounce.

And also, this:

Kennyz wrote:Regarding the quote above, I say yes and no. For some people (I think I'm one of them), the best thing to do to be healthier is to eat only things you really enjoy. This has at least two benefits.

We love to eat out (obvy) so when we do so, I evaluate my plate when it arrives. Then I eat and enjoy all of what is really good, and skip that which is just plate-filler. To that end, we no longer frequent BYOBs. I blame them in large part for my weight gain over the past couple of years - wine is caloric in and of itself, AND it makes me want to eat everything in sight.

David Hammond wrote:I try to never expand my wardrobe based on weight gain. I want the daily reminder (tight pants, belt at last hole, shirts binding at the shoulder) to remind me that I need to drop a few. And, yeah, I got some circulation-stopping clothes on right now.

I have two pairs of pants that fit right now...uncomfortably. But I am determined to not buy anything larger, because quite frankly my winter wardrobe is a bit more forgiving than my summer wardrobe, so if I fat out of my cold-weather pants I'll need to buy all new clothes come summer! Not something I can afford or want to do.

Dear Happy Stomach-you are my kind of person. Very positive, sensible, and happy! Just a note-I have lost 12 pounds so far just cutting back on sweets (little or none) and no bread, unless it is granola, cereal, or 12 grain bread. Fiber is the key and fresh fruit! I am however, a little tired of salads, but neverthless-I amd ecstatic. Oh, yes, olives, olive oil, nuts, laughing cow cheese are staples to have around. Right now, Texas ruby red grapefruit and oranges are great! The only thing bugging me right now is my hay fever to mountain cedar. It's really flying around down here in Ft. Worth. It was windy and 80 degrees today! We had to turn the air on.

I started too this week. Luckily I have a goal to work towards...

This week, I started seeing my personal trainer (again). And I am doing cardio 30 minutes a day. I am also trying to cut down on carbs, and eating more salads. We'll see how it goes!

I can say that I'm not starting a new plan -- I'm renewing what I had let slide over the holidays. Over the past year or so, I have reduced the amount of processed food in the pantry. (That doesn't always make Mr. X very happy, but I'm looking out for both of us!) One night of volleyball a week doesn't provide enough exercise, so I try to get 60 minutes of mixed cardio/weights in three times a week. Age is my enemy. My metabolism is slower, joints are creakier, muscles are less forgiving when under-used. My goal is better fitness more than weight loss. I don't allow myself to eat whatever, whenever, but I don't have a restricted list. I probably should if I want to lose any weight.

There was an interesting article in the New York Times entitled Fitness Is Not An Overnight Sensation. Miracle cures for weight loss and fitness don't exist. Time and effort are needed. Moderation is key. Nothing earth-shattering, but the article seemed appropriate given the conversation in this thread.

Yes, age does play a factor! I will be 59 next week-hard to believe! One of my daughters has lost 85 # just from working out and doing WW on line. She looks really great, but won't go get any new clothes. She just got her master's degree in Sociology, but says there are no jobs down here. She says you must be bilingual. What happened to the good ol days when just speaking and writing English and making good grades was enough? She has maintained a 4.0 average since Jr. College. She dropped out of HS at 16 and got a GED. She is married and has two wonderful kids.
Anyway, she will tell you that moderation and exercise is the key. She let go a little at Christmas, but got right back on track!
I hear that lentil soup is a great thing to eat and is very filling! Maybe I will make some for Superbowl weekend! Anyone know who will be the projected winners that will be playing?

My 2 cents. Make a list of all of the fruits and vegetables you adore. Assuming they are not covered in oil or cream, eat unlimited amounts of those and eat them first. You will get the fiber you need, have the diversity you want, a high level of nutrition, and not feel like you are punished plus it is not really a diet. I don't think you will find too many people saying I kept gaining weight from eating spinach, asparagus, tomatoes, cherries, pineapple, and watermelon, some of my personal favorites, .

