Originally Posted by bbbean

This. I lost 160+ lbs, lowered blood sugar, cholesterol, BP, etc, and have kept it off for 3 years and holding. Far and away the most effective thing I did was to track everything. Whatever particular strategy you choose (low carbs, low fat, straight calories, whatever), tracking every single thing you eat with a good ap (I'm partial to My Fitness Pal, but there are others) will be educational and provide extra incentive to stick to your plan.

As others have pointed out, not only will tracking help you monitor your inputs, but you'll get a whole new appreciation for which foods actually fit your dietary needs versus the foods you thought fit your dietary needs.

One caveat - tracking is a little labor intensive at the start. Sometimes it takes a little work to find the log entries that most closely match what you're eating, and it takes practice to be accurate with portion size. But if you stick with it for a while, it becomes 2nd nature. When I started, it might take me 10-15 minutes to log a meal with lots of ingredients. Now I rarely spend more than 90 seconds logging a meal.

BB