Weight Watchers. You can basically eat anything you want, you just learn to portion control.

Have your friend whack you in the jaw. After the wires come out, assess the weight situation. Repeat if necessary.

It really works.

Nacho and Recurve hit on the portion control, and I agree.

If I try to completely eliminate ice cream or Nacho Cheese Doritos or chips-salsa, I will go on a bender. If I get the smallest "treat" sizes and have one every 3-4 days then it whets my craving without making me feel like chit for eating the monster bag of Doritos watching Law & Order.

X2 . What goober said.

Whatever you do, make it a life style change instead of a diet.

About 4 months ago, I was at 225lbs. Heaviest I've ever been. I cut out all sugary drinks. No soft drinks, no sweet tea, etc. Now I drink water, unsweet tea, diet green tea, and coffee. After 3 months of that, I hadn't noticed much difference. I'd only lost about 5 pounds. So, I changed my diet. For the last month, I've cut out all fast food, fried food, bread, potatoes, etc. I eat a lot of chicken and fish, with an occasional steak. As sides, I do salad with a vinegar based dressing, green vegetables, mushrooms, squash, etc. after a month of that I'm down another 20-22lbs. For the last 4-5 days I've bottomed out between 198-200. Seems like this is the most I'm going to lose with my current format. My next step is to reduce my portions. Thus far I've been eating a lot of food still, I'm just eating healthy foods instead of crap. If I can reach 190 or less through some moderate portion control, then I'll stick with that as my lifestyle going forward. If not, then I'll start throwing in some cardio. I already get a lot of walking in with my job, as well as moderate physical labor, I really only lack cardio to have a pretty balanced excercise routine.

It was much easier to slowly remove bad stuff from my diet, than any of the quick weight loss fads I've tried.

That's the problem. Some of us just aren't good at eating clean. I know I'm not. If I try to restrict myself from eating something I'll make it 4 or 5 days and eat myself to death on whatever I was avoiding. I’ll be honest, dieting sucks. I hate it and it makes me miserable. That’s why I went with Weight Watchers. For example, my wife and I cooked enchiladas this week from a WW recipe and they were awesome. They were a little higher on the points side so we just had green beans with them. The week before we had cheeseburger pizza that was a WW recipe. I have 44 points a day for my weight loss goal with bonus points of like 46. So I’ll stay under my allotted points for each day of the week and then have all those bonus points for Saturday (beer, pizza, etc). On Saturday me and Mrs. Recurve are going to Drakes in Huntsville and I am going to murder their Oktoberfest menu. I can do that because I have those points. Anyway, point of all this is learning portion control and WW has been the only thing I’ve found that has helped me with that. I pretty much eat – within reason – anything I want.

Don't drink calories. Cut out all sweet tea, soda, gatorade, etc.

I stopped drinking anything other than black coffee and water for 4 months earlier this year, along with slightly better portion control, and dropped 40 lbs in that period of time. I attribute most of it to not drinking empty calories.

Lots of good info here. I do crossfit or just lift in the gym 5 days a week and that helps build muscle (aka burning fat). I see a nutritionist once a month and she adjust my diet accordingly. I'm currently trying to get some weight off due to my lower back acting up. Below is a typical day of eating for me, I follow it daily minus a cheat meal or two on the weekends.

Breakfast: English muffin, 1 egg, 1oz deli meat (turkey or chicken), and 1oz or a slice of cheese. Make into a breakfast sandwich. If I am on the go 1 pack of instant oatmeal and a protein shake.

Snack: yogurt cup, 1 piece of fruit, and 1.5tsp of peanut butter

Lunch: 4oz lean meat, 1 sweet potatoe, or 1 cup rice, or1 large tortilla, or 3 small (pick one) and 1-2 cup of veggies

Snack: protein shake or 1 pack of tuna, or 2-3 low fat string cheese with 1.5 tsp peanut butter, or seeds/nuts. I buy the P2 packs you get some l an meat, cheese, and some nuts. I like these because I can just pack one and I'm good to go. You can also toss some veggies.

Dinner: 5oz lean meat, same carbs as lunch just a little less 2/3 cup instead of a cup or sweet potato and veggies.

Night snack right before bed: protein shake with optional veggies.

