In reply to edunn:
A few years ago I lost 14 kg in just over a year. I halved my alcohol consumption, dropped carbohydrates from my lunches and did a mixture of running, swimming and a bit of cycling, starting from a base of little regular exercise in the preceding two years. To begin with I did 9-10 exercise things a week, which normally included two 1 mile swims, and by the end the running took over and I was doing about 40 miles per week.
At that time, three things helped. One was the sight of me in a photo, which is what got me going, another was a goal, to do the Welsh 3000s, which I ticked after 10 months (plus a crazier goal to do BGR, which I attempted) and the last was that I recorded and measured everything in minute detail. At the time I did it on a humungous spreadsheet with all sorts of graphs, averages and totals. Now, I just let Strava do the work. It was very motivating to me to see the weight curve head on down. I have also learned though, that motivation by graph can work against you when you have left it for a while and know that their message won't be good.
Five and a half years later, the weight is still mostly off and the running is mostly still there. I had three years of big mileage in the 2000-2500 ish miles range, but then a poor year with injuries and now this year is better and I hope to hit 1600 miles.
In the big mileage years I would regularly do 50+ miles, week in week out, a lot of it off-road and with 200000 ish ft ascent thrown in. It just became a thing that I did. For a few months at that time, one thing that helped was to build it into my normal day. So, when we went down to one car I used to run 9 miles to meet my wife on her and my way back from work. It saved her some driving and kind of made me do the run.
I have never liked sugar or 'unhealthy' foods, but at that time I seemed to be able to eat whatever I wanted without putting on weight.
Now, my head is in a different place and I have many other things to do. I decided this year to set the bar lower, first at 20, which then quickly became 30 miles per week, and to get that done in short runs of 5-ish miles. I rarely run over 10 miles now but more often than not I do 35-40 miles per week and I try run in new places whenever I can. The idea was to lessen the mental barrier to going out and the longer goal and idea is that running will better help me keep weight off if I keep running. I have noticed many people train for a marathon or huge ultra then do little for ages afterwards. That won't help my waistline, I thought. Hence, what I do. Probably not good advice, though, if you are aiming for an ultra!
I don't do the spreadsheets any more and I am not in a club but I do enjoy and am motivated by my use of Strava.
Post edited at 12:33