Calorie counting is totally free. Works great and is easy. As others have mentioned, food is the key. Like Robin, I also personally do not think 1900 calories/day is too low if you are eating the right foods. If you are trying to eat junk food and alcohol within that limit, yea, you'll be starving, but if you are eating whole grains, lots of vegetables and fruit, low fat dairy and lean proteins this really is an enormous amount of food. I'm right around 140 now and this is the amount I average daily to maintain my 193 pound weight loss. In my humble opinion, if you plan on going all the way to a fit and trim body, you might as well get used to what it's going to take to maintain it, because you won't beable to eat much more than that in the long run to keep the weight off, unless you excercise hours and hours a day.

I have a friend who sounded a lot like you in the beginning. She has been losing weight and when she started out she was walking massive amounts of miles per day, she also lost around 10 pounds pretty quickly but then the weight loss just stopped. She was almost in tears the day she talked to me about it...WELL, come to find out, she was sort-of counting points, was drinking lots of beer on weekends, and basically eating most of the points she was counting in chocolate and cookies, then overeating because she was so hungry. I told her basically the same thing Robin told you. When she actually started weighing and measuring her food, and eating much more healthy volumous food, the weight has just melted off. She looks great. She still walks/jogs, but has cut back from 8-10 miles per day 4 times/week to 3-4 miles per day 5 times/week. She has told me over and over how thankful she is for my advice and that food really is the key.

I thank all of you for your advice. It means so much to me that you all have taken the time to help me.

I have a little addition that may help you stave off hunger. What has worked for me is eating mini meals. Some people call them "snacks" but I don't like that word. ;) That's just ME! I eat six meals of approximately the same calories about 2-2.5 hours apart. This staves off the hunger most of the time. I will say it took three grinding weeks for me to be able to say that!! Those first three weeks were hard and took will power. But honest to goodness, it got easier over night and I wasn't hungry anymore.

I have heard that weight loss is 80% diet and 20% exercise. I have seen many, many women on this board say that seems to be true for them. It seems to be true for me.

One final piece of advice to take or leave. ;) My past diet attempts failed because it was too slow for me. My body does not lose at a pace that matches my effort! :tantrum: I made it too hard, so I quit. This time around I have given myself one year where I have promised myself I will be on plan no matter what the scale says. That way, I can't just quit because I don't think it's fast enough. My rate has slowed way down recently to between 3-4 pounds per month. Every other weight loss attempt would have me quitting right now. But I'm still here. :D

Eliana, I think your advice about the mini-meals is really helpful. I have been told this before and perhaps this time I will listen. Thank you for your help!!!

I would also recommend, if you want to learn to "eat right," another possibility is the South Beach Diet. There are subforums here for it. It is not low-carb, but good-carb; and if you don't know what to eat, or what volumes of good foods to eat, then South Beach can help. (Many South Beachers combine SB with calorie counting, as well.)

And yes, as everyone has said before, losing weight and being healthy is mostly about the food you eat.

Though, I would also say that another thing you can do to make sure you are giving your body what it needs is to get enough sleep, and enough quality of sleep. If you are sleep-deprived or not sleeping well, this will hinder your weight loss and negatively impact your health. (Personally, I think sleep is more important than "aerobic" exercise for health and weight.)

I eat pretty much the same way Eliana does - 6 small meals a day, approximately 3 hours apart (give or take). I can't believe that some people say 1/3 cup of oatmeal with some berries can keep them full till lunch hour. I need to eat in regular intervals because I get hungry to the point that my stomach is growling loudly. I usually bring 3 different meals with me to work every day.

Tomato, I'm the same way at work. I'll usually grab something quick at home for breakfast (oatmeal w/blueberries), then I'll have my post breakfast/pre-lunch snack at work. I'll have lunch and then also have something before I go home (banana or yogurt). It sounds like my stomach is at war w/itself if I don't eat throughout the day.

