[electrotype]

I lost a lot of weight pretty quickly a few years ago. I gained some back, so I can't say my tip is "sustainable", but it worked very well at the time.

Most people agree that cutting calories is the key, and exercise helps. No magic. But one major fact that is too often overlooked is the mental aspect and how to persist with your diet until you have lost the weight you want.

My trick was to target a very specific date. Let's say 3 months from now, at 10:00 AM. I wrote down that date, say "June 10 at 10:00 am".

Then I swore to myself that, until that very specific date, I would not cheat. Not once. Ever. I would not eat any meal that is not specifically designed to cut calories. I would not eat any snacks other than those I had already selected as allowed.

Then I started the diet with that date in mind.

Having that immutable target date constantly in my mind helped me a lot in resisting temptations to eat more during the diet. As soon as a thought like "Yum, that would be so good!" popped into my brain, it was immediately stopped and rejected as unacceptable.

Good luck!

[pc86]

I don't like this kind of advice, only because it sets people up to fail. If your definition of "success" is not cheating, not once, ever, for 90 days, 99% of people will fail that. Half within the first couple weeks. And if you've failed your goal such that it's 100% unattainable now, what's the point of continuing at all? What's the point of setting another 90-day goal you'll also fail at?

This might help for people with a very small, specific goal in mind - lose n pounds or y% body fat by a certain event - and who are already pretty strong and consistent mentally. But if you are trying to lose weight to look better or not have a heart attack at 40, it's not a sustainable way to approach things. It's much more sustainable, and healthier, to focus on small habits you can add over time.

If you eat fast food four times a week and have five regular cokes a day, you're much better cutting that to three sodas a day and stopping there than you are eating kale salads and protein shakes for a couple weeks before going right back to where you were. And cutting a couple sodas a day is much easier to boot.

[electrotype]

Well, it did work for me. I just wanted to share.

[globular-toast]

It's not sustainable. This is basically standard "diet" advice. Dieting is part of a fat lifestyle. You spend a few weeks or months being unhappy, waiting for some arbitrary time when you'll start eating and therefore being happy again.

To remain thin you need to adopt a thin lifestyle. There are no dates and no targets. You just find a lifestyle that works for you and live it.