Top tips

Here are my top tips and things to remember when you want to lose weight:-

It's possible to do exercise and not lose weight.
You'll naturally want to eat more. Exercise does not mean burning fat. It means burning energy, so anything you've digested will be used well before you start hitting any fat. People can get caught in the typical pattern of eating before exercise because they want lots of energy, then eating straight after as they feel they deserve reward, resulting in no fat being burned.
You want to lose Fat, not weight.
Your focus should be on burning fat and not just losing weight. For example if you are dehydrated you'll weigh less, but you still have the same amount of fat. The same goes if you've got less food in your bowels.
When you are burning fat you can feel run down.
Fat is less efficient energy. Fat needs to be metabolised to turn into into glucose which is usable, a more complicated process than that with carbohydrates. When you burn it you can feel drained and tired. You'll naturally want to avoid this feeling and be reaching for the snack bars for a quick sugary pep up, but don't! Teach yourself to like the feeling. This is the feeling you are aiming for to lose fat. Don't believe in any diet that promises fat burning without this feeling. The good news is that if you stick to the diet for a few days that you'll get used to this feeling. Remember that old experiment at school where you put one hand in cold water, the other in hot, then put them both in water that was room temperatue? The hand that had been in cold water felt really hot; the hand that had been in hot water water felt really cold; yet they they are now both in the same temperatue water. If you're a pet owner, you are likely familiar with only noticing the pets smell in your house when you've been away from home for a few days. Of course their smell is there all the time. Your body notices change, if you stick to the diet that drained feeling soon goes away and you feel normal.
Your body can become very efficient at using anything you've consumed before exercise.
Normally a lot of what you eat won't get fully digested, and comes straight out the other end. When you are exercising your body becomes much more efficient, it has high energy demands right now that need to be met.
Don't eat before exercise.
Following the last tip, it's much better not to eat anything before training. This includes energy drinks, plain water is best. Ideal times are first thing in the morning, or straight after work/school when you haven't eaten since lunch. This forces the body to burn fat.
Don't eat fatty food after exercise.
Your body doesn't like burning fat. When it does it tries to claw it back as soon as possible. Avoid fatty foods afterwards for as long as possible, preferably the whole day.
Fidgiters are thinner
Fidgeting helps keep your metabolism up. Tapping your feet when you are at your desk, never keeping your hands still, doing a silly dance when no one is looking. All these things are small, but add up across days, weeks, months, and years.
Eating lots of healthy stuff can still make you put on weight
People often get caught in the trap "Fruit is healthy, I'll eat lots of that". It doesn't matter how healthy the food is, if you eat enough of it you'll put on weight. Supplementing unhealthy food for larger quantities of healthier versions won't make you lose weight.
Don't let yourself slow down.
When you are burning fat you'll feel run down and you'll want to slow down. Don't! Your body is trying to make you conserve it's backup fuel supply. Remember your body doesn't want to burn fat. When you make it burn fat, it tries to make you burn as little as possible.
You will get used to the fat burning feeling.
Some people notice it more than others. From my experience the bigger you are, the more you'll hate it. This is probably because bigger people have a natural tendency to avoid the fat burning feeling, one of the big reasons why they put on so much fat in the first place. The more you burn fat, the more you'll get used to it. Some quicker than others, but it will happen. Thin people who you see eating lots of fatter foods are likely already used to fat burning feeling, and hardly notice it.
No really! You will get used to the fat burning feeling!
At first you might find it really hard. You've evolved to store fat to use when there is no other food around. When your body releases the hormones to burn fat, your brain will pick up on it, and start issuing commands to 'find some food fast'! You aren't an ex-monkey walking on the plains anymore, burning fat doesn't mean you are in trouble and must do everything to find food. This natural, evolved reaction to burning fat must be relearned into something that isn't an issue. Luckily we have intelligence which allows us to not act on this animal instinct.
Eat till your full, not till your bursting.
If you are a big eater, then you probably associate being full with that about to pop feeling. This is a Very bad mentality that you must get out of. Every time you eat this much you are stretching your stomach out, making it larger and larger, so you need to eat more and more to make it feel bursting. Bursting is not full, if you feel like that, you've gone too far. Cutting your food intake for long enough can actually make your stomach shrink, so it takes less food to get full.
Sit-ups can make you eat less?
It's true, doing a lot of sit-ups will give you tense abdominals (stomach muscles). They stop your stomach for stretching out as much when you eat food. If you are having a lot of hunger pains and feel really empty inside, one of the best things you can do is a load of sit-ups.
Fat is like diesel.
Fat is densely packed energy that will get you a lot further. It takes much longer to burn fat.
Think about how these tips fit together.
If you cut your regular calories down, but then do less you won't lose weight. Small adjustments will often go no where, and once your weight has gotten out of control you'll need to do a weight loss diet like the one I'll show you. Don't try to cheat, force yourself to do control your diet properly. Once you get into a routine you'll do it without thinking, eventually it'll be second nature. Don't let yourself relapse, be strong. Once you are at your ideal weight, keep an eye on your weight with regular weighings. By then you'll know exactly how to drop or gain a few pounds if you need to.

Read more about adopting the right dieting mentality.