Hello, I introduced myself in the 20-Somethings forum, so I'll cut and paste here (and edit):

Hello all my fellow fat chicks! (I only use the word fat because it's in the site's name. )

My name is Jamie and I'm 27 years, 154 pounds. I get on the scale at the clinic today, and I had lost five pounds since I was weighed there last month. Last month it said 159 and today it was 154.

I've never struggled with weight until recent years. I'm bipolar and a medication caused me to put on weight in 2007. I worked hard, and got all the weight off and more, and by early 2008 I was 105 pounds.

Then in 2009 I gained back to my high school weight, which was about 120 pounds. I was content with that. Then in 2010 I went up to 135 pounds. Well I felt fat. I tried the Weigh Down diet and lost ten pounds and kept that off for six months.

In early 2011, I started gaining weight back. Only since then, I've gone up to 150 pounds. I think part of it was that I started sleeping more, since I quit my job. That will put weight on you, I read.

Durning the last year, I had tried artifical sweeteners. Well, they caused me to crave more food. I quit them about a month or so ago, and my cravings went way down. I've been eating less.

I found some exercise programs that are fun. Richard Simmons and Leslie Sansone. I've been doing Leslie's workouts pretty consistantly lately.

So, do any of you have any advice for me? What has worked for you? Those of you who made it to the 130s, what things did you do to get there?

I'm not interested in counting calories. I eat out quite a bit, but I usually get something healthy that's on the menu, and often they don't put a calorie count on there. I like the grilled chicken at McDonald's (and their Fruit and Walnut Salad) and the wheat pancakes from Denny's, just to name a couple. I know McDonald's has a nutrition chart, but they don't break it down (like the calorie count of the bread alone, the mayo alone, etc.)

Any ideas?

Thanks, and I look forward to fellowshipping with you all!

Welcome to the forum!

What really worked for me was sitting down and being honest with myself. I had quite a bit more to lose than you and I had to first find out why I was obese. Being honest and realizing that I ate too much was hard, but ultimately it was the reason.

Be honest with yourself. Why did you put on the weight? It's easy to make excuses—I did it for years—but those excuses won't help you.

When I figured out what it was, I found a solution. I started cutting my portions and then I began calorie counting. I, too, go out frequently but nutritional information is available on websites and myfitnesspal usually has variations of restaurant meals (i.e. a meal with double veggies as a side instead of veggies and potatoes) and calorie counts. I don't calorie count the same way as a lot of people though: I don't write anything down and I don't measure. I keep track on my head and I keep a rough estimate of what I've eaten. I know some people say that you MUST measure, but this has worked for me during weight loss and maintenance

Good luck. Remember you must find what works for you. Take little bits of everyone's advice and apply them to your individual lifestyle and preferences.

Thanks Sontaikle.

Does anyone else have any tips?

I think most of us here are "calorie counters" so you might be hard pressed to find a ton of suggestions outside of that. Most of us agree that without counting calories you don't really know what you're ingesting, and can't really determine what else you need to do.

Take stock of what you eat now and eat a little less. Take any obvious shortcuts (drink water instead of juice/soda/whatever, no snacks between meals) that you can take without wrecking your daily routine. Cook for yourself at home. Eat vegetables. GREEK YOGURT.

You can totally lose weight without counting calories, but I think it's good to know how many calories are in certain foods. Keeping a tally or log of them can be exhaustive, but there are so many hidden sources of extra calories you can avoid that it would make it harder to lose without knowing this information.

I don't strictly calorie count but I approximate. Occasionally I will look up certain foods to get an idea how many calories it has.

Generally speaking, with portions when eating out, I rarely finish what's on my plate. Portion sizes at restaurants tend to be larger and less healthy than what I'd make for myself at home so I eat half to 3/4 and then leave the rest. For things like burgers, I tend to remove the buns and eat. For salads I'll have dressing on the side and not use all of it. It's just tweaking the meals they give you to control your portions. I try not to take things home because I know how much of a disaster it'll be when I start looking for food in the fridge.

Once a week I give myself a refeed/cheat day but usually that means carbs like potatoes and pasta (I'm normally low carb) and dessert (usually a couple of scoops of my fave ice-cream or a slice of cake and icecream). A cheat day doesn't have to be about eating as much of everything you can (although my first couple turned out to be 3 cupcakes + 3 scoop of ice cream days).

THIS. I never thought of myself as someone "who makes excuses", but I did. I blamed my weight on PCOS, having small children, dealing with a hubby in the military, etc, etc. But in the end, I had to make peace with reality and it was the best move I ever made.

Calorie counting worked best for me, too. I can't think of anything that I "can't" eat. Good luck!!

Thanks so much for the replies!

I count calories insomuch that I look to see how much a serving is. I usually don't eat more than a serving. Yesterday I had chicken strips and four was 200-300 calories (can't remember) So I just ate four.

I eat just a little ceral in the morning so that I can make that tiny box of Fiber One cereal last!

I work out just about everyday.

The biggest tip is to educate yourself. Read, read, read everything you can - make learning about weight loss your #1 priority. Before you track, count, or modify your workouts, you need to learn. The more you learn, the easier/more apparent it will be what you need to do.

Great job on the exercise. Keep moving as much as possible. It's already paying off.
I would steer towards whole, unprocessed foods.

I do the same thing as a few people mentioned....I don't measure foods except for counting a certain number of chips, pretzels, etc. I can eyeball a tablespoon and that's good enough for me. My biggest problem isn't portions so much as processed food and fast food. Eating these rarely will help a lot.