Know thyself. I started to ask myself about what things I was really good at, and which of those things had dynamics that I could adapt to help me ensure enthusiasm and compliance with a routine that changed my diet and physical activity patterns. So, I’m a baseball-stat junkie, and I’m involved in enough fantasy baseball leagues that my girlfriend might be tempted to leave me if most of them didn’t wind up with me taking home stacks of cash off the books.

I’m a numbers junkie. I do stat-projections, all kinds of stuff like that and I love it. So, I keep all kinds of journals. Calorie counts, exercise logs, pedometers and step logs. Basically, these are all games I play with myself. They are also physical reminders of my decision. The idea of having to document your failure is a power disincentive to fail.

If I get on an exercise machine, the more wacky display features it has, the longer I’m on it, and the more I enjoy it. I change the speeds or inclines, and it gives me new data sets.

Basically, I found the material tools and mental approach I need to facilitate weight loss by making the weight loss process as close as possible to something I was already good at.

Diversifying your measurements (or even broadening the scope of your goal from weight loss to improved personal health) has other benefits to. There are more fronts on which you can see success, more chances for positive reinforcement. If weight loss is the goal, the scale is the jury. If you’ve eaten very responsibly, but didn’t lose weight last week, all the internal benefits your body reaped from that week are ignored. If you are looking at it from a health-centric perspective, there are others ways to succeed, besides, and in addition to, the scale.

Thank you for posting this! This has instantly gone into my “Favorites” on Firefox. I will read this every day (or try to), as well as all the wonderful comments. I have bought “Sugar Busters” books, and I plan on trying that diet to see how it works for me. Plus I’ve downloaded Diet Power to catalog my progress.

Thanks again, and I can’t wait for “the rest of the story”!

Threat of ‘fannie smacking’ acknowledged, I’ll confess that I weigh every day…same time, same place, same scale. And yes, it has been interesting to chart/graph the up’s and down’s. I wouldn’t recommend it for everyone, but it IS a reminder that this weight-loss-life-style-thing is something that I need to be cognizant of every day…and not in the freak-out kind of cognizant when the weight wavers. Over time, as you say, you see progress if you stick to the basics.

If calories eaten < calories burned then weight loss WILL happen (barring medical/thyroid conditions). There are nutritionists who will argue with this; don’t listen to them.

My wife, who is getting her RD later this year, is not one of them. And none of the other RDs-in-training in her program are saying that either. In most cases, it really is that simple.

If your goal is weight loss, and weight loss only, other nutritional facts (fat, dietary fiber, sugars, etc) DO NOT MATTER.

This, on the other hand, isn’t quite that simple. Strictly in terms of the calorie equation, this is essentially correct. However, while those facts don’t matter with respect to calories, they do matter with respect to your ability to stay within your goals. This is because foods that are higher in simple carbohydrates (especially sugars) tend to be burned off very quickly, leaving you considerably less satisfied and for a considerably shorter period of time.

If you compare 300 calories of broccoli against a 300-calorie candy bar, they both (obviously) have the same amount of calories, and so in and of themselves contribute the same amount to your weight. But the 300 calories worth of broccoli will leave you MUCH fuller and stay with you MUCH longer.

Indeed, if you were just eating steamed broccoli, you’d have to eat over five cups or almost 1.8 pounds of the stuff to get the same 280 calories you get from a 2.1 ounce Snickers bar. Even if you ate the convenient frozen broccoli in butter sauce that you’ll find in the freezer section, you’d still have to eat 1.4 pounds to match the 2.1 oz candy bar.

Here’s an important point: everything happens and is measured over time. Day to day does not matter. If you weigh daily, I swear I’m going to come to your house and smack your fannie.

Thank you for that! We preach this all the time. Once per week at most.

You are not paying a penance for past sins, you get no extra points for denying yourself, in fact you are hurting the cause if you do. I can’t stress this enough.

Again, and outstanding point. The diet that works is the one you can stick with, and massive denial is something you’ll never be able to stick with.

“Our” first instinct is to concentrate on weight training, and making aerobic exercise an afterthought. Reverse that, guys.

Mainly true, but again, the best exercise program is the one you can stick with. Aerobic exercise is better than weight training, but if you can stick with weights and can’t stick with aerobics, then do the weights. Personally, I’ve found that any exercise done simply for the sake of exercising is something I can’t stick with. But if I make the exercise a means to an end, I can.

Personally, I’ve had pretty good success (although I’ve fallen off a bit lately) biking and more often even just walking to and from work. It’s about 2.3 miles each way on foot, and it takes me, on average, about 37 minutes each way. I know people whose commute takes longer than that by car. (Because I can’t take a short cut on a bike, that route is 2.5 miles, and usually takes about 12 minutes.)

Pretend you’re a diabetic. Get diabetic cookbooks. Diabetics have perfected the art of tasty, low-calorie food.

I suspect, without consulting her, that my wife would disagree with this. Diabetic diets are very restrictive, and can have the side effect of denying you important nutrients. But again, this introduces concerns other than simple weight loss.

All in all, though, great stuff. Thanks.