Show me the "facts"

i agree with two main points that i see in other replies:
(1) i love the way i look & feel (mostly feel) now that i am eating healthy and exercising regularly. even though i am losing weight, my main goal in starting at the gym, walking more, riding my bike where i can instead of driving and eating healthy, was to gain a healthy lifestyle to pass-on to my children. i don't want a DIET, i want a new way of life to avoid cardiovascular disease & diabetes which both run in my family due to poor living habits. even though i might not answer your question directly with a "real reason" - i think the proof comes in when i run after my 3-year-old and don't get winded, or i watch my cholesterol number decline without medications. that is all the scientific proof i require to know i'm doing the right thing.
(2) it is common knowledge. everyone knows that an apple is a better choice than a do-nut. i spent years eating what i "wanted" to eat and watching my health decline before my eyes. i don't think it takes reading or research to know that highly processed foods are "bad" for our bodies. we must make better choices if we want a better outcome. i'm not living without my "fun foods" however, i ate a chili dog on monday! LOL but that used to be the type of food i ate 100% of the time, and now it's something i have maybe once every two weeks.

I have never seen Fat Head and honestly, I don't care about the seven billion posts on MFP every day with people copying and pasting articles from biased and non-biased sources on why their way is the "right" way. I do what makes sense to me and works for me. That includes:

1. Move your body. Yes, you can lose weight without exercising but it isn't the healthiest route. Being sedentary will hurt you in the long run. This can include just walking, stretching, and other low impact exercise, or you can go crazy with strength training and whatnot. Do what you like and what interests you enough where you'll keep doing it.

2. Eat real food. I try and only eat real food and if the item has an ingredient list, I know what those ingredients are. I cook mostly from scratch for everyday meals using real ingredients like vegetables, meat, oils, rice, *real* cheese, etc. I am the anti-Hungry Girl, lol.

3. Eat junk in moderation and taking a cue from Michael Pollan, if you are going to eat junk, make it yourself. Chances are it will be much healthier than pre-made stuff and it will taste better. I still make from-scratch cookies, brownies, etc. but I eat very little of what I make, set aside some for my husband, and give away the rest (bring it to the vultures in my office).

Using these three principles, I have lost almost 30 pounds, and this approach just makes sense to me. Banning certain food groups doesn't make sense to me and my diet, and there are foods (and alcohol!) I can't avoid for the rest of my life because I love them too much! When I do eat food that is truly crap, I keep the portion size in moderation and don't do it often.

This works for me and I know it won't work for others. I try to refrain from judging anyone going about their weight loss on a different path, as we all have individual limitations and needs that have to be taken into account.

I guess it's just the difference between ppl wanting to just lose weight vs. ppl wanting to be healthy. (I'm definitely no guru...this is just my personal...kinda jacked up point of view) Anyway, I will step right up and confess I'm not healthy...but I lose the weight. Calories in...calories out. If I want to lose weight fast...I exercise twice as many off as I eat.

Yours truly,
Young and Dumb lol

I've read a lot on the subject, and there are so many theories that it's easy to get confused. Here are my own conclusions.

1. Pills and drops almost never work long term.

2. Changing diet and exercise are great, but change of life style is the key to maintaining a healthy weight, (hiking, nature walks, more physical activity in general).

3. There is something to be said about 4-6 meals a day. I know people will argue about the theory that 5-6 meals a day is better than 3, but it seems to have worked for me.

4. Grains and fiber not only seem to fill me up, but curb my appetite.

5. Lift weights. Even if it's only twice a week upper/lower body.

For me, I needed to move a LOT more (sedentary lifestyle) and eat more consistantly. I used to starve myself until I couldn't stand it (or until I went out for dinner or drinks), then gorge myself.

My changes were gradual.

I started off eating breakfast when I hadn't done so my entire life. I felt much better once I got used to it.

I eliminated fast food at first simply because it was too high in calories for my limited allowance. Then I found out what fast food consists of!

I switched from processed grains to whole. This kept insulin levels from spiking and me from crashing (once I crash, I binge until the shakes are gone). Whole grains and brown rice add fiber and satiety to my diet.

