I'm 21 and I ran track, played volleyball, and did a lot of aerobics in high school, I started having medical issues my sophomore year which was roughly 6 years ago. I was still running track, but starting having breathing issues and decided it was best to quit. I kept up with v-ball and my eating never changed. I ate hot cheetos and yogurt everyday...lol. 1-2 times a week I would have a slice of pizza, but that was it. I went through a lot medically, but the biggest change was my weight. I noticed that the pounds started adding, but I didn't think much about it. I weighed the same about from 7th grade-sophomore year 125 when I got to 130 I just assumed it was muscle then it hoped to 145 and it wouldn't stop. I graduated around the weight of 165 and my senior pics were not as I had hoped. My highest weight was 2 years ago at 198 right before I left for college, I came back weighing 178 due to depression I lost 20 lbs. I had my kidney removed and lost another 10, but gained it back 2 months later. I have tried everything. Exercising, eating smaller portions, I cut out soda and sugar for 4 months to see if things would change and no they didn't. I am stuck between 178 and 185....I don't want to be 200lbs!! PLEASE HELP ME!! Any ideas would be great! I'm to the point to where I just don't want to ______. I may not look that large and some of you may say wow that's nothing compared to me, but I'm only 5' 3" my doctor said if I could get back down to at least 130 I wouldn't have these medical issues! Thank you so much for your help!

In my opinion, you can't deal with this problem by taking a piecemeal approach. All the things you mentioned, like smaller portions and cutting out sugar, etc., were good moves but you obviously need to do more. You need to completely overhaul your diet from top to bottom.

Here are a few ideas: 1) eliminate all baked goods. This includes items like pizza and most breads on the market. The exception might be any bread made without flour. But even then, bread should be limited to about one slice per day.

2) Eliminate ALL processed foods: This includes baked goods above but goes way beyond that. Anything that's processed will work against you. There's no way of getting around it. This includes things like fruit juice and commercial dressings. Olive oil and vinegar in small measured amounts is the exception.

3) A high protein diet is counterproductive. Figure out what your protein requirement is and stick to it. For your height of 5' 3" you should have about a 3oz. portion of white meat chicken or other low fat meat per meal. Fish could be 4 to 6 oz..There are little dietetic scales for this purpose that weigh foods up to 16 ounces. And they only cost a couple of dollars.

4) I believe fat should be measured too. It should be good fat like olive oil and/or nuts. This is important to maintain good health. You need some fat but not too much. If you add olive oil to a soup (not canned soup) or salad it should be about one or two teaspoons. For nuts you need to look at the ingredient label on the package. Certain nuts can be very high in fat so you might want to avoid those. You can compare the fat content when you're shopping.

5) Eat plenty of fresh vegetables ( but avoid white potatoes), natural whole grains within limits (not in baked goods), fresh fruit (3 to 4 half cup servings per day), legumes, nuts and seeds.

Note: Vegetables (other than white potatoes) are the key. You can't say that you don't like vegetables and expect to be sucessful. If meat and fat are both measured in small amounts, what's left? A wide variety of different colored vegetables are the only items left that can be eaten in unlimited amounts.

Whoa, thank you so much! That is what my friends brother just got done telling me (he lost 60 lbs in 3 months). Seems like it's well worth the work :-)