Originally Posted by raceboy

My experience is that I am more successful dieting if I commit to a fixed calorie target each day. I figure my maintenance calorie level is about 2000/day for my physique. I shoot for 1500 or a little less when I am dieting so I get that steady 1-2 pound weight loss that most experts seem to recommend. Not a crash diet. This is sustainable for me and I am pretty diligent with looking at calorie counts wherever I can on labels, menus, etc.

The discipline of the hard number makes it harder for me too lie to myself that a little extra something-something is ok. If you are like me, you will get a sense pretty soon of what you can/should eat vs. lying to yourself and cheating.