Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

If you can stick with these guidelines, I think you can count on great results.
The tough ones are likely to be items 1 and 3; that is, at what point does one cross the line from tasting to devouring? And efforts to eat just just half of something can be sabotaged by internal counter-arguments ('waste!' 'starving children!'). The most effective strategy I've found is to make specific, concrete plans for the other half of the item/meal in question; eating more slowly, which you also mention, also helps, since it gives a little better perspective on actual intake, so that's an important one.

Think I'm going to try these myself... I could stand to lose a bit of weight.

Happy New Year :)

shangri-la didn't do much for me, unfortunately. what works for me is lots of time at the gym.

i'm entertaining out of town visitors and we're heading for barney greengrass for brunch right now, so i'm starting my year out deliciously.

ed, my advice {as someone who used to be clinically obese} is to make a few small changes at a time until they become habit, and then make a few more. in my experience, expecting too much of yourself all at once is a recipe for failure.

i do recommend lots of exercise, lowering your fat intake by eating smaller amounts of fatty food, and eating lots of fruits and vegetables.

good luck!

More quantitative goals will be easier to achieve, and you've got some already (working out 5x weekly).

But "eat less", "eat more fruits", etc... they are prone to a shifting target mindset.

Eat one piece of fresh fruit for breakfast and 2 servings of veggies at lunch might be a good start. Or even, "I will work out Mon-Wed-Thurs-Fri-Sun" instead of just "5x weekly" might be better....

The more specific the more likely you can hold yourself to it.

Good luck, and enjoy the new year!

Hi Ed,
Are you an all or nothing person? Me, I can't have an open bag of chips without eating most or all of it so it's easier for me not to have it around or even start to nibble. If there's something yummy, I just can't stick to the "I'll just eat a bit" plan. So I usually stick to a lower calorie (but throw in some fat since your body does need it) diet on most days interdispersed with days of indulgence. I allow myself to eat all the veggies I want but a modified quantity of fruit since it's higher in calories. I also try to eat something high in fiber everyday. If your local Trader Joe's has them, try the delicious Blueberry or Apple Cranberry fiber cakes from Zen Bakery. I know it sounds yeewww but they're dense, moist and best of all, tasty. Throw in the exercise and I figure it all equalizes in the end.
Most of all, whatever works for you, it has to be a permanent change - sorry, but true. It has been for me for almost twenty years (I was a plus size person before the term was even coined!).
And remember, we're all rooting for ya!

Ed I have started a topic where our community will give you some recipes to try. I advocate portion control. I also advocate you stop eating when you are not moving around so much. Eat dinner as early as you can. Chocolate especially dark is a good mouth feel snack. There is so much good chocolate around that it is a great option. I also think it gives you an opportunity to go see Jacques Torres and get an interview (jumping up and down) just a thought.
Hubby has the 25 lb bulge to deal with as well and a cholestrol issue.
Here are my recommendations.
Take white processed sugar out of your diet and replace with natural sugar. There are so many natural sugars around that you can do that right away. I use in my cooking and baking demara, muscavado, granulated pure cane, brown, turbinado. Trader Joes and Whole Foods carry lots of types. I bake with these and we do not use the old processed stuff hardly ever. I have also found a great substitute for our coffee which makes great Lattes. http://www.sugar-shots.com/index.html
We use the turbinado and sometimes I use it on fruit, in puddings, in marinades. This stuff is good.
I make Nick's supernatural brownies with natural sugar and they are very good, the recipe handles the moist sugar well.
Pick your starches well. I often make a meal with a good protein and then one small "portioned" starch. Portion control is your friend. When you go out to all the fabulous places that you do order those small plates you and I like so much. Keep us posted and the best of luck. Remember we are all here for you. You have a huge support group.

So glad to see you're not paying too much attention to the charts. Tow experiences of mine along those lines...

1. For the past few years, I've been ten (or so) pounds overweight. But I'm pretty constant. And I'm extremely healthy. I look like a Woman (yes, capitalized), not a teenaged boy. (This is a good thing, since I'm a 40-something female!) The biggest benefit, though, is that I get to eat whatever I want, whenever I want. Always, always in moderation. I never feel deprived, so I seldom get cravings. I'd rather be a my current size 8 than my former size 4, because I get real joy from eating. It's no fun to obsess about all the things I *shouldn't* or *can't* eat. The only time I watch my diet is when my clothes get too snug. Then I cut back a bit. The only scale I own is a kitchen model with a 5# max capacity.

2. When hubby was working out, he was beyond obsessive. For years he'd spend several hours a day, EVERY day, at the gym. He's six feet tall and wore only a 29" pant waist. He was actually too thin (IMHO). But, according to the BMI charts he was overweight, because his muscle mass weighed so much! He weighs less now, but wears a 32" pant waist, and shows up as *normal* on the charts. Go figure.

And don't skip the cheese. It's so very, very good for you! Just eat less of it. Or substitute it for your *meat* for the day.

TIP: I've known many people who had great weight-loss success, and also learned to eat very well by using the typical diabetic diet as a guideline. It's based on good, nutritious common sense.

Oh, so many food, diet, and weight loss myths to bust!

A few years ago my husband and I both had some pounds to lose (20 for me and about 35 for him). We gained most of it when we ate pasta and homemade bread more frequently. Stupidly, I was trying to keep fat intake and meat on the low side then, too. I tried the gym (though I hate gym environments), got a bit fitter, but the weight didn't budge. I didn't feel like we ate too much, nor did we eat "bad food", so I was really unwilling to starve ourselves to lose weight. I mean, how does one live that way just to lose weight and then maintain the weight loss later? Reducing iets as a short term fix are doomed to fail.

Also, exercising just to lose weight works *up* an appetite. Maybe not immediately after working out, but long term, it does. Look at what lumberjacks can eat - 5000 calories or more a day without gaining. Same for military personel in the field carrying around many pounds of equipment. And for all the calories burned in a an exercise session, it is far less than people suppose (and they often make up for it later as a "reward"). Those few hundred calories burned are about equal to a few bites of something or a slice or two of bread. I'd rather not eat the bread and save gym grunting. I'm not saying all exercise is bad, but it isn't the best way to lose weight. Not by a long shot.

Increasing body fat is due to high insulin levels, which store excess fat and glucose calories. But eating fat without a lot of sugar and starch doesn't raise insulin levels but eating carbohydrates does. So if you are going to restrict any foods, restrict sugars and starches, no matter how "whole" and "healthy" you think they are or how nutritionally incorrect it seems. Human biochemistry cannot be ignored. Fat calories cannot be stored without high insulin levels. Without insulin, the body will burn off excess fat calories as heat, rather than storing them as body fat. You can eat more non-starchy vegetables if you are not eating sugar and starch.

So it is possible to lose weight without starving oneself, without forcing oneself to spend hours at a gym instead doing something more interesting, and without eating fake food. It just makes a lot more sense to cut back on (to whatever level is necessary to lose weight) sugar and starches, which make up a disproporationate % of modern diets and provide far less in the way of nutrients and structural building materials for the body. Early humans developed without much of these foods, so think of it as getting in touch with the inner hunter-gatherer. We've maintained our weight lose without much effort or sacrifice since 2004 and can't imagine eating any other way now. It's a healthier way of eating for life. In fact, this was exactly the way to eat prescribed to me in 1998 when I was pregnant and diagonoses with gestational diabetes. Every bite had to count. I only wish I had continued with it instead of going back to empty foods like bread and pasta.