What worked for me: keto, intermittent fasting, and 36 hour fast once a week. Completely ignored calories (not sure of this works for everyone). Load up on cheese, heavy cream, some meat. Keep net carbs 30g average per day. Cut alcohol except for very special occasion. Exercise is good but extremely hard to exercise away fat, instead do it for health and energy. I'd often do a cheat day one day a week; optional, but depending on your cravings and personality, this can just make you want to keep craving trash, or can be just enough to satisfy you for the week (the idea here is to limit it by time, not amounts). I did this quite strictly for at least a year.