the apple/ sandwich thing is good example of why we over eat. we don't really notice 100 calories - so it easy to over eat by 100 calories.

that's one theory anyway

Whatever they put in celery makes me more hungry.

Because there's no nutritional value to celery; you're just burning up calories to eat it....

Seriously, has anyone every been stranded on a desert island with nothing but celery to eat - and lived to tell about it?

DH and I are doing Nutrisystem and it's about 1200 cal/day for me and 1450/day for him. You eat three meals a day plus a snack and a dessert and I don't feel hungry. I actually feel like I eat MORE than I used to, since it's a lot of veggies, salads, protein, and fruit. I have, like, yogurt, a diet muffin and a pear for breakfast; soup, salad and carrot sticks for lunch, chocolate skim milk and some fruit for a snack and an entree, salad, two vegetables and dessert for dinner.

I've lost 5 lbs in the last two weeks, which I know will slow down to a more respctable 1-2 lbs per week. Last time DH did this diet, he lost 50 lbs, so I know it works for somefolk.

sumi - I think FitDay gets bothersome that way because you often have to build out dishes ingrediant by ingrediant. But, if it is something you eat often, you can enter it as a custom food and then just reuse the info everytime. But it is heavy input on the front in. btw - packaged food is pretty easy to get nutrional info on, so if you eat like TJs pad thai, you just enter the info straight from the box/website.

Is a 1200 cal/day diet in a healthy range?

On WW if you're smaller than 150 lbs they recommend that if you're trying to lose weight. I lived on that for a long time. IME it is fine.

ETA: Consider that it is healthy to lose a pound or two a week. That is 3600 to 7000 extra calories burned over your intake. So if you are burning 1700 calories in a typical day, you have to eat only 1200 calories to lose a pound a week.

One of the problems with those kinds of plans for me is that they assume that you have a sweet tooth. In my mind, I'm wasting valuable calories on a so-so brownie when I really want more chicken.

Timelies all!

Aargh, calorie counting. I don't want to think about what my daily intake is now.(Especially yesterday when I ate most of a pint of Ben & Jerry's after a light dinner. I'm usually able to stop myself at one serving, but not last night.)

that post is...what's the word...it's like faux empowerment. Men are like this, but women are like this and that makes us look incompetant, but that's ok!

oh Brilliant Daisy Jane! My grumbling. Your words. there's a lot of backlash.... if you're twittering, I can point you to someone who is likely to counter.

When I was pregnant with Owen and had GD I was allowed 1800 calories a day. And not happy about it.

One of the problems with those kinds of plans for me is that they assume that you have a sweet tooth. In my mind, I'm wasting valuable calories on a so-so brownie when I really want more chicken.

Exactly.