Of course sometimes I can't eat all veggies and so I also do count my cheese cubes. I generally try to fill up on healthy stuff and, as a secondary line of defense, calculate serving sizes. A good rule of thumb is that your veggies should take up 2/3 of your plate. So, yeah, your piece of chicken is small, but you're eating five cups of salad.

I read about this thing called "calorie shifting" on some site and it really works for me. THough a) it flies in the face of most other advice and b) this is pretty much how I eat anyway because I take forever to get food on the table. In the am I drink my coffee and then a little while later I eat my breakfast. I might have a snack around 11. I eat lunch around one. I eat a snack around four-ish and then I eat dinner pretty late in the day (9 or 10). I never really struggle with late night munchies because I'm not at all hungry. Alternatively, I see my mother-in-law who eats dinner at a very proper six pm and then she has her two bowls of ice cream before bed. Re portion control: There is a school of thinking (espoused in Eat for Health and Eat to Live by Dr. Fuhrman) that says eat to maximize your nutrient intake and don't worry about portion control. He says that if you're hungry for nutrients, it doesn't matter how many single cups of non-fat aspartame sweetened yogurt you eat a day--you are still and always going to be hungry. So, basically, fill up on veggies and a couple servings of grains/beans every day and stop trying to count 1" cubes of cheese. These are just some ideas--food for thought, if you will.

Try this calculator. The one on this site seems ridiculous. If you have a week when you lose a couple pounds, it will tell you, "based on that rate, you will reach your goal weight in 7 days," or something that is clearly just WRONG. http://caloriecount.about.com/...

Go on youtube and search for Craig Ballantyne. He has loads of videos. Some are with weight and some are bodyweight but he has excellent advice re form and reps and his routines go by quickly. You can also find pilates and yoga--whatever you're looking for.

I agree with Sparky. Most people overestimate cals burned with exercise (and underestimate cals ingested). So it's better, I think, to have the complete picture. Plus, thinking of exercise as GIVING you room for eating (as in, "I burned 600 cals [probably not accurate anyway] on the elliptical this am so now I can eat two pieces of pizza tonight") is the opposite approach you want to take. Diet will help you lose weight. More and more evidence shows that while there are myriad benefits of exercise, you can't ever exercise away a bad diet. Diet is the foundation and exercise is the icing on the cake--it helps your heart, your mood and your muscle tone. But seeing the difference between cals ingested and cals burned (as on the diet calendar) should just be kind of loose reference point (to see, for ex, if you have cal requirements for a very active person or a sedentary person) rather than a hard and fast indication of how much you can eat.

For breakfast, you can make a big portion of oatmeal and eat it for a couple days. Add apples or pears or dried fruit for some sweetness. Another thing for breakfast is an oatmeal "bake." There are a few recipes on the site. If you can't find, let me know. I find that when I'm just starting out it's good to really stick to a plan--whatever it is--for guidance and for that boost you get from losing a few pounds at once. Then you can tweak it to fit your own goals. So follow Fat Smash or Weight Watchers or avoid wheat or sugar for a couple weeks. It kind of blasts you out of your old habits and, like I said, when you see that initial loss it gives you confidence and motivation to push forward.

I'm not sure if it's possible, but can you bring food to work? Soup is great, especially during this time of year. You can make a big vat of it on the weekend and freeze in smaller individual portions, then heat it up at work. I sneak in beans and veggies and grind it up with a stick blender (so I don't have to taste all the good for me veggies I don't love, like kale). And I heat it up in a mug and drink it. I think a big key is eating enough healthy food so you don't feel the need to eat junk when that late afternoon tired/hungry period hits. If you have a fridge in your office, you can bring carrots and hummus or a dip (a good one I found here on FS: low fat yogurt with mint and red pepper flakes, very good). Apples with peanut or almond butter (measure it because it'll add up fast) is another easy, satisfying snack.

