that’s the only thing that has worked for me
This isn’t a “for me” thing: this is a “for we” thing. It applies universally, to all humans.
Montages are sexy and they sell fitness products and P90X workouts, but the truth is that slow change is sustainable and fast change is fleeting. Again: it’s Biggest Loser contestants and bodybuilders that lose fat fast, and both rebound after it is done: bodybuilders are just sometimes better able to control that rebound (but also, often, do so with the benefit of pharmacology).
For the rest of us, if we have to white knuckle to make something work, it only works until we run out of willpower (when, not if), and then we suffer the consequences. You have to, instead, find a method that works for YOU. “Compliance is the science”, ala Stan Efferding, the author of that book you said you were going to buy and read.
I find that my energy level/hunger level really changes depending on my calorie balance.
And again: this isn’t a unique to you thing. This is a human thing. The body is VERY good at preserving itself, and so, when we drastically slash calories, it drastically slashes NEAT, and we tend to be unaware of that until we employ external observation to notice it. We walk less, we sit down more, we use our hands less to talk, tap our feet less, and when you find a bodybuilder deep in prep, you’ll find that they BLINK less.
And the other mean trick the body does is it ADJUSTS to this big calorie drop because it does NOT want to starve. So it downregulates NEAT and other metabolic processes so it can adjust to this new load. So we were starving at 1800 calories and now we’re not losing weight: what do we do now man?! Eat 1400 calories and mega starve? But if we SLOWLY ramp down the food intake, when we hit a stall, we can slowly drop it again and keep from starving ourselves. This has been termed “caloric runway”: you want a LONG one to take off on with a diet.
It is just hard for me to hold myself to do that.
EDIT: Meant to comment on this, but Dan John has a great tip for this.
Get yourself an old school calendar that you hang on a wall. Get a red and a green marker. On the days you meet ALL the objectives, circle that day in green. On the days you miss an objective, X through it in red.
You will get addicted to racking up those green circles in a row.
