@36swan,
Most people fail at least two or three times before successfully permanently losing weight. Others are never successful. Sometime, I'll merge the data from another account with my trendweight account so others can see more failure.
As far as I know, all ways of losing weight involve calorie restriction. The trick is to restrict calories while never experiencing hunger and also remaining healthy. All forms of high fat low carb diets increase the likelihood of getting some degenerative disease. Uh oh, maybe you are on this type of diet. Don't panic.
In the short term, we eat food to get energy. Let's say any food will do this well enough. In the long term, we would also like to remain free of disease. Let's look at a common sense way of losing your famine reserve.
Suppose your BMR is 1500 calories. Let's say you get all those calories from nutritious vegetables including starches like rice, potatoes, whole grain bread, oatmeal as well as leafy and cruciferous vegetables. If you get about 80% of your calories from starch and 20% of your calories from vegetables, you will get all the nutrients you need. This equates to about an equal volume of each. It will include about 8% fat.
Let's assume you burn 2,000 calories a day. Where will the extra calories come from? Your famine reserve. Essentially, your body won't feel like it's missing nutrients, so you won't feel hungry.
Will you need to count calories? No. Fifteen hundred calories of this type of food is a lot of food. Eat when you feel hunger pangs or a little weak or when you feel like it. Think larger portions and up to six meals a day or more if you like.
It will be impossible for you to make this transition without interaction between changes. I suggest starting with oatmeal for breakfast as it's the simplest. Use any type of whole oats. Avoid the single packets as they contain added junk. To sweeten the oats, after cooking them, put half a banana on the bottom of the bowl. Add the oatmeal. Mix a handful of fresh or frozen blueberries, and put half a banana on the top. Microwave for 30 seconds to bring out the sweetness in the fruit. If you need to, add a small amount of sugar to the top.
While you are waiting for the oatmeal to cook, have a cup of finely chopped vegetables. You can use balsamic for flavor. The vegetables will provide a good dose of vitamins. You can eat the vegetables raw or microwave them to the texture you desire. Frozen mixed vegetables are fine.
Since you have been essentially fasting, expect to gain about 6-8 pounds the first week. This is because you will be replenishing your carbohydrate stores. Most of the gain will be water weight in your muscles and liver. It shouldn't show at all.
You may feel weak or hungry the first week. The cause of this is not eating enough. Eat more.
It will help if you give a list of the things you usually eat. Then, one food at a time, we can figure out a way to substitute a tastier and healthier food in place of those that are causing your weight gain.
Completing the process may take years of only losing a small amount of weight each month. There will likely be a couple setbacks. Looking back after you are successful, it will feel like it happened almost overnight.
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