As Summer approaches, you may be cranking away in hopes to shed a few pounds. My advice is to take the time to enjoy the journey of your diet and make it something that you can get quality results out of, instead of crash dieting and repeating the cycle before pool season each year. If you don't know by now, yo-yo dieting only leads to more weight gain in the long haul. Keep calories (and carbs) as high as you can while dieting. The amount will vary from one individual to the next, and will also vary over time, but you have to have your food as high as possible while still making progress, which will support a favorable metabolism and hormonal profile. Jumping right into a low calorie, zero carb diet leaves you very little to play with when you hit the inevitable plateau, and also quickly slows down your metabolism. Make your changes slowly and incrementally and only as needed, to maximize progress for the long haul. The same goes for cardio -- start with the minimum effective dose. If you're steadily losing a pound or two of fat per week doing 30 minutes daily, don't get greedy and think that you'll get to your goal twice as fast by doubling that. You'll just set off a host of negative hormonal adaptations that will shut down your fat loss and have you looking and feeling like crap. Baby steps you must take, grasshopper.