I'm pretty new compared to the above posters. But I will say this, you gotta think yourself into the plan. You can't wonder if you will make it or not. The women and men on this site are a wealth of information and have the experience to go with it. In order for you to have the experience you gotta DECIDE and stick with your DECISION. I started January 3, 2010 and the first three days were extremely hard. I had terrible headaches but I pressed past them because I was committed to myself. I would drink lemon water to keep my body as close to settled as possible. There were a couple of times that I had the shakes. I realized that I had been eating waaaay too much for my body to be going through withdrawals like this. It was almost like a drug addict. I would even work out through the headaches. Almost 4 months later this is who I am not just what I do. Like Tomato, I bring all my food to work with me, there is no junk food in my house, I leave all my cash at home because failure is not an option this time. I started with 1200 calories and it was sustaining me. I ate every 2-2.5 hours and still do. I'm at 1445 calories and that is plenty of food. Most days I come in at about 1350-1400. I have my largest calorie meal (400) at dinner so I can eat with my husband and daughter. I even had to adjust the type of foods I was eating. I wasn't eating a lot of carbs, maybe a sandwich thin and cheerios but I don't eat those everyday.(thanks to Lori Bell). I eat lots of fruit and veggies, veggie burgers, chicken, fish and I don't drink any of my calories. I only drink water, even when we eat out. Yes we eat out but only if I can find their nutrition information so I can know what I can have when I go. There are lots of restaurants that provide that information. My husband, who didn't think he needed to eat healthy will make sure I have checked the info before we go anywhere. My daughter is working out with me because she see's me doing. That makes me feel good and she isn't even 2 yet. Everything had to change for me.

The people on this site rejoice with you when you have a victory and encourage you when you stumble. But the bottom line you have to make a DECISION that failure is not an option and take anything away that would cause you to fail. I used to eat the weight watchers ice cream for a snack because the calorie counts fit my calorie budget but when time came to workout, I was sluggish and it would be more difficult. So "I" had to cut them out of my diet. It's a lot of trial and error but you are worth every moment of it. I count my calories because I have tried all kinds of other stuff and this is the only thing that has worked. I track my food now out of necessity because I need to get to the maintaining part. I want to show myself what I'm capable of doing. I have even set a limit of weight gain for when I get to goal. Because as Robin said, failure to plan is planning to fail. I have gone from a size 22/24 to a size 18 and working on getting into a 16 by May 16.

If you make the commitment to yourself then you can make it to your goal. (that's my two cents) lol!!

Originally Posted by Lori Bell:
In my humble opinion, if you plan on going all the way to a fit and trim body, you might as well get used to what it's going to take to maintain it, because you won't beable to eat much more than that in the long run to keep the weight off, unless you excercise hours and hours a day.

Lori knows more than me, but let me offer a counter-argument, and you can decide which approach works better with your personality.

On this attempt, I started at 2300-2400 calories a day, and it was the best decision I ever made.

Getting to 300 means a person almost certainly had some very destructive eating habits. They need to entirely revamp the way they eat--habits and patterns that are probably 20 or 30 or 40 years old. Revamping those eating habits is like if you were transplanted to a new town in a new culture and told to build a life; it's like starting a new job in a new field where you don't know anyone. Furthermore, you have to learn to plan --how to make sure you always have your healthy food, what to do when you must eat out, how to turn down your mom's cooking, all of it. It's stressful.

Now then, many overweight people have all sorts of emotional issues tied in with hunger and deprivation (I swear to god, I could predict someone's BMI based on one question: Have you ever eaten before you left the house in case you got hungry later?). Dealing with those issues is also stressful and complicated.

I think it's better to divorce these two issues--the complete revolution of your eating habits, and dealing with the emotional stuff. Starting with 2400 calories (at 300 lbs) means you won't gain weight ,and you have the time to try a thousand new foods, read a thousand websites, etc, until your plan is refined. Once that is accomplished, cutting calories is easy.

Furthermore, cutting calories gradually means you don't risk overcompensating. Whatever the cause (and "starvation mode" is a guess), there does seem to be a "floor" a point past which fewer calories does not change your weight loss, or at least doesn't change it much. That floor is different for different people: I know, for me, thus far, I lose the exact same on 1300 or 1500 calories a day. Learning that has given me so much pleasure: every day, an extra 2 bags of popcorn, or 400 grams of broccoli, or 2 cheese sticks, or (indulgence time!) a McDs ice cream cone. Risking stalling my weight loss for a couple weeks (when iI went back up from 1300-1500) really, really scared me, but man, the pay off has been tremendous.

