Exactly. When I finally did that, I lost tons of weight. I don't starve, I just eat vegetables and other nutritious foods. It's very simple, but people don't want to accept that they can't eat junk food and be healthy. And they don't want to accept that it has to be a permanent change in their life in order to keep the weight off.

It's very simple, but people don't want to accept that they can't eat junk food and be healthy.

AMEN! When I started losing weight someone asked me, "OMG you're losing weight! How are you doing it?!" And my answer was "I quit eating so much!" What was her response? The most unhappy disappointed look.

I'm at a healthy weight now. But sadly, she is still fat. :(

Same. I'm now disgusted by most junk foods. I can't bring myself to eat them. Some I can still eat as treats, but for the most part, I'm sworn off them. I used to be 145 lbs. but now I'm down to 133 and still going down (my target weight is 125). Really, drink more water and eat spicy foods (which will encourage you to drink more water and eat less).

Not everyone's body responds to that. Due to a medical condition, I am very limited in my intake everyday. I average about 600 calories a day, sometimes more, sometimes less. My weight should be falling off, as it does with about 2/3 of the people with the same condition. But I am one of the ones whose body goes into starvation mode every time my calorie intake falls below about 1800 a day, which is actually too much for me on a normal day before I got sick.

Not everyone who is overweight is that way because they are lazy and eat too much. Painting everyone with the same brush is just being judgemental

There are those that do have gland problems, but I think the majority of overweight people eat because they feel depressed.

Diets don't work because the depressed mind still craves the comfort of food.

These people need to see a shrink.

@ smj:

I agree. Not everything works for everyone. I'm sorry about your condition.

I exercise most days for 1 to 3 hours, basketball, treadmill, bike, weights. I still like to eat meats, carbs and dairy though, so I have a little bit of a pouch on my stomach. I bet I'd be a lot worse off if I didn't exercise. Food is such a comfort though, I'd be lost without my morning omelet and bacon or sausages. I figure if I pick up the exercise intensity and drink more water, I can mostly eat what I enjoy and gradually lose weight.

You don't get fat overnight, you don't lose weight overnight. Fad diets and crash diets that promise easy and virtually instantaneous weight loss are - as a rule - quite dangerous and compromise a person's health.

Many of them are outright scams - check out the nonsense AND legal involvement in Acai Berry diets. In this day and age, it is also quite simple to go to a search block and type in a particular diet/supplement/regimen and you can find user opinions, ratings, and even comparisons.

Most importantly, and it pains me to write this as an ice cream lover, the answer is almost always, "Moderation in all things."

The fact is , eating nutrious is expensive. The economy sucks. Everyone is pinching pennies. Reality is that when you can walk into a grocery store and buy fresh fruits and veggies and meats, for the same price that you can walk into mcdonalds and order a double cheeseburger, then, the obesity epidemic will start ending. You can feed yourself and families cheaper at fast food joints than you can cook a meal now, thats the facts and thats why so many are overweight.

That's not easy for everyone. There are some people with conditions that keep them from shedding pound easily. There are common feminine conditions that make it EXTREMELY HARD for women to easily shed pounds like men can.

There's also the fact that there are some people who retain weight because they don't eat ENOUGH. So your wide sweeping 'quick fix' doesn't really @!$%#ing work for those people. In fact it hurts them because they might read what an ignorant dumb@!$%# like you says and decide to eat even less.

So yeah. Go @!$%# yourself. Not everyone is the same.

This would be a sad story if the government was actually looking to keep people healthy. They are NOT.

Why don't they start with HFCS? Not only is this crap bad for you, is the leading cause of diabetes and causes serious health problems since it is GMO'd, it is endorsed, subsidized and in everything. They even keep changing the name of it so you don't know.

Our FDA is a joke and needs to be defunded.

@ Duzell - You have a serious anger issue. Do you work for Biden by chance?

