As pretty much everyone else has already said, I think it's important to find something you can stick with for life. However, I have to respectfully disagree with Kiramira on the point I quoted above. Starting small and making changes gradually is how I finally managed to put an end to destructive yo-yo dieting and become healthy and fit. I've literally lost more than half of myself.

Some people might like taking huge leaps, but for others, small steps work just fine

Best of luck!

I made small changes, which added up, and became bigger changes. And IMHO, there are LOTS of ways to change a lifestyle, all at once or by degrees, and both ways work (and both ways are well represented in the Maintainers forum)

I've also found this to be true for myself, as well. In three and a half decades of dieting, I never tried gradual changes because like Kiramira, I thought only radical changes were legitimate. Gradual changes were for people who weren't intelligent, strong or commited.

Boy was I wrong. In a sense, it was like early settlers in wagon trains who tried to take the "short cut" over the mountains (against the advice of more experienced travelers) rather than the "long way" around the mountain. The short way seemed the fastest, but it was difficult to travel and treacherous, and very often many or all of the people that went the "short way" (if they didn't turn back) died, because of it.

Taking the long way isn't a cop-out or a sign of weakness. Making gradual changes is as legitimate as the short way - and may even have health advantages over radical changes. It certainly has had psychological benefits for me.

While magazines and books now pay lip service to gradual changes, I find that in general, the gradual path isn't given much respect. This doesn't have to be a race, and I get so frustrated that it still is so taboo to choose a different path than the typical crash and yoyo dieting. Magazines still offer cover stories about losing large amounts of weight in a month, a week, a weekend! It's just insane.

3FC is the only place that I've encountered people willing to talk about the "long way" to lose weight, and there are many examples (as in the wagon train days) where people found that longer way, actualy was quicker than the shortcut (if this is to be compared to a race, the turtle does have a chance). Moving around obstacles can be a lot easier than trying to plow through them (the analogy of a brick wall, is a good one - often running at a brick wall, trying to break through it, only results in severe injury. Scaling it or walking around it, isn't a bad idea). If you have the power to walk through walls, more power to you, but walking around, or climing over is ok too.

Shelley that's teh diet I am on too. I tried it last year but couldn't stick with it. I'm HOPING this time I can! I am going on vacation next week though and am very nervous about 5 days of eating out!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Wow half your weight that is amazing! Thanx all for posting.........
I know that I did Jenny and lost great on it, but got sick on the food when I was prego and can't eat it now so that is out LOL. I know MRC works GREAT for me WHEN I can stick to it, I lose 5 lbs every week, but sticking to it I have a hard time. I have to remember in TEN WEEKS I could be at goal and surely I can eat anything for TEN WEEKS RIGHT!

I've never been one to stick with things so I think gradual for me would be bad...............I'd lose interest and forget like I do with everything else. I'm an all or nothing type person, though I totally see the validity in gradual changes.

Just was trying to come up with a back up plan in case I fail again at MRC. I always go back to the Mountain Dew. It is so hard to overcome a soda addiction, I gave up cigs MUCH easier than soda!

Over the years I have done WW, Jenny, Atkins, Pills, Gyms and much, much more. The only thing that worked for me was just simplifying. I count calories, eat healthier and exercise by going out the front door walking the neighborhood. Its alot cheaper simplifying too!

It isn't a question of legitimacy of small changes, and it isn't a question of placing value judgements on the paths people choose. It isn't a question of racing to lose weight. I think the boat was missed here.

What I am saying, obviously not too clearly, is that to be successful, you need a plan that works within your lifestyle, that you can work and sustaine effectively, and you need to fundamentally shift a number of things in your life. The advice to make a small change, observe, tweak and so on MAY work for some but not many. And I acknowledge that this isn't a race -- I never said it was! But 100% dedication and consistency to your plan is necessary. And it doesn't mean that you won't grow and adjust your plan accordingly. HOWEVER, in order to be effective, there HAS to be some sort of radical change in thought process or else you will stay mired in moderation. If you accept and expect moderation, then you will get exactly those results. Whether it be in academics, athletics, or personal goals -- if you live by the rule of moderation, you WILL recieve mediocrity in return. IMHO. There aren't a whole lot of C students who get into med school: there aren't a whole lot of average runners who work out twice a week that get to the Olympics...

There ARE many stories that I have read by people on the forum who were severely overweight and sedentary. They are now where they want to be and are fit. All of them did this through changing SOMETHING drastically --their perception of exercise, their food intake, heck if you decide to calorie count, this is pretty significant! More so than saying, well, this month I'll eat only light cream cheese and see what happens.

I guess the best measure of effectiveness if the OP is interested is to find a few of us whose stories touch her during their weight loss phase and just watch. You'll figure out pretty quickly what philosophy and path an individual has chosen. You'll learn who has eliminated sugar from the diet (pretty radical), who has become vegetarian/vegan (pretty radical), who is taking the C25K program (pretty radical for a sedentary person), who is counting calorie and controlling their intake (pretty radical for us former free-form eaters), those who have eliminated junk food from their diet, those who refuse to eat any processed foods, those who exercise 5 or 6 times a week, and so on, and those who choose minor changes and live in a state of moderation. And now do something which I'm sure will make people uncomfortable to even suggest: follow the tickers. That's a pretty clear indication of whether the plan is effective for a person or not. Otherwise, why would we have tickers? It serves as a public record of progress...I guarantee you that the ones willing to make the most change, who are most open to self-examination, and who are willing to break out of their self-definitions instead of spending years in moderation are winning the battle. Then read the maintainers' stories. You'll see who again has eliminated sugar, or gone organic, or found fitness as their motivator. I guarantee you that you won't see very many who spent 25 years living in moderation to reach a goal...And finally, read the posts of our maintainers, because you'll soon see who has redefined themselves and who is still living within the parameters and thought patterns of their larger selves. THIS will help you decide exactly what path you want to take and how you choose to live the rest of your life...sounds harsh, I know, but SOMETIMES a dose of reality isn't a bad thing...

