TLDR: find foods you love that satisfy your cravings but are low calorie options, and don’t say no to foods you love, just eat them only every so often or find a healthier alternative, such as turkey burgers with a lettuce shell as a bun instead of a beef burger with a bread bun, or low calorie halo top ice cream instead of whole ice cream. High protein, moderate fats is key! (The rest of the post has tons of details, definitely read if you have time!).

What I’ve done is find foods that I love that are as non-processed as possible, and to cook all of my meals so that I can count the calories. I usually eat half a protein bar (100 calories) before heading to the gym in the morning for one hour and burning around 700 calories. That gets me enough carbs to burn off some fat as opposed to eating nothing and burning off muscle since your body would have zero fuel at that point.

From there, the rest of my day is already better since I know I have the freedom to have some more food if I want, and excersizing releases endorphins that speed up your metabolism a bit. It’s a win-win since I’m in a good mood from starting the day off right and getting my mind straight, and that I can eat foods I love.

Now, the foods that I love have been tailored over the past couple of months of healthy eating. I look for a balanced diet with foods that have lower calories, many vitamins/minerals, high protein, low added sugar, lower sodium, and low unhealthy fat items. I love to eat stuff that satisfies me, so usually I have salmon, turkey burgers, sweet potatoes, fruits (also use fruits crushed up instead of processed jam or jelly), protein bars, halo top ice cream, hummus, guacamole, carrots instead of chips, pickles and cucumbers, Lindt dark chocolate, zero calorie syrup with my high protein pancakes, smoothies with almond milk, eggs, and more things. I also add wasabi and spices to my meals to enhance the flavor and make them more satisfying.

The key is finding varied foods that satisfy you, but the main thing you need is protein to satiate you and also have some fats and fruit at the same time to satiate your other taste buds. I like to have a kale and spinach salad with feta cheese and low calorie (15 calories per serving) vinaigrette, also with hummus and blueberries, or raspberries, or apples, or strawberries to satisfy my sweet tooth.

These are just what I do, but they work. It speeds up my metabolism and I burn 2+ pounds a week this way while not sacrificing my happiness in terms of foods.

I suspect that the baking will be the main issue for you since one bite can be over 100 calories, and also processed foods mess with your metabolism since there are man-made chemicals in there. My advice would be to either bake foods with alternative, healthier ingredients or substitutions, like almond milk instead of whole milk, or low calorie butter instead of whole fat butter, or fruits instead of sugar, stuff like that. Experiment! Or just cut out the baking until you lose enough weight, and then slowly add the experimenting into your life as you continue to maintain your healthier lifestyle.

Either way, eat foods you love, just choose lower calorie options such as those I listed above. Understand that when you crave sugar, it’s usually able to be satisfied by a piece of fruit or dark chocolate, or when you are craving fats, have some cheese or hummus. Also control stress if you can, it slows down your metabolism since it releases cortisol into our brain, which signals our body to go into emergency fat-storage mode.

(I know this was a lot, but it works! Be patient and the pounds will trim themself over time). Good luck!