Hi everyone. I am new around here, love this site. Anyway, just wondering a few things
1. What do you pros think about diet plans such as weight watchers, nutrisystem, etc... I have a friend that lost 65 pounds doing weight watchers and am considering doing it myself.

2. I am having trouble figuring out how many calories I should be eating while trying to lose weight. I am 27yrs old, 5'9 1/2" and weigh 180lbs. At my smallest I was 135 . My goal is 145. I would like to be lean, not just skinny.

Any advise would be fabulous

I'm fairly new and certainly not an expert, but I highly recommend that rather than take on a generic diet plan, read some of the excellent posts by Steve, TomO, Leigh, Mal, and others here. You will learn a LOT about calorie reduction, proper nutrition, exercize and basic body physics.

I have lost ten pounds in two months, and gained a huge amount of energy without starving myself by just applying what I learned here on this board.

Read read read and read some more. Especially the post "You don't have to starve" in the General Topics (I think), stickied at the top. And read Mal's nutrition sticky in the nutrition forum. And read Steve's sticky in the Weight Loss through Exercize forum. Those are very good starting points.

In general I try to keep my opinion of these programs to myself especially around here because there are a lot of people using these systems. I will keep it short and simple though. The reason these programs work fast is because they are really low caloric programs. The reason people use them is because they get instant gratification. The reason the results in general don't last is because most people cannot eat that low of calories for life and will start to eat again. From there their metabolisms have slowed and they are worse off then when they started.

Basically I do not promote or support low caloric fad diet programs. There are more reasons to it than what I stated as well. Most of my clients come to me after all those products have failed them and left them heavier and hungrier. I always find it funny when people utter this phrase "Well it worked for me before! When I was on it I lost a lot of weight so I think i am going to do it again!" In my mind, with me, when you do it right, you are just done so there isn't a need to try it again, you just spend your life living normal.


This really depends on so many factors. Best advice is you calculate an estimate and work from there as you get or don't get results. THIS BEING SAID, allow some time for actual results to occur.

Just to back up what Leigh said, you can get a general estimate of the calories you need by going here BMR Calculator and then multiplying the number by what's on this page Harris Benedict Equation

My question for you to think about is, why isn't your goal 135? There's no invisible wall stopping you from getting to that weight, unless of course your goal includes adding some sexy lean muscle to your frame.

My question for you to think about is, why isn't your goal 135? There's no invisible wall stopping you from getting to that weight, unless of course your goal includes adding some sexy lean muscle to your frame.[/QUOTE]



When I was 135 I didn't feel good, I think it might have been a little too low for me. And yes, I would like to have some lean muscle mass.

Thanks for the links!

Thanks Leigh P !

I certainly do not want to DEcrease my metabolism. I guess I should stay away from these then.

Just so I understand, is it the calorie deficit that lowers metabolism?

calorie deficit is what helps you to lose weight -

Too long at too low a calorie deficit is what causes issues with metabolism.. Least I think anyhow