Genuinely impressed with what people have achieved – and feel shamed. Like sparky above, I also do a fair bit of exercise, but continue to eat & drink whatever I want. Not such a good idea in your mid 30s….

I am abstaining from booze for January (with Mrs Drifting) and am planning to check my food intake at the same time. I have no idea what makes a good (or bad) diet, so appreciate any pointers. Reading Tons experience, I think I will try the idiet (although I suspect Ton is being very modest about the amount of willpower needed)

My target? To lose 30lb. Starting today.

Im going for it again. After a divorse this year back up to 250lbs and joined the MFP STW group. Ton can you mail me your tips please ? Target is 50lbs by SITS

I lost nearly 2.5 stone between May and November last year and have maintained fairly easily since then. Mainly through using myfitnesspal religiously and cutting out things like crisps (big weakness for me…) and taking healthy things (eg. a filling low calorie soup and a small pitta) for lunch rather than the default sandwich. No rocket science involved with me TBH but did ride my bike a lot more which obviously helped! Good luck to anyone else giving it a go, it can be done!

I’ve never been overweight but I wanted to lose a little of the extra blubber I’d put on recently so I just opted to try the fasting thing. I initially did 2 days a week at about 500 calories then ate as normal the remaining days. After doing this for two weeks I lost 7 pounds! It was too much so now I fast for one day a week and have about 400 calories on that day.

I’ve maintained a good weight since and find fasting for one day a week pretty easy. Combined with average training – cycling etc and a generally good diet I feel better than I ever have in my life.

I lost about 2 stone in 4 months (14 down to 12), without any real difficulty. I have a job where I’m quite active, so burning calories wasn’t a problem. I altered my diet and just kept an eye on how much I was eating, but didn’t bother with any calorie counting as such. I stopped eating the following:
Fast food
Fried food
Chips
Snacks, crisps, etc
Chocolate
Biscuits, cakes, puddings, etc.
Instead I have plenty of veg with my meals, and eat as much fruit as I want. If I fancy a snack I’ll some fruit or a low fat yogurt.
Your target is perfectly achievable as long as you set yourself a few basic rules and stick to them. Aim for steady weight loss over a period of time, rather than crash diet.