Tweaking your diet, meal count and eating clean is always the best way as the majority of it is to do with calorie intake. Never quite understood those who want to get lean or look good for an upcoming holiday and try to do so by hammering the weights and cardio until they drop. You can't really out train a bad diet. Not saying you have a bad diet, Glenny but if its real clean then it makes things much easier. Basically its:
Build muscle = do weights/gym
Raise fitness levels = do cardio vascular work
Lose fat = create calorie deficit via diet
Sure lifting weights or fasted AM cardio can burn off some energy but there's like 250Kals in 2 finger kit kat or 300 in a single crappy McDonalds hamburger and booze is just your worst nightmate. Diet is the best way. Think of the fatties you know personally, you might say they're lazy but I bet the eat too much and of the wrong foods/drinks.
Search for a BMR calculator and put in your height, weight stats to find out roughly what you need to maintain the current weight you are, then go and drop 500 cals a day, you'll lose a good few pounds a week easy without doing any extra exercise and if you do it as well as eating say 6-7 small meals a day, high protein, low carbs with the carbs you eat being clean ones then you'll not feel hungry or dissatisfied. As long as you get the right nutrients and make sure you don't drop too low and go into 'starvation mode', which is counter-productive then you'll be fine.
I currently weigh 13stone 8lbs which at my height of 6ft2 is a healthy BMI according to NHS but its not smack in the middle of it or anything so may be too heavy/much for you but you just keep going on deficit until you reach the desired weight, then recalculate the bodies metabolic rate and stablise it, no deficit. If you hit a stumbling block THEN throw in loads of cardio, so you have somewhere to go. Lets be honest, are you really going to keep up hammering the cardio forever? If not the weight will return. I've got a treadmill in my house and can't say that I use it loads per week and I enjoy a good run.
Breakfast is when I have most of my carbs, porridge oats with some fruit thrown in like blackberries, raspberries, blurberries, strawberries and a sprinkle of sunflower seeds and sometimes some raisens. The supermarkets always have offers on for berries to add in. Have a whey water shake from Myprotein and you're not have much carbs, not bad ones anyway. If your mrs makes any home made meals like chili, lasagne or cottage pie then substitute the potato/chips/rice element for round lettuce, cucumber, salad onions, red pepper or tomatoes on the vine.
If you're training at the gym 3 times a week or so then there are also loads of low carb foods to protein seek, like boiled eggs, tuna, anchovie fillets, maceral, steak, cheese etc which can all be had with your clean salad parts. Only real carbs I have is from fruit and sometimes some thin sesame crackers which I think are only 9g per 4 of them which are good as a snack with cheese on, very filling.
Biggest problem with all that ^ once you've retrained your mindset out of the junk food mentality or sloppiness, is just remembering to eat, timing it all and making sure you're prepared to take things to work or with you when you go out, a journal or simply notepad file will help with this. Bananas can be a good stop gap if needed, as opposed to hitting the service station for pasties or sarnies. If you stick with it, it will work.
If your cupboards/fridge are full with natural sugars like fruit, clean salads, veg and meats then you'll be more likely to stick to your diet/lifestyle change than you would do copious amounts of cardio which will eventually bore you stiff. IMO you should look forward to your training days or going for a run not resent them and anyone who tells you a big mac meal tastes better than half a nicely seasoned rump/sirloin/ribeye steak and fresh salad is crazy, especially when you'll get to eat the other half later on so you enjoy your favourite foods several times a day/week if you wish. That old saying isn't it, "oh I could eat that again", well you can.
