1. Prioritize convenience over optimality. I spend several weeks exploring what I liked and disliked. I was drinking way too much soda and not enough water. I found water "boring" so I switched to sparkling water + lemon I am too lazy to cook vegetables properly (it's easy for a few days, harder when you need to do it for months and months). I buy a lot of high quality frozen vegetables (it's probably a bit worth in terms of nutriments, but at least I can stick with it).
2. Eating healthy 100% of the time is too hard. I make a high income and go out quite often.
But intermittent fasting is quite easy to do. And after a week or two, you reduce your appetite.
3. I have no problems eating the same thing over and over.
I love eggplants. I eat a lot of eat. I did not eat a lot of fruit. But I like banana so I eat a lot of it as well.
4. Eggs are the best source of protein (your body can use 50% of the protein from eggs)
If you are used to eating shitty breakfast. Switch to eggs. Poached eggs or whatever.
5. I have read a few recent studies saying that exercising does not really help to lose weight (because your body finds a way to cut down calories expenditure elsewhere.
It's probably true. But the thing I notice is that people who workout 3-4 times a week are never obese.
So I exercice as well.
Burn: New Research Blows the Lid Off How We Really Burn Calories, Stay Healthy, and Lose Weight, by Herman Pontzer
Pontzer measures total energy expenditure vs exercise. According to his work (and others referenced in the book), when you exercise more, your body reduces energy expenditure in other areas. This reduces the effectiveness of using exercise to reduce weight. He's explicit that exercise is still good for health, it just doesn't impact calories out in a 1-1 fashion. Also, we live in an environment with readily available high calorie foods which makes it easy to over eat.
The Hungry Brain: Outsmarting the Instincts That Make Us Overeat, by Stephan J Guyenet
What I got from this book (among other things) is that there is (may be?) some component of addiction in over eating due to inflammation in the brain. (I don't remember exactly which area.) Exercise may help reduce this inflammation leading to less addiction. I do seem to want to eat even when I'm not hungry, so I'm inclined to think this is a problem I wrestling with.
Every diet is basically just a way of implementing that formula so it’s sustainable.
The problem is there is no widely-known, reliably-working way to sustainably eat fewer calories than you burn.
So CICO is essentially an admission of failure. We don't know.
Every diet is just some form of implementing CICO in a sustainable way for you.
Some people might do it with counting macros, some with fasting, some with solely living on a diet of steak, diet coke and ice cream and multivitamins (my strategy - lost 20 lbs).
That is why no known diet or exercise program "works."
edit: feel like I should clarify, mostly to help formulate my own opinion further.
I strongly disagree with "every diet works." Practically no diet works for most people most of the time, which is why "CICO!" is such a frustrating distraction from actually looking for a solution.
For example, I've done 3 months on carnivore (lots of steaks!) and I lost no weight at all. On the other hand, I've recently lost over 30lbs on a custom diet. Will that diet continue working? Would it work for others? Who knows.
To judge if your steak/diet coke diet "works" we'd need to a) have other people try it, b) see it continue to work for you (i.e. unless you're already at a lean goal weight, would you lose more weight?) so it's not just a plateau effect because you're cutting out fiber and carbs.