Diet 101

Compiled for wata because
1. I think you are getting a little panicky over your diet
2. This is too long to go in the comment section.

The golden rule of dieting : Input less than Output

Simply put, this means the total calories consumed must be less than total calories expended. If we were holding a set of scales, input would go on one side of the pan while output goes into the other. We could, of course, eat nothing but carrot sticks and not exercise or we could consume 20 pieces of fried chicken and then spend the rest of our 24 hours cycling profusely on the stationary bike to lose weight. They would both work but we probably won't last too long on either plan nor would we look too good at the end of it. Finding the perfect balance is the key to it all.

Input
The amount and type of food we eat determines how much input we put into the above equation. 50g of various types of food does not equate to the same amount of input. This is like filling up a box with sand compared to another identical box filled with cotton wool. Same volume but different weight. As a rough guide (looking at the same volume), foodstuffs like butter, cream, cheese and oil are in the same category as gold ie. extremely heavy on the scales. Sugary food, meat and carbohydrates (think potatoes) are on the same scale as water while steamed plain vegetables and fruits are equivalent to cotton wool. This is the reason why a small salad drenched in dressing is probably not going to make too much difference from 3 pieces of kfc. Likewise a mug of black coffee sweetened with copious amounts of sugar compared to iced coffee with whipped cream on top. Here's some other examples:

Salad + creamy dressing = gold
Salad + vinaigrette dressing = water
Salad with no dressing or plain steamed vegetables = cotton wool

Baked potato + whipped cream and bacon bits = gold
Baked potato + creamed corn = water
Baked potato + fresh corn kernals/salt n pepper for taste = cotton wool

Hence, one could potentially stuffed oneself with food and still lose weight or eat salads thinking you are going to lose weight and find that you end up gaining instead of losing.
Here's some other interesting facts.

1. If you are going to eat bread, pick whole grain instead of wholemeal bread or white loaf . Not only are whole grain more nutritious, they are also more filling, has more flavour and has less calories. Skip the cheese spread or jam. If you find plain bread too dull, eat them with fruits or dizzle a little honey on top.

2. The more opaque the liquid, the more calories it contain. Think beef and vegetable clear broth vs cream of mushroom soup or vinaigrette dressing vs thousand island dressing. To consume even less oil, drop a few cubes of ice on top of your soup and scoop them out before they melt together with the congealed fat sticking to it.

3. Anything sweet probably contains more calories than if its not. Watermelon has more calories than grapefruit or an apple. Sweet corn has more calories than celery or carrot. Having said that though, its still better to eat fruits and vegetables rather than meat or starchy or sugary stuff. Just remember to lay off the butter and cream when eating vegetables. If these are too dull, add flavour with herbs, black pepper and salt rather than butter or sauces.

4. Decreasing the total amount of food too drastically is not a good way to diet. Reason being you’ll always be feeling hungry and that makes you crave for more food to stem that hunger pang. Putting the body in a semi-starvation mode puts it in a standby mode. This means your metabolic rate slows down in order to conserve fuel which means the body in turns become less efficient at expending calories. The final result of this is that you might see some weight loss initially but that will soon stop and when you give up on your diet and go back to eating normally, your body puts on even more weight that what you initially lost. Another minus point of crash dieting is that your body does not get enough nutrients to maintain itself. This means the hair will not be as shiny, the skin will start to look dull and you will probably be in a bad mood or feeling very fatigued all the time

Output
Output is energy expended. Usually in the form of exercising and these are subdivided into muscle building exercising or cardio exercises. The best way to differentiate the two is to ask if the exercises you are doing sends your heart racing. If it does, then its cardio exercise.

Cardio exercises expend the most amount of calories in the same amount of time compared to muscle building exercises. However, the moment your heart rate slows down, so does the rate of fuel burning. Since we can’t be peddling furiously on the stationary bike or run non-stop on the treadmill for 24 hours, cardio is good when you want to maximize the total weight loss in the least amount of time or when you pigged out on the weekend and just want to expend all the extra calories. Some great forms of cardio exercising are running, swimming or biking.

Muscle building exercises is important if you are looking for successful long-term weight loss because when you are resting or just sitting at your chair surfing the web, muscles burn more calories than fats. Muscles give the body a prettier shape and makes you look better in clothing. The more muscles you have, the higher your average metabolic rate as well. While cardio builds muscles as well, that only happens after a long time. The best way to build muscles is to do weight training. Leg lifts, lunges, lifting of any type of weights and sit-ups all fall into the muscle building category. Exercises are to be performed until the muscle in question is slightly fatigued. Just remember to stretch after exercising so that the muscles won’t be too bulky.

God, that was a long post!
Anyway, hope the above helps and best of luck in your diet :P