Because of our toxic food environment, losing weight requires a cogent plan, a series of actionable events.

Picking your game plan for weight loss entails deciding which diets and exercise programs are best for you as an individual. Focus on a diet that's good for the long run. Pick out a plan you can stick to, that fits your personal style and preferences, and then follow it consistently. Then you can win the diet game and keep on winning!

Today, many observers have noted that the sport of creating weight-loss programs runs rampant.

Frequently, a pushy announcer appears on early morning TV promoting a new, improved slant on losing weight. Then, even before the next commercial break, at least five other nutritionists begin promoting variations on the new dietary theme.

But the overweight situation in the US today is truly reaching a desperate state, and public medical officials believe that we face a rapidly developing crisis inextricably linked to America's growing weight problem.

So the most important measure for improving your health is to pick a dependable weight-loss plan and stick to it until you reach a healthy goal weight.

Then, you'll need to modify your diet so you can stay at that healthy weight for the rest of your life.

The most popular lose-weight variations can be generally classified as:
• Carbohydrate counting
• Calorie counting
Which diet is right for you? You make the call.

Counting Carbohydrates
Seems like counting carbs to control weight has become a national pastime. Experts estimate that up to two out of three Americans are now counting carbs.

While some critics feel the carb obsession is just a new hot trend, others point to it as a health and weight control revolution. And carb counters testify to its effectiveness. Many point to their significant long-term success at taking weight off, and to feeling more energetic and healthier than they have felt in many years.

As a result of these low-carb developments, food makers, supermarkets and restaurants have hurried to make enough low-carb products available to fulfill consumers' dieting desires.

In the meantime, food labels everywhere now loudly proclaim the absence of carbs, and wary consumers are poring over package labels to make sure that goods they contain are low in sugars and starch.

Simultaneously, in the search to hold down their carbohydrate consumption, folks concerned about their health are cutting way back on starchy breads, carb-filled potatoes, spaghetti, rice, soft drinks and many different types of fruit.

To initially launch a low-carb diet, or keep on course for your long-term weight maintenance, keeping careful count of carbs is crucial for reaching and staying at your goal weight.

Weight-Loss Process
In this weight-loss process, you have to be sure of, and keep daily track of, your carbs. After calculating your daily carbohydrate needs, it's a relatively simple manner to stay within your predetermined carb boundaries and keep on shedding pounds.

That's a big reason why counting carbs has been such remarkably successful game plan for so many dieters: Simply counting carbs, these dieters have found, keeps them right on track for taking off pounds and getting down to their desired weight.

A side benefit of losing these pounds is a sense of renewed energy, health and vitality when carbs are limited in this fashion. (Of course, taking up a consistent exercise program at the same time doesn't hurt, either.)

Tooling Up
A factor that feeds into the popularity of carb counting are the tools available to help dieters stay on the tried-and-true path of carbohydrate limitation. Yes, many folks do check food labels and add up their daily carbohydrate intake. But many have found that so-called carb counters make keeping track of carbs very simple.

These counting devices are also handy for revealing the hidden carbs in foods like beans, which may have 50 grams of carbs in a cup; dried fruit, which has 50 grams in half a cup; and some forms of squash, which contain practically 11 grams of carb in half of a cup.

For many people the thought of independently keeping track of these carbohydrates is daunting. Luckily, the modern-day carb counter doesn't have to do it all by herself. Quite a few easy-to-use calculators can be had to assist in the counting, usable even for those unable to count on their fingers and toes. With the use of these tools, you can very accurately add up your daily carbohydrate totals and ensure that you are locking in your best low-carb dieting results.

For instance, a tool called KetoCounter, located at www.ketocounter.com, totals up carb counts and contains a myriad of nutrition information on thousands of different foods.

At this website, carb counters can roam through a wealth of food categories, feed in their serving sizes and have KetoCounter calculate their carb counts. Even if you are math phobic, KetoCounter makes sure you come up with the right total. To keep your low-carbohydrate diet on track nutritionally, tools like KetoCounter help you make sure that your meals don't dip too low in certain nutrients. (If they do, you can make up the difference with the right supplements.)

Accurate Counting
The utility of KetoCounter is its ability to help dieters perform more accurate dietary analyses than they can do on their own.
The advantages of counting carbs in this way: Careful daily carb counts ensures weight loss. Analyzing your nutritional intakes allows you to figure out what kind of dietary supplements you may need. Your digestion may also be improved by getting the right nutrients in this way.

