Maintain a balanced diet. Get plenty of exercise. Cut down on junk food. All are basic tenets of living a healthy lifestyle. And for good reason. Exercising regularly can help control weight gain. And there’s evidence that being physically active can generally lift your mood. Likewise, eating a healthy mix of protein, fiber and other nutrients is a generally healthy way to go. But when it comes to actually losing weight and keeping it off, that’s complicated, because there’s no magical formula for losing weight. Sure, there are thousands of diets out there, but the only sure fire method for losing weight is eating fewer calories than you burn. Even if you eat mostly junk food high in sugar and fat, you can lose weight if you limit the calories you take in from that stuff.