Battling unwanted weight? Welcome to the very large club, no pun intended. The bad news is that science has yet to find a healthy, effective magic pill to make the fat go away.

The good news may be that the root of your problem is simply taking stock of both what and how you eat. Root out your most likely reasons for overeating and you might be able to make some changes that have a real effect on weight loss.

Identify your vices Many people know what their food or beverage vices are, while others are new to thinking about such things. If it’s specific foods, you might also give some thought to occasions when you eat them. Are these part of rituals, such as “after work” or “weekends” or “at parties” or “lunch near the office.” Determine how much is driven by situations and how much are a simple matter of you loving something a little too much. Try to come up with a list – most people have a primary vice and several secondary ones. Then take a step back; a sensible approach is to tackle one or two vices at a time. Just be sure not to overcompensate by trading one vice for another.

What are the most common vices?

That one thing you love Like a bad lover, you crave the thing most forbidden to you. If the Dunkin Donut shop on your way in to work tickles a happy feeling inside, you know you have a monkey on your back. And a reason to re-route.

Convenience cuisine It’s not one food, it’s a category of foods. Fast food restaurants and even convenience stores have made some notably healthy additions to their menus and product offerings in the past couple of years; however, the bulk of sales still are in the processed foods with heavy portions of carbs and fat. Challenge yourself to find a better thing to eat next time you’re at Burger King or McDonald’s. That includes getting a beverage that is not primarily made of sugar.

Excessive portions in restaurants Beware the Supersize meals: The original 1950s McDonald’s burger and fries and a coke had just over a third the calories (480) and fat of today’s Double Quarter Pounder with cheese and Supersize fries (1370) – it’s three times your father’s burger meal. Most of the major chains are introducing good green-leaf salads that can be paired with a small-size hamburger or chicken burrito to tide you over until you get closer to a convenient source of healthy food.

This is a problem in all forms of restaurants, as the average portion sizes have increased across the board in recent years. A survey by the American Dietetics Association (Nutrition and You: Trends 2002) revealed that when faced with an excess of food on a plate, men are almost five times more likely to finish it off than women (women actually consider it a social grace to leave a little bit of food on their plates – but with larger portions they too eat more, just less so).

Eating at home – two dinners instead of one They say never trust a thin chef, and I know why. When you cook at home you discover how great it can taste. You also realize it’s just as easy to make four portions as one or two, your intent being to save some for later. Then, you effectively eat two or three meals in one sitting. Rule of thumb: Dish up the portion you intend to eat, then put the rest away in the refrigerator. To go back for a second will require a few more steps than just heaping up another portion from the stove top – a small barrier that at least makes you think twice.

Being a team junk food player Someone from the office brings in donuts every Tuesday. The guys go out for pizza and brewskis every Friday night. You’re the kids’ snack mom and show support for their soccer team by eating the Snickers bars with them.

You’re a team junk food eater. You do it because everyone else is, and you don’t want to be standoffish. Here’s a solution. Eat a little, and be really public about it. Squeal with delight over those donuts (if that’s how you publicly express happiness). Show up for the beer and pizza. Slowly eat that one Snickers bar. And take in less than half of what you used to consume. Drink water, eat an apple, do whatever it takes to avoid eating the junk food of others, then duck out early if the temptation is too much. No one is holding a gun to your head on this.

Alcohol induced indulgence It’s partially the booze itself, but also the loss of inhibition that matters. A few other alcohol facts:

• Depending on the individual, a moderate amount of alcohol (30 grams of alcohol a day, or the equivalent of 3-4 glasses of wine) produces a range of negative short-term effects on the body, including an increase in heart rate, heart palpitations, an increase in skin temperature, muscle weakness and facial flushing. Alcohol also promotes water loss from the kidneys, which can lead to dehydration, particularly amongst people who drink spirits (which have a higher concentration of alcohol) without consuming extra water. Each of these things will tend to reduce your physical activity, which nets out with a lower metabolism and easier weight gain.

• Looking at it from the long term, excessive alcohol alters the balance of reproductive hormones, according to a collection of studies compiled by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. In excessive cases, alcohol metabolism contributes to testicular injury and impairs testosterone synthesis and sperm production. In a study of normal healthy men who received 220 grams of alcohol (about 16 drinks) daily for 4 weeks, testosterone levels declined after only 5 days and continued to fall throughout the study period. Prolonged testosterone deficiency may contribute to feminization in males, for example, breast enlargement. In addition, alcohol may interfere with normal sperm structure and movement by inhibiting the metabolism of vitamin A, which is essential for sperm development.

None of this requires a complete lifestyle change. It’s simply a matter of less is more. Throw in a little more walking or other forms of exercise and you’ll see changes in a matter of weeks.

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Excerpted from "A Guy's Gotta Eat, the regular guy's guide to eating smart," by Russ Klettke, with Deanna Conte, MS RD LD (Marlowe & Co./Da Capo Press 2004). Available where books are sold and in more than 100 public library systems in the U.S., Canada and Europe.