What are "diets" that work????

Most likely anything works as long as you stick to it. But what's most important is changing your lifestyle to something sustainable. I bet you can lose weight while eating nothing but sardines and lettuce every day, but would you want to stick to that forever? The key to picking a routine or a program is to evaluate it and make sure it's something you an do every single day and still be healthy and happy.

I am very anti programs that expect you to go to extremes for a short period of time. It's bad for your body. What happens when that short unhealthy time span is over? Your body rebounds and you put on weight again.

No magic shortcuts. Slow and steady wins the race.

Edit: just what MissAnjy said!

I don't much care for the vast majority of fad diet plans on the market. Many are plain old unsustainable. Just stick with good, low cal, wholesome foods and you'll never feel hungry. Vegetables are virtually calorie free (most not all). If you watch your carbs by staying away from the processed stuff and sticking to whole grain, eating lean meats, and eating all the veggies you want, you'll never go hungry.

It's all about choices. A double cheese burger has 300+ calories. 3 cups of lettuce has about 20. Add a tomato, low fat vinagrette, and some grilled lean chicken and you have a more filling and satisfying meal for less than 200 calories.

Diets don't work - it has to be a lifelong change in choices and outlook. Half of getting healthy is all in the head game. You have to decide what you want and work towards it, just like anything else in life.

In general, I believe it comes down to calories in vs. calories out. You have to burn more calories than you eat. You can use any method you want to acheive - South Beach, Weight Watchers, Nutrisystem... whatever. Ultimately they can only provide guidance, you are deciding what to put in your mouth.

I have had good results with the south beach diet you can do it your-self and dont have to buy into an expensive program..

If I had the money back that I have spent over the years on "diets", I would have quite the chunk o' change. (Jenny Craig, WW, Physician's Weight Loss, PHC, Atkins, South Beach, Slim Fast, and on and on). It seems that the best thing to do is TRACK and TRY. It's not easy, but it can be done.

tracking alories is the only thing that has worked for me.

No diets work.. You can still eat what you like as long as you fit it in your calories like another pp said. I still have my Taco Bell on Friday nights. Thats family time with my husband, myself, my kids, my mom and step father. I just make sure to eat a light, healthy breakfast and lunch so I can add that into my diary and not go over for the day. It takes some time to figure things out. I joined MFP late last year and it took a good month to figure out what works for me so Im not always hungry. One thing that really has helped me is I added double fiber bread to my sandwiches. Man, it keeps me full after lunch and I have to force myself to have my afternoon snack.

Diets don't work because once you stop you will end up gaining most if not all of your weight back and more then likely add a few more pounds on.

Making lifestyle changes will work in the long run and this is what I am trying to do because I want to be able to maintain the weightloss and be a good example to my kids.

Over the course of a year I have given up pop, don't use sugar (except for baking), adding fresh fruit and vegetables into our home and now I am working on getting white bread outta the house. I am also making sure I eat breakfast (something I have lacked doing and just recently started up).

Simple, small changes make the biggest difference. Mind you I don't deny myself either, if I did that it would be a diet and I am stepping away from Diets - I am working on portion control and teaching my children the same thing.

Starting on the first of Feb. I will be increasing my activity and this will be something that the whole family can do because we are going to a place that not only caters to adults but to wee ones too...

Healthy eating, No denying (but not bingeing) and exercise are the key to losing weight & being able to maintain for the rest of your life.

Unless you plan on doing one of the 'diet programs' for life, then none of them will work. For me, tracking what I eat and working out is working so far.

That said, my dad has had great success with Fast-5. He's turned it into a lifestyle though, not just a diet. It wasn't for me, but he has lost over 50 pounds and is smaller than I've ever seen him.

http://www.fast-5.org/

You may find that you'll drop a bunch for the next couple weeks, then go another three weeks with nothing. That's just how our bodies work. It's not a precise, 1 pound loss every Thursday at 7 pm :laugh: :flowerforyou: