i've lost 7 pounds by old fashioned calorie counting. i bought a good calorie counter, a small note pad and a pen. i allow myself 1300 calories a day and i avoid sugar and fried foods because they are my trigger. i allow myself to go out to dinner on saturday night. i've been doing this for 3 weeks.

i have also been taking mega-t green tea diet supplements twice a day. i have no idea if they make a difference or not.

i have 3 pounds to go before i reach my goal of 120.

i've dieted all my life and have found calorie counting works the best for me. after 3 days to a week, the cravings aren't as bad. for the first week, all i did was count calories and obsess about food, lol.

Congratulations! Losing weight is not an easy task. Keep up the good work.

From what I have witnessed or seen on television it is the people that go the old fashioned route of losing weight are more likely to keep it off. For instance your cutting off calories.

Those quick fix diets are a waste of time. It sounds like you have a good solid plan that should prove to be successful!

ty jp, i could use the encouragement right now. i'm 5'3" got up to 130. i have hereditary high blood pressure and very high cholesterol and have to take meds for both. when i watch my diet and weigh about 120 i don't have to take those meds. i also look and feel better.

it's really hard to lose weight when you are within a normal range. this last 3 pounds is killin' me.

i have allot of sympathy for people who have to lose large amounts of weight.

You can do it!! It's always those last five pounds or so that are the hardest.

I had to lose about 60 pounds of baby weight with both of my boys.

Whoever said that you lose a lot of weight immediately after birth was lying!!!

lol, i hear ya.

i only had one but my fears about not losing the weight still stay with me. i found gaining weight during pregnancy very traumatic. i gained like 40 pounds because i had toxemia but it was all water. i looked like a balloon with legs, lol.

contrats on losing your weight! you 100% correct. i've been on every diet, diet pill, etc. you could imagine. i have to say in my case calorie counting is the only way to go. it's just a matter of finding the amount of calories where you can still be comfortable/functioning/healthy and sticking with it.

i think my 10 pound weight gain came from quiting smoking 4 years ago. omg, that wasn't easy either!

good thing i have a good amount of self-control and stick to-it-iveness when i need it.

Congratulations, pugpin. You are truly doing it the best way.

I started back on the South Beach plan about three weeks ago and I've also lost about seven pounds. I wish I only had three pounds to go. I don't think I will ever weight 120 again. I haven't weighed that in more than 30 years. I need to lose about 48lbs to be at my goal. I am determined to do it this year as my cholesterol levels are quite high!

contrats gene! how do you like south beach? does it have an amount of calories per day along with the set foods? do you think it works better than just calorie counting?

South Beach works well for me because I use their online program. It creates my weekly menu and shopping list so it's practically a no-brainer for me. I don't think I would have the discipline to count calories. EVery time in the past when I have tried to keep a food log, I've never been able to follow thru for more than a day or two.

I don't think they list the calories but then I haven't really paid attention to that.

I have two problems with the South Beach type plan. One, I don't cook and two I don't grocery shop. I'm not good at either one so my husband does it.

I eat allot of prepackaged and frozen foods, lol.

I had to comment on this just because of recent experience and the ups and downs that i became aware of...

i was always about 230 to 240 lbs for the last few years. similar diet, similar activity level. the only real difference was the annual weight loss by season in Az where the heat would literally melt the pounds away, mostly in fluids and the high perspiration in summer. that was about 10 lbs off each summer and gained each winter. predictable.
after I moved to the Gulf coast nothing really changed, except the temp extremes were now more realistic with the extremes going to humidity and not the temps.
what happened was this, when we were visited by hurricane Ike this past fall, hit pretty much took out 90% of Houstons utilities and surrounding areas to the north where the hurricanes path went. I lived just north of the city, just outside the city limits with a very large portion of the population even farther north of me. we did without power for 2 weeks where i was and longer in some areas. you could not steal a generator, and they were being hauled in from all parts of the country. the state was simply not equipped to deal with the total loss of power from the plants to the transmission lines into the city. Everything was gone or damaged beyond repair as far as electricity.
we also had no water for about the same time and we found ourselves back in the 1800's with no indoor plumbing and kerosene lamps and candles. we ate and drank what was available. the first week was almost nothing, crackers and canned spam, things like that. we cooked with what we had and the sales of ready to eat foods went thru the roof.
I learned to live on top ramen and cup of soup meals that just add water and heat. after nearly 2 weeks of that and very few warm meals with real food, i realized that my cloths were getting looser. so I found a scale and discovered that my "diet" had lost me almost 20 lbs and i had'nt even tried. I was pretty proud of myself at that point and swore to keep it off and stay that way. I DID for a while, but the holidays ruined it and I gained it all back pretty quick. since then, the option of cup of soup or ramen noodles has always lost to a burger or a pizza.
what i DID figure out was that weight loss and weight control is pretty much as simple as some say it is. Calories and quantity. when a single warm cup of soup was the hi-lite of the day, my body used stored fat to burn because it was not getting it from the daily intake as it normally did. as I skipped meals (not by choice) i lost that weight. i did not feel bad or feel weaker in any way either. The minute that my intake changed back to the usual hi-calorie meals and larger quanity i gained that weight back before I could wash the cloths that i had on yesterday. it was amazing.
what it did prove was that as long as you can somehow manage to control what you eat, you can manage your weaght yourself without spending a fortune paying someone else to manage it for you. and another thing, trips to the grocery store were not too hard on the wallet when there was nothing that could be cooked or prepared that required electricity or lots of water. so saving your own life by loosing weight can be done and at the same time you can save a few dollars too.

