Well, you have really opened - in a GOOD way! - the floodgates here, and I reckon you'll get a lot of different responses that you'll have to carefully evaluate and think through.

Personally, only two things have really worked for me in my life regarding weight loss.

1. Anorexia. Pros - it works.Technically, anyway. Cons - very unhealthy. Propels you into binge eating/bulimia quite often. Steals your life. You can't appreciate being thin anyway. Its just generally awful.

I've tried various "eating plans", "diets", all that stuff. Tragic at 20, that I've done all this stuff...who wants to do that for life, right?!

2. Paul Mckenna's approach/ "Intuitive Eating". He has a book out called I Can Make You Thin, but beneath the rather sensationalist title is a solid, anti-dieting approach. IMHO, diets are awful. A lot of high quality research says they don't work anyway. Instead, a serious lifestyle and eating change is in order. This is, I believe, the most natural way to do it.

If you can't afford the book or don't have a local library, just google him and his website gives away most of the info for free anyway.

Exercise. I just got in the habit years ago, and not a day goes by whereby I don't move somehow!

You say you live with your parents and do not have a job. Do you feel as though this is just a phase and have solutions on the horizon, or do you experience your situation as helpless? This makes a major difference, because sufficient self esteem and life satisfaction levels are essential for longterm healthy living. You gotta believe you're worth it!

Weightwatchers, calorie counting etc may work for some people. If they keep the weight off and don't go bananas sometimes due to restriction, great! But I -and many others I've observed - can't do it. Diet = misery :P

and congrats on the wedding!

My body happens to be 'weight loss resistant' as well, partly because of genetics but also because of my carb intolerance. What's worked for me (slowly but surely) is limiting carbs. I'm single and don't make a ton of money, so my grocery budget is pretty small. I spend the bulk on protein, and rely a lot on frozen vegetables because they're cheap and they taste pretty good.

Protein shakes make great snacks. They also make good breakfasts, though protein powder is a little on the expensive side. It goes a long way, though, so I spend on it.

As for exercise, walk. Just walk and walk and walk, as much as you can. Someday maybe you will want to try running! Both are free, and both are great for you. If you can find some hills to climb while you're walking, that's even better. Adding weights would be great, but if you can't afford it, you can't afford it. Though you can do some strength training with stuff you've got at home, if you're feeling creative.

Good luck! It seems insurmountable, I know, but you can do this. I'm a calorie counter, personally, and I really think that's the easiest plan. Of course others would disagree.

I lost weight by calorie counting and exercise. It can take a while to figure out how many calories you need to eat to lose weight at a reasonable speed, but I don't believe you have to starve yourself to lose weight. As I went along, I started getting more interested in the nutrition than just the calories, and now I generally try to eat a variety of foods, including fruits, vegetables and enough protein. There's nothing particularly expensive about my way of eating, but fresh fruit and vegetables can be expensive sometimes.

And as for exercise -- at first I didn't do much, but now I regularly exercise. I did join a gym, but there are lots of cheaper ways to do it -- focus on moving more! Check out our exercise forum for lots of ideas!

You don't have to be on a special "diet" or "program" to be successful at weight loss and maintenance. In fact, recent research of successful maintainers suggest that many of them made up programs that worked for them!

Good luck!

If you think about losing weight as a skill, like any other (playing the piano, learning a sport...) you don't have to find the best learning plan for you, you just have to keep practicing and along the way, you may change your technique to suit you better, but starting somewhere is more important than perfection.

A food diary helps. Just noting what you eat, when you eat, and maybe even your emotions and feelings about eating - do you feel starved or deprived? Are some foods "trigger foods" that either are difficult to portion control or make you hungrier in general (for me, sugar does that - even natural sugars from fruit. So even with fruit, I try to eat it with a meal or for dessert rather than as a "snack" because if I eat a high sugar or starch food by itself, I tend to get really hungry shortly after).

A gym membership certainly isn't necessary, but YMCAs do offer scholarships and volunteer programs, so if that sounds interesting to you, it's worth looking into.