I second the fage yogurt idea. The full fat one is awesome but even the 2% one is yummy and creamy and you can add fresh fruit or even some no/low sugar jam if you're avoiding sugar.

The food entries on this site are often wrong. Definitely go with the jar. Change the entry if you can.

I think we definitely rely on food (and the accompanying endorphins, dopamine, etc) for our "happiness." But you will take much more pleasure in knowing you have achieved a goal, and in the feeling that comes from fueling your body with exactly what it needs. As usual, I agree with Jessyline. It's not just a number on a scale, it's about health. It's about having energy to do the things we want to do. Maybe you are for some reason afraid of losing weight? Hope you don't mine my amateur analysis, but maybe you need to think about why you want to lose weight and if you are really ready to lose the weight. I know that before I was 100% ready I made up all kinds of things like this too--that I'd rather be happy and fat than sad and thin. But that's not a REAL choice. Eating healthy food fuels not only your body but your brain and your mood as well. I am a social eater as well--to my detriment. When I'm home it's all about whole grains and leafy greens. When I'm out--I will eat two or three cupcakes (and 5 glasses of wine). I know I need to learn how to maintain my balance when I'm out and I'm looking forward to that. I know it's still possible to enjoy other people's company without going overboard.

Thanks everyone for the recs! And, yeah, I cook a lot too so I really want to be able to put the whole thing on the scale and then figure out exactly what each serving needs to be. If I am going to spend the money I want to be able to use it for baking as well, which means it needs to tare/zero so I can use a bowl and also it needs to have a higher capacity than some of the less expensive scales. But that scale is $60~. Maybe I can find on ebay. Hate buying something twice when it isn't what I really want. Hmmmm. Kmaxwell, I was thinking about getting postal scale. I actually read about it on chowhound (food website). Much cheaper, you can put a lot on and it will tare and blah di blah.

I was trying to find it too. Good to know it works. I was kind of nervous about downloading if it was going to be an exercise in frustration to use.

Agreed. There is a very funny video of a guy running, trying to outrace a Big Mac. Obviously it's a set up but the idea is to show that you'd basically need to run a marathon to burn off a Big Mac. Also, studies have shown that people trying to lose weight underestimate food untake and overestimate cals burned with exercise.

Very interesting read. I've read before that diet has WAY more of an impact on weight loss than exercise but never read a very good explanation of why (other than that unless you're running a half marathon every day you can't catch up with bad eating.) Apparently there is no such thing as an "afterburn--" the idea that if you exercise (esp in the morning) you will continue to burn calories all day and increase your metabolism. Of course exercise has may other benefits. "Perhaps just as important, bear in mind that exercise has benefits beyond weight reduction. In the study of obese people who took up exercise, most became notably healthier, increasing their aerobic capacity, decreasing their blood pressure and resting heart rates, and, the authors write, achieving “an acute exercise-induced increase in positive mood,” leading the authors to conclude that, “significant and meaningful health benefits can be achieved even in the presence of lower than expected exercise-induced weight loss.”" Interestingly, another study showed that there may be something to the old "fat burning" heart rate range--and idea that had largely been written off in recent years. http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/...

Thanks so much. I got a nice one as a wedding present four years ago and I was so excited to use it. But it never worked and I ended up chucking it.

Does anyone love (or hate) their kitchen scale? I want to buy one, but they are expensive. So I'm looking for recommendations. Thanks!

I guess it is good to face it. Because in my head I have thought I've looked good for the past five years or so. And I'm not very overweight, but when I see the pics I think, How can that be me? That's not what I look like! I can't stand to look at most of my wedding pictures. And that makes me so so sad. Because I "tried" to lose the weight. But I know I didn't really give it a 100% effort. I always thought it was silly for women to lose a bunch of weight just for the wedding pics, but now I get it. They hang on your wall and they are supposed to be a happy memory--not a reminder of your personal failings. The worst part is, even if I do lose this weight and I manage to keep it off--no, wait, I mean WHEN I lose this weight and keep it off--I will still have the pics from the last few years to remind me of my failures. I'm trying to forgive myself for that. I've been listening to a self-hypnosis mp3 and part of it is forgiving yourself for being overweight in the past. But--it's hard. No doubt.