I started eliminating sweeteners, focusing in on HFCS which is in every dam thing! Researching this led me to studies that indicated artificial sweeteners may cause headaches, etc. So I cut them out, because I had chronic headaches (gone now).
While researching Aspartame, I found out about MSG and excitotoxins. If even a part of what I read is true, I didn't want that in my diet. So out went MSG.

I've long believed that artificial coloring affected children's moods and hyperactivity, and I'd already eliminated much of them once I had children. I decided to completely cut them out, because really...what's the point of having chemical coloring in one's food, particularly if it was going to cause my kids to bounce off the walls?

Along the way, I decided that preservatives were not necessary in my diet, and I chose to avoid meat and dairy from animals who had been fed antibiotics or which had been inhumanely treated.

Because of nitrites possible ties to cancer, I eliminated all cured meats, eating only uncured or salt cured products.

I watched Food, Inc., Supersize Me, and several documentaries on genetically modified organisms. So I consiously began watching for GMO's and avoiding those products. I do still eat some processed foods, but try to buy the organic versions as they will be chemical free, even if processed.

It's a slow process. Google and I are buddies, and I utilize it's scholar module frequently. I don't necessarily follow anyone's "plan" - I just try to live by my own knowledge and how putting that knowledge into practice makes me feel. I want the best for my children, and as long as they are minors and I pay for their food, they'll eat what I give them. And that means no McDonalds or Coke or Twinkies or Fruit Loops.

I could give you studies to back up my decisions, but you could probably find ones to refute them. You really have to do your own research and decide what works for YOU. I feel a thousand times better now than I did before I started, and I've lost a total of 43 pounds (15 when I quit smoking, and 28 this year). I can now run 2.5 miles when six months ago, I couldn't run next door. So my choices are working just fine for me.

Honestly, I believe that there is no one right answer and that vareity and sensibility are the most important thing. I believe this because I've researched so much about weight loss, so many different diets, strategies and approaches and each one has a doctor standing behind it saying it's true. Yet they seem to contradict eachother and make claims that they are the best approach. What I've learned from all of this is that we really don't know as much about our own bodies as we'd like to think we do. So you have to take the information from all of these different studies, diets, etc and find a way to reconcile them together into something that's more intelligible. What I've discovered doing this is that there are certain inherent truths that are not disputable but if you lock on to anyone of them and ignore the others it doesn't work either.

So I don't have a source to show you because they number in the hundreds. I've chosen not to follow any one particular diet but rather take what's common between them and just apply that to my eating habits. For me that worked great, I've lost 26 pounds in just over 2 months and I'm very happy. Others may need a more regimented process to follow and that's fine too. But what I think people need to remember is that no one diet is THE right diet. There are lots of ways to eat healthy. Your body is very intelligent and very resilliant. As long as you don't abuse it (over consuming certain types of foods for example) it will behave the way you'd like it to.

One day about 5 years ago I was driving down a bumpy road and I could feel my boobs jiggle. That was "the moment" for me.

I did some preliminary reading online, then bought the book "The Abs Diet". It talks a lot about how your body responds to certain things, which was perfect for me (I like to know why... having a cheat sheet for what to eat when isn't enough for me). I made some changes to my diet based on what I had learned, saw results that I liked, and kept going.

I ended up losing about 40lbs, got back to where I was happy and feeling good, then slacked off a bit as life got in the way. Fast forward to a few months ago and here I am, trying to get back to where I want to be by following the same priciples I learned back when I started all this.

So why do I do what I do? Because logically the principles make sense, they are supported by SEVERAL other sources, and they work for me.

One day about 5 years ago I was driving down a bumpy road and I could feel my boobs jiggle. That was "the moment" for me.

LMAO, now that is a "wake-up" moment if I've ever heard one!!

I follow this - http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/

as much as possible. I do it because I work in health care and I know it's evidence based. I do it because it's sensible and doesn't ask me to cut any one group of foods from my diet. But mostly I do it because it's kept me healthy for more than 20 years (I'm 50 and never been on meds, BP, lipids and organ function all fine).

I love this site! Healthy and sane advice. It's pretty much what I strive to do, except that I do allow myself some unhealthy treats daily.

Yes, I do too. In a long stemmed glass.