Thread: Starting a new diet?

I was on a strict 1500-1700 calorie diet over the summer and i dropped from 220 to 176{ At my lowest}. During this school year{ Im a sophomore i stopped dieting and just kinda tried to eat smart, but sometimes things dont go the way you want them. I weighed myself yesturday and i weigh 183 now, so i gained back 7 pounds. Im going to start dieting again but if i go right back into my 1500 calorie diet will that work? Is there any tips on dieting? Im only a teenager so lets not get to drastic with things but just alittle advice

I used to weigh 180, a male at 5'8". Today I am 56 years old and weigh 150.

I did two things
I started walking a lot
Changed my diet and starting looking at the fat content and serving size of food. Calories mean less then fat, while they go hand in hand, nevertheless, it is the fat content of food you really need to be concerned about.

Example:
Most people don't know one square inch of cheese is considered a serving. Who in the hell eats one square inch of cheese? Cheese is loaded with fat.

If you choose to "work" it off by going to the gym, statistically speaking, you will fail. Only a very small percentage succeed. And those that succeed usually fail in the long run because they haven't done a lot to change their eating habits and even if they do, the work out is not enjoyable in the long run. The only way to keep your weight off is mild exercise that is enjoyable and productive (walking to the store) and change your eating habits. If you don't do both, you will fail, guaranteed.

Forced work outs, running, etc, if you don't enjoy it, it is nothing more then punishing yourself. That is why it fails for most. The way I did it did took about a year to get it off. Diet change, mild enjoyable exercise. Simple and works.

Your biggest problem is the American diet sucks. It is loaded with fat, we are encouraged to eat too much, and to find out honest information on food is not very easy. The government does a terrible job on education in that respect.

What I find very troubling, is I live in China as an ex pat from the USA and a decade ago, a fat kid was almost unheard of. Since KFC's, and McDonalds are common here now, fat kids are becoming normal. China is going to have as big a problem with overweight as the USA does if it doesn't reign in junk food. China now has its own version of junk food and people are gobbling up up. I've seen grown ups almost as fat as Americans.

I have weighed 150 for years by change in my diet and walking and I don't miss the things that kept me fat.

by the way, my doctor in the states said I did it the right way. She agrees, most people fail because of the reasons I gave above. Also, when people don't fail, then they reward themselves by going back to the old lifestyle and end up weighing more in the end. Then they go back to the work out and fail again and end up weighing more. It's a vicious cycle and is not good for your health.

Peace

Jim

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