If you could give only one tip.....

Drink lots of water. All day long. Drink, drink, then drink some more. It becomes a habit really quickly.

Best wishes!

bump

I will give two....

Buy a scale and weigh things. What I found was that I thought things weighed more than they did. I found that I could have more (beef/chicken/etc) than I thought when I weighed it and I could enjoy it more because I wasn't stressing over the unknown.

Second...

Water, Water, Water.... I didn't buy into this at first but once I went and doubled my water intake the affects were tremendous.

You are so right about the scale. I was so happy when I started measuring foods and saw that I could eat more. It also helps to measure and learn what the serving size really looks for times when you are out and about and can't measure your food.

Bump, for later.

STAY WAY FROM POTATOES, WHITE BREAD, PASTAS, AND WHITE RICE! THESE ARE YOUR ENEMIES! DRINK PLENTY OF WATER. EVEN BETTER...ADD LEMONS TO YOUR WATER. YOU'D BE VERY SURPRISED WITH YOUR RESULTS!

I eat white bread, potatoes, pasta, and white rice, and I lost 42 lbs.

I eat all these things and I lost 65 pounds.

At first I only cared about staying within my calorie goal, but over time, I have come to eat more healthy choices. Some people change what they eat right from the start, others more slowly, and some fill their food goal with the above. Your choice is yours alone. I think most people tend to work on improving their choices in food and exercise.

One tip is usually enough.

Unless...

LOL!!!! so true hahaha... anyway... I'm new too, even though I created this profile in March 2011!!! But really started counting calories 2 weeks ago, started off with another Calorie count website but found that this one had a better food database!
All the tips on this thread are awesome, I was doing so good for 2 weeks and then blew it off last night overeating some indian takeaway, I feel horrible today! Not only guilty but physically horrible, and icky! I love Indian food, but I guess I could've had just a little bit... so my advice is to not beat yourself up if you have a woopsy day!! After all if you are doing so good you deserve a "bad" day just to remind you how much better you feel when you stick to a healthy diet! Really...

Log every day, even the bad days. ESPECIALLY the bad days. Forgive yourself for the bad days quickly and without punishing yourself later ("I'll only eat half of my calories tomorrow to make up for it.. " is unnecessary punishment) , but DO be honest with yourself. It can be depressing to know you messed up, but own it and know that one "free" day every once in a while can be liberating, yet two or three in a row is going to make it that much harder to get back "on the wagon". I find knowing how bad the bad days are and aren't (in the beginning I was sure I messed up sometimes, only to log in every morsel and find I was 20 calories over, not 200...) to be very motivating.

- Control your portions
- Choose a best hour within a day to exercise (you don't need to do it in the mornings if you feel tired in the mornings)
- Don't be harsh to yourself, never hate yourself.
- Don't care others. You are your dietician, you know what your body needs.

You asked for only ONE..

For me it was to add Sodium on my daily Food Diary. I used to eat a lot of prepackaged meals and was only looking at the total calories. When I added the column to track the Sodium I was blown away with how much was hidden in all those pre-packaged and prepared foods. Over the course of the last couple years I've slowly learned to become a 'passable' cook and I do much more of my own preparing using raw or fresh ingredients. Make split pea soup from scratch using dried peas makes it okay to eat, whereas the soup in a can is dietary homicide. Cutting back the sodium to 1800 or so will really help with things like fluid retention and hypertension. Of course less fluid retained will show up quickly on the scale but its a nice boost to your ego to see that something you're doing is having an affect. But by paying attention to the sodium you'll find the other 'nasty' ingredients will also magically start to take care of themselves.
I can have a burger for lunch without it killing my plan. But the burger is fresh straight hamburger, no spices added, grilled on a pannini press, then served on a Eating Right Sandwich Slender, with a slice of provolone and smattering of brown mustard. Knowing what's in it makes it taste better than a Big Mac!

Log everything you eat for a long time. Until you could do it in your sleep. Then you attain a valuable awareness and accountability for everything you eat.