Another advantage to this type of carb counting is the extra help dieters receive to make sure they don't get hung up in the weight-loss doldrums. By carefully adding supplements, lags in weight loss can usually be overcome.

Most importantly, proper supplementation enables you to stay healthy even as you lose weight: you don't have to sacrifice your health for a low-carbohydrate diet. KetoCounter can serve as a warning flag, alerting dieters when their nutritional intake is simply not adequate.

It is easy to calculate carbohydrates for packaged foods, once you know how to properly read a nutrition label. With the aid of a nutrition calculator like KetoCounter, tracking carbs is easier than ever.

Proof is in the Loss
Research is starting to pile up that proves counting carbs and eating more protein is one of the most effective way to maintain a healthy weight. When researchers in Germany, for example, put lab animals on a variety of diets, they found that those eating more protein had more antioxidants in their bodies. That kind of extra help against free radical buildup produces a potentially stronger resistance to life-threatening diseases (Journal of Nutrition 2000; 130:2889).

Meanwhile, when scientists at Duke University put 50 volunteers on a low-carbohydrate, high-protein diet, the researchers found that four out of five of them stayed on the diet for six months and lost an average of 20 pounds each. None of these dieters felt deprived as they lost weight.

In the Duke research, people ate as much meat and eggs as they wanted plus a couple of cups of salad and a cup of low-carb vegetables like broccoli every day, and they still lost weight.

Soft Drinks
Counting carbohydrates helps health because it limits consumption of simple sugars. How dangerous to our health are simple sugars? Well, according to experts, the fact that we are drinking vastly more soft drinks and fruit juices than we used to is a major contributor to our obesity epidemic and our diabetic dilemmas.

" Over the past several years, a number of studies have emerged that indicated how soft drink and fruit drink intake are adversely linked with adolescent and adult weight gain in the United States and Europe," notes Dr. Barry Popkin, PhD, professor of nutrition at the University of North Carolina.

In the decades since 1977, Dr. Popkin's research shows that sugary drinks alone have added 66 calories a day from sugar to the average American's diet. During that time period, American citizens, on average, increased their daily intake of sugar calories by 83 calories.

" When the results of this study are coupled with earlier studies, we can clearly see the pronounced shift in the [US and the] world's diet toward increased consumption of caloric sweeteners and away from higher-fiber foods," the researchers note. "Thus, we are increasingly consuming foods that provide energy but few other nutrients."

Counting Calories
A calorie-counting program is appealing to many people because of its simplicity: it limits food (calories) but doesn't require you to pay that much attention to what kinds of foods you consume.

As part of this effort, most experts recommend strict portion control. Don't serve yourself overly large amounts of food, and limit the amount of food you have available in your house. Be especially vigilant when eating out; restaurants tend to fill plates with way too much food.

Eating Habits
Limiting portions is crucial because people tend to eat the food put before them. For instance, when Penn State scientists served sandwiches of various sizes to 75 people once a week for a month, they offered sandwiches that were six, eight, ten or twelve inches long each time. The people in the study could eat as much or as little as they desired.

The results weren't surprising. While not all the food was eaten, being served larger portions led to more consumption (Journal of the American Dietetic Association March 2004). The researchers conclude that having less on the plate in front of you means you eat less and, therefore, should weigh less.

Simple Concept
Counting calories, while relatively simple in concept, may not be for everyone. This approach to weight loss entails knowing and calculating how many calories are in the food you eat and then tracking your daily totals. This effort can be time consuming: a pound of body fat equals about 3,500 calories, so if you cut back your food intake by 100 calories a day, it will take you more than a month to lose a pound. To maintain a weekly weight loss of about one pound, you need to eliminate 500 calories a day.

Make Your Calories Count
Cutting down on your calorie intake requires that you get the biggest nutritional bang for your buck from the calories that are left. That means eating complex carbohydrates, such as vegetables and whole grains. These foods contain an impressive array of vitamins, minerals and phytonutrients usually missing from more refined foods.

Another advantage of complex carbs on a calorie-counting diet lies in their high fiber content. Fiber is considered a big help to dieters since it makes you feel full but, because it is not absorbed by the body, cannot be a source of calories used to create new body fat. Fiber also helps keep your intestines in peak condition, and helps hold your cholesterol down, to boot.

