I was coached by Ray Cronise, the same guy who helped magician Penn Jillette lose 100lbs and keep it off. I too have successfully lost weight and kept it off for six years so far.
A tip he gave me was that humans were built to survive the winter on a calorie-restricted diet. Which means that your brain and body will tolerate you dieting for about 12 weeks max. After that, it will start screaming at you to eat more food, and you'll almost certainly give in, no matter how much willpower you think you have.
So the smart way to diet is to do it for 10 - 12 weeks and then quit, even if you haven't reached your goal weight. After stopping, your new goal should be to maintain your current (lower) weight but not to lose any more. After a few seasons, you can go back into "metabolic winter" again and resume the diet. You'll probably know when you're ready to do it again.
This was a huge eye-opener for me, and it explained why I'd failed at dieting so many times in the past. I'd tried to push past 12 weeks, failed, and then decided "dieting doesn't work."
Even if you can't manage 12 weeks, whenever you feel like your willpower is flagging, stop dieting (by which I mean stop running at a calorie deficit) but don't throw up your hands and start eating huge bowls of ice cream. Instead, switch from dieting to maintenance until you're ready to diet again.
A tip he gave me was that humans were built to survive the winter on a calorie-restricted diet. Which means that your brain and body will tolerate you dieting for about 12 weeks max. After that, it will start screaming at you to eat more food, and you'll almost certainly give in, no matter how much willpower you think you have.
So the smart way to diet is to do it for 10 - 12 weeks and then quit, even if you haven't reached your goal weight. After stopping, your new goal should be to maintain your current (lower) weight but not to lose any more. After a few seasons, you can go back into "metabolic winter" again and resume the diet. You'll probably know when you're ready to do it again.
This was a huge eye-opener for me, and it explained why I'd failed at dieting so many times in the past. I'd tried to push past 12 weeks, failed, and then decided "dieting doesn't work."
Even if you can't manage 12 weeks, whenever you feel like your willpower is flagging, stop dieting (by which I mean stop running at a calorie deficit) but don't throw up your hands and start eating huge bowls of ice cream. Instead, switch from dieting to maintenance until you're ready to diet again.