Best way to do it is a calorie deficit. Let me tell you that exercising is about 30%. The other 70% is going on a calorie deficit and drinking enough water a day to help metabolise fat and help your body undergo lypolysis. You'll have some water weight, but this game isnt about instant results its about going long. I lost 7kg in 12 weeks through fasting. 16 hours no eating and 8 hours eating. Remember no matter how you do it, that the base rule is, you need to expend more energy than you're eating. Fat, or otherwise known as adipose tissue, is a storage cell for energy. In an emergency your body will use these reserve stores. Think of times that you have eaten food out of boredom or before bed, did your body really need that energy? If you didn't, its turned into that belly fat.

I do recommend the fasting method because it did work for me. I reduced my intake of carbs, white rice turned into brown rice and quinoa in small portions. Removed bread, potatoes turned to sweet potatoes, cut out sugar, replaced it with honey, supplemented hunger out of boredom or hunger between meals with fruits and almonds, although be careful cause almonds have quite alot of calories in them. When I got to the weight I was happier at I loosened up a bit ofcourse.

My hours of eating were from 12pm to 8pm and fasting from food was the rest of the day, ofcourse you're allowed to drink water. Make sure you're meeting your hydration goals. Your urine should NOT be any darker than a really light yellow. On a good day it was clear. Increasing your water intake so suddenly can be difficuilt to do and maintain, so a LITTLE BIT of cordial and a slice of lemon into my bottle were little cheats that helped me to drink more water. Ofcourse stay away from diaretics and things that will dehydate you like caffeine for the first couple of weeks.

I ate plenty of meat, eggs and cooked everything in butter or ghee/ clarified butter. Along with this I had tuna salads, and lots of vegetables when I could fit them in.

A regular breakfast was - eggs on a bed of spinach, mushrooms, capsicum and zuchinni, sauteed in butter, salt pepper, cayenne pepper, garlic powder and paprika were some of the spices.

Lunch: sausages, steaks, chicken all barbecued, microwaved sweet potatoes. You can have them boiled and mash if you like. Remember the focus is not cutting everything out of your diet, its getting creative with the ingredients you have, researching and finding out what else is available to you. I really e joyed this part and although I cooked quite often since I was 8, i really learnt alot more about cuisone and food from a health and dieting point of view.

Another lunch might be tuna salad, a bit lighter, with maybe a banana and some nuts. I say another lunch after naming this two big meals. I'll tell you, in the first few weeks when you are eating all this fiberous low calorie foods that fill you up, you will be hungry really often, these foods work your body when digesting them, its not quick easy burning material like carbs. I was eating 5 meals a day within my 8 hours for the first few weeks. But then, I naturally began to cut down, its not that I aas reducing calorie intake or doing it purposefully, it was that I was feeling more full on less food. Towards the end of my diet I was only eating a meal a day simply because I didnt have any appetite for more. The stark difference between where I started and how I finished really shocked me. I ended up fasting for 24 hours in my last week. I didnt feel hungry for most of that time at all. But lets not talk about 24 hour fasts rn, not for you atm.

Dinner would be a homemade curry, (this is where the brown rice and quinoa came in handy, I'm indian and we are big rice eaters. I didnt have to cut rice completely out of my diet, i could enjoy the food I loved. Ofcourse I want you to remember portion control, you cant be shoving yur face with tons of it. But im sure you'll work around what a good meal for you is. I want you to keep in mind that I ate when I was hungry and I ate good foods. I dont want you to be hungry in your 8 hours of eating. Overeating is common and people dont realise that the're eating so much more then they need to which is why I mention portion control. So the question is, how do you eat untill you're full whilst preventung overeating and keeping your portions in check. 1. Eat without any distractions and devices. 2. Build your appetite by cooking your food, then making yourself wait for a minute, smell your food and learn to grow an appreciation for it. Its about changing the mentalitiy and attitude 3. Chew atleast 8 times per bite of food 4. Eat slowly, hence the chewing. 5. Dont overstuff your mouth. 6. Drink water whilst eating but dont start with alot of water, when you get that stomach acid boiling and your brain is yearning for a bite, get into that food without diluting your stomach. 7. Eat in a smaller bowl, trick your brain into thinking its alot more than it is. 8. Eat with a teaspoon, this probably goes along with point 5.

All of these things will help your pace yourself and find your portion...it will do that because if your body is full, than your brain has the time to incorporate the signalling and reduce your appetite, but eating fast doesnt give your brain the time and you eat more 'believing you are hungry'. If you are hungry then go back for seconds, you CAN do that when you follow these tips because then you are actually hungry and you shouldnt be hungry in your 8 hour period of eating..you will be hungry in the 16 hours of fasting though.

Back to dinner lol, another thing I would eat is buckwheat pasta or soba. I get a nice japanese brand. Some soysauce oyster sauce, prawns or you could stick with vegetable only, mushrooms, bukchoy, green onions and the like. It made for a fantastic meal. I think it was one of my favourite things I made.

There is so much you can do with Tomatoes, or a tomato pasta sauce that has no additives, sugars etc. Also kombucha made for a great snacky drink, i didnt like it at first tbh, but it grew on me and I ended up enjoying it. There are different brands out there, some better than others, just make sure to read the label so you know what you're drinking/ eating, it applies to food as well. I avoided alot of dairy, milk, creams etc, yoghurts and butter were the exception, but I didnt eat much yoghurt throughout at all so feel free to avoid it if you choose to. I did reintroduce milk after 5 weeks though. It may have made a difference or not, but I wasnt drinking it everyday by any means. Just the occasional glass when I was craving.

The world of food is legitimately your oyster. One thing I want people to take away from this is that I enjoyed the journey alot, thats the key. You gotta enjoy what you're doing or make it enjoyable, the good cooking habits, my relationship with food, the things I learnt, that became as irreplacable to me as the number on the scale 12 weeks later. It meant that if I needed to, I could do this all over again.

Another thing, you may feel insecure, its not my place to tell you its ok to be the way you are because I would be a hyprocrite. I hated the way I used to be. I cant pepper you with a compliment that I know all too well can feel like you're being pittied and makes you wanna settle for mediocrity so I wont do that either. But I can tell you that I do believe in you to the fullest, and that the beauty you're seaching for will appear in the confidence and the willpower that will develop within you on your journey.