What do you eat and what foods do you avoid when you're dieting?

I will eat about 1500 calories per day.I cut down on fats.Veggies,fruit and meat,not alot of high carb foods.A hour walk outside,20–30 min on treadmill if inside and 45 minute workout with free weights 6 days a week.Works like magic!
Good luck!:)

Lots of veggies. Cut out the fried food. Swap the nuts I snack on in the day for low-calorie rice-crackers. What I really need to do though, is get more exercise, but that can’t happen unless I can somehow make every day have 25 hours instead of 24. Or win the lottery so I don’t have to waste 12 hours out of 24 at work or travelling to and from it.

15 min. before breakfast I have a smoothy that reduces my appetite. It’s supposed to help your body burn fat and make you lose water weight. These are the ingredients —I eye ball everything: 1 cup water, a handful of each: cucumber and pineaple (or any fresh fruit available to you), a few parsley leaves, the juice of half a lemon/lime. I sometimes substitute the water and lemon for a cup of OJ. I NEVER EVER skip breakfast. A wholemeal toast with tuna or a boiled egg a tomato slice and lettuce gives you tons of energy. I try not to have the same breakfast every morning. Variety speeds up your metabolism. I always have nuts (8 almonds/handful of peanuts) , fat-free pop corn or an apple in between meals. For dinner I have a salad with grilled chicken. AVOID fried food, high carbs, sugar, carbonated drinks.

If I go past my 7lb allowance then I cut out little indulgences like sodas, fruit juices, fast food cheeseburgers and eating late at night. Other than that, I’ve pretty much eaten the same foods for over 40 years and still like them.

Breakfasts
Yogurt
Banana
Handful of nuts
Hot water or coffee
(alternate an egg in place of yogurt either over easy or in an omelet)

Lunches
Anything I want but half the quantity I think I want.

Dinners
Giant salad with spring mix, tomatoes, sliced boiled egg, shredded cheese, immitation crab meat, cooked piece of fish, chicken or beef thrown in and lemon juice and pepper for the dressing. With this I’ll let myself have a piece of frozen pizza, piece of toast, half a bagel or whatever else on the side.

I ate raw food for a whole week, just fruits and vegetables and nuts and seeds and fermented foods in different combos. It was the hardest thing I ever did, and was not enjoyable most of the time, but I felt fantastic by week’s end and lost about four pounds. Did NOT have the strength to keep up such a rigid diet though.

Caramel colored sodas will do a number on you, or any soda for that matter. Most processed white foods, I usually avoid all the time. White foods: white rice, potatoes or starches, and any processed foods, chips, even cheese; I try and avoid as hard as it is at times. I also stay away from fruit juices because they screw up the metabolism-whole fruits only and limit my consumption to apples, kiwis and oranges.
I eat mainly proteins-meat, nuts and legumes, and complex carbs and vegetables.
Only way I know to lose weight and keep it off, and I don’t suffer. Popcorn, chocolate and ice cream are my splurge foods, but maybe once a week or two.

It depends on what you’re eating now. If you can cut out things like refined sugar, soda, white bread, etc… and make smarter choices, you should lose some weight. I eat TONS of veggies and if I’m eating a heavy meal, I opt for something with a lot of protein, over say, a slice of pizza (or 3). I’ve cut alcohol out of my diet tremendously in the past 2 -3 weeks but I’m not seeing much of a difference.

If I’m hungry, I eat a banana and follow it by other fruit. I am on Weight Watchers though so it’s a little different – we’re allowed to eat endless fruit and veggies (not starchy ones). I’ve been eating a ton of hummus, Israelie (sp?) salad but greek style with whole grain pita chips (instead of regular pita chips).

Also, working out is tremendous. I try to walk as much as possible but it doesn’t seem to be doing much. I think I need to up my exercise.

Weight Watchers has been really wonderful for me, maybe you could look into it? The group support is fantastic and if you can find a friend to do it with you, it’s a lot of fun!

No white foods I’ve read. I cut out carbs. I do still eat fried foods but I use olive oil. I read an article at the doctor’s office about people losing more weight if they include calcium in their diet. iIt can be from supplements, caltrate my doctor recommends.

It is not what you eat it is what you keep. Eat, breath, move you can eat what you want and lose the weight you want. Diets are some snake oil companies and weight loss gurus use to bamboozle people out of billions a year.

This is not a diet per se, it is a way of eating and living. Initially you eliminate sugar and white carbs, when you reach your target weight, you start adding back in the white carbs, rice, pasta, etc. still no sugar though. When you see you are starting to pick up weight again you know you have gone a little to far. I can eat most anything I want except the sugar. Check out the website and buy the book. It works. The Food Tree.

Exercise is good for your fitness but to exercise enough to work off high cal high fat meals mean you must exercise more hours than there are in the day. Better to watch what you eat.

Don’t forget to pay attention to what you drink. Juices and sodas are major derailers of diets. Just drink water to eliminate the guess work there.

Also, to add to what @Cruiser said, I drink TONS of water but when I need to change it up, I make a pitcher of crystal light – I mix the lemonade with peach iced tea (half of each of the packets) and it’s delicious!

Some people think he is a nut-Tim Ferriss “4-Hour Body”, and I have to say this cavalier dude is someone with lots of valuable info. You can pick what you like from his recipes and exercises for successful weight loss and fat loss.

As it has been stated here, one of the key things to lose weight and eat healthy is to cut down on white bread. I found this Go grain fact sheet with great info.

I used Tim Ferriss’ ideas, like @Garebo said. I lost 30 pounds doing slow carb (loosely) in a fairly short amount of time. Basically what I ate was vegetables (no potatoes or sweet potatoes though), eggs, cottage cheese, goat milk yogurt/kefir, and beans (kidney, black, refried, garbanzo). Only dairy with low lactose content. Nothing white. That includes rice, and anything with wheat in it. No calorie counting either. Minimal exercise. Voila.

You also get a cheat day once a week when you can binge on anything you want.

I’m still trying to stick to it but I got sick about a month ago and it’s totally screwed up my body.