How do you make room for complex carbohydrates when you cut calories? One of the best ways is to avoid empty sugar calories.
According to Sandra Woodruff, RD, author of The Best Kept Secrets of Healthy Cooking (Avery), "[S]ugary foods are typically eaten in place of nutritious foods....sugary foods are usually loaded with calories, making them a real menace if you're watching your weight."

Sugar Control
If you are cutting calories and worried about the sugar in your meals and in your blood, researchers who have studied people with diabetes have noted 12 good eating habits to keep sugar under control and three bad habits you should avoid.

The habits to embrace, says Carla Miller, PhD, Penn State nutrition professor, include: Strictly curtail your consumption of high-sugar foods; limit all your food portion sizes; cut way back on desserts; ease off the fatty foods; eat complex carbs for breakfast.
Dr. Miller says you should eat three meals a day (don't skip!) and take a shopping list to the health food store. And while you can eat two vegetables with dinner, limit your starchy carbs, like bread, pasta, rice, crackers or potatoes.

When you go out to eat, don't eat at buffets, which encourage overconsumption of all foods, and stay away from fast food joints and large chain restaurants. The choices there often contain way too much sugar.

Burning More
To burn more calories as you diet, increasing the amount of time you spend exercising is crucial. Some experts recommend wearing a pedometer (which counts your steps) and trying to take at least 10,000 steps a day. That kind of activity can burn up to 3,000 calories a week.

This kind of dieting can help control weight, although whether it is effective over a long period of time is open to question. Counting calories all the time can become boring and oppressive after awhile.

Living Longer
However, an advantage to calorie cutting is the possibility that limiting your food this way may help you live longer.
An impressive amount of research in laboratories has shown that when lab animals eat less (but still receive adequate nutrition in terms of vitamins and minerals) their life expectancy increases.

However, no one has ever shown that eating less extends lifespan among humans. Nevertheless, investigations with mice do show that taking in fewer calories-about a third less food than normal-does extend life significantly, at least if you are a mouse. Can the same technique work for you?

Well, in larger animals, researchers have found that cutting back on food seems to lower so-called biomarkers of aging: substances in the blood that show the aging-related breakdown of organs (American Journal of Physiology 1994; 266: E540-7).

Studies show that eating a tiny amount of food (while taking supplements to fill in your missing nutrients) can possibly keep your nervous system from deteriorating, preserve the function of your reproductive organs and keep hormones at younger levels. In laboratory tests, food restriction helps the immune system; in addition, it seems to postpone the development of some cancers (Journals of Gerontology: Biology Sciences and Medical Sciences 1999; 54:B89-96).

Vegetarian Dieting
Whether or not you count carbohydrates or calories, eating a vegetarian diet can help you keep off the pounds. Vegetarian diets, of course, are different things to different people. For some, it's a moral choice not to consume animal products. For others, it's a health decision to lower their risk of cancer and heart disease while staying slender.

Sticking to vegetarian foods can help you lose weight, since it can be an effective way to cut calories without having to count them.
Unfortunately, merely cutting out animal products from your diet-if you're a typical American-may leave you deprived of nutrients like iron and protein. The healthiest way to eat as a vegetarian and still eat a nutritious diet is to utilize recipes and dishes from other cultures in which people have traditionally dined on vegetarian foods.

Traditional Meals
As Madhur Jaffrey points out in World Vegetarian (Clarkson Potter), "Vegetarian traditions have existed in China and India for thousands of years, and like the dietary rules and restrictions of Islam and Judaism, have been prompted by the strong religious beliefs of large numbers of people. There is, thus, a deep core to them that explains their endurance. The great variety in eastern vegetarian dishes may be explained by their slow evolution as they were tested and added to over time."

Today, about 3% of Americans are vegetarians. In general, those 3% weigh less than the average American. " Vegetarians have been reported to have healthier body weight than non-vegetarians, as well as lower rates of death from heart disease, lower blood cholesterol levels and lower rates of high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes and prostate and colon cancer," says Cynthia Sass, RD, a spokesperson for the American Dietetic Association.

" Planning a healthy vegetarian diet doesn't need to be complicated, but steps should be taken to ensure the diet is nutrient-dense," she notes. "Just as with a meat-based diet, the key to ensuring the body meets all its nutritional needs is to choose a wide variety of foods."

Pick a Plan, Any Plan
No matter which diet plan you pick, if you lose weight and exercise, you are sure to improve your health.
Certainly, the evidence is clear about which eating plan not to choose: Research shows that the typical fat-filled fast-food meal produces unfortunate effects on both your weight and body.

