Forget gimmicks, pills, North Beach, etc. Apparently the key to losing weight is to reduce your calorie intake to a reasonable amount, without getting too low (above 1,200/day). This comes on the heels of a popular CNN story about a professor who lost 27 pounds in less than 3 months while consuming snack cakes for 2/3 of his lower-calorie diet.

This is crazy talk.

Next think you know, they’re going to tell us that the best way to stay out of debt is to not buy things we can’t afford.

All kidding aside, it’s interesting to me how basic this is, and yet how difficult self-discipline can be. There is no lasting get-rich-quick or lose-pounds-quick.