When I was in my mid 30's I was in good shape and weighed 163 lbs. I had a very physical job (industrial maintenance), and still worked out. I never worried about my weight and could eat pretty much anything I wanted. My main diet was always pretty healthy, but did eat my share of junk food.
I got t-boned by a drunk driver one night on my way home from work and had internal injuries. Collapsed left lung, ruptured diaphragm, ruptured spleen, my stomach went through my diaphragm into my chest cavity, and both shoulders were partially dislocated. They had to remove my spleen, inflate my left lung, repair my diaphragm, and put my stomach back in place. the surgeon told me that I could not exercise for a year so everything could fully heal.
I still worked industrial maintenance for a while, but then decided to go to school for computer programming, and got a job doing that. I never got back into exercising, and since I now had a job sitting on my butt all day, I went from 163 lbs to about 230 lbs in a little over two and a half decades. I became so out of shape it was pathetic. I was also a heavy smoker and started getting winded just bringing the groceries in from the car.
I developed diverticulitis and wound up having to have surgery to remove a small section of my colon. They sent me to have my heart and lungs tested before they would do the surgery, and that uncovered a couple other issues. They discovered that I had COPD and that I have had a heart attach at some point. They still did the surgery but told me if I did not start exercising, lose weight, and quit smoking that I would not be around much longer. I was 57 at that time.
They told me to start walking for exercise, so that's what I did. I could barely walk a mile at a slow pace, then had to lay down because I felt like I was going to die. I remembered a fitness course that I took back when I was in the army in the 1980's, and started using that basic knowledge in my walking workouts.
I got a fitness tracker and started logging my food and recording my walking workouts. I set my tracker to lose 1 lb per week, followed my plan, and actually started losing about 1 lb per week. In the first year (52 weeks) I lost 57 lbs, and went from barely being able to walk a mile at a 3 mph pace to being able to power walk 10 miles at a 4.5 mph pace. I didn't change my diet all that much, but I did learn how to eat smarter and replace junk food with more nutritional food. I still eat junk food, just not as much.
The main reason I became obese was "lack of activity" not "my diet", so my solution was to use basic fitness knowledge to slowly increase my activity and fitness level over time. the key words being "slowly" and "over time".
I never agreed with the whole biggest loser thing, because losing too much weight too quickly will not produce long term results. It took me over two and a half decades to become obese, and everything in nature works slowly over time (except humans...lol).
The CDC lays out a good plan that would work for most people.
To maintain fitness you should get 150 minutes of exercise per week. to improve fitness you should double that number. You can always do more, but you should never do less.
In conjunction you should eat a well balanced healthy diet and limit junk food.
If you do these 2 things and make them a part of your normal day (habit), your body weight should fall in line all by itself.
healthy fitness level + healthy diet = healthy body weight
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