I think you can fool your metabolism about not slowing down by drinking a lot of water. Not certain about that though. I'm in. I'm 5'10" and 220 lbs. I want to get down to 175lbs (if that's humanly possible).

I've tried just diet (does well) and I tried just exercise (doesn't seem to do as much). I think the trick is a combination of both. I lost like 30 lbs with the Atkins diet, even without a lot of exercise, but I just cant' buy that eating greasy sausage is okay but that you need to watch how much brocoli you're taking in. I think this time I'm going to try South Beach. It's carb-restrictive as well (no sugar, very litttle grains) but it also forces you to take your protein from very lean sources (like fish, tofu & legumes) and also allows more vegtables. Even fruit is restricted though. I'll let you know how I do. If get really cranky in the next couple of weeks, that's because you cannot drink at all for 3 weeks, then it's small doses of red wine (1 glass/day) after that.