Where do you lose the weight?

Not go be vulgar, but have you ever noticed that when you lose weight it's always were you don't want to first? I lose 24 lbs and I swear at least 5 of it came straight off my breasts. LOL!! My bras are getting looser already. Why can't it come off my thighs and go ONTO my breasts?! Now that would be worth dieting for!! (Ah, at least I amuse myself.)

My sister-in-law just completed the fibre cleanse from USANA, we both lost 5 lbs in 5 days (and no, it's not just water-loss, it's definately fat + garbage from you bowels - I'm sure of it!). We're trying to compare calorie counting and Weight Watchers. I can't really understand how they've figured out their points system. Some things I just really wouldn't eat because they are too high in calories have lower points than I would have expected. The company isn't exactly forthcoming with HOW they decide how many points something has, but it's generally pretty obvious. I think WW is trying to make calorie counting easier - but they're also not really teaching you how to figure out what to eat in the real world.

My dietitian is teaching me not only to read caloric content (which is a great start), but next meeting is how to dicypher the remaining information on the label too.

In Canada every packaged item must have a standardized nutitional label on it (sample to the side) and it makes understanding your food much easier. However, Weight Watchers assigns the points and you follow their materials to determine your intake. If I'm going to go to all this trouble to learn a system I'd rather learn one I don't have to pay someone else for and that will work in the real world for the rest of my life.

No offence to my dearly-loved sister-in-law, but I'm sticking with the calorie counting. I use Canada's Food Guide (mostly) and aim for 1500 calories a day. So far, so good. And as you go along you kinda develop an internal catalogue of your favorite items and their calories so you don't have to look up everything. i.e. One grande soy sugar-free cinnamon dolce latte at Starbucks is 150 calories. Yippee! It fits into my breakfast of 450 calories really nicely.

Currently my dietitian has me doing 3 meals, 1 snack - 450 cal, 450 cal, 150 cal, 450 cal = 1500 calories per day. It's do-able. I worry that she's going to cut me back further once I lose some weight, but I'll jump that hurdle when I get there. What I'm more concerned about is that I'm starting to believe that maybe THIS is the answer (counting calories) instead of surgery. Now many would say this is a good thing, but I do not. I'm concerned that I will have to strictly watch every calorie of everything I ever eat for the rest of my life -- which I'm not convinced I could do. There is no built-in mechanism for change, just ardant self-imposed restriction and will-power. Which I think would eventually fail me.

Some say it becomes 'second nature' to calorie count and eventually you won't have to write it all down... but I'm not so sure. Anyone have any large success stories from calorie counting and kept it off? I'd love to hear your comments and feedback!