This might rub some people the wrong way, but here's my honest advice.
Dieting is not what you want to do because dieting is a temporary thing that you will eventually stop doing. After you stop dieting you will quickly gain back whatever you lost.
This is why fad diets like 5:2, Atkins, Paleo, etc, are doomed to failure. You cannot possibly cleave to such a strict dietary requirement your entire life. You will fail.
The cold hard truth that is difficult to accept about being fit (and looking good, they're the same thing) is that you pretty much have to change your entire way of thinking, forever. You do not "go on a diet", you improve your permanent, day to day diet. Again, it's got to be permanent. Additionally because of our sedentary modern lifestyles a change of diet alone will only leave you being thinner but not very fit (some people refer to this as being "skinny-fat").
You need exercise if you want to look good, always.
Our entire view of portions and food in the west has been so muddled by the diet industry that some people have trouble getting to the factual science, and that science is pretty clear. If you have the willpower and are lucky enough to have avoided bad genetics (which a small % do unfortunately have bad genetics, but it's used as an excuse way, way too often by many, many people), then you can do it.
Again, modern lifestyles are extremely sedentary compared to our ancestors, even if you work out, it's nothing compared to their lifestyles. The average 25 year old male, depending on height, needs little more than 1600-2500 calories a day tops to be healthy (for women it's even less, unfortunately). Any more and they will put on weight until it matches their daily calorie allotment - usually thousands more than they need. And many, many people have no idea how much they're actually eating, some are swinging numbers in the 10,000 range every day, and have no idea. My wild guess is that most Americans get between 3000-5000 calories a day and have no earthly idea that it's happening.
In the past, Humans were burning thousands of calories every day with backbreaking labor, so they developed a diet to match that labor. When the labor left our average lives, the diet didn't. This has left us with an appetite far, far greater than we need, and it will be a long, long while before Humans adjust.
What you'll be happy with with is something you have to figure out yourself. I know people who gave up sugar entirely and work out several times a week, I also know people who don't give a shit, and many more (like myself) who fall in between. Personally I do my best to cut out sweets from home permanently, I try to only eat or drink them when I go out or have a guest. My portion size with all meals is small. I do resistance training twice a week and run on a treadmill three times a week. I'm 5'9 @ 130 lbs, and at 30 years old I'm in better shape than some friends a decade younger than I am. I get asked all the time by friends how I do it and they never like the answer:
Eat right and exercise, in whatever amount you can manage. Forever. That's the hard truth no one wants to accept.
Dieting is not what you want to do because dieting is a temporary thing that you will eventually stop doing. After you stop dieting you will quickly gain back whatever you lost.
This is why fad diets like 5:2, Atkins, Paleo, etc, are doomed to failure. You cannot possibly cleave to such a strict dietary requirement your entire life. You will fail.
The cold hard truth that is difficult to accept about being fit (and looking good, they're the same thing) is that you pretty much have to change your entire way of thinking, forever. You do not "go on a diet", you improve your permanent, day to day diet. Again, it's got to be permanent. Additionally because of our sedentary modern lifestyles a change of diet alone will only leave you being thinner but not very fit (some people refer to this as being "skinny-fat").
You need exercise if you want to look good, always.
Our entire view of portions and food in the west has been so muddled by the diet industry that some people have trouble getting to the factual science, and that science is pretty clear. If you have the willpower and are lucky enough to have avoided bad genetics (which a small % do unfortunately have bad genetics, but it's used as an excuse way, way too often by many, many people), then you can do it.
Again, modern lifestyles are extremely sedentary compared to our ancestors, even if you work out, it's nothing compared to their lifestyles. The average 25 year old male, depending on height, needs little more than 1600-2500 calories a day tops to be healthy (for women it's even less, unfortunately). Any more and they will put on weight until it matches their daily calorie allotment - usually thousands more than they need. And many, many people have no idea how much they're actually eating, some are swinging numbers in the 10,000 range every day, and have no idea. My wild guess is that most Americans get between 3000-5000 calories a day and have no earthly idea that it's happening.
In the past, Humans were burning thousands of calories every day with backbreaking labor, so they developed a diet to match that labor. When the labor left our average lives, the diet didn't. This has left us with an appetite far, far greater than we need, and it will be a long, long while before Humans adjust.
What you'll be happy with with is something you have to figure out yourself. I know people who gave up sugar entirely and work out several times a week, I also know people who don't give a shit, and many more (like myself) who fall in between. Personally I do my best to cut out sweets from home permanently, I try to only eat or drink them when I go out or have a guest. My portion size with all meals is small. I do resistance training twice a week and run on a treadmill three times a week. I'm 5'9 @ 130 lbs, and at 30 years old I'm in better shape than some friends a decade younger than I am. I get asked all the time by friends how I do it and they never like the answer:
Eat right and exercise, in whatever amount you can manage. Forever. That's the hard truth no one wants to accept.