Yes, It really does come down to discipline. I used to hate to cook - to me it was just another chore. A few years ago, when I was living in Hawaii and had access to lots of fresh fruit and a nice variety of fresh fish, I started enjoying the process of experimenting in the kitchen. Now, I really love to cook. My husband and I eat very little processed/packaged food. We gave up fast food years ago (except for the occasional pizza from papa murphy's).

My downfall has always been "goodies" - mainly cookies, pastries and candy. I am definitely a sugar junkie. That's what I like about South Beach. The first few weeks you eat very little carbs and that helps to quell the sugar cravings. I've been slipping a little lately (due to a death in the family and some other family issues) but I plan to get back on track Tues. It's too important to not follow the plan. I have to get this weight off. I told my oldest son that when he gets back from Iraq he will have a "skinny" mom.

gene,

aw, sorry about your troubles. all i can say is stick to it.

one thing i keep telling myself is "i can't wait for losing weight to be easy". i say that because it's always hard, particularly in the beginning.

best of luck to ya

I was looking at some of your earlier posts and the tea has diuretic and laxative. I had a friend that liked that tea also. I myself have not tried it or really wanted to. Glad it worked for you.

I need encouragement! I haven't been following my eating plan for about a month now - stress, I guess - and I'm so frustrated with myself!!

I HAVE to lose this weight! It is really affecting my health and in the long run I feel like a heart attack waiting to happen. I'm too young to feel so old!

HELP!!

Talk about old school........I just finished a 2 day fast and dropped over 8 pounds in the process. I'm talking ZERO food for two whole days. It wasn't that hard cause I've never been a "food" person like, I'm not obsessed about food or ever make eating food a big deal. Some how, some way over time I ended up a good 20 lbs overweight. According to my BMI at least.

It's weird, when you see yourself every day you don't really notice the weight slowly creeping up on you. It wasn't until I saw a picture my aunt took of us at her house eating Christmas dinner that I realized I was definitely putting on too much weight. I can see it right away in my face.

My BMI says I should be 178 and I was weighing in at 200 lbs at my worst. That's 22 lbs overweight, more than 10% of my BMI in excess weight.

One thing I noticed is that the less I ate the more I was on the crapper. You would think it would be the other way around but, the more I ate the less I was on the crapper too. I figured when it comes to losing weight, what's the fastest way to get the most out of your body? The crapper of course!! You cut off the input and increase the output and in two days, I weighed myself at the gym and it read 189.795 and at the last second clicked over to 190.00. MAN.....I was pissed cause I wanted to be in the 180's. I actually stretched my fast out to three days with just a small, tiny meal midday and that was it. I should definitely be in the 180's next weigh in.

I too do NOT believe in diets but in overall changes in the way you eat the rest of your life.

When I was very active, I could eat whatever I want cause I kept my metabolism so high. That proves that, it's not what you eat that puts on weight but it's an indicator of your activity level.

Working in hair salons, most of the people I work around are women, including the clients that come in. It's amazing to hear women talk about their weight because most women are fully convinced it is ONLY what you eat that afftects your weight. A common phrase I'll hear is how a girl ate a slice of pizza and gained 2 pounds the next day and similar statements. That's when I chime in and ask, "Well, do you work out at all during the week? Do you play sports? Do you do anything active?". That's when I get the deer in the headlights look...."Huh?".

Diet and exercise are the two top factors afftecting our weight. When I was playing three sports I had 6 pack abs, rail skinny and I was totally ripped and I had a HORRIBLE diet as-in I ate whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted and however much I wanted. It wasn't until I went to school 8 hours a day, 5 days a week that I put on serious weight AND I curtailed my diet from when I was active and STILL gained weight.

You feel better when you exercise. You feel more alert, more alive. Your metabolism is elevated. Your blood is delivering more oxygen more efficeintly to your body. Adjusting your diet is NOT enough.

OK, Im encouraged to 'weigh in'.

I have FMS and the new Dr I'm working with noted MANY with FMS also are HG =hypoglycemic, or borderline.
SO, He strongly suggested we strictly go on an HG diet as a test for two months, whether we are truly HG or not.

(basically no sugar - no bad carbs, but yes to Protein and fats, and good veggies)

We are all losing weight, effortlessly. Of course with FMS we excercise as much as possible, but carefully not to overdo.. causing a Fatigue Flare.

anyhoo... I love the diet, (no idea how much lbs I lost, but my jeans are 2 -3 sizes smaller after two months...and I'm still losing!)

for all the technical papers, studies:

http://www.fibromyalgiatreatment.com/board/viewforum.php?f=7&sid=142302b950f927ae0af74f32fa9995b2

Watching calories and portions works and you'll get everlasting results!

Also for those who have an ipod touch or iphone there's an app thats for free called lose it. It has a whole bunch of foods nutritional value data on it , and info on amount of calories burned from exercises. It also will keep track of calories, even subtracting the ones you burn. It also graphs your weight.

Speaking of losing weight, I went to the Dr. today and found I had lost 6 lbs in the last month and half. The only thing I've done differenly since then is to start taking resveratrol. Could that be it? Maybe so, kind of makes me want to keep taking it.