When looking to lose weight, your number 1 priority is eating less calories than you use. Simple

That principle cannot be circumvented, it’s obvious too, think about the absurdity of doing the opposite of this principle, eating as much calorie dense foods as you can in order to lose weight, it doesn’t make sense

Once you have that principle in place, it’s simply a matter of measuring the result and seeing if what you’re doing is adhering to the principle or not

If, over time, you are losing weight, then you are clearly adhering to that principle, if you are gaining weight, then you are not

Over time is a key factor here, this is not measuring weight changes from day to day and adjusting from one day to the next. Weighing in daily and then getting a weekly average (weigh in Monday-Sunday and divide by 7 to find average) is an incredibly effective method of tracking progress, I won’t go into the why here, I have done a post on this previously. However, it gives you snapshot and then you can look at each 4 week block and see whether you are trending down, staying the same, or trending up over that period

You then adjust intake accordingly. The principle is that simple. How you adjust calorie intake is up to you

Some people find keto works well for them, others find a low fat higher carb approach works well, or intermittent fasting, or a combination of those, or veganism, or carnivore

These are all strategies that will only work when the first principle of eating for weight loss is followed, you cannot eat in excess of what you use and hope to lose weight

The benefit to knowing this and keeping this clear in your mind is that you can try all these different strategies and find the one that allows you to stick to the principle of weight loss with the least amount of effort. Why would you want to use more effort than you need? 

If you try one and find it impossible, maybe you can’t stick to keto, no problem, you’ve got hundreds of other strategies that will work better

You might also find that the feeling of failing isn’t nearly as bad because you know what you need to do, it’s just a matter of finding the right approach for you at this point of your life

Protein intake, vegetables, satiety, all important factors when finding the right strategy, but only if the principle of weight loss is followed first

Try not to make things more complicated than they need to be, life is already complicated enough, make your health as easy as possible