A study at the State University of New York at Buffalo found that eating a breakfast of Egg McMuffin and hash browns releases a flood of oxidants (free radicals) that may damage blood vessels (American Journal of Clinical Nutrition April 2004).

" Eating that 900-calorie, high-fat meal temporarily floods the blood stream with inflammatory components, overwhelming the body's natural inflammation-fighting mechanisms," warns Ahmad Aljada, PhD, research assistant professor in the Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism, at Buffalo's School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences.

So stay away from those fast-food binges and start walking every day. Your body, freed from the ravages of free radicals, may shrink radically, but your good health will have every opportunity to expand.

Reasons to Diet
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), approximately 130 million Americans, or 64% of the population, are overweight or obese. Linked to this weight gain is an epidemic over the past ten years of type 2 diabetes. Your chances of this type of diabetes is greatly increased when you gain weight and you don't exercise.

The CDC figures that more than 18 million people in the US now suffer from diabetes, and more than nine of ten of them have type 2. Frighteningly, the proportion of adults with diabetes jumped 65% from 1990 to 2001.

" Statistically, adults in the US have gained 2 billion pounds over the past decade, which is an average of one pound per year per person. This is true for both men and women," says C. Ronald Kahn, MD, president and director of the Joslin Diabetes Center.
" For every one-pound increase in [your] weight, [you have] a 3% to 4% increase in [your chances] of type 2 diabetes. [That translates into]...about 800,000 new cases. We urge individual Americans to take steps to reduce their own risk of diabetes, but I also believe prevention must be a priority for the healthcare industry, the food industry and the government."

Picking a Diet
The most important weight-loss question for every overweight American, according to Dr. Kahn, is not whether a low-fat diet or a vegetarian diet works better or worse than low-carbohydrate diets, but the simple fact that you have to do something, go on a diet and exercise, to lose pounds and control your weight. " It boils down to how much we eat and how active we are," he warns.

Weighty Factors
Despite what many people believe, a large body of research shows that a majority of the factors that determine how much you weigh are in your control, says Dr. Kahn.

" While research performed at Joslin and elsewhere has shown that genetics and metabolic factors both play key roles in body weight, we know that Americans' expanding waistlines can be tightened with at least two simple changes-portion control and increased physical activity," he says.

" No matter what diet regimen you advocate, a calorie is a calorie," Dr. Kahn adds. "The overall caloric intake in the US is simply too high. Americans are eating too much. If you regularly eat more calories than you burn, you will become overweight."

Lose a Little
Research into how your weight affects your health demonstrates that small losses in weight can have big benefits on your well-being.
Losing a moderate amount of weight-on the order of a 10-pound reduction-and moderate exercise, such as walking a mere 30 minutes a day, can drop your risk of developing type 2 diabetes by almost 60%.

" However," Dr. Kahn warns, "I believe we can accelerate our efforts to decrease obesity and type 2 diabetes if the government, the food industry and the health care industry partner for prevention."

Restaurant Visits
No matter what diet you are on, be careful about what you order in restaurants. " More restaurants," says Dr. Kahn, "both fast food and fancy food, should re-examine their offerings as McDonald's did...when it an-nounced plans to eliminate its supersized offerings. The food industry needs to boost its efforts to clearly label nutrition facts and cut marketing of unhealthy, high-calorie snacks to kids.

" Too often are consumers fooled by foods that look healthy but are excessively calorically dense, like mixtures of yogurt and fruit whips, or by misleading caloric information, like reporting calories on a giant cookie snack assuming the portion eaten will be only one quarter of the cookie. " And the health care and health insurance industries must not only increase study of the fundamental mechanisms of obesity and diabetes, but also focus on public education."

Kid Weight
Meanwhile, kids need to lose weight, too. Schockingly, rates of obesity among this nation's children have tripled since the 1970s. The CDC estimates that nearly one in six American children and adolescents-about nine million in total-are either overweight or obese.

" This is truly a time bomb for further fueling the epidemic of type 2 diabetes. And we must remember that people with diabetes are at risk for serious long-term complications, including heart disease, blindness, kidney disease and amputations," Dr. Kahn warns.
The consensus among the experts has rarely been so clear-cut and noncontroversial: The time to start a weight loss and exercise program is today. The future of your health, your good looks and, yes, the nation's health depends on your food choices.