If I say I ate less and exercised more, would you hate me?
I counted calories, limited to about 1500/day. Didn't specifically worry about grams of protein, carbs, or fat, but made sure I got at least 5 servings of fruits and vegetables of varying colors (green, yellow, red, blue, white, orange), 2 dairy (mostly yogurt), and 2 other protein (beans, meat). Low fat took care of itself at that calorie level. I did make a point to eat a decent amount of fiber, although again through examining food lists and trying to choose whole grains, legumes, and vegetables rather than counting grams, and tried to keep saturated fat pretty low by reading nutrition labels for hidden problems (palm kernel oil esp). I learned which splurge foods I could have a little bit of (most chocolate) and which I couldn't (ice cream, chips) and added those, or not, accordingly. And I mixed it up--if I ate oatmeal for most of a month, I might start on cold cereal the next. I weighed and measured everything (still do) to avoid portion creep. Most important on the nutrition side, if I had a bad day, I picked up and started over. I probably hit my targets 6 days out of 7, with a really big screwup (more than a couple hundred calories) once a month or less.
I tried to eat only when I was hungry, pretty easy because I was hungry a lot, and not to eat when I was stressed, or bored, or mad. I kept telling myself I still be stressed, I'd just be fat and stressed and that was worse.
I exercised nearly every day, probably one day off every 2 weeks. Alternated cardio and strength training. Varied intesities, very hard one session, maybe easier the next. Intervals were key for breaking through plateaus. Started doing exercise videos, step aerobics, the FIRM, the big ball, Bosu and walking the dogs. Ended up hiking, running, cycling, swimming, lifting weights, just about everything but rock climbing, and someday I'll try that, fear of heights or not. I tried to get enough sleep, since I think adequate recovery is something a lot of people (including me) ignore, and sleep is very important for that.
I kept logs, charted my weight loss, read extensively on weight loss and maintenance, and watched motivational TV (like Discovery Health Body Challenge). I kept one pair of 'fat' pants for comparison purposes, but replaced all my clothes with the new sizes as soon as I possibly good.
Some of the standard weight loss advice did not work for me. I had to weight myself every 5 minutes at first to understand what caused the scales to move, because on short time scale fat loss is a secondary factor--fluid balance is much more important. And even longer term loss, say on a week timescale, has shorter term fluid fluctuations on top of that. Once I figured that out, I dropped down to about twice a day on the scale. Drinking a lot of water just keeps me in the bathroom all day--I basically drink when I'm thirsty. I did not buddy up, because in the past when my buddies quit, well so did I, and I didn't want my success to be tied to anyone else's. It was hard enough overcoming my own 'failures'.
Finally, the transition to maintenance. When I started doing very high volume training, like marathon-level training, I started to feel terrible on 1500 cal/day. Just sick almost. Started bingeing a lot--none of my standard tricks were working. So I increased the calorie level based on the amount and type of exercise I do each day (I built a spreadsheet that does this) and built in a 500 cal/day deficit. I almost never hit this target any more if I include the deficit. When I drop my training volume to an hour or less a day of intense exercise for about a week, then I have some power over the cravings--my tricks work again. Maybe I'm rationalizing, but I figure my body is under a lot of physical stress and really needs more carbs to sustain those levels of output, and is just basically taking over. But I've maintained my weight this year, as of this morning to within two pounds on (don't kill me) an average of 2700 cal/day. This varies considerably from day to day--a rest day will get me 1500 cal (including deficit), a long long bike ride gets me 4500 (actually hard to eat that much without donuts involved!). My weight varies as much as 4 pounds a day now, due to fluid balance.