Anyway, for whatever it's worth, I am glad I started my calories "high" and I didn't have any problem cutting them 100 calories a week later.

im sorry but im just sort of cracking up over here. this isnt helpful to the thread but i just have to say that reading lori and robin in the same post just kills me. i remember starting on here and those 2 gals always having lots of opinions and advice and sometimes it sort of came off super aggressive. at the time i was like sheesh! easy there ladies!! but now when i read their posts i just love the absolute honesty. its exactly what i would say to someone now. so i have nothing to add! trust what they say, there is a lot of wisdom and honesty in those two!!

Hi Dollyfinn - Check out Don Mannarino's Think and Lose. No calorie counting, no points, no specific diet, no restrictions, just you and your subconscious. A lot of people think self hypnosis is a bunch of baloney, but for someone like myself who had tried pretty much everything, all with eventual failure, TNL has worked wonderful. LOVE it and found it very easy. I have met people, who with TNL, have had HUGE successes - over 100 pounds - and others who have kept their weight off for more than 5 years.

Just thought I'd throw that out there for another option. Good luck with your journey.

Weight Watchers worked great for a family friend, not so great for my mom and me. I find calorie counting easier, and, of course, it's free. I stopped Weight Watchers because I couldn't afford to spend the money when I wasn't seeing results.

However, WW does provide that accountability. If you think you won't stick to it and you need that weekly weigh-in, WW might be the right choice.

I suggest trying calorie counting for a few weeks and see if you can do it. Like the others have said, track everything and BE HONEST about what you eat. No rounding down, no "it's just a bite, it doesn't count."

Then if that doesn't work, consider WW. Just my advice :)

Hi there, I'm totally butting in to give you my experience. Because I sounded a lot like you. Sure, my highest weight ever was 201, not past 300, but for at least 3 years I tried to limit my calories to 1800 a day, but since "calories are all that matters," I didn't pay very much attention to what I ate. Oh, I never was a big fan of fatty meats, and I began checking labels avidly, and even paid attention to fiber content and whole grains versus non. But I wasn't very consistant and I didn't care much about keeping track of sugar. If I had 400 calories to spare, I ate a big ole bowl of ice cream. I was constantly going over 1800. Since my BMR was 2400, I just considered it good that I wasn't going over that and GAINING weight. And then I'd be frustrated that I was limiting myself and not losing weight?! I didn't make any sense. And somewhere in my mind, I knew that.

My other pitfall was that I thought if I go over calories, it's okay, because I'm exercising a lot now. That means I'm at least healthier, right? I focused so much more energy on exercise than I did on food. That is WRONG. You CAN focus mostly on food, little on exercise and lose weight. (not saying it's healthy...) It doesn't really work the other way around.

I know it sucks. Trust me, I know. I so badly didn't want to re-evaluate my eating habits. I didn't want to make drastic changes, just small ones that made sense. But nothing big. Well, you have to. And I'll be honest and say, I still don't think I'd be able to stick with my new, revised goal of 1500 calories if it wasn't for quitting sugar. I quit because sugar was hurting my stomach, but it turned out to be the best thing in the world for me. I no longer need as much food as I used to, I don't crave any more. Weird, I know.

As for the low carb giving you a headache, it's probably because you're going through withdrawl. You really need to try it for a while before making any decisions. And I would suggest trying to do a whole grain, no simple carbs diet, not stictly "no carb." If you haven't done so recently, you should check with a doctor and make sure you don't have any health issues. There could be a medical condition that makes you crave carbs more than others. (But unless you know that for sure, don't use it as an excuse!) And there could be other medical reasons for your weight to be over 300. (I cringe anytime I hear someone say "to get that high, you must have appalling eating habits." Um, no. Not necessarily true.)

Good luck. I hope myself and the girls around here have provided some help. Look through the "Goal!" section to see that it REALLY IS possible! I said quitting sugar was a turning point, but that coincided with finding this place. This place really keeps my courage up, as seeing what others have overcome gives me strength that I can do the same! And, the people on here are collectively the most educated people I have ever seen when it comes to weight loss. True, I haven't seen anything new here, but I am amazed to see so many people that have done as much research as I have. They can help tell you how fair your calorie limits and exercise demands are. And give you more advice than you could ever possibly use.

Ok. That's enough. End Ramble.