I am obese and am determined to start losing my weight this year.

I have been on every diet under the sun. My last foray into Weight Watchers with their new system was awful. I absolutely love the free fruits and vegetables they now offer, but I think their new way of figuring points is time consuming, convoluted, and way over-blown in any advantage over counting calories.

So, knowing the calorie equivalent of points to calories, I'm creating my own plan. I'm still going to have free fruits and vegetables, but I'm going to count my calories instead of figuring points. It's quicker and so much more convenient. By converting points to calories, I know what I have to do.

I've been reading a lot. I read Thin For Life and Calorie Queens. I've learned so much from these books. Now I have the Mayo Clinic Diet on order from amazon. That book also talks about eating free fruits and vegetables, no matter what your calorie needs. I think Weight Watchers stole their concept!

Anyone else take a familiar plan and tweak it to their needs?

Lots of people do. I am doing my own plan. I know whole foods are the best, but honestly i just enjoy junk food on a regular basis, so i incorporate it a bit into my diet. I am just being strict on the total calories. I would suggest the following as a start, and then add to it as you wish: have a protein and a veggie for each of three meals. (maybe fruit at breakfast if you can't stomach veggies). Starches and junk food can be added as sides or snacks, but each meal should be centered around a protein and a veggie. Just my suggestion.

I actually stick with a quite old WW plan that only counts fat and calories into the point calculation. I use the iWatchr iPhone app that allows custom calculations for points and it works like a charm so far. 11 weeks, 27 lbs lost :-) YAY!

I should add that my "old plan" includes free fruit (only banana is 1 point) and veggies (potato 2 pts but as much as you can eat).

I eat what I want. I know how many calories I can have a day and using an online hoojit I know how much I'm eating. Means I don't have to worry about eating out/on the go/etc..so long as I stick to my calorie allowance.

Been doing this for about 4 weeks so far and have lost 12 lbs (well last time I check anyway). I try and snack on fruit and veg, but I know that denying myself things I love leads to insane cravings and then over-indulgence. I allow myself one "treat" a day. Be that a low-cal ice cream lolly. Or a creme egg. Or pizza (like tonight! We went to Frankie and Bennys!) So long as it fits in my daily allowance we're good to go. And if i eat over what I'm "allowed"...well then I have to get my trainers on and go for a walk or a swim don't I?

I can't follow a diet that tells me what I have to eat everyday...my lifestyle won't allow it. Neither will my budget. So this works for me. I think the more in the know you are about calories, fat, bodies, exercise...the more likely you are to succeed. I have bought books and magazines and take suggestions from them all. I like the look of Rosemary Conleys AILP. And so alot of my thoughts about exercise come from that book.

Just find what works for you. There are plenty of online calculators that will work out your recommended calorie intake from your height and weight and how much you want to lose. Boots MD is the one I used at first. I think being "in the know" is the best tool you can have on board in a diet.

Wow, what success stories you all are, and what great advice. Thank you so much.

One book I have, Thin For Life, says that successful losers who maintain their losses take a diet plan they like but tweak it to their needs, to make it uniquely "theirs." I really like that. We are not all cookie cutters!

This is a really good forum. Thanks again.

I've tweaked out my own plan. I started simply by eliminating bread, pasta, rice, potatoes and sugar. A month or so later I started counting calories and implementing various other "rules". January I started watching my carbs. I tend to add something as I learn new things from others or as I see a plateau and need to change things up a bit. The thing about weight loss is you have to find something that works for you and by creating what I want I figured out what I can stick to and what works for me! Good Luck!

Yeah, I pretty much am doing that now. I've done Weight Watchers, water diets, mushroom diets (which is my fave!), etc. They've ALL worked, I've just failed to work through my plateau. So now I'm mixing a bit of everything that I've learned. We'll see how it goes! Way to go on your weight loss! It gives me hope!

Yep. I'm not good with other people's rules. I made my own and then committed to following them.

Same here... keep my calories under 1500 a day and try to eat as healthy as possible. My new fav thing (because I love salty stuff) are the new potatoes chips that are only 120 cal and you can eat 22 of them! They taste great and I love the crunchines!

