I've recently dropped from 90/86kgs (depending on how far you look back) down to 76kg. I'd say fuck slimming products myself, I don't trust them, so here's what I did:
- Stopped eating outside. Fast food, bakeries etc. Saves ya money too, keep that in mind as a motivator ^^
- Stopped the sweets and juices entirely. It's easier than it sounds, just never buy any and don't keep them around the house, you won't be tempted much.
Can break the above two occasionally if you're going out with friends, depending on how often you go out, but don't pork out, keep the amounts reasonable and try to pick something healthier/less fatty. Plan it around your meals too, if you're going out for pizza or sth, you can count it as a meal.
- 3 scheduled meals a day. Keeping the same times helps a LOT, your metabolism will be grateful for it and will help any diet so much more. Keep the dinner a few hours away from sleep, but don't keep it too far away imo - it's better to eat 3 hours before sleep (as opposed to the officially suggested 6) than to be hungry just before you go to bed and not be able to sleep or eat something right before sleeping. For me, times were 10 am breakfast, 3 pm lunch, 10 pm dinner (I get to bed past 1 am), but you'll obviously need to schedule them around work/school and such.
Most diets will suggest a rather heavy supper. It's because they assume you have the most time to eat then and can't have more than a sandwich for lunch. Problem is, that's quite stupid. Eating heavily just before sleeping is about the worst idea you can get. It should be breakfast>lunch>dinner. Find the time to balance them right, trust me, it'll help.
- Most important thing. Keep in mind what you're taking in ie. the calorie count. It's much easier to go "oh, I'll just have another..." if you're not aware of how much your intake is. I've pretty much looked into everything and just did some off the top of my head math to keep my daily intake right. I strived for a 1200 kcal diet while allowing myself up to 1600 kcal a day. You can find all the info online with a quick search.
Important note. If you break the diet and IT WILL HAPPEN, don't despair and don't quit. Just say to yourself "ok, that was stupid and unnecessary, let's not do it again" and resume the diet. You can push yourself into an exercise as well to "make up" for it, always a good idea, but don't consider that a solution - eating loads and exercising won't lose you weight, trust me, I've tried before several times before realising food intake is the key, exercise is a big bonus.
- Organize your meals, know what you're going to eat before you eat it, buy enough food you need. Don't get yourself in a situation where you're hungry and all that's in the house is "crappy" food, sweets and such.
- Fruit is your friend. I can't stress this enough. Fruit it absolutely fantastic for in between meals to keep you from being hungry. Don't starve yourself, it's not the way to go, you'll merely quit because of it. As I said above, my meals were 10am, 3pm, 10pm - what helped was putting a scheduled fruit "meal" (1-2 fruits, depending on how hungry I was and what fruit I ate) at around 7/8pm. If I was real hungry, a banana did the trick, otherwise an apple, pear or something.
And before you think about it, no, I wasn't crazy about fruit before I started my diet either. I didn't hate it, but rarely ate any, I have it all the time now and really enjoy it, just start with some fruits you like.
Berries are fantastic - just put a bowl somewhere outside your room (kitchen/fridge/we.) and if you feel a little hungry, just go and grab a few. Strawberries are your best choice if you can get them, they're really good for ya, they're not heavy in calories and they really keep you from being hungry. Try to avoid grapes, think of them as sweets really, can have a few and they help, but keep in mind they're pretty much your worst choice.
- Salads are obviously a big plus, especially at lunch, they'll help balance your diet and keep your calories down.
- Exercise is great, but takes time, I'm not sure how much of it you have. Personally, I had loads of free time and needed ways to fill it (nothing is worse for your diet than sitting on your ass with nothing to do, your mind will go to food quickly, always keep yourself busy with something, yes, gaming included
).
I went for 2 forms of exercise, one being push ups, sit ups and pull ups, the other biking. The former was more to fill time and get myself into a bit of shape, biking is better for burning calories. If you're doing the former, start out with less than what you can do. Personally, I started with 5 series of 10 for push ups/sit ups and moved it up each week or so (first to 10x10, then to 10x15, then to 10x20), with pull ups before and after.
As for biking, it really depends on how much time you have, I went for 2 hours of biking, about 40km. You can substitute it for swimming (really good for you, can be fun), running (personally I hate running, but it's really pretty much the best form of exercise) or even a simple walk. Whatever you do, just keep in mind it's supposed to be exercise, so keep the speed up as much as you can (don't push yourself till you flop, just don't trod along either)
I know it seems a bit daunting on the whole, but obviously you don't have to do every single thing to the letter, just keep it all in mind and adjust it to your own circumstances (free time, school/job, what you enjoy doing as exercise etc.). Hope some of it helps and remember, if you go for it, go for it and stick with it, don't quit. Keep an eye on the scale and look yourself in the mirror now and again - when you start noticing the difference, it'll help, trust me and it's one of the best motivators you can get to keep going. Just don't expect quick results, it's the reason most people quit, you won't see ANYTHING for the first few weeks, but that doesn't mean you're not getting results, just stick with it.