Well, I'd say it's an issue of eat better and exercise more, no?

Cut out McD's, eating out, etc. Or ease up.
Cool it with alcohol, which has beaucoup calories.
Walk, jog, lift weights, etc some every day.
Eat fruits, veggies more.

Anyway, that's what I'm trying. (Try = key word). I'm like 20-30 pounds more than I want to be at around 6 ft 1 and 210 lbs.

What's with the 'need' btw? What'll happen if he doesn't lose the weight?

There you go - excellent motivation.

LOTS OF WATER, cutting down fat/calories, and getting significant exercise at least 5 times a week. Im a girl and we chicks are never satisfied with our bodies, so I've tried every nonsense diet and exercise program there is, and none of it really works unless you change your habits.

You know what you should be doing to lose, so do it. Simple as that.

A side note.... you could have more sex...that burns a LOT of calories!

Most important of all, "this friend of yours" should see a doctor before starting anything else.

Need to check how many and which exercise is the best, what balanced diet to follow. It's not about only cutting all the crap and the whole fat stuff. The body still needs to be fed, or it will be worse.

I had a friend who stopped eating everything at once, started going all on salads and tiny portions of meal. She has reached the goal of cutting her weight almost to half, but as she went on a radical rampage of no eating, the body started to eat itself to provide the energy she was spending with the exercises--that's why she had lost weight--and sort of turned on an "crisis alarm mode" since it was getting something like 25% the calories it was used...

I think her body thought she was having problems finding food and started to store energy every time she ate a little more... She has then entered what we call here the "accordion effect", when you keep weighing up and down because of those diets without a prescription.

The key words here are, in my opinion:
- see a doctor to check up on your health
- see a gym teacher to tell you what are the best exercises for you
- keep you goal in mind
- no excess (for good or for bad)
- and never give up

I'm not overweight, but a couple times I've wanted to drop a bit, here is what's worked for me.

Don't start a diet. They fail and are hard to follow. Instead, make and print out a simple series of numbers ranging from your target to your current weight like so:

95 96 97 98 99 200
95 96 97 98 99 200
95 96 97 98 99 200
95 96 97 98 99 200
95 96 97 98 99 200

Make it a long, full page list. Each row will represent a day, and each column is obviously a weight. Tape this inside your bathroom door, and every morning after your morning pee, weigh yourself and take a red marker and circle your weight.

What this does is set this in your mind for the day. If you are just thinking about it, but not making a hard effort at dieting, it will make it easier the just eat a little less. Also, as you start to see the red marks start to form a downward graphic line, you will be encouraged to keep it up. This really works for me.

And what Vicki said about water. Drink plenty. It really helps as well.

Finally, there is a great new sugar substitute called Splenda that is made from sugar. It tastes like sugar and has no calories.

E was pretty right, but it's not just booze and Micky D's. I had a friend that needed to lose weight so he stopped eating McDonalds by eating Taco Bell. That is not the solution.

Your friend needs to absolutely and positively cut out excess fats. No deep fried foods, no fatty meats (read: hamburgers and/or bacon), and no snack foods (read: Lays and/or Little Debbie). The only fats he should be ingesting are unadulterated dietary fats, such as the unavoidable blubber in a fish fillet (and NOT a Fillet 'o Fish sandwich).

Chickens are great for losing weight, but completely avoid processed chicken (ie: chicken nuggets, or breaded chicken, or chicken patties). Baked (nude) chicken breast, brown rice and broccoli/carrots is a healthy dinner that is loaded with protein, sufficient starch and ample fiber. Egg whites are great for protein as well and contain very little fat - lose the yolk. Healthier dinners usually take longer to prepare. NO FAST FOODS!

Another thing that you wont read often is to stop the late nite dining. "4th meal" is a horrible idea. Unless you're talking about a dozen baby carrots and a celery stalk - absolutely no starches or carbs after dinner. If this means you go to bed early so you are not hungry, so be it.

Exercise will make you hungry. Try and schedule your exercise before breakfast, or before dinner. Drink a big glass of water and go do your walking, jogging, etc. then have your meal. Your body will thank you for some energy from fruits, such as oranges or grapefruit when you are done. Bananas are wonderful for keeping adequate potassium, and too little salt is just as bad as too much - find the balance.

The type of exercise that your friend does is not important, just that he is doing something that is sustained. Lifting weights is probably not the best option because that is done in short bursts followed by down time. Keeping active for 20-30 minutes straight at a high rate will do wonders for not only losing weight, but heart health as well. If he's heavy in the mid-section only try a stationary bike, if he is proportionally heavy try an elliptical or other ski-like motions. All of these are easier on the joints.