I also find waiting until you are actually hungry to eat can be surprising. In my faith we have a fasting period, sun up to sun down (not even water) and I discovered last year that sometimes I just was not hungry at all. One day, I did not get up before sunrise to eat and found that not only was I not hungry, I was not light-headed, headachy, or grouchy. In fact, I ate well after sunset because I was "worried" about not eating, not because I actually got hungry. No, I am not advocating starvation, this is a forum for those who love food, but I just found that not eating unless I was hungry (many refer to this, I think, as mindfulness) and I assume you do not have a medical suggestion to the contrary, makes a significant difference. I still struggle with this, because I still find myself frequently eating when I am not hungry but I think if this becomes one of your guiding points for food, weight loss will be easier and weight gain will be rare.

"Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants." - Michael Pollan, In Defense of Food

I want to join in on recommending "The Instinct Diet" by Susan Roberts, which the New York Times cited just before Christmas as the best diet book of the year. No, I'm not the author nor a patient of hers (she's a professor of nutrition at Tufts University in Boston), but I picked the book up after Jane Brody recommended it in the TImes, and in the past 3 weeks I've lost 8 or 9 pounds. The first week, plenty of the weight loss was surely water weight -- that's the way it always works. After that, given the ID's methodology, it's been just about entirely fat loss. As a result, I look way more toned. (PS: I'm a male, 50 y.o.) So why do I like this diet so much better than South Beach or Atkins or even just your standard low-fat diet -- all of which I've tried in the last 10 years, and none of which have worked well for me or for long? Couple of things. (1) I love food, and the menus on the ID appeal to me. It's stuff I like to eat. That means I don't resent it. (2) It has already successfully rewired my sweets obsession (yes, some men do have a sweet tooth!) so that I no longer -- or, rarely, anyway -- crave chocolate or cookies or something sweet and densely caloric after dinner. She does have recipes for desserts that satisfy the occasional craving. (3) I'm never hungry on this diet -- always satisfied, which is a good thing for being able to sustain it. (4) It feels like something I can keep up for a long, long time, unlike the weird low-carb restrictions of other diets. (5) I do love carbs, frankly, and it allows me all kinds of carbs -- whole grain stuff, yes, cereals and breads and things that totally satisfy that carb craving but which burn a long time. So I no longer stare enviously at the bread basket in restaurants. (6) The diet is scientifically based, on serious research in nutrition and scientific journals. (7) I like eating a lot of fiber. It makes me, um, regular. I could go on. But the one thing that I have to say really annoys me is that this book/diet has been hardly visible in the press or online. The publicity has been minimal, for some reason. Though I have a feeling that it's a sleeper that will catch on slowly and then go big. At least I hope so.

I started it 2 weeks ago and have lost 4 or 5 pounds. I find it very easy to stick to the menus and it really does reduce hunger, cravings, etc. Hate to speak too soon, but perhaps this is the answer to maintaining weight loss for the long term.

bibi rose wrote:Another fan of Weight Watchers-based diet here.

For what it's worth, Weight Watchers has never allowed me what I consider enough food to keep body and soul together. And also, not enough "good" fats-- another observation based on tracking food. I slowly but surely lost weight while eating at least half again what they recommended for a person my size; I just kept measuring and recording.

That's how I did WW a few years ago and lost ten pounds. The points for my size weren't enough for me so I went some over every day (5-12 points over my base points would have been an acceptable range) and exercised more. I lost about a pound a week.

I've been off and on WW for a few years and just went back on today. Just the measuring your food and writing it down probably helps a lot of people. It does make you think twice. I'm also going to explore more resistance training. Contrary to some posts here, when I was losing weight before it seemed like exercise was really helpful (as long as I was watching what I ate at the same time). Exercise seemed to help even though it increased my appetite.

Thanks for the many inspiring posts.

grits wrote:I'm also going to explore more resistance training. Contrary to some posts here, when I was losing weight before it seemed like exercise was really helpful (as long as I was watching what I ate at the same time). Exercise seemed to help even though it increased my appetite.