Ahhhh another parrot repeating the scary "truths" about high fructose corn syrup. Sugar is sugar. It's JUST SUGAR. (Very similar to table sugar which is sucrose) Yes, eating huge amounts of it is bad but so is eating huge amounts of any sugar. Inactivity causes diabetes. Educate yourself.

Really sucks if you do have a legitimate health issue that makes you obese but I think for most people that's not the case. Here's a thought: if you eat too much, you gain weight. Eat nothing, and you starve to death. Tell me honestly there isn't a happy medium in between the two. Cry me a river if that happy medium is a very low number of calories. We need to stop being the society of "why me, somebody else's fault" whiners and take responsibility for our own actions.

Righto Gene!! I am fat! I eat pizza, drink beer, love chocolate, excercise little. Wanna know what my doctor said when I went for my physical? Regardless of knowing this information, she said to me "maybe you have a gland or thyroid problem". I am a realist, and the only gland problem I have is the common sense one that says "STOP EATING"!! Have lost 14 pounds in one month by CUTTING DOWN ON FATTY FOODS, and (gasp!) WALKING!

I agree...intake output balance. I'm also a firm follower of the Master Cleanse. Not just the cleanse but the manner in which you follow up with what you intake post cleanse. It makes all the difference.

Eat less...exercise more.

LOL. Yeah, no one wants to hear that do they? My co-workers have been excitedly asking how I lost weight....but they always look so sad when I say I eat an extremely healthy vegan diet with tons of veggies and exercise A LOT. They were hoping for a "secret shortcut". But there just isn't one. It is slow and a lot of hard work.

Same. I'm now disgusted by most junk foods. I can't bring myself to eat them.

Me too. It really helps. I went vegan and one "side effect" was that the cakes and cookies at work were off limits not because they were junk...but because they weren't vegan. Totally different willpower. Much easier really. But now even the vegan junk food is losing its appeal.

Gene - Sugar may be sugar but high fructose corn syrup is not sugar (and even refined white sugar is more reactionary in your body than unrefined cane sugar). Your body's insulin can not metabolize HFCS so it is the #1 cause of diabetes in the US today. It also exacerbates depression and anxiety. If that weren't enough, it excellerates the multiplication of cancer cells. So no, not all sweeteners are created equal.
Weight loss for most people is cut and dry. Key word here is 'most'. As with 99.99% of things in life, you can not make sweeping generalizations.

Gene, here is a quote from www.mercola.com as one source of 1000's on the dangers of HFCS. Don't believe everything you see on tv, especially when they say the body doesn't know any different. If that were true, they wouldn't have to keep changing the name to keep customers in the dark.

According to the latest statistics, new cases of diabetes have increased by 90 percent in the last 10 years, and diabetes or pre-diabetes now strikes one in four Americans. Those are absolutely astounding statistics to say the least.

There’s no doubt in my mind that one of the primary fuels for this epidemic is the excess consumption of high fructose corn syrup (HFCS). Several studies over the past few years have also come to this conclusion, including this latest study in Cell Metabolism, in which the researchers note:

“Insulin resistance is a common feature of the metabolic syndrome and type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). Both have reached epidemic proportions worldwide with the global adoption of the westernized diet along with increased consumption of fructose, stemming from the wide and increasing use of high-fructose corn syrup sweeteners.

It is well established that fructose is more lipogenic than glucose, and high-fructose diets have been linked to hypertriglyceridemia, nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), and insulin resistance.”

Unfortunately, this study does nothing to further the return to a more sane approach to health, but will likely just create even more problems as they propose their findings could lead to yet another drug treatment to hamper the harmful effects of HFCS consumption.

Absolutely in line with the drug model, and one has to seriously wonder if they weren’t behind this study.

The answer is clearly not to create more drugs to combat the problem of diabetes, but rather to educate the public about healthier eating habits – which includes AVOIDING high fructose corn syrup as much as possible.

