I find the only way I can lose weight is to commit myself totally to it and obsess. I'm not technically obese by some measures - 5 foot 4 and start weight 133 pounds - but I have a slight frame and all my weight is around my middle, so I'm fat. My goal weight is 105 lb.

To lose weight, I have to keep myself honest by diarising all day and into the evening, recording every skerrick (because I fool myself very readily). I weigh myself four or five times a day and record my weight each time.

My regime is pretty strict - between 1000 and 1200 calories. The trick is to eat often, and eat small amounts. It's amazing how soon your eye adjusts and you see a tiny helping as quite normal. I eat from small plates and bowls always.

I alternate concentrating on measurement and weighing - I don't measure unless I've hit a weight plateau, when there's generally a measurement loss that makes me feel better.

I have a very slow, efficient metabolism, and simply have to deal with the fact that my body goes into semi-starvation mode. I get around this by eating six times a day, and "dosing" on protein - in my case 50g tofu with some soy and ginger - if I feel too hungry between meals.

I don't drink much more water than usual, but be aware that cutting down your food intake drastically is effectively cutting your liquid intake.

Here's my typical day's diet:

8 am - 40g home-made unsweetened muesli, half an apple diced, and a dash of soymilk: 200 calories

10 am - small soy latte - 160 calories

midday - half a hollowed out sourdough roll with a scrape of pesto, slivers of jarlsberg cheese and lettuce; tea 200 calories

3 pm - slice of sourdough raisin bread, toasted, with a scrape of butter
125 calories

5 pm - dinner - I prefer a small helping that's starchy, to a large protein helping - perhaps 200g of low-fat risotto with feta. 160 calories
coleslaw with buttermilk as dressing 40 calories
Large bowl of strawberries with 30g fullfat yoghurt, tsp maple syrup 80 calories

8 pm - what I eat depends on my end-of-day weight. If I weigh much more than at the beginning of the day, I have something tiny.

I don't touch chocolate, biscuits etc - even in tiny quantities, they trip me up. My equivalent to a sweet treat would be a tablespoon of fullfat yoghurt, five chopped hazelnuts and some fresh cherries.

I don't drink fruit juice or of course lolly water. I only drink water, tea, or coffee.

I measure quite rigorously:
upper arms
bust
under bust
narrowest pulled in and fully let out
at navel, pulled in and fully let out (that's confronting!)
hip
bum
thighs


Following this regime I am losing about a pound a week, am expecting to hit several plateaus, and aim to have reached my goal weight in March next year.

I find it's not realistic to expect to be exercising hard on a very low-calorie diet. I actually do very mild exercise - some walking, some hula hooping, because my past experience tells me I will get voraciously hungry if I exercise, and break the diet.

To keep to it though, as I said, I have to obsess, and I would hate friends and family to come across my food diary!

Cheers

Lucy

I saw your post and joined just so I could try to help. Here are a few tips.

You don't have to obsess to get results. If you take a different approach you can eat more and lose more weight.

Find out what your RMR, Body Fat Percentage, Fat Burning Zone, etc. are myfitnesscoach .blogspot .com (remove the spaces)

Knowing this information will allow you to stop obsessing and take a more scientific approach to losing weight. For instance, once you know what your RMR is just keep your caloric intake below this level by 500 calories daily and you will lose 1 pound per week. Eat 1000 calories daily less than your RMR and you will lose 2 pounds per week.

Your age plays a major role in weight control also ( you didn't mention your age). However, you seem to be no stranger to dieting. By dieting without any strength training you will lose weight but for every 1 pound you lose 60% will be muscle and only 40% will be fat. This decreases your RMR and Lean Body Mass and makes it harder and harder for you to keep weight off and easier to gain it. Many people find that what worked for them in the past doesn't work anymore because of this fact. This is because the less Lean Body Mass you have the lower your RMR/Metabolism will be and as stated above dieting without strength training just eats up your LBM. As a result of your past and current dieting your body may not be as toned as it used to be but you can change that very easily. Especially considering the fact that you seem to be a very devoted person.

1000-12000 calories per day for an adult is too little to recieve the nutrients your body needs. You may feel tired and may be irritable a lot. You should increase your caloric intake. If you do some strength training you will be able to eat more without gaining weight. As a matter of fact it will be easier for you to lose weight if you do some strength training. And did I mention you will be able to eat more while losing weight? As a result you will have more energy and obsess less about counting calories. Which is not a bad thing, it can just feel like a chore sometimes.

Your stomach: This is the hardest thing to lose but Myfitnesscoach explains how to do it based on a lot of what I mentioned.

I recommend you do the Weight Loss Calculator thing first then read the information on your results at the site. Good Luck. Let me know if it helps or at the very least if I've taught you something.

If you are looking for weight loss calculators that do the calculations for you, you can use the calculators located at Weight Loss Tools | Weight Loss Calculators | Weight Converter | BMI Calculator | Height Converter here on this site.