What to Count?

Different books/studies/doctors/nutritionists/etc. have their own theories on what to count in order to lose weight. Are you on Weight Watchers? If so, then you are counting your points, which gives foods a certain number of "points" based on their corresponding amount of fiber, calories, and fat. Are you on Atkins and counting your carbohydrates? What about your calorie count? And sugar intake? There are many different components to nutrition, and it's hard to know what it takes to drop that dress size, cinch that waistline, or lose that weight. I just bought the New York Times Bestseller, "Ultra-Metabolism." When I saw the eye-catching bright orange hardback, I was intrigued to read the inside cover. The clincher for me to purchase it was the line, "Food contains information and instructions for our bodies-eat the right foods and send instructions of weight loss and health; eat the wrong foods and send messages of weight gain and disease." One of the chapters that I am looking forward to reading is titled "not all calories are created equal," raising the question in my mind that if you eat less and exercise more, will you truly lose weight?

So, what should we be counting anyway? Carbs, sugar, points? I'm certain that different diets work for different people. Many of my friends have been successful with the Weight Watchers point system. I also know people that have been successful with Atkins and South Beach. The only hindrance from those diets is that once they got off they gained all the weight back.

Discussion point---What do you count to lose weight/inches? What diets have worked for you?