Drugs and/or drinks are probably not necessary. I can't say that I am studied up on the pharmacokinetics of all possible weight-loss supplements on the market, but most of them are nothing more than a placebo. The placebo effect may or may not work on your friend. The fact is drugs that have a really profound effect on any cellular or system function take millions, even billions, of dollars to develop. Finding a digestible compound that is non-toxic costs much less. If your friend is considering purchasing and/or using any substance strongly encourage him to do a couple days worth of research on the product (including generic name eg: Methyl Tert-butyl Ether) instead of taking the word of a non-licensed individual (read: GNC employee).

The hardest part about losing weight is that it requires a whole, or at least mostly whole change in total lifestyle. A lot of people fail because they can not change their habits. It's fucking hard waking up an hour early and jumping right on the bike, or putting your kids to bed an hour early because you need your 8 hours sleep. But if your friend really needs to lose the weight it might take major changes.

Sorry for the long windedness.

"The hardest part about losing weight is that it requires a whole, or at least mostly whole change in total lifestyle." —Jimbo

I'm not sure I completely agree. It's just my opinion, but I really think this is why most diets fail, because they attempt or require a total lifestlye change. That is too damn hard for me.

I think just adding a little moderation without making it a chore will work better. That is why the cart works for me. Just helps me remember to moderate a little.

Also, cutting out all fat is a bad idea. The body needs some fat, and fat also helps you feel satisfied. Cut out all fat and you will always be hungry.

Effen, I can testify that the P90X works! When I separated from my wife, I was overweight and lacking some muscles... So I got the P90X. I went from 205 to 155 in 6 months, and felt great. Stronger, lighter, more flexible. It is the closest thing to having super powers you are going to get. The plan comes with workouts, meal plans, the whole 9 yards.

Oh, and it WILL try to kill you.

Now, I maintain. I follow a 15/21 rule. 15 of my weekly 21 meals are healthy, calorie conscious, blah... The other 6 are whatever I want.

The real trick is frequent small meals complimented by exercise. Keeping the body on a steady supply of calories by eating often means your body doesn't feel the need to save up fat for the times when you aren't feeding it fresh calories. Exercise will increase your BMR, weightlifting builds muscle which burns more calories.

My recommendation would be to go to beachbody.com and order him the P90X. If he even moderately keeps up with it for a year he'll drop the fat.

Brother Bill - I never said cut out all fats, I said cut out excess fats. This is easily done by avoiding deep fried foods, and processed meats with added fat (pepperoni, salami, sausage, etc.) Dietary fats are always a necessity. One can fit these natural fats in a healthy diet.

Not picking a bone with you or anything. Just clearing up any misunderstandings.

Dieting is about finding the right combination of food and activity. Moderation is always important. I am on a modest diet to get back in shape and drop 5-10 pounds of party-hearty fat. Moderation has been successful for a slow but steady rate of progress. However, the essence of the original post was urgent loss of weight. While I would never suggest a dangerous course of action (such as not eating at all), extreme weight loss may require extreme lifestyle modification, P90X for example. The difference is, my advice is to wake up an hour early, exercise for a half hour, eat balance meals, and eliminate things like french fries, onion rings, potato wedges, hamburgers, sausage pizza, etc.

Yeah, not easy at all. You're dead on about that being why diets fail. No change is ever easy.

I need the opposite... I'm trying to gain some weight...

2 months ago I came home to mr alex with his hand over his heart and not a note of the national anthem playing anywhere in the house .. angina ..

many tests later he was told lose weight or else .. 317 lbs at 5'10" ..

I relieved the kitchen cupboards of anything that didn't have the "healthy heart" emblem printed on the box and replaced it all with rice and double fibre whole wheat bread .. we've since come to the realization that deprivation is not a life .. so ..

he joined a health club .. started grazing on little meals 6 times a day and taking his chloresterol pill nightly ..

it isn't so much about what you eat as it is about how much of it you eat .. smaller portions and simple math ... burn more calories than you take in and you will lose weight as your body begins to devour all those lovely fat deposits it has stored up ..

side benefit of the health club ? .. he's off this morning to enjoy a massage ..

