(Late in, but just wanted to add a viewpoint/suggestion I've not seen already, in case it's helpful to you.) Simply: I don't think there's a 'one size fits all

(Late in, but just wanted to add a viewpoint/suggestion I've not seen already, in case it's helpful to you.) Simply: I don't think there's a 'one size fits all' approach you can rely on. I've been mildly overweight for years - not obese, but heavier than I wanted to be, and heavier than is healthy. I've tried various weight loss approaches, on and off: healthy eating, calorie counting, WeightWatchers-style points counting, keto, slow-carb (Tim Ferriss' approach), and the 5:2 diet, all combined with exercise. Aside from keto, none of these worked for me past a couple of weeks - I'd lose the motivation, and drift back to old ways. Living a social lifestyle involving alcohol and eating out fairly regularly helped with this. (Keto was interesting, but my blood lipid values looked quite bad after a few weeks, so I gave it up; YMMV). What I then discovered is that my individual psychology seems to work much better with strict but easy-to-follow rules in place, rather than a constant battle of trying to not eat the tasty food. So what worked for me was daily intermittent fasting. I don't eat a single calorie until lunchtime (~12 or 1pm) - one or two black coffees work amazingly for removing the hunger pangs. Then have a nice big lunch (making it reasonably big is actually important, as you'll have been fasting for 16-18 hrs; if I eat too small, I'll get hunger pangs mid-afternoon). Then follow it up with a decent early dinner - if I'm being strict, I'll finish eating within a 6 hour window, or relax that to 8 or 9 hour window if life dictates. This works great for me - I lose weight quite easily if I'm strict for the 6-hour window, and maintain weight if I'm a bit less strict. Also, an unexpected bonus of the window effect is that you'll automatically limit calories, by only eating two meals a day - more is virtually impossible. And it's self-limiting - if you have a particularly large lunch, you'll still be quite full 5-6 hours later, so will have a smaller dinner.