You do not have to be in any kind of organized program to lose
weight. Most persons who lost weight and kept it off did their own
program. (source, _Keeping it Off_). Counting calories is a foolproof
approach to dieting, although you may get by with portion control,
which would accomplish the same thing. (for example, eat 3 meals only
from a small plate to be filled with anything you want, once per meal).

If exercise is too painful at your weight, you can as well skip
exercise or do very little of what you can.

Do not be intimidated, a lot of people started off in just as bad
position as you are in and they are doing great. What's important is
being consistent.

On the coin collecting group the standard advice is
"Buy the book before you buy the coin".  The general
sentiment works just fine here.

Popular weight loss plans are popular because they
work.  They work because they are carefully designed
and tested.  As much as a decade of work goes into
each of them.  Consider what your chances are if you
make up your own plan as you go compared to taking
advantage of a decade of work by someone else.

Those are the most popular options: Low calorie, low
fat and low carb.  There are other types of plans
out there that use principles that aren't as easy
to come up with on your own.

So far you've described just about every plan you'll
find.

There are always reasons.  The human body does not
behave in obvious ways.

So take a step back and see if what you're already
doing fits some class of plans.  If you're currently
high-carb/low-fat then that isn't working so go for
low-carb/high-fat.  Or vice versa depending on what you
already eat.

Another point common to nearly every plan available.

Read some plans.  Read a couple of low fat ones, a
couple of low carb ones, a couple of low calorie ones.
They all work and everyone is different so none of them
work for everyone.  Once you have learned, then pick
using that education, and using the fact that what you
currently eat isn't working.

Maggie, I lost 60 lb between September and January, almost entirely
via diet (I'm 5' 6" and I went from 195 down to 135...which I'm just
south of now). It isn't rocket science. Its strictly an energy
equation. What comes in has to be less than what goes out, or you
won't lose weight. I've made every excuse in the books over the last
many years for not being able to lose weight. In the final analysis,
it was all a bunch of hooey. I dunno, maybe its like quitting smoking
- maybe before I wasn't ready to really tackle it, and I had to make a
bunch of false starts.

Honestly, I don't think which diet you pick matters that much. Low
carb, low fat, low carb AND low fat, low calorie, whatever! The only
thing that matters is that you find one that you can live with and
stick to, whether that is Jenny Craig, Weight Watchers, Atkins, or any
of the endless variations and ideas there are out there. Any of them
will work if you commit to them - there isn't a magic single answer.
Different ones will suit various lifestyles, preferences etc. better.
You just have to find one that fits you and your life, stop kidding
yourself, and get serious.

I also think you have to get totally serious about success, and set
the scene to get you there. I filled my house with stuff I could eat,
so there would never be a day when I was scrambling for choices (I
have a fridge full of veggies and a pantry full of low calorie stuff).
I did the things that many diet plans recommend. I ate breakfast every
day (including protein). I kept a food diary. I drank tons of fluids
(and still do) - that magic 8-10 glasses a day. I did whatever I had
to do to avoid situations where I would eat without thinking about it
(i.e. whatever triggers you to munch out, whether that is being bored
on the weekend in front of the tube scarfing maple cookies and
popcorn, or hanging out with friends at the Sports bar swilling beer
and eating chicken wings. A food diary will help you be more conscious
of what you are putting in your mouth. We eat a lot of stuff on the
fly without really savouring it. I also bought a scale so I could tune
into appropriate serving sizes (and boy, my previous idea of a
reasonable portion was WAAAAAAY skewed).

You have to plan to change your habits - because losing the weight is
only 1/10 of the fight. Keeping it off means you can't go back to same
old same old, and thats the real war.

I was never a huge overeater, but the weight did creep on over time
(20 lb over the last 2 years alone, the rest came from 3 babies). To
lose the weight, I had to make some radical changes. I mean, think
about it. If you wanted to lose 2 lb a week, that would equate to
reducing your intake 1000 calories a day, which would mean eating
about HALF of your current intake for the average woman. The first
weeks were totally tough, but I got into a groove, and when the pounds
started to come of fairly steadily a pound or two a week, talk about
positive reinforcement. I also graphed my loss, which was a good idea
because I would get very discouraged about stalls, but when you
graphed the overall progress, the line went steadily down (i.e. the
blips were just blips and the trend was steadier than was apparent day
to day).

You have to look at this as a marathon, not a sprint. Don't tell
yourself you'll "try" since that is self talk double speak for
failure. Make up your mind to go all the way, and do it. And if you
fall off the horse, you dust yourself off and get back on, since a
couple of lapses shouldn't mean you just give up.

All these years I've been kvetching and whining and feeling guilty and
miserable about my weight - and all that time the ability to do
something about it was mine. Flash ahead 6 months. Do you want to be
the same, or maybe fatter? Or do you want to put this phase beyond you
and move onto doing what I'm doing - figuring out how to stay where
I've gotten to, but LOVING my new body.

Mary G.