I lost about 20 - 30 lb some years ago and have kept them off with nio diet mostly by eating less that what i was eating at the time. 5 or 6 SMALL meals a day are ideal (also good if you are diabetic or at risk of developing diabetes) And chew many times your food, smaller bits of food are digested with more ease and help with weight loss and heart burn too! Lots of water after you get accustomed to that then think about a health club and exercises, but only after you talk to your doctor and always under the supervision of a trained professional. Going crazy on the gym without knowing what you are doing is very dangerous.

very important, never take ANY drugs to loose weight, not even the FDA approved ALI. Those things are dangerous as hell and really mess up your metabolism.

Good luck!

Leo, you need to gain weight? That I can help you with:
Beer, Pizza, (fast food in general), sit on the couch and watch reality tv. It may take a little bit but it has been proven to work. Just stick with it.

Hahahahah... my goal is not THAT fat... And I'm not fond of McD's, BKs...

KFC and pizzas and beer... now we are talking...

When I really get motivated to lose weight, the easiest way for me is to stop buying bread. Without bread, which is so easy to make a snack with, I have to think more about what I'm eating, use more imagination, and often just skip fixing a snack.

Brother Bill,
that chart idea was pretty interesting. I'm gonna take a swing at it.

Mr. Kobayashi must be doing something right. They need to study that dude.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Takeru_Kobayashi

SImple steps:
Less pasta/potatoes, lots more salad
Eat what's on your plate, but no seconds (except for salad.)
Walk for an extra half hour every day.
Cut back on coffee - because coffee leads to "Coffee and a _____". Or at least switch to decaf.
Drink lots of water.

I'm 28 days into a diet myself (an accomplishment for me). What's really helping is something I read in the last 6 months or so: Dieters who keep a food diary - a little notepad noting what you ate and when - have more success than dieters who didn't. I think that what's in the diary is not as important as the act of keeping it - it forces you to be honest with yourself about what and how you're eating. You can also add your weigh-ins and notes about any extra exercise you do.

Try to keep busy - don't sit around obsessing about food, find something else to do.

p.s. Set a reachable short term goal - "I will lose x pounds in the next 90 days, and I will do such and such to acheive this." DON'T fixate on some high total weight you need to lose, because that's going to take a while, and if it seems impossible, you'll get discouraged.

Tell people you're trying to lose weight (without being annoying or overbearing about it). Don't keep it to yourself, and don't let the fact that other people are eating things you've chosen not to bother you.

Take a positive attitude - you are not DENYING yourself food, you are CHOOSING to eat right.

As far as lifestyle changes, I look at it as cultivating good habits, not just becoming Mr. Healthy all quick you know? I don't eat organic, whole wheat, etc all the time, but hey, I keep that stuff in mind. I definitely have improved my diet this way, slowly but surely.

Like what Kevin said, I don't think of it as denying. There's still good stuff.

Totally agree with Etantao also - be wary of drug fixes. They be very dubious.

Effen, sign up for the newsletters from Eat This, Not That ( at http://eatthis.menshealth.com/) and hungrygirl (at http://www.hungry-girl.com/)--don't be scared off from the fact that it's entitled 'girl'--they both have realistic ideas for what food to replace with what, they still allow you to eat food from restaurants, pre-made stuff, drinks, etc.

Yup, mom and dad always told me to put on the plate only what I was goingo to be able to eat, nothing more.
If I still felt hungry, I could get me more, but never fill the plate and leave food there.

They said I should think about those who couldn't have that meal I was dumping. When I was old enough to argue, I questioningly asked them that dumping or eating, they still would not be able to have that specific portion of meal.
They answered, promptly: "Shut up and eat."

Did I say something wrong?

"What's on your plate, no seconds" is just a simple way of saying "practice portion control". Start with "no seconds", then start to be more specific about how much food you put on the plate to begin with.

Try to measure things: For instance, I have a set of mixing bowls marked on the inside. When I have my cereal in the morning, I use the mark to be sure I'm eating just one cup, rather than using an arbitrary "fill the bowl" method.

Do a search on the work of Dr. Brian Wansink, who studies human behavior and eating habits. (See NY Times article at http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/11/dining/11snac.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=portion%20control%20research%20Cornell&st=cse ). Excerpt:
"Dr. Wansink is particularly proud of his bottomless soup bowl, which he and some undergraduates devised with insulated tubing, plastic dinnerware and a pot of hot tomato soup rigged to keep the bowl about half full. The idea was to test which would make people stop eating: visual cues, or a feeling of fullness.

People using normal soup bowls ate about nine ounces. The typical bottomless soup bowl diner ate 15 ounces. Some of those ate more than a quart, and didn’t stop until the 20-minute experiment was over. When asked to estimate how many calories they had consumed, both groups thought they had eaten about the same amount, and 113 fewer calories on average than they actually had."

