I've found that replacing soda with water makes a huge difference. Basically, don't buy soda for at home and replace it with bottled water (in the biggest packs you find) and then it effectively takes like 90% of the sugar out of your diet. I tend now to drink like 3 cans of coke a week and sometimes more if I go out to eat.
Yes, I barely touch the stuff any more. I used to see it as a beverage. Now I see it as a pile of sugar. I probably drink one every few months or so now. I think it would be difficult for me to maintain my weight if I even just added one can of soda per day. I am sure over time my weight would creep up.
This should be one of those things that is really obvious. People are always looking for the magic pill, or that certain thing to add to their diet to lose weight, but the simple truth is that the only way to lose weight is to expend more calories than you take in...
I think most people tend to overestimate how much they burn via exercise which makes it seem like it's ok to eat more or the same and expect that they will lose weight.
This is absolutely true. (Calories in)-(calories out)= net calories. If you want to lose weight, the final product should be negative, if you want to gain weight, it should be positive. If you want to lose or gain more quickly, the number should be MORE negative or MORE positive. Pretty simple. In addition to your point that people always want to add a certain thing to their diet, equally so do they want a magic "bad guy" to take out of their diet. Fats, Carbs, HFCS, GMO's, etc. All have been blamed, at one time or another, for our overweight population, and all have been acquitted as the sole demon of our diets. It's overly-simplistic thinking, and I can't believe that we can't just teach kids the equation you noted in a school health class. Because it's not that difficult to grasp.
Totally true, and expected when you think about it. Personally I found the hardest part was trying to implement changes all at once. A lot of people (myself included) try to alter everything at once, get rid of the crappy junk food and go hard on the cleaner stuff. However, it's all too easy to bounce back into bad habits. I found making small changes every week or so, much easier to maintain. So food remains the same, but replacing soda with water. The next week or two, eliminate something else that's not so great for you, and continue on until you've got a lovely foundation of healthy food you know you enjoy, and the things you've eliminated have gone out the window in such a slow and methodical fashion you don't realize until three months down that "I haven't had a coke".
My tip, which I recently gave to someone on Reddit, is to develop a "snobby taste". If you can only bring yourself to eat high end treats: whether that's Godiva chocolate or a truly fine wine, you can reach the stage where junkier stuff repels you. I can't eat cheap chocolate, even though I'm a chocaholic. (I can eat mid-range stuff like Lindt, but even that gets kind of sickly). Not only is the higher end stuff richer and more sating: you can't, for example, drink a pint of fine, strong espresso in the same way you could slosh down a pint of weak, sugary, creamy, flavoured coffee, but it also costs a tonne more. Even if you can afford it, you tend to be more restrained (because dropping $100 on gourmet treats really makes you aware of what you're spending/eating). Alongside this you're trying finer, better food with your regular eating. Cleaner food. Cooking from scratch more. Developing a taste for fresh food that makes you reject the canned stuff or processed stuff as kind of icky and fetid.
Long term lifestyle changes are the best way to effect changes and make them stick. I can't remember the last time I had pop with a meal, or had a coffee with more than 2 sugars/serving. But, I want to lose weight, and while I eat really healthy, I can't seem to run at a comfortable calorie deficit for any length of time. I've considered doing a weekly fast day, but I seem to have a hard time getting stuff done when my blood sugar gets low and I get cranky. mk, I know that you're a big fan of the occasional fast for various reasons, what are your thoughts?