I TOTALLY feel your pain. I have the same issues. I am feeling good and then my husband or someone else takes a pic of me and it's awful. My husband and I inevitably get into an argument because I'll be like, If I look "good" and that's what I look like, then clearly you are patronizing me because I look terrible. And then he thinks I'm being insane and it goes on from there. So supposedly pictures add 10 lbs. (At least!) Have you ever seen an actress or model in real life? They are usually terrifyingly skinny. Skeletal. And obviously there's all the photoshopping. But it's really hard. Seeing a pic of myself will totally deflate my self-confidence when I'm feeling good. I guess though that's it better to have a better self-image than to keep thinking we look bad! If we focus on the positives, on how far we HAVE come (so hard, I know) then it will be easier to keep going.

EEep! I was paranoid about this after looking myself up in some search engine that spits everything you sign up for online--social networking and other sites. (For ex, all the pics of your kids (or you smoking and making out with strangers depending on your age and activities) you post on facebook that are supposedly only visible by your friends and your amazon wish list.) Sure, maybe it's naive to think these things are indeed private. And maybe intellectually you understand how the internet works. But it's still shocking to see the actual search results. I do have an ego and I do feel embarrassed about the weight I've gained in the last ten years. If we didn't have issues with the way we look/ed we wouldn't be on this site in the first place. And of course I'm proud of wanting to make healthy choices but I'm not happy and don't want to advertise my weight in pounds or the fact that I'm using an online support group. I agree with WECAN that you are posting personal things with an understanding that using an alias will somewhat protect your privacy.

I also have a reconstructed ACL, with a follow-up arthoscopic surgery to remove torn meniscus. Actually, I think HAD is the better word. LAst time I went to a dr he said the reconstructed ligament was tearing. Anyway, I'd been going to pilates for months. We built up, gently, a lot of strength in my hamstrings (esp on the bad knee side). I was feeling good and strong so I started doing a program that included squats and interval training. My knee's verdict: WRONG!!! I wasn't even using weights but it KILLED my knee. It's all wobbly and I feel just like I did before my surgery. :( Anyway, I'm rediscovering an old exercise I used a few years ago called callanetics. It's super super gentle on your knees and back. And it totally works. It's not the most exciting, but it does work and it is gentle. Pilates is another option. It was designed for soldiers who'd been injured in world war I--joseph pilates made up a way for the men to exercise from their beds despite their injuries. You CAN work out safely and effectively with a bad knee. In addition to walking, [i]you will want to do some strength training for that injured leg[/i] (whether it be pilates or something else non-weight baring). If you don't, trust me, that bad knee side will lose more and more muscle and the leg will become weaker. Then, your body will be thrown out of whack bc your other side will start to overcompensate and you WILL most definitely start to experience hip, back and shoulder issues. BEEN THERE, DONE THAT. The thing no one tells you is it's not just about the post-op rehab--it's a lifelong struggle to keep that injured leg as strong as your non-injured leg. Still now, after months of working on this issue, my injured leg is smaller than my non-injured leg. As you have discovered, it's VERY hard to keep the muscle where it needs to be because you can't help but favor that leg. Talk to a physical therapist about some safe exercises to keep the strength on your "bad" side. If that's not an option, there are many website, especially ones for runners, that talk about safe non weight-baring ways to gently build strength in your hamstring/quads on your injured side. Here's one great low-impact way to build strength on your injured leg. (A pilates instructor who helps rehab runners with knee injuries showed this to me.) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v... Try with two legs, but you'll want to use one leg (if you can, if not--build strength first and then focus on injured leg) to get that muscle back. You can do it. This IS fixable if you put in the work.