See, I could get behind something like this.....I've gotten to where I hate "fast food", and even "sit down restaurants" are usually a big disappointment.

My biggest hurdle has not been the will power to eat right because of cravings, it's a time thing. between work, a 6yr, a 4yr old and all the associated after school/weekend activities, we end up making poor eating choices mostly out of a convenience thing....and I think that's a lot of people's problem.

I've always said if I was a millionaire, I'd be in great shape because I'd hire someone to prepare all the meals and just put them in front of me at the appropriate time, to take all the "work" out of it.

I really need to try to come up with a system for something like the above...

Here is the one thing that baffles me. I had my gallbladder removed a couple of years ago so fast food is out of equation for me for the most part. I have discovered I can eat burger king on occasion and the sub places (subway and firehouse) but even those choices cause me some issues at times. If I make bad food choices or eat anything greasy or fatty it goes through me quick fast and in a hurry like make you wreck the truck on the way home hurry. Even with the gallbladder issue and symptoms I still carry a little extra weight!

To help out with lunch we make extra for dinner and I will eat leftovers to save time. Also, when I fire up the grill I'll cook enough to last several days and I'll pre pack my meals. If it's days we have after school activities my wife will cook something in the crook pot or we will eat the left overs to keep on track.

We eat out once or twice a week just to keep from craving junk food. We try to make it worth while so will eat mellow mushroom, Chili's, or something like that instead of burger or McDonalds.

Our son blew up to about 245 in high school as a junior about three years ago and finally decided on his own to get fit. He's down now to about 200 to 210, I think, and did a great job of eating right and working out with a friend who did the same.

One of his big things then, and now, is pre-packing his meals in portion sizes. Chicken breast with rice, for example. He gets home and it's easy to warm up to eat. He also doesn't prepare six chicken breasts and eat two or three of them - like I do.

I've lost about 22lbs in the last 4 months.

I don't diet. I think diets are temporary and then you go right back to what you were doing. For those over 40 get out and walk. I try to get over 10K steps a day and yes I have one of those little watches. It's not hard if you try. When in town I usually go walk a lap around our walking trail at lunch or in the evenings. It's 4 mi around which is about 8K steps.

Cut out as much sugar as you can. I thought it would be hard to cut out soft drinks and sweet tea but it was relatively easy. Now I don't crave either one.

If you are a beer drinker, and I am, start drinking a lighter beer with less calories. If it wasn't for the beer I would probably be down 30-40lbs.

Think of it as a slow and steady lifestyle change. You have the rest of your life to change it, it doesn't have to be done overnight. Little changes here and there. Before you know it you look up in a few months and you are eating better, feeling better, and have lost a lot of weight.

Stop eating so much.

Atoler nailed it. Make it a lifestyle change and not a diet.
I stopped drinking sweet tea and carbonated drinks
I eat smaller portions
I eat healthy snacks
I don't eat late at night
I was 237 last year and have been maintaining at 188-190 for a while now.

You could lose about 20 pounds of ugly fat by cutting your head off.

I don't know why, but high protein, high vegetable diet has worked for me. I am never hungry anymore. I've shed 20lbs over the last year. I figured to lose weight I'd have to be hungry all the time, but that hasn't been true. I wanted to have the second number on the scale read "7" by my elk hunt in october and I hit that last month. I actually was surprised when I saw it.

The exothermic only (work-out only) method is not as effective. Lots of arguments about that but when your metabolism slows down (40 years old +) its just hard to kill enough calories by working out. I'm not saying some can't do it, but it didn't work for me.

Its become a lifestyle now. I will occasionally eat some bread or a bun or some french fries, but that's pretty unusual. Mostly salads, deli meats, eggs, big proteins at night (chicken, steak, fish, venison, etc.). I will cheat and eat a little peanut butter (no sugar added) which still has more sugar than i'd like but with a few sticks of celery it's almost like desert to me. Momma is totally on board too. I think the rest of the family is eating carbs for breakfast and lunch (when I'm not at home), so they've been ok with going protein/veggie for dinner.

Beer is still my weakness.....

Same, but it's still MUCH healthier than soft drinks or sweet tea. I typically try to stick to lower calorie beers like Yuengling Light or Guinness (believe it or not, Guinness is a [relatively] low calorie beer)

Guinness is a food group.

Guinness is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy.