Hi Nikki! Welcome,
From your post I gather that you have in the past lost some weight, but not all of it. That it's been hard for you to sustain the long term effort to lose all the weight you want to. Right?
Bad news is there is only one way to fix that. Eat less, exercise more or some combination of the two. You could follow some diet for a time, but when you stop following it, unless you make a permanent change to the way you eat and activity level, the weight will return. You have experienced this- we all have.
So since we agree we have to make a permanent lifestyle change to maintain our weight loss, suppose we started living this day and every day forward as if we had already lost all of the weight? What would happen?
Two things, I think
1. You would very slowly lose the extra weight you now carry because the new lifestyle would give you a calorie deficit and the added activity level would make you more fit.
2. You would be conditioning yourself to eat properly to maintain your ideal weight perpetually.
If you wanted to reduce more quickly, increase your calorie deficit by an increase in expenditures (more exercise) rather than reducing the number of calories you eat.
And I say this to everybody, learn about the food you eat. Study the amount of calories contained in your favorite foods, just so you are aware of how much food is appropriate given your size and lifestyle. It will help you in the long run.
Best Regards,
David C