Scientists have clearly linked the rising HFCS consumption to the epidemics of obesity, diabetes and metabolic syndrome in the U.S., and medical researchers have pinpointed various health dangers associated with the consumption of HFCS compared to regular sugar.

Despite all the evidence, the industry persists in claiming these findings are untrue, arguing that HFCS is the same as sugar. Their campaign also relies on nutritional research, but it should be noted that the funding for many of the major studies in question came from companies with a financial stake in the outcome.

Reminds me quite a bit of the tobacco lobby’s consistent denial that smoking causes lung cancer until they had no choice but to admit it.

Why High Fructose Corn Syrup IS Worse For You than Sugar

If you need to lose weight, or if you want to avoid diabetes and heart disease, fructose is one type of sugar you’ll want to avoid, particularly in the form of high-fructose corn syrup.

Part of what makes HFCS such a dangerous sweetener is that it is metabolized to fat in your body far more rapidly than any other sugar.

According to Dr. Elizabeth Parks, associate professor of clinical nutrition at UT Southwestern Medical Center and lead author of a study on fructose, published in the Journal of Nutrition just last year:

"Our study shows for the first time the surprising speed with which humans make body fat from fructose. Once you start the process of fat synthesis from fructose, it's hard to slow it down. The bottom line of this study is that fructose very quickly gets made into fat in your body."

This occurs because most fats are formed in your liver, and when sugar enters your liver, it decides whether to store it, burn it or turn it into fat. Fructose, however, bypasses this process and simply turns into fat.

Additionally, there’s hard empirical evidence showing that refined man-made fructose like HFCS metabolizes to triglycerides and adipose tissue, not blood glucose. And one of the most thorough scientific analyses published to date on this topic found that fructose consumption leads to decreased signaling to your central nervous system from the hormones leptin and insulin.

Because insulin and leptin act as key signals in regulating how much food you eat, as well as your body weight, this suggests that dietary fructose may contribute to increased food intake and weight gain.

Decreased insulin and leptin signaling is also a main cause of diabetes and a host of other obesity-related conditions.

How HFCS Contributes to Diabetes

In addition to everything already mentioned -- including these latest findings that HFCS consumption can lead to nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, followed by hepatic insulin resistance and then type 2 diabetes -- research reported at the 2007 national meeting of the American Chemical Society, found evidence that soft drinks sweetened with HFCS may contribute to the development of diabetes because it contains high levels of reactive compounds that trigger cell and tissue damage that cause diabetes.

Chemical tests among 11 different carbonated soft drinks containing HFCS were found to have ‘astonishingly high’ levels of reactive carbonyls. Reactive carbonyls are undesirable and highly-reactive compounds associated with “unbound” fructose and glucose molecules, and are believed to cause tissue damage.

By contrast, reactive carbonyls are not present in table sugar because its fructose and glucose components are “bound” and chemically stable.

Reactive carbonyls are elevated in the blood of individuals with diabetes and are linked to the health complications of diabetes. It is estimated that a single can of soda contains about five times the concentration of reactive carbonyls than the concentration found in the blood of an adult person with diabetes.

How HFCS Contributes to Heart Disease

HFCS is also known to significantly raise your triglycerides and LDL (bad cholesterol). Triglycerides, the chemical form of fat found in foods and in your body, are not something you want in excess amounts.

Intense research over the past 40 years has confirmed that elevated blood levels of triglycerides, known as hypertriglyceridemia, puts you at an increased risk of heart disease.

Additional Health Dangers of High Fructose Corn Syrup

As if all of that wasn’t bad enough, fructose also does not contain any enzymes, vitamins or minerals so it takes these micronutrients from your body while it assimilates itself for use.

Unbound fructose, found in large quantities in HFCS, can interfere with your heart's use of minerals such as magnesium, copper and chromium.