I don't work well with strict diets, so I just go by two rules of thumb: a) nothing processed except on rare occasions and b) stay under my caloric limit every day. I know that's fits the definition of a "diet" but as the old cliche goes, to me it feels more of a lifestyle commitment to eat healthy.

Same here! I am really tired of following plan after plan. A calorie is a calorie is a calorie. I can get fuller off of certain types of calories so I opt for those most of the time. But if I want a Snickers bar or some Cheetos, I'm having it. I just know that the rest of the day might be affected and I'm okay with that.

I do make sure I am tracking everything that goes into my mouth and I have had great success using my Bodybugg.

I just have to say it.....

YOU GUYS ROCK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I have created my "own" plan. It basically consists of 1700 cals a day, spread out over 4 even mini meals (same calorie amounts) and 2 smaller snacks (mid-afternoon, post workout) to satisfy some cravings and to make sure I am fueling my body every two-three hours with something. I'm intentional about the water I drink and besides 4 oz of grapefruit juice and a cup of coffee in the morning, it's all I have.

I aim for high protein, low fat, and keep my carbs within "reasonable" limits and always whole grain/wheat. I track EVERYTHING on sparkpeople. I weigh and measure EVERY piece of food that I consume and I journal/blog about what I eat, how I work out every single day for accountability.

I also check out these forums every day for support and information.

I think we make weight loss and the process to which to achieve these goals into some magical, hard to unlock formula. We set ourselves up to fail even before we try. It IS possible. Anyone CAN do it. It's mind OVER matter. It will take time, it does take discipline but you definitely can do it. If I can, anyone can.

Best wishes!

This is my philosophy too.

I obviously make better food choices at 1400 cals a day because I want the most bang for my buck so to speak.

Found a great recipe this morning for a 'Mediterranean' style chicken breast. Looks yummy and only 210 calories. And it's only 5 ingredients.

Can't beat that for dinner with a nice salad or green beans.
(I would post the link, but I don't have enough posts)

Not necessarily, at least not for everybody. For 35 years I thought "a calorie is a calorie" and that I would lose equally well on 1800 calories of... Well anything. Boy, was I wrong.

When I first started low-carb (because my doctor suggested it. I was skeptical and it took a year and a second opinion for me to consider it, because I thought low-carb was unhealthy and possibly even dangerous) and saw that I lost faster and more consistentlyh on low-carb I initially thought I lost more on low-carb because of the water loss (to a degree true the first month) and the decrease in appetite, but I've sinced learned (through food journaling) that I can eat a lot more calories on low-carb (300 to 50 more). That blew me away. On 1800 calories of low-carb I was far less hungry and lost more weight (and more consistently) than on 1800 calories of high-carb.

I didn't believe the results so I repeated them over and over and over agan.

I thought it was some bizarre "miracle" (a hint that it wasn't a miracle was that my body temperature tends to be a degree higher on low-carb, which probably indicates that low-carb somehow literally "turns up" the furnace of my metabolism).

I just read a study that found that rats given the same calorie intake, gained more weight when given fructose sweetened drinks than rats given sucrose sweetened drinks.

All calories may not be equal (but if treating them as such works for you, more power to you. I envy your metabolism).


As for creating my own diet. I modify my diet all the time (with mixed success). I fail a lot because in the back of my head I still believe "a calorie is a calorie" and when I want high-carb foods I can easily persuade myself to "trade" the low-carb foods I've planned for, for equal calorie portions of high-carb foods. This backfires in several ways. The one that's most dangerous is increased hunger, because it makes staying on plan more difficult.

My "basic" plan though is always an exchange plan. I find it easiest to control both calories and carbs, and since I've been exchange plan dieting since I was 8 years old, I have most foods memorized. (Almost all exchange plans use the same basic exchanges created by the American Diabetic Association and the American Dietetic Association in the mid-1950's for diabetics. It means most exchange cookbooks are interchangeable. Including most Weight Watchers cookbooks published prior to 1997).