Another interesting finding: Wansink reviewed 7 editions of “The Joy of Cooking,” published from 1936 to 2006. In 14 of 18 recipes studied, the calorie content had surged by an average of 928 calories, or 44 percent per recipe. ( http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/17/health/17well.html?scp=5&sq=Joy%20of%20Cooking&st=cse )

kevin .. welcome !

interesting post ... in raising my daughter I always told her to eat until she was satisfied .. never pushed the "clean your plate" theory .. taught her to follow her body's instincts which sometimes resulted in ice cream for breakfast ..

what kind of cereal do you eat ?

If you want to go extreme, these a book by a pro bodybuilder called "Burn the fat, build the muscle" or something like that that really breaks down the science of how our body treats food that we eat. Nitrogen balance, etc... It's a heavy duty read, but it has everything you need to know about the SCIENCE of weight loss. He even talks about the strategys used by bodybuilders to prepare meals ahead, etc...

The only problem is that his analysis only treats food as fuel, not as an enjoyment in life.

There's also John Berardi of Precision Nutrition that produces gourmet cookbooks of healthy recipes. I love his "Super Shake" recipes. I follow his "Scrawny to Brawny" book for my workouts since I'm a naturally small guy.

Cut out bread, increase your fiber intake, and graze all day instead of having 2-3 big meals. It'll take about a month for your body to get used to it, and then the BMR goes up, and the fat comes off.

but I like bread

I, too, love bread. I'll never give it up. If my love for bread means I carry a few extra, so be it!

And yes Effen, I have that problem too. I also feel guilty throwing out leftovers.

If you're a competitive person, try making loosing weight a competition with yourself. Or give yourself a prize after you loose the weight. Seriously, my prize for loosing 12 pounds was eating a box of Samoas. (I only wanted to loose 10 but figured the cookies would give me wiggle room.)

Don't go insane - try to loose 10 pounds in a week.
But make a sensible goal - 10 pounds in a 5 weeks or something.

Give yourself another prize/reward if you keep the weight off for 3 months or 6. Something reasonable. I'd say this prize should be something you really want so you have an incentive.

If you have a pda, iphone or blackberry try downloading a program that will help you document your calorie intake. "Lose it" is a programs both Scara and I have used. It's not perfect but it certainly helped me loose 12 pounds and realize what things are bad and really bad calorie wise. Also what exercise is good, ok and great.

Do some exercise. Anything counts. Wii. walking stairs, stretching, push ups. Running in place.

Good luck

"When you know you have the power to change, but, lack the will-power to change...."

This is the entire problem with diets for some people. That's why I suggest you don't do a concious diet, but just put the issue in your way every day. The chart thing (above) I did worked for me, because it was just a moring reminder that I had a wish to drop a few pounds (not a goal so much). I still had fast food (sometimes you can't avoid it), and I didn't worry about avoiding the food I liked, but the chart was fresh on my mind every day, so I just ordered a medium fry instead of large or maybe didn't finish them all, considered the stairs instead of the elevator, made the effort to drink water a little more often. No pressure, but it was on my mind.

Diets are doomed to fail if you don't have the personallity to lock-step into one. I sure don't. I think the better way to lose weight is just make the little, occasional decisions to cut back. Don't go for the fast track, but do it slow... besides, if you lose weigh slow, it will be more likely to stay off.

Agreed Bill.

You've got to think of something that might work for you. In one case it might be to ease off on portions and such like BB suggested.

Me, I honestly wanted to challenge myself to see if I could really lose weight. I did have a bad day or two but looking back, the biggest change I was forced to make was to cut back/down/or out all the snacking I was doing.

As soon as I took off the weight my metabolism has kicked up. I'm not as hungry as I was, I don't need as much to be full and I don't have the cravings I had 2 months ago. Well so far...Now that's I've lost 12 pounds, the hard part begins - trying to maintain.

Coffee and cigarettes. If it works for Parisian models it can work for you!

Also, heroin.

AIDS, Cancer. Hey do you want to look good or what?

AIDS would work, but it would be much easier to just up the water intake, have more sex (seriously, it helps satisfy the craving centre in your brain) As far as exercise goes at least 2 sessions of resistance and 2 of cardio a week.
Also diets are BS. they tend to make people deprive themselves only to splurge and over indulge when no one is looking.
just good fresh food, carbs like potato and basmati rice are good for you as well (yeah, I said it, white carbs rock. taters are nutritious and basmati rice is low GI)