Please note that this does not mean you should avoid whole fruit, however, as it contains natural fructose together with the enzymes, vitamins and minerals needed for your body to assimilate the fructose. Eating small amounts of whole fruit also does not provide a tremendous amount of fructose, and is not likely to be a problem for most people unless diabetes or obesity is an issue.

And lastly, adding insult to injury, HFCS is almost always made from genetically modified corn, which is fraught with its own well documented side effects and health concerns.

GMO corn will radically increase your risk of developing corn allergies. The problem with corn allergies are that once you have a corn allergy from GMO corn you will have an allergy to even healthy organic corn products.

Read the entire article here, and I suggest you do.

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2009/03/24/Why-HighFructose-Corn-Syrup-Causes-Insulin-Resistance.aspx

Wheat, corn and potatoes are metabolic inhibitors for type O blood, which is the largest group of people in the world.

There are four blood types O, A, B and AB. There are two RH factors: positive and negative. Thus, there can be O+ and O-; A+ and A-; B+ and B- and AB+ and AB-.

There are six GenoTypes: Hunter, Gatherer, Teacher, Explorer, Nomad and Warrior. Each corresponds to certain blood types. Your blood type and pre-natal experience give you your GenoType. Hunters (almost all type O) have a reactive immune system. So do Explorers (O, A, B and AB) {often Rh negative); Warriors (A and some AB) have a thrifty metabolic system. So do Gatherers (O and some B); Nomads (B and some AB) have an altruistic immune system, as do Teachers (A and some AB).

In plain English Hunters and Explorers are going to have lots of allergies; Gatherers and Warriors are going to deal with easy weight gain and hard loss; Teachers and Nomads are going to deal with cancers and infections that take a long time to manifest themselves.

To find out what GenoType you are, have your blood typed at your doctor's office or donate blood. Buy or borrow the GenoType Diet book by Dr. Peter J D'Adamo. You will need to measure your lower and upper legs in relation to your torso, fingerprints, length of your first and fourth fingers, teeth, Rh status, secretor status (do you secrete your blood type in saliva, mucous or semen) and a questionnaire on what you, your parents and grandparents mostly dealt with. All in all, I have spent under $100.00 on the books but it has made so much difference in my life.

I like many people agree with your post, except like some have said, its not as easy as "eat less, excersise more". As hard as it is for people to believe not everyone makes them self overweight or obese. I, like a few others have said, have a medical condition that causes me to gain weight but no matter what I try I cant lose it. Oh and I have been this way all my life. I never had video games or ate fast food or many sweets, I am lactose intolerant so none of the good stuff, growing up, i rode my bike and played out side, i played sports and did ballet well into my teenage years, tragically i broke my ankle and had to stop. And still I cannot seem to lose weight.

The point is, when people attack and say just do this or just do that its easy to say to someone. Believe me I have heard the cut down on what you eat, excersise more bit, and for me it doesnt work. People are far more complex then that, which means there are different diets that work for different people.

the GenoType Diet book by Dr. Peter J D'Adamo

I read that one. There isn't the slightest shred of scientific evidence to back up THAT little flight of fancy. D'Adamo just pulled that crap out of his ass.

People wouldn't have to be obsessed if they would just eat natural normal foods that we were meant to eat. There's just so much information coming at us 24/7 that people don't think simply about health.

News for everyone. You are going to die. And trust me, it isn't going to be pretty. Having said that don't be a fool and eat bowls of sugar all day nor a dictator and control what people eat.

What you call 'obsession', I call 'dedication'. :)

This dedication to health is not healthy.

LOL Now you're not making any sense.

Face it people, 2 out of 3 Americans are overweight in this country. If you want to be normal weight and healthy you have to be committed, dedicated, and singleminded in your efforts. Why? Because you are in the minority!

In America, I am surrounded by people who eat unhealthy foods, have unhealthy habits like smoking, and live sedentary unhealthy lifestyles. If I'm going to be different, if I'm going to be the 1 out of the 3, I have to have set in my mind that I'm going to lose weight.