I think exercise is an important key to weight loss because, as was posted upthread, ultimately, it's just additional calorie burn. If you can burn 1,000-2,000 calories a week through exercise, that's almost like skipping an entire day of eating -- without actually skipping it, of course. Exercise also increases many metabolic processes, which can help burn additional calories. As for the psychological notion that exercising doesn't effectively help with weight loss because it leads some people to eat more, while that argument may be true, it misses the point entirely. Take a person who is losing weight on a specific diet without exercise and add exercise to the regimen. That person will almost definitely lose more weight. The myriad additional health benefits -- which no one here seems to question -- are substantial, as well. For most people -- including myself -- exercise is highly annoying. But its benefits in weight loss and overall health seem pretty clear. Still, it would be great if they invented a pill to replace it.

=R=

ronnie_suburban wrote:As for the psychological notion that exercising doesn't effectively help with weight loss because it leads some people to eat more, while that argument may be true, it misses the point entirely.

To give Susan Roberts her due, that is part of, but not all of, what she is saying about exercise. Her main point is to say (paraphrasing here), "Don't kid yourself that exercise is going to get you there; exercise may take off 3-5% of your weight. If you have more pounds than that to lose, you need to face the fact that only a radical change in the amount of food you eat and the healthfulness of the food you eat is going to be effective." So, it's not just about that people use exercise as an excuse to eat more, it's about that people use exercise to get them off the hook of making difficult but necessary dietary changes. It goes without saying (but I'll say it again anyway) that she is completely pro-exercise for all kinds of health reasons including weight loss; she simply wants people to know that the bulk of permanent weight loss is going to come from dietary change. She of course agrees that exercise, added to dietary change, moves the reading on the scale incrementally further in the right direction, but wants people to be realistic about what the small size of that increment is.

riddlemay wrote:

ronnie_suburban wrote:As for the psychological notion that exercising doesn't effectively help with weight loss because it leads some people to eat more, while that argument may be true, it misses the point entirely.

To give Susan Roberts her due, that is part of, but not all of, what she is saying about exercise. Her main point is to say (paraphrasing here), "Don't kid yourself that exercise is going to get you there; exercise may take off 3-5% of your weight. If you have more pounds than that to lose, you need to face the fact that only a radical change in the amount of food you eat and the healthfulness of the food you eat is going to be effective." So, it's not just about that people use exercise as an excuse to eat more, it's about that people use exercise to get them off the hook of making difficult but necessary dietary changes. It goes without saying (but I'll say it again anyway) that she is completely pro-exercise for all kinds of health reasons including weight loss; she simply wants people to know that the bulk of permanent weight loss is going to come from dietary change. She of course agrees that exercise, added to dietary change, moves the reading on the scale incrementally further in the right direction, but wants people to be realistic about what the small size of that increment is.

Thanks, riddlemay, for the clarification. I think we're all pretty much saying the same thing.

=R=

Title of unsolicited e-mail received today:

The food will become to you the source of energy not the source of fun.

Inside was a link with the statement:

You don't have to torture yourself with diets to become slender.

Now I can trash it.

Regards,

This is a really helpful thread. I'm encouraged to hear from other foodies trying to lose weight. I have about 50 lbs to lose and have more or less given up on fad diets entirely. I've been trying to watch my portions and exercise regularly, but the weight loss has been fairly uneven. I eat very little processed food, no fast food, and not much sugar. And I love to cook. The downfall seems to be carbs and wine! I find it rather difficult to follow the 80% rule after a couple of glasses at a restaurant! Most weeks, I'll do well M-F and inevitably over-indulge on the weekends. I'm curious about the Instinct Diet and plan to give it a try soon. It makes some sense to me as it does not sound like it creates a warped relationship to food.

Is there an Avec plan somewhere? Where somebody provides you delicious small plates with a nice glass of wine everyday and you regularly lose a pound or two a week? I wish!

