MFP Smarty Pants'

A lot of people think they have to go to extremes to lose weight. And it does work, at first -- you lose a lot of weight very quickly when you fast or have a very restricted diet that eliminates food groups. The problem is that it's not sustainable long term, and there is a very good chance that when you inevitably start eating the foods you've eliminated, you will gain all the weight back, plus a little extra.

I believe in eating what you want in moderation, and trying to make sure that the majority of your food choices are healthy, whole foods. I'm strongly against taking one food group (for a long time it was fat, now it's carbs) and calling it "the enemy" and eliminating it from your diet. However, I have read that it is possible that many of us have gluten allergies that we're not aware of, which explains why carbs can make a person feel bloated and sluggish. It's worth a try to cut down on them just to see if you feel any better/different. But in terms of weight loss, if you're eating the right amount of calories and getting in more clean food than you were before, you're doing fine. Anything more drastic is an attempt to lose too much too quickly and usually winds up failing.

Eating healthy within your daily calorie limit should suffice. To sustain ones body, different types of food groups need to consumed to keep it healthy and strong. Once you start limiting and denying your body what it needs, it tends to rebel against you at some point.

Quick fixes are just that, quick! You'll gain the weight back just a quick because the body is afraid that it will not have what it needs and therefore tends to save up for a rainy day, to the detriment of your health.