The artificial sweetener thread (the second one!) was getting a little off topic and I wanted to take something from it and start a new thread... because I find it so interesting!!

Wagon Sr. and I are both total ice cream addicts and used to eat it every single night in some form. Six years ago when I went on Weight Watchers I was cutting things from my diet left and right, and eventually I stopped needing a dessert after dinner (and a snack before dinner), so we decided to cut out ice cream from our diet. I was shocked at the immediate result-- we both lost 5 lbs immediately! I was already losing weight gradually (but steadily) with the WW plan (I was having 1/2 cup of light ice cream every night) but the first week we cut out ice cream all together, the difference was huge.

Also, when I had gestational diabetes, I didn't totally cut carbs and sugar from my diet, but I reduced them dramatically and concentrated on proteins and veggies. While I didn't lose weight, there were several weeks when I didn't gain a pound-- and I was in my third trimester. My weight gain with that pregnancy was much less than my first (35 lbs vs 45 lbs), and I dropped the weight so much more quickly afterwards (4 months postpartum I'm below pre-pregnancy weight, while the first pregnancy it took over a year and starting WW again to finally shed those last 5 lbs).

Oh, while having GD I also pretty much stopped eating fruit too. It was weird having to teach myself that fruit was bad for me (at the time)!!