Ok...so the Doctor is pissed at my weight. Puts me on blood pressure and high cholesterol medicine. So I finally had enough and decided to really do it this time and lose the gut. So here is how I lost 50 pounds in little over 4 months this year.
Count darn calories and don't cheat yourself by not counting. Know what you eat. Read labels, look up food on your phone, etc.
Pick a daily goal and stick to it. For me it was 1,200 calories a day. So I was doing 300 for breakfast, 300 for lunch, 400 for dinner, and 100 for a snack. Sample meals:
--Breakfast: Bowl of cheerios, peaches (in water, no sugar added), cup of black coffee.
--Lunch: Siggi's icelandic yogurt, banana, hard boiled egg
--Dinner: Tuna fish sandwich (buy the tuna in water)
--Snack: A few strawberries or cherries or other fruit
--Notes: You don't have to cut carbs out entirely, but once you start counting calories you will realize how much they are...so you will be reducing carbs a lot! This is probably the hardest part of the diet. And remember to count your alcohol. The lowest calorie drinks I have found are: Vodka and soda water (with a lime), Mich Ultra (gross), and white wine.Use zero calorie snacks to get you through the day. This is big especially the first two months. My top secret snack is Pickles....eat as many as you want. They are essentially Zero calories and they fill you up. Only downside is the salt intake. The other go-to snack is sugar free jello. Again, no real calories and fills you up. These two foods will get you through the worse parts of this diet plan.
Drink lots of water. Nuff said.
If you want to have a cheat meal or special food you need to earn it. So look up online how many calories whatever exercise you like to do burns and use that to pad your calorie intake. For example, I like to jog. So if I jog three miles I can go ahead and add a few hundred calories to my intake that day. So on nights I go out to dinner with friends I go for a nice run that morning.
This diet is not rocket science...just eat less and eat smart and stock up on pickles and jello. You will have all your friends jealous in no time. Good luck!