I've done it all sorts of ways. In 2005 I went from 280ish to 210ish in a matter of months and I did it largely by working out 5 days a week and eating less. Note I don't say eating well.
I lost all that weight and I was eating a Wendy's Spicy chicken sandwich and a large chili for dinner. That was an adjustment from a probably a large fry, 2 JR bacon cheeseburgers, a large drink and a large chili at one sitting. I had a sensible lunch as well, usually just a sandwich from Boston Market.
So you can just eat less and work out more. That does work.
My weight crept back up to 245 for the last few years and I attempted to calorie count to get it back down. I maintained but really didn't lose anything despite working out.
A few months ago I changed it up and tried the low carb diet which if you're a fatty with an "eat until you can't eat any more" mentality like me, is perfect because you're not worried about how much you can eat, just what you can eat. Plus a low carb diet is filling. You eat less and feel more full. I always thought that was just bullshit people said but it was true.
Where the low carb bit came undone for me was the weekends where I like to pig out. I can't be without sugar. I can do it for a few days but I can't stay on a diet that says no sugar for months or weeks at a time. So for me it wasn't the best fit simply because I wouldn't stay in ketosis with the way I was eating on the weekends. I'd start Monday, by Thursday I'd notice the signs of Ketosis and then by Saturday my first donut would ruin it all.
What's worked
K, so now I've covered all the stuff that hasn't worked for me. Here's what has: calorie counting on a larger scale. First lets understand where the calorie counting diets break down.
Jimmy has a 2000 calorie a day allotment to lose 1.5 lbs a week. Since Jimmy (Mike) is a fatty at heart he's bumping up against that 2000 calories every day. Tuesday comes and Jimmy finds his car turning itself into Taco Bell. At the end of the day he's eaten 4000 calories. Shit. No big deal Jimmy says. Back on the diet tomorrow! The problem is it is a big deal and if you string together a couple of bad days they can wipe out a couple weeks of steady dieting. So here's the solution I came up with.
My daily calorie allotment is something like 2000 calories to lose 1 lb a week. Instead of looking at my calorie intake on a day by day basis I look at it on a week by week. So each week I have 14,000 calories I can eat. If I eat 4000 calories today fine but then I'm down for the rest of the week. If I eat 1000 calories a day I can gorge this weekend. This accomplishes a few things:
1. Accountability - With the day by day calorie counting if you fuck up one day it seems insurmountable to get that day back. If you have a 2000 calorie overage and your daily allotment is 2000 calories what are you going to do? Not eat the next day to even things out? No, so since it seems insurmountable most people just completely ignore it and start the next day new. My way takes those calories from the weekly pool though so it's being spread out over several days.
2. You don't find yourself rushing to eat at the end of the day - For you skinny people this likely isn't a problem but when you're on a calorie counting diet and you have 2000 calories for your day if you're at 1700 at 7:00 you're looking in the fridge wondering what you can spend that other 300 on. In some ways you end up eating more than you would otherwise because if you don't use those calories today they're gone. When you're looking at the calories on a weekly basis though you get to the end of the day and you say "I don't want to eat those 300 calories". You want to save them for another day.
3. Flexibility - You want to go out with friends tonight and get drunk? Have some nachos? Do it without the guilt that comes with blowing your diet for a day.
4. It encourages exercise - I hike for 3 - 4 miles every day pretty much. That gets put into my calorie bucket for the week. Suddenly instead of doing the 2 mile route and getting 500 calories I find myself going for the 4 mile route to get the 1000 calories.
So far with this different approach at calorie counting I've lost an additional 10lbs and I'm down to 228 again. Since it's a sustainable diet I never really feel like I'm suffering or that I can't eat anything. If I want to go out and have something terrible right now I can without the feeling that I'm blowing my day and the accountability will come, just later in the week in the form of having a smaller pool of calories to have for the remainder of the week or the need to exercise more to get it back.
The obvious things to add to this are exercise and picking better food. I still eat out about 50% of the time but I'm eating better when I do. Salads, burrito bowls with just meat, onions/ peppers, cheese and brown rice, etc. We don't have snacks around our house really either, just fruit.