Walmart has pedometers under $5, and while it wasn't absolutely necessary, I love mine. I found that clipping a pedometer onto my walking shoes really motivates me to try to beat the previous day's mileage.

I love the hillbillyhousewife website for it's dieting on a budget advice (under the healthy hbhw tab), including recipes.

Hi redreine,

I also have epilepsy and can completely understand what you mean when you say that the meds make it tougher to lose weight. But it's not impossible.

Not a lot of money. Been there done that. Things like low fat salad dressing, milk, yoghurt, cheese cost exactly the same as their full fat alternatives. Frozen veges are a fantastic price and as they're usually processed straight after picking, can be better for you than the fresh alternatives that can have been sitting in storage and the shop for a few days before you buy them. Things like beans and lentils are a fantastic cheap protein source.

You don't need a gym membership - just a pair of walking shoes. I'm working on the assumption here that like me, you don't drive. Try getting off the bus a stop or two early, going for a walk around the block, that sort of thing. Also, most public libraries have exercise DVDs available - look at getting one out from time to time.

I'm about as far from you as can be, but there are ways around this. Going by my experiences, you're not going to see what I call big losses very often - if I average a pound a week, I'm doing well. Having said that, you're younger than I am, so your metabolism is going to work faster.

Good luck - I'm sure you'll do well!

I have done many diets and found calorie counting works best for me and it is free! I have a shoulder injury so cannot do upper body exercises. My main form of exercise is walking and guess what ? It is also free! Buying healthy food does not have to be expensive.

I've found that the best and easiest way for me to lose weight is to count calories and track what I eat. Right now I use TheDailyPlate.com and have found it to be easy to use and helpful.

Eating on the cheap isn't always easy- but it's not impossible. First off- do you have any discount stores nearby like Aldos or Grocery Outlet? We have a grocery outlet near us and it's a lifesaver! And I second the suggestion of frozen veggies, they're way cheaper and are very easy to prepare. Also, try to focus your meals on a lot of veggies and smaller amounts of protein. Plus, if you're sticking to portion sizes, things will go much farther. The cheapest I've found boneless, skinless chicken breasts out here is 1.99/pound. If I stick to a 4oz portion- that makes each serving 50 cents. Throw that in a skillet with some chopped onions, maybe some frozen pepper strips, serve with some refried black beans and a salad. Cheap and easy.

Also, avoid processed and packaged foods- they're not as healthy and more expensive than homemade options.

For exercise- walking is always free. So are a lot of exercise videos on the internet. Or, at the least, there are a lot of easy to do strength moves you can find online too. Do you have a step anywhere in or outside of where you live? Step up and down it for a couple minutes in a row to get your heart rate moving. Mix that up with some jumping jacks, a few modified pushups, crunches, etc. and you have your very own bootcamp. Do you live near a school with bleachers? Going up and down those for 20 minutes, even at a slow pace, will really burn some calories and give a good lower body workout. Use waterbottles for dumbells and you've got some upper body workout too.

Losing weight is hard- but it's never impossible!

I really suggest Workouts for Dummies by Tamilee Steel (aka ms. buns-o-steel) It's really useful in the beginning when your overwhelmed at all the information your getting about exercises.. it shows you exercises you can do at home without lots of equipment and easy/hard versions, all organized by muscle. It also helps you figure out which areas you want to work on and how often. Having a plan of what I was going to do each day of the week made it SO much easier to stick with exercising.

Don't let a desire for the "perfect plan" stop you before you even start. Just start. You KNOW the basics. Eat healthy whole foods, watch your portion sizes, move your body. No "off the shelf" plan worked for me, I took bits and pieces from various plans and made my own, personal plan. AND I tweaked and changed and improved as I went along.

Oh forgot to mention, I too have epilepsy and take medication for it. However, mine is weight neutral - I take Lamictal/Lamotrigine. I don't know if you've tried others or what kind of epilepsy you have, but some meds for it don't affect weight . If weightloss isn't forthcoming, talk to Dr about trying a different one? Although I appreciate just what a chore going on/coming off meds is.