I'm just saying...

Kira

I don't know, maybe I'm not winning the battle but I have to say all the changes in the past years I view as being an evolution.

At my highest weight, I started exercising regularly, which wasn't a drastic change for me because I had exercised before and even exercised regularly. I stopped certain things like eating ice cream regularly which didn't seem so drastic. My diet change and evolved over time so that I went towards a whole foods diet. Eventually I got tired of meat and I wasn't eating much cheese anyway due to high fat content and one day I decided to follow a vegan diet. It actually didn't seem so drastic to me because I was already going that way.

I think small changes can definitely add up and there is a lot of tweaking. My habits 6 years ago are drastic compared to my habits today but it didn't happen over night and I may not be at goal so I may not be considered a success by some but I thank small changes adding up to where I am today.

Re: radical vs. moderate changes/baby steps, I think it is important to point out that one doesn't need all the answers from Day 1. My own plan has evolved and changed over the years. I started out calorie counting and running and now I follow an exchange type program of whole foods and I run and lift weights. Foods that I used to eat that fell into my calorie range are not part of my plan any longer and I don't count calories now, I just try to meet certain protein/veggie/fat/carb targets. So start out with something that makes sense to you and then you can tweak it from there.

Kira, I lost my first 40-50 pounds by making small changes one after another, like drinking diet soda instead of classic, eating a bagel with low fat cheese instead of regular, and buying M&M's once or twice a week instead of every day. As I dropped more and more weight, I started feeling better and better, which made me actually want to tweak things further. The evolution of my lifestyle was a very slow, gradual process, and was (yes, believe it or not) based on moderation. In fact, even now, as a healthy, active and fit woman who eats tons of clean, unprocessed foods, I still enjoy my diet soda, bagel, and M&M's... these things are just no longer the cornerstones of my diet.

Moderation has worked just fine for me, thanks.

Everyone is different in whether they make big changes or start with small changes. But I do agree with kiramira. There has to be a radical change in the thought process. Without a change in the thought process, a person simply drifts back into old patterns. The actual steps may be small but the decision to take those steps is major.

There's no research to my knowledge that supports the claim that gradual changes "MAY work for some but not many." Rather, there's been some research and reviews of the literature that indicate the opposite - that ultimate success is actually higher (statistically) for those who start with gradual changes.

I think that often end results are confused with the journey. Small changes can be a way to very big changes. "Moderation," changes meaning as you progress. A person isn't going to lose 100 lbs by eating one less apple a day - however that's not at all what gradual changes are about - because once the person is accustomed to the first change - they ADD another.

A concert violinist is a "radically" different violin player than a person who picks up a violin for the first time.

I may end up a vegan and a competitive athlete eventually (I'm not guaranteeing or betting on that), but I know that when I decide that I am happy with my weight and level of fitness, I will be a radically different person than I am now.

Even in med school, they don't hand new students a scalpel and send them into the operating room with a live patient.

And yet with dieting, that's often EXACTLY what we expect of people - perfection from the start. I don't know how many times I've heard some version of advice to people that if they "fall off the wagon" early it's a "sign" that they're not dedicated enough to losing weight.

The theory that gradual moderate changes are not as effective as radical ones is not supported by the research. Research and reviews of the literature on the subject that I have read showed either that there was little difference or that gradual changes actually had the advantage in the long term (although if you have information on research evidence to the contrary, research that shows radical changes outsuceeded gradual ones in the long-term, I'd love to read them).

So if there's really research support for breaking changes down into smaller, easier pieces, why isn't it very popular? I really think it has to do with the bias that fat people are inherently "lazy." Of course, lazy people want to take the lazy way out, so most of those lazy people are going to fail unless they stop being so darned lazy.

All I can say for myself is the radical, immediate change (except those that entailed amphetemine drugs) were not nearly as effective as breaking the process into more manageable changes that were easy to add to my existing life - rather than creating a whole new life and trying to mold myself into it.

The Diet Denominator, which is based on the volumetrics theory.

Every one of us has limiting beliefs in our minds that hold us back, some of which we aren't even aware of. These beliefs are so germane to who we are that we rarely even formulate them in conscious thoughts. They fester in our deepest unconscious, invisible to the naked eye but powerful enough to run our lives. They are the thoughts that sabotage us right at the moments of greatest opportunity.

How or why we developed these psychic patterns isn't really important. It's recognizing and releasing them that matters.

So much of life is about our beliefs (i.e. blocks) about what we can and cannot do, and our subconscious mind brilliantly obliges by manifesting circumstances and conditions that reflect our core beliefs. But when you test and breathe through those boundaries, the blocks start to move and eventually dissolve.

- Baron Baptiste
Journey Into Power, 2002, p 30

Whatever path you choose is completely up to you. I choose transformation and we'll see where each of us this time next year...

Peace

Kira

Where you are next year isn't much as where you are 5, 10 or more years from now.