There is always what I refer to as the 10% approach. It's simple and everyone I have known who stuck to it did well. Those who didn't were after instant results and I tend to avoid giving that type of advice as it can be dangerous and quick fixes often come before equally as quick returns with extra.
Cut what you eat and drink, except water, by 10% and increase what you do by the same 10%. Allow your body to get used to it, can take a week or two for some a month for others, then do it again. Small changes until you are losing weight at a level you can comfortably maintain, is safe and doesn't leave you lethargic.
Don't make drastic changes to your diet by cutting things out, unless they are obviously an issue. Examples would be eating half a pound of chocolate every night or 10 pints of beer 3 times a week. If you ate your normal calorific intake of my diet, you would be hungry and vice versa, purely because our bodies would be expecting what it is used to.
Listen to what your body demands after a week of each drop. Initially it will demand sweet food for instant energy, but after a week it will have settled and will be telling you to substitute things because of your increased activity. When it does, do so but only as substitution not addition.
Once you are getting close to your ideal weight start increasing your intake slowly so when you get there you aren’t wondering how much you should eat.
I tend to keep things as simple as possible as this makes it easier to follow. complex diet programs involving foods you don't know, have or like are unlikely to be adhered to for obvious reasons.
One success I had with this looked like it would be a failure at first. A colleague who was excessively overweight asked for my help and was shocked at the simplicity of the program. He had used a body fat scale of mine and was 51% fat based on their measure and almost 20 stones 280 pounds. A month later he weighed in again, just under 20 stone and 50% a change that could easily have been margin for error on the scale. I expected him to give up and was impressed when he told me this was the first month in several years he hadn't gained weight, so saw this as a success and a sign of how much he was over-eating before. He asked what to do next, and I said to repeat. He was on student placement so I only saw him for about 5 months after that, but he continued to improve. Another colleague who used to refer to him as fat lad, was however dismayed when he saw him a good while later and they were roughly the same size, and the one I had advised in better shape.
