Consdiering I finished my journey of losing 30 kilos and changing my lifestyle a lot I have few tips for you guys
1) If you will lose body fat and all you'll do is cardio/diet without strenghtening yourself you'll lose body muscle aswell. Of course - you'll be more fit, but your body composition will be worse than years ago. You have to do some lifting and it takes time to learn how to exercise properly - just accept it.
2) Calories deficit
You have to estimate your body's needs for calories, it's determined by your body muscle, height, activity, lifestyle. Some people need just 1,5-1,8K kcals per day, some people need 3K+. You can't live on 1.5k calories diet while you need 3k+, that kind of lifestyle won't last even single month.
Deficit of 7000-8000 kcals gets you 1 kilo of fat loss. That means if you eat 600 calories per week less than you need you can count on 0,5 kg per week loss, that's 2 kilos a month.
You can get that deficit by just eating 600 calories less - and it's easier in my opinion or by cardio session at 120-130 heartrate for an hour - in this case it costs you an hour of life per day
3) Weight monitoring - don't do it everyday in the beginnig. Measure it once a week
Don't take results into the count in first 2 weeks of diet/exercises etc. Your body will be in new situation and it'll need to adapt itself a little bit, you'll lose some water, you'll lose some glicogen that'll falsify your results in the beginning. There will be fluctuactions of weight during the period - sometimes you can gain 2 kilos out of nowhere due to e.g. water retention after eating some heavily modified food.
Weight always in the morning, at same time, before eating anything. Take measures of your waist, belly-button area, legs, biceps, maybe chest. Note it all week by week and you'll see if you are going into right direction.
4) Diet breaks / refeeds
If your obesity is big you don't need to do diet breaks or refeeds for really long time. While being in caloric deficit your body after some time (not immediately) uses bodyfat to keep you alive. In long run it's stress for your body and you need a "Reset" from time to time to calm your body down form constant stress that comes with reduction.
5) Don't do cheat days, do cheat meals.
6) Diet has to be set of new habits, not just responsibilities. It has to be doable, not forceable.
7) Measuring the weight of your food IS A MUST. Sometimes bread from one bakery allows you to make 3 sandwitches and it will weight 200 grams, sometimes 200 grams from other bakery will be just 1.5 sandwitch. Measuring it is a must.
8) You can add cardio/walking but as accessory or alternative to diet. Just diet + cardio will speed up the weight reduction problems but it wont save your body muscle that you'll lose in reduction process.
9) diet doesnt mean you can't eat things you like. I was eating kebabs, pizzas - just rarely and get back to diet immediately after that. Don't torture yourself about eating something that you shouldn't, everything is made for people - just use it wisely. Losing fat doesn't mean you will never take a look on pizza ever.
10) Meals - as I said above, do that what's doable, not that's what recommended in superfit recipes. Make diet suit you, don't suit yourself into the diet.
Do you like toasts with cheese and ketchup? You will eat them.
Do you like rice with chicken and mexicano sauce? You'll still eat it.
11) Exercise - make strenghtening yourself primary goal rather than using it as a tool to weight reduction.
Squats, deadlifts, bench pressing are literally mandatory.
Use free-weights in the beginning, dumbbells, kettels.
More BPMs/heartrate = better for losing weight.
1,5-2mins max break between exercises
8/10/12/15 reps is not a must. Sometimes 5 is just fine, sometimes 100 is okay. All depends on weight you are operating with.
Try not to use too much machines that isolate muscles, you don't need it. You need to take care of your core, stabilisation, posture, good habits in everyday motion (e.g. clasped stomach and not having your head above heavy object that you are going to pick from the floor). Focus on these techniques to exercise properly and after some time you'll do it automatically in everyday routines that'll save you from back pains etc.
My diet in the beginning at 102 kilos was set on 1800 Kcal/day (and it was kept until ~82 kgs), next reduction (After a break of course) was at 2300 Kcals/day.
I had 3 strength trainings per week (mostly mobility in the beginning due to my sitting lifestyle), each training was 1hr and 15mins
I was walking my dog twice, sometimes 3 times a week for 40-60mins max
If I knew it's that fucking easy, it'd do it long time ago. It's all easier than you think guys.
My little before and after
If you need some help HMU, I've bought ~200 hours of personal trainings + digged myself a lot into knowledge of that topic.
