I went from 235 to 220 or so by eating slightly less (500-1000) than maint and exercising (jogging and biking). No weights. Calorieking.com was my tool of choice.
At around 220, I started lifting weights and still jogging. 500-1000 deficit.
At 195, I bought my first book (Testosterone Advantage Plan) and started the more serious/organized/planned out weights and slowing down on the cardio.
I got down to 165 with TAP (above) and Turbulence Training.
Since then, it's been waves of adding muscle and dropping fat back up to 190 and waaay leaner than I was at 165.
5 years now. So I think it's permanent.
BTW, people who don't make it permanent, don't care to do so. Maybe they set the wrong expectations for themselves. Maybe they were sad and thought that being skinny would fix that. When it doesn't, they eat up, because food was what they looked at to make them happy in the first place.
There's nothing magical about slow and steady, except for a couple of things. We can debate how trivial they are, I guess.
1. It teaches you good habits. A dramatically low diet that gets you there overnight teaches you nothing about good eating habits. A slow and steady diet makes you suffer a little less, but for far longer. You get use to it and/or find strategies that help you cope.
2. Because slow and steady sucks so much for so long, only someone who really wants it will do it and stick with it. Since they wanted it that badly, they tend to stick with it afterwards, too.
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