I have been curious about the affect of quitting sugar, at least for a while, and then being very careful about it in future. First off, I'd like to know, how many of you have lost weight by doing nothing but cutting out sugar?

I think you will be surprised at how many food products have sugar in them.

I have been very successful at dieting by cutting out sugar and anything white (flour/rice/pasta) .......now if I could just keep the weight off, Id be perfect

sugar, corn syrup, fruit juice sweetners, honey... along with simply process carbs (white flour white rice etc)

eliminate the above and you will lose weight.

I can't say I did nothing but cut out sugar, but I can say that drastically reducing sugar (and junk foods) is one of the major things that makes all my other good eating possible. I don't *need* ice cream and cookies and chips every day anymore, and that a huge load off my shoulders.

Avoiding sugar isn't the only component of my plan, but it's definitely the most important component. The problem (for me) is in avoiding or drastically limiting sugar in all its forms (including the simpler starches which break down into sugars very quickly).

Even veggie carbohydrates eventually break down into sugars, but the digestion takes a long time, so it's only the quickly digested sugars and starches that are my trouble spots, but even so it's hard to avoid them, but the better I get at doing so, the more weight I'm losing.

Eliminating sugar is absolutely the most important component of my plan. The first time I did this was in 1992, because of a health problem that I thought would be fixed by cutting out sugar. The health problem was fixed, but a side benefit was losing 40 pounds in 6 months. Alas, I was young and dumb and thought I could "handle" having sugar in my life if I wanted, so I didn't keep on my path.

Starting this past May, I cut out sugar and other refined whites again, and again the pounds just started falling off. Partly this is due to the calorie reduction of not eating sugary foods; partly it's due to the fact that the rest of my diet automatically becomes more healthy when I'm not screwing myself up by eating sugar; partly it's due to the decrease in insulin resistance I experience when I'm off sugar; partly it's due to the fact that cutting out sugar eliminates my cravings for crap. It's a whole combination thing, but it starts with no sugar.

it starts with no sugar. amen sister!