I've been lowcarbing for years and it has gotten me so far and just quit working. Its like my body is refusing to lose on lowcarb anymore. I'm doing lowcalorie, portion control now. Just started Mon so I dont know if its working yet or not. I need a plan I can follow and get results so I will stay with it.

They did a study last year and found that the most effective commercial diet plan out there is Weight Watchers. I think that Slim Fast came in second. The study focused on people who lost weight AND kept it off for a year or more.

I am on the "Eat less caloies and exercise to burn more calories" diet plan. Working well for me, but the true test will come in keeping it off. Good Luck

I do like to low carb, having lost 50 pounds after my daughter was born. Put most of it back on with carbs too. Why is it that it takes forever to lose the weight and such a long time to put it on????

I have been following a low calorie diet and it's been the easiest for me to stick to for a longer period of time (I started January 17th) but it's not necessarily the easiet work load, countingeverything and logging it down is time consuming, I've sort of graduated from counting and logging everything to just counting general caloric values in my head and keeping track that way, still seems to be working :)

the absolute Best Plan that will keep the weight off. Is strictly Counting Calories.
you dont have be exact but if you are always aware of aproximately how many calories you are having each day. you will keep the weight off.
Combine that with Just making good food choices ie Balance Diet, Whole Grains . lots of fruits and veggies.

The plan you choose must be a plan for life. Very Low Carb(Atkins) for most people will not work for life..it is too difficult to keep up (Argueabley not healthy either). on Very low carb diets you will lose a lot of water....when you go off of it you will gain that water back. This is a big reason Low carb dieters ofton put weight back on so quickly after going off.

Hint about calories: eat enough and don't eat the same amount everyday to "fool" your metabolism.
Helpful to stay away from junk too.

I really Like Richard Simmions works like weight watchers but has pictures of foods versu points. Also, he has the workout tapes.

Calorie Counting is working for me too! Easy to stick to.

Yeah!!!!!!!:cheer: I've lost 3 more pounds since I stopped lowcarbing and started lowcal. Lowcarb just got me stuck at 140 and I couldnt get below it until last fri.! I've been drinking about 60 ounces of water a day, 4 cups of coffee in the morn with coffeemate, equals to about 160 calories for my coffee, so I skip breakfast, I get my calories in the creamer, then for lunch I have a fat free bologna sandwich with tomatoes and mustard and whitewheat bread, which is 140 calories, then 2 sugar free red bulls to get my energy through til I can do my 2.5 mile walk(5 days per week). Then finally I get supper. It will be whatever I want, but properly proportioned! Like tonight it will be spaghetti( with lean hb meat) but I will only eat 1 cup and 2-3 pieces light sour dough bread that only has 40 cal per slice. So far this is working better for me than lowcarb and I feel better. Not only am I losing weight I can actually see the difference when I look in the mirror. I'm not a big fan of exercise, but I have kept up the walking for 15 weeks now. When I started I weighed 150 now I'm at 137!!!!!!!!!!! I'm sooo happy!:D :cheer: :party:

I started taking supplements too. I read in one of my magazines that if you take 2400 mg of fish oil ( omega 3 ) it helps to burn of fat. I've been doing that for the past month or so, along with taking relacore three times per day, and CoQ10 whatever that is, but it is supposed to help your body use food as energy, and its something that womens body slows in production of after 30 yrs old. Sorry to be so long winded but I didnt want to leave that part out if it may help someone else.:)

Counting calories is definitely one of the most effective ways, from what I've heard. Weight Watchers is just an easy way to do that, they break it down into points and then you just keep track of points and stay within a certain range. They don't restrict any foods at all, you just need to work everything into your day or week, like a budget.

Low carb works well because carbs from refined sugars and starches are just empty calories ~ an average bagel from the deli can have 500 calories! If you're supposed to have 1200-1500 calories per day, you see that 1/3 of your day's "allotment" is in one bagel!

A lot of people I know who like the low carb programs say they enjoy the taste of meat so they don't feel like they're depriving themselves, so it's easier to follow for a long time. It's also easier to feel full with high protein foods.

Myself, I'm a firm believer in finding what works best for you individually and following that!

Also--when counting calories--still stay between 1200-1500 calories. You don't want to starve yourself anorexia-style (eating too few calories and make your body think that it's starving) because ultimately, that's bad news for your overall metabolism and health.

I'm doing (and have done) South Beach Diet, and I find that because it mixes "good carbs", "good protein" and "good fats", it's ultimately a well-balanced way to eat and eventually live (not just a diet, y'know?). When I've stuck to it, I've felt fantastic and looked fantastic....one of the keys to it, which I didn't really get until this time around is once you get to the 2nd phase and maintenance phase, you can allow yourself treats, just not go overboard.

Sorry, that was a little long-winded. I just like the whole South Beach concept.

--Azure

I havent read up on the South Beach Diet, but from what I hear its easier to follow than lowcarb if you love bread and pasta and potatoes. I just hate depriving myself of the foods I love.

Any Diet that has "Phases" is just plain wrong! It teaches YO-YO dieting which is bad.

Learn what Foods are Good and what are bad. Eat More of the good and less of the bad! Make this your lifestyle, dont every change, then you will lose the weight and keep it off!