Speaking as someone with a health-related impetus to drop some weight, would you say there is a single biggest factor or a couple of notable factors in being able to do that?
Probably the biggest thing for me was to stop eating so much. I overate a lot, or rather ate until I felt full. Don't do that. I eat more high fat, low carb, low sugar food on days I don't exercise, and high carb food when I do. I don't eat potatoes, pasta, or drink soda (though I didn't really drink any in the first place), but I'm no expert on this stuff and what worked for me may not work as well for you, although could maybe work very well for you.
I started working out in June, and by working out I mean all I really did was doing ~300 situps everyday. When I started i could only do 60 at a time, but i added 20 per day most days. But I found a combination of exercises (squats, planks) to work much better than that, which is pretty much what I do now.
This could all be terrible non-advice, but I don't know and that's about as much as I can tell you, Turtlekid.
Also thanks guys :D
tl;dr do squats & no potatoes, pasta, or soda