The "burn off more than you consume" cliche is too simplistic and mostly an unhealthy way to approach things. Many fad diets are based on that. People gorging on grapefruit and putting carrots and such into blenders. That's no way to do it!
In 2003, and a determined FR archivist will find a lot of threads from me during that period, I lost over 100 pounds in a year. Basically it was switching to a high-fat, low-carb (sugar) diet. I also swore off anything with high fructose corn syrup and trans-fats (like margarine).
A lot of the stuff I was told to stop eating when I was fat actually helped me to take the fat off. Steak, eggs, cheese, nuts, etc. Those foods also gave my body a lot of energy so that I could adopt a more active lifestyle. I'm sure that helped too.
A few years after that, I gradually got back to old habits and the weight started coming back on rapidly. The main reason for that was that I initially banished foods from my diet that I loved like pizza and pasta. Once I started having them again, it was like an alcoholic locked in a liquor store.
I finally went back on the high-fat low-sugar diet for good, only now I allow a little bit of balance to include the occasional pizza or other "forbidden" food. Those occasional indulgences help me stay on track the rest of the time as now I don't feel like I'm always denying myself something. But some of the really bad foods out there, I don't even want to eat anymore, like packaged cookies, donuts and candy bars. Those I don't miss.
“Those occasional indulgences help me stay on track ...”
Good plan.
I quickly get myself back on track with a fasting day. Works like a charm. Mostly I am low-carb, but occasionally have a high-carb day. I don’t deny myself anything.
I also found that using a small amount of ketone salts crushes hunger and makes a fasting day easy.
Same here.
And if the fam is eating pizza, do like I do: take a piece and just eat the topping off without the crust.
I eat meat and other protein because I have to. But my cravings are for roasted veggies. I try to roast a tray of something or other, often root vegetables, almost every day. Even the lowly onion is so delicious that way.
“I finally went back on the high-fat low-sugar diet for good, only now I allow a little bit of balance to include the occasional pizza or other “forbidden” food. Those occasional indulgences help me stay on track the rest of the time as now I don’t feel like I’m always denying myself something.”
Besides, why work real hard with your diet and exercise? Just to look at a “perfect” body in the mirror, or to have someone admire you? That’s not for me - my body is like my furniture - not a museum exhibit, but a working tool to be used and enjoyed. So if you’re not going to indulge every once in a while, what’s the point? It is like accumulating vast riches through hard work and scrimping on expenses, only to never buy anything for yourself - which, to me, is stupid.
Also, as I mention to those in a rush on a diet - “you didn’t gain the weight in a couple of months, and you aren’t going to lose it that quickly, either - and besides, that isn’t healthy and it won’t work over the long term if you could do it.”