Lost 80 so far, and still dropping. No diet, eating anything I want. 3 suggestions:

• Replace all high calorie drinks. No juices - don't get your calories from juice. If you have to drink soda drink sugar free. The new "Zero Sugar" drinks are pretty good. So are the sugar free fruit-flavored sparkling waters. I'm addicted to Waterloo. I'd rather drink that than soda or even beer. Also, cultivate a love for ice water. It's still the most refreshing beverage on the planet.

A pound is about 3500 calories. You can take that in in a week in sugary drinks alone. That's a pound you have to offset somehow, or it's an added pound. Stop with the sugary drinks, and that's a pound you don't have to deal with. Now your energy is burning your stored calories (fat).

• Only eat when you are hungry, and then only until you aren't hungry. This also leads to moderation. Only serve up what you can eat, don't stuff yourself, and quit when you are no longer hungry.

One of the things I've done routinely, is eat only a half a sandwich. I find that I am actually no longer hungry after half a sandwich, so why eat the whole thing? I'll just save it for lunch tomorrow. That cuts the calories in half, as well as my lunch cost.

We also eat far too much out of boredom. If you find yourself staring into the open fridge, wondering what to eat for a snack, you aren't really hungry, you're bored. Don't do that, go do something else.

• Something else is step three. Find something to distract yourself during TV commercials, and other times when you might be tempted to eat out of boredom. I took up the guitar again( during Covid), and whenever I get a craving to eat out of boredom, I pick up my guitar, and I stop thinking about food. It's helped me lose weight, AND I've become a pretty good guitarist. I once knew a serious athlete who lifted weights during every commercial break on TV. Just watching a movie, or a game, or an evening of TV, and he put in a lot of workout time, instead of eating.

Knitting, needlepoint, reading, juggling, petting your cat, even scrolling on your phone, etc. would work. You just need a distraction. My Dad quit smoking back in the 80s, when the Rubik's Cube became a fad. When he was tempted to smoke, he'd pick up the cube and work on it. It worked, he quit smoking AND learned how to solve a Rubik's Cube.

Do those things and be patient, and you will steadily lose weight while you eat anything you want. No low carb, high protein, no Keto, no starving, no cravings, no shakes or smoothies, no counting calories or points, etc. Just moderation by eating only when you are hungry.

I've been losing weight steadily for almost three years, averaging about 30 pounds per year. It's not fast, but I am definitely going in the right direction. I have no anxiety about gaining weight, and I no longer ever feel guilty about food or eating.

It's also super validating to go into the doctor, and have them fumble when they look at your weight, and say "Hey, you've lost about 30 pounds since I last saw you, and...you were down 30 last time, too! Nice job!"

That's a lot better than "Dude, you're fat. You've got to lose a lot of weight or you're going to die."