I am 1.2kg off the 20kg weight loss mark and am loving it! I started on the Tony Fergusson weight loss programme last Feb (almost a year ago to the day) and have not looked back since. I am losing weight slowly but have never, at a weigh in, put any on. Some weeks there was no loss, some weeks only 400g and some weeks more than 1kg (depending on the time of month... oh us ladies are so lucky, so many things against us when it comes to weight loss!). The way I look at food has changed so much, I still have treats (prob more than I should but hey, one has to live!) and live the good life. I'm no longer taking the Tony Fergusson meal replacement shakes which is testimony that it DOES WORK! I haven't used the shakes for months and am still losing weight by simply watching what I eat and more importantly HOW I EAT! I don't gorge myself anymore and that allows me to eat pretty much what I want. I'm also excercising at least 4 times a week - runs, bush walks etc. If you don't like the work diet then how about "life style choice"?! Make the changes and you will feel AMAZING!

Yes I've lost weight and kept it off for years. It really isn't that hard, it's about changing your mindset.

First of all, you have to stop telling yourself you're on a diet. You're not on a diet, you're eating healthy (how everyone should be eating). Just exercise 4/5 times per week, limit the carbs (as in, don't tuck into those pasta dishes but keep up the rice), lots of veges and protein and treat yourself a couple of weeks. It's really quite simple.

Statistically you have a better chance of success if you are an alcoholic going through an AA program than you do of successfully maintaining your weight loss through a "tried and true" program like Weight Watchers (they have a long term success rate of 2%).

I lost 30kg around 5 years ago and have kept it off, not a waif like model but fit and healthy.

Your comment on working on the inside really resonated for me. It takes the mind much longer to lose the weight than it takes the body. The real hard work is on the inside, and while all your friends are busy congratulating you on how wonderful you look it can be a real battle in your head. Even sometimes now I have to remind myself that I fit clothes from any store.

I really look forward to reading your blog over the next year - good luck!

Diets for the most part are a bandaid for people that have mental problems. Unless there is some genetic reason for being overweight people should look at their life and the style they are living it. Things like 'comfort food' is a sign of mental weakness. Take a look at yourselves. Genetic, get a gastric band. Non genetic, your problem is between your ears, coupled with an inability to take responsibility for yourself.

Morning Rachel, just caught up on the comments from yesterday, looks like this could be quite an interesting wee forum ;-)

I think it's worth pointing out that whatever you eat is actually your 'diet', so you can have a healthy eating diet, or an unhealthy one, they're all technically 'diets'. It's the crash/fad diets that most people refer to when they say 'diets don't work'.

And that said, I stand by my opinion that crash/fad diets don't work because they are almost all purely for the short-term. As soon as people stop following them they almost inevitably put weight back on as they slip back into their old unhealthy diet habits. Particularly if, as you pointed out, they've got emotional baggage which was part of the cause for the weight-gain in the first place or a result of all the bad feelings being overweight caused in the person in the first place.

Here's a tip. Stop calling it a diet. If you decide that what you want to do is actually change your lifestyle, it might be more effective. So what you want to do is to eat and exercise like you wish to do for the rest of your life.

If you think short-term, you will always reach the end of that term and will fall back (at different rates) into the same lifestyle that caused the pain in the first place.

Someone mentioned the zone diet in the previous blog. I started that over a year ago. I didn't need to lose much weight at all, around 7kg. I lost it all over a few months and kept eating the same way, apart from weekly treats (chocolate cake - YUM). So it was not a short-term, lose weight decision, it was a long-term, maintain a healthy lifestyle decision. Different mindset eh?

I suggest looking into the work of a science writer called Gary Taubes - there is one of his lectures on google video and an article on the NY times website called "What if it's all been a big fat lie?"

It explains why most nutritionists have it completly wrong and explains how the world has come to be as it is today. It's very convincing stuff!

Find that diet/lifestyle choice that suits you, and ignore all those around you who love to tell how and why that particular choice won't work! It's like being pregnant, everyone has a horror birth story to tell you, everyone has a reason why Tony Ferguson/Weight Watchers/ Jenny Craig doesn't work. They do work! Like everything, you have to give it 100%, believe in it, believe in yourself and be realistic. If you've got 60kg to lose, it ain't going to happen in a month, neither is 6kg. As I'm nearing the end of my final weight loss journey, it's nice to know that my current wardrobe is complete. I don't have any clothes for when I get bigger, I don't have any clothes for when I lose weight. I'm proud of where I'm at and love who I am...not bad for being 18 months off 40!

While I don't like the word "diet", there is no doubt that they work while you have the will-power to stick with it. A lot of people lose weight but one of the main reasons they put it back on is that they haven't dealt with the underlying psychological issues they have with food and/or their self-esteem. It's easy to say "eat less, do more" but there are many behaviourial/emotional issues that are usually at play. So along with the "diet" maybe some form of counselling will help also. This is probably why systems like Weight Watchers work so well - there's that support network to fall back on.