1. Nailing down protein intake first. Once i did this, the craving for crap food tapered off. I planned all my meals around what lean protein i ate.

2. Intensity. I committed to intensity, not time. This yielded more results than anything.

Weights was easy. Every single Mens Health and Muscle and Fitness has good beginner programs.

Cardio was tough. Too easy to get bored and burn out.

I did a sprint program for a couple weeks when i had no access to my regular gym. (along with kettlebells) I got more lean doing that than anything.

2 400’s (once around track)
8 40’s (all out)

The big bonus to sprints? You feel a whole lot more powerful, and you can feel the muscle development as well.

Kettlebells are also Diesel. Makes it easy to do olympic lifts.

You also need a hell or high water program. A program that you do every single day no matter what. Morning or back from the bar half drunk. You do it every single day.

Mine:
1 pushup more than the day before
1 more pull up than the day before (cheat of that extra one)
1 more bodyweight squat or lunge than before
1 more kettlebell snatch than before
1 more kettlebell hang clean

Start with 5 each on monday. Then six of each on tuesday, seven on wed, etc.

You’ll increase strength and muscular endurance, and as the program extends, you’ll increase stamina as well.

Once you get to super high reps, start a harder exercise (hang cleans, weighted pullups, jump squats, etc)

You know you are doing more today than the day before. That is key to improvement. Mentally and physically.

Things are coming along nicely. I’m down 22lbs as of my morning weigh in. I’m glad to see you’re joining in the fight against the American stereotype, Ryan. Keep up the good work.

A friend of mine is doing the Sonoma Diet with quite a bit of success, and is very happy because she gets to drink wine. My understanding is that the high-sugar dessert wines (Reisling & such) should be rare treats, but relatively low-sugar whites and reds are encouraged after the first 10 day period of strictly no-sugar. I’ve read a little bit about it, and it seems to be a really reasonable, balanced sort of diet. It seems to me that on any diet, wine in reasonable amounts shouldn’t be detrimental.

Here’s an article that gives some rough carb/calorie estimates on various cocktails: http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0846/is_5_21/ai_82333620

I know for me at least, just switching from hardees to a bowl of fruit for breakfast has shrunk the tube of fat around my belly (good indicator of a high chance of diabetes).

By the way, to Alex, who recommended watching skinny people drink water. I am 6′ and 170 (which puts my useless BMI at 23.1), I am a runner, and I rarely have bottled water on me. Two years ago, I moved and started gaining some weight. I went from 166 to 180 (my 5 under my heaviest). The only thing that will help you succeed in losing weight and keeping it off is eating healthy and enough exercise to balance out the weight you gain everyday from eating. This will vary for people, so it’s best to see your doctor/nutritionist about how many calories you truly intake and burn daily. (It should be noted that if you exercise, you have to subtract the calories you would have burned if you did not exercise from the calories you actually burned).

There is no other way than to burn more calories a day than you intake. Period. No amount of water will change that. Don’t over complicate an easy formula.

Also, don’t make the mistake of seeing a label that says “no fat” and thing you can eat more. It’s likely loaded with something else that will counter the lack of fat, most likely sugar. Read the label and calculate how many minutes of time exercising it will take to burn off the food item. If you don’t want to work out for 120 minutes for that yummy bagel, then put it down and go for a banana (~17 minutes). There’s a book out there that has those equivalents but I can’t remember the name (it’s in the latest Runner’s World magazine).

I’m totally into nice fresh veggies and whole grains, fruits and nuts and whatnot, but at what point does something become processed in your view? I assert that virtually nobody eats “unprocessed” food. Even the fracking Kombai tribespeople process the starch from sago palms before eating it. Granted, I think anybody can look at, say, Cheez Wiz, and realize that such things do not occur naturally; but even the delicious brown rice I might enjoy was harvested and processed at a mill before undergoing a drying process, and before I eat it it will be rehydrated in the cooking process.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that less processing isn’t a good thing–on the contrary, I think it is a very good thing, and the evidence which has been collected by this generation of nutritionists tends to agree. I get what you’re saying and in general I agree, I guess mostly I’m taking issue with your use of the word “unprocessed.” Also, while I agree that Americans should eat more food that has been minimally processed, it can easily be taken too far into the realm of the hippie raw food weirdos, and I personally ain’t going there.

I also found this article funny and pretty spot on about some things: http://www.violentacres.com/archives/80/americans-arent-fat-because-they-lack-willpower-theyre-fat-because-theyre-broke

Me? I’m doing good old Hypnosis. Paul McKenna for “teh win”…

That NYT article is long, but gives a solid foundation for good nutrition. It’s well worth the half hour or so spent reading it. It was great for me to finally see something in the mainstream that expresses where my head is at about nutrition much more eloquantly than i ever could.