Bottom line, it comes to 'calories in - calories out'. That's simple - perhaps overly simple - but it's still the bottom line.
The important thing is that instead of a
diet - which implies a beginning and an end - is that you incorporate
lifestyle changes that become a permanent part of your life.
There's a couple of books - old favorites of mine - that come to mind immediately. Neither one are 'diet books' in the traditional sense of the word, but both are enlightening to say the least! First one is
Thin for Life by Anne Fletcher - Ms. Fletcher based her book on interviews with what she called 'weight-loss masters' - people who have lost 30 or more pounds and (more importantly!) kept off that weight for 3 years or more. These masters were found through an ongoing study run by the National Weight Control Registry (of which both Meg and I are participants). So far there are well over 3,000 study participants who have 'exploded the myth and shown that successful weight loss is indeed possible'. Their website is at
http://www.lifespan.org/services/bmed/wt_loss/nwcr/ if you're interested!
Second book is one I've recommended so often that I probably sound like a broken record - it's
The Fat of the Land: The Obesity Epidemic and How Overweight Americans Can Help Themselves by Michael Fumento. A bit outdated (you can skip the chapter "Pill Talk") but still with VERY relevant information and well worth seeking out. I do wish Mr. Fumento would update his book - I think it was published about 5 years too soon to get enough notice - but he has no plans at this time. However he still writes about the topic of the world obesity problem and posts articles at his website
www.fumento.com which are worth reading!
Hope this helps a bit! I always feel that educating yourself is the first step to success.