So get obsessed with what you eat. Think about what you're putting in your mouth. How long have you been at the computer, sitting doing nothing? Go take a walk! Change your life!

No quick fix!

Don't be a lemming. Eat what you want to eat. My grandmother lived to 95 and ate the bad foods and the good foods. Caramilk was her favorite and pie too. She made the best pie. Of course it was meat and potatoes for dinner and a few veggies for good measure. Oh and bread too. Lots of it. And apples. Apple trees and pear trees on her farm. Eggs of course right from the Hen. Raspberries too. Plants no less. And icecream. A staple. Eat it all is the secret and all in moderation. Forget the nuts saying you must eat this or that. East what you want to eat. Be happy first.

My grandmother lived to 95 and ate the bad foods and the good foods.

Great..maybe you have super-genes. But for most of us eating crap translates directly into being sick. People in my family with poor diets don't see 80 never mind 95. They have high blood pressure, gout, diabetes, heart disease, strokes, etc. For most of us it really, really matters. For some, possibly you, their genes will protect them. Enjoy your good fortune!

kaviak, There is no one size fits all. Everything in moderation is a good rule of thumb. We all are going to age and eventually something will take us no matter what we do. I like to live a little while I am alive. We all have our own idea of what is a good time waster. Whether it is eating decadent chocolate or eating broccoli. Do what works for you. All my grandparents lived in to their late 70's early eighties and one grandmother 95. My parents are 78 and 81. They cross country ski, workout, travel globally and eat good and bad food just like grandma used to make. Pie, icecream, cookies, pastry, choclate, you name it. They ate their veggies and fruit too. I know how fortunate I am. With that comes the unfortunate too. Life is not entirely fair. We were not all created equal. To a point yes. Live life is my advise. To heck with the preaching.

I don't smoke or drink alcohol. I am allergic to cow's milk and wheat. I walk at least four miles a day and sleep eight hours a night.

My father's maternal grandmother lived to be 95. She was a Explorer GenoType, which can live long lives. My mother's father lived to be 95 also. He was also an Explorer. The rest of my father's family died in their 80s. My mother and one aunt and uncle are still alive. Since their mother died after surgery and the other sibling of cancer, I will have to watch the remaining three.

I am 50 years old and in better health than people half my age.

uhm jwhite1083: "2 out of 3 Americans are overweight in this country... you are in the minority!"Hate to point out a fallacy in your logic but that means the other third of the country is the minority. Sorry I'm just a smart ass.

I see both sides to this argument. Like most things in life - your weight requires you to maintain a balance, but it is a challenge. In my case, I'm overweight, I have been overweight all my twenty five years. BUT I too eat very healthy (I'm not a vegetarian but I make sure I have at least 3 vegetarian meals a weak) and I exercise for no less than 2 hour each day (weight lifting 4 days a week, cardio every day). I rarely indulge in sweets or fast food. And yet I am still overweight. The most annoying thing is that I weigh 293lbs 5'7" but I wear a size 16 - which most people who are that weight are around 150lbs. I know that it sounds like a weird thing to complain about but I find it really very frustrating that I weigh as much as I weigh. All of my doctors are shocked when they find this out. And I have no thyroid or other gland problems - I am just naturally overweight.

This story is long but I have a point. Humans were not designed to lose calories. Our genetics have not caught up with our desires. It is natural to retain calories, fat, weight, etc. to prevent our bodies from going into starvation mode.

