Not enough. I live alone...and you know I follow your recipes and try them on occasion...but I'm posting this as a sort of self-discipline to get back down to the weight I had for most of my life in the 130's...

@Robecology ok... No info provided... I can only suggest cardio... Walking, jogging, running... For at least 15 minutes a day... Or do jumping jacks... These are great for losing weight quickly..

OK....I've been scared to do "Splenda" because of mixed reviews on "Sucralose". Also coffee creamer...milk? half and half? none? Specific recommendations, please.

I found this;

The most misunderstood fact about sucralose is that it is nothing like sugar even though the marketing implies that it is. Sucralose was actually discovered while trying to create a new insecticide. It may have started out as sugar, but the final product is anything but sugar. According to the book Sweet Deception, sucralose is made when sugar is treated with trityl chloride, acetic anhydride, hydrogen chlorine, thionyl chloride, and methanol in the presence of dimethylformamide, 4-methylmorpholine, toluene, methyl isobutyl ketone, acetic acid, benzyltriethlyammonium chloride, and sodium methoxide, making it unlike anything found in nature. If you read the fine print on the Splenda web site, it states that "although sucralose has a structure like sugar and a sugar-like taste, it is not natural."

The name sucralose is misleading. The suffix -ose is used to name sugars, not additives. Sucralose sounds very close to sucrose, table sugar, and can be confusing for consumers. A more accurate name for the structure of sucralose was proposed. The name would have been trichlorogalactosucrose, but the FDA did not believe that it was necessary to use this so sucralose was allowed.

The presence of chlorine is thought to be the most dangerous component of sucralose. Chlorine is considered a carcinogen and has been used in poisonous gas, disinfectants, pesticides, and plastics. The digestion and absorption of sucralose is not clear due to a lack of long-term studies on humans. The majority of studies were done on animals for short lengths of time.

The alleged symptoms associated with sucralose are gastrointestinal problems (bloating, gas, diarrhea, nausea), skin irritations (rash, hives, redness, itching, swelling), wheezing, cough, runny nose, chest pains, palpitations, anxiety, anger, moods swings, depression, and itchy eyes. The only way to be sure of the safety of sucralose is to have long-term studies on humans done.

Splenda is a product that contains the artificial sweetener sucralose, but that is not all that it contains. Sucralose does have calories, but because it is 600 times sweeter than sugar, very small amounts are needed to achieve the desired sweetness so you most likely won't consume enough to get any calories.

The other two ingredients in Splenda are dextrose and maltodextrin, which are used to increase bulk and are carbohydrates that do have calories. One cup of Splenda contains 96 calories and 32 grams of carbohydrates, which is often unnoticed due to the label claiming that it's a no calorie sweetener.

Because sugar is found in so many products and can be used in cooking, it can be possible to consume 1 cup or more each day. For people with diabetes, this is a significant amount of carbohydrates, and for people who are watching their weight, this can be a problem. Consuming an additional 100 calories a day can result in a weight gain of 10 lbs. per year!

@Robecology Why use Splenda at all? It is not something that we have in the UK. If you want to sweeten things at all, why not use a small amount of ordinary sugar? It's better to cultivate a taste for unsweetened food - you soon get used to it, and then you really don't like sweet stuff. And why use artificial products in your coffee? Skimmed milk is very low in calories if you don't like black coffee. If you count your calories and do occasional fast days you will have good control over your intake without consuming lots of artificial rubbish.

@CeliaVL Just what a close friend suggests...so I'm with that....thanks!

@Robecology If you think it might help, why not make alist of every single thing you eat during a normal day - meals, snacks, drinks, everything - and we will look at it and advise how you might be able to improve it from the point of view of weight loss.

@Robecology @Robecology If you are like me, cutting out sweet flavored things may be more difficult than losing weight. Not suggesting this is exclusive to the US, but Americans tend to be "spoiled".(in more ways than one) From infancy, many of us are treated, bribed and soothed with "sweets". Our predilection for sugary (real or artificial) foods, snacks and beverages is rooted in years of consuming sweets before we are old enough to realize we should say NO. Changing such ingrained habit can be a daunting task.
While removing most sugar and sweetener from our diets would likely be beneficial, in the event that doesn't pan out, here is am interesting perspective on low-calorie sweeteners.
[foodinsight.org]