Echoing an original comment here, isn't it amazing at how well even short apologies work ("sorry, it was a bad day, and I was a bit flip . . .")? Early in my work career, an opposing party in a deal did exactly that after some uncivil (and bad) behavior, and it cleared matters away as well as a Spring shower. And it cost him nothing, in the end . . . . I remember it to this day.

The basic: calories burned (through both exercise as well as just basic living) > calories taken in. The calories taken in is a major consideration--it can take lots of exercise to burn even smaller amounts of calories taken in.

But then, for me within that, there are some caveats and helpful tips:

-- Certain foods for me are "trigger" foods that seem to cause me to add weight more readily--esp. pasta and rice. Moderating my consumption of them seems to help--e.g. instead of making a rice with vegetables added meal (with protein added as well), I flip it into a vegetables with rice added meal (with protein added).

-- Every little bit can help. For me, for example, starting a diet by lessening calories eaten by 10%, rather than going full-scale deprivation.

-- After a period of time with restricted calories/volume of food, my stomach seems to shrink (does this really happen or is it my imagination?) and I get full/satisfied more quickly/easily.

It really helps to know your own triggers, specifics, peculiarities and the like. For me, for example, I find that I'm happy with as little as an eighth of a pint of Ben & Jerry's ice cream (or even less), to get the flavor and enjoyment--after that, while I still like it (of course!), it's kinda/sorta more of the same. And so I keep that in mind and stop at the eighth rather than mindlessly continuing on.

Good luck!

Just as another voice in the wilderness, I'd be interested in the reason why as well--I've found responses to requests made in the past so helpful . . . .