So as a person who has lived with a real struggle all her life, my advice is work hard to achieve your goals - but you know what if your dying for a piece of cake, have the GD piece of cake. STOP OBSESSING. And people, yes health insurance makes a (no pun intended) big deal about being overweight as a risk to health or a threat of dying. But guess what they also call a risk AND a reason to decline you service... pregnancy. The most natural thing on earth, something that human beings have been doing for THOUSANDS of years is a health threat. Yea there is the rare exception, but common folks don't be so petrified by everything you hear, read, or see; use common sense and balance and your life will be happy and fine. And props to the OP whose Grandma lived to 95 happy and healthy eating what she wanted. My Grandpa lived to 97: survived two wars, ate what the hell he wanted and smoked for 50 years, the human body is built to take a lot of punishment.

countrygirl: Sorry I wasn't clear. But it's true that if you want to be normal weight you are in the minority. ^_^

Ross: Longevity is in the genes. Some people can live to 95. But eating right and being healthy will not meaningfully lengthen ones genetic lifespan. Eating unhealthily CAN shorten it or make those last years troublesome though.

I can't live forever, but that doesn't mean I can't try.

Ross, nobody is shoving anything down anyone's throat. The health obsession you see on TV and the media is being bred by demand; it's because more people are becoming interested in their health and well being. Those that do not want to hear it can simply ignore it.

And all of your anecdotal stories about your own family and the way they did things are fine and dandy. I'm sure because your gandmother lived to 95, EVERYONE else would do the same if they lived exactly like her.... right?

All I was saying was that one size does not fit all. There is an awful lot of b.s. out there re: health and what you need to do to be healthy. We are all different. In my case so far my parents and grandparents lived long relatively healthy lives while enjoying all foods good and bad. Humans got here without being health zealots. If you have special needs by all means do what you need to do.

That's easy for someone to say who can eat. Due to intense pain and nausea whenever I eat, my intake is severely limited, causing my body to hold onto every calorie that comes in.

It is more complicated than portion control and it is more about ingredients in food...by far.

Buffy,

I don't go around eating cheese cakes all day long but I do enjoy a piece once in a while. My diet is mostly greens (all kinds) and yes I love bread and eat lot of it but portion control works for me and I have not had weight gains for a very long time, ever since I started counting calories.

It doesn't matter what you eat, just the amount ! 400+ calories per liter of soda and a fast food meal will put you at the calorie intake for the day with at least two meals left in the day.

Look at this from CNN. It's a junk food diet a professor of human nutrition at Kansas State University did for 10 weeks and lost 27 pounds!

I'm at 255 now and I know how to lose the weight, I just don't have the drive for more than 10 pounds at a time.

"Children are taughted?" Did you proof read before you submitted your response?

As for speaking English. It is THE official language of this country. My husband and myself are both first or second generation AMERICANS and our parents and grandparents came here for the choice of freedom and learned the language as a means of showing RESPECT and GRATITUDE for a country that opened her arms and allowed them to pursue life, liberty, and justice without fear from persecution for race, religion, or ideology. Maybe you would be happier moving back to wherever you don't have to teach your children and grandchildren English, but then I suspect, you then would have bigger problems to complain about. And I wonder if you could be so public in your disdain.

What is wrong with speaking multiple languages? You think it should be obligatory to speak English in the USA, I think you're the moron who doesn't have the cognitive ability to at least be bilingual.

I hold the same opinion of immigrants who don't learn English as I do of Americans who don't learn another language.

Obviously not. The article clearly states that increasing prosperity brought increased access to food. ie, as the country started getting richer, it started getting fatter.

Actually, it was considered a sign of prosperity to be well-padded.

STLRunner,

You are 100% correct. Last comment I made, I did not mention that I also run everyday and the reason for that was running is the icing on the cake for me, it lets me eat more than I need to without gaining any weight but I still count calories.

Thank You.

I get the same types of comments and it bothers me. I work hard on my running and feel I shouldn't have to feel bad when I eat something "bad" in front of people I know who are trying to lose weight.

Good for you guys/girls. I also run between 40-50 per week (also take martial arts a couple of nights per week) and I would point out that while it does give you a little more freedom to indulge you should be especially careful about what you put in your body. Running puts a lot of stress on the body and doesn't keep heart disease away by itself; the body must be properly cared for if it asked to endure such stress. Also, I find that there are plenty of overweight runners as many people don't realize that it's much easier to eat then it is to burn off. A 3 miles run burns off about the amoung of calories in a donut. It's my lunch hour now and I have a 6 miler waiting for me so best of luck to all of you!

