Actually I didn’t do as much exercise as I wanted to, to be honest. It is all mathematics and will power as boring as it may sound – there is no “secret”, at least I do not know it.

Prerequisities:
* Learn what BMI means and what is represents
* Learn basic nutritional knowledge so you know not to overdose on Sodium, for example.
* Learn how to read packaged food nutritional information sections. They are designed to deceive. Most people should not be consuming 2000 calories unless your metabolism is ridiculously high, your at 6’5” or you have a lot of muscle mass (or all of the above).

My suggestion is the following:
1. Determine a BMI (Body Mass Index) measure you would like to be. I chose 21.5 personally, although it can be whatever you want. Make sure you do this step first before the rest.
2. Weigh yourself with no clothes on first thing in the morning after visiting the bathroom. Make sure you use these conditions for all future weigh-ins. Record your initial weight on paper (not just in your head).
3. From your height and weight calculate your current BMI. Record this in the log sheet you recorded your weight above.
4. If so inclined also record all your measurements (waist, clothes size, etc.).
5. Now you should be able to calculate (do a Google search) approximately how many calories you are currently consuming on a daily basis.
6. Create a calorie budget for the first 3-4 weeks where you decrease your daily calorie intake by between 100 and 250 each week, depending on how aggressive initially you want to be.
7. Record the calorie counts of ALL food (and don’t forget beverages) consumed each day. You MUST log it down on paper. Mental arithmetic is prone to too many errors and human memory is prone to be too erroneous in addition.
8. Record all exercise activities in an exercise log as well. If you do a lot of exercise you can offset the calories burned by the exercise for that day’s budget. Just do not consume too many carbohydrates too late in the evening…but feel free to eat as many carbs as you like for lunch or early dinners. Don’t do Atkins, it isn’t healthy!
9. Here is where the willpower comes in…stick to the daily calorie budget EVERY DAY!
10. At the end of the first week, repeat steps 2 through 4 and remember to record it all down on paper (I cannot stress this enough).
11. After the 3rd/4th week recalculate your daily calorie budgets for the next 3-4 weeks. And repeat process until you reach your original BMI target/goal.

CAUTION: Learn about basic nutrition and make sure you are eating a balanced diet with less calories according to the calorie budget you set out for yourself. Also beware of reducing your calorie intake too much from week to week since your metabolism may slow down too much and you will find it hard to loose the weight even if you stick to your calorie budgets.

I cannot stress the point that logging all your weigh-ins, measurements, food logs and exercise logs (latter if applicable) are the most important part of the process. There is not secret to loosing weight it is only mathematics and willpower. At least that is my experience.