This year I've begun to follow the advice found in the following two books:

"In Defense of Food" by Michael Pollan
and
"Food Matters" by Mark Bittman

It's not really a diet plan but more of a lifestyle change. Pollan goes into great detail about what he feels is wrong with the "Western" diet and food production and then presents a strategy for changing the way we eat. Bittman's book covers much of the same territory with a little less background detail and more practical advice, including a month's worth of sample meal plans and a bunch of recipes. Both books cover much more than diet and get into the environmental consequences of what we eat.

Both books disparage "nutritionism", the quest to separate the nutrients from the food-systems they are present in. You won't find any kind of "counting" (calorie or otherwise) suggested in either book.

The basic idea is to avoid processed foods, refined carbohydrates and junk food (even organic junk food), limit your consumption of meat and dairy and eat more plants. They both suggest avoiding anything that makes any kind of health claim.

Pollan sums it up in seven words:"Eat food, not too much, mostly plants." By "food" he means real food, stuff your great-grandmother would recognize as food. Not the many "food-like" products that fill the grocery store aisles.

I've only been following this since mid-January and have already lost 8 lbs.

i can't do it. i try for a week but then i get back to gorging. i'm taking diet pills now; hopefully they will help.

I just read the "Instinct Diet" based on these recommendations. I have to say that the first two weeks or so of this plan sound way too restrictive for me. I'm willing to cut out most of my alcohol and limit my dessert to a square of good chocolate, but I get really scared when people start mentioning sugar free gelatin and low carb bread.

I do think however the book has some good advice. I'm going to start following many of its breakfast guidelines and its recommendations for broth based soups and legumes and salads and cut down on the alcohol and sweets. We'll see how it goes!

FYI, if anyone else has a thing for savory breakfasts, Bittman posted a wheatberry w/ scallions, sesame oil and soy recipe (also in Wed's dining section) that looks like a new healthy staple in my house!

I started my "diet" before the New Year(I dont believe in New Years resolutions). and I have been doing pretty good kicking what I considered to be the unhealthy segment of my diet... My "addiction" to Pepsi, Coke, and Mt. Dew. I have gone from a diet of well over a case of pop a week down to maybe 1 or 2 servings of pop a week. It has been tough weening myself off of this sweet beverage, and more importantly my only source of caffeine(waking up at 5:20 every day has been tough without my caffeine). I also now savor a cold Coke or Pepsi when I do have one instead of taking it for granted.

I am not looking to lose weight on my "diet" but mainly stay where I am, and to cut out what I considered an unecessary expense. I also figured I would rather cut out pop vs cutting out beer, tequila, butter, pork, heavy cream, etc.

I have cut back on my red meat eating, not out of health concerns, or wanting to be more "green", but instead to try and stretch the grocery budget further by eating more pork, and chicken. I have also increased my intake of fruit juices mainly for their Vitamin C.

So far so good, I am keeping my weight steady through the idle winter months, and figure to shave a little weight(beer belly) once the more active spring and summer months arrive.

its not a solution for everyone, but I am seeing an acupuncturist, in conjunction with a diet and exercise plan.

Every week, I have 4-6 tiny needles placed in my ears. (i take them out on friday, and have new placed on saturday). We also do an hour of guided meditation as part of the process.

the idea is that the needles stimulate the endocrine system, resulting in less cravings, more energy, and a feeling of support for the nutritional and exercise changes.

maybe its all in my head (no pun intended), but it has really helped me to push forward through obstacles that have derailed my progress before.

You know what I mean..........what to do......its that time of year. I need to drop pounds and I love food. Any tips besides eat less and exercise more?

toria wrote:You know what I mean..........what to do......its that time of year. I need to drop pounds and I love food. Any tips besides eat less and exercise more?

Have some minor surgery done. Between the clear liquids for 24 hours, and as little fat as possible for the first week, I'm down more than 10 pounds in 6 days.