Everything in moderation folks, food especially. But you should also make another consideration. For how long do you all think that you can maintain the pace you have set? 40 - 50 - 60 miles per week? Coupled with martial arts classes? Eat all that you want? At some point in your life you may have incidents that can limit one or the other activities you mention. After developing the trends of eating all you want, will you also have the discipline to cut down eating? Its may be easy now to say that your wonderful regimen of discipline will ensure that you will be able to, but from the looks of many former athletes, you may have problems. As far as your good health, though, enjoy it while you can!

Quirkyjerky, you are right that life throws complications that cannot be predicted. For the record, I have been running this pace for 21 years now (off and on) so I am used to it. Of course there have been periods, which for me include 2 extremely difficult pregnancies with huge weight gain and a knee surgery many years ago, where activities may need to be limited but the key is to find something you enjoy and have lots of flexibility for life's events. If I feel tired I take an extra day off, no big deal. However, to maintain a regular activity schedule it is important that is be prioritized up there with going to work and taking care of the kids, otherwise the time just doesn't present itself. I do most of my running on my lunch hour and in the morning on weekends. As for the discipline to cut down eating, I am not an emotional eater so if I'm less active I'm less hungry; it all works out. And as I said before, I believe that one must be careful about what goes into the body; I teach my kids that their bodies are not trash dumps to be filled with whatever crap they can find. I might add that it's not realistic to compare us to former athletes; you only know of the professionals, many of whom have been taking various kinds of drugs and put themselves through far more then people like me; they have to, it's their livelihood. I know many people in their 60's and 70's that have been running for decades and are still doing pretty well.

One of the problems has been for years if the USDA food pyramid. It was a little bit skewed toward the breads and grains and what has been included in these groups. The largest section of this pyramid recommended more of these than anything else. SOme of this has been a part of the heart-smart movement that was created from it. Balanced diet is essential for good nutrition and people must realize that breads and sugars are the main culprits in type 2 diabetes and cause a great portion of weight problems. True, if you have to use these prefer 100% whole grains in moderation. Prefer protiens of all kinds as in the foods you mention but is is better to stay away from high fat portions and tend toward the leaner cuts. I don't rule out excercise, aerobic for heart and respiratory. Use weight and resistance training for developing stregnth and muscle mass. Each of these to be done with moderation.

Congrats. I also swore off fast food, 2 years ago to be precise. I sometimes go to fast food restaurants (very rarely) if my family goes there. I get sick after eating, though. I'm tired of there being high fructose corn syrup in just about everything. Sure, people say it's sugar, but I prefer natural cane sugar. Chemical sweeteners and Caffeine also trigger anxiety attacks in me, so that's something else I have to avoid.

Nancy, You swore off fast food six months ago and lost 70lbs? Good grief, how often did you eat FF to loose 70 lbs after quitting? You must also have adopted other healthier habits like exercise to loose over 10 lbs a month. when you say FF do you also mean other convenience foods? Just curious because that is pretty amazing! Congrats on your achievement! Convenience foods really are the devil. We rarely eat any because we eschew high fructose corn syrup and eat a low sodium diet. That automatically reduces the amount of convenience foods we get buy by 80% LOL.

CollaredCrow, I don't know how old you are, but my dh and I have seen that our ability to eat out or eat convenience food without gastric issues reduced exponentially with age. Kinda sucks sometimes. Now when we want to eat out we ask each other if we want to burp Chinese or Italian for the rest of the day LOL.

Refined sugar is dead food. It steals vitamins out of the body. Don't believe me? Read "Sugar Blues" by William Duffy. He doesn't make money off of it, he just shows that every society that had gone from no sugar, to a little sugar to pounds of sugar per person went from a great society to one filled with mental illness and unhealthy diets.

HFCS is a metabolic inhibitor to all type O blood. They aren't fixing a problem, they are creating another one.

I hope your are paraphrasing because if you did say that to people asking your advice at a gym I'd understand why they wouldn't come back. It doesn't help to make them feel like crap.

I take it that you don't work for the gym? Have they asked you for your key card yet? Don't look over your shoulder, here they come!

I too lost a lot of weight by committing to dietary changes several years ago. I switched to whole grains, lean meats, reduced my sugar intake, and increased my veggie intake. I lost 55 lbs in a little under a year, and kept it of for almost 3 years until I got sick. I gained almost all of it back in less than 6 months because my body went into starvation mode, holding on to every calorie. Now, my condition makes it impossible to go back to that diet, as much as I would like to. I cannot digest fibers or most meat, frankly most solid food causes problems for me. I would live to be able to go back to that diet, but I don't see that happening anytime soon sadly.

My parents who have been sedimentary most of their lives switched to a vegetarian diet and lost oddles of weight to the point they were healthy weight. For exercise, all they did was walked one extra hour a day.

You have the key. People can not process dairy, meats and process foods productively; it goes against the natural way.

People are heavy for medical reasons. I do not look down on people who have weight problems. Medical health is far too complicated or we all could be certified doctors. It is a luxury to have a handle on all aspects to be considered in good health.

I have been thin most of my life. Only during major surgeries have I gained weight. It does take the body to heal, to get back to what is naturally, almost a no-brainer - eating right and feeling good with what is digested.

Thank ou. Finally another voice of reason here. Just about everyone, not all though, has been very judgemental about others without even thinking about what the other person has been thinking about their own weight. I hate the weight I am now. I have always been heavy, even at my lowest, I was still considered overweight. But having a body that I have no control over (I go up and down despite being very restricted diet-wise) leads to only hating my body more and more. Comments like the ones being posted only add to that self-hate. I like to think that I am beyond that, but there are definitely times it gets to me.

Lot of us know exactly what you are going through, I know how it is when kids make fun of you but I also knew what I needed to do to lose the weight and I did it, just like others. You need to stop with all the excuses and start doing something about it, one bite at a time. I think about what I am going to eat everyday and make a conscious decision and chose the healthy menu. No sodas, no fried food, have not been in a fast food joint for over 15 years and that's what works.

tontosh...

If I could even tolerate regular food, I would do that with no problem. I was actually starting to get back to eating healthy when I found out that it was the worst possible thing I could have done. I can barely eat soup or applesauce without pain, let alone eat junk at some fast food joint.

My diet has become so restricted, I can't eat meats, veggies (with the exception of 2), or most fruits: very low fat/very low fiber diet. My average intake is around 600 calories a day. The only time I break 1000 is when I add a milkshake or a little ice cream in there, but that doesn't happen very often.

I have to think about what I eat everyday too, only my decisions have to deal with maximizung calories in a very small amount.

Amen OP! And smj236 I'm very sorry about your condition, it sounds like you have a whole separate set of challenges then any of the other posters here. Some people just don't get it - even if they have been through something similar that they think they can compare. Try not to take it to heart, as far as they are concerned they only exist in the online world for you :)

Hello ignorance!

Carbs are needed to fuel the brain, which youy obviously do not do.

All life needs carbs to function. Humans need more complex carbohydrates, which are turned into glucose. Glucose fuels the muscles with power and the brain with the ability to think.

Back in the 70s Graham Kerr had his show "The Galloping Gourmet". Representatives of the food industry came to him and asked him to come up with a substance that would addict people to food. His contribution? A mixture of sugar, salt and fat.

Forty years later look a what that has done.

The problem is that people don't want to work hard for seven years to find a routine that will help them shed that weight. They want to take some pills and wake up the next morning skinny with a six pack.

Congrats to you for sticking with it.