If you want my input, exercise is overrated in weight lost. Why? When you exercise, you tire yourself. Doing so, you get hungry, so you eat back whatever you have burnt.
I'm not saying it's useless. It can help with weight loss and, above all, will put you in a better physical shape, improving your health. But don't count on exercise alone,
especially intense exercise, to make you lose weight.
Here is what I have been doing. I have been losing fair amounts of weight. I will admit, though, that I have cheated in one way: I am taking a medication that, as a side
effect, can reduce appetite.
-Reduce my appetite and empty myself by eating SIGNIFICANTLY LESS for 48 hours - ate my last real meal (which was a very small amount of light food)
on Friday night, then only had liquid on Saturday and Sunday, drinking LOTS of water (like, 5+ litres in a day) in that last day, then ate nothing until Monday at noon.
Then I needed much less for my hunger to go away. WARNING: Do not do this too often. Do not overdo this. Do not stop "eating" altogether. Even during the weekend,
get at least some juice; else you will feel sick / pass out. DO NOT do this if you were used to eating a lot. Do it gradually.
-Add a little exercise every day. I don't "go out" to exercise. It's time-consuming, tiring and it makes me lose my motivation. I try to simply move a little bit in my
activities: I always take the stairs, especially if there are 5+ floors to climb, I get off the bus in advance to do the rest on foot, I run between destinations sometimes...
-Do a physical activity I truly enjoy once or twice a week. I personally use my Dance Dance Revolution game. It's really fun. But whilst it works for some people, I would
never think of "going out to run/bike/etc." or go to a gym to run on a treadmill. I need to have fun or feel useful, or I have no motivation.
-Flee calories like a contagious disease. I try to eat much less calories in everything I do. The general trick is to eat a ton of fruits and vegetables and avoid rich foods
such as animal products, oil (though some "good" oil like olive [NOT heated - heating olive oil turns it into bad fat] is essential once in a while, but a little suffices), desserts,
candies, potatoes, pasta [those are really nasty - a ridiculously small amount is enough energy for a meal, and by the time you are not hungry anymore, you have 2+ meals'
worth of calories in you].
-Avoid calorie-rich drinks in big amounts: just one glass of fruit juice - which is "healthy" in theory - is 100-150 calories. That is enormous, considering you need 2000 a day.
-Always keep it fun. I personally cheat because I like healthy foods much better than fatty ones, but the general idea is making it so that you don't miss fat and sugar.
If you don't like what